DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro made sure to keep the holy flames centered around the area where 'the Death' would step out of that huge metal cube. And in the meantime, Koperia was relaxing and instead had her undead do all the work.

To an extent, Eiro expected that this was going to happen anyway, although Koperia herself was already plenty strong, the fact that she was going to use her own undead to fight 'the Death' was something that Eiro figured she would try to do. After all, if just a few of her undead were stronger than a true incarnation of death, then what would that make her? It would make her something that was above death. So, to gain that position, Koperia was going to simply hold back for all of this.

The Demon was a little bit annoyed by this, but as long as she was going to help out in one way or another, he didn't really care too much. The most important part was that they were able to properly hold 'the Death' back. If they managed to destroy its body and force the slime that took over the body's brain out, then they basically already won. The slime itself most likely was rather weak, after all, and needed another body as a tool to be able to use its abilities.

And then, the body of 'the Death' appeared, breaking out of the cube it had been contained in. Sinister miasma filled the room and immediately attacked Eiro's senses, although Koperia seemed totally fine. Either because she was used to things of this level, or just because she had weaker senses than Eiro. Either way, Eiro grew more nervous, while Koperia was as calm as ever.

The Demon took a deep breath as the boy whose body was taken over stood there, looking around. In a voice that didn't fit its body in the slightest, as if there were a dozen different people speaking at the same time, it spoke, "Oh, how long has it been since these rotten lungs have touched some fresh air?"

Eiro scoffed in response, "If you think that this is 'fresh', you must be a bigger idiot than I thought you were."

"Idiot? I have knowledge of a myriad of lifetimes, and you call me in such a way? You must be the foolish one then." The child said, and Eiro and Koperia locked eyes.

" 'Mind Devourers' usually can't remember all that much, right? Do you think it's because of it being a royal?" Eiro suggested, and Koperia placed her hand onto her chin, "That would indeed be intriguing, and rather unlikely at that. Undead usually lose their memories instead of keeping them, so the fact that it can remember all of the lives it stole... Oh, I really want to have a look at it now~!"

Eiro turned his head back to the Death, who was standing there shaking its head annoyed, "You know, it is seen as quite rude to speak of others in such a manner, especially when right in front of them. Shall this great one teach you some manners?"

"I don't think that's going to be necessary." Eiro said, "I can be pretty well-mannered if I want to be." With a snap of his fingers, Eiro concentrated all of the holy flames onto the Death's body, while Koperia's undead, the same one that had removed the sealing objects, swung its weapon in its direction to cut through this monster's body. It seemed like both attacks hit it quite easily, and Eiro quickly saw some messages that proved to him that he did a lot of damage to this royal's body.

But then, Eiro saw a different message that he had never seen before.

[Your attack has failed]

"My attack failed? What?" Eiro frowned deeply, but before he was able to figure out what was going on, it appeared again.

[Your attack has failed]

[Your attack has failed]

[Your attack has failed]

"What the hell is going on?" Eiro muttered quietly, and he soon received his answer.

"Change. Adaption. That is what the card of 'the Death' truly represents. Did you think a card of the Major Arcana was simple enough to just give one sort of ability?" The royal laughed, his different voices echoing on top of each other, making it sound like dozens of people laughing at the same time, "This unwieldy body has its benefits. It lacks in power, but it is immature. It has time left to grow and change, which helps me quite a bit. It can easily be adapted to 'resist' this sort of attack."

Eiro ripped his eyes open as he saw the Death's new form. Its clothes had been burned away by the holy flames, but the rest of its body was now covered in a thin layer of a bone-like substance. But something was off, it was glittering too much. As if it wasn't truly bone, but a mixture of bone and crystals. Either way, it no longer looked as if it ever used to be human.

And without hesitation, once it stepped out of there, the Death jumped off of the large mound of hot metal that it had been standing on and held its hand forward. In front of its arm, a magic circle started to appear, being rapidly created at a pace similar to what Eiro was capable of with the help of his grimoire, if not more than that.

Eiro pressed his hand forward as he analyzed the spell that the Death was creating, pulling out his grimoire. Just in case, he even slowed down time using his ring. Eiro wouldn't let this being do anything at all.

And just like that, Eiro hurried up to create a counter-spell for whatever the Death was trying to do right now. Once it activated its spell, the counterspell was activated as well and countered the spell-activation. The Death looked down at its hand and toward Eiro, "Oh?"

Eiro rattled his brain to think about how it was casting that spell so quickly. And then he realized another benefit that came with the fact that it was able to remember all the lives it stole until now. And that was that 'the Death' kept all the practical experience that came with all those lives. Whether it lived as a wizard, a warrior, or just a farmer, it still knew everything that came with those lives.

It knew tricks to speed up casting, how to properly move its body to respond to melee combat. It knew all of that, on top of having the powers that it was given through becoming a royal.

"Oh, how fucking great..." Eiro grumbled quietly, looking at Koperia, "You think you can still handle it?"

"Hm, shouldn't be an issue." She snapped her finger, and four towers of black flames shot up behind her back, forming dark specters. Each had sharp claws and a maw that seemed to be able to devour anything that came between their monstrous fangs. And all four of those specters were now flying toward 'the Death'.

In Koperia's eyes, Eiro could see that the attacks were doing damage, but the damage was gradually becoming less. It was the same as what happened with Eiro's holy flames at first, and if he was right, then...

[Your attack has failed]

Koperia squinted her eyes, not having expected that she would also suffer from the same phenomenon as Eiro did.

"Now, that is indeed rather unique..." Koperia muttered, slowly becoming annoyed rather than being intrigued by 'the Death'. However, something changed. The layer of bone on 'the Death's body looked different than it did before. And now, Eiro took the chance to once more attack this royal using the sparks of holy flames that were still left floating near it.

And this time, he didn't see that grim message. He damaged it again. And now, Eiro couldn't help himself but grin.

"Ah shit, nearly fell for it. It didn't do a lot of damage, but at least a little bit." Eiro pointed out, turning his head toward Koperia, "Hey, Koperia. He can't fully 'adapt' to multiple things at once."

"Huh? Then we just gotta keep attacking him in different ways?" Koperia asked, and Eiro quickly nodded his head, "Yup, that's exactly it."

The Demon swung his arm downward and produced more holy flames from the ones that were still floating around. He compressed his mana in that spot, and bit by bit, he had a compressed orb of holy flames floating near him. It drained a lot of mana due to the way that he was controlling it, simply having the holy flames burn away at his mana, but at least it was going to be effective in one way or another.

"Then let's start with the storm, shall we?" Koperia asked with a grin on her face, and the Demon nodded his head. He swung the orb of holy flames at the royal monster as well, while casting other sorts of magic with the help of his spirits from afar. Eiro couldn't risk attacking it from afar, it was clearly a lot more powerful than he was. Instead, he left that to Koperia's undead.

Neither of them did a lot of damage, but still a bit. Eiro was at least fast enough to completely evade the Death's attacks, since this body of his clearly wasn't particularly powerful when it came to its physical abilities, and he was able to cancel out any spell that it was trying to cast. However, bit by bit, 'the Death's movements changed. It didn't become sluggish, but instead, it started becoming faster. The damage it received increased, but it was harder to hit each time.

Its body was adapting in a different way.