DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Wait here." The Imp told the young man in front of him, who slowly nodded his head in response. "Come back quickly..." Rudy asked of him, and the Imp just slightly formed his lips into a smile, trying to reassure him, although he wasn't entirely sure if that worked the way that the Imp wanted it to, because Rudy just seemed even more nervous as the Imp turned around and left toward the structure not too far away from them.

Slowly, the Imp made his way over toward the stairs, in front of which stood a guard, like usual. And just to lure him away and distract him, the Imp took out some coins out of the pouch in his bag and threw them away so that the Guard could hear and see the coins on the ground, which he quickly rushed toward.

And so, once more trying to make use of his shadow-form, the Imp onto and up the stairs toward the room at the top of the tower-like castle.

The moment that the Imp reached it, he noticed something that was very different to the other castles. The door was shut, and it didn't seem like the Imp would be able to open it that easily. Knocking onto the door as hard as he could, the Imp tried to make someone pay attention to him, and apparently from the inside, someone was reacting, although more in a nervous rush to hide than open the door, so the Imp sighed and just started to think about what he should best do in order to get inside.

"I have a gift." He then yelled out while stopping the flow of his mana through the Magic Stone, and now, there once more were sounds from the inside, although this time, they came closer to the door.

"Wh-What gift?" A Voice from the inside asked, and the Imp took the pouch in his hand and moved it around to make the coins clatter, and the Door opened up without hesitation and a thin hand reached out. Its surface was seemingly very damaged and had just recovered, meaning that the Priestess was seemingly still inside there. Either way, now that the Hand was reaching out, the Imp had a good idea at what he could do. He took some of the cloth that was around his finger before, the finger that had now been ripped off, and immediately pulled it around this hand.

Instantly, sizzling-sounds appeared and smoke started rising off the spot, and the Imp pushed his dagger right through that cloth, trying to push it into the Lord's skin, so that the cloth couldn't fall off somehow.

Immediately afterward, the arm tensed up and veins were popping up all over it, while the Imp knew that everything worked and the Lord was now unable to move.

Through the thin gap in the door, the Imp rushed into the room and looked around, immediately able to see mountains and mountains of shiny rocks and coins, many of which the Imp never saw before. There were books stacked on top of each other, jewelry and flasks that seemed too valuable to just have laying around like this, and of course in the middle of it, the priestess, laying inside a golden bowl, that the Imp immediately ran toward without minding anything else.

Of course, the Lord of Envy didn't like that very much. "Don't touch it! That's mine! Mine!" The Lord exclaimed angrily, but the Imp didn't listen at all and just picked the young girl up. Seeing him, the girl immediately started giggling and extended her hands toward his face, so the Imp just slightly smiled at her and grasped the bowl tightly, slowly trying to head back to the door, where the Lord was using one of his six arms to try and reach out for the dagger in one of his hands.

On his way out, the Imp tried to open the door as far as possible and rushed out, grabbing the dagger as he was going.

The fastest that he could, the Imp rushed down the stairs, past the Guard and toward Rudy, who was already nervously waiting. But just when the Imp and Rudy wanted to make their way over toward town, the young boy started staring at something in the distance behind the Imp fearfully.

And just for a moment, the Imp turned around and saw that it was the Lord of Greed, climbing down the side of the tower along the stairs using its many arms.

Immediately, the Imp tried to think about what to do, and then grabbed the girl and pushed it into Rudy's arms, switching the white cloth she was wrapped in with some black cloth from his bag, and then bundling the white cloth up before placing it into the center of the bowl.

"Run toward town as quickly as you can. I can't come with you, sorry." The Imp told Rudy, who was staring at him scaredly. "Wh-What, but you said that-"

"I know what I said. I'll make it up to you in town. Take the key, and run." While pressing the key to the Inn room into his hand, the Imp tried to make Rudy start walking forward, but it seemed like the boy was too scared to get going.

So, the Imp did something that he felt like he had to do, moving a step closer toward Rudy. "If you stay here any longer, I will make your life hell. Get away from here this very moment, you useless child." The Imp said in the most fear-inflicting voice that he could, and Rudy's body started shaking wildly, before the Imp pressed his teeth together and just stared into the boy's eye.

"Just fucking go!" The Imp swore, yelling as loudly as he could. This obviously pulled the attention of some Demons around to him, but that was what he wanted to do anyway. Keep attention on him instead of Rudy, who slowly realized how serious the situation was and turned, running away into the distance toward the human town.

And while Rudy was running there, the Imp turned around to see where the Lord was, and to his surprise, he was already right in front of him, opening his mouth wide.

"You-You! Give it back!" The Lord exclaimed and pushed his hand forward, and the Imp just immediately tried to activate the Three of Swords, and a ring appeared right around his middle finger, while the Holy Energy poured into that blade. And as the hand of the Lord was moving toward the Imp quickly, the Three of Swords pushed forward as well, directly through the Lord's skin.

This obviously once more caused bubbling and sizzling, just as the Imp expected, and most importantly it made the Lord freeze up, giving him more than enough time to start running away again.

A deep would like that seemed to take far longer to heal than the shallow one that the Imp caused with the cloth, and he was able to already make his way toward the next castle. At least that's what the Imp thought, but before he could pass into the alley, a few Demons stood in front of him, staring at the bowl in his hand.

It was made of gold, what else did he expect? The Imp ground his teeth and turned around, seeing that somehow, the Lord already started recovering. And then, the Imp realized what might have happened. He built up a resistance to it just like the Imp did, although obviously not as much. It still seemed to allow the Lord to recover much quicker, however.

And so, before he knew it, the Imp felt the Lord's hand around his neck, while the others grasped his body in different places. Immediately afterward, the Imp was pulled away back toward the Tower and then saw the ground get further and further away, while the hands around his body grew tighter by the moment.

Then, the door was pushed shut in front of him, and the Imp was thrown into the pile of treasure.

"Now, stay. You are mine now, mine... Only mine, only mine..." The Lord muttered quietly, crawling up to the Throne before huddling up on it, pullings his legs onto his chest while looking around the room nervously.

And then, the Imp just looked around. He wouldn't be killed? He didn't need to worry about Rudy arriving in town? As long as he got another chance to escape somehow, then the Imp would be able to just run toward the castle of the Lord of Lust and get Arc back as well somehow.

Then everything would be perfect! The Imp just somehow had to figure out how to best get out of this place again. Although, in the book about the Lords, the Imp read that the Demonic Town would appear each and every single night, and would disappear when the blood-red moon in the sky couldn't be seen anymore. At the moment, the moon was in the center of the sky, so only half the night was over so far.

From what the Imp read, it didn't seem like the lord of Lust was the type of Demon that cared about captives all that much, except if they could 'pleasure' him, whatever that meant. Arc seemed to be out to annoy most people around him, and that wasn't pleasant at all, so the Imp figured that would be fine.

And so, he figured it wouldn't be hard to get Arc back, and then they would return to town, wait for day to come again, and then get out of there.

With a satisfied nod, the Imp slowly stood up, and although the Lord was constantly staring at him as he was moving, he didn't do anything. It seemed like for now, the Imp would be able to move around in this room without an issue.

But most importantly, the Imp stepped in front of the Lord and slowly spoke.

"Can you tell me about the things you own?" The Imp asked, slowly trying to make use of how the Lord was supposed to 'like showing off', as was said in the book. It seemed like the Lord was slightly suspicious, but the Imp just tried to smile somehow, before the Lord slowly ask.

"What... What do you want to know about?" He asked quietly, peeking at the Imp between his fingers, and the Imp swiftly spoke. "What is the most useful thing you own?"

Slowly, the Lord reached his hand out toward one of the piles directly next to his throne, pulling out a small bag. "This... It's a spatial bag... It can hold a lot more things than what it looks like..." The Lord explained, turning the bag upside down just to cause a stream of coins and gems to pour out of it, and the Imp looked at the amount of things that appeared out of seemingly nowhere, before the Lord placed the bag down on top of that pile, and then the Imp just stared at it with a slight smile.

"What is the most dangerous thing you own?" The Imp asked next, and the Lord pointed toward the other side of the room toward the bowl, where he seemed to still assume the Priestess to be.

"That over there." He explained, and so the Imp slowly nodded his head.

"Makes sense." The Imp replied, and then he slowly pulled a small orb out of his bag. "This is the most interesting thing I own. Want to try using it?" The Imp asked, and the Lord slowly nodded his head, before the Imp gave the small Holy Energy Magic Stone to him.

"Don't do anything yet. You see, the way that you use it is very simple, but it might hurt. Do you see the slightly golden color? If you put that sphere against your heart and put all your mana into it, you get the ability to turn anything you touch into gold!" The Imp explained. It seemed like none of the Lords were especially smart, so he was hoping that this would work somehow, choosing to slowly demonstrate what he meant. Carefully, the Imp ground his teeth and cut into his chest, slowly placing the Magic Stone inside.

[-189 Health]

This might be really, really dumb, but it seemed like the Lord was also really, really dumb, and repeated what the Imp was doing as well.

"Now, you can put your mana into that stone." The Imp explained with a smile, and the Lord slowly did as told, seemingly too greedy for gold to think about anything else.

And then, the Imp sighed slowly in relief, pulling the Magic Stone back out before using a Flame Magic Stone to burn the wound shut again.. Because right now, the Lord's whole body was starting to bubble up and sizzle, because it fell for the Imp's lie.