DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro watched his clothes get drenched in the black sludge. Even if he was able to get through this, he would no longer be able to join the small party that was happening within the guild. It was sort of sad, but at the end of the day, other situations like this might come up. Especially once the final companions of the hero had been chosen.

The demon continued throwing up the sludge, until the rock cube he was in was filled with it so much that he could drown in it if he wasn't careful. The stench was unbearable, however, to the extent where Eiro would have thrown up vomit instead if he was currently capable of such a thing.

It took maybe an hour or two until Eiro was done. His body had started heating up the black liquid to the level where it began boiling, making the air in the cube unbreathable. But somehow, Eiro was doing fine nonetheless. He had stopped vomiting, and his body cooled down to a more normal temperature. His mind slowed down, and the exhaustion in his body now made him feel relaxed instead of in pain. Somehow, despite his mana having been completely and utterly exhausted, he was feeling quite well right now.

And as this was the case, Eiro was able to realize what had happened to him. He pulled his hand out of the slude, which was sticking to his skin like drying glue, and pulled some of the new mana that was pouring out of the center of his soul toward his palm. He split his mana up, creating pure mana and his essence in two different instances. The pure mana was stabilized by his ancient language comprehension, while his essence was slowly pushed out of his skin.

And instead of seeing the disgusting mud that he normally did, what Eiro saw was something wholly different. It was pure and clean. It gave off a slightly cold air, but one that could burn your skin with heat if you were not careful. In itself, this substance was contradictory to itself. It had waves of a cool ice blue and crimson red flowing within it, creating subtle patterns that seemed rather similar to those that were now covering Eiro's skin nearly all over his body.

"What... how..?" Eiro whispered to himself. This was his essence. It was very clearly a very pure version of his essence, "Then all this... all of this were impurities within my essence? So strong that they overpowered everything else..?"

The demon found himself in a situation that confused him beyond comparison. The being that did this to him... was the Monster King. He was the one that had cleansed his essence, getting rid of these impurities. Sure, Eiro's own influence probably caused the purification to undergo a lot quicker and safer, but even then... why would the Monster King do something like that?

As Eiro was trying to fifgure this out, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his forehead. He quickly touched his hand to it, and could feel a new horn that had suddenly sprouted there. Different to the others that Eiro had, this one didn't try to interweave with the others. It was something prominent itself, as if it was the centerpiece to Eiro's crown that he had missed up until now. Somehow, Eiro could feel a similar sinister energy from the horn as he did from the impurities that had been pulled out of his essence.

"So my horn..." Eiro muttered, as her thought about what was going on. The sludge was what had been created by dragging the impurities out of the mana itself, and the horn atop Eiro's head was similar, but still quite different. The first thing that Eiro could think of was that this horn was the energy that had been cleansed from his mana core itself, which had then caused Eiro to grow this new horn all of a sudden.

Eiro let out a deep breath, and spread out his perception a bit. There were a few people standing around the cube, waiting for the Demon to come back out of this thing that he had created. Most of them were people that knew about what Eiro was, but there were a few that had no idea. Two of them being Biril and Hijar.

The Demon opened a small hole in the rock, causing the pressure created by the steamified impurities to escape immediately. However, at the same time, Eiro could now properly speak to them.

"I am better now. I would like to ask you all to please step out of the alley for a few moments while I return from this thing." The Demon said, his voice quickly reaching everyone. And of course, they did as told, but there was one person that Eiro wanted to stay.

"Ariella, you... wait please." He muttered, and the nephilim slowly turned around toward the cube of rock, and slowly nodded her head, "Alright."

Eiro asked Gondos to create new walls of rock on both sides of the alley, and as they stretched upward, Eiro removed the cube of rock that he had formed around himself.

Immediately, the sludge poured outward, as Eiro slowly rose up from within it. His face showed his exhaustion, as his mana was still near to completely exhausted. He stood in front of Ariella, as the nephilim looked back at him.

"Why did you want me to stay?" She asked, and Eiro stared back at her as he shook his head, "I don't know. I just... wanted you to see me like this. You have seen many parts of me, but not this side of who I am."

"And what is that supposed to be? The side where you get drunk after a few beers?" Ariella chuckled, and Eiro lightly smiled back.

"I wish that was it, but this situation is slightly different. I mean the side of me that's... out of control. Whether it is because my emotions run wild, because I was lacking in attention, or simply because there was someone stronger than me... I sometimes lose the control I have over myself. Like I did just now. So I-"

"Show me your true form. Wings, tail, and all your arms." Ariella interrupted Eiro, and the Demon looked at the woman in front of him somewhat confused. But even then, he listened to her. He pushed his wings out of his back, and used them to help him take off his sticky, sludge-covered jacket, vest and shirt, since he wouldn't be able to split up his arms while wearing all of this.

His tail was pushed through the small hole that opened up when it pressed against his pants, and his wings quickly sprouted out. They flapped once just so slightly, as if they were stretching to get rid of some of the stiffness created when they were in Eiro's back.

The Demon's arms inflated for a moment before they split up into two, all of them hanging by Eiro's sides. Slowly, Ariella took a step forward, placing her hand onto Eiro's left upper arm, not caring for the black impurities still sticking to his skin.

"Right now, all I see is you. Whether or you're fully in control or not, you're still you through and through." She pointed out, as she slowly closed her eyes. A soft light radiated from some parts of her body for a moment, and as that light practically shattered away, Ariella's true form was revealed as well.

Her two horns on top of her head and her two large white angel wings. She really did look like the complete antithesis to Eiro.

Ariella slowly took a step closer as the feathers on her wings started standing up, and her heart was beating faster and faster. Eiro wasn't sure what was going on, but he could soon see the nephilim's face come closer and closer.

Soon, it was so close that he could feel her warm breath on his face, and a moment later, their lips touched. For a moment, it felt like their contact caused some holy flames to spark up between the two, but that was only the case for an instant. Immediately after, Eiro realised that it was nothing that interesting.

It was just the sort of spark that appeared during the kiss of two people that held each other dearly. They stood there for a while, embracing each other. It might have been a few minutes until they spoke again.

"I think we should return to the others, don't you think?" Ariella pointed out, and Eiro smiled slightly, "I smell absolutely disgusting right now. I would just ruin the night if I joined in again like nothing happened."

"Then fly home, and come back when you have cleaned yourself. You should be able to do that within a couple minutes, right?"

"You have a point." Eiro added with a light smile on his face, as he quietly called for Bavet, who was sitting on a ledge above the two, staring down in disbelief, "I'll be right back, then. Bavet, wait here for me if you want, I'll be trying to move quickly."

"Seriously...? You're just gonna leave all of this here..?" Bavet asked, and Eiro thought about it for a second as he slowly moved all four of his arms up. He practically pulled up all the liquid with water magic, and formed it into a ball. As if he was using all four of his hands, he pressed the sludge into a small compressed ball.

Nelli appeared next to him a few moments later, grinning slightly as she looked at Eiro and Ariella, before she helped the Demon pull the pure water from this orb. Since these impurities were given form through the influence of the plane of water, Nelli's true home, this was something quite simple to do. So now, Eiro held a rock-like version of his impurities, and just placed them into his treasury.

"Let's not worry about that." Eiro said, as he smiled slightly.. He turned around, and started flapping his wings, as he removed the rock walls, hiding himself with the ace of cups while Ariella used her artifact as she headed back to the others, and Eiro flew off to clean himself up properly.