DEMON'S VIRTUE

Confused, Biril stared back at Eiro, glancing at his wings and horns, and staring at his arms that had split just now.

"A... A monster? You're a monster?!" Biril yelled out, taking a step back as a natural, startled reaction, before his mind managed to catch up to the situation, "You... You are still the Eiro that I know, right?"

"Of course, as I said. I'm the same, just with a few slight differences." The Demon said with a smile on his face, and Biril couldn't help himself but stare at the man in front of him. And then, he started to laugh hysterically.

"Eiro, the greatest force in the fight against the Monster King, is a monster himself?" Biril laughed loudly, and slowly calmed himself down, before looking back at him with a smile, "If you can assure me that you're on our side, then for all I care, you could be a royal monster, for all I care."

"Oh, good that you mention it. I also happen to be 'The World'." Eiro replied bluntly, and Biril's laugh stopped immediately.

"Wait, what?" He let out, and Eiro simply chuckled, "Also, through my legendary skill, I managed to evolve into a new type of Demon that has never existed before. That being the case, since I'm an artificial creation of the Monster King, I'm also a Demon Lord. There's a lot more to me though, but those are sort of the bigger ones. With an exception, but I'll tell you that some other time."

Biril looked back at Eiro and slowly closed his eyes, before squatting down onto the ground, "Could you... elaborate on all of that a little?"

Eiro smiled and looked at Biril, quickly starting to explain the situation a bit more. Of course, in some ways he managed to alleviate Biril's worries, and in others, he managed to make him even more shocked than before.

"So... you're saying that it wasn't a metaphor? You were actually manipulating your soul during your last evolution? Wait, was that why you were suddenly feeling so bad when we were sitting in the Guild?"

"Well... that thing was somewhat different, but I'll spare you with that. Anyway, are you sure you're alright with this knowledge?" Eiro asked, and the beastman let out a long, thoughtful sigh, "I... I think so, yeah. Obviously it's going to take a while to get used to, but there are many weird things in this world. Truly, with the show of power you had displayed, I would have been more surprised had you been a human. You being a monster... it does explain a lot."

But then, something suddenly popped into Biril's mind, "Wait, the children, they-"

"They're people. Trust me." Eiro said immediately, "Again, they're all incredibly unique."

"So Leon and Avalin as well, they have unique skills?"

"...Leon, yes. But Avalin, no. She's unique in a different way. A way that's been rather troubling." Eiro explained, before raising his brows, "Oh, actually, I think I know something that might help you find this a bit easier. I used to be human, technically. Or rather, my soul was. I died, and then the monster king used my soul in order to create a lesser imp. He happened to make a mistake while creating me, causing my soul to be not only highly out of tune with my body, but also letting my soul's history influence my growth."

"So in your past life, you were a... actually, I don't even know what to call you now. Mage, or warrior? You're clearly skilled in both..." Biril pointed out, as Eiro's expression slowly turned bitter, "He was a mage. A quite powerful one, actually. He brought me the fascination with magic and knowledge that ended up making it possible for me to grow to what I am now."

Biril looked at Eiro, who was clearly quite emotional when talking about his former life. He asked, "Do you remember anything? Like... how you died, or what sort of life you lived?"

"Well, first of all... he is not me. Mostly because I don't have any memories. I'm a monster, deep down, and my life has been influenced through that. But... Alright, well, last year, when I killed the last 'The World'... I think that one was some sort of spiritual being, although I really have no idea... anyway, it held onto a card, the key that can open everything. It would use those powers to open up the soul of others and then take in the numerous different aspects that made them, them. Skills, memories, abilities... even physical aspects, really. Well, my soul was opened then too. Mostly, it was filled with versions of what I am now, a monster, a demon. But there was one small figure sitting there in the corner, a young, starving human boy. I think that's the last aspect of my past life that is left in me now."

The beastman looked surprised, "So you... he, died as a child?"

"Oh, no, no, he didn't. He died as an old man, after betraying his companions. They ended up taking each other down."

"Huh? Then does that mean those others had also been turned into Monsters? Did you try finding them?"

Eiro looked ahead at the ocean and shook his head, "No, the others managed to pass on properly."

"...I see. Erm, also... I've been wondering for a while, but... what is that..?" Biril asked, slowly pointing at the snake that was curled up and laying in the sand. Bavet had been making some weird noises for a while now, distracting Biril a bit.

Eiro looked at the slime and sighed, quickly stomping his foot down onto the curled up snake, "Wake up you lazy bastard. You're having that dream again."

"Huh?! Who's attacking?!" Bavet yelled out loudly, having turned into his regular slime form, before just sitting there for a while, realizing what's going on, "Fucking asshole. You know that I don't have much health..."

"Hey, I was gentle, wasn't I?"

"You hit me for a third of my total health, the fuck do you mean 'gentle'?!"

"Then go out and hunt every once in a while, maybe you'd evolve and have more health." Eiro sighed deeply, before he picked Bavet up. The slime slithered around his arm, as Eiro introduced him, "Anyway, this is bavet. He's a slime, and my pet. I fuse with his core and spread his slime around my body so that he can transform me into a human form.

"Oh... so that's the thing that lets you hide your wings and... those extra two arms?" Biril asked, but Eiro immediately shook his head, "No, no, I can just do that anyway. See?" Eiro pointed out, quickly pulling his wings into his back, before his flesh fused together in front of the slits on his back that the wings had squeezed into.

"...How did..."

"I mean, I can absorb any physical material into my body, although it's annoyingly tough to do that outside of mucous membranes or my stomach and such. I'm getting used to doing it through my skin as well, but it's going to take a while until I can consistently do it." Eiro explained quickly, as Biril let out a deep sigh, "That's just... weird. I've never really heard much about monsters' abilities, but it seems like they're a lot more physical than the abilities of people."

"Hm, that seems fair, yeah. Well, monsters' bodies are just used to changing in unnatural ways. You know, evolution and all that." Eiro pointed out, as he started pulling his tail into his lower back and fusing his arms together again, "Anyway, it seems like I'm being called right now. I told you a lot just now, so just go ahead and let everything sink in for now. Meet me later if you have any questions, and go ahead and enjoy yourself."

Eiro became wrapped in Bavet's slime and turned back into his normal form, before he made the barrier around him and Biril disappear. Eiro stepped away back onto the wooden path, while the beastman stayed behind to really think about everything he just learned.

Meanwhile, Eiro made his way to the hut where he was going to meet with the head warrior, the young hero, and said hero's father. The three of them were already there... and a few other people were scattered around that hut, using an extremely proficient version of 'stealth', but of course not nearly proficient enough to trick Eiro who had been trained to see through a Master's stealth.

They were clearly here to pay attention to Eiro and make sure that nothing was going to happen, since they didn't seem to care much for the others inside the hut. For now, the Demon chose to just ignore them, and maybe later he was going to see if he should have some fun with them.

Eiro stepped into the hut with a smile on his face, looking at the young hero's father, "It's an honor to meet you, Sir." The Demon said immediately, and the man in question slowly turned toward the head warrior and whispered, "So this is the man you mentioned? Beside that hair... he looks quite normal."

With a chuckle, Eiro said, "Whispers don't really work around me, sorry. But yes, I may not look particularly special right now. I changed into some comfortable, loose clothes earlier, after all."

"...So you can't even bother changing when you have a serious meeting with someone? I'm not impressed." The man scoffed, and Eiro locked eyes with him for a moment, before looking inward. He mentally stepped into his treasury, and quickly changed from his current clothes back into his full suit of armor, something that happened practically instantly on the outside.

"Do you like this appearance more?"