DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro took a deep breath as he resurrected the bodies of the three monsters that he had killed here. The Tortle, the Minotaur, and the Bird. He would give them to Koperia as a gift to thank her for holding off the monsters in the village.

"Rudy, are you alright?" The Demon asked, looking at his son, who was sitting down and leaning against a nearby tree. He slowly nodded, "Yeah, just... feeling a bit dizzy..."

"Did my attack do something weird? Do you need something to drink? Or some healing?" Eiro asked immediately, squatting down in front of him with a worried expression, "No, no, I just... this was a lot, you know?" Rudy explained, slowly raising his head. He glanced past Eiro at the place where that huge monster had just exploded in front of him.

The Demon placed his hand onto his son's head with a smile, "I'm sorry you had to see that. But with your help, we made sure that nobody else got injured. I'll let you know, even I might not have gotten through a fight with that huge thing so easily."

"Huh? Wait, seriously?" Rudy asked, "But... you're a royal now."

"Of course, but that's not all that matters. The tortle there... it has, or had, a unique skill. It could link up two living beings, in the way where any damage taken by either party is given to the other as well. Burt your ability completely denies any incoming damage. It tricked its ability. Through you, we could easily get rid of it. But if I had faced it? It would have forced the ability on me, and surely could have done a lot of damage while I was trying to figure out a way to kill it." Eiro explained, and Rudy looked at his father with a nervous expression, "So even you can still..."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. I found a way to get out of it this time, and I'll be able to do that in the future as well. But come on, for now, let's go." Eiro said, as he turned his head toward Mislan, who was already on his way. The shadow servant dove into the ground and completed the Demon's form again. Eiro took on a normal form again, and placed his mask onto his face.

"Let's return, then." Eiro said bluntly, snapping his finger to remove the magic spells he placed around two of the huts in the village so that everyone could get out and check on each other. At the same time, it was a signal for Bavet to come over toward him. To give the slime the time to do that, Eiro and Rudy were walking instead of rushing like they did earlier.

A minute or so later, a bird came flying at the Demon, which he quickly recognized as Bavet. He took off his mask and pulled down his hood, as Bavet slithered into his armor and fused with the demon's body, turning him back into his humanoid form.

"Alright then. Now let's get back... It really wasn't a good day." Eiro pointed out, "A lot of people died." He explained to Rudy, who really had no idea what the situation in the hut village looked like. Nervously, he scratched his arm, "But... why... Dad, is this really fair?"

"What do you mean?" The Demon asked, turning his head toward Rudy, who quickly elaborated, "I mean... those guys, they trained their whole life to become strong and reach this point, but I.. I barely just reached level 23 in my first class... it's just unfair..."

Eiro slowly opened his mouth, but before he could, another mouth appeared on his cheek as Bavet started to speak, "Life ain't fair, bud, that's just how it is. And in the first place, nearly everyone that died here today was prepared to die at any point. They're warriors, adventurers. It's part of the job, you know?"

"I know, but-"

"Rudy." Eiro said, stopping in front of his son, looking into his eyes, "It's not fair, I know. But even if you didn't have the ability you have, those people would have died. Rather, you helped me stop even more people from dying." The Demon pointed out with a smile, patting his son on the back. Slowly, they made their way back to the hut village, where the bodies of the dead were currently being recovered. A scent of grief filled the air, but the first thing that Eiro did was approach his own people. He saw his kids, and quickly rushed over toward them, happy that they were alright.

"Did anything happen to you guys while I was gone?" He asked, but it seemed like everything was alright. Instead, focus turned over toward Rudy, whose clothes had been completely ripped up from Eiro's attack.

"What... what happened with Rudy?" Sammy asked, nervously looking at her brother, while Eiro looked back with a bitter expression. He still didn't like having used Rudy like that, "It happened while... I will explain it to you later. I think we should talk about this a bit more later."

Eiro said, as he slowly turned his head, "I have to meet with the others right now. Take care of Avalin and Leon for me, alright?" He said, glancing at Ariella, who noticed that 'the others' included her, so she quickly followed the Demon over toward where the rest of their group was.

Krog, James and Jess had already met up with Armodeus and Koperia, waiting for Eiro's return. Of course, since everyone else was already staring at him, they quickly took notice of the Demon.

"Ah, there you are." James said with a groan, "See? I said he wouldn't lose against guys like that."

"Hey, it wasn't as easy as you thought. I had to do something that I didn't want to do." Eiro sighed annoyedly, "More importantly, you guys are alright, right?"

"...We are, but..." Krog said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly, slowly turning his head to the side, looking at one young man's back. And then, Eiro noticed what had happened. He looked at Koperia, "Can he-"

"He does have a strong will tying him to this world, so I could turn him into an undead, but... I wouldn't have a vessel for him. And undeads are... you know. I've stabilised the soul thus far, but I want you to talk to his brother about it." Koperia explained, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, as he walked down the pier, looking at Biril.

"Hey." He said, but the beastman didn't hear him. Eiro looked past him, and saw the completely disfigured, or rather, shattered corpse of Hijar laying there in the mud. The chimera weren't as careful as the separated pairs, and destroyed their own bodies to do as much fatal damage as possible. In the process, basically every part of Hijar's body had been destroyed. His bones were crushed, and his flesh was liquified. On the bits and pieces that were left, Eiro could see burn-marks and cuts from when others tried to attack the chimera that had linked itself to Hijar. No wonder Koperia said she wouldn't have a vessel... she could turn him into a specter instead, like the two that Eiro had created that were now in the monster village by Gobo's side.

But even then, things would be... different. Even if they were practically individual beings, those two were still undead of Eiro's creation. If he wanted to, he could command them to do anything. They weren't really... themselves. But for Hijar, Eiro wanted to do something else. He didn't want him to be someone else's toy, he wanted him to be as alive as possible.

"We can bring him back." Eiro explained to Biril, and the beastman snapped his head around, glaring at the Demon while entering an instinctive partially beastified form, "Don't you dare turn my brother into an undead!"

"...alright, we won't. But there are other ways. Hijar's soul is still around. He has a strong will, so it didn't completely disappear yet. Koperia stabilised his soul for now. With your permission, we can bring him back to life. As much of a true life as possible." Eiro explained, and Biril looked at him, his beastification slowly fading away, "I... I don't know... can I... think about it?"

"Of course. Take your time. I will ask Koperia to place his soul into a storage container until you made your choice." Eiro explained, placing his hand onto Biril's shoulder before turning back around, walking back to the others while Biril continued mourning over his brother, starting to think about the offer that Eiro had made.

The Demon himself quickly walked back to the rest of his group, and explained the situation to Koperia, who let out a deep groan before walking over toward Hijar's corpse to store his soul. Soon, an injured man walked up to the group. It was the head warrior, whose arm had been completely shattered.

"Tell me, what happened?" He asked, clearly in pain, and Eiro quickly replied, actually explaining the situation.

"A few hours ago, I noticed some monsters approaching via the ocean. I went to get rid of them, and soon noticed their special configuration. A minotaur holding the Mountain Breaker, a tortle with an ability to link two individuals together to share any damage either of them received, and a bird-monster with the Mirror of Duplication. Since they were dangerous to the people here, I lured them away, and soon took care of them at a safe distance. But as it turned out, they were nothing but duplicates created through the mirror themselves." Eiro explained, "Then, the monsters you saw yourself attacked here. The owner of the mirror of duplication created those chimeras by mixing the tortle and minotaur together in special configurations, allowing them to easily attack, injure, or kill the people here. I tricked them into removing the duplicates over here, and took care of all of them at once over there."

The head warrior looked at Eiro perplexed, and completely confused, "Then... then, are you sure that you got the real ones? Are you sure they were not duplicates again?" The warrior asked, and Eiro immediately nodded his head, as he pulled out his two new cards.

"Yes. I'm positive." Eiro replied immediately, turning his head toward the forest, "I turned the originals' corpses into undead as well. They will be here soon, so you can confirm for yourself that they are truly dead." The Demon said, and the head warrior looked at Eiro with an expression of relief, "Thank you... truly, I thank you for dealing with them, putting your own safety in jeopardy."

"...I just did my job. And considering that I will be keeping these two cards for myself... well, that's rewawrd enough." Eiro said bluntly, quickly placing the cards back into his treasury, before the head warrior looked back at him perplexed, "You will be... keeping them?"

"Of course I will." The Demon replied, knowing that of course the country of Baram would like to have these cards. And since they were the ones that received the greatest damage, they obviously had a right to them as well. But the head warrior couldn't bring himself to point that out. After all.... Eiro, someone who was already stronger than anyone else here, had just become even more powerful.