DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Hey, I'm back." Eiro exclaimed as he stepped through the front door of the house and looked around, before his lower body suddenly gained a bit more weight. "Daddy!" Avalin exclaimed, her mouth still half-full with some food as he clung to the Demon's legs, and the Imp himself squatted down and smiled.

"I've only been gone for the morning... Go on and get back to eating, will you?" He asked the young girl, who looked at him with her currently yellow eyes and then quickly hurried back over toward Sammy, who was currently cleaning up after her and Leon.

"Welcome back." She said with a smile as she slowly made her way over toward him with toys in her arms and gave the Imp a quick hug, before the Demon took a look around the room again. "Where are Jura and Rudy?" Eiro asked curiously as he stepped up behind the two small children and took a look at what they were eating, while Sammy just scratched the back of her head in response.

"Ah, they're just on a walk right now. You know how Jura is lately..." The young, red haired woman said bitterly, and Eiro slowly nodded his head.

"Then I guess they will be back soon. I'm just going to work for a bit." The Demon pointed out, swiftly making his way over to one of the shelves placed around the corner and took a look at them to get an idea for what he should do for daily practice.

"Oh, any new ideas today?" Sammy asked curiously, and Eiro slowly shook his head in response. He didn't feel like doing general practice today, so he had to figure out something new and Unique that he hadn't made before.

Slowly, with his eyes closed, Eiro mentally went through all the things he had made until now. All Eight-Hundred-Seventy-Three of them. For the most part they were just small figurines depicting monsters, animals, or even plants that Eiro encountered so far. There were a few exceptions, of course, although it seemed like the number of exceptions was about to get smaller.

Because for whatever reason, Eiro was reminded of something that had happened a long time ago... Six years ago, to be exact.

Slowly, the Imp took a look around the shelves again to locate the different types of wood that he wanted to use... First, there was Snowbark. This wood was nearly completely white, and got its name because it usually grew in areas that were snow-covered for most of the year and nearly perfectly blended in with the surrounding snow due to its color.

The next wood was Soot-Root. It was pitch-black, and got its name from how it covered the hands of anyone that carelessly touched it in a black soot-like substance. That was the first part of the name. The second came from how this specific wood could only be harvested from the thick roots of a specific tree after it was lit on fire, and that fire naturally went out.

That meant that it was sometimes hard to get across larger pieces, but that was fine. They had a literal mountain of smaller pieces that could just be put together into a larger piece if he needed to. Although, this one here would only be around the size of his hands any-

"Change of plans, young... Eiro..." Jura said as he loudly coughed into his fist in a rather unhealthy manner, and then looked at the Imp once more as he turned around in surprise.

"Hm?" Eiro asked, and the old man slowly sat down on his chair in the corner, getting the necessary help from Rudy.

"You're starting... your last big project now... Before your Graduation as my Apprentice..." Jura said in a clear tone, and Eiro stared at him as if in shock. "Wait, what do you mean? But my Carving Skill is still at Apprentice 98, I'm not even close to getting it to Intermediate..." Eiro pointed out, and Jura shook his head.

"That is fine. You will be able to do quite well anyway. Carving is only part of half of it anyway. Whatever you wanted to make just now, supersize it to its regular size. From how your heart's beating, it must be quite a horrible creature." Jura pointed out, and Eiro raised his brows surprised, before nodding with a slightly nervous grin.

"Sure... But, how much of the Soot-Root can I-"

"Use it up for all I care. The only time I've used it was... Did I ever use it?" Jura asked himself with a slight frown, so Eiro slowly grabbed all the pieces of Soot-Root that were here in the shelf already and put them onto a piece of cloth so that they wouldn't dirty the ground, while nodding his head.

"Yes, you have. Last year, on your trip in May. I don't know what for, but you came back with roughly half than you left with, and I doubt you'd use it to make fire." Eiro pointed out, so Jura slowly laughed and nodded his head. "Haha, right, right, I remember now. Either way, go out and get to work already, you buffoon. You have one week to finish it." The old man said as he waved his hand over toward the door, so Eiro just nodded and made his way out of the door with the different woods that he needed... They had a pretty large piece of Snowbark sitting in the wood-storage, so Eiro should probably use that as the base for the body.

"Rudy, can you come downstairs with me and help me out a bit?" Eiro asked, although he wasn't entirely sure if he should be excited about such a big project, or... sad, about this being one of the last things he would do under Jura.

"Sure." The young man said, his voice already a few octaves deeper than before as his figure was already as tall as Eiro's own. Quite impressive for a fourteen years old boy.

"Then come on." Eiro said as he bundled up the Soot-Root he had already gathered and chose to bring it outside already, and then the Demon and young boy made their way to the back of the house, where the entrance to lead down into the hollowed-out space underneath the house was, which was basically just held up properly through the thick roots of the tree above, which even still shot down through the roof of this space deep into the floor. Luckily, it was quite dry in this room, so all the wood that was here lasted for years and years on end, and they didn't have to worry about getting new types all the time.

"Ah, here it is." Eiro said as he pointed at the large block of white wood that was roughly as high as the Imp was tall. That would mean he would need to make the legs seperately, considering the size of the thing he was making. Since its figure was quite thin, he should be able to re-use some parts of this block of wood as well.

"Let's just bring it out to the front." The Demon suggested, and Rudy quietly nodded his head, walking to the other side of the block of wood while Eiro squatted down in front of it, digging under the wood with his fingers. This kind of thing usually strained his wooden arm pretty badly, but until now it held out pretty well, so Eiro wasn't worried about it breaking.

"Alright, I'm ready." Eiro said, his legs, back, and arms slowly heating up immensely as he lifted the heavy block up a little, while Rudy just made sure to push it forward onto Eiro's back properly so that he could carry it in a hunched-over position.

And so, while Eiro's fingers basically buried themselves in the white wood, Rudy helped out by keeping everything balanced. With the technique the Imp was using, he was able to gain incredible raw strength for a short while, but that didn't help his balance at all, so he wasn't really able to carry this kind of thing alone anyway, even if it he was fine weight-wise.

"Careful, steps." Rudy said in a rather cold, although sad, tone as he kept his hands at the sides of the wood, and Eiro took a heavy lunge with his foot to press it onto the first step. Then the second, then the third, and so on until they finally reached the surface.

Although, this was a little more annoying without any proper footing, especially because the floor was still a little wet from the rain last night. There wasn't much of it around here, but a quick shower hit them anyway.

And so, Eiro slowed down a little just to be safe, and placed the block down on the stone platform by the side of the house, before breathing out deeply, finally able to relax again.

"Listen, Eiro, I-" Rudy started, although Eiro quickly interrupted him as he held his finger up. "Just a moment... Let me get this over with first..." The Imp said and then ground his teeth together as he slowly let his Life Force dissipate through his body again, making the stress he put his body under finally catch up with him.

"Haaah..." Eiro sighed deeply as he leaned against the wood as pain filled the parts of his body that had heated up so much before. This was the drawback of manipulating your life force... It allowed you to strengthen certain parts of your body momentarily, but the drawback was rather painful. "So annoying..." The Imp muttered as the pain slowly died down again and he stretched his body for a while. "So, what is it you wanted to say?" Eiro asked with a smile on his face, and Rudy slowly looked through the window of the house, confirming that Jura was asleep, as he always was around this time of the day lately, and then sighed deeply.

"Jura, he... He really isn't doing well..." Rudy pointed out quietly, and Eiro raised his brows surprised. "Hm? What do you mean? Sure, he sleeps a lot more lately, but that's because you guys have all become more dependable... He doesn't really have anything else to do anymore." The Imp replied as he went to grab his tools, and when he got back out, Rudy just stood there, grasping his own arm tightly.

"It... It's not the sleeping... Well, the sleeping as well, but... You noticed it before, didn't you? He's getting more forgetful... He hasn't gone out for a trip for four months, and he barely even touched his tools outside of showing you techniques. You maybe don't notice it as much because you're gone a lot during the day, but... Jura is really, really not doing well." The young man explained with a bitter expression, even slowly wiping away what might have become a tear in a few seconds out of his eyes.

"He lost so much weight that I had to tighten his clothes a couple of times already, he doesn't have any appetite anymore... He always leaves nearly all his food on his plate..." Rudy added, "His hands have been shaking all the time, and on an especially bad day, I even had to repeat myself when speaking to him once because he didn't understand what I said... And last week, when I made the stew, he was surprised when I put it on the table, because he couldn't smell when I was cooking... Eiro, he couldn't smell it! Jura couldn't!" He exclaimed loudly, getting incredibly upset, and at this point, even Eiro realized that something was wrong.

"Is he sick? Was he poisoned somehow? Maybe he-" The Imp suggested with worry in his tone, but Rudy just interrupted him.

"No! Eiro, I know you haven't seen something like that yet... And you yourself haven't changed at all in the past five years, but people like us get older... We can't live forever..." Rudy said quietly as he looked down at the ground, now really unable to hold back his tears, "Eiro... I think... Jura is dying...."