Demon's Virtue
chapter-259-30041322

"Wait.... no, wait... but..." Eiro muttered quietly. Slowly he went through everything that happened so far in his mind, "Bahlsen was the Collector...? Or is he being..." The Demon thought about what exactly was going on. It just didn't make sense. Bahlsen wasn't lying with anything he said, not a single time did he utter even a miniscule lie. Or he was just really good at hiding the truth, somehow.

"But everything about Bahlsen and the Collector is just so... different..." Somehow, Eiro was unsure what he was supposed to do next, and was really just stunned by all of this. He thought that his senses couldn't be fully tricked like that, but it seemed like that absolutely wasn't the case...

And then, the words that this manipulated person just uttered finally caught up to Eiro, "But that means that..." Immediately, Eiro ripped the cloak off his body and spread out his wings, not even caring for the fact that he accidentally pulled his mask off together with it as he did so.

There was a group of random people walking by the alley that Eiro was in, and they were just staring at the figure of this angry demon spreading out his wings. Due to the sheer pressure that he gave off merely standing there, two of them fell to the ground and the rest were completely stunned at this sight through the thick snow.

But Eiro didn't care, he just turned around toward Bavet, and the slime knew what to do immediately. He changed his shape and jumped right onto the Demon's body. Bavet's slime core fused with Eiro's skin the moment that he did and travelled to the center of his chest while the slime just covered Eiro's wings. The two of them fused like never before and the size of Eiro's wings increased immensely.

With a single flap of Eiro's wings, the snow was pushed away and the people got their first proper sight on this being as he radiated a thin light that only one of them recognized.

He was a monk, a practitioner of Ki-based Arts. He recognized that what was surrounding Eiro was a literal aura of pure power that had built up around him, and it gave off pure emotions of anger.

Eiro was able to see some notifications flicker in and out of existence in front of him, but he really didn't care enough to pay them any mind, and they were blown away in the strong winds surrounding Eiro immediately.

The Demon infused his body with Air Magic and pushed himself off the ground at the quickest speed he could possibly manage. He was practically cutting through the thick snow that was filling the air, and with every flap of his enormous wings was causing the storm to be stirred up.

But Eiro didn't care. He didn't care that he was pushing the tiles off the roofs of the buildings he was flying over, or that he was shattering some of the windows of those same buildings. Only one thought crossed his mind right now.

That he had to get home. Quicker than ever before, Eiro found his way home. And luckily, James was standing there by the window having a drink while deep in thought, contemplating about his current situation.

Eiro pushed him out of the way, and the glass shattered on the ground, staining the ground in alcohol.

"What's the big fucking deal, ma-" James yelled out angrily, but he choked up the moment he truly took notice of Eiro.

The Demon slowly turned his head and stared the Light Elf deep into his eyes, "Get the children and bring them to the safe-room in the basement's treasury. Immediately." The tone of Eiro's voice was echoing through the room, and James was unable to complain or really react in any other way beside just grinding his teeth and doing as he was told, trying not to freak out at the magic and vibe that Eiro gave off. Especially James, due to his racial abilities, was heavily affected by this.

As Eiro stood there, the notifications that Eiro basically didn't allow to come into existence until now just appeared in front of him again.

[You are under the effect of Wrath]

[Others around you will feel your emotions in their purest form]

[Your basic abilities will be temporarily enhanced by 10%]

[As a gift from [The Devil] for achieving this, you will not feel any repercussions]

Eiro stared at the notifications and ground his teeth in anger, so much so that he was afraid of having them shatter all of a sudden, "Ah, you're watching this, huh? Having fun, you son of a bitch? I hope you'll enjoy this show, because you're next."

Eiro slowly stepped toward the door and made his way through the hallway, ignoring the fact that heavy snow was pouring into James' room through the open window now that it picked up a bit more.

He could hear all the others running toward the basement's treasury as James opened the secret room in there and everyone stepped inside. The moment that those doors closed, Eiro felt weirdly relieved through this, but at the same time could not deny the nervosity he was feeling from not being able to sense the children.

Eiro made his way through the entrance hall of the building, and the moment he stepped onto the carpet, the large wooden door in front of him opened up.

"Oh, what a surprise. You were able to find your way here a lot quicker than I thought you would. But I don't mind, it just spices things up a bit more." The Collector, the Demi-Lich, said with a bright smile on his face, and Eiro looked at him with a deep stare, "Turn around and leave, Bahlsen."

With a slight laugh, the Collector shook his head as he took a step forward. It seemed like this time, he wasn't trying to make Eiro's senses hazy somehow, and his voice could be clearly heard. But somehow, it still was completely different to Bahlsen. Everything was. Seeing the Collector, Eiro was once more unsure if this really was Bahlsen or not.

"I think you are misunderstanding something. My name is not Bahlsen, I go by Edward Henricus."

"Why would you lie to me? Was it fun playing around like that?"

"Once again, I think you are misunderstanding something. I never lied to you. Neither did Bahlsen. Through and through, we are two fully honest beings." Edward explained in a grim, but somehow also cheerful tone, "Both of us are separate people. Just that we can't truly exist at the same time as each other."

"What do you mean?" Eiro asked bluntly. He was confused, but it's not like he was really interested. He was just waiting for a chance to attack the Collector to kill him. With a laugh, Edward stepped forward a bit as he looked deep into Eiro's glowing red eyes.

"I guess I should explain a bit... I am a sucker for good stories, after all, even if I tell them myself. You see, a lot of people are under the misconception that the Knight of Pentacles increases investigative abilities, even those that used to hold it in the past. But in reality, it simply opens up the domain of 'Truth' in oneself, however it may manifest. In most people it is the ability to 'Find Truth', so it is no different than the ability to investigate well. But in our case, it was a bit more unique than that." The collector explained, "You see, Bahlsen was a happy man, with a seemingly perfect life, although he still was in the grasps of his rather vile job as part of a militaristic nation's government. When he tried to give up that job, he was disposed of instead of being allowed to simply leave. And in response, my lord foundh im, the one and only being that truly transcends and manipulates the realm of life and-"

"[Death]." Eiro said bluntly, and Edward smiled brightly in response, his disgustingly pale and wrinkled face twisting into a horrid visage, "Exactly so. Either way, my Lord gave two gifts to him. The gift of Undeath, turning him into the Demi-Lich you see in front of you, and the gift of Truth, as he handed the being that was now me the Knight of Pentacles. Usually, Undeath corrupts the mind of the one being risen, but in our case, something else happened. Our ascendence into Undeath had not yet been completed. With the 'Domain of Truth' added into the mix, two things happened. One, I regained all memories of Life. Two, I was split into my 'True' selfs. And that means the true self of when I was alive, and the true self of when I was not. Into the personas of Bahlsen and Edward. Somehow, Bahlsen had been unable to know what I knew, but I was able to know what he did. Maybe it was just him rejecting his own death, although I fully accepted my time in life and my time in death."

"...So you killed your own wife and child?" Eiro asked in a clear tone, and Edward just laughed, "Of course not, don't be ridiculous!" He exclaimed. For a moment, Eiro was confused, since Edward said that neither Bahlsen nor him ever lied to the Demon, but then, he understood that 'Truth' was really just in the eye of the beholder as the Demi-Lich in front of him spoke again.

"I was reborn into Undeath, I am a wholly new person. I have my memories, but no connections to my time alive. Those were not my wife and child, but Bahlsen's. And how I enjoyed watching them squeal as I pulled them apart for my very first project."

With a sick expression of pleasure on his face, Edward came up closer to Eiro, and the Demon just stared at him with pure wrath in his eyes, "You're disgusting."

"Haha, says the one that would stoop so low as to consume so much alcohol before such an important time. As if you wanted me to butcher your whole family."

With a deep sigh, Eiro looked down at the ground, "Both of us know that that is not the truth behind that situation."

"Of course, but without jesting every once in a while, life would be boring. Luckily jokes aren't truly lies, am I right?"

"Sure you are." Eiro said, and quietly glared at Edward before he pressed his fist together tightly. A bit of smoke rose out inbetween Eiro's teeth as all of a sudden, the Demon's whole body went up in flames. Of course, Bavet and Eiro had already split up before this, or else the Slime would be rather heavily injured now.

But luckily Eiro kept the alcoholic fumes in his body and created flames inside of himself that he used to infuse his body with immediately after creating them.

And then, the Demon and the Demi-Lich fought.