Demon's Virtue
chapter-263

"Wait... Where was it again?" Eiro muttered to himself as his mind started to feel hazy. As if he wasn't able to think properly all of a sudden, "What am I even saying, it's right over there."

Slowly, the Demon managed to remember the way back to his home, the manor, and treaded through the heavy snow into that direction, still as absent-mindedly as before. He walked up the steps as the snow covered his whole body and started to stick to him, creating a slight layer.

Eiro walked up the steps to his front door and knocked on the wooden surface a few times, "Why am I not just opening it..?" The Demon thought to himself, but before he was able to figure this out for himself, someone opened the door up.

It was James, who immediately stuck a dagger into Eiro's face, nearly pushing it into his nose, "Who are you?!" He exclaimed, "Are you with the Demi-Lich?"

Suddenly, a horrid premonition travelled through Eiro's mind. Immediately, the Demon heated his own body up from inside and melted the snow that was covering him, "Wh-What are you saying, it's me... It's Eiro, James."

Seeing the Demonic figure, simply standing there casually while announcing his presence, James... shut the door without a moment's hesitation. Eiro could hear some rustling from inside as the children ran down the hallway toward the basement, and five figures stayed behind, facing the front door.

Confusedly, Eiro pushed the large door open and stepped inside, before the Demon was faced with a magic circle being constructed in front of Jess immediately. It was a strong spell, as expected of her, but it wasn't strong enough so that Eiro wouldn't be able to immediately create a quick counterspell.

He held his hand forward and... and... "How do I...?"

While the demon was trying to figure out what he was supposed to do, Jess shot her spell at the Demon, a strong, bullet that was a mixture of air and rock. The former provided by the space they were in, and the latter... provided by Gondos.

The mixture of air- and rock-bullet dug itself into Eiro's shoulder as the demon stood there in thought, which was of course quickly interrupted by the gaping wound in his body, "Fucking- Why would you do that?!" The Demon screamed out, but before he could really react properly, the other four that were here attacked Eiro as well.

James, Gobo and Krog jumped at the Demon with their weapons, while Bavet was turning parts of his body into bolts that he could shoot toward Eiro. The Demon managed to dodge, and even pushed James and Gobo away as they were rather light, but Krog was a different thing again. Due to his high speed and mass, it was harder to get rid of him, and Eiro had to dodge quickly to avoid being hit. At that point, though, Bavet had shot the next bolt at him while Jess prepared her next spell to shoot at Eiro.

"Why are you doing this?! Stop it already!" Eiro exclaimed, but none of them really reacted, they just tried to keep attacking Eiro.

Grinding his teeth, Eiro started to control the snow from outside and froze the floor that everyone was walking on. Eiro was able to keep moving perfectly, but the others were heavily handicapped. Immediately, the Demon, who was far stronger than everyone else here, knocked the others over and tied them to the ground with eyes.

"Let us go, you disgusting fiend!" Krog yelled out angrily, the ice starting to crack under the sheer force of his strength, but Eiro kept him down for now, "Krog, what's even going on? Why are you all attacking me?"

"How do you know my name?! So you are working with that Demi-Lich!" Krog screamed loudly, and Eiro slowly turned toward Jess, who was trying to use fire magic to heat her surrounding up so that she could melt the ice and escape.

With a deep sigh, Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose, "So is that what Edward meant when he said 'I will-'... Wait, what did he..?" Eiro's mind slowly went hazy again as the Demon slowly held his aching shoulder and tried to clear out any splinters of rock before his flesh healed over them and caused permanent damage somehow.

"What's going on?" He muttered, but somehow, no matter how hard he tried to remember things about this situation, he couldn't. Until he heard Bavet try and shift his form to something else to escape and attack Eiro again. The Demon pulled out one of his daggers and held it toward the slime, "And you! Why the fuck did you tell them to come out?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!" As if on instinct, Eiro cursed at Bavet for what he did, for luring everyone out of the safe-room.

Jess stared at Eiro with a frown, "Why are you angry about that, you're working with the one person that benefits from it!"

"I'm not fucking working with that piece of shit, I just killed him, alright?!" Eiro screamed out. His anger, or more specifically the 'wrath' state was obviously still there, still affecting him somehow. Or maybe it suddenly shifted into something else that would explain his sudden outburst... the 'Wrath' state was weirdly calm, after all.

"How do you have that dagger..?" Suddenly, James interrupted Eiro's anger, and stared at the weapon he was holding. It was Avalin's, the original's, dagger that Eiro had kept with him all this time. He looked back at James with a deep frown, "...I thought we already spoke about this... I took it after Avalin died, to protect myself and remember her... I think at least." The Demon pointed out bluntly, although it seemed like Eiro's wording and tone wasn't something that James really appreciated all that much, "You fucking bastard, you were there?! You were there back then?!"

"...I... Yeah, I was... But..." Eiro pointed out. What was going on? Why did James forget about this? Why did everybody forget about this? And... why was Eiro forgetting things?" The Demon thought about what happened just now, and he figured he might be able to explain what happened... to an extent, at least.

"He said he would... end my life without killing me." Eiro managed to make the connection rather quickly, actually. It wasn't that hard to figure out, after all, especially knowing that in life, Edward was a specialist in... In... "He was a specialist in..." The Demon muttered to himself as his thoughts trailed off. Eiro didn't know why this was happening, only that it was and he wasn't able to do anything about it for whatever reason. He tried, but he couldn't.

Somehow, instead, Eiro's attention trailed off to something else, and he was soon looking at the small, light blue figure that Gondos was holding in his arms right now.

"Nelli...? Nelli, what..? What happened, what..." Eiro said in an incoherent manner as he slid over the icy floor and approached the spirits, but Gondos just floated away from him, "I dare you to touch her, you disgusting Demon!" The Golem exclaimed. Eiro looked back at him with a confused expression.

"Gondos, what are you saying...? You're my contracted spirit, and so is Nelli, just... Just let me take a look at her, please."

"What are you saying? Both Nelli and I are uncontracted to anyone, simply wild spirits. Why would we ever form a contract with a Demon?" He replied with a deep glare, and Eiro ground his teeth together as he took a step closer, "You're spirits, as long as you're not contracted to anyone, you can't be away from the place you were born as a full spirit... right?"

"Usually so, but we are special cases. I remember being close to my birthplace only one more time, and that is when we met Gobo after I tagged along with James, Jess and Krog, and-"

"No! That's wrong!" Eiro screamed out, "Well, no, it's technically not wrong but it also is! You are my contracted spirit! We met in Argberg, and you were owned by... you were... you were contracted to..." The Demon started trying to explain the story of how Gondos and him met, but the moment that he actually tried to start doing so, his mind drifted off again.

Slowly, in complete despair, Eiro fell to his knees. After all, what else was he supposed to do? His loved ones forgot about him, and he was unable to remember his loved ones the more he actually tried to, "Why is this happening? What's going on? Why can't I remember already..? J-Just let me fucking remember!" Scream after scream, Eiro tried to figure out what exactly was going on, and what he was supposed to do.

For most of his life, Eiro never had any trouble in regards to memories. He had been able to remember everything that he had ever done down to the second. He was able to remember every conversation, every scent, every taste, every touch. But now, Eiro was scared to try and think of it. Because what if he found out that he didn't remember? What if he found out that he didn't remember anything specific about his time with the children or with Jura?

Eiro wouldn't be able to live with himself anymore, "I... I have to go..." The Demon muttered as he slowly pushed himself off the ground. He slid over the frozen floor, "Please... please remember me..." Eiro whispered to himself as he started to run through the halls of the manor. The children weren't fully in the safe room they were sent to again yet, so he should be able to catch up.

The Demon tried to run as fast as he possibly could through the hallways. He slid down the stairs and probably even sprained his ankle while he was at it because he somehow slipped down the step because he was moving too quickly and was simply not careful.

He was laying on the ground and looked up, seeing through the slit of the safe-room's door that was currently closing down. And Eiro was looking straight at Avalin.

"H-Hey sweetheart, everything's alright, it's just daddy... It's just daddy, everything's-"

"Stay back!" Sammy screamed, "Be quiet!" She added, and Eiro stood there with his mouth basically forced shut. He wasn't really in the right state of mind to resist her commands right now, "Leave and don't come back, Demon!"

The moment that she finished her command, Eiro saw the expressions of everyone in the room, looking at Eiro either in fear or disgust. But the Demon couldn't help himself but turn around and slowly walk up the stairs with a blank mind and tears gathering in his eyes.

Slowly, Eiro walked up the stairs and then walked through the hallways. And that wasn't even because of Sammy's command. He simply forgot how to open the door to that secret room.

"Just what is going on..?"

The Demon thought, and remembered the notification from before that had mostly escaped his mind until now.

That weird, changed ability.

[Memory of the Forgetful Demon – Whenever you try to remember something, knowledge or memory, you will start forever forgetting about it]

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