Demon's Virtue
chapter-39

What did the Imp need most right now? Did he need to be stronger? Did he need to be faster, smarter, or more perceptive? He really didn't know, but he couldn't just waste these 7 stat points on something useless right now.

The Imp was slowly starting to freak out over what was actually going on, and his thoughts were completely out of order. The children all disappeared, and he had no idea where the hell they were now. But the Imp was mostly just terrified. After all, if such a creature like the Demonic Shadow was just walking around the place just like that as if it was normal and sending people off as if it was the easiest thing in the world... What other creatures may be there?

Would he be able to survive this place? Maybe if he just stayed here in this place, then he could do that... What was the Imp supposed to do against beings that strong? Sure, he had the piece of cloth, but what if that was just a fluke?

The Imp really had no way of knowing that this would work on all enemies that he might face in this town. But... He had to try.

The Imp didn't know where that feeling came from, but as if his hand was moving on its own, it clicked on the 'Willpower' stat a few times, and the Imp managed to calm down again without an issue.

Finally, the Imp was able to actually think, and then tried to figure out a way to use the cloth to attack, it was the only thing that he knew would work on Demons other than himself. His skin burnt when he was touching it, but it wasn't more than a bit of unpleasant pain, so it was completely fine in the end.

But he wouldn't be able to fight with the cloth wrapped around his hand like this, so the Imp had to come up with another idea.

He had seen only few people actually fight so far, but he remembered that there was one person that fought with his hands sometimes. James.

And the Imp managed to see him wrap some strips of cloth around his hands as well, so maybe if he was able to remember how it worked, he would be able to move his hand properly even while using the cloth as a weapon.

He had to really concentrate as hard as he could on that one moment where the Imp managed to catch a glimpse of that action. What did he do? How much cloth did he use? Did he need anything else beside that?

And then, a single bright flash covered his whole sight, and the Imp jumped backward in fear over what just happened. He didn't want there to be another enemy coming to attack him like that Shadow.

But... Nobody was there. Nothing, it was as if everything was alright. The only thing that the Imp managed to see was a new notification.

[Scholar Imp's Racial Ability unlocked - Memories of a Scholar]

The Imp was confused at what the notification was saying, but after a little while, he realized what it seemed to refer to. That flash of light wasn't an enemy... It was an ability that the Imp himself had.

So once more, he just had to try and do the same thing as before. Like always, he just had to repeat what he did before.

And when the Imp concentrated as hard as he could on that single memory of seeing James use the cloth on his hand, the flash of light appeared again, but the Imp soon found what that flash of light was.

It was the light of the morning sun shining into his eyes. For a moment, the Imp was confused at what was actually going on. Why was he back here? With the burnt-down fire and a body of water behind it, while Thomas just exited the tent that the three of them, him, Avalin and James, were sleeping in last night, while the Imp was forced to stay up the whole night because of the rope slung around his neck that would choke him to death if he lost the strength in his legs.

The Imp now fully remembered again, it was just then that James, who was standing next to the tent at the time, started wrapping his fingers in a certain, specific way.

When the Imp concentrated on those motions, it was like the world around him had become just James' hands and the Imp. Or maybe not even that, it was as if the Imp himself disappeared as well, and the motions of James' hands were all that was left.

And then, after a moment that felt infinitely long, the Imp found himself back inside of the room in the Inn. Immediately, he managed to get to work, and quickly used his Dagger to cut the cloth up into as many strips as he possibly could, and then tried to tie the ends together somehow so that he could get a single long strip, which the Imp quickly started to wrap around his fingers, just like in this memory that he just saw.

After a little while, the Imp's right hand was now wrapped in the cloth instead of the glove that was there before. A little bit of the cloth was left, so the Imp just wrapped it around the base of the Dagger's blade, so that he could at least do some damage to people that he stabbed with this, if they were just like the Shadow and evaded normal attacks.

Now the Imp might actually have a chance against these enemies. But the Imp was sure he needed to use whatever weapon he could, so he quickly grabbed one of his cards out of his bag and held it tightly in his hand, while stuffing the other back into the bag.

Carefully, the Imp made his way back toward the door and then slowly opened it up, taking an immediate step backward as he was doing so in case another shadow wanted to come rushing in.

But this time around, there was nobody there, and the Imp slowly stepped through the hallway, still careful to see if there was anyone there, but the only thing he could hear was laughing and different moans of either pleasure, pain, or both at once from behind the doors he was passing.

And then, just as the Imp was about to start walking down the old wooden stairs, a door opened up behind him and the Imp heard a female voice speak up.

"Oh~? Is it another customer~?" She asked, and the Imp immediately tried to turn around and bared his dagger toward her, but the woman seemed merely amused.

She had pale red skin, and all of it was exposed to the air with the exception of a single strip of cloth bound around her head to cover her eyes. A thin tail was moving from the left to the right and back from her behind, and two short horns were sprouting on her forehead.

In the room behind her was a man was laying on a bed, completely unclothed and unconscious, while the woman was simply smirking at the Imp while supporting her bosom with her arm.

"Interesting, there aren't many men that can resist my charms that easily~!" The woman said with a smirk and leaned forward toward the Imp, holding her face toward his, with only a little bit of distance between them.

The Imp wouldn't fall for that again, so while the woman was reaching for his mask and slightly moved it to the side, the Imp extended the hand wrapped in the 'Holy Cloth', which was burning itself into his skin just so slowly, toward the woman's throat. But then, the woman noticed one of the new peculiarities of the Imp, his two small ruby horns.

"Another Demon?" She asked surprised, and at the same moment she finished her sentence, the Imp pressed his hand around the woman's throat, and immediately heard the sound of sizzling from that spot while she started to scream in pain.

But soon enough, she grew unable to properly speak and was only giving out muffled sounds, as blood started streaming onto the Imp's arm. The woman fell to her back while the Imp tried to push her further into the room she came out of, and the moment he got a good grip on her, he removed his hand from her throat.

[Lesser Succubus -2191 Damage]

For now, the Imp ignored the message, and then just quickly pushed his dagger downward onto the being's face, cracking through he skull with a loud sound as another notification popped up in front of him.

[Lethal Damage done to the Lesser Succubus!]

[You have killed the Lesser Succubus!]

[You Leveled Up!]

[You have 1 unused Stat Point]

With a frown, the Imp finally looked at the notifications. He was happy that this did so much damage, but he didn't understand why he only leveled up once. Either way, he quickly put the stat point into willpower again, because it seemed to be pretty important right now, and the Imp then quickly stood up again and made his way back out of the room, properly adjusting his mask again while swinging his dagger around to the side to make most of the blood splatter off onto the ground.

And then, the Imp returned back toward the stairs and hurried down them, trying to ignore the feeling of pain on his hand caused by the tight cloth around it. But just then, though, another notification appeared.

[Beginner Holy Energy Resistance Skill leveled up!]

The pain slightly went down in response, but it still hurt him quite a bit even then. He could hold out, though. After all, what would happen to the children if he didn't?

The town wasn't that large, so it shouldn't be an issue to find them wherever they were. This kind of thing didn't happen everywhere after all, so it was probably just something for this place, so they had to be nearby. At the very least, the Imp figured that the town wasn't that large, although he was met with quite a surprise when he stepped out of the door.

Not only were there all those large, nearly giant and disproportionate figures in front of him, some with horns, others with more limbs than a spider, while others were simply freakishly large. Large enough to see above the buildings of the town.

But the Imp didn't even need to be that tall to see one particular thing that changed all of a sudden when he stepped out of the building compared to before.

While the only thing that could be seen in the distance before were mountains, a blue sky, and large trees, they were now completely replaced, without a single exception.

The blue sky turned into a dark red, as if it was dried blood, and while there were still mountains to be seen, they were now directly around the town, as if this town was at the bottom of a bowl.

It definitely wasn't like that before, but the thing that worried the Imp the most were none of those things. It wouldn't have mattered what changed directly around the town if it was all empty. But around the town, numerous structures could be seen built along the steep sides of the mountain, and there were seven particularly large buildings around. But there was one fact that the Imp was sure about.

This town had become many, many times larger.

While the young Demon was trying to figure out what was going on here, he looked into the distance toward the place where the moon should be, and just then found a red sphere just slightly glowing in its place, illuminating this town that was decorated with blue lights.