Demon's Virtue

The Demon landed in front of the main entrance of the manor and slowly approached it again. He slowly stretched his hand out to the doorhandle, but before he touched it, the door was already pulled open.

The young girl that stood there looked up at this being's wooden, pitch-black face. The moment she realized who this was, tears formed in the corners of her eyes. She threw herself at Eiro and pulled him as close to her as absolutely possible.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I'm sorry for forgetting you, I..." Sammy cried out, "I didn't mean to, Dad, I really-"

Eiro slowly interrupted her as he rubbed his hand over the panicking girl's back, "It's fine. There's no reason to worry. Not in the slightest is this your fault at all." He said in an understanding tone as Sammy ekpt crying into his chest for a few more minutes. And as this was happening, some others also joined the two of them.

First, it was Rudy. Then it was Felix with Leon in tow. Krog stood in the hallway, watching as even Arc and Clementine made their way down there to greet their father again. They all embraced each other, and even Eiro was just barely able to hold back his own tears. He did it. He managed to beat this damned curse-like spell that nearly ruined his whole life.

Eiro looked at the children in front of him and slowly took a step back. He rubbed his hand over his eyes to get rid of the tears that had gathered in their corners, before looking at the two small figures floating right behind them.

The Naiad and the Golem both immediately made their way to the Demon and embraced him as well. They all apologized to Eiro about forgetting him, but he tried to keep telling them there was no reason to do that. He understood what exactly happened, after all.

Beside the Ghost that first cast this spell, Eiro was probably the one that knew most about all of what had happened over the past couple of days. The Demon took a deep breath and then looked at the children as he pulled out his notebook, flipping it open to the most important page.

And then, he proceeded to explain what exactly was going on with himself, and how he was also forgetting things bit by bit. Of course, he also mentioned how he already had forgotten most of this conversation.

"That's a joke, right?" Arc asked with a wry smile on his face. He wasn't really supposed to move at all yet, but because of Clementine and Nelli's treatment, the young man was already able to act like he normally did, in a very energetic manner. But of course, Clementine and Nelli had to constantly remind him how he was and wasn't allowed to move, considering that most of his body was still injured and Arc himself probably just felt a bit more stiff than he usually did.

But either way, Eiro immediately shook his head, "Of course it's not a joke. I wouldn't kid about such a thing right now. Although I do wish that it was just a joke..."

"Well, is it related to how you now look like... that?" The young man asked, and everyone stared at him with a light glare, as if they had decided not to ask about this as if they assumed this to be some sort of insensitive topic for Eiro. But of course, he didn't mind at all.

And so, he also explaiend the part about how he had to do this, because he would otherwise just end up dying rather quickly because of the holy energy that was all around this area irght now.

"...Dad, how did that happen in the first place?" Sammy asked with a light sniffle as she rubbed her hand across her face, and the Demon looked back. He didn't really want to speak about this yet, considering the situation, but he had to head off into one of the manor's magically hidden rooms soon, and there he would most likely be alone for quite a while. So it would probably be better to tell them about it now before they complained about not hearing about it from him.

Eiro took a deep breath, "I received a Legendary Skill while I was fighting that Ghost for the first tiem the other day. Well, he was still alive then, but now he obviously isn't. The Legendary Skill is strong, but it, at least right now, has extremely strong repercussions for using it. First, it caused me to lose my memories whenever I try to recall that memory at all, and then, just a bit ago... It made it so that I become extremely vulnerable to any sort of Holy Energy. So I'm just preparing for that fact." The Demon explained, and everyone immediately understood what that meant.

"So basically, just being near Avalin will..."

"Probably hurt me extremely, yes. For now, I will meet her and shortly make sure that everything is alright with her, and then I will head up to the tower. There, I'm going to infuse this same wood into that room to practically create a bunker for myself... to just wait all of this out properly. I cannot have any of you try and get in there. Any small amount of Holy Energy might be able to absolutely kill me."

"For how long..?" Clementine asked nervously, and Eiro bluntly replied.

"Seven days." He replied bluntly, "But don't worry. Seven days will be over quicker than you think they will be. You should just get ready... Erm... get ready to..." Eiro started, when he suddenly lost the first of a lot of very important things in the lives of every single one of his children. And a few moments later, Sarius chose to speak for the Demon.

"Was it the school bit?" The Salamander asked, and Eiro turned his head toward him, "Right, that. You should get ready for school, and enjoy your time there as much as possible. In one week, we will definitely meet again while I'm in a form that at the very least isn't... This."

With a smile on her face, Clementine embraced Eiro again, "That's fine, you're the best Dad in every possible way no matter what you look like..." She said with a smile on her face, and Eiro turned toward her, rubbing his hand over the top of her head.

"Thank you. But I think I slightly prefer my old look." The Demon pointed out with a smile on his face.

"...Is that the most important part here? Who is this spirit?" Nelli asked confused as she looked at Sarius, who stared back with a broad grin on his face.

"Who am I? Heh, I sure do wonder~..." The Salamander, hoping to be able to show his 'superiority', laughed with a broad grin. And since she asked, Eiro figured he should answer to Nelli for this Fire Spirit, "He's the future sucecssor of the Salamander King. I formed a contract with him while I was trying to figure out how to stop all this. He wasn't particularly great at seeing the details, so it might have taken me a bit longer than it usually may have with either of you two, but he's still a pretty kind Spirit." Eiro explained, and Gondos stared at the Demon confused.

"Ah... I knew something was different to before. You received the blessing of the Salamander King, have you not?"

"What? That's just ridicu-" Krog exclaimed, having overheard a bit of this conversation from across the room, but before he could even finish his sentence, Eiro nodded his head.

"No, I've been blessed by the Salamander King. And beside that, I have received something else as we ll, but it's nothing that I can really explain right now. Sorry." Eiro explained. Nelli and Gondos most likely already understood what he was saying and what he was speaking about, but they were still more than just confused and surprised. Eiro would tell them about this later. For now, he had to do something else.

He placed his palms onto the heads of Nelli and Gondos and supplied a large amount of mana, enough for the past few days and enoguh for the next few as well. After all, Eiro would not really be able to supply them with the mana they needed in that room that didn't allow through basically all sorts of magic, including Holy Energy and Spirit Magic.

Eiro took a deep breath and started to think. He could feel where Jess and Avalin currently were. Avalin was still freaking out according to Gondos, so Jess didn't feel like she should move her around too much for now, something that Eiro quite appreciated.

Jess was focusing on Avalin's health above all else! Eiro was glad about that.

For now, Eiro made his way up the stairs, so that he could get to the place where Jess and Avalin were really just waiting for a while as the little girl calmed down properly.

He turned his head toward Nelli and Gondos, "Also... wherever Bavet and Gobo are... Bring them to me, if you can."

The two spirits immediately nodded. They seemed to have understood that they had made a mistake while Eiro wasn't there to fix it. After all, the only connection to Gobo and Bavet that they had was through Eiro, and without that connection they were more like random monsters that just happened to be a bit more in control of themselves than regular monsters. But as they were still monsters, everyone in the house felt unsafe and thought they should restrain them somehow. As such, they had been locked up in the basement's dungeon for the past few days, only to be taken out during an emergency where they would come in directly useful.

The others seemed to feel a bit embarrassed, even. They had forgotten about those two just because Eiro wasn't here. But now that they remembered Eiro again, they also realized that Bavet and Gobo weren't just monsters, but they were more than that. They would most likely be rather pissed about all of this after Eiro told them.

He would go apologize to them later, but for now, Avalin was more important to him.

Eiro opened the door to the room that they were in and stepped inside. Avalin raised her head and slowly saw this pitch-black, winged and horned figure.

But instead of being scared, like even Eiro assumed she would be, she immediately ran up to Eiro with full tears in her eyes.

And so, the Demon rubbed his hand over the girl's head and smiled back, close to being tipped over the edge of tears himself.