Demon's Virtue

Eiro glared at the girl. Just from her rough skeletal structure, she couldn't have been older than 13 or 14 when she passed. That is, if this was her first form as a monster. If she happened to have evolved already, Eiro had no proper way of knowing what she looked like when she was still alive.

She had scratches on her bones, cracks. In particular, her hands had been broken many times before. Slowly, the Demon grabbed his own left hand and started twisting and pulling on his fingers. The only way they could have been cracked in that form is if they were forcibly broken by another person.

Her ribs in particular were in a bad state as well. Clearly, she had been abused when she was alive. Undead monsters heal in other ways, such cracks wouldn't form after healing anymore. But then again, since she had Life Force within her, she wasn't any regular Undead anyway.

"Girl. Open your status for me." The Demon said in a clear voice, and confused, the skeletal girl turned toward Ariella, who didn't seem to know what this was about either.

But then, the girl looked straight back at Eiro and opened her status, like Eiro asked her to do.

"So she's really a Skeleton Mage, then..." Eiro muttered. He wasn't able to see the reflection of her status in her eyes, but he was able to see through the unnatural darkness of her hollow eyesockets, soon spotting something similar that he could read.

"Ah, that must be the skill... [The Beauty of Life in Death]. It's the only one it could be, the others are just regular ones." Eiro pointed out with his arms crossed, "Just from the name, it would explain why she has that in her..."

"Wait, what are you talking about? How do you know the name of her skill already?" Ariella asked, and Eiro turned toward her. As if it was obvious, he said, "I probably have the greatest perception out of anyone in this world. I can see the system's reflection in others' eyes, and combined with some other abilities, I could see it even where there were no eyes."

"You believe me to expect th-" Without a moment's hesitation, Eiro pulled out two of his Divine Cards. The other ones were fused with him, after all, "I have four of these in total. The Five of Pentacles being one of them."

With a flick of his wrist, the cards quickly disappeared again, "Now, just come inside. We shouldn't talk out here about this business. And don't worry, there's no need to disguise yourself or anything." Eiro quickly turned around and walked up the steps to his door. Ariella and the skeletal girl followed him, although the Nephilim was clearly nervous.

"Are you sure it's safe here? There's no way you can squat in here for long... Once they notice you live in here, you'll have to-"

"What are you talking about exactly?" Eiro asked, "I'm not squatting here, this place belongs to me."

Eiro kept walking a bit, before realizing something else, "Hold on, did you think I was impersonating a teacher at the Academy? Or why did you think I was there?"

"...You weren't?" Ariella asked with a wry smile, and Eiro quickly rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Seems like I'll have to tell you a bit more about myself later."

Eiro swiftly walked into one of the nearby rooms, "Jess, what are you doing in here? I thought I told you to keep reading in the library."

"I know you did, but I'm still reading the book you gave me anyway... I just felt like changing my environment a bit, you know? I slept in the library for the past two days, I didn't even get to spend any time with-" Jess explained, and finally raised her head from the book she was reading. Immediately, she dropped it onto the table in front of her and jumped up from her seat.

"I-Is that an Angel? And an Undead? Alright, I'm definitely going to take a break for this story!" Jess exclaimed, and Eiro shrugged, "Close, Nephilim and an Undead that's not really an Undead. Didn't figure the latter one out yet, I'll keep you updated."

Eiro soon felt Ariella grab his arm in confusion, "Didn't you say there was nobody here?"

The Demon tilted his head to the side, "No? I said you would be safe here, which you are."

"But how could we trust some random girl like he-"

"Ariella. Jess is my friend and party member. I fully trust her with nearly all my secrets, and there's a lot more on the line than with any of yours. So just calm down. Also try not to react that way when you meet the others."

Ariella was once again more than just confused, before all of a sudden a young man dropped through the ceiling. He managed to just barely catch himself.

"Hey Dad, Rudy said we're out of some veggies he wanted to use for tomorrow's dinner." Arc pointed out casually after just taking one of the many secret passages in the building, and quickly took notice of the two people standing behind his father, "Heh, neat. Anyway, want us to go grab them tomorrow after school?"

"That's fine, I'll just head off to buy them myself tomorrow. You can just come straight home." Eiro pointed out, "Also, be more careful when using the passages. I'd prefer it if you didn't use the completely vertical ones. At least not when Clementine or I aren't around to check on you."

"Fine... Can you give me a boost upstairs though?" Arc asked with a light smirk, and Eiro sighed slightly. He stretched out his foot toward Arc, who quickly jumped onto it before being kicked back up through the secret passageway to get back upstairs.

"B-But, how- Who- What?" Ariella asked with a wry smile as she took a step back, "Is this some sort of asylum?!"

"That's kind of rude, isn't it?" Eiro replied bluntly, "For now, just be quiet and follow me."

The Demon walked through the room and soon accessed another one of the hidden passages, just that this time it was a set of stairs, "Where are we going now..?"

"We're meeting someone that can hopefully help you out a bit." The Demon pointed out a bit. As he walked down the stairs, he soon heard Bavet annoyingly yell in the distance in the place that Eiro was currently heading toward.

"You're abusing me!" The slime screeched, while the Elder Dwarf in front of him quietly grumbled into his own beard, "I'll show you what abuse feels like if ya don't shut the fuck up..."

Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Something wrong?"

Immediately, Bavet transformed from his regular, translucent slime-form into a hummingbird and started flying in front of the Demon's face, "Yes, something is wrong! This guy keeps ripping off parts of my body!"

"Bavet, that's what I asked him to do. I also explained the whole reason for it to you earlier, didn't I?"

"Eh? You did?" Bavet asked surprised, and Eiro groaned loudly, "Yes, I did. Armodeus, how's it going so far?"

"Alright. Could've gone quicker if this bastard hadn't kept complainin'. Tried liquifyin' it, so that ye can use Magic with it properly. Should be harder than normal, but I figured it'd work."

"Perfect. Thanks. Ah, these two are the ones I told you about. This Nephilim is Ariella, this Undead girl is Hannah." Eiro pointed out. He had seen her name on her status before, and although that should be obvious, the two girls were still pretty surprised that Eiro knew the girl's name.

Armodeus smiled and walked up to the skeletal girl with a smile on his face, "Nice to meet ya, lil' missie. So you're the one that I have to put up with this bothersome slime for, eh?" He laughed slightly, while Ariella locked eyes with Eiro.

"Is nobody alright in the head here? Who reacts like this?"

"I'm a Demon that's under full control of his monstrosity, possesses four divine cards, and has numerous absolutely ridiculous abilities. An Undead and a Nephilim aren't that big a deal, considering all that." Eiro pointed out bluntly, and Ariella let out a deep sigh, "Fine, if you say so. Explain to me what's going on then. Why was this... Human, working on something for Hannah?"

"First of all, he's not a Human, he's an Elder Dwarf. Second, try to be a bit more appreciative, not everyone can get something that the King of Craftsmen even just partially created." Eiro smirked lightly, but before Ariella could say anything else, the Demon grabbed the container filled with a liquid alchemically created by Armodeus using Bavet's slime.

"Armodeus, there's a bit of a change of plan. Before, I meant to make something to just disguise her. But now, I plan on making something a little different. The Girl has Life Force, so we can make her some special prosthetics." Eiro smirked.

"Life Force? In an Undead? Interestin'. D'ya need my help?" Armodeus asked curiously, and Eiro quickly nodded his head, "Yes, I need you to use the Artifact that Ariella has and make an artificial version of it. You do roughly know how to, right?"

"...Aye, been readin' all that stuff you gave me non-stop. And I think I roughly know what you want to do now." The Elder Dwarf smirked, "Let's bring this lil' missie back to life, eh?"