Demon's Virtue

Eiro landed in front of his manor and quickly walked inside through the main entrance, trying to use his magic to clean his clothes of the sludge as much as he could already, so that the servants wouldn't have too tough a time cleaning it later. A suit like this was hard enough to clean properly anyway.

However, as he stepped into the manor, what he surprisingly saw was not the empty entrance-way with maybe a few of the spider servants scurrying around, but rather, he saw Koperia standing there, well-dressed, but in a casual sort of way. It was quite different to what she normally wore, even if it was objectively still incredibly beautiful.

"Oh, are you heading out somewhere?" Eiro asked, and Koperia looked back at the Demon somewhat startled, "I was... erm... nevermind that, rather, why are you back already? And why do you reek like this..?" She asked, as Koperia quickly pulled away as the scent hit her nose.

"It's... complicated. I don't want to worry anyone right now, so let us talk about the exact reasons for this happening in peace tomorrow." Eiro explained, as he took a deep breath and slowly pushed one of his hands forward. A few moments later, the red and blue, silk-like liquid appeared on his palm. Koperia, being someone that has reached master grade in a magic skill, immediately realized what this was, despite the fact that this looked like the complete opposite of what this substance had been even just a few days prior when she saw it the last time.

"My essence has been cleansed of all impurities. I don't know how they accumulated in such a way. Maybe it was because of the mistake the monster king made back then as well, or because of something that the Sage did in my past life, but either way... the impurities are completely gone. And as you can see, there were even some other consequences to this." Eiro explained, pointing at the black horn that had sprouted in the center of his forehead.

"That horn is made of the impurities in your essence..? Or rather, how is it even possible for one's essence to be impure to the very core? Something like this could only have been done if someone either deliberately corrupted your soul while it was freed from its corporeal form, or... if you, or the Sage, committed a sin that has upset the world and the rulers of mana themselves." Koperia shared her insight of mana, something that in many areas was far, far beyond Eiro's own, and held her hand to her chin in thought.

"But the fact that you were able to purify your essence in itself is just..." Koperia whispered, as Eiro slowly stepped past her, "I will explain it tomorrow. For now, just go ahead and head off to wherever you wanted to go, I will simply change and clean myself and then return to the guild."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? I cannot sense any mana from you at all, aren't you exhausted?"

"Ah, that. Well, I'll just chug a few mana potions, we have plenty of those ever since Armodeus picked up alchemy as a hobby. I've been wondering how they taste for a while now anyway." Eiro pointed out, "The mana I will get from those should be enough in case of an emergency, and I'll have the rest of my mana fully recovered in a day or two."

"I do not know if I should be surprised at the fact that you can recover that monstrous amount of mana in just 'a day or two', or the fact that you have so much mana that it will take that long despite how you will 'chug a few mana potions'." Koperia added, and Eiro quickly shrugged, "And that is even without the stage in my evolution where my amount of mana actually increases."

Without another word, the Demon flapped his wings and started flying through the manor to reach his bedroom. He stepped inside and quickly had the spiders get him some new clothes out of his closet while he took off the ones that he was currently wearing. They were practically sticking to his skin, rather uncomfortably at that.

And as he did so, a small object dropped to the ground. Eiro hadn't really paid attention to it during that whole commotion, but it was stuck to the inside of his sleeve. Eiro quickly picked it up, and soon saw a small metal sphere, with intricate patterns carved onto its outside. It was just the size of a marble, and it didn't seem to be anything particularly special, but the fact that it got inside of Eiro's clothes without him noticing meant that this was clearly a unqiue and important object.

"Was it then?" Eiro muttered, as he thought back at what the Monster King did to him. Before he had disappeared, he cupper Eiro's hands with his own to close his hand into a fist. Did he leave this object in Eiro's palm then, and it somehow slipped into his sleeve while Eiro was outside vomiting like that? That seemed to be the most logical explanation, but there were some even more sinister connotations connected to that theory. If this was left by the Monster King... then that back then was not just some sort of magical projection of his being, but rather, the actual Monster King that had just easily invaded Skyhart's capital.

---

Eiro quickly whistled as he was flying through the air, and soon saw a small bird fly toward him. As the Demon slowed down, the bird hit the center of Eiro's chest, as most of his body quickly changed back into that of a human.

"Took you long enough." Bavet complained, "Everyone seems quite concerned for you. Especially Ari-"

"Don't continue that sentence, buddy." Eiro let out a deep sigh, "Keep silent about what you saw earlier as well, please, because both of know that you definitely did see it. Ariella and I yet need to talk about what happened."

"O-Oh, erm... sure... Ah, more importantly... if I just change your horns into hair directly like I did until now, you're gonna have a black streak running through it now... Want me to hide that?" Bavet explained, clearly trying to hide something, although Eiro just ignored it for now.

"No, leave it. I don't mind it." He quickly replied, as the Demon pulled his wings into his back, and he simply used air magic to catch his fall a few moments later. And so, Eiro quickly stepped back into the guild, where everyone that was part of Eiro's party immediately turned toward the door. Eiro walked through the room with an awkward smile, and soon, the first person to talk to him was Hijar.

"What happened out there?! Are you sure you're okay? Did you drink too much?" He asked, clearly concerned, and Eiro quickly shook his head, "No, no, it wasn't anything like that. You see, I'm the owner of the Five of Pentacles, and a bug had crawled into my beer, apparently. A rather unpleasant one, at that." Eiro explained, "I hadn't been expecting that sort of stimulus, so I just wasn't feeling good for a while. I have been quite physically weak lately."

The moment that Eiro gave them this explanation, the ones that heard him and didn't know about these things already, immediately froze up. To the extent where someone even let their drink drop out of their hand. Of course, Eiro quickly used water magic to make sure it wasn't spilled all over the ground, and picked the cup up before putting the beer back inside of it.

"Careful, there." He said, handing the drink back to the person in front of him. This action caused them to immediately start questioning Eiro, "You're a card owner?! Seriously?!"

"Actually, I currently possess four cards. The Marionette Blades, the Potion of Disappearance, Absolute Perception, as well as the Absolute Domain of Truth." The Demon explained, as he walked through the crowd to sit back down at the table with the others.

"So you're just revealing all of that now? Also, what's up with your hair?" James asked with a wry smile on his face, and Eiro immediately smiled back at him, "It doesn't matter if people know. Rather, it just makes me just the more impressive to them."

"Yeah, but they fight wars over some of those cards... isn't this kinda... reckless?"

"Not particularly, considering that there is nobody that would even consider going to war with Skyhart right now. Well, the only person that might consider it is now utterly terrified of me, so that's that."

"I'm not even gonna ask..." James sighed deeply, before looking back at the Demon, "You good though?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Although it seems like I'll have to answer a few questions right now.." Eiro pointed out, turning his head to look at all the people that wanted to know more about how exactly Eiro got his hands on four of those powerful cards.