Demon's Virtue

Skin was ripped apart, blood splattered onto the ground. Bones cracked and bodies fell. More and more, the air was being filled by the smell of burnt flesh and hair, while the histerical, panicking screams became less and less.

But just when Eiro was about to rip into a corpse because it was still twitching a bit, the Demon noticed something else. The sound of metal rubbing against metal became louder, and in general there were a lot of footsteps suddenly approaching him. With a broad grin on his face, Eiro turned toward the source to indulge in the buffet of experience currently approaching him.

Basically on all fours, Eiro climbed over the crates and barrels that people tried to block his path with and jumped onto the roofs to keep running on. The moment he saw the slightest reflection of light bouncing off of some metal armor, Eiro jumped toward the source of that reflection and pushed his 'claws', which were basically just the blades of the three of swords, deep through the thin metal of the armor.

It was working perfectly with the guards from before, the few that actually wore proper armor, but now... Eiro's and got stuck in the armor. He looked forward at the man the armor belonged to and soon saw him swing his arm downward toward him with a mace in his hand.

The attack was heavily weakened by the shield of water that Nelli created for Eiro of course, but the Demon still had to think about what to do next. But he couldn't think now. His body was just working on instinct at this point. So with his hand stuck in the man's armor, the Demon used this safe point and swung his right leg over the man's left shoulder, behind his head, and then over his right shoulder and then pulled him up so that he was basically sitting on the soldier's shoulders.

They were basically being encapsuled in a thick layer of water created by Nelli so that none of the attacks from other people could get through, but Eiro didn't care too much about what was going on around him anyway. Eiro slung his legs around the soldier's throat and pressed the fingers of his right hand into the slit in his helmet meant to make it so that he could look outside and pulled on it as hard as he could to take the helmet off, before proceeding to simply pull the mana out of the three of swords.

Eiro's two daggers kept being stuck in the armor, but for that he had both of his hands free now while reactivating the card again. The four blades that appeared on Eiro's left hand now immediately dug into the bottom of the soldier's head, through his mouth into his brain, to make him fall down. And as Eiro ripped his hand to the side and blood splattered over his skin again, the Demon just pulled out both daggers that were stuck in the soldier's body like this.

But he didn't get far enough with his thoughts to consider connecting the three of swords' blades with the two daggers again. Instead, he just held them normally in his hands on top of wielding the blades from the three of swords, and his rampage continued.

He jumped out through the capsule of water that Nelli created and ripped apart one of the mages that had stepped forward to try and counter that water shield nearly immediately, and while this gave some people a chance to attack Eiro, since he felt near to no pain at the moment he didn't really care all that much.

The Demon just kept attacking anything and everything in his sight.

"Wh-What is this?!" One of the soldiers yelled out loudly, "Wasn't it supposed to be an imp? An Imp can't move like that!" He screamed, seeing his fellow men drop to the ground as their life was taken from them.

"Priests, do something!" Another exclaimed toward the three people dressed in white and golden robes in the back of the group, who were already nervously praying and chanting. As if that soldier's plead was something they needed to proceed, all three together held their golden staffs forward toward Eiro as a glowing magic circle started forming in the air.

And the moment that magic circle was activated, a bright shine filled the whole place they were currently in, and everyone looked away after being blinded. This was the first attack that even Eiro realized he had to be careful because of.

The holy energy kept burning away at his skin just so slightly, but this kind of injury was one that could be healed rather easily later on. But since for some reason, his bane didn't stun him, he could get past this as long as he managed to kill the priests quickly.

The thing that did mess him up even more, however, was this incredibly bright light that made it impossible for him to keep his eyes open. "Now, attack!" One of the priests yelled out, "He's stunned!"

The moment that one of the soldiers approached Eiro to attack him, he found that... Eiro wasn't actually stunned. He was madly swinging his arms around into the direction where he remembered the priests being, and since these were attacks without logic made with the rather long reach and speed of the three of swords, the soldier was unable to defend against it properly and soon fell to the ground after his face was cut open.

"N-No, but... how?!" The head-priest cried out while the other two were already starting to turn around to run away from this demon that was seemingly largely unaffected by holy energy. But soon, the head-priest couldn't find out the answer anymore, as he had his chest ripped open by the three of swords and fell to the ground just to have his skull cracked open by a single strong kick by Eiro.

The other two priests weren't much better off, because neither of them died in a very pretty or pleasant manner either. As Eiro was standing there above the ripped-up bodies of these two priests, Nelli started to get to healing the layer of skin that was just singed away by the holy light, which had disappeared after all the priests were killed.

Eiro's heavy breathing combined with his broad grin only a lunatic could have in this situation seemed to really do a number on everyone. While they were well-trained and -equipped soldiers, not even they could ignore this scene of gore around them caused by this single being.

But luckily, it seemed like they didn't have to really worry anymore. With heavy steps that seemed to echo through the eerily quiet environment, a certain man stepped up toward the Demon.

His sleeves were singed and his skin was covered in soot, while his messy red hair hung down into his face. It was the one whose scent initiated this whole thing in the first place. So with an expression of disgust on his face, Eiro turned around and looked at Enka who was glaring back at Eiro. It was obviously just an act, but the Demon didn't care about it all that much.

The very next moment, Eiro jumped toward him with all the force he could muster. But while Eiro was still in the middle of the air, it was as if the whole world completely froze up and the only one that was capable of still moving was Enka. Seemingly quite casually, he stepped forward toward Eiro and placed his hand onto the Demon's chest.

"Sorry 'bout this. But let's play a little for now, shall we?" Enka suggested, before large flames surged up all around the man's body and seemingly flowed into Eiro's body.

And you would have missed it if you blinked, but the next moment Eiro's body was smashing into the wall of a building on the far side of the plaza while giant flames covered the path that the Demon took.

[-25.125 Health]

[Warning! You health is running low!]

[Attempting to forcefully shut down Bloodlust...]

[Attempt failed]

[Attempting to forcefully shut down Bloodlust...]

[Attempt failed]

[Attempting to...]

...

...

[Attempt failed]

[Taking 70 from total of 290 available stat points to increase willpower to 100]

[Your Willpower has passed the 100 Point Mark! [Iron Will] Ability gained!]

[Iron Will – An ability that increases resistance against negative mental manipulation]

[Attempting to forcefully shut down Bloodlust...]

[Attempt successful. Bloodlust has been shut down]

All of a sudden, Eiro's mind cleared up again. His whole body was aching incredibly, to the point where he was practically unable to properly move right now, but at least he could think clearly again. Well, maybe it would have been better if he couldn't think clearly. Like this, he now had to face the result of the murder-spree that he went on. And those results really weren't pretty to see.

The streets that were paved in gray rock were now basically completely red and black from the blood. If there was enough free space to even see the ground underneath the dead bodies, organs, and loose body-parts.

It really wasn't a nice sight. Eiro didn't really care that so many people died in the end, he had little to no sympathy for those that he didn't know after all, but he didn't like that he did it without actually being under control of himself. That part about it felt just incredibly wrong, and that was all that Eiro could describe it as.

And then, there was of course Enka. Eiro was still feeling incredibly disgusted and pissed off just by seeing him here, but what was even worse was the fact that he so easily managed to injure the Demon like this. At least, he could immediately find whatever item let him attack Eiro like that as if he was slowing down time, it was the earring on his left ear. It seemed like Nelli also noticed that there was something going on with that and confirmed it immediately after she caught up to Eiro.

But rather, the Demon himself managed to figure that part out in a different way. The earring had a weird feeling to it. It was similar to the feeling that others that had a card gave off, but it just came from the earring itself. Eiro didn't like it in the slightest. He knew it was dangerous, but he couldn't just run off and follow the others now. Now when Enka was literally in front of him. It was just too dangerous. Maybe he should get on Lugo's back and ride in some other random direction?

That was a good idea, there was just one fatal flaw with it. The stag was nowhere to be seen. At first Eiro wasn't sure where exactly he was, which was weird because you usually had at least a vague idea of where your familiar was if you properly went through the ceremony. Although it didn't take long until Eiro figured out where exactly Lugo was.

He was near where the children should be right now, but there was something bothering Eiro. Lugo was currently not following the children, but he was returning to Eiro, and at an incredibly fast pace as that.

"What's that idiot doing?" The Demon muttered quietly to himself as he turned toward the direction were he sensed Lugo to be, although before he could somehow do anything else, Enka approached him again.

"Oh? Ignoring me now? I actually feel kind of insulted..." He said with a light smirk. It seemed like all the soldiers had retreated a fair bit by now to treat those that were only injured by Eiro, so Enka simply chose to drop the act.

"C'Mon, where's the kids? If you just tell me, I'm going to let you go, you know?" Enka pointed out, but Eiro immediately glared back at him while grinding his teeth against each other, making Enka simply chuckle, "Was worth a try. But honestly, I was pretty surprised when I was told you were actually an Imp. You guys are supposed to be good at trickery, right? But I wasn't aware you were the kind of demon that kidnapped kids."