Demon's Virtue

Both the taste and the texture disgusted Eiro. The blood and flesh that was clinging to his teeth may as well have been rotten, that's how bad this thing created by the Devil's mana tasted. He crushed its skull with his teeth and used a sort of acidic venom to help break it down so that he didn't have to chew as much, instead just letting the liquidy sludge pour down his throat.

The Devil's body had fallen to the ground, and would probably fall apart into mana soon. It was just an avatar created by the Devil's abilities, so it wasn't like there was particularly much for Eiro to gain through doing this, but even a little was better than nothing. So, before the corpse could break down, Eiro picked it up by its shoulder and pushed the Devil's arm into his mouth, taking bites out of it one after another.

At least the Orc that was manipulated by the Devil was unsconscious, so he didn't end up seeing what Eiro was doing. That would just terrify him even more, and make this situation more complicated. However, soon enough, he could hear others approaching. They made it down here surprisingly fast... looked like Partax had a hand in it. Basically at the same time, the halfling and Gobo entered into this cave together. It was still illuminated by Eiro's flames, so they were able to see what was going on perfectly. They saw Eiro, crouching over a corpse, taking bites out of it like some wild beast. Of course they were startled at first; particularly Partax, who had never seen Eiro like this.

"What happened?!" the halfling yelled out. Fear was clearly noticeable in his voice, as though he was thinking that Eiro had gone feral, like a 'true' monster. Not that Eiro could really blame him for that, though. That's what this situation looked like, after all. Since Eiro was busy, he glanced over at Gondos and let the spirit explain the situation.

"Basically, this situation was created by the Devil. He manipulated those ants for some reason, and then earlier, an Orc was injured and some of its blood touched one of the Devil's mana, summoning a... copy of him?" Gondos asked, looking at Eiro to make sure that he understood the situation right. Obviously, he didn't think that Eiro would have been able to just kill the real Devil this easily; he had been preparing for that fight for far too long for that.

Gobo looked at the corpse that Eiro was feeding on, his body practically stunned while seeing his lord do something so... monstrous, "So that... is that 'copy' of the Devil?" he asked, and Eiro slowly nodded. Gondos continued, "Correct. That copy is fully created through the Devil's magic. Eiro is feeding on that body before it breaks down, so that he may absorb said magic into himself."

"...is it working?" Gobo asked, although he already knew that if it weren't working, Eiro would have probably already stopped by now. He knew that Eiro hated the taste of demons, and he would most likely hate the taste of the demon he despised most of all even more. That question was simply the only thing that could pass his lips; there was nothing else he could ask. Or rather, nothing else that this tension allowed him to ask.

Eiro nodded, as he pushed the Devil's leg into his mouth, its bones cracking as Eiro's jaws pushed down on it. Basically the moment that the pieces of flesh and bone entered the demon's throat, they speed at which they fell apart rose by many times. Basically by the time they entered his stomach, they were mostly mana. Of course, by that point, there was no hope for said mana to escape Eiro anymore, though clearly, it was trying to. As though it were alive, it was trying to climb out of Eiro's throat, just to be blocked by another wall of Eiro's own mana, forcing it back into his stomach. Somehow, seeing that the mana was practically scared to be absorbed by Eiro made him quite happy. It showed that to an extent, even if just deeply in his subconscious, the Devil feared Eiro.

They had first met when Eiro was beyond merely weak. And now, the demon grew stronger by the day. By the minute. It was inevitable that he would overcome the Devil sooner or later, hence why he went as far as he did with this attack on the city.

Soon, Eiro had fully fed on the Devil's body. He had left the heart for last, considering that it was the part filled with the most mana. It would hold up the longest out of all the things that he could feed on. As he tore the organ of pure muscle apart with his teeth, he could finally clean himself up. Even though it would surely evaporate into mana soon, he didn't want to stand here covered in that copy's blood until then. Eiro straightened his collar and swallowed the last bit of heart. He had already absorbed the mana into his own mana circuits and isolated it in his chest cavity near where his heart was supposed to be. From now on, he would, bit-by-bit, break this mana apart and then make it his own. That way, he should be able to maximize the efficiency of his 'Counterspell' skill.

A counterspell could only break a spell apart based on the structure of the magic circle. Any additional elements infused into said magic circle will make that process many times more complicated. One would need to add more aspects to the counterspell to make up for the element in the opponent's spell.

Most of the time that wasn't an issue for Eiro; he had access to most types of magic that his opponents may use anyway, and could tweak it a bit to allow the element itself to act as a counter. However, in case of unique magic, unless one could analyze the exact structure of said magic, it was practically impossible to create a counterspell in time against a skilled mage. And the Devil was one of those skilled mages.

And so, with this, Eiro had two parts of the Devil with him. The aspect that he extracted from Zeke's flesh and turned into a servant, as well as the devil's actual magic. If this continued, he might be able to create an absolute duplicate that was indistinguishable from the Devil.

Partax looked around the room at the many ant corpses, "This is what you all fought against? Some bugs?"

"They had quite a ridiculous number..." Gobo pointed out, hearing the judgement in Partax's voice over the fact that they had struggled against the ants. He looked over at Eiro, hoping to get support from his lord, but to his surprise, it was the opposite.

"No, they were never supposed to truly damage you. Though, I guess if it had happened, the Devil also wouldn't have complained. It only could have ended well for him in the end," Eiro sighed, looking at one of the ant corpses next to him, "They were supposed to be an offering to me."

Gobo was taken aback, "..What? You mean... he wanted us to kill the ants?"

"It ended amazingly well, didn't it? You have an immensely large underground network you can use for numerous things. You have a large amount of nutritious food that will feed this whole city for months, not to mention all the armor, tools and weapons you'll be able to make from the ants' bodies... and many of you evolved, and grew stronger through this 'war'. Especially since none of you died, this whole thing was nothing but positive for the city," Eiro explained, rubbing the bridge of his nose annoyed. The Devil was growing desperate.

"So the attack was a peace offering? Something to bring you on the Devil's side?"

Eiro looked at Partax and nodded. But he was still confused, just why did that copy clearly have more sinister plans? It was clearly planning to go up into the city and cause havoc. Eiro let out a deep groan. He didn't understand what the Devil was planning at all, as though he were missing a lot of incredibly important context that he couldn't fill in without just guessing. And that was simply too unreliable.

"For now, we need to fortify these tunnels. I'll map the whole area out and completely block off any passages that lead too far out of the area or are unstable," Eiro explained, and then turned to Gobo, "Tell the craftsmen to properly make use of these materials, and to treat them with care. Any part part that is covered in these black markings has to be gathered elsewhere though, and nobody is allowed to get in contact with them."

Partax scoffed, "You really want to use these materials? I thought they were a gift from your nemesis. Don't you have more pride than that?" the halfling asked, and Eiro shook his head without even having to think about it, "I don't need pride. The materials will help the city, and that's that. The Devil probably has a few more plans than just trying to get on my good side with this, but it's useless to think about that. He probably has plans for nearly everything anyway."

Eiro took a deep breath and held his hand out toward Gondos. The golem dove into his contractor's body, and then the Demon snapped his finger. Suddenly, the already quite large cave they were in grew in size, a few meters in each direction. From now on, Eiro would fortify the walls of the cave even more in every way that he could. He would take full advantage of this gift he never asked for.