Demon's Virtue

Chapter 119 - Jura’s Treason

"Okay, you need to completely trust me now, alright? Whatever you feel, just accept it. Don't fight it, or else this won't work." Eiro told the young man, who had laid down on a table that Armodeus swiftly supplied. After all, he wanted to see this process as well.

Seeing that the young man agreed, Eiro just rolled up the pant-leg enough to uncover the stump properly, and with just a light touch pressed onto the skin there. "Do you feel this?" The Demon asked, and the young man nervously nodded his head, so Eiro pushed his arm deep into the satchel that he placed onto the ground and grabbed a small bottle that he placed at the very bottom. Solomon and his guards were actually a bit surprised to see his arm reach that deep inside of the rather small bag, but Armodeus didn't expect anything else. After all, he was the one that turned the former spatial bag into this satchel.

After he had the bottle in his hand, he slowly pulled the cork out of the top and pulled a little out of it with his water magic and then applied it to the stump. And a few minutes of waiting later, Eiro pressed onto the stump a bit more.

"Do you feel this?" Eiro asked again, but the young man just raised his head and looked down at his leg, "Feel what?" He replied, and Eiro turned toward Solomon, "Alright, I can start now. Don't worry, he won't feel anything. But please keep talking to him to distract him a bit." The Demon explained, so Solomon slowly agreed and did as he was asked, trying to distract his son from what was going to happen now as much as possible.

And then, Eiro took out a knife, and slowly cut along the outer layer of the stump, simply to re-open the wound as cleanly as possible. He pushed some of his mana into the blood as well, trying to hold it back from flowing out while he was working, and then properly positioned the prosthetic leg against the stump.

After that, Eiro poured out a bottle with refined water onto the place where the open wound and prosthetic touched and swiftly controlled it, and with Nelli's help started the healing process.

"Naiad, logris urtur krus thul orgum, jiad harr wass. Jiadis Naia." Eiro muttered quietly, concentrating as much as he possibly could on the healing process while at the same time creating a small, uncomplicated Magic circle to support this as well.

It didn't take too long, but roughly twenty minutes later, it seemed like the wound had properly merged with the wood like it was supposed to, and Eiro slowly ran his hand over the part where they connected, "Hmm, seems good enough." Eiro muttered quietly, and then slowly started running his palm over the young man's leg, trying to properly prepare for the life force manipulation inside of his body.

It would be rather hard to fill the leg completely just like this since Eiro wasn't great at manipulating others' life force just yet. But if he created at least a slight opening into the prosthetic, Eiro would most likely be able to let it fill itself in. As if he drilled a hole into the bottom of a bucket to fill a bowl.

It was slow compared to just pouring the bucket out normally, but at the very least it was easier to control for now.

"This might hurt a bit now." The Demon said as he started slowly pulling life force into the prosthetic and then watched as the young man's body cramped up in pain, "Come on, just a few moments longer. You'll get used to it." Eiro said reassuringly, and soon, the young man nodded his head and pressed his teeth together while pressing his eyes shut, trying to get through this immense pain as much as he could before his body relaxed again.

"There we go. Once the anesthetic wears off, we'll try walking a little. But first, let's move on to your arm." Eiro said quietly, stepping around the table toward his side, "Are you ready?"

With deep, heavy breaths, the young man nodded his head again, "Just get it over with already..."

"Don't worry, you'll be able to get through the second one more easily. I think."

"You think?" The young man asked with shock in his voice, and Eiro just pulled the bottle with the anesthetic back out. With water magic, he pulled a bit of it back out and moved it over the stump underneath the young man's elbow, waiting another few minutes for it to properly work.

"Can you feel this?" Eiro asked as he pressed onto the stump, and the young man slowly shook his head, feeling too nervous to actually speak. And then, Eiro took his knife and cut back into the skin, cutting the outermost layer off of it

Once the skin was removed from the stump and Eiro stopped the bleeding with magic, he placed the prosthetic onto the wound and started to heal it again with Nelli's help before swiftly pulling some more life force into it.

"There we go." The Demon said with a light smile underneath his mask, looking at Solomon as he was doing so, "In a few moments, you'll be done. It's going to hurt a fair bit for the next couple of days, and you might not be able to walk for a long time right off the bat, but you can start practicing at the very least." Eiro explained, and Solomon could barely hold off the glee he was feeling from covering his whole body.

"It's going to take a while for everything to wear off and for him to calm down, so excuse me until then. I would like to have a small talk with Armodeus if that's fine with you." Eiro explained, and Solomon immediately nodded his head, "Of course, of course, take however long you need!" He exclaimed happily, and Eiro turned over toward the Elder Dwarf, stepping past a baffled and freaked-out Felix, as they entered the back-room.

It seemed to be isolated pretty well, so hopefully, nobody would be able to hear them speak. And finally, in there, Eiro took off his mask and placed it into his treasury all the whilst pulling his hood off his head.

"Now, it's nice to finally properly meet you, Armodeus." Eiro said with a light smile on his face, and with a loud laugh, the Elder Dwarf crossed his arms, "An actual Demon, huh? Who'd have thought? When Jura told me about you, I imagined you being far colder, far crueler, you know?" He pointed out, and Nelli, who was floating next to Eiro, looked at Armodeus with a wry smile.

"He killed thirty men within fifteen minutes, just two weeks ago. And one of them he attempted to kill by locking him in a giant boulder of ice made from the blood of the people he killed before that." Nelli pointed out, and Eiro stared at her confusedly, "Why did you just say that?" He asked her, and the Spirit just shrugged.

"I dunno." She said quite bluntly, but Armodeus was just rather startled at that revelation, "Well... Then I guess I should stay on your good side, huh?" The Dwarf asked, and the Demon just shook his head, "Don't worry, you were Juras friend, no way I can ever kill you."

"Heh... Makes me feel a bit better, actually. Well, I'm glad you're treating all the items I made you so well." Armodeus laughed a bit, trying to change the topic, and Eiro raised his brows, slightly intrigued.

"So you really were the one that made all of these things? The bag, the tools, even the cloak?" He inquired rather curiously, and Armodeus swiftly nodded his head, "Of course I did. Not anyone can make pieces like that, you know?" He pointed out with a wink, making Eiro just slightly smirk in response.

He was aware that these were all incredibly amazing things, but he didn't know they were made by someone as amazing as Armodeus. Eiro wasn't entirely sure what that whole 'King of Craftsmen' deal that Felix was speaking about meant, but now he knew. All of the swords, shields, staffs, and so on that were scattered not only across the front of the house but also here in the back were simply at a whole other level compared to anything that Eiro had seen before.

"Actually, I need to thank you. I could make some pretty interesting things for you all. Of course, I didn't properly explain it out there, for obvious reasons, but once Solomon and his guards leave, I'll explain it properly." Armodeus suggested, but before then, Eiro had something else he wanted to speak about. Well, two things, actually. But one was more important to him right now.

"Okay then. Now go on about what you were saying before, please. About Jura and the King of Monsters." Eiro requested, and Armodeus scratched the back of his neck, "Well, it's not like it's a secret. If you wanted to, you could find something about it in any major library. Eiro, do you know what kind of being the current King of Monsters is?"

"A being that threatens the peace of the world?" He asked, and Armodeus slowly shook his head, "That's not it. Well, technically yes, but that's not what I wanted to talk about. I meant it literally. The current King of Monsters. He's a Unique Monster."

"Well, that's what I would expect. Even I'm apparently a Unique Monster, right?" The young Demon pointed out, and Armodeus crossed his arms as he sat down on the edge of the table behind him, "Sure, but once again that's not what I mean. He didn't just evolve into a unique monster, his base race was unique. His father was a Goblin Lord who ascended to the role of <The Emperor>, and his mother was a Shadow Creature who ascended to the role of <The Empress>."

"So he would be a hybrid? What would that be, a Shadow Goblin?" Eiro asked curiously. With a slight frown, Armodeus just grumbled, "Usually so, yes. But, just before the Empress gave birth to the King, she killed the Emperor. Usually, the spot of Emperor would open up and a worthy candidate would ascend after a while, but instead it just went to the unborn King." The Elder Dwarf explained before he looked at the ground with a deep frown.

"The awakening process caused the Empress to be killed as well. And somehow, the King gained ownership over both cards of the Major Arcana. Of course, this is impossible, so the King's body changed drastically inside of his dead mother's womb before rejecting both of the cards. The King turned into a unique creature that had never existed before in this world, and may never exist ever again. But once that young monster-child clawed its way out of its mother's body, it just kept wandering the forest it was born in." Armodeus explained, "That was until one day, it encountered a young man. That young man was Jura."

"And neither of them tried to just kill the other?" Eiro asked with a deep frown, and Armodeus shook his head immediately, "Of course not. The King was newly born, he didn't know anything about the world. And he was too intelligent to act on instinct as well. And Jura... well, he was always rather eccentric when it came to things like that."

"So Jura became a traitor the world because he took in the current King of Monsters?" Eiro asked with a deep frown. That would make sense, at least to an extent, even if he didn't like it. But the Demon was more than just confused when Armodeus didn't just nod his head or agree with him.

"Actually... That wasn't why he became known as a traitor. The reason for that was that, before the last great hero could kill the former Monster King, he nearly killed the current Monster King. He nearly lost his whole body... his whole self. And Jura created a new body for him but lost his sight after the King attacked him immediately after that.. And then, the current King killed the hero, turned a whole country into a wasteland, and killed the formed Monster King in a way that none of the Royals even dared fight back."