Demon's Virtue

Chapter 198 - Fuel For Evolution

Eiro sat on his chair and kept looking at his party members. They seemed to have calmed down a little after all these revelations from Eiro. They were still nervous, but they were also aware that they wouldn't be able to just get away from here all too easily even if they did want to try and fight Eiro.

But then, Jess slowly looked at Eiro and opened her mouth nervously, "I have to admit... I think that maybe, if anyone is the Monster King, then wouldn't it be the best possible outcome if it was Eiro?" She pointed out, and the demon in question lightly smirked. Meanwhile, James was staring at Jess, thinking about what she just said.

"I think..." James muttered, "I think you may be right? I mean, apparently, you don't have your monstrosity, or whatever it is that you spoke about that makes monsters monsters." James said, "Sure, you're doing a lot of pretty fucked up things a lot of the time, but there's a fair amount of people that do that act similarly to you, if not worse." The Light Elf added, and Eiro slowly nodded his head.

"Glad you think that way." Eiro said with a smile on his face, "So, how about it? Are you going to help me?" The Demon asked, and the three of them looked at Eiro nervously, before James asked, "We're still aiming for Zaragon as well, right?"

"Oh yeah, of course we are. That's going to be our first target. He seems to be a fair bit weaker than a Royal, so he should be a good stepping stone." Eiro pointed out, and Krog stared back at him, "That Zaragon's weaker than a royal?"

"Mhm, he is. I think I mentioned it before, but I met someone that was of the exact same race as that guy. The exact same being, or at least, it spoke of Zaragon as one of its 'Kin'. A few moments later, that guy was killed by <The World>, a heavily weakened <The World>. They have special abilities that are hard to overcome, but once you reach that point, I don't think they're all too strong." Eiro pointed out, and he slowly turned toward James, "So don't worry. We'll get strong enough so that we can make him suffer very easily. We'll crush Zaragon like a bug."

James stared back at Eiro, feeling somewhat nervous because of the vibe the Demon was giving off. It was one of definite bloodlust. Even if it wasn't strong enough to take Eiro's control from him, it was still at the level as back then when he was first taken over by it. His Willpower increased a lot since then, so he could easily control emotions like that at this point.

"Fine. As long as we can get that guy, I'll do what you want." James said with a sigh, "And it's really not like finding this new stuff out changes anything. You're obviously genuine with your feelings for your children, and just because you're apparently a Royal now shouldn't change anything. You already were when we met you again, so..." The Light Elf pointed out.

"Hah, thanks. But you're not actually correct, I'm not <The World> yet. Otherwise that Card would have probably disappeared inside me already. No, I'm just a candidate. Apparently, right now I have a... Oh, it rose! I have a 2% chance to properly become <The World> if I try to activate this card." Eiro explained, "So I still have a long way in front of me. I think I need to be at the level of an A-Rank, if not S-Rank, Adventurer if I want to be able to safely become a Royal."

"...That's a joke, right..?" James asked, but Eiro simply shook his head, "It's not. I killed <The World> surprisingly easily, just because it was weakened that much. It had been sealed for the past 100 years, and it seemed to be a unique sort of monster, probably a Ghost-type, since it didn't have a physical form on its own. It took on parts of the world around it to become stronger, mainly by using the Key that I mentioned before. It would take others' abilities and fuse them into itself to get stronger. I managed to kill it before it got hte chance to gather up too much stuff."

Jess curiously looked at the Major Arcana Card that Eiro was holding, and then slowly nodded her head, "That's so interesting! So, part of <The World>'s abilities is to take things into itself?" Jess asked, and Eiro quickly nodded his head, "Yep." He said, and quickly pulled a small shadow magic stone out of his treasury, before infusing his hand with the shadow magic from it.

"Look here, usually, you would just have your skin be covered in it a little, right? But when I fuse with it now, it becomes like this." Eiro explained, and then pressed his shadow-fingers onto the table, making a good inch of them disappear before there was any sort of resistance.

Immediately, Jess jumped up and walked over to Eiro to get a closer look, "So that's why it looked so weird when you fused with Nature Magic!" She exclaimed, and Eiro simply shrugged, "Probably, yes. Either way, in addition to this, I can also now do this, as I've already shown you." The Demon explained, and had Nelli quickly fuse with him before soon pulling back out.

"So yeah. Any other questions?" Eiro asked with a smile on his face, and soon, Krog nodded his head, "Mhm. The Monster King... do you remember anything about him?" He inquired. Eiro leaned back in his chair and thought about it.

"Kind of? With my <Memory of a Scholar> Ability I can basically 'travel back' to the point when I was created." Eiro explained, "The thing is, when I see the Monster King, all I see is some kind of shadowy figure. I don't know if it's because I simply can't remember the Monster King, because of the fear implanted into me by him, or because that's what he looks like. I know that he's the child of a Goblin Lord and a Shadow Creature. They were both Royals, respectively either the holder of the <The Emperor> or <The Empress> Major Arcana Card. He became some sort of completely unique creature, so I have no idea what he could look like. Well, I'm sure it's not entirely what he's like, since he had to have some kind of limbs that Jura could make prosthetics for."

"Hm... It would be good if we could at least figure out what kind of creature the Monster King was to begin with..." James sighed annoyedly, and the Demon slowly turned his head toward Nelli, "Stop looking at me like that, I already told you I never met him." The Naiad sighed, and Eiro leaned back in his chair, "Right, right."

And then, just as everyone in the group relaxed a little more and it became pretty quiet, Eiro's stomach cut through this silence with a loud grumble.

"Urgh... That's what I hate most about Evolutions..." The Demon sighed as he pushed himself off the chair, "I'll go see Rudy, he should be in the kitchen. You guys just keep looking for some requests." Eiro suggested as he scratched the back of his neck. Evolutions took up a lot of energy, and as such, Eiro quickly grew hungry while he was undergoing Evolution. Not to mention that he would have to bother with all that annoying as shit aching all over his body while it changed from the ground up.

Luckily, with the timing that he had for his evolution, he would get through it just before the Winter Solstice. He wouldn't want to be agitated and on edge because of it when meeting the Daughter of Winter.

"You really think that was a good idea?" Nelli asked with a nervous frown as she floated up right next to the Demon, and Gondos couldn't help but agree, "It was indeed a bit risky, was it not?" He added, but Eiro simply shrugged.

"Of course it was. But in the end, they aren't really a threat to me either way. They don't have any definite proof about anything, and I'm the one with better contacts in this situation. Not to mention that I could easily kill them if I wanted to, even if I would prefer if I didn't have to. If I can get them to trust me while they know everything there is to know about me, it's going to make it a lot easier to get along and fight alongside them." The Demon pointed out while he pushed his foot against the wall in front of him, and it simply flipped around and let Eiro into the hidden passage behind it, which the Demon used to get to the Kitchen in a straight path.

"But now, quiet. Let's not talk about this near Rudy." The Demon suggested. He stepped into the kitchen with a smile on his face and looked at Rudy, who was currently experimenting with a few of the ingredients Eiro bought for him. Right now, he was baking in the large oven. They never really had something at this size or quality before, so it was obvious that Rudy would want to try it out.

"Hey!" The boy exclaimed with a bright, excited smile, "Oh, look at this! This stove is so amazing! And that fireplace, and oven, not to mention all this equipment!" Rudy exclaimed, and Eiro slightly smiled.

"I'm glad you're happy about it. Just tell me if you need anything, I'll get whatever you want." Eiro pointed out, feeling happy because Rudy was feeling happy, and the Demon then just leaned against one of the counters in this big kitchen, while Rudy looked back at him. "Thanks, Dad!" Rudy exclaimed, and Eiro immediately raised his brows and crossed his arms with a light smirk.

"'Dad', huh?" Eiro asked, and Rudy just lightly scoffed, "So what? The mentor that King Skyhart introduced us to was teaching his son at the same time, so we kept hearing him say 'Dad, help me with this', and 'Dad, how do I do this' the whole time... And after Leon and Avalin came back, they kept speaking about what cool things you did, and you know that they call you 'Dad' and 'Daddy', so... Something wrong with that?"

"Haha, of course not. I'm actually rather happy to hear you call me that. I knew that you guys thought of me as your father, but I never had any of you older four call me 'Dad' regularly." Eiro pointed out, "But now, Son, that's not why I'm here." Eiro said, genuinely still excited about being called 'Dad' by Rudy, "I could use a little bit of food. Doesn't need to be anything specific, just high-calory if possible. Sugar, fat, anything." Eiro pointed out, and Rudy stared back at him confusedly, before realizing why he wanted all of that.

"Ah, you're evolving right now?" He asked, "Why didn't you tell us beforehand? But well, you chose that Unique Option again anyway, right?"

"Yup. So I don't know what's going to happen either way." Eiro pointed out.

Rudy slightly shrugged and opened his cookbook, ready to cook for the Demon next to him.