Demon's Virtue

Chapter 77 - Mortality

"Dying? What are you talking about? How could Jura be dying?" Eiro said with a laugh, as if what Rudy just said was the most ridiculous thing anyone had ever said to him, "Who could ever beat him in a fight? Not even an army should be-"

"Eiro, just stop..." Rudy muttered quietly as he looked down at the ground underneath him, "I'm going back inside, tell me if you need my help with anything..." Rudy said quietly as he made his way inside again, leaving the Imp to just stand there confused.

"What a weird joke..." Eiro muttered as he turned around toward the block of wood and placed the box with his tools in it down on the ground in front of him to properly get to work.

For now, Eiro should really just concentrate on what needed to be done, and quickly got a piece of black chalk out of the box that he used to make a rough silhouette of the figure from here so that he could remove pieces as big as possible from this base block, and then swiftly got to work, quickly carving into the wood with a straight gouge to properly get a good outline, creating an oval that was completely around the silhouette that Eiro just carved, and then grabbed the saw that he brought outside together with the box, swiftly cutting the pieces outside of that oval away.

And then, Eiro quickly stepped up to the other side of the wood block, which still seemed square from that perspective, and then did the same exact thing, sketching the silhouette of the figure when seen from the side, then carved an oval with a straight goughe, and then cut away the excess pieces.

So, Eiro was left with a base that was far easier to work with. And on top of that, he should have enough pieces of wood to properly create the limbs of the wooden statue out of the pieces that he just cut off.

"Let's get started, then..." Eiro muttered quietly, and then instantly started visualizing the figure of the person... No, the being, that he wanted to recreate. Eiro wasn't entirely sure what it was, after all.

Either way, with the image of it clear in his mind, the Demon got started on carving it out.

It had a slim, incredibly tall figure. It was so tall that it seemed to basically overtower the Imp just thinking of it. It was so white that it would probably disappear in the snow just like this wood did, and the same was the case with its clothes, as they were the same white color. If Eiro hadn't seen it without that suit on, he would have thought it was just part of its body, maybe something like a natural shell or carapace.

Soon, Eiro came to the step where the rough shape was done, and you could slowly recognize what it was, at least if you had seen it before. From the four arms extending out from its shoulder, the neat white suit that it wore, and the slight smile on its face that Eiro had only just hinted at for now.

It was Zaragon. The truly most terrifying creature he laid his eyes on in his currently quite short life. Even now, Eiro just wanted to push his dagger deep into its stomach where it was hiding its true, horrifying mouth, and just cut it up from the inside. Inflict immeasurable pain upon it for what it did to Avalin, and ultimately make it suffer endlessly...

But at least for now, that wasn't something that Eiro could actually do. He wasn't able to even face Zaragon properly at his current strength, that was something that Eiro was sure of. He would never be able to even dream of killing Zaragon.

For now, the only thing that Eiro could do was carve Zaragon like this and then enjoy seeing it slowly rot away out here.

Either way, now, it was time for proper details, so Eiro quickly pushed some of his tools into their spots in the belt and then held his right hand against them to be able to properly switch them out in the manner that he usually did, using his new racial ability.

And so, at a swift pace, Eiro ran his left hand across the surface of the wood and switched his tool out whenever necessary. Just like that... Eiro was able to at least properly prepare the base for the work that was to come over the next couple of days. Meaning now he had to refine the shape some more, add details, make the wood around its torso and legs actually resemble cloth and the wood around its upper arms, which were crossed behind Zaragon's back, and its face to resemble its skin.

But that was a task for tomorrow... For now, he had to get this work in progress project into proper storage inside of his study and storage space.

Considering that the amount of wood had gone down considerably, Eiro was now able to carry the Zaragon wooden-statue in there alone and on his own, and just quickly sat it down on the ground and then grabbed a smaller piece of the Snowbark that seemed to be big enough to create the rest of one of the arms of Zaragon out of, as two of his arms would currently be extended forward in the statue, and the block of wood wasn't large enough to create Zaragon like that in one piece.

So with the piece of wood, as well as a carving knife, in hand, Eiro made his way out of the hut and made his way toward the front door, which he quickly opened up and stepped through.

"Ah, there he is. I said so, didn't I?" Jura said with a grin on his face as he turned away from Rudy and toward the front door, "Now, how far along are you with your project?" The old man asked, and Eiro just smiled as he sat down at the table next to him and placed the piece of wood in his hand down on it.

"Finished the main-body base. Still need to make four extra limbs, and then add the details to everything, and then add the Soot-Root around it. That alone should take a full day though, maybe a little bit of a second day." Eiro explained as he leaned back and started to carve into the wood, making the actual carvings drop into the piece of cloth he placed onto his lap.

"Is that so?" The old man asked quietly with a light smile on his face, and Eiro just continued his work while Rudy made his way back to the Kitchen to keep cooking.

The next day, Eiro continued working on the wooden statue just like he said, although that only came after his regular trip to the forest where he checked on his traps and gathered some simple herbs, and then made his way back home.

Then, he continued carving. And for the next couple of days, that's all that Eiro did. Meaning... Not much changed to his regular routine over the past few years, just that this was his first time working on such a big project that stretched out over a few days.

And so, after four days of working on this as much as he could, the figure of Zaragon was finished. It already made Eiro shudder immensely, but it was really just insane, now that he took a look at it.

He would go over it again later after getting down from the high of finishing it to see if there was something he overlooked, but for now, he had to work with the Soot-Root. And that soot-root was simply carved into numerous cubes and stacked up on top of each other, held together by riffling the sides slightly and pushing the different cubes into each other tightly, with each surface of the cubes covered in glue to continue holding it together.

And that mountain of black wood was constructed directly around the wooden Zaragon. After all, it was supposed to be the mist that it had used to transport itself instantly over toward the Imp back then. It would be seeping out of the pant-legs and its clothes in different parts, but first he had to actually create the proper base for it before making such connections.

After building up the mountain of cubes, Eiro started to carve into it to smooth out the edges, doing his best to give it the right rough shape of what he remembered it to look like back then. And then, after that was done, the Imp created the connections between the body and the the black mist, before moving on to the next step...

Scratching the surface up to give it a texture that was more recognizable as mist than the rough, but still relatively smooth and flat, texture it had right now. It was quite late at night now, but Eiro was actually nearly done... And he still had two days left, so he would just use those to properly add some more details, and maybe treat the surface of the wood a little after smoothing everything out properly.

For the next few hours, Eiro did his best to put scratches into the wood in the right places with the right depth and path, even making a few 'tunnels' inside of the wood through it, and soon, the Imp was done with this as well. It was too large to actually move now, and it wasn't like it fit through the door anyway, so Eiro just let it outside and covered it in some cloth to make sure it wouldn't pull in too much water should it rain, although that seemed rather improbable.

And then, Eiro went into the house again, where the Imp once more would have to face something new. Something that he had been facing over the past few days, every day.

The day after Eiro started the wooden statue, Jura stopped getting up out of the bed completely, although he was still awake most of the time.

The next day, Jura was still asleep when the Demon got home from the forest... the next day, he woke up rather early, but didn't say a single word... Then he only woke up for roughly an hour or so, that he spent just quietly watching the children. Although, Eiro only heard Arc speak about that... After all, he himself wasn't there during that time.

"Now, now, don't be so mean to your brother, Avalin." The old man laughed, half-covered by the blanket as the two young children were standing right next to his bed, and Eiro looked at Jura surprised. He knew it, Rudy couldn't have been right, there's no way Jura was dying! It was just impossible for a strong man like him.

"I'm glad you're in such a good mood again." Eiro said with a smile on his face as he approached the bed and quickly picked up the tired Leon. "Hello Daddy..." The boy said quietly, and Avalin stared up at them with green eyes, "No fair! Daddy, I want up too!" She exclaimed, and Eiro just chuckled quietly and leaned down, quickly picking her up with his other arm. It was a bit unstable, but it should be fine.

"Be careful with her, will you? She's been very mean to Leon today." Jura said with a slight chuckle as he extended his hand over toward the girl, although she just giggled and shook her head.

"Not true! I just wanted to wake Leon up!" Avalin exclaimed, and Eiro turned his head over toward Leon with a smile. "Oh? Did you fall asleep again?" He asked, and the boy slowly nodded his head as he laid it down on the Demon's shoulder. "Mhm..."

"Well then, seems like you slept a round for Jura as well, huh? So that he didn't sleep all day again." The Imp said with a smile as he looked at Jura, who just nodded his head.

"Truly, I have been quite tired lately. But I'm feeling quite well today." He pointed out, and before he and Eiro could continue the conversation, the Demon heard a loud thump outside.

"Ah damn, I think Lugo hit his antlers somewhere again... I'll be right back." Eiro said, smiling happily as he placed the two children in his arms down onto the ground again and made his way to the door, although he didn't believe his ears when he heard what the old man said next.

"Oh, just leave Lugo to Eiro, will you? It's his familiar!"

It seemed like Jura didn't know who he had been talking to.