Demon's Virtue

"But..." Jess looked at Eiro with a slight frown, "Aren't they doing good things? And you're just going to try and steal part of their power?"

"...They're not all doing good things necessarily. Not all of them have a defined role to play like the Hero and Monster King. The sage had always been a figure that could stand on either side, against of with the people of the world. Similarly, the Gardener once regrew vast forests that were destroyed by some dragons.

And then, that same incarnation introduced plants into the western continent that completely annihilated a quarter of its population. The Librarian, frankly, isn't involved at all. There are barely any stories about its incarnations, because they're always locked up in the towers. And we all know the stories of the Merchant," Eiro pointed out, as he flicked his wrist.

The pen in his hand turned back into a card and soon disappeared into his treasury, "Some of these roles are vastly ambiguous. And honestly? None of the incarnations are doing anything special at the moment. They're very stagnant, pulled back to do their own thing. Frankly, giving their splinters to me so that I can put some kind of end to this...

game that's being played with this world sounds like a better solution to me."

Jess looked over to James and Krog, who both seemed similarly concerned, "But some of them are doing really good things for the world."

"Right, and in a hundred years, many of them will be gone. And then, some random kid will have their abilities. Every hero for the past dozen generations has been a pompous ass that abused their influence, doing some ridiculous thing that would get anyone else thrown in jail for half a lifetime. The Merchant?

How many of the heads of big merchant companies would sell their own kid if it meant doubling their profits in a year? Every Gardener has ended up caring more for plants than any other living being. By Lady Winter, I am an enormously greedy, knowledge-hungry, massively magic-obsessed maniac, and the Splinter of the Sage doesn't even really exist anymore. The Splinters aren't... good for anyone.

People shouldn't have their fates twisted and tangled by some ridiculous force that's beyond their control..." Eiro slowly stood up as he walked over to a relatively flat patch of land.

He pushed the finger of his wooden hand into the ground, creating a channel within it that reached up to his finger's first joint, "If I take away the current Gardener's Splinter, they won't suddenly lose all their power; they might be a little weaker, but they'll still be someone that rules over all of nature. The Merchant will have their knowledge and expertise, their networks and connections.

All I'm doing is try and prevent more maniacs from just showing up and getting their future determined by something most of them never asked for."

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"I mean..." Krog crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, "That sounds pretty convincing to me, at least."

"Right, and it's not like Eiro hasn't been using his powers for objectively good things overall. I'm still not sure if it's a good idea, but if it works out how he's imagining it... the Monster Town could really change the world in some massive ways," James admitted. He looked at Jess, who still seemed a bit apprehensive at the idea. She looked toward Ariella, to try and see what she was thinking.

"What about you? Are you just fine with it? With him taking powers from others?" she asked, and Ariella nodded without a moment's hesitation, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be? Jess, honey... he has killed a lot of people, for much worse reasons. Something that we all have been quite aware of. Simply stealing something from some guys who have power they didn't even earn and could destroy a country or two if they turn sour? Frankly, I'm not just fine with it, I'm more than happy with it.

I spoke to some of my contacts to help figure out where a few of them are, actually."

Jess listened to Ariella with surprise. She couldn't really deny that. It wasn't like Jess had never been in a situation where she had to kill someone, of course, but for some reason, the idea of Eiro taking away the power of what were practically these mythical beings that she had been told stories about as a little girl... it didn't feel quite right to her. But then again...

she was currently in hell, after helping in killing the Devil.

And the lord of this part of hell himself, who also happened to be a Royal monster while also being the direct reincarnation of the Sage, was currently writing some kind of demonology sigil into the ground to bring them all back to the central material plane, so that they could return to the mansion they now all lived in together like a happy little family.

Jess had entered the world of myths and legends. This time last year, she was just a D-Ranked adventurer and a half-assed mage who had nothing going for her but the fact she could use a few more elements than most others.

Maybe this all just didn't hit quite right yet. Slowly, Jess reached out to the hand of the man next to her. Krog looked down at her and smiled lightly, as the two of them got up together with the others.

"Sorry, I think I'm just... not really used to a lot of this yet," Jess pointed out, and Eiro slowly looked up toward her.

"Don't worry, it's fine. I get that it's a pretty... drastic thing, I guess. Just removing all those with Splinters from the equation will change the world forever, so it's not something I'm doing just because I feel like it. I've thought about it extensively, and sought out other avenues, but...

this seems like the best solution," Eiro explained as he placed a knife to his wrist and made a clean cut all the way up to his elbow.

A river of blood flowed out from his arm, which was of course quickly replenished by the bloodstone. The blood quickly filled the narrow channel that Eiro created in the ground. The group felt shivers come over them as a path of the plants that Eiro had only just grown in this whole area was quickly withering and starting to rot away as unholiness flooded that straight line.

"Sorry about that, I'll work on my unholy magic soon, but right now, I had to make do," Eiro explained. Instead of using his own magic as a source for the demonology sigil he was currently setting up, he was making use of the ambient unholiness of hell itself. Eiro's domain in this place had practically none of it anymore, or at least, not enough to activate this sigil.

In previous evolutions, his blood could have acted as a substitute on its own, but now that he was an arcanus and no longer acknowledged as a member of the 'Demon King's lineage, that was no longer really the case. The holy magic that he had flowing through him so regularly purged most of that long ago.

But well, he would try and return here in the future, so that he could use hell's unholy magic to adapt himself to it and become capable of using it as well. He couldn't do without it if he wanted to be able to use demonic magic in the future.

But for now, this would do. Hell's unholiness flowed into the sigil created with Eiro's blood, and a single droplet floated into the air.

This sigil in particular was making use of the connection that the Devil had created between this place and the central material plane; usually, hell didn't really overlay the central material plane like many other realms did, so he should be able to access this exact place in the future as well, but due to the devil's actions, it was at least partially aligned in this specific location.

And before that was no longer the case, Eiro could access that link and bring them all back to the place where they had entered through. If he had created the sigil correctly, at least.

Eiro started to chant in the demonic language as per what the Devil could remember, as more and more droplets of blood floated up onto that original one, creating an ever-growing bubble that was soon large enough to hold a person. The moment Eiro's chant was done, he clapped his hands together, and the bubble flattened, turning into a circle of blood that was just floating in the air.

Eiro quickly used the power of the mirror of duplication to create a small duplicate of himself, in the form of a floating eyeball, that he sent through that portal of blood, and the duplicate ended up safely on the other side. The connection still remained as well through that portal, so everything seemed to be stable.

Soon, the others followed behind after that duplicate's example, the blood slowly swallowing them up and practically spitting them back out in the mineshafts that they were in earlier.

Once they had all passed through, Eiro snapped his finger and made that path of unholiness fill back in with Eiro's version of this section of hell, and the moment he was on the other side, quickly sucked up all the blood he used to create the sigil so that nothing would be able to use traces of this portal to come through to this realm.

Though, there really wasn't anything in hell that could even exist in that domain right now, so Eiro was maybe being a little overly careful, but he would prefer that over being too reckless and inviting over some sort of horrendous demon that would start wandering around and destroying nearby cities.

And now that they were all back in the central elemental plane, it was time for Eiro to bring everyone home.