Demon's Virtue

"You're kidding," Armodeus let out with a confused expression, "Morgan le fay is a myth, they... they..." the elder dwarf's eyes seemed to lose focus for a few moments. His pupils dilated and constricted, as if they were pulsating. But he wasn't the only one, the other masters were similar. Until one of them, Partax, finally spoke up.

"Morgan, that..." Partax started, his voice seemingly bringing back the others as well, "...that rotten bitch still owes me twenty gold!"

"...Excuse me?" Eiro let out involuntarily. That certainly wasn't what he expected to hear.

"Right, I remember now... Morgan, they... How did we forget?" Shimour muttered. It must be something that he wasn't quite used to. Being the Master of Stealth, he was the one that was hidden from others, and that would have others forget about his existence completely, even if just for a short period of time. Having it done to him like that was nothing short of unnerving.

"...I don't know, but they must have cast some kind of spell, maybe even using the cards, or at least following similar principles," Eiro explained, "Frankly, I'm not totally positive, but at least it's obvious that their name means something to you, beyond just the myths."

Orion slowly nodded his head, as his face was buried in his palms while trying to regain his composure, "Yeah, well, Morgan le fay was..."

"Insane."

"A total fucking maniac."

"The scariest person I've ever met."

"...I was going to say unique, but that works too," Orion sighed, glancing over at the masters seated next to him. His face was almost deathly pale, and as Eiro heard the fluids flow through the Master's body, his muscles twitching and turning, he realized that he was feeling physically ill after hearing that revelation.

Armodeus slowly looked at Eiro, "But if you're here, that means they're not around anymore... right?"

"...Right," Eiro replied, "When I met the representation of the world before, I was given a message. A sort of explanation for what I am. A special splinter was placed into the former sage, but in the process, that sage died.

As it all happened during a battle against the Monster King and his armies, the sage's soul, amongst some others, was harvested and brought to the Monster King, who used it as a ressource to create a new monster for a horde. Since both the hero and the holy priestess died during that encounter as well, the King wanted to use that opportunity to kidnap the holy priestess and created a horde.

I was a monster, an imp, that was part of that horde."

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"But why the hell was Morgan working with the hero and holy priestess?" Partax asked with a confused expression, "I... wait, why would it feel wrong? They were the sage, so it just makes sense, but... No, Morgan was..."

Eiro slowly moved his stinger toward his own arm, pushing a certain venom into his bloodstream. That venom moved through his blood into his lungs, where Eiro turned it into a simple mist that was quickly exhaled after combining with the Demon's magic.

The combination of water magic with the intention of 'relaxation', as well as some nature magic and even a bit of holy magic added into the calming, obviously non-lethal venom, created an air that quickly calmed everyone down a bit.

It didn't sedate them in any way, but everyone's heart had been beating so much that Eiro could tell a massive amount adrenaline was going to be secreted, so Eiro wanted to do something to calm them down before that could happen.

"Are you all feeling a bit better?" the Demon asked, "A spell like that won't just be lifted completely by being told the sage's name. But at the same time, memories and emotions are powerful. You must have remembered part of your connection to them, but if you dive any deeper, it could backfire extremely. If anything, take it slow. I'll try and figure out a method to release the spell."

The room grew quiet as everyone tried to calm themselves down. Though, Bavet had really just fallen asleep. A venomous mist that could relax the Masters knocked him out immediately. But it was fine, as Eiro could just update him later. At least, he didn't care to wake Bavet right now, since he knew what question was about to follow.

"Who told you?" Kassandra's voice was almost a venom in its own right as she asked this, "If not even we can remember them, what little- was it the Devil? What kind of-"

"Merlin."

"You... you met him again?" Armodeus asked, and Eiro nodded his head.

"Right right, we wanted to ask about that! There was some kind of mistake, right?" Meshi asked with a nervous expression, "I mean, that kid wouldn't have... done those kinds of things, right? Oh, but if he remembered, then maybe he finally managed to become a Master as well, maybe he-"

"Meshi," Shimour's voice cut through the panicked ideas of the man next to him. He looked back at Eiro with a deep stare, "Explain. How did he remember?"

"Merlin became The Fool. With that, that horrendously twisting power that he was bestowed, it... it changed him into something I don't even know how to describe properly. He's a monster, but that's the only thing I'm totally sure of. His powers of the arcane turned into something else, something I've dubbed 'aberration'. Though, I do think that you might be right.

He seemed to have Mastered that Aberration Magic... and in the process, he not only remembered seemingly everything about Morgan le fay, but also became something... worse, and stronger than the Devil."

---

The room was silent, as Eiro looked up at the ceiling above him. He could hear four pairs of foosteps, together with the metallic clattering of Partax's mechanical automaton that carried him around. Shimour was also walking there, but he was at a point where his footsteps didn't make any sound that even Eiro could perceive unless he tried his hardest.

The only one that was still in here with the Demon was Bavet, who seemed to be slowly waking up.

After Eiro told the Masters about Merlin, the rest didn't really go all too well. He glanced to the side at the shattered furniture. The floor and walls had deep grooves in them. The Masters had subconsciously let out parts of their powers as they lost composure and grew furious at the idea that Eiro was suggesting to them.

But Armodeus and Shimour managed to calm everyone down enough, and they all just left to the rooms that had been prepared for them. So now, Eiro was just waiting for the slime to wake up, while at the same time trying to calm himself down a bit too.

But then, a familiar voice sounded out, "Well, that could have certainly gone better."

If Eiro had a heart, it would have skipped a beat. His head snapped at Bavet with a deep, angry glare, "That's not funny, you-"

Bavet was still asleep. But he could swear he heard a voice that should never be here. He had only just crushed his skull a few hours ago. And he certainly couldn't sense him anywhere here, but... how did he hear the Devil's voice?

Eiro jumped up, looking around the room, as a cold touch pressed down onto his shoulder. It wasn't anything physical, but it was an unforgettable chill. As Eiro looked at his hallucination of the thing formerly known as the Devil, his blood began to boil. Not even figuratively; his skin was bubbling up due to the sheer heat of his own blood.

"How is this... how are you here?!" Eiro growled, trying to trace his memories to see if he forgot anything, but he didn't even need to do so. As the hallucination took a seat on the couch, in the exact spot that Eiro was seated in a moment earlier, it crossed its legs with a broad grin appearing on its face.

"Well, I'm not, now am I? For someone that managed to fool me like that, someone that managed to hide things from me, the Devil, the trickster, the one who grins as the deal is made... you a certainly quite slow, are you not?"

Eiro sighed lightly, "You're a remnant of consciousness left behind in the memories that I pulled from the Devil's corpse."

"A remnant? I'd rather like to call myself a 'new original'."

"...Whatever. I'll erase you, so tell me what you want first."

"Hah, that curiosity is going to end up killing you," the hallucination laughed, "Frankly, I just wanted to know why I died. And now, knowing that a horrible miscreant betrayed me, I-"

"You did because you were proud, lazy, and honestly far stupider than I gave you credit for. Merlin's 'betrayal' has nothing to do with it," Eiro interrupted, snapping his finger. The moment he did, the hallucination's body was violently torn in half.

He knew that it couldn't really feel any pain, but Eiro's hatred of the Devil didn't let him do anything else but try to make him suffer, even if it wasn't the real one.

Whichever the case... even as the hallucination disappeared, something welled up in the Demon's chest.

A sense of incomparable anxiety.