Demon's Virtue

Eiro stood up straight and slowly turned his head toward the Salamander King, "They're free." The Demon said bluntly, and the King slowly stared back at him, still in pain but able to get himself together again.

"Is that so? Then I guess there's no need for me to uphold my side of the contract anymore." With a deep glare, the Salamander King walked up to the man that had practically forced him into submission by holding the Vulcani as hostages.

He held his hand up and pointed his palm toward the man, but Eiro soon stepped in front of him, "What do you think you're doing? This is my prey. I'm killing him." The Demon said bluntly. The Salamander King's flaming hair seemed to spike up in response to hearing him speak to him like that.

"This man has taken control over a gateway to the spirit realm, which he has been making use of to threaten and control me by enslaving my kin for over a year now. If anyone will kill that man, then it will be I." 

With a deep sigh, Eiro looked back at Clark with a glare. Eiro knew that it was important for him to kill this man, but he didn't remember why anymore. He hoped that Clark had been told about this in part.

Seemingly understanding what the Demon was asking of him, Clark rushed over to his side and kneeled down in front of the Salamander King, while his face was still twisted in pain due to the burn-wounds on his hands, "E-Excuse me if I'm speaking out of turn, but if I may explain for him... He's a bit of an idiot..."

"Oh? Are you calling the child blessed by my fated friend an 'idiot'?" The King inquired with a stare, and Clark turned his head toward Eiro in confusion, "I'm blessed by something called the... Lonely Naiad? When you say 'fated friend' that means that she was the former queen then?"

"You have been blessed by her without knowing?"

"I'm a bit forgetful right now. But nevermind that. You... erm..." Eiro started and turned back toward Clark, who sighed deeply, whispering to himself, "...I should just write my name on my forehead at this rate..." 

"That would be helpful, thanks." The Demon replied bluntly, and the escort grumbled quietly, "Either way, please let me explain. That man right there is part of an organization that has found its way deep into the underground of this country. That organization most likely supplied him with the means of doing this to your kin in the first place. Eiro right here infiltrated that organization. As far as I was told, killing this man will help him get a higher standing there, so that he can more quickly obliterate it. As such, I think it will be to your benefit if you let Eiro kill this man."

Eiro looked over at him and then nodded his head, "Yeah, what he said. That's why we came here in the first place."

"No, we came here to find you a spirit to contract." Clark sighed, and Eiro slowly raised his brows, "Really?"

"Yes, really... These people have been seemingly using the Salamanders and Vulcani here to add something to the drugs they have been producing, and Eiro noticed this through the scents of these substances." Clark explained. The Salamander King slowly turned his head toward the Demon. He crossed his arms as his muscles bulged up in annoyance.

"Fine. I would prefer to kill him myself, but as long as he dies for his sins, I do not care who does it." The Salamander King pointed out, "So just get it over wi-"

However, just as the Salamander King was speaking, Eiro noticed something change with the thread connecting him to the man that was laying on the ground, close to unconscious. It slowly became a chain instead of a simple thread, as if pulling the King toward the man. Of course, Eiro immediately tried to grasp at it to destroy it, but no matter what he did, he only managed to get it to shake a little bit. Nothing happened.

The King keeled over and the flames covering his head were nearly extinguished. The man on the ground slowly pulled himself off the ground and jumped at the Salamander King who was slowly being pulled back toward him as well.

And as if the man's body stopped being that of a human, it fell apart into a thick sludge and covered the Salamander King all over.

A process happened that seemed all too familiar to Eiro. It was something that was still briefly in his head until now. It was the kind of fusion that Eiro underwent when fusing with either of his two contracted spirits. Far more rudimentary and lower-quality, and so unstable that it seemed like this whole place could be blown away any moment now, but nonetheless, it was a similar thing.

"Hah... Hahaha..." A few moments later, different white runes appeared all over the Salamander King's body as he started to laugh loudly. Eiro immediately reacted and pulled Clark away, quickly bringing him to a place where he should be relatively safe.

And just as he was done, the Salamander King spoke with a voice that wasn't fully his own anymore, but a mixture of his voice and that of the man, of the Letter S.

"It's working... It's working! My former body was already amazing, but now, it is even better! I am the peak of existence now! I am truly the strongest now!" He exclaimed loudly, and gave off the sense that the Salamander King had basically completely lost all control over his body.

Without hesitation, the Salamander King fused with that Letter S, or as Eiro called him in his mind 'King S', jumped forward using the Salamander King's power. Eiro infused his body with air magic for extra speed as he jumped out of the way.

"How bothersome..." Eiro muttered to himself. The Salamander King was truly a strong being. It seemed like in this current King S form he didn't have full control over his abilities, but that was to be expected. Although... It was still weird. How did he get this sort of ability in the first place?

How was it possible for that man to fuse with a spirit, a Spirit King at that. How could he do it? How did they figure it out? How was he keeping that transformation up like this?

Numerous thoughts were crossing Eiro's mind as he stood there and stared at the ceiling.

"Ah... I'm so damn curious." The Demon muttered quietly, before he sensed the King S jump toward him again. It seemed like he was moving his body the same way that the man did while it was still fat like before, so Eiro was able to predict the movement surprisingly easily.

King S pushed his foot into the ground and tried to let a certain force move through his body and focus on his palm. But instead of being a way to increase the impact of a punch, what happened instead was that a ray of flames shot forward toward Eiro.

The Demon just didn't care, though. It was easy to predict, and just as easy to dodge. The man's physical abilities improved considerably, but since he took over the King's mind completely, his skill hit the bottom of the barrel.

And so, the Demon was able to run by the side of the ray of flames. He slid over the ground for a moment and twisted his body around. Eiro raised his leg, he it toward King S' face. King S reacted immediately and blocked the incoming attack with his palm, grasping the Demon's ankle.

Eiro used this tight grip and jumped over King S' body, rapdily cooling the air right above the flames atop his head so that he could try and extinguish them somehow. As it didn't work, Eiro flapped his wings and twisted his body around, and King S lost grip on Eiro's ankle that he was trying to singe away with immense heat.

It did hurt a bit, but it wasn't that bad yet. Eiro pulled out the Dagger from his side, before he remembered something else important. It wasn't directly related to his other dagger, but a memory that let him figure out that he had another dagger right in his treasury. He looked into himself and soon found the weapon in him, before pulling it out of that space.

And now, Eiro was nearly at his full combat capacity. Of course, not completely. The Demon ran forward and stopped rapidly, using his tail for extra balance, and stabbed one of his daggers at King S. The huge figure simply reacted by pushing Eiro's attack away and then tried to punch Eiro's chest. Anticipating this, the Demon stabbed his other dagger down onto King S' wrist. His skin was tough, but not as tough as it was before when ti was metallic like that.

So, all Eiro had to do was push his knee onto the underside of King S' wrist to help the force of the attack with his dagger.

Just like that, he stabbed through the Spirit King's arm, as his body was controlled by a complete dumbass.

The blood that poured out of the wound actually seemed rather interesting, as if it was some form of concentrated fire magic. And a memory sparked into the Demon's mind rather involuntarily.

After a fight, he asked Nelli about Spirit Blood, and she told him about how there was no spirit that would ever let their blood be spilled like that. Even if they were injured, they would try their hardest to keep it within or around them at all times, since it held quite a lot of capabilities while a spirit was still alive.

And so, since the blood hit the ground, it was obvious to Eiro that the current King S didn't see the importance of Spirit Blood, and as such wasn't controlling it. Trying to save as much of this blood as possible, Eiro had to use both Water and Fire Magic to move it around, compressing it into a small sphere as the Demon took a step back to observe this special liquid.

And just as Eiro was staring at it, something else interesting happened. As if the Salamander King was trying to finally fight back, he pulled away a bit and exclaimed something that would help him out quite a lot. 

"You have... been given a... gift from a Queen of Spirits... Use it already!" He exclaimed before the Letter S took over again. Immediately, Eiro's mind started to race through the few memories he had left of spirits outside of Nelli and Gondos, and he soon figured out what he meant. Once more, Eiro looked within himself, and soon pulled out the large gemstone he was given by the Lady of Winter. Technically, she was also a Spirit Queen of sorts. 

And then, the Demon realized what he had to do. He encased the gemstone with the Salamander King's blood and pushed his mana into it as if to activate it. And all around the Demon's hand, something sparked up.. Pale blue flames which were slowly being infused into his body, freezing the air around him.