Demon's Virtue

Chapter 644: Partax Evergreen

“Partax… Evergreen..?” one of the guards repeated, as Eiro stood there, tapping his foot annoyed. He nodded his head, “Mhm. He’s here to meet me, but clearly, he didn’t really think things through.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Of course I thought it through, I just figured it made no sense for me to wait outside instead of coming straight to you! Not to mention, it was a good opportunity to inspect the next generation… get them into a better shape, will you?” Partax was brought back to his legs through the mechanical limbs that were sprouting out of his belt, shoes and the two small pauldrons sitting atop his shoulders. He rubbed his belly a little annoyed, as it was right where Eiro hit him. From the impact, it was clear that Partax was wearing some kind of armor underneath his clothes; he had barely taken any damage, even though Eiro didn’t particularly hold back.

Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose, as the Halfling approached him again, “What makes you think you can just come in here? Do you know how much you terrified those poor kids?”

“Terrified? I didn’t even do anything, you brat!” with a scoff, Partax shook his head, “Look at them, they’ll get…” he pointed out, before looking back into the classroom. All of the students were huddled behind the desks, or tried to hide behind the guards that managed to force their way into the classroom. This was an advanced class, meaning that all of these students attended the academy during the incident last year, something that clearly still affected them to this day.

Even Partax noticed their fear now, even if he hadn’t become aware without it being pointed out to him. However, instead of being sympathetic as you would usually expect, “…Kids these days, no courage at all.”

“Get out.”

“Huh?” Partax turned toward Eiro confused, “This again? How rude, really! First you hit me without reason, and then you try and kick me out? No, I will not budge from this place before you apologize for your behaviour!”

Eiro closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath. He turned toward the most senior guard standing near him, “Tell the professors that I’m going to take care of all the damages personally.”

The guard seemed startled at suddenly being spoken to in this situation, especially considering what was going on. Luckily, nobody had really been injured, and there haven’t been any damages either. At least, that was the case so far. Nobody’s eyes were able to keep up, as Eiro shot forward and grabbed onto one of Partax’s mechanical limbs, forcing him toward the large window at the end of the hallway. The rapid speed at which he was moving all of a sudden, or rather the force that was needed for Eiro to get to this speed instantaneously, cracked parts of the floors and walls, and of course the window that Eiro threw Partax through shattered into pieces as well. He made sure that none of the shards could injure anyone, of course, but it was still a shock to everyone.

Eiro covered himself and Partax in a mist of the Ace of Cups, and unfolded his wings before Bavet was even able to catch up to what was happening. The Demon shot across the sky, and before they knew it, they reached the manor. Of course, Partax, or rather all of the mechanical creations covering his body, didn’t like this either. They scratched Eiro, or tried to hurt him by hauling magic at him, but he was able to simply take the brunt of all of that without problem. Once Eiro reached the manor, he found the best area for this, and quickly threw Partax down into the ground. Partax was a Master, so Eiro figured that something like this wouldn’t cause any problems.

After pulling Bavet’s core from his chest, he threw it to the side, and the slime quickly turned into his humanoid form, “Dude, the fuck’s going on? I don’t understand anything, why-”

“Just go get Armodeus,” Eiro interrupted him, without taking his eyes from Partax, and the slime quickly obliged, wanting to get away from this situation as quickly as he could. After all, Partax was now also more than simply annoyed.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?! I take the time to come here, to teach you! You little brat! You asked me to come here, and when I do, you do something like this?! The disrespect!” Partax once more cleaned himself up, his face flushing in anger as blood rose to his head. But Eiro had actually calmed down by now, and was doing his best to keep cool.

“Merlin instigated an attack against the Academy last year, under the command of ‘The Magician’. Some students were kidnapped, more were killed, even more left injured. And the rest, traumatised,” Eiro said bluntly, and Partax was quickly taken aback. His red face seemed to return to its normal hue near-instantly.

“Merlin? That little kid? How would he-”

“Jealousy. He was jealous that you all managed to become Masters, while he didn’t. He tried to reach the peak of Arcane Magic, but ultimately failed. Then, he was swayed by the Magician, who promised to help Merlin reach even greater heights, so that he could become a Master himself. He did… a lot of things, at the academy. And none of them were good,” Eiro explained, “Most of the academy had to be rebuilt after that attack. I’m shocked you didn’t know about it. I remember the rumour even reaching the backwater town where we lived with Jura back then.”

This time, Partax’s face became a colour on the opposite end of the spectrum, turning a ghostly white, “That… I did not… Oh how foolish, I must apologize at once, I-”

“Don’t you dare go anywhere near the academy again. I’ll apologize for you, okay?” Eiro sighed, “I’m glad you came here, I really, truthfully am, but please, do not go near those kids again. Ever.”

Partax closed his eyes and nodded, “I see… I will do as you wish in this. But now, speak more of Merlin, what did he do? And where is he now?”

“…I don’t know where he is. Probably joined up with the Monster King’s army, or he was killed by the Magician, I don’t know. I tried looking for him, but haven’t been able to,” Eiro explained as he let out a deep, annoyed sigh, “Thing is, Merlin idolized monsters. Thought they were the peak of existence… or something.”

“He did have a strange fascination with the process of evolution… granted, even I found it interesting, especially after one of our own went through such a process himself. The look in his eye when he saw Armodeus’ new form, I don’t think I will forget that anytime soon…” Partax explained, closing his eyes bitterly, before remembering something, “Speaking of, did you just tell that slime to get-”

“PARTAX!” A rumbling voice echoed out, as the doors shot open, and a large dwarf came storming out, sweat and soot still covering his skin and his hammer still clutched in his hand. Armodeus ran out of the manor toward the Halfling, who quickly raised up a small brooch in front of his body, “Armodeus, brother! How have you been? The beard looks lovely, are you using a new oil to keep it that fresh?”

“Don’t change the topic, ya lil’ fuck! Bavet told me what you did at the Academy, you-” the dwarf exclaimed, before his path forward was blocked by a barrier. It was different to the one that Eiro broke through earlier. Stronger, seemingly.

But Armodeus didn’t care, he simply lifted his hammer, and smashed it down at the wall blocking his way. The air seemed to vibrate as the tool hit the barrier, and before long, the magic simply broke down into small particles, as if its bounds had been destroyed. Eiro didn’t see Armodeus show off his strength often, but… in moments like these, it still became ever clearer to him that this dwarf as well, was a Master of his own trade.

“Brother, calm down! The boy already explained the situation to me, so you-” Partax backed away, his scittering metal legs trying to build the distance as quickly as they could. But Armodeus didn’t care, “Even if the situation weren’t so strenuous at the Academy! I told you dozens of times, to stop breaking into places!”

“B-But, if I hadn’t, then you would have never gotten your card… this habit of mine is good sometimes, is it not?”

“That habit of yours made you a fugitive in seven countries!”

“Erm… nine, technically.”

“Nine?!” Armodeus let out confused, “Partax, why would you-” this time, Armodeus was interrupted, as a familiar sound could be heard. Large wings flapped through the air, and a large, white and golden dragon descended into the manor’s garden, towering over Partax.

The Halfling was stunned, and even his metal limbs were shivering at what was in front of him. But to his surprise, Armodeus was totally fine.

“This… Lognir, I’m truly sorry about his behaviour,” the dwarf said with a clearly apologetic expression. Partax looked at him confused. That cowardly Armodeus, speaking to a dragon so casually?

However, instead of concentrating on Armodeus or Partax, Lognir just annoyedly stared at Eiro. His draconic form soon faded, and he showed his human body, sighing loudly as he looked at the Demon, clearly still annoyed by Shimour’s visit a few weeks ago, “I know that you have warned Solomon, young Eiro, however… Please, do not make me come here every single time you get visitors.”