Demon's Virtue

"You sure you'll be fine?" James crossed his arms, looking at Eiro as he sat on Lugo's back. With a scoff, the Demon looked down at him.

"Are you serious? You're worried about me?"

"Can't really blame me. You're losing... chunks everywhere you go. If it weren't for your flesh magic, you'd be completely broken apart by now," the elf pointed out, but Eiro couldn't help but simply shrug.

"While that may be the case, you don't have to be concerned. I know my limits better than anyone. I will return to the manor well before it's time for me to enter the next phase of my evolution," Eiro explained, but James didn't seem particularly convinced.

"Whatever. As long as you're sure, what do I care?" letting out a loud groan, he turned around while running his hand through his hair, "But seriously, take it easy for once. We just came back from doing something absolutely insane and you're already plotting the next big thing, right?"

The demon grinned, raising a brow, "I don't know why I'm so surprised. You know what I'm like better than most, huh?"

"Oh just shut it and get going," James sighed, walking up the steps in front of the manor as Eiro and Lugo got moving. It was the middle of the night, and Eiro was planning on already heading back around noon the next day, so there wasn't much need to say goodbye to everyone. He just brought Avalin and Leon to bed and then told the others he might not make lunch the next day.

Of course, since they were all clearly concerned for him, as nobody but the two youngest had missed Eiro's current condition, they would prefer for him to stay home, but he assured them that this was something he had to do. He probably wouldn't be able to visit the monster town for a while once he entered his coccoon, after all.

Lugo was moving fast over the roads of the capital's outer circle, and it didn't take them long to reach the outer walls. It would be annoying to wait for the guards to open the gates up, so instead, Lugo simply decided to jump over the walls. It was a low hurdle for him at this point.

Without taking the 'Ultimate Agility' that Eiro recently gained into account, and without any special spells, Lugo could probably run faster than Eiro could. Of course, the Demon could fly at incredible speeds and with the help of different spells, Lugo was no match for him, but Eiro could simply use those spells on Lugo instead now.

With that, it was possible for the two to reach the monster town incredibly fast, speeding through the paths and roads, jumping over cliffs and narrow woods that might slow them down. And so, before Eiro even knew it, him and his familiar stood before the monster town's entrance.

Instead of being blocked by just some boulder, it was now completely disguised with illusion magic that Eiro and Partax had worked together to permanently deploy here.

The Demon was able to open the gates with just a flick of his wrist, and he announced his presence to the guards with three simple words.

"I am back," Eiro said, his voice carrying through the tunnel that led to the outskirts of the monster town. He moved past the bowing guards and soon got out on the other side. This place that used to be the mines had been practically depleted at this point, so it had instead been turned into a sort of 'reception' for visitors.

Though, it was mostly just a military base for the guards that were protecting the territory's main gates. Beyond that, this place was also partially repurposed as a sort of temporary jail where monsters that couldn't deal with their monstrosity were kept, but it wasn't openly visible.

There was a space created a bit deeper within the mines where those monsters were isolated while more attempts at suppressing their monstrosity were made.

Lugo kept rushing through the territory, soon running down the road toward the main town, only slowing down once he got to the more busy roads. Most monsters were currently sleeping, though some of them were still roaming around the roads, fraternizing beyond the boundaries of their species, exactly as Eiro was hoping they would do.

"Bavet, you're free to go and do your own thing," Eiro said once Lugo finally slowed down enough, and the slime carefully slithered off the demon's skin, trying not to pull it off his flesh.

"You sure 'bout that?"

With a sigh, Eiro replied, "You heard what I said to James earlier, I can take care of myself quite well."

The slime, in his snake form, hissed slightly, "If you say so. Just call for me when you're done."

Bavet slithered onto Lugo's back, using the stag's antlers to get to a higher position before jumping off and flying away as a falcon. The demon continued to guide Lugo over to the town hall.

Luckily at this point, most of the doorways had been replaced to allow even the trolls to freely move around any building with high enough ceilings to accomodate them, so Lugo was able to accompany Eiro inside instead of having to wait outside on the road. Of course the demon cleaned his hooves before then, though.

Lugo tiredly walked over to a spot in the corner of the room, rolling up to take a nap while Eiro was taking care of his business.

Eiro made his way through the town hall. Mostly everyone seemed to be asleep, with the exception of one of them. Frankly, the one who should be sleeping most of all.

"Boju," Eiro stepped into the Highland Orc's office, where the blue-skinned young man quickly jumped up from his seat.

"My lord!" he let out, clearly not expecting him to suddenly walk through the door, slightly bowing his head, but Eiro quickly shook his head.

"Just stay seated. Why are you still working at this time of day?" Eiro asked, slightly frowning. He slowly walked up closer to the desk, glancing at the paperwork that was there, "...You've made a lot more progress than we've discussed."

The orc nervously lowered his gaze, nodding in response to Eiro's statement, "I... There were a lot of things that I need to prepare, my lord. With the addition of those humans on the town outskirts, tensions have been a bit high. Some of the monsters are struggling to hold back their monstrosity.

I've been trying to figure out a plan to have some of them go back to have it suppressed again, but the ones that we tried it with don't seem to show any results."

Eiro slightly raised his brow. Monstrosity definitely wasn't the issue. All different 'forces' had a distinct smell to them. Mana, Life Force, and Monstrosity, to name the three major ones that Eiro dealt with. Monstrosity reeked disgustingly like the worst sewage you could ever think of.

And now that Eiro had increased his perception stat a bit more, depite the fact that his body was breaking down, Eiro was able to say with certainty that the general stink of monstrosity in the air wasn't higher than before; it was lower.

Monstrosity was like a muscle. The less it was stimulated, the more it atrophied. The initial suppression of monstrosity through those special collars that Eiro prepared were just the start. It would get the monstrosity to a point where the monsters were able to live without being controlled by it, and as they lived their lives, the rest would inevitably shrivel up.

It would never fully disappear just like that, but it would weak to a negligible point.

"The problem isn't their monstrosity. It's their mind," Eiro pointed out with a slight sigh. He sat down on a nearby chair, as his legs were starting to feel a bit weak from standing for this short while, "Monstrosity isn't the only thing that leads to violence, Boju. There's plenty of violent 'people'; and some that are even worse than most monsters, all without an ounce of 'monstrosity'."

The orc looked back at Eiro confused, "What? Then... then why have they been acting like that?"

"Boju, most of the monsters in this town were either created by the monster king, or are their direct offspring. And those monsters were created with a specific purpose in mind. Slaughter. Killing. Taking over and suppressing people," Eiro explained, "It's not monstrosity that's the issue here. It's habit.

They're not used to being close to people without becoming violent. They need to get used to each other, and slowly but surely lose those habits over time. But it won't happen in a day. There's a reason I stationed so many servants near the humans' housing."