Demon's Virtue

Chapter 630: Shimour

Shimour towered over Eiro as he stepped in front of the desk, looking down at the demon curiously, “So, spit it out, why did you start looking for me?”

Eiro simply smiled in response, as he sat down, intertwining his fingers, “Do you even need to ask? Don’t you deal with information as well? It should be simple for you to come to a conclusion.”

“…Then let’s cut right to the chase. I’m not planning on teaching you, and I doubt the others think differently,” Shimour’s words weren’t the biggest surprise to Eiro, but he had hoped that it would be different, “Is there nothing I can do to convince you otherwise?”

“Very little.”

“So there is something after all.”

Shimour rubbed the bridge of his nose, “Listen, when we imbued our abilities into those tokens on Jura’s request, he already owed us more than he could give. We forgave his debts because of what he did for us in the past without expecting anything in return. But now, you are expecting us to teach you simply because you are his foster son?”

“I’m not expecting you to do anything. I’m just hoping you consider it, since I will use what you teach me to forever rid this world of the Monster King.”

“…Explain.”

Confused, Shimour started to listen to Eiro’s story. It was the first time that the demon had simply told someone he just met a thing so important as this, but he didn’t regret it in the slightest. In part, he was trusting Jura, and his sense for people. And otherwise, this may have just been a gamble of sort. Shimour was the Master of Stealth; he knew how to keep a secret. The only thing that Eiro was not yet convinced of, especially after the scent of monster blood mixed with the blood of a human filled his nose, was that Shimour was truly on his side. For all he knew, he could be a pawn of the Monster King, and kill him the moment Eiro showed to be any sort of threat. He could do so easily; and Eiro probably wouldn’t even notice that he died in the first place. Even after death, his soul may linger in this place, unaware of the fact that he passed.

Of course, this possibility was once more bridged by Jura’s trust, but trust could only go so far. Hence, this part was a gamble. However, as Eiro explained his plan, Shimour’s expression turned complex, “The Monster King, huh… its parent is said to be a shade, correct?” he asked curiously, and Eiro quickly nodded, “A shade and a goblin. Both advanced into the realm of the superior and unique through the help of their cards, ‘Empress’ and ‘Emperor’ respectively.

“Right, right…” Shimour thought for a few more moments, before making another suggestion, “If it’s really part shade, then it should have something called an ‘Essence of Darkness’ within its body. A particularly strong one, in this case. It’s this small crystal grown by its heart, filled with the most pure Darkness imaginable.”

Eiro curiously listened. A crystal growing by the Monster King’s heart? It sounded like the crystalized mana that formed in Eiro’s chest after his last evolution. Was it something similar?

“What is it that you want me to do with it?”

Shimour leaned forward, “Simply bring it to me. As a… payment for my teachings.”

Though he was curious about what this essence did, Eiro knew well enough that he shouldn’t ask someone like Shimour to answer such questions. It wouldn’t happen even if he did. Though, Eiro could already guess why Shimour wanted it. Even now, after reaching what is supposed to be the greatest peak above peaks, Shimour still searched for a way to move on beyond where he was now. He could already rival the Potion of Invisibility just through his raw power, and that was probably when he wasn’t trying that hard. Eiro couldn’t smell the slightest bit of exhaustion, and Shimour’s body still overflowed with an insurmountable degree of mana. What would happen if Shimour received something that he needed to transcend this point even further? The mere idea excited the Demon.

“Do you want me to draft a contract? One of my cards is the ‘Knight of Pentacles’, the ultimate domain of truth. I can create a contract that would force even myself to completely adhere to it,” Eiro explained, but Shimour simply scoffed, “No, we won’t need that. You’re Jura’s kid, I trust you to keep your promises. He always did, and if you inherited even a fraction of his morals, then that’s already enough.”

Eiro smiled lightly, “I’ll make sure to show I’m worthy of that trust, then.”

“You better. Then, let’s head out as soon as possible. Training you up will take a while, so say your goodbyes.” Shimour began, turning around as he headed to the door, but Eiro stopped him, “I’m not leaving this place behind.”

“…What do you mean? Then how do you expect to learn from me? You’re not expecting me to stay here, are you?”

“I already have one Master living with me full-time, and another that comes and goes as she wants, so why not?”

Shimour scoffed, “Hah, those two? Armodeus is nothing but a coward, and Koperia is far too easily swayed. You can’t compare their actions to the rest of us.”

Eiro leaned back in his chair. The somewhat uncomfortable sound of flesh shifting aside could be heard, as two large wings sprouted from Eiro’s back, as the colour started to fade from his body. Shimour could notice his presence fading, but not because he was using stealth. He was simply melding into the air around him, quite literally at that. Before he knew it, the room was filled with a storm that could only be compared to that of a hurricane. Books were pulled from the shelves and papers obscured nearly his entire sight.

Just a single page blocked Shimour’s view of Eiro, and when it passed by, he was gone. Shimour turned his body around as fast as he could, seeing Eiro block the door, “Before, I traveled through the shadows near instantly, a feat that is only possible in a small space like this. But what I showed you just now is simply the speed at which I can travel normally. As you can imagine, I didn’t have much time to accelerate either.”

Shimour’s face formed a grin, “Do you even really need our teachings? Even I didn’t notice you getting behind me just now.”

“Eh, I caught you off-guard, that’s all. Not to mention…” Eiro said, looking around the room with a sigh. He held his hand forward and quickly formed a complex spell pattern in front of it, before a flood of arcane hands came pouring out if it. Dozen over dozen of hands were now starting to clean the room up. Shimour looked around impressed, “How can you control so many of them at once, with such precision?”

“It’s not really that precise, but I pushed the task off onto two mental duplicates. ‘I’ am not actually controlling them, they are.”

“I… fail to understand what you mean.”

“Well, basically… Think about the voice in your head,” Eiro explained, “Now imagine you didn’t have just one of those voices, but about a dozen of them. They think and act independently, so I can concentrate on other things, but everything they do is still part of me.”

“That sounds more than just complex… but something I can imagine Partax to be interested in. Maybe if you can explain this technique to him for his studies, that will be enough for him to teach you Artificing and Alchemy,” Shimour pointed out, and Eiro raised a brow, “Is knowledge all that he wants in exchange for teaching me?”

“That’s just the kind of guy he is. I think his greatest goal in life is still to find the Tower of Books, a child’s dream. We tried to explain to him that it doesn’t exist, but he wouldn’t listen,” Shimour sighed, speaking as if he was truly concerned for Partax’s state of mind, but Eiro couldn’t help but laugh, “A child’s dream? Shimour, the Tower of Books is real.”

Shimour looked at Eiro with a pitiful expression, “Are you like that as well? I’m sorry to tell you, but-”

“No, I’m serious. The Tower of Books is real, and it seems that many planes have their own. I’m within two of them right now.”

More confused than concerned, Shimour frowned. It was as if he was starting to feel regret for his decision to teach Eiro, when the Demon rolled his eyes. He flicked his wrist, and a stream of water appeared out of nowhere, forming a ball of water, “I’m the Guardian of two gateways leading to the Elemental Planes of Water and Fire respectively. I have sent two perfect duplicates to those realms to increase my affinity with those elements, and happened to come across hints that led me to the towers of books. I’m currently in the middle of reading the books of the second floor.”

Shimour slowly opened his mouth, trying to complain at the ridiculousness of what Eiro was saying, when the Demon opened up the buttons of his shirt. Magic concentrated in the center of that convoluted pattern on his chest, before a crown of blue horns suddenly poked out of his chest. It was another Eiro, though this time around, he was perfectly fused with water magic, “This enough to convince you?” the head asked.