"Lugo, keep running straight ahead." Eiro told his Familiar, who swiftly sped up a bit now that he knew he just had to go straight. And while Lugo was doing that, Eiro was trying to look around the area to see if there were any good paths to make use of.
"When I say 'Now', stop as quickly as you can, okay? And after you stopped, follow me again." The Demon said, and the stag slowly nodded his head. Lugo was an idiot, but he was smart enough to understand simple commands like this.
"Three... Two... One..." Eiro counted, all the whilst standing up on Lugo's back, wrapping his body in Air Magic before bracing himself, "Now!" He exclaimed, and immediately, Lugo slammed his hoofs into the ground and started sliding across it. Using the extra force, Eiro stepped on Lugo's antlers and jumped as far forward as he could manage.
The Demon caught his own fall both with the help of Air Magic to slow himself down a bit and Ice Magic to cover his feet so that he could just slide across the ground while keeping his speed. After then melting the snow, Eiro just started sprinting forward to follow Rumia to where he was going. He was already a fair bit out of town, so Eiro was able to use this terrain like the back of his hand.
He jumped up and reached a low-hanging branch, using his momentum to swing himself forward onto the branch of another tree that he was now standing on, and then jumped along all of the trees that stood between him and Rumia.
To Eiro's luck, the Baron wasn't the most agile person, and soon tripped over the uneven road due to the lack of proper footing. Of course Rumia tried to jump up immediately, but at that point, Eiro had already properly caught up to him. And to not let the fun end so soon, Eiro even turned into his shadow form.
[Your Body is being saturated in Shadows. You become quicker, harder to notice, and close to silent]
Eiro looked down toward the man that was just trying to run away from him, and then started to laugh, pushing air magic into his voice. This made Rumia be surrounded by a loud echo whose source he couldn't make out.
"Rumia~..." Eiro said with a light chuckle, making the Baron in question jump immediately. He turned around, trying to defend himself with the shield he was carrying from any direction that he possibly could, "Wh-Where are you?! Show yourself, Demon!"
"Oh? But you were the one running from me... And now you want me to be there?" Eiro asked, making Rumia's body shake even more than it did before, "Now, which is it? Do you want me to show myself, or keep running and die without seeing my face again?"
"M-Me? Die?! What a joke! How would I ever die from such a weak-"
"I saw your status, remember? I doubt it can change that much in a year. At least not in a town like this." The Imp pointed out, and could then hear Rumia swallow out of nervousness, "Ha-Hahah... That-That must have been a trick, right? There is no way a Demon co-could have such an appraisal skill..."
With a slight chuckle, Eiro swiftly agreed, "That part is true, I don't have appraisal."
"See? Th-Then-"
"But I truly did see your status. You could say I just have great Eyesight." Eiro explained, and then jumped down the branch he was currently standing on, simply landing directly on Rumia's shoulders, something that made that man flinch incredibly.
But before he could actually react, he already had the threads from the three of swords around his neck, with one of the three blades' tips digging into the back of Rumia's neck, another's tip digging into his throat, and the last one pushing itself into Rumia's mouth, just so slightly scratching over the roof of his mouth without actually cutting into it.
"I'm going to tell you a secret now, alright?" Eiro told Rumia, squatting down while standing on his shoulders while placing his two hands onto the man's head, just so slightly pulling it up so that Rumia would be looking at Eiro's face after he deactivated his Shadow Form and placed the Shadow Magic Stone back into his treasury.
"You remember the reason for why you came to ask for the help of the Ladies in the first place?" He asked, and Rumia slowly tried nodding his head, although he stopped when he felt the stinging in his throat, neck, and mouth increase, "Don't move a muscle, you hear?" Eiro warned, and then moved on.
"The reason was that the King of Monsters kidnapped the Holy Priestess, isn't that right? On the day that the Capital was attacked by [The Sun]?" He added, and Rumia's eyes started wandering in confusion and panick, before Eiro continued.
"The thing is, I was there that day. I got my first card that day, and it wasn't the Three of Swords I'm going to kill you with. It was the Ace of Cups. And using that Ace of Cups, and wandered around the capital as it was being destroyed, and instinctively ended up in a certain building. I was basically drawn toward a basket on the far side of the room I entered, and picked up a cute little girl with ever-colored-eyes without anyone noticing. Do you know what I did with that cute little girl?" Eiro asked, slowly removing the blade from Rumia's mouth to actually let him answer.
"D-Don't tell me..! Y-You killed the Holy Priestess?!" Rumia replied with a loud scream, but the Demon just leaned over Rumia's head and grinned broadly. "Wrong." He said, "She's still alive. She's the tiniest, cutest little girl I've ever seen. To be fair, I haven't seen many little girls yet. But in a way, you could say I killed her. The 'Holy Priestess' that you turned her into is no longer. Now she is just my little Avalin. My Daughter." Eiro explained with a soft smile, and Rumia ripped his eyes open in shock.
"Y-You are keeping the Priestess trapped?! You wicked beast!" He exclaimed, and Eiro just laughed in response, "I'm not keeping her trapped, you piece of shit." He chuckled while shaking his head, "I would honestly call myself a good father. I would do everything for my children. So hearing someone talk about one of those children, saying that she would have become a tool of war... One that would have to fight for the sake of a whole country without a say in it..."
Slowly, Eiro increased the strength at which he was pressing his hands onto the sides of Rumia's head to cause him a bit of extra pain while waiting for his answer.
"Y-You delusional... You are a monster! You shall not... ever hope... to escape death..!" Rumia exclaimed, and Eiro just slightly scoffed in response.
"What a coincidence. That's what I just wanted to say." He laughed, and immediately, the two blades around Rumia's neck and throat buried themselves in him and cut his head off, which Eiro swiftly caught with the third blade.
And as Rumia's head was hanging there, for just a second, Eiro saw a storm of something inside of Rumia's eyes.
...
[You have died]
[You have died]
[You have died]
[You have died]
[You have died]
[You have died]
[You have died]
[You have died]
[You have died]
...
"Wow... What a useful notification..." Eiro sneered as he looked at Rumia's head with a light smile, "Thanks for becoming my experience. At least you were useful for something, huh?" The Demon said, slowly turning his eyes toward the notifications that appeared in front of himself.
[Lethal Damage done to Rumia Legios Argenson]
[You leveled up!]
[50 Stat Points Available!]
"Hmm, in total I gained five levels through this, huh?" Eiro muttered to himself, and then just threw Rumia's head to the side with a light shrug while Nelli and Lugo finally caught up to him.
"Well then, this ended rather quickly, didn't it?" Nelli asked as she looked down onto Rumia's body, and the Demon just smiled as he climbed onto Lugo's back.
"I didn't really want to waste too much time on him. But for now... Lugo, run forward and then go right when I tell you to. I'm going to wash up before we head home." Eiro explained to the Stag, and they soon reached a small river with relatively clean water that Eiro swiftly used to get rid of the blood in his cloak and skin. Especially his wooden hand needed a good scrubbing, since it turned from light blue to dark red.
Luckily, this wood wasn't much harder to clean than actual skin, so he was able to get rid of the blood pretty swiftly.
"So that's really it, huh?" Nelli asked with a seemingly slightly sad tone in her voice, "What is it?" Eiro replied, unsure what exactly she was talking about. And as Eiro started to dry his clothes again using magic, Nelli quickly replied.
"It's just, ever since I've been contracted by Jura, I've been here for most of the year as well. This has basically become my home too. And it's the first time ever since then that I won't be seeing any of the Ladies..." She explained, so Eiro raised his brows surprised.
"Oh... I didn't realize this forest meant that much to you, I'm sorry." Eiro told her, but Nelli swiftly shook her head in response, "Don't apologize, there's no need to. I couldn't have lived here forever anyway." She pointed out, so Eiro looked at her with a light smile, "I see... Well, then let's hope we can find a new home after this. Because following what I just had to do in that town... I doubt we can return here."
"Most likely not, you're right." Nelli said quietly, "But you weren't exactly at fault here. I mean... you didn't have to kill everyone in the middle of town, but you did all that to get the town to despise you, so I get it... I guess."
"Let's just get back to the kids." The Demon said with a deep sigh, putting his dry clothes back on and climbing onto Lugo's back, starting to ride his familiar toward the place that they called home for the past seven years.
Once they arrived back at the hill roughly ten hours later, however, they were met with an unpleasant surprise. Eiro had heard that something was going on from rather far away already, and then tried to make his way home even quicker the moment that he did, and without hesitation pushed the house's front door open.
And what he saw then was something rather unpleasant, something he really, really didn't want to see. Leon, grasping his stomach in deep pain while he was bleeding from his eyes, nose, and corner of his mouth. His body was practically being ripped apart due to the seals, Eiro just knew it. And the reason why this went so far was very simple.
He had the bottles to get rid of the side-effects in his satchel. Immediately, he pulled out the box and grabbed one of the bottles meant for Leon out. Without even waiting for anyone else to say something or react, Eiro pulled the cork off the bottle and rushed over toward Sammy who was holding the boy in her arms to comfort him through this pain.
The Demon slowly grabbed the young child and sat him down on his lap as he sat down on any nearby chair, supporting the back of his head as he poured the reeking contents of the bottle down Leon's throat. Of course, judging from the smell they must taste horribly as well, so Leon swiftly started gagging. But Eiro slowly just tried to help Leon out some more and ran his fingers along the sides of his throat, practically forcing the liquid down with Water Magic.
And the effect came nearly instantly, and the negative reaction to the seals stopped.
