Eiro wrapped his fingers around Evelyn's ankles and crushed them immediately as he crawled out of the shadow. He could hear the loud cracking sounds echo throughout the area.
Luckily it was getting pretty late. It wasn't night just yet, but the sun was setting, so the shadow that Evelyn created linked up with Eiro's own shadow, making it possible for him to dive through and attack her like that.
Evelyn immediately fell down onto the ground as she tried to slash Eiro with her frozen blood.
"Hah, sorry, but that's not how it works." Eiro replied bluntly as he looked at the woman in front of him as he shifted around back and forth, dodging all of Evelyn's attacks. She wrapped her blood ice around her ankles and seemingly gave herself support while trying to heal herself as quickly as possible.
Soon, she managed to stand back up. Evelyn held her hand forward and let out a large amount of blood that formed three humanoid figures. The blood crystallized and turned to ice, although it was still clearly flowing in the center of these figures.
They all rushed at Eiro at once, trying to attack him with weapons made of ice. And sure, while they seemed like they were quite sharp, they were still made of ice at the end of the day. Eiro was able to easily defeat them by pulling some focused flames from the gate to the primal plane of fire and blasting it at these figures.
Although, he didn't even need to resort to that. The one that finished these three humanoid, moving ice-sculptures off was Sarius. While the Salamander didn't have an ounce of fine-control, he did have a lot of firepower. Literally.
The flames pulled out by Sarius were strong enough to immediately start melting them the moment they were created. The blood was pooling underneath Eiro's feet, or at least that's what Evelyn was attempting to make happen, but Eiro simply stepped out of the range of the blood whenever it came too close to him.
Evelyn was glaring at Eiro while the three blood-ice sculptures finally melted away completely, and Eiro himself just stood there. Evelyn pulled out a blood-red wand and used it to create a magic circle of blood in front of her.
But Eiro wouldn't let that happen.
He once more made use of the shadows in the area and dove into them. Luckily, the ones that Eiro dove into were connected to Evelyn's shadow.
And Eiro once more climbed out of Evelyn's shadow. However, this time, it wasn't the shadow underneath her feet. Rather, the shadows created by her whole body. The creases in her clothing, the way her hair laid, and of course how she held her body. All of these things created shadows all over Evelyn's body, as one would expect.
Those were the ones that Eiro chose to dive out of. A bit of himself out of each of the small shadows. Due to his currently technically formless body, Eiro was able to squeeze through there without any issues.
And just like that, Eiro's torso was now basically growing out of Evelyn's shoulderblades. The Demon smiled as he let go of his transformation in his arms and proceeded to pull Evelyn's chin upward.
"Peekaboo!" He exclaimed with a broad grin on his face, pulling his dagger out of his treasury to place its edge against Evelyn's throat.
"Listen, there's only one reason why I'm not going to kill you right here and now. You, as the 'Bloodstone Sorceress', have made quite a name for yourself as a powerful magic user throughout the the world already. Which is why I'm going to use you to build up the image as 'The man that beat the Bloodstone Sorceress'. Rumors would travel, and anyone that knows about you will soon come to know about me as well." Eiro explained bluntly.
"Of course, I'm going to end up as the Hero's companion anyway, so that's going to be enough publicity at that point. But before then, I want to establish myself a bit more as well." The Demon kept dodging incoming attacks from Evelyn, who simply glared at the figure in front of her.
With a growling voice, she said, "So? Why aren't you trying to kill me right now? That's going to give you 'publicity' as well, isn't it?"
"Are you a fucking idiot or something?" Eiro replied with a deep frown on his face, "Nobody outside of the organization is going to know about any of the fights going on here. If I want to establish myself, I literally can't kill you here."
"Eh~? Is that so? Then-" Evelyn started, thinking that she had the upper hand since Eiro couldn't kill her here. However, before she continued speaking, Eiro pulled the rest of his body out of her shadows and let go of his transformation.
He kicked the woman's back and sent her flying and sliding over the surface of the frozen lake. He manipulated the ice so that Evelyn would end up returning to a place near where Eiro was standing right now, "I can't kill you, but I can still hurt you. So shut the fuck up."
Eiro crossed his arms with a deep groan, "But it is a bit bothersome. I have the clear advantage here right now, and I'm probably stronger than you even in a situation where you hold the advantage. It would be a great chance to kill you at this point..." The Demon pointed out as he dodged another spear of ice made from Evelyn's blood.
"Can you do, for once, do anything beside that repetitive fucking trick right there? How was I ever scared of you, you're pathetic." Eiro grumbled annoyedly, "But that's not the point."
With a swift movement, Eiro pressed his foot into the ice and made it swallow up Evelyn. Of course, she wasn't fully swallowed by the ice. Rahter, just her limbs were directly affected. Since she was an Ice Mage, she should have a fair amount of resistance against the cold. It seemed like she was trying to manipulate the ice around her limbs to escape, but since Eiro's mana was still in those areas, that clearly didn't work out.
Slowly, as she was trapped there, unable to move and completely defenseless, Eiro approached her. With a curious and excited grin, he stepped up to her. He could see Evelyn squirming in disgust at what she assumed was about to happen.
Eiro carefully held his hand out to Evelyn's chest, and the woman pressed her eyes shut. But nothing happened.
"Hm, so it's the same runes, then. Interesting. I understand the patterns, but if I don't know what the runes themselves mean... How bothersome." Eiro muttered as he took a closer look at the 'Bloodstone' card that was set into the necklace that Evelyn was wearing. He hadn't gotten a chance to look at its backside until now. There seemed to be a bit of a more highly-concentrated cluster of runes placed there, as he had expected, so this was valuable knowledge if Eiro wanted to figure out how to improve upon the Card Items somehow, or how to create the 'artificial artifacts'.
Evelyn slowly opened her eyes and looked at Eiro confused. She could see the Demon's bloodflow, so she knew for sure... "You're really not interested in my body?" Evelyn asked, "Don't tell me you can only get turned on from those chi-"
"Shut up. Don't you dare finish that sentence." Eiro interrupted the woman in front of him, "I already told you I don't feel any sexual urges in the slightest, but it seems like you didn't listen to me then. Not that it matters, you'll be dead in a few months anyway."
"And why aren't you stealing my Bloodstone? You clearly want it." Evelyn asked with a glare.
Eiro looked back at her as if it was obvious, although his expression couldn't be seen from underneath the mask anyway, "Because then when I beat you publicly, people may say that it's because you didn't have your Bloodstone. That's why. I want you to be at your full power. Actually, I want to give you a situation where you're in the clear advantage, while I give myself an obvious handicap. If it means I can humiliate you like that, I don't mind the risk connected to that at all."
Suddenly, in the distance, Eiro heard some other people approach, "Now shut the fuck up, I have some more guests." Eiro pointed out as he picked up his cloak and wore it again, so that it would be harder for others to recognize his armor as the same kind that was shown during the performance at school.
However these thoughts quickly were pushed into the background. Judging from Evelyn's reaction to the person approaching, Eiro concluded that this man was a Letter as well. And soon, he noticed the tag that he was carrying with him in his hand, to show it to Eiro.
He was the Letter 'M'. Meaning, he was stronger than Evelyn, the current Letter 'Q'.
"So, you are the one that killed one of our own, and now you even trapped the Bloodstone Sorceress? How intriguing!"
"Is it? I don't really care. Let's just start, shall we?" Eiro suggested bluntly. He didn't care for who this person was, at the end of the day. He just wanted to kill him and raise his rank to become a Letter as well. After all, the 'ranking system' worked that way. The rules that one had to become 'Number 1' to challenge the 'Letter Z' were not directly included in that. That was something invented by the 'Organization' itself.
You could technically challenge the Letters whenever you wanted, and if you killed them, you would rise in rank depending on who you killed. If Eiro had immediately killed the Letter 'A', he would probably have become a letter instantly as well.
However, the man in front of Eiro just laughed slightly, "Sorry, but I don't think that will be necessary. I didn't come here to fight you! Rather, I wanted to invite you! Invite you to fight alongside me and take over this organization.
Eiro looked at the man surprised. He was telling the truth. He also wanted to take the organization over, and wanted Eiro's help with that.
"Interesting. Why do you want to take it over?" Eiro asked bluntly, and the man softly smiled, "It's simple. I love conquering things. Whether woman or man, whether in combat or love, as long as I can make them mine, I will engage. Now, here we have it... An organization made up of the strongest people of this world? I wonder how amazing it would feel to conquer!"
