Eiro looked at the woman on the other side of the room. She was walking closer toward Eiro in a casual manner, as if she didn't care about any of the dead bodies here in the room. She probably didn't.
"So, you're the one that everyone's been talking about? The guy that's breaking all the rules?" The woman asked, slowly sitting down on one of the chairs before crossing her legs. The letter on the tag around her neck was 'C'. The third strongest individual in this organization.
And Eiro could tell that this woman was strong as well. Really, really strong. It might be a troublesome fight against her.
He thought that the difference in strength between the letters would be miniscule, but... It seemed like that wasn't the case. The difference between individuals seemed to only be increasing more and more the higher their ranks.
For example, this woman was incomparably stronger than Evelyn. And she didn't even have a Card. Or at the very least, she was hiding it, if she did.
Although, Eiro was able to sense something else... Something similar to the 'vibe' that a card gave off. It was the first time that Eiro encountered something like this, but he was able to figure out what it was.
It was an artifact. But not the artificial kind that the people here were making... A true artifact that was different compared to the cards.
Those were rare in itself. So far, Eiro had only met people with cards. Maybe it was the flow of the universe... Fate guiding him toward where he had to be to meet more Card Holders, while carefully avoiding those with other artifacts.
Until now. Eiro didn't know what it was. Sure, he knew about other artifacts, he read stories about them, but the thing with artifacts beside the cards was that any transcript of them was destroyed or lost long ago. So any information that could be found could be fully true, utterly false, or somewhere inbetween.
Eiro's mind raced, and he started to think about what he was supposed to do. And he started by simply speaking, the easiest of what he could do right now.
"That would be me, yes. Sorry, but I don't know anything about you. Maybe we could change that?" Eiro asked, and the woman laughed a bit in response, "Wow, getting straight to the point, huh? I heard you were not interested in such things, but it seems that is blatantly false."
While she was speaking, Eiro started feeling that there was something off about this woman. He made sure to concentrate his control of the Domain of Truth onto his senses. But that wasn't enough. He began trying to see the 'Chaos' around her.
The space around the woman was shifting, it was off, like some sort of electricity was jumping off of her into the air. Eiro brought order into the chaos, and he was able to see who this woman truly was.
Or rather, what she truly was. Eiro let out a deep sigh, and pulled something out of his treasury. He threw it over toward the woman, who caught it quickly in response.
The moment the small piece of black wood touched her skin, the woman's skin let off slight smoke and started hissing. She dropped it to the ground, while her body was practically paralyzed for a moment as her wound healed.
"Now, before we continue, I think you should tell me why a regular woman has a bane. And why that bane is 'Unholy Energy'." Eiro smiled lightly, looking back at her. The wood that he threw at her was the special kind of wood that Eiro used to stop Avalin's holy energy from wildly spreading out around her.
"Hm, I think I have an idea..." The Demon muttered and looked around, "All of you, continue the work I assigned you, but don't move from your stations. If you do, you'll regret it."
Eiro moved his hand forward and pulled something out of thin air. A golden card with a decorated chalice on it. The card turned into the Ace of Cups, and Eiro poured the black liquid inside of it out and immediately started to manipulate it. The liquid spread out thinly and Eiro turned it into a very thin, ever so slightly translucent sheet and created a sphere around himself and the woman in front of him. And then, he froze that liquid so that he didn't have to worry about controlling it too much.
The people outside of this sphere were now unable to actively sense Eiro and the woman in front of him, but those two could still see everything outside without any issues.
And then, the Demon took off his mask and removed his cloak, "It's nice to meet you, Miss Angel. How come you're part of a chaotic organization like this? Ah wait... Angels aren't Monsters, so you must be a Nephilim. But close enough, anyway."
"How do you-" The woman in front of Eiro asked, and he pointed at his eyes, "You can't trick these two. Now, answer my question, if you will. You're at a disadvantage here. Remember? That wood puts out a neverending amount of Unholy Energy."
The woman grinned broadly and held her hand forward. A swirl of golden-white light appeared on her palm and quickly enveloped Eiro.
"And you must forget that a Demon's bane is Holy Energy, which I have complete control over!" The Nephilim woman exclaimedl. However, Eiro just stood there and scratched his cheek awkwardly. Sure, it hurt a lot, but Eiro was able to resist this much. This was nothing compared to dying while lit up through holy flames.
"You done?" Eiro asked. Of course, he also slightly infused his body with the Unholy wood that he just picked up to negate this Holy Magic a little bit. Usually, if Eiro was any other Demon, he would still be stunned by this and end up dying, but the 'stun' due to his bane was never a thing for him anyway.
That was probably an advantage of having an originally human soul.
"Wh-What, but how? You're clearly a Demon!" The letter 'C' exclaimed loudly, and Eiro let out a deep sigh, "Listen, if I wanted to fight you, I wouldn't have created this space where we can talk in peace. That threat with you being at a disadvantage was something I said so you wouldn't try and fight me either. So just calm down, stop hiding yourself, and let's talk." Eiro suggested. The Nephilim in front of him slowly nodded her head and pulled away her holy energy, quickly watching Eiro's skin regenerate in front of her eyes.
After that, two white wings spread out from her back, and two golden-white ram-horns sprouted on her head. Her clothes were deep black, creating a fine contrast between her outfit and her phyiscal appearance.
But not only that, it was basically as if Eiro and this Nephilim were basically the opposite of each other, while still having quite a few similarities.
One of them was the lowest kind of Unholy beings, an Imp, and the other was the lowest kind of Holy beings.
Nephilims were the offspring of Angels and people. If this happens, the Gods punish the Angels by making the angels 'fall' and become Unholy beings, while their children will be allowed to stay holy in nature, but will be seen as a 'Monster' in this world.
The parent and child will be unable to be together, or else they will kill each other just by being in each other's presence. It was a sad existence, really, but it was what it was.
The woman stood there and looked back at Eiro, who was just staring at her for a while, "Could you not look at me like that?"
"Sorry. First time seeing one of your kind." The Demon pointed out, "Anyway, let me ask again. Why are you a part of this organization?"
"Obviously because I want to be the strongest around, why else?" The Nephilim pointed out, and Eiro sighed deeply, "That's a lie. Sorry, I'll know when others are lying, so don't even try."
"...Fine. I'm here because I want to find someone. That good enough for you?"
"It's the truth, at least. Who is it that you want to find?" Eiro inquired curiously. The Nephilim stared back with a deep frown, "Alright, I don't know what's going on, but why should I tell all of this to a Demon? What are you going to do with that information?"
Eiro looked back at her and raised his brows, "That's true... I don't know why I'm so curious, I just feel like I'd like to know more about you."
The Nephilim took a step back as she heard the way that Eiro worded his reply, unsure what to say, but the Demon quickly continued on his own, "I mean, it doesn't happen often that you meet a Nephilim. You are the only race of 'Monsters' that are born without 'Monstrosity'. And I feel like you'd be able to sympathize with my situation pretty well, so we could probably get along."
Another part of it was that, when Eiro 'analyzed' her through Chaos and Truth, he was able to get a quick glance at what kind of personality she had. She seemed kind, she had strong values, and she didn't have any hostility toward Eiro. It was in his favor if he would be able to avoid having to fight her, and instead could just befriend her.
Nephilim, while being the lowest sort of Holy beings, were still extremely strong, so having her with him would help Eiro out quite a bit in the long run probably. He didn't know why he felt like he wanted to have her around though, he just felt like that.
"Eiro... What's going on with you? She literally tried to attack you, and you won't fight back? And instead, you're being really... nice..?" Nelli appeared next to Eiro, only visible to the Demon himself.
Eiro turned his head toward her with a wry smile, "Yeah, so? Something wrong with that?"
"...Please don't tell me that..." Nelli muttered, confused.
"Tell you what?"
"That you're crushing on a Nephilim..."
