Demon's Virtue
Chapter 43 - Sorry, I Lied

Slowly, the Imp took a look around himself, trying to figure out if there was any sort of clue toward replaceing out how to best distract or kill the Lords.

He didn't see any books about Demons here, or else he would have bought it to replace out more about himself, but maybe the Imp could replace something out if he just looked closely enough.

And just when he was concentrating on replaceing any possible clue, the Imp overheard a quiet thumping noise from further into the shop, behind an old wooden door, which slowly opened up a crack with a quiet creak.

"Wh-Who is there?" A voice, sickly and paranoid, asked, barely noticeable because of the low volume the man was speaking in being drowned out by the noise from outside. If the Imp hadn't been concentrating on what was going on inside of the shop, then he probably wouldn't have noticed it either.

Slowly, the Imp turned his head over toward the bright eye staring at him, before making his way over to the door to open it up. Maybe there were more books back there with this old man.

"D-Don't come in!" The Man exclaimed immediately and shut the door at the same time, trying to make it impossible for the Imp to come through there.

But the Imp wouldn't try and make another demon open the door for him again, not this time around. Instead, he simply stood there in front of the door. He knew that the man was still there, he could see his shadow from underneath the door after all, and so that the man couldn't see the Imp's, the young monster climbed on top of the counter.

And while this was happening, the Imp took his time to properly prepare for whatever might happen after this, readying his blade and his card as well. It took a while for the man to think that the Imp just left, and just when he tried to open the door to double check and stuck his eye out inbetween the door and its frame, the Imp jumped toward the slit that opened up and stabbed his dagger right into the man's eye.

The Imp wasn't trying to kill him like this, so he only pushed the tip of the dagger inside, and to his luck, it seemed like the man didn't die.

[Joffrick Johanns -317 Damage]

[You permanently blinded Joffrick Johanns' right eye]

With a slight nod to himself, the Imp slashed through the notification floating next to him, and while the man on the other side of the door dropped to the ground in pain, the Imp simply opened the door and stepped into the the room beyond.

He stared at the elderly man that was running the shop earlier today, now completely unclothed and sweaty, and of course also bloddy due to the Imp's own actions. There was a small bed in the corner of the room, right next to a bookshelf with some interesting-looking books on it, as well as a small table on the other side of the bed.

The bed itself wasn't anything special, it was probably in a worse state than the beds in the Inn room the Imp was in before. It was dirty, haggard, cut up, and most importantly, it was in such a horrid state now after having a dead child on top of it.

The Imp wasn't exactly sure what happened here, but there were some blood-splatters on the wall that the child's head was leaning against, and judging from how it was still running down the wall a little, that was probably the source of the loud thud that the Imp heard before.

But it was weird. If he thought about how one of the children he was with before was in this state, the Imp was overcome with indescribable anger that couldn't even be calmed if this whole town was burnt to ashes.

However, while looking at the state of this child here, the Imp didn't feel anything at all. Not sadness, not anger, nothing. This child didn't have anything to do with him, after all.

Nonetheless, once more, the Imp drifted off into the area of 'What if'.

What if this WAS one of the other children? The young girl that was laying there might as well have been Sammy or Clementine, and what would the Imp do then?

And with those thoughts, the frustration over letting that shadow take them away in the first place resurfaced, and he knew that something had to be done right here and now to quell that anger and frustration.

Slowly, the Imp stepped up to the man that was laying on the floor in pain, trying to pull his body toward the door, but the Imp stopped him and just pushed his dagger into the back of the man's leg.

"I need a book." The Imp said in a quite clear voice. He was there for a reason, so he had to act like it. But in response to hearing the young monster's voice, it seemed like the elderly man turned toward the Imp in surprise. "I-It's you! From e-earlier today, with those ch-children!" The man exclaimed, and with annoyance clearly written on his face, he slowly started to twist the dagger around in a circle.

"I said, I need a book. About the Lords." With a clear, angry voice, the Imp started to pull the dagger out of the man's leg, slowly pushing his mana into the Magic Stone attached to the handle to make the blade hotter, before once more stabbing the dagger back into the man's leg after noticing that the man was hesitating.

"Tell me know and I won't kill you." The Imp told him, and without a single moment of hesitation, the elderly man nodded his head furiously in fear of death. He knew that this monster would definitely do something like that to him, after all, the Imp already gouged his eye out and practically destroyed his leg without a moment's hesitation.

"Th-There's a book on the Lords on my shelf, the dark r-red one..." Trying to lift his arm toward the book he was speaking about, and slowly, the Imp made his way over there and climbed up on the different segments to try and reach it, before pulling the book he seemed to mean out.

After flipping through it for a few moments, the Imp soon saw that it seemed to really speak about them, so at least this man wasn't a liar.

Slowly, the Imp sat down on the bed, unbothered by the dead child behind him, and started to read through the book with utmost concentration, an act that more than just baffled the elderly man.

And on top of that, the man was getting incredibly angry at being interrupted and attacked like this now, especially when it was just getting good. If it was just sitting around there like that, then the elderly man would surely be able to do his best and try to overwhelm him, right? He maybe didn't look like it, but he did study under a quite reputable mage for a few years, and when he was banished from that town and couldn't finish his studies, he went to a monastery and learned Beginner Holy Arts.

The man never had a true talent for it, so he ended up not being able to push it past that Beginner Grade, but with his prior Knowledge as a Mage's apprentice, he still had a trick or two up his sleeve that he could use on a measily, weak demon like that.

Slowly, the man pulled his shaking finger in front of himself and pointed it at the Imp, carefully opening his mouth to whisper something while the Imp was deeply immersed in this book.

"Thie Zhur Argor, logris partus requim;" The man muttered, slowly drawing a circle of dim light into the air as he was speaking. He was repeating this multiple times while trying to finish the circle of light, and only when he was apparently done, he said something else. "Zuhr Gran."

With a big grin on his face, the man started to laugh loudly as the circle of light was starting to twist around in a circle, shrinking down into a single spot, before causing a bright light to shine outward, illuminating the whole room completely so that neither the Imp nor the man were able to see anything anymore.

The Imp felt a slight burning all over his skin, and there surely was some sizzling and bubbling in some parts, but nothing really threatening to the Imp. It barely did 300 damage to him, and the elderly man seemed more than just exhausted from this one.

Clearly annoyed, the Imp stood up from the bed and placed the book to the side, slowly stepping up to the confused elderly man. "How- you-you are a Demon! Nothing but an Imp! How didn't you die from this?!" The elderly man asked angrily, and the Imp started to grind his teeth and stared at the man in front of him.

If he could use these kinds of attacks, maybe he had something that could help him. "Anything with Holy Energy." The Imp muttered quietly as his skin was starting to recover from the attack, but the elderly man was still just too confused to understand, so the Imp repeated it a bit more lengthily.

"I want anything you have that has Holy Energy." The Imp told the man, who just stared at him scaredly, slowly moving his last good eye over toward a big box in the corner of the room.

With a frown, because he simply wanted to kill this man as soon as he could now, the Imp turned around and slowly opened the box up. Just from touching it, he felt slightly uncomfortable. It seemed to be roughly at the same level as the cloth around his hand, although that was just the box itself.

What was important was what was inside of it.

Slowly, the Imp opened the box up, and before he knew it, he was met with an air that in and of itself was already quite annoying for the Imp. It didn't damage him at all, but it made his eyes water pretty badly, and the Imp thought that was pretty annoying.

And so, the Imp slowly grabbed the different things inside of the box that might be useful to him. A small metal chain with an 'X' in front of a star-shapes surface on it, a small book that gave off a pretty uncomfortable feeling in and of itself, a staff similar to the one that the man from before had that the Imp got the white-golden magic stones from, as well as some bright white robes, once more also just like the ones that the Imp saw on that man before. Just after touching these things a little, the Imp could already tell that they should be more than just helpful to him if he made proper use of them, and immediately grabbed as many of the things as he could and stuffed them into his bag.

And then, with a smile on his face, the Imp stepped up to the elderly man, who was laying on the ground in fear as he was being approached, but then shook his head immensely as he stared the Imp in the eye.

"Y-You can't go back on your word! You said you wouldn't kill-!" The elderly man exclaimed, but before he could finish his sentence, the Imp pushed his dagger straight through the elderly man's cheek, cutting through his tongue as he was doing so before the tip of the dagger came back out of the other cheek, and the Imp just stared at the man, saying only three small words as he was doing so, slightly tilting his head to the side while showing his just sharp teeth in a grin.

"Sorry, I lied."