Demon's Virtue

[You have claimed a yet-unclaimed piece of hell. It has been registered as your Domain]

[You may exert a certain amount of influence over this Domain, shaping it according to your abilities, habits, and preferences]

[While you are the Lord of the Arcanus, you currently do not have any subjects. Gather subjects to increase your standing in hell]

---

Eiro glanced at the message windows, getting rid of them the moment they appeared. His domain actually stretched out a lot further than he expected. It was a ten mile radius from where he stood. Eiro noticed something in the area around him shifting and changing as his body seemed to slow to a crawl. He was growing slower and slower, and even his mind was being affected this time around.

If his senses weren't as powerful as they were, he wouldn't have been able to notice, but the Devil activated one of his artifacts, the stopwatch.

Since it was the original, and not a replication, Eiro assumed that its time-stop abilities were a lot more advanced.. That maybe it wouldn't just slow time down, but actually completely stop it. In that case, even Eiro wouldn't be able to do anything. But it seemed like the effect wasn't perfectly instantaneous, and Eiro had more than enough time to spread his mana throughout the domain.

Though, in reality, his mana was already in every nook and cranny of this place. He had become one with this space; one with the Demon King, with hell itself. Of course, just a small section comparable to a single hair, but it was still plenty for now. Either way, the ambient mana of hell in this ten-mile radius was now part of Eiro himself.

And so, the young Demon Lord just had to use his abilities through that ambient mana. It didn't seem like other Lords were able to do the exact same thing right away as Eiro was about to, but at the end of the day, he was also 'The World'. He could take everything into himself, and make everything his own. The world was Eiro's plaything, and he himself was the world.

And that also now counted for this small part of hell.

As time slowed to a crawl, the Devil frantically trying to close in on Eiro before the stopwatch's effect even truly actiated, a single spark of magic flowed out of Eiro's fingertips. A spark of holy energy, a magic that was so wholly unlike this place. Though, it wasn't just holy energy. Other magics accompanied it. Water, fire, earth, and air. Frost and Nature magics.

All the elements that Eiro had become most accustomed to were starting to flow into hell itself.

From underneath Eiro's feet, plants began to sprout. Waves of grass and flowers poured outward, and a stream of water formed between the ground, which was turning from flesh to dirt. The blades of grass danced in the wind, as a soft snow began to fall from hell's sky. And throughout it all, a soft, embracing light of holy flames illuminated the dark, unholy skies.

Before Eiro knew it, a writhing body laid a hundred feet away from him. White golden flames were crawling over the body's skin, as beautiful cries of pain filled the air. The devil tried to stand up, but it was clear his control over practically everything had fully slipped. Even the stopwatch's effect was deactivated as the Devil was unable to overcome almost every demon's bane.

The only one who wasn't affect was Eiro, who slowly stepped up to the paralyzed miscreant. Eiro squatted down, looking into the Devil's eyes. They were filled with hatred and fury and a fear of death that Eiro had seen seldomly before. With his pride, the Devil must have thought he would never be able to die.

For just a moment, though, the holy flames that ate away at the royal's body flickered away. The devil, in a last-ditch effort, attacked Eiro with a wave of pure, unalterated unholiness. His reasoning made sense, of course. If Eiro was a being that could use holy magic, then he must be vulnerable to unholy magic, right?

Well...

"You misunderstood, you poor, poor moron," Eiro pointed out, placing one of his hands onto the Devil's cheek, its fat bubbling and sizzling as the skin melted away, "I'm still a demon, you know? But I'm a being that the likes of you can't ever hope to touch anymore. Reaching out to me, and hurting my children were the worst mistakes you've ever made in your whole, miserable life.

But well, at least you've got one thing going for you. After this, the card of 'The Devil' will never see the light of day again. Once I kill the monster king, 'The World' inside of me will be released, but instead of finding a new victim, it will be absorbed by me. As will the aspect of the monster king itself. And then, I will devour every other card of the arcane. The Sun.

Death. The Fool. And of course, the one that made you, 'you'," Eiro smiled, locking eyes with the being that would soon cease to exist.

"Rejoice, for you are truly immortal now. You will be written into the records of the world as the very last 'Devil'."

A tear of fury, or maybe true sorrow, or potentially just fear, streamed down the cheek of that vile creature that Eiro regarded with such pure loathing, even a deaf and blind man would be able to tell. Eiro poured his magic into its head, using the magic he attained through Anura to steal this creature's knowledge and make it his own.

A tome with hundreds of thousands of pages appeared in Eiro's mental library, that the duplicates would soon parse through for useful information. And once Eiro confirmed that it was all there, he pushed his fingers deeper onto the horrible thing's cheek, digging through it with the ease of tearing paper.

Its body fell apart as life escaped its form, even its soul falling apart into corrupted nothingness, as Eiro held the skull of that thing formerly known as the Devil.

---

[You killed another Card Owner, and have taken their cards into your ownership yourself]

[You are now the Owner of the Ace of Wands]

[You are now the Owner of the Four of Wands]

[You are now the Owner of the Queen of Wands]

[6/14 Cards of the Suit of Wands acquired]

[12/56 Cards of the Minor Arcana acquired]

[Aptitude with the Fire Element increased]

[You have slain {The Devil}. The Monster King takes notice]

[Experience is being calculated]

---

Four cards appeared in front of Eiro. He scooped up the three cards of the minor arcana with one of his hands, and immediately grasped the card 'The Devil' with two of his others, immediately pulling it into his treasury. There, he sealed that card away into that same safe space where he kept 'Death'. And with that, Eiro was now had three cards of the Major Arcana in his possession.

A broad smile formed on Eiro's face, as he watched the creature's bones crumble away into dust, being burnt away by holy flames. He stood in hell, feeling grass brush by his legs. The smell of flowers entered Eiro's nose, and a cold winter's wind blew past his face.

Those things usually didn't coexist in the first place, but somehow, in the underworld, the realm where life had no place, a realm of darkness and the grotesque, a domain of a unique beauty was born alongside the death of a tyrant.

Eiro turned around toward his companions, slowly approaching them. He placed one of his hands onto each of them, and filled them with his healing magic, making their physical wounds recover as much as possible.

"It... it's over?" Ariella asked with a stutter. Toward the end, it just happened so quickly that of course she wouldn't be able to realize what had happened. One moment, they were surrounded by a thick unholy mist, and the next, the world around them was transformed as the Devil died in horrendous agony. Eiro nodded his head, "It's over. He's dead, for good.

He'll never be back."

Tears gathered in the corners of Ariella's eyes. She had been waiting for this moment for far too long. Eiro embraced her, holding her through her emotions. But as he did, there were a few more messages that Eiro saw appear in the air in front of him.

---

[Your never-before seen achievement has been recorded in hell's body]

[You have attained the title of {Demon Lord of Sin and Virtue}]

[Experience Calculations have finished. You have levelled up multiple times]

[You have reached level 100]

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