Demon's Virtue

Eiro looked at the map. He placed his hand onto it, and soon connected with it. The moment he did, he could practically feel his senses extend into every part of the dungeon. He could tell where the others were immediately, for one. It seemed like that smell of smoke Eiro caught earlier came from Krog burning down a section of this place.

And somehow, particularly Ariella was a fair distance away, though. Then there was also the space that Eiro had completely destroyed. It was a small spot in a random area of the map, scribbled on top of the paper wherever there was space. There were still some vague outlines and traces of it having been there, but the space itself didn't wholly exist anymore.

It seemed like there were some restrictions to what he could do. Despite what had happened earlier, Eiro wasn't able to shift the space around his party to move them here immediately. If there were any living beings somewhere, then he couldn't affect it at all, really, and that included all the monsters roaming around randomly.

Maybe there had been another trick to this all; they might have been temporarily erased from the perception of the dungeon map using the Author's Pen, as though they had been crossed out for a moment.

But the most bothersome part was something completely different... the Devil was nowhere to be found. Did he flee the moment he realized that things were getting dangerous for him here again? Eiro didn't know, but at the very least, he was certain that it wasn't a good sign whatsoever.

He might be hidden somewhere in an adjacent space that the dungeon map simply hadn't taken over; like tunnels stretching out underneath the tower. Eiro had sensed something like that as they were approaching. Old mineshafts that were now no longer in use.

That being the case, Eiro had to concentrate on the situation at hand. He had to join back up with the rest of the party. And even if he couldn't bring them here directly, he could do other things. He placed his finger onto the map, dragging the different sections along; rearranging them. Deleting parts that he didn't need, and creating new paths where it seemed useful.

Like this, the Demon guided all the monsters into specific, small areas.

He then created new hallways that would lead the party members straight here from where they currently were. Looking at the route that they were currently taking, Eiro removed the space that they had already walked, as well as every other option they had now.

They were really only able to walk in one direction, which would lead to the three doors that now suddenly popped up on the other side of this central space.

And now, they just had to wait.

"What happened?" Jess asked curiously, looking at the doors. She opened up one of them, seeing nothing but a long, winding hallway that descended into complete darkness, "Are these..."

"The others will come back through there. They're already on their way, it seems," Eiro pointed out, slowly disconnecting from the map. Being connected to it felt... uncomfortable. He could only move his arms, and even then just barely. It was like his body had been completely frozen; or rather, as if he didn't have a body to begin with.

Now he understood the side-effect of the dungeon map a bit more. The more you used it, and the more you relied on it, the more connected you would become with this space. You yourself would become part of the dungeon, and might never be able to leave again. Of course, that was something that only happened if you didn't have enough control over the artifact, or if you vastly overused it.

This was the case for most of the artifacts. He wasn't planning on using it all too much, but even if he does, he will only do so with the utmost preparation.

For now, him and Jess couldn't do anything but wait. Before long, Eiro could hear some footsteps down the hallway, carefully approaching. And then, he watched as the door shot open, breaking off its hinges. Behind it, Krog came into view, a war-axe in each hand.

His serious and concentrated expression quickly faded away into surprise, seeing Jess stand in front of the door, "Huh?" he involuntarily let out, as he looked over Jess' head and found Eiro standing in front of the large map and a mountain of flesh.

"Ah... it's not already over, is it?" Krog asked with a wry smile, but Eiro quickly shook his head, "No, it's not. We just managed to take over this space for now, but the Devil already left to elsewhere again."

"Well, things seem to be going well though, right? Where are the others?"

"They're on their way," Jess pointed out, smiling up at the goliath, "Eiro made hallways for you guys."

Krog turned around and looked at the door, "Huh, alright then. So you can control the whole place now?"

Eiro nodded, "Yes, I can. We'll dissolve it in a bit though, once the others get here."

"What's gonna happen to all the monsters and stuff?"

"Usually, everything that wasn't created by the dungeon directly would end up being stuffed into the original space, often crushing to death or destroying the original structure, but I don't really want that to happen, so I'll lead the monsters out first," Eiro explained, "I'll just put them somewhere into the canyon for now.

There'll definitely be some infighting and all, but I'll figure out what to do with the ones that survive once we're done here."

"...Recruiting some new monsters for your city, are ya?" Krog scoffed, but Eiro just shrugged, "Maybe, maybe not. I'll have to see. It looks like they were all heavily altered by Merlin using the Key. Or rather, the key's replicants."

Krog looked at Jess, wondering if he heard right, "Merlin? Like, crazy arcane mage, Merlin?"

"Well, at this point, he's a bit more than that. He's no longer an 'arcane' mage, but an 'aberrant' mage. His magic is... disgusting and twisted. Oh, and he became a monster, 'the Fool', actually."

"Excuse me?" Ariella asked as she stepped through one of the doors, overhearing what Eiro had just said, "Merlin became the Fool?"

The demon nodded his head, "He has. And... he's insanely powerful now. More powerful than the Devil, to say the least. He stayed with him for a while, pretending to still be under the Devil's control, and apparently used that opportunity to play around with some replicants of the key. Hence all the weird monsters you guys encountered."

Ariella's face twisted into one of disgust, "The Devil keeps doing whatever he wants, huh..? Turning one more into a royal, just for his own whims..."

Eiro looked at the nephilim, and shook his head, "This wasn't really just the devil's doing. Honestly, I'm sure he would have preferred if Merlin hadn't become the fool, because he must have been aware of the risk of losing that pawn. But Merlin was so obsessed with the idea of becoming a monster that he simply had to make it happen. freewebnøvel.com

Especially since the Monster King also saw Merlin's worth as a monster."

"Right, just... we need to get this done... Where is the Devil? If you took over the dungeon, then..."

"He's not here. But the only place he could have gone is below the dungeon. Originally, the tower only had two real exits, and that stayed the same afterward. I don't think he left through the front, so he must have gone through the tunnel below," Eiro pointed out, "I'll lead us there later, don't worry. We'll get him, I made sure to account for everything. Well...

nearly everything, I guess," he explained. The only thing that he couldn't have guessed was Merlin's part in all of this; or rather, the form that Merlin's part ended up taking.

Before long, James showed up as well, being the last to join the conversation. Eiro filled them all in on what they were going to do now, as he once more connected with the dungeon map. He shifted the space around, placing the entrance closer to the area now containing all the monsters, and then waited for the flood of creatures to leave the space. It was relatively easy to get them all out as well.

Eiro just had to use some magic. As an additional effect, the dungeon map was allowing him to basically spread all of his mana into the space, as if he was fusing it with himself. That way, he could cast whatever spell he wanted.

And just by connecting with the plane of fire for a short while, he could give the monsters enough reasons to want to escape from this space, for the sake of their own lives.

It didn't take long until there were no monsters left anymore. Quickly, he shifted the space around, pushing out the corpses of any monsters that were left within the space, until the tower had basically already returned to its original shape.

And then, Eiro disconnected the dungeon from the space, rolling it up and turning it back into a card that he soon placed into his treasury. Immediately, the space around them shook, as though an earthquake was happening beneath them. However, that was anything but the case.

The tower just truly returned to its actual original form, and Eiro's field of perception immediately shot throughout the surrounding area.

Luckily, things had gone just as he thought; the Devil was in the mineshafts below the tower.