Demon's Virtue - Chapter 652: Clash

Eiro walked through the hallways of the Academy, inspecting the area thoroughly in regard to the way that magic flowed through it under specific conditions. Of course, Eiro knew every nook and cranny of the physical aspect of the academy, but even he hadn’t tested the sort of specific things that Partax wanted to know.

The way the mana in the school’s walls reacted when hundred, thousand, or ten thousand units of mana were twisted both clockwise and counter-clockwise. How it reacted to those units of mana being transformed into different elements, mainly speaking of Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Light and Dark magic. And lastly, how the academy’s mana reacted to someone attempting to manipulate the mana of the academy to twist it into particular patterns or shapes. Eiro had to do each and every one of those things for every 100-step section of the academy’s hallways. Frankly, it was a lot of intricate and annoying work, but together with the help of some duplicates, Eiro was able to get it done much quicker. But of course, even if his mana pool was incredibly deep, even Eiro didn’t have infinite mana, so it did take him quite a while since he had to pace himself so that he wouldn’t run out of mana at any point.

At least all of this was for a good purpose. With all of the information that Eiro was currently collecting, Partax would create the Academy’s new security system. Something far, far superior to what someone like Merlin couldn’t even pretend to be able to create.

“What the hell are you doing right now?” an initially unassuming man walked down the hallway. The muscles in his arms were twitching, and his brows were soaked in sweat. Apparently he had to get a bit heated up during class this time around. It was Kristoph, a fellow instructor here at the academy, and most certainly the strongest individual within this place, following the Demon himself of course. For a moment, Eiro nearly wanted to call him the strongest in the whole city, but that wasn’t the truth. Currently, he had two Masters at his home, and even if they weren’t combat-oriented, Eiro wasn’t fully positive that they weren’t going to be able to hold their own against someone many times stronger than Kristoph. Shimour had beaten Eiro so thoroughly and most likely just scratched the bottom of the barrel, that he was certain that there was much more that was hidden by all of them. Even beside the Masters, Eiro was pretty confident that Ariella could hold her own against Kristoph as well. They both stood at the peak of ‘that’ organization, where each person within it strived for the highest possible individual power. But since then, since Eiro had completely destroyed that place and made sure that it couldn’t form in the same way again, even if they once again received support from the benefactors standing behind them, the Nephilim and Demon had trained together quite a bit.

Now, if the version of Eiro that he was when he first met Ariella, and the current Ariella, were to fight, Eiro would have no chance of winning. Maybe with a few tricks, and he was supremely lucky, but Ariella herself kept quite a few tricks up her sleeve. Now he knew of them, of course, but if he didn’t, some of them could make him sweat even right now.

“I’m… surveying the Academy,” Eiro explained in a simple way, not offer up much more information than that. Kristoph raised a brow and crossed his arms, “What’s that supposed to mean? Is something wrong with the buildings?”

“You could say that. We still only have the old security magic in place here.”

Kristoph sighed, “So it really was that… I heard that you’re planning on creating a new system to keep the academy safe. You sure you’ll manage to do that?”

Eiro shrugged, “Maybe, maybe not. Better than keeping what Merlin made around.”

“That is a good point. Though, that being the case… aren’t you making this system together with someone else that just invaded the academy the other day?” Kristoph asked, and Eiro just rolled his eyes. He knew that this was the reason why Kristoph came here; they barely interacted outside of class or faculty gatherings anyway, so having him come up to him like this was unusual, to say the least.

But the Demon also didn’t particularly care about Kristoph’s opinion in this matter, “So? It’s not like he knew about the incident.”

“Hah?” Kristoph was taken aback, “What do you mean, he didn’t know? Who the fuck doesn’t know about it?”

“A Master who doesn’t give a damn about the happenings of the world, I guess,” Eiro replied, and Kristoph stopped for a few moments, “Master, as in… master grade?”

“What else would I mean?”

Kristoph placed his hand in front of his mouth, “Someone like that just came… waltzing into the school…? And now you’re letting him know about every little nook and cranny of this place? What the fuck are you thinking?!”

Eiro looked at him with a frown, “Do you have something against Masters?”

“Do I- Yes! How could I not, you little- Masters are selfish and violent, they’re people that can bring change to the world! They’re more than strong enough to help in the fight against the Monster king- fuck, they’re probably strong enough to take out most incarnations of the Monster King on their own, but what do they do? Lean back and do whatever the hell they want! Merlin- His life goal was to become a master, and we both know what he did to achieve that!” Kristoph’s heart was starting to beat louder and louder, as his hot blood was pumped through his veins, into his head. His face turned red with anger, and he clenched his fist.

Eiro frowned, “You’re going to try and lecture me about selfishness? You were part of an organization that caused chaos across the continent, just because you wanted to become stronger. And before you say anything else, this time around, the Masters are actually helping. They’re going to teach me, personally, so that I can become strong enough to kill the royals and that damned Monster King once and for all. And what are you doing? Using all your strength to play with your thumbs while teaching these kids how to stand while throwing a punch.”

“Are you trying to piss me off on purpose, or is it just that your voice does that to me?” Kristoph ground his teeth, staring deep into Eiro’s eyes. The Demon shook his head, “No, you’re just a fool who can’t bear to hear the truth. At least I’m actually trying to do something good.”

“Good?! Did you forget about all that shit you pulled in the past? Killing people left and right, and-”

“If they don’t deserve the life they’ve been given, then I’ll simply take it from them. That’s what I still believe to this day. Yes, I used to be a bit more indiscriminately violent, but-”

“A bit? Is that all you call that?” Kristoph was taken aback, and held his hand forward, pointing at the man standing across from him, “Come with me, right now. Let’s fucking settle this.”

Eiro closed his eyes for a moment. If he still had a heart, it would be about to jump out of his chest out of anger at Kristoph and his words. So, he simply followed, and did as suggested. The two men walked through the academy, each giving off an air of anger that made any student or even the other lecturers avoid them as much as they could. But at the same time, it was something that made them curious about what was going to happen now. And so, a crowd soon formed, following Eiro and Kristoph outside to one of the training areas, specificially meant for high-grade combat.

Eiro took off his suit’s jacket and folded it up, giving it to a pair of mage hands so that they would hold it for him. He turned back around toward Kristoph, who was waiting on the other side of the training area.

“Rules?” Eiro asked, and Kristoph replied simply, “Pure combat. No big spells or anything. Physical enhancement is okay. No permanent crippling, and no killing.”

Eiro nodded, agreeing to the rules, “Whoever gives up first, or simply can’t continue to fight loses?”

Now, Kristoph nodded. Eiro pulled up the sleeves of his dress shirt, and pushed his shoes off his feet. He slightly moved his fingers around and pulled a bit of water out of the spirit gateway, which he quickly turned into a ring that he used to tie up his long, crystal-like rainbow hair. It always got in the way during a fight when it was loose. And it’s not like he could just have this fight in his demon form either.

Kristoph held a copper coin in his hand, and once he saw that Eiro was ready, threw it into the air. Both of them stared at each other for what seemed like forever, until the edge of the coin finally hit the ground. The onlookers weren’t able to tell what was going on, but before they knew it, Eiro and Kristoph clashed in the center of the field.