Demon's Virtue - Chapter 665: Punishment

Eiro stepped back into the townhall, where the others were already waiting for him again. He dropped down onto one of the chairs by the table in the center of the room and crossed his legs, “Sorry, I sort of took my time on the way back,” he explained, and Gobo shook his head, “We also only returned a few minutes ago. Did you find anything else worrisome in the tunnels?” he asked, clearly concerned, but Eiro immediately shook his head.

“No, nothing of the sort. They were really just normal tunnels built by the cavern ants. The only thing that the Devil played with was the ant queen,” he explained, and turned his head toward the sleeping Kitsue. Her ears slightly twitched when Eiro came into the room, but she didn’t seem to give much care to anything else, and didn’t even move her head. Meanwhile, Rashi had leaned back in her seat and placed her feet on top of the table. She was holding a rough, wooden club in her hand that she was scratching into shape with her claw-like fingernails. That was, if she wasn’t using those nails to try and pick food out of her teeth.

Those two were sitting there and lazing around, doing nothing. Rashi at least fit in with her subordinates in that, since she was the leader of the trolls. But Kitsue? She was the leader of the Kobolds, and they were incredibly hard-working and did all of their jobs more than just well. Maybe it was because she was technically a different species, a Kitbold instead of a Kobold, but she simply behaved completely different to the kobolds all the time. Sure, all of the monster species’ leaders had their quirks, but both Rashi and Kitsue were the most bothersome to deal with at the moment.

“You two, get up,” Eiro said in a commanding tone. Rashi looked at him with her head tilted to the side, and Kitsue just barely raised her head to look at the Demon in the first place. He was speaking with two voices, one in Common on in the trolls’ language, so both of them clearly understood what it was he was saying, but they still didn’t react and looked at him as if he were crazy.

“Ah… guess I’ve been a little too kind to you guys lately… Maybe the issues I have with the trolls are coming from the fact that Rashi won’t show me any respect either…” Eiro pushed himself off his seat, and walked over to the other side of the table. He grabbed the back of Kitsue and Rashi’s necks and picked them up from where they were seated, before starting to drag them over toward the back of the building.

“H-Hey, it-it was just a joke! I was listening, for sure! I promise! You can let go of me now!” Kitsue pleaded, trying to tear away Eiro’s fingers. Meanwhile, Rashi was just immediatley swinging her club at Eiro. She did manage to hit him a couple of times, but that was mostly just because he didn’t even make any attempts at dodging. The club barely did any damage to him like this anyway.

“Oi, you’re being a bit forceful there! Usually I don’t mind that, but it doesn’t look like you’re planning on finally becoming my man, since you’re bringing that kitten along!” Rashi basically growled out with her whole chest, as she started to use Kitsue as a foothold to try and force herself out of Eiro’s grasp. But he just ignored both of them completely, and just continued walking.

“Erm… My lord, are you going to…” Gobo asked, walking beside the Demon with a wry, nervous smile, and Eiro just quickly nodded, “It worked the first time around, so why not try again? I feel like letting off some steam right now anyway.”

Following Eiro’s words, Kitsue’s body tensed up, and she became even more desperate at trying to escape Eiro, but Rashi didn’t understand the Demon’s words in the first place, which might have been better for her.

They soon walked out of the building into the back yard of the townhall. Out here, Partax was getting some fresh air while Mikey was asking him about anything that came to mind. Meanwhile, Mikey’s sister, Aria, was toiling around in the grass, just enjoying the fact that she was finally able to feel things again. However, she soon was interrupted in her joy, as Eiro threw Kitsue and Rashi onto the grass. Aria jumped up and ran over toward Mikey, unsure what was going on.

Partax approached the Demon, who was currently rolling up his sleeves, “What are you doing? An execution?” he asked. Eiro chuckled and shook his head, “Close, but no. Though at least in regard to what I’ll be doing to Rashi, it’s going to look like pure slaughter.”

“Rashi… that unique troll woman?” the halfling asked with a raised brow, “You can certainly get quite rough with trolls… Well, as long as you don’t tire yourself out too much. We still have some work to do later this evening.”

“I know, I know. This won’t even make me sweat, don’t worry,” Eiro said as a light grin formed on his face. He saw Kitsue try to crawl away through some of the overgrown grass, but Eiro quickly pulled her back to where she was before, and not particularly gently either. The two soon locked eyes, and Kitsue flinched.

“P-Please, I know I haven’t been pulling my own weight, but please d-don’t kill me… I… I…”

“What? Kill you?” Eiro raised a brow, “Why the hell would I kill you, that’s not going to help anyone,” the Demon sighed, and Kitsue quickly showed relief at that answer. However, a moment later, that relief disappeared as she felt pressure akin to being crushed by a mountain press down onto her body. She wasn’t able to move how she wanted to. The only thing she was able to do was hide her head underneath her arms as she cowered, “You might prefer it if I killed you, though,” Eiro pointed out, as he knelt down, carefully touching his fingertips against Kitsue’s back. She flinched, as if Eiro was trying to brand her with hot iron.

“Kitsue, when you first came here, I accepted you and your people despite the fact that you completely antagonized Gobo at every chance you got. Do you know why I did that?”

The Kitbold slowly shook her head.

“Because you seemed useful. You were strong enough to pull your own weight. And sure, you did well in the defense of the city, well enough that you managed to evolve again at least. But you’re not a fighter. You’re not a guard. You’re supposed to be the leader of your people,” Eiro explained to her, increasing the pressure he was putting onto her with his voice, helping out a little bit with some additional gravity magic. He continued to speak to Kitsue, explaining her wrongdoings and his own disappointment in her, as well as the consequences that come from her actions.

“Don’t think you’re going anywhere,” Eiro finally turned around, looking at Rashi, who was trying to just casually walk away while the Demon was busy with Kitsue. The troll continued to walk without looking back, not particularly bothered by Eiro’s words. And before she knew it, she wasn’t able to walk away anymore. Her legs gave out, and she could feel a pressure in her abdomen.

She tried to speak, but all that came out of her mouth were splatters of blood, “You won’t get a mere talking-to. We both know that’s not going to work on you. Not to mention, Kitsue will die if I do this, but you can at least hold out for a couple minutes before I have to heal you, right?”

Eiro pulled his hand back out from Rashi’s body. He had pierced his hand through her lower back and out through her belly, cleanly breaking her spine and rupturing multiple organs in the process. As soon as Eiro pulled his hand back out, Rashi fell to the ground, but managed to get back up a mere moment later as her body started to heal. Soon, she was able to speak without blood replacing her voice, “Isn’t that sort of unfair?”

“Maybe. But you’ve got to understand, Rashi. Right now, you and I are still monsters. And clearly, you’re holding onto that part of yourself more than others here. So, if you want to act like a monster, I’m going to treat you like one,” the Demon said, as he stretched out one of his hands toward Rashi’s arm, holding her wrist tightly. One of his other arms held her elbow, and the other two arms did the same on Rashi’s other arm.

And then, with some swift motions and cleverly-applied pressure, Eiro broke Rashi’s arms. And not just once, no. He continued to break her arms in the most painful ways possible. It was to the point where he could tell that his torture skill was gaining experience as he was doing this.

However, Trolls didn’t feel a lot of pain in the first place, so he would have to keep doing a lot more than this in order to make some proper impact in Rashi’s mind. And so, the next step after breaking her arms was simple. He tore them off, slowly but surely. The feeling of having your muscles and skin tear apart wasn’t pleasant, not even to a troll.

“Now, make sure you understand what your position in this city is supposed to be.”