Demon's Virtue

Ariella held Hannah's hand as the two walked through town. Hannah was a curious child, and was easily distracted. And since she had become way less timid ever since Eiro had given her a new 'body', she was just running off into random directions. And Hannah was just a kid; she was fourteen, though her body was currently still that of a ten year old. Eiro and Ariella were hoping that her skeleton would grow when she underwent evolution, but for the time being, she was still quite small and could get lost pretty easily.

"Don't let go of my hand, okay?" Ariella said, squeezing her a bit tighter. Hannah looked up at her and nodded, smiling.

Truly, though, Ariella was absolutely shocked by the sight in front of her. Who would have thought that monsters could change and live alongside each other like this? This was a wonderful-

"Who are you?" a man called out to Ariella and Hannah. The nephilim turned around. It was a man with a scruffy beard and messy short hair. He looked exhausted, "How did you get in here? You're not part of our original village, and I haven't heard that new people were joining."

"Oh?" tilting her head to the side slightly, Ariella looked at the man. She quickly realized who this was, "Oh! Are you Marius? The humans' leader?"

The man took a startled step back, "I- How do you know who I am?"

Ariella realized what was going on. She was still wearing her disguise artifact, so this man thought she was a human. She quickly turned it off, and the spiralling goatish horns on the top of her head appeared, and the large feathery wings on her back flowed down, flapping for a moment before Ariella folded them onto her back properly so that she didn't accidentally hit anyone with them.

"You're... you're an angel?" Marius stuttered, his eyes almost filling with tears, "Are you here to punish us for siding with a demon?"

Ariella raised her brow. What was this about? Didn't he see her horns? Or maybe he was just willingly ignoring them. Curious to see what he was about to say, she smiled lightly, "Why, would you take such a punishment easily?"

Marius frowned, grinding his teeth together, "I... we, have made our decision. I was scared that we would be punished, but... please, let me take on the punishment for the rest of my village, I-"

Ariella started to laugh, shaking her head. She realized that she probably went a bit too far, "Sorry, sorry, no. I'm not an angel, I'm a nephilim. My name is Ariella, I'm Eiro's partner."

Confused and taken aback, Marius blinked a few times, "Partner? You mean... Lord Daemonherz works with the divine?"

"... 'Partner' as in 'Life Partner'. Lover," she corrected, "And do you not know what a nephilim is?"

Marius shook his head, "I apologise, but... no I do not."

"... Let someone else explain it to you. But the important part is that... no, I'm not a divine being. I'm just here as Eiro's lover. This here is Hannah, my daughter. Eiro's children are also wandering around here, so if you see some more humans, probably causing a mess, that's them."

"W-Wait, does that mean Lord Daemonherz is here as well?"

"Yes, but just briefly. We're not staying long," Ariella explained. Marius seemed extremely nervous, "Is everything okay? You seem a bit too... I don't know, shocked? I know Eiro wasn't here for like 3 months, but he usually just pops in whenever he feels like it. So you'd better just get used to it."

Marius carefully nodded his head, "It's not that... We were planning something to thank him. The last time he was here, he helped us out so much. We were able to get classes, and-"

"Hold on a second," Ariella stopped him for a moment, then placed her hand onto her hip, "Honey, don't listen in on this for a couple minutes, okay?"

She then waited a few moments until she figured it was safe, and smiled back at Marius, "Alright, now we can keep this as a surprise."

The man was a bit confused for a few moments, but slowly nodded, "Uhm... the Lord gave us so much that I cannot even thank him properly. He allowed everyone in our village to attain a class, and then he healed us. Gave some of us new arms or legs. He did something that none of us thought possible," he explained. Ariella could feel a warmth in her chest. Hearing Eiro be praised made her proud somehow, "I'm sure you are aware, but his ability to create new limbs is... marvellous."

Hannah chuckled slightly, nodding. Her voice was slightly tinny and mechanical. The voice box that Eiro had created for her wasn't perfect by any means, but it allowed her to speak a little, "We know."

Marius looked at Hannah confused. At a closer glance, he realized though, that the girl's skin had a wooden grain to it. Ariella explained, "Hannah is an Undead. A skeleton, to be exact. Eiro gave her a body so she could be the girl she used to be. So trust me, we know all about his powers."

"Then you must agree that this is something that cannot come for free. I know that the Lord's creed is to not ask for anything in return, but... we want to show that we are grateful. Because of him, our lives have already improved considerably. Because we were rescued from the Devil, I had asked permission to learn about demons, simply so that we could know the threat that we were saved from. And in that, it said that demon lords can be given strength through some sort of sacrifice, and-"

"You're going to sacrifice someone?" Ariella asked immediately, taking a step forward. As a nephilim, she was taller than the average person. And she practically towered over Marius.

"No! No, no, we're not going to sacrifice someone, but something! Uhm..." he was trying to find the right words, "The sacrifice doesn't need to be a person. Anything can be a sacrifice as long as it is imbued with meaning. A memento that has been carried along for generations is a powerful sacrifice, for example. Things that effort has been put into. And so... we want to sacrifice a portion of our first harvest. Some of the meat that we butchered from the animals we helped raised. Of course, just taken from the portion allotted to our village. We would not dare take from what belongs to the whole town."

Surprised, Ariella looked at the man in front of her, crossing her arms, "I see... I actually like that quite a lot. I'm sure Eiro would appreciate it."

Marius breathed a sigh of relief. Hearing it from Eiro's lover herself relieved him a ton, "Perfect. We were planning on doing it tonight, actually... Do you think he would like to stay to watch it happen?"

Ariella thought for a moment, "Maybe? I can ask him. And don't worry, whether or not you tell him won't make a difference, he probably figured it out already anyway."

"Oh... In that case, yes, please ask him. It will happen out in the field at the west of the town at dusk. We have decided on this sacrifice either way, so whether or not he joins, he will hopefully feel our sincerity with this."

"I'm sure he will," Ariella smiled, closing her eyes for a moment, "Oh, but do you know the actual ritual for the sacrifice? It requires some magic, so..."

"Ah... we are borrowing the power of Gobu for this. He has volunteered to be the conduit through which the sacrifice will happen. Apparently word has gotten out about our plan, and others are also hoping to make a sacrifice... so it might become a larger matter than initially planned," Marius explained. He seemed quite proud of this idea, having been the one that came up with it, "It was a pleasure to meet you, Lady Daemonherz. I hope to see you later at the ritual."

And with that, Marius went on his way, leaving Ariella and Hannah on their own. The nephilim wanted to correct Marius, since it wasn't like her and Eiro were wed. She wasn't 'Ariella Daemonherz'. Though then again, she didn't dislike it enough to really fix that mistake in his mind. As she was thinking so, Hannah pulled on Ariella's arm, asking her to lower her head so she could suggest something.

Ariella did so, and Hannah quickly whispered to her. With a smile, Ariella nodded her head, "Of course we can do that. I think I saw some pretty flowers near the outskirts of town. We can pick some that you can offer to Eiro if you would like."

Immediately, Hannah nodded her head, and the two quickly went on their way, with Ariella simply flying the girl to the town's outskirts.