Demon's Virtue

"Please... come back quickly..." Sammy said quietly as the Imp left the room, before the Monster stopped for a moment and then just nodded his head in response. He didn't want to leave these three alone here, but it was safer here than out there, amongst all those Demons and Lords.

While the Imp hurried through the hallway toward the stairs, he finally took the time that he didn't have to directly pay attention to his surroundings to take a proper look at his hand. He knew that he could burn his wound closed by the way that meat sometimes stuck together when cooking it, so he was glad that this worked as well, but the Imp had to admit that this hurt like a bitch, even now.

His Health did recover again a little, although the Imp had issues actually staying awake for too long at the moment, meaning that he had to hurry as quickly as he could. Luckily, because it was Rudy who he was rescuing next and then the Priestess, he could give the Priestess to Rudy and then send him off on a straight path toward the town. Rudy couldn't be hurt, after all, and if Rudy made sure to try and hide from the Demons while he was running, the Imp was sure that he could trust him to make his way back to the Inn safely with the key.

And then, the Imp would go and get Arc back immediately afterward. Then they just had to go back to town and somehow wait for this place to return to normal so that they could get out of this horrid place as soon as they possibly could.

In the distance, the Imp could already see the place he was heading to next, although there seemed to be something else going on. There were even Demons gathering at the foot of the tower-like structure, something that wasn't the case at any other place until now.

Because he was pretty short compared to these other Demons, he could pretty easily fit through some gaps that were inbetween them, before looking at the ground in front of the castle. The Imp was quite surprised, as it was completely cracked up, although the rest of town seemed pretty well-kept.

But before the Imp knew it, he could see the reason for the cracked-up ground. Something dropped down from the area in front of the entrance to the main-hall, and that 'thing' was Rudy-Shaped.

Of course, the Imp wanted to rush forward and get him out of there, but he couldn't really do that in this situation. Soon enough, the Imp could relax, however. That was because Rudy simply stood up as if nothing happened. Sure, he was dirty and his clothes were nearly completely ripped up, but at the very least he didn't seem to be bleeding or anything like that. He was obviously terribly scared and was sobbing like there was no tomorrow, but at the very least there wasn't any direct danger to his life.

While the Imp was sighing in relief, he heard the Demons around him mutter amongst each other. "How amazing... It's not hurt at all, is it..?" One of them asked, and the rest of the Demons seemed to be saying similar things, before they started to quietly whisper one thing as if it was a mantra.

"I'm so Jealous."

This eery, creepy sound made the Imp shudder immediately, so he was sure to Rudy this was all far worse. And as if he was expecting something, Rudy slowly stared upward and held his arms above his head as if wanting to shield himself, but when nothing happened looked back up only to have a face staring down at him.

And that face belonged to who the Imp could only assume to be the Lord, letting his body hang down from an invisible rope as he turned and twisted his body to stand down while keeping his face perfectly in place, constantly staring at Rudy, who dropped down onto his back, startled.

Slowly, the Lord of Envy grabbed Rudy by the throat and picked him up before slamming him back onto the ground. "Why... won't... you... die?! Over and over again, I tried to kill you, but nothing worked! How envious, envious, envious I am of that body! Tell me your secret!" The Lord exclaimed in a mad voice, while Rudy was struggling to get away from the Lord's grip.

While grinding his teeth together annoyedly, the Imp tried to figure out a way to deal with this situation without being killed instantly. The Imp pushed himself back behind the crowd and looked around, trying to find any way to divert their attention, while in the distance a loud explosion echoed through the whole of the Demonic Town, still coming from the Lord of Wrath's and Lord of Pride's castles.

But somehow, if the Imp couldn't see the source of the explosion in the distance, he wouldn't be able to pin-point it on sound alone, simply due to the echo.

And as the Imp was looking back at the Demons in front of him, he noticed that they had turned their heads and looked at the explosion in the distance as well, before once again hearing some Demons whisper about their jealousy about the power that caused those explosions.

Through these three things that the Imp noticed, the echo, the diverted attention, and the jealousy, the young Monster came up with an idea that he hoped would work out well enough.

Slowly, he grabbed the Shadow Magic Stone out of his bag and pushed it against his chest while stepping over toward a hard-to-notice area, and then did the same thing as he did before to turn his body shadow-like.

[Your Body is being saturated in Shadows. You become quicker, harder to notice, and close to silent]

Immediately after seeing that notification, the Imp tried to completely reverse that third point that was mentioned in the notification, and stepped up behind the crowd. With a deep breath of air filling his lungs, the Imp prepared to use the trick of spreading air further for his voice as well, hoping that it would work, and yelled out a single sentence.

"I know the boy's secret."

Immediately, as fast as he could, the Imp rushed back into the hard-to-notice spot while his loud voice, which had become incredibly hard to find the source of as it seemed like it was coming from basically everywhere around him, echoed through the crowd and toward the Lord of Envy.

Immediately, it seemed like the Imp's plan seemed to work, and the Demons were looking around at each other to figure out who said that, and soon enough the Lord also tuned in.

"Who? Who said that?! Who knows this secret that I don't?!" The Lord exclaimed angrily, loudly stepping toward the crowd.

Of course, since nobody could give an answer to that, the already pissed-off Lord didn't react to this very happily, and before he knew it, the Imp could see ripped-off limbs and dead bodies fly through the street.

Without hesitating for a moment, the Imp rushed around through an alley until he arrived at the place where Rudy was laying, trying to make sure that none of the Demons were paying attention to him or the boy laying on the ground exhaustedly.

And then, as fast as he could, the Imp rushed toward Rudy and grabbed his hand and pulled him along into the Direction of the castle of the Lord of Greed, while the Imp turned around for a moment and yelled out once more.

"The boy is running to the Lord of Wrath." He yelled out as he pulled Rudy into an alley where they could hide behind some rocks and boxes, while the young Demon was peeking out, just to see the Lord of Envy rush through toward the Castle of that Lord of Wrath that was the first one here to nearly kill the Imp, before the Demon slowly relaxed and sat down onto the ground, while Rudy was seemingly just sitting next to him tiredly, just incredibly scared of the unfamiliar figure next to him.

Seeing how that might be confusing, the Imp stopped running his mana through the Shadow Magic Stone, slowly making his Shadow-Form disappear.

But even then, it seemed like it took a while for Rudy to recognize the Imp, as tattered and exhausted as the Demon was, but the Imp didn't mind that at all. He was just glad that Rudy ended up realizing that it was him in the end. And when he did, the boy immediately started crying, while the Imp tried to pull the cloak in his bag around the boy's body so that they could get moving quickly.

"Stand up." The Imp told Rudy quietly, and the boy did so with a nod. "We're going to get the Priestess, and then you will return to the Inn. Sammy, Clementine, and Leon are there waiting already." The Imp explained swiftly as he looked around the corner onto the street to see if there were any Demons there, and then quickly pulled Rudy along by his hand, although the Boy just looked at him confused.

"Wh-What? Can-Can't we go back to the Inn right now..?" Rudy asked, but the Imp just shook his head. "No. I want you to take the Priestess with you while I get Arc." The Imp explained, and Rudy just stopped walking, and the Imp was pulled back immediately.

"Please don't make me stay here..." Rudy asked quietly, and the Imp once more shook his head. "Greed Demons are different to Envy Demons. They stay to themselves and want to protect what they have, rather than steal it from others. Just wait for me in an alley, and I will bring the Priestess to you. Then I bring you to the gate of the town and head back to the last castle alone. Alright?" The Imp suggested, and while grasping his arm tightly, Rudy just looked down onto the ground, and the Imp took a step closer to push his head up, so that he could look him in the eye.

"I need your help. Please." With a clear voice, the Imp told this to the Boy, who just slowly bit his lip and nodded silently in response to this, while the Imp once more started to pull Rudy behind him toward the next place.

It might be a bit hard to get the Priestess out of the Castle, because she might be locked up or something, but at the very least he could be near-to sure that she wasn't dead or injured yet.. According to the book, the Lord of Greed took good care of all of his possessions, especially if they were Unique like the Priestess was.