Chapter 581: Two Cards

"Why would I... why would I agree to that?" The mastermind asked nervously, knowing that she had little chance if she faced off against Eiro directly. But she needed to stall somehow. After all, a royal wouldn't suggest something like that if they didn't know they were going to win.

"Hm, it's simple. If the chimera you create manages to even put a scratch on my son, then I will let you live. Rather, I'm going to help you wipe everyone in that village out." Eiro said bluntly, "But if my son manages to kill your chimera, then you're going to have to cooperate and answer any of my questions. I don't care what you do beyond that, really."

Making use of the mastermind's nervosity, as well as his control over the domain of truth, Eiro made sure that his words seemed as truthful to the monster in front of him as possible. It seemed like her mind was slowly being affected by his words. It didn't take long until she fell for it, even if she did so a bit too easily.

Eiro watched as the mastermind held her hand forward. In front of her, a large mass appeared, slowly bulging up. The dead chimera that she had just created slowly faded away into smoke, and Eiro could notice some of the others disappear as well, "Make sure to use everything you can. Otherwise, you won't stand a chance against my child." Eiro said bluntly, slowly turning toward Rudy with a light smile.

It seemed like Rudy was quite perplexed at the fact that everything was working out exactly like his father said it would, nearly down to the word. Eiro continued pressing the mastermind to take anything she could in order to make this chimera as strong as possible. Soon, all the chimeras in the village, as well as the corpses of the ones that had already been killed, had disappeared in the middle of being stalled by Koperia's undead so that they couldn't kill anyone else.

Eiro looked at the mastermind with a light smile, watching as even her arm disappeared from her body. It was a duplicate as well, after all. And then, the Demon looked at the creature that had been created. It was a huge, mountainous creature. Rather than a chimera, it looked as if someone had thrown a bunch of minotaurs and tortles onto a pile. Shells and limbs were sticking out nearly everywhere, fusing together to create the body instead of actual giant limbs being created for this monstrosity towering at eight, if not nine meters in height. The weapon that the chimera was holding as well, was something created out of numerous duplicates of the Mountain Breaker to create a larger version of the original. It was practically fused with the chimera's arm, so that it could hit itself easily.

Eiro noticed the mana from the chimera's skill slowly flowing over toward Rudy, as the Demon couldn't stop himself but smiling at the fact that things worked out so easily. Every arcane card had a price connected to its usage. They weren't all-powerful.

For something like the Mirror of Duplication, it made sense that there were two main restrictions which Eiro managed to confirm by now. One, the duplicates couldn't move away too far from the user. And two, you couldn't create infinite duplicates. There had to be a limit of things that could be duplicated at a time. So by having the mastermind create a large chimera here, Eiro made sure that she had to get rid of all others, making things a lot easier to deal with overall. No clean-up, and no other bothersome chimeras to deal with. And most importantly, it revealed the position of an individual connected to the first restriction.

"Then let's start now!" The mastermind yelled out, clearly exhausted from using the mirror of duplication so much. The huge chimera swung its hammer-arm toward its own head, but Eiro quickly acted first.

He activated another magic circle that he had prepared earlier while Mislan disracted the mastermind earlier. A wall appeared behind Rudy, tightly holding him in place. Eiro didn't want to throw him through the whole forest, after all. Grimacing at what he was about to do, Eiro moved his foot forward, preparing the 'killer move' that he had in his hand, which he had been re-arranging his magic circuits for, while silently casting spells onto his arm.

Closing his eyes, Eiro punched his son into the center of his chest, right where he noticed the chimera's equivalent of a 'heart' being as well. Of course, the impact of Eiro's hand was completely stopped. Rather, Eiro's own hand was ripped apart, the pieces of the wooden prosthetic shooting outward while his arm was forced to split in two, nearly ripping out of his shoulder in the process.

The special barrier Eiro placed behind Rudy shattered apart, but luckily it was able to hold him in place. It maximized the damage, and made sure that nothing happened to Rudy by him being thrown through the forest.

--- 

[Rudeus Daemonherz -0 Damage]

--- 

Eiro smiled lightly, happy that nothing happened to his son at all. Well, his clothes were ripped up, but they expected that.

"Is everything alright?" Eiro asked, looking at Rudy, who immediately nodded his head while holding his father's shoulder, "I'm fine, but are you? You're hurt..." Rudy pointed out, all the whilst the pieces of the chimera's body finally hit the ground. Something of that size would have been too large for Eiro to kill as easily and quickly as the one from before through bloodloss, so this was the quickest and safest way, overall.

"I'm fine, it'll heal. Everything is alright." Eiro pointed out, as his flesh quickly proceeded to heal. Through his boosted health ability, Eiro's regeneration had become more powerful as well, so it didn't take long until his arm was fine again. He just had to repair his prosthetic later, since the base was completely destroyed.

"B-But how-" The mastermind muttered nervously, "You promised that it would be a fight between those two!" She yelled out angrily, as if she had been betrayed. That was to be expected, after all, Eiro practically forced her to believe in his words as the absolute truth. It made sense to feel betrayed after that truth turned out to be false.

"Oh just shut it, I don't care." Eiro sighed annoyed, as he pulled out his magical sword again, pushing off the ground. He quickly cut through the head of the 'mastermind', and watched it drop to the ground.

"Huh? Wait, dad, didn't you want to ask her something?" Rudy asked confused, and the Demon quickly nodded his head, stepping to the side as the huge chimera turned to smoke, while a card fell to the ground in front of the dead bird-woman. Eiro picked it up and held it toward Rudy. It was black and white.

"She was a duplicate the whole time. It makes sense, right? Why would someone with an ability like this just put themselves in danger?" Eiro asked, as he turned his head. Now, there were only a few beings left here anymore.

The half-dead minotaur and tortle, as well as the two creations carrying them. And the colorful, tropical bird sitting in a nearby tree, which was quickly trying to lift off to get as far away as possible. But of course, Mislan was faster than her, and the shadow-servant quickly appeared in front of Eiro, holding the tropical bird in his hands.

Eiro smiled as he took it from him, looking into the bird's eyes, "Hello there, dear original." The Demon grinned slightly, as a duplicate of a minotaur appeared next to Eiro, which Mislan of course immediately beheaded.

"Sorry, but that won't work anymore." The Demon said, "For now, let's just have a quick talk, alright?"

While Eiro was talking, the two huge spider-like creations carring the tortle and minotaur started to run away, apparently on command of the true mastermind currently held in Eiro's hands, but before they could, Eiro activated the magic circles he placed underneath them.

--- 

[You killed another Card Owner, and have taken his card into your ownership yourself. You are now the Owner of the Ace of Swords]

[2/14 Cards of the Suit of Swords acquired]

[6/56 Cards of the Minor Arcana acquired]

[Aptitude with the Air Element increased]

--- 

Eiro grinned slightly, as the Ace of Swords slowly appeared in his hand. The half-dead minotaur was apparently actually the owner of this card. The Demon activated the card, soon holding the heavy hammer in his hand, swinging it around as if it weighed nothing.

Clearly accepting its defeat, the bird stopped flailing around, and slowly turned into its humanoid form. An identical woman to earlier appeared in front of Eiro, the Demon's hand still wrapped around her neck, "What... is it that you want to know..?"

"Good to see you're finally cooperating." Eiro said bluntly, "I have two main questions for you right now. One... who sent you here? Which royal was it?"

The bird-monster locked eyes with Eiro nervously, "Who else..? Can't you already guess..?"

"Right, the Devil. I figured, but I just wanted to confirm." Eiro pointed out, and the bird grinned lightly, while Eiro squeezed as bit tighter to make her smile disappear, "Now. Do you have anything to do with a bird-monster the same as you, which evolved from a crow?"

Immediately nervous, she opened her eyes wide, which was enough of an answer for Eiro. He simply grinned, "Where can I find it?"

"...I... I won't tell you that..." The bird replied, and Eiro was ready to move on to torture instead, but then, something that the demon didn't expect happened. Inside of her body, a large mass slowly started to grow. She was duplicating her own heart inside of her body numerous times. At this point, she was going to die anyway, so Eiro might as well...

--- 

[You killed another Card Owner, and have taken his card into your ownership yourself. You are now the Owner of the Page of Wands]

[2/14 Cards of the Suit of Wands acquired]

[7/56 Cards of the Minor Arcana acquired]

[Aptitude with the Earth Element increased]

--- 

The bird monster's body fell down to the ground limp. Eiro could find out some other way. But really, that she killed herself instead of letting Eiro find out where the crow was... it was clear that they were really connected somehow. Maybe the crow would take revenge, now that Eiro killed this one.

Eiro watched the Page of Wands appear in his hand, and quickly stored it away in his treasury, the same as the Ace of Swords. Eiro had gotten two new cards... If nothing else, to Eiro, this made up for all those deaths.