DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro was once more sitting in the library, just reading a book he took an interest in, when someone came into the room to speak to him.

"Eiro?" Arc asked, and the demon slowly turned his head toward the young man, "Yes? Everything arlight?" He repied. Arc immediately nodded his head and stepped over toward Eiro, as he was sitting in one of the chairs with a book on his lap. Gobo and the Slime were both just on the ground, with the Slime helping Gobo out with understanding the words properly.

"I think I need your help with some magic. Can you come outside for a moment?" Arc asked. Eiro quickly nodded his head and placed the book to the side, "Sure. What's the issue exactly, though?"

Arc scratched the back of his neck annoyedly, although that annoyed expression soon turned into a light smile, "I just somehow can't get my flames to stay on my sword. It was specifically made for it, and I managed to get it to work with the wooden sword you made for me before, but it's way harder with this one somehow."

"Hm... That so?" Eiro asked, and Arc quickly nodded, "Yup, it is."

A little while later, the two of them reached the gardens, where Arc had been practicing the whole time. There were some scorch marks on the ground, like Eiro had expected. This just showed that Arc was continuosly practicing to finally get this done.

Eiro extended his hand forward toward Arc so that he would be given the Katana. It wasn't specifically made for Eiro, so he wouldn't be able to fight with it perfectly, but for this kind of demonstration it should be fine.

There was a small piece of metal placed right next to the handle. Basically, it was a replacement for the spark-snapper that Eiro usually used, so that Arc could actively create flames to make use of.

Eiro created a small spark and then first had the flames envelop the blade, "Let me guess, you didn't get further than this step?" Eiro asked. Arc quickly nodded, "Yup. And sure, that works too in a fight, but it's not the way that we've been doing it before, right?"

"Yes, exactly. Basically, this is a way of physical casting. Practicing like this is a good idea as well, and you should never forget about getting a little bit of time with it in. Even without the sword, just with your hands. Your own flames won't damage you, so you'll be fine in that regard."

"I know, I know, I've been practicing that like you told me. But I just can't get the damn actual infusion down. It's frustrating. And that means something coming from me!" Arc exclaimed with a light laugh, to which Eiro could only agree. Emotions like 'frustration' were also seen as a negative to Arc's skill, and so he didn't usually feel things like that. But usually, for Arc, emotions tend to stack up and then slowly flow over the edge. It was never anything like a huge flood, but a little bit here and there did happen. At those times, Arc's skill leveled up pretty quickly, so he wouldn't feel things like that for a while anymore. Either way, it seems like right now was a time when Arc's frustration was flowing over after continuosly failing what he wanted to do. Eiro should help out so that Arc's 'negative emotion resistance' skill wouldn't level up further.

After a bit of thought, Eiro nodded his head, "Alright... it's pretty simple, actually. It's exactly how you did it with the wooden sword, but much harder. The wooden sword was made specifically to let you infuse it easily. To get the basic practice down. It actively assisted you and pulled in your fire magic into itself for the infusion. This blade isn't like that. It has great capabilities for being infused with fire magic, but it's harder to break through into its interior." Eiro started to explain, "Now tell me, what exactly did you do to try and infuse it?"

"Well..." Arc started, "I tried to steadily infuse it first, but then I started focusing on specific spots and it started working somewhat with a bit of force. But never too well, it was just super unstable."

"Ah, of course it was." Eiro said. He handed the Katana to Gondos for now, while he then quickly created a thin wall of ice in front of him.

"Let's say this is the 'wall' that's stopping your magic from being infused into the blade." Eiro started, and then drew a small line into the dirt about two meters behind the ice-wall, and then stepped over to the other side of the wall again, "What you've been doing is basically this." The Demon pointed out, and without hesitation just punched the ice wall. A hole appeared in its center, that Eiro quickly squeezed and climbed through before getting to the other side of the line.

"You forced your way in through a specific spot." He said, and with a wave of his hand repaired the ice wall, "But what you have to keep trying is this." The Demon started. He took a step toward the ice wall and pushed his leg through. Slowly, he melted the parts that he needed and repaired them after passing through. Soon, he reached the other side of the line while the ice-wall was in a perfect state.

But Arc didn't seem to quite follow.

"So... What exactly does that mean?" He asked with a wry smile, "I just have to try and do it steadily, right?"

"Yes, and no. You've been doing it right to an extent. Some people try to infuse themselves or their weapons with magic by infusing all of their body at the same time. On the other hand, it's more efficient to push it all in through one spot, move it into your heart, and let your body naturally do the rest. That means that you were on the right track with focusing on one spot, but you still didn't find the right way to approach that. You were doing it with force, possibly damaging the blade in the process. Don't worry, it's not that easy to damage it, so it's still in perfect condition, but if you keep doing it that will be another story. You need to flawlessly move your magic through central areas, and then spread it out once you've reached beyond the 'wall'." Eiro explained quickly. He took the katana back from Gondos.

"That's the difference between this..." While Eiro spoke, the blade was once more enveloped in the flames like before, "...and this." All of a sudden, the flames disappeared, as if being sucked into the tip of the sword. A few moments later, it seemed like the blade itself was starting to heat up. The metal wasn't melting, but it was starting to move around, the edges lightly waving around.

And then, not long after, it seemed like the metal itself turned into flames. Eiro took control over those 'metal flames' and straightened the edges up. The blade was incredibly hot and sharp, to the extent that just holding it toward the ice-wall started melting the ice down.

"That's... That's infusing something? It looked way different for me the whole time..." Arc muttered quietly, and Eiro slightly started to smile, "It's a type of infusion, yes. This is a way that's more focused on enhancing the blade itself using the essence of the fire magic. It's a step beyond what you know so far. The way that you've been doing with the wooden sword so far, and trying to do with this, is combining the blade with the power of fire magic."

The next moment, all of a sudden, flames started appearing around the blade. They weren't just being controlled to stick to the blade, but the metal itself seemed to be the source of the fire this time, "Like this. It's easy to switch between that once you know how." Eiro pointed out.

Although then, he just had a sudden idea. He had been doing it so naturally with this katana, and to some extend with his daggers as well, but why did he never try this method out while infusing himself anymore. Instead of combining himself with the magic, just enhance himself with it. He did try this out before, but that was when he first learned how to change the way to infuse weapons or tools with magic. It didn't work then, and just ended up damaging him.

Eiro got rid of his magic inside of the katana and handed it back to Arc. He seemed to have understood a few things by watching Eiro. The Demon fused with Gondos and quickly watched Arc as he tried to control his magic, giving him a bit more specific instruction on his control of the mana.

And then, once Arc seemed to get a hang of what he needed to do to practice, Eiro started practicing a little bit on his own. So far, he didn't infuse his body with magic that often for actual combat uses. But whenever he did, then he did so using magic stones that he controlled so that the relatively pure magic would flow through his whole body immediately.

Whenever he used his own magic, he just cloaked his body in it for the most part, just lightly infusing his body, if at all. It was a quick and easy method that produced pretty high quality results. The reason for that was that he was never really capable of infusing his body with his own magic like with the magic from magic stones. It was always much harder, and sometimes actively damaged him when he wasn't careful... And even then, using magic from magic stones, that 'second tier infusion' as he just showed to Arc was basically impossible, it could only be done with your own magic, so that never worked on his body either. It just felt like he was ripping his own body apart.

But now, he was able to even fuse with spirits easily. Eiro pulled out his spark-snapper and quickly created flames using his magic. He tried to properly make sure that every part of the flames was under his control, and then pushed it into his left hand. He didn't want to break his prosthetic somehow, so using it with his real hand was safer for now, since that could be healed with healing magic in an emergency.

Eiro pulled the magic into his hand, and had it transform like he knew from infusing himself with flame magic from magic stones. It was like his body itself had turned into flames to an extent. And then, Eiro tried to push past that. He made the magic seep into Eiro's very being.

Soon, the flames disappeared and all that was left was Eiro's left hand. It was slightly waving around still, and when he tried to touch it with his right hand. There was barely any resistance, as if his flesh was made of foam. But it was still more solid than when his hand had turned into actual flames just now.

With a slight breath to get his thoughts and breathing under control, Eiro took a step toward the ice wall that was still standing so that Arc could practice a bit using it. He placed his hand onto the ice, but before he could make contact with it, it simply melted.

It seemed like Eiro succeeded in doing what he wanted to do.. He had gone beyond the regular magic infusion he was used to, and enhanced his body itself with the power of fire magic.