DEMON'S VIRTUE

With a deep breath, Eiro let this new sort of magic flow through his body. Well, it wasn't directly 'new', it was just foreign to him directly. The moment that this Death Magic flowed through him, he could feel his whole body slowly decay. As if he was rotting, or mummifying, rather. His horns and along his bones in his wings, layers of thick bones formed.

It was like his eyes slowly disappeared and he got dark rings around his eyes that just seemed as if his eyesockets were completely empty. His body temperature dropped considerably, and his heart-beat was close to unnoticeable. Certainly, this was a perfect way to pretend to be dead if he needed to do so at some point, but for now, it just felt quite horrifying.

For one, because this wasn't the sort of transformation that looked bad but was incredibly strong, his physical body really became incredibly weak. It was uncomfortable, and it felt as if his bones could break just by taking a few steps.

Of course this wasn't the case, Eiro just didn't feel this frail in quite some time. After taking another deep breath that Eiro used to properly get his own body under control while he wasn't sure if it was really breaking down or not, the Demon looked in front of himself.

He looked in front of himself, and immediately noticed the probably most important benefit of this sort of magic after infusing his whole body with it. And that was that he was able to sense something new around him. He was able to sense Life Force now, as it was the opposing force of that which was inside of his own body at the moment.

Eiro could see the flow of Life Force through the bodies of the people in front of him, through the plants growing outside, and of course the vermin crawling around underneath the manor.

And on top of that, Eiro noticed a sort of distortion a few steps in front of him. They were directly above the urns filled with the ashes of the two adventurers that Eiro killed and fed on not too long ago. The Demon stared at the distortions and extended his hand toward them. Once the tips of his bony fingers reached one of these distortions in the air, he noticed something change.

It was as if a thin hand reached out toward him, wrapping its fingers around the Demon's wrist to pull him toward it. And just at that moment, Eiro's instincts overwhelmed him. He pulled his hand back immediately and let go of all of the magic that he had infused his body with before pushing himself backward.

His heart, that had been so weak just a few moments before, beat so loud that it felt like everyone else was able to hear this as well. The world surrounding Eiro twisted around his head and all he could feel was nausea.

If he didn't have such great control over his own body, Eiro probably would have thrown up all over the ground right now.

"Eiro, is everything alright? Are you sure you want to keep doing this...? Many of those that have the ability to infuse themselves with the elements have tried to do so with Death Magic, but it always resulted in their death or decline into madness..." Solomon pointed out, trying to warn Eiro once more, but the Demon just looked back at him with a slow nod.

"I'm aware. And I know why... It's the same reason why Necromancers in general always have a screw loose..." Eiro explained, "I've felt something similar before... I think... I see it every time when I kill someone." The Demon pointed out.

"What? You feel regret or something?" James asked with an emotionless expression, but Eiro quickly shook his head.

"No, that's not what I'm talking about. When you die... Numerous notifications will float in front of your eyes, all telling you that you have died. As if an infinite barrage of information was overwhelming your mind in the last moment that it was still active. Whenever I see that message reflected in the eyes of another being, a similar feeling to what I just sensed creeps up on me." The Demon explained quickly, "It's the feeling of stepping into a domain you are not supposed to be... You, or any other living being, at that. I can see how this can drive others crazy, but I won't be swayed by something like this."

Eiro pushed himself off the ground to take another deep breath, trying to get rid of that foul, rotten air that had gathered in his lungs just now, "Well... I still think I need a little bit of a break."

"If you can't take it, then just say so. Though, you know what's gonna happen then." James pointed out, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, "Of course I do."

And so, Eiro slowly turned around. He stepped toward the closest door that would lead him outside. Over the past few days, while waiting for Solomon to arrange it so that Eiro had access to the ashes of those two fallen adventurers, the Demon had infused himself with the Death Magic through the magic stone that the Ghost dropped many times.

Whenever he did so, he felt something similar as what had overwhelmed him just now, albeit in a much weaker sense, and not as focused and aggressive. Just now, it was as if the spirit of one of the dead adventurers had tried to attack him.

But whenever he felt this sort of thing, this sensation of pure death, Eiro felt better when he surrounded himself with life. Like plants, for example. Or the children practicing outside, anxious and excited for their first day of class at the Academy.

Eiro stepped outside and walked onto the snow barefoot, before slowly melting some of the snow that had gathered around the flower that he had found here in this garden a while ago, the one that was hard to influence even with nature magic.

He squatted down in front of it and stared down at it, letting his nature magic flow through it again so that he could feel the life that was inside of it properly. This was in a different way to how Eiro could sense Life while being infused with Death Magic, of course. Then, it was like his instincts were trying to tell him the position of everything that he felt uncomfortable, or that he should try to avoid. As if his danger-sensing systems within his body were screaming all at once.

"You playing with that flower again? That's kinda a weird sight, you know?" Arc pointed out with his regular smirk on his face as he squatted down right next to the Demon, "What's so special about it anyway?"

"I don't know. It just is. I'll let you know once I figured it out, but I think it has to grow a bit more before then." The Demon pointed out as he turned his head toward his eldest son, "So, are you excited for class tomorrow on?"

With a broad smile, Arc just started to chuckle, "Of course I'm excited! I'll be the leader of that whole school in no time!"

"...Leader?" Eiro asked with his brows raised, and before Arc could say anything, Clementine walked up behind him and replied instead, "Yup. He thinks that he's going to impress everyone and get lots of girls to gather around him if he shows off how strong he is."

"Oh?" The Demon replied with a light smirk on his face, "You want to show off how strong you are? Interesting. How strong are you, then?"

"...Please don't compare me to yourself, that would be unfair." Arc said with a serious expression, "I mean, I'm just starting my classes, and I think I'm pretty strong for my age. Right?"

"Hm... Sure, I'd think so. At least, you're more capable than the average person when it comes to combat. That's a good start. You didn't get the chance to level up much, but at least your skill levels are quite high because of how much you have been practicing. All of you, I mean." The Demon pointed out, "So I have to say, I'm quite curious about what might happen once you establish yourselves at that school."

"Do you really have to basically tell him that you want him to take over the school? I don't think it's good for his ego..." Rudy pointed out with a wry smile, and Arc looked at him smugly, "What ego? I'm the most humble person around!"

"Sure you are... Erm, anyway... Eiro, Solomon called for you again." The young man pointed out, and Eiro looked back at him a bit surprised.

"Already? It was barely a few minutes..." Eiro sighed slightly as he pushed himself off of the ground to head toward the inside of the manor, although after just a few steps, he already realized why it was that Solomon had called for him again.

A guest that was supposed to come a few days ago already finally arrived, and the Demon was actually quite glad to be able to see him again. He rushed inside and made his way to the place where they were waiting. And without any further ado, Eiro stared at the Elder Dwarf Armodeus, who was actively reprimanding Krog for the state of his weapons, while also obviously being quite curious about who made these in the first place, due to their apparent quality.

But then, Armodeus noticed someone tap his shoulder and slowly turned around, and stared at Eiro in his newest form.

"Y-Ya changed quite a bit, lad..." Armodeus pointed out with a wry smile, and Eiro looked the Elder Dwarf up and down and shrugged, "You didn't change at all... I think?"

"You think? So ya really did forget, eh?" Armodeus replied with a deep sigh, "How'd ya let this happen? Seriously, ye were affected by the spell of a mere demi-lich? I expected more of ya, lad!" The Elder Dwarf exclaimed, but Eiro looked back at him and shook his head.

"Of course not, I wasn't affected by that spell. My own memory issues come from the cost I had to pay through the activation of my Legendary Skill."

"Aye, aye, right, keep makin' excuses ya-" Armodeus started before realizing what Eiro really just said, "L-Legendary..?"

Eiro slowly nodded his head, "It's called <Supreme Demon>. The Salamander King told me that during my next evolution, it would become more stable and the cost would be lower as well, so don't worry about this happening again anytime soon."

"S-Salamander King..?"

"Mhm. I met him while in search for a Spirit to contract because Nelli and Gondos both forgot about e as well. And after absorbing a Spirit Gateway, I formed a contract with Sarius here.

"Yo." The Salamander said with a smirk and a wave, and Gondos turned his head to look back at Eiro once more.

"Lad.... Start from the beginning, will ya?"