DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro took a step forward to get a better angle while looking at this book that Armodeus was holding. With a curious expression, as he had never before seen anything like a true grimoire before, the Demon leaned forward to find a difference to a normal book.

And rather quickly, he did find something. Although, it wasn't the thing that he had intended on finding, really. What he happened to rather randomly uncover was a gut feeling of sorts. As if he had seen something similar before. And then, it clicked in his mind.

It was something that he hadn't really thought about all that much because his mind had to be focused on literally everything and anything else, so he could still remember it to an extent... But it was the book that Eiro had found at that store. The one that had an incredibly large amount of magic imbued into it for some reason.

Slowly, Eiro extended his hand forward and moved his hands in a motion that was like he pulled a book out of a shelf, and the small, dirty leather-book appeared in his hand.

"Hm? What's that?" Armodeus asked a bit surprised. He thought Eiro would pull out some amazing item judging from his expression just now, but all it was was a small, tattered leather notebook, it seemed.

"...I think it might be a grimoire. Although I don't know if..." Eiro muttered quietly, and slowly turned his head toward the side, where he could see three figures floating casually next to each other. They seemed a bit exhausted for some reason, but Eiro didn't really let them rest too much for now, considering how important this was.

Well, at the very least, he didn't let one of them rest.

"Gondos, come please." The Demon said, and the Golem looked at him a bit surprised before nodding his head, "Of course..." He replied, although another one of the three became rather annoyed at that.

"Oi, why're you fusing with him? It works just as well with me, right? If not better!" Sarius exclaimed, and Eiro just glared at him for a brief moment, "You all have your strengths and weaknesses. Nelli has extreme control over her abilities and a vast array of knowledge, but she lacks in the Combat Magic department. Gondos has amazing perceptive abilities, which is why I chose him, but he has neither fine control over his abilities nor particularly strong Combat Magic. And you, Sarius... You're powerful, but you're neither very perceptive, nor do you have even an ounce of control over your own magic. On top of that, you're a rash, angry idiot, and that's not a very good combo with my own personality. So, bluntly, for this, you don't 'work just as well'." The Demon replied in a clear tone as he stretched his hand out.

With a smug expression while looking back at Sarius, the Elemental Spirit fused with Eiro rather quickly, and the Demon was able to confirm his suspicions immediately.

There were a lot of parts that were incredibly similar about these two books. If one of them was a grimoire, then without a doubt, so was the other. But still, the small, tattered notebook-like grimoire had something else about it that was rather interesting.

Again, it was as if this book was supposed to pull in a part of the Demon's body, mind or soul, although Eiro still couldn't tell which of these it was supposed to even be.

"Lad, what did you just- Ah, you know what, I'll just stop asking..." Armodeus sighed deeply. He was a bit surprised when he saw that Erio fused with Gondos, but at this point, he just accepted that he would continue seeing rather weird things if he kept sticking around Eiro. Hence, it became close to normal in this environment within a few seconds.

"Could I take a look for a second?" The Craftsman asked instead, "Ya can take a glance at Achidmedis' Grimoire, if ya want. You can't use Space Magic, but at the very least, there should be some benefitial methods in there for you to use." Armodeus suggested with a smile on his face.

Immediately, Eiro nodded his head. He didn't get that many chances to observe a book like this more closely. As Armodeus said, it might be beneficial to him if he figured out how exactly these probably quite unique spells were created in the first place.

You can't create abilities like that without immense dedication and time, so there has to be some sort of progress for that as well, that Eiro could potentially use for his own spells. After all, considering the amount of Magical Elements that Eiro could make use of, and the ways that he had learned to use them individually, Eiro would need some special spells to properly make use of them to the full extent. This grimoire might be an incredible help for that.

Eiro was pretty glad that Armodeus trusted him enough with this memento that one of his dearest friends had left behind, though. That was a pretty good feeling, as far as he was concerned.

However, just as Armodeus was handing over the Grimoire to him while the Demon handed the small book over to the craftsman himself. The two books collided for just a moment, rubbing their leather surfaces together briefly. It was really just for a single moment, but it seemed like that single moment was more than just enough for what happened next.

Eiro saw the magics that were infused into the two books suddenly fuse with each other. Or rather, the small, outwardly unassuming book absorbed the magic of the other grimoire.

And a moment later... The grimoire that Armodeus wanted to give to Eiro just now became a regular old book. It still had all the regular information written inside of it, but it simply stopped working in the way that a Grimoire was supposed to work. It seemed like it had suddenly aged a couple of years as well, where parts of it suddenly dried up and crumbled a slight bit.

As for the small booklet that Eiro had with him... That changed a bit more, albeit in a positive way. Before, the small grimoire looked as if it was about to fall apart into dust if one just blew on it. But now, while it clearly still looked to be rather aged and not in peak condition, it wasn't as bad as it was before. The few colors that the leather was dyed with before seemed to slowly return into vibrancy, although it was just a miniscule change that most probably didn't even notice in the first place.

"...Alright, what just happened? What did ya do?" The Elder Dwarf in front of Eiro asked with a deep frown, and Eiro looked back at him with a confused expression himself, "I don't really know... I think this book absorbed the magic of that grimoire just now..."

And then, it suddenly clicked with Eiro. Right now, the book was surely filled with magic, but not even close to the amount that it had been before. Back then, the book was like some sort of beacon, most likely after absorbing a large part of the magically-enhanced storm that was happening outside at the time. But now, while it still held a lot of powerful magic, it was far less than before. More reasonable, to an extent.

Eiro stared down at the book and slowly flipped it open. The moment that he did, he noticed that there was suddenly writing in here. Writing that was supported magically, as if this was exactly the content that was supposed to be in the other grimoire. Like it was a copy, but the magic from the original piece was stolen instead.

"This is kind of weird..." Eiro muttered quietly as he looked down at the book, and Armodeus asked something that was on his mind, "Can ya make use of the spells in there?"

"Hm? No, I don't have space magic, so I can't." Eiro pointed out. However, Armodeus didn't let up, "Yes, but Grimoires are something like shortcuts anyway. Spells that are inscribed into it can be used again and again. With a little bit more mana, but a lot higher efficiency. Of course, it's not really that versatile either. In a real fight, adjusting your spell according to the opponent is vital, but that can't happen with a grimore."

"I know what a grimoire does, thanks.??? Eiro replied with a deep sigh, "But again, no, I can't use this at all, sadly. But I might be able to someday." The Demon pointed out as he continued flipping through the book, before he reached a surprising point toward the latter third of the grimore, this small one that became 'better' after absorbing the Choromancy Grimoire, even. The spells that were in here now were a lot thicker in text, as if someone tried to make another person remember them.

And to top if off, they were spells and formulas that weren't in that book that this one practically 'absorbed'. As if the book completed even more spells based on the type of magic infused into it.

Of course beside that, the more Eiro flipped, the more confusing this became. For one, the Choromancy Grimoire was visibly four to five times thicker than the smaller, dirtier one, but somehow the latter still had much more pages than that. And weirdly, the book didn't get any thicker either. It was as if the pages were slowly disappearing toward the front the further he read the end of the book, but he could still easily return to the first page at will.

It was a bit weird, and confusing at times because of the sort of magic that seemed to be causing this. Eiro took a deep breath and started to think, before getting another idea. Slowly, Eiro chose to split off from Gondos for this to make it easier, and then started to gather air around his left hand. And then, he pushed the air magic against the book, and without much force having to be put into it, the magic was absorbed.

The Demon opened the book up, and immediately ended up on the page he wanted to be on. The one about Air Magic that had suddenly been added to the end of this book. It started with a brief introduction into Air Magic in general, and after that, there was a very basic Air Magic Circle right behind it. One that Eiro knew, of course... But still, it made Eiro realize something.

With this small book, he could create a Grimoire that was truly perfect for him, since it would be able to hold information on all magic that he was capable of using.