DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Oi, Lad, d'ya really think it's a good idea for me to come with you? We're talkin' about a dragon here, you know?" Armodeus pointed out, somewhat nervously as they ascended the mountain. Eiro turned his head around toward him as he furrowed his brows.

"Of course, why shouldn't you come? You're with me as a guide. I have no idea what's going to happen here, and memory-based magic is a rather fickle thing. If anything happens to me, I need you to be there to help me out." Eiro pointed out as if it was obvious, but Armodeus still had a few more worries about all this.

"Even so, I-"

"Armodeus." Eiro interrupted the elder Dwarf, "I'll try to convince Lognir to give you some Dragon-Scales to work with if you keep coming with me without complaining."

The craftsman stared up at Eiro and then clicked his tongue. He knew that he didn't get many chances to work with materials like that, even if he was the 'Craftsman King'. These materials were just so rare that even Armodeus had a tough time getting his hands on them.

"Aye, fine." The Dwarf grumbled quietly, while Bavet whispered into Eiro's ear in the form of a snake, "Heh, you're really a People-Demon, huh?"

"Shut it." Eiro said with a wry smile as he slowly turned around to make sure that Lugo was properly managing to climb up this steep rock-wall. Well, it wasn't all that steep at the end of the day, considering that Eiro and Gondos were constantly manipulating the rock around them to create a path they could travel up with the carriage, but it was still a little bit more steep than regular roads were.

But well, Lugo managed it just fine, as Eiro had expected, so he turned his attention back onto what was in front of him while Gondos got rid of the path so that they couldn't get any pursuers.

The only thing that was worrying Eiro right now was that it was incredibly easy for some people in the town at the foot of the mountain to see this carriage if they had even half-decent perception. It would be troublesome if someone tried to follow them. Well, even if that were to happen, considering that there was a dragon at the top of this mountain, Eiro really didn't worry much.

For the next couple of hours, Eiro and the others travelled up this slope created by magic, until they finally reached a somewhat flat platform at the peak that he flattened so that they could take a break and walk around a bit. The horses had to rest a bit as well.

Eiro kept looking around before pulling his hand to the side, grabbing something in the middle of the air. When he pulled his hand back, he was holding a scroll. Once he opened it up, it revealed a simple map on it.

"Something wrong?" Nelli asked, although she, Gondos and Sarius were already aware that something was off, at least. Hearing the words of the Naiad, the already worried Armodeus turned toward Eiro with a frown, "Wait, what's going on, lad?"

"...Nothing, that's the issue. There's no doubt that this is the mountain that we're supposed to head up, but for some reason, I can't sense anything at all. I thought maybe there would be some kind of barrier to keep the Dragon's aura hidden, but that certainly isn't the case either." Eiro muttered quietly.

Bavet slithered down Eiro's arm to get a closer look at the map himself, "Did Solomon give us wrong info? Or maybe they moved away from here?"

"...No, that certainly isn't the case either. That would still leave a residue of aura here..." The Demon put the map away, back into his treasury, as he stared up at the rest of the mountain. Eiro pulled off his cloak and spread out his wings with a few flaps, "I'll just go take a look real quick. Nelli, Gondos, Sarius, stay here, I'll let you know if something is wrong. Protect them if you need to."

"Be careful." Nelli told Eiro, who simply nodded his head as he flew up the rest of the mountain to see if he would be able to find Lognir here somewhere. But even when he was standing at the literal peak of this mountain, there was nothing.

"Urgh... Maybe this really was the wrong place?" Eiro muttered quietly, as a voice entered his ears, "Maybe, that depends on what you're looking for."

"There's supposed to be a Dragon up here, but-" The Demon started, replying to this voice as if it was completely natural. But he managed to realize what was going on rather quickly, at which point Eiro made use of the trick he fought the Crow with before.

He 'remembered' the very instance before this one, and practically used it to freeze time to analyze the situation properly. But even though he did that, Eiro didn't know what just happened. He didn't sense anyone approach him in the slightest.

But considering the situation... "Nice to meet you, Lognir." Eiro groaned loudly as he turned his head to the side. There, right next to him, stood a tall, handsome, mucular man. He had white-golden eyes and pupils in the form of slits. His hair in the same color as his eyes was unkempt and reached down to his tailbown.

This man was wearing nothing but a pair of loose pants and a vest that barely covered any of his upper body, although that was probably the intention.

"Oh? You could tell?" The man said with a broad smile, "As expected of the child that Solomon sent to meet me."

Eiro looked Lognir up and down, trying to figure out what was happening right now. Lognir was standing right in front of him, but Eiro was barely able to sense him at all. It felt like this image would disappear with a single blink.

"Seems like you're keeping up pretty well with my Aura Suppression... This is rather extraordinary. To others, I'm practically invisible." Lognir said curiously as he leaned forward, but Eiro just rubbed the back of his head, "Rather, it's weird that I can barely concentrate on you."

"Is it, really?" The Dragon of Truth laughed, "I'm thousands of years old, child. There's no way I would let myself be caught by an overconfident brat."

"...Right." Eiro grumbled quietly, "Anyway, could we head somewhere else? Is there a cave around? It seems like it's going to snow soon."

Lognir squinted his eyes as he looked at Eiro before raising his head, "The sky is clear, how do you..."

"Did Solomon not tell you anything about me?"

"He told me you were a Demon, but beside that? Nothing." The Dragon in human form pointed out, "But don't dodge the question. How can you tell that it's going to snow? I mean, I know it, but how do you know it?"

Eiro crossed his arms as he thought about how to best explain it, "Well... Mostly because of the amount of water evaporating in the areas we travelled through, combined with the patterns of the flow of wind and the air temperature in this region."

"...I see, so you do hold the Ultimate Domain of Truth within you after all. It took form in analysis for you, huh???

"Partially, yes. But also in a few other ways. I can tell truths from lies more easily. Seeing through magic was always easy, but it's even easier now if it's meant to be deceiptful." Eiro explained, "But back to the cave thing again..."

"Hm? Oh, right, we don't want you feeble little Demon to freeze to death." Lognir smirked slightly as he turned around, ready to descend part of the mountain again, before Eiro said, "Actually, I can't freeze to death. At least not with normal temperatures. I was blessed by the Lady of Winter."

"...Excuse me? But you also hold a clear Domain of Flames in you, so how-"

"About that... I was also blessed by the Salamander King before absorbing a Spirit Gateway that was connected to the elemental plane of fire. I think that's what you might be sensing."

Lognir stared at Eiro deeply before letting out a quiet sigh, "I'm gonna have to talk to Solomon about this. I have to take care of the kids, he can't expect me to see him and not try to have fun..."

"...I'm going to ignore this for now. Let's just head down there, I don't want the horses to get sick. And I have someone else with me that's rather sensitive to the cold."

Although it was more than obvious that Lognir wanted to question Eiro a little more about all of this, he figured that they would have more than enough time to do that later on. And so, the Dragon and the Demon made their way down to the carriage, before Lognir led the along a path so that they could find the cave that they nested in these days.

Soon, they reached a vertical wall, a practical cliff, where Lognir stopped. Before Eiro was able to ask what he was doing, the Dragon waved his hand to the side and the rock crumbled away, revealing that which was beyond.

It was a similar effect as what Lognir himself had on him. None of the others were paying attention to Lognir himself. As the Dragon said, he was 'practically invisible'. He probably didn't want others to see him in this form so easily, at least that's what Eiro figured when looking at Lognir's behavior and speech.

But now that the cave was open, it took the others a few moments to truly notice it as well. Basically, they didn't realize what was happening until Eiro drove the carriage through the entrance, and even the horses were hesitant to do it. Eiro simply stepped off and pulled them forward by hand, and once they were inside, they acted normally again.

"...What exactly is going on? Where are we?" Armodeus asked with a deep frown, and Eiro smiled at him, "We're in the Dragon's nest, obviously."

With a broad smirk on his face, Lognir stepped up in front of them. There was enough space to stop his transformation now. Lognir started being covered in particles of light that rose into the air from his skin and formed the shape of a grand, large Dragon, reaching two dozen feet into the air just from sitting down like it was.

"Indeed you are." Lognir said in a dignified tone. His voice sounded much deeper and louder than before, which obviously came from this new shape that his body took. His scales were in the same white-golden color as his hair was before, and his wings laid at the sides of his body softly.. It was a grand sight even from Eiro's perspective, as all the others finally realized Lognir's existence in front of him.