DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro looked within himself and concentrated on the Sensory Homunculus in his mind that he created as a representation for his Five of Pentacles, the <Ultimate Perception>. And to signify the process of deactivating the card... He made the Homunculus go to sleep. It curled up on the ground and dozed off, and as if its existence faded away slowly as it slept, Eiro's world seemed completely empty for a moment.

Absolute silence, not a single scent, no vibrations or even the touch of the ground he was sitting on could be felt.

It was an instant of absolute sensory deprivation that Eiro had never experienced before. And a few moments later, Eiro's senses returned to an extent. Dulled, weakened. This was what Eiro's senses were supposed to be like without the boost of the Five of Pentacles.

Of course, Eiro's senses were not weak in any sense of the word, he had higher perception than the vast majority of beings currently alive. It was just so that his perception seemed to be close to nonexistent compared to that which Eiro experienced before.

It felt somewhat lonely and cold as Eiro sat there, slowly opening his eyes. It took him a while to really process the practically blurry sight that he saw, and his eyes hurt from the fact that he was straining them instinctively to return them to their former state, something that was obviously not possible.

"I... I can't..." Eiro muttered quietly, without being able to even hear his own voice properly. Lognir seemed to say something to him, but Eiro couldn't hear him either. It just seemed like he was moving his lips without actually forming proper words, instead simply letting out simple grunts. This was weirdly terrifying to Eiro, being deprived of basically all his senses for a few moments.

He looked within himself and woke the Sensory Homunculus up again. As the sounds of bugs crawling on the ground on the other side of the cave, as well as the scent of the rare flowers growing at the sides of this mountain filled his mind, Eiro was able to relax again.

The Demon let out a calm breath as he turned his head to look at Lognir, "I was able to block out the Five of Pentacles... Although I wish I didn't have to do that again. I don't see a clear reason for why I would do this... I felt so-"

"Deprived of everything?" Lognir asked with a soft smile, as if he expected this to begin with. Eiro nodded his head, "That is exactly it. As if there was nothing around me anymore."

"And that is exactly why this might come in useful at some point. You are practiced in weakening your senses considerably already to live with the overstimulus from this card of yours. If you combine this practiced, instinctive ability with the compared lack of senses after switching for just a moment, it will truly be like there is a lack of senses around you. It is something that many spiritualists strive for, you see? The lack of senses is incredibly useful in achieving a sort of enlightenment, if you will. You will be able to much more easily concentrate during meditative states, maybe even discovering things about you that you never imagined you had within you."

"...I see. It really might come in useful in such situations. I'll think about when to use this... But first, let me try blocking out the Knight of Pentacles as well." Eiro suggested, closing his eyes once again as his mind was still in a bit of a disarray after what just happened to him.

Now that he figured out what it felt like to block out the abilities of these cards hidden within him, doing so with the Knight of Pentacles was rather easy to do. Not to mention, it wasn't nearly as overwhelming to see the difference. Sure, it felt a bit off compared to before, but it was nothing too major. Maybe it was due to the kind of effect that this card had on Eiro in the first place, or the fact he hadn't been linked to it for all too long compared to the Five of Pentacles. Either way, it was easier to deal with the change in the world after shifting the Owl-Scale to make the scale-part, which was made up of the Owl's wings, press onto the owl's body as this metallic animal went to sleep.

Eiro tried these things out a few more times to get a bit more used to the sensation and the act of switching itself, until he was ready to move on to the next step. Now that all of this was feeling fresh, Eiro wanted to continue as quickly as possible with Lognir's training.

"Alright, the next step, as I told you before, is not the 'blocking' of the cards' abilities, but the manipulation of them. You might have to play around with the manipulation of the Knight of Pentacles a bit more later on, since it is more of a 'conceptual' ability at the end of the day. It should be a bit easier with your Five of Pentacles however, especially considering the image you chose for it in your mind. Simply-"

"Increase the size of a particular part of the Homunculus' body depending on which sense I want to 'boost'? That is the benefit you were speaking of before, isn't that right?"

"That is exactly it, yes." Lognir replied with a smile on his face, "Now, you probably figured out how to do this already anyway, so go ahead. Show me what you can do."

Eiro slowly nodded his head as he closed his eyes, looking within himself once more. He looked at the Sensory Homunculus and focused on one of its sensory organs. For now, he focused on his eyes. At the same time, though, Eiro was already aware of the law of 'equivalent exchange' from manipulating other sorts of energies already.

If he wanted to boost something, he had to weaken something else. That could either end up with all other senses beside sight to grow ever so slightly weaker, or with one specific sense growing considerably weaker in exchange for the boost of his sight.

For now, he did the former. He felt his other senses all weaken as he opened his eyes that have become stronger. Within this cave it was a bit hard to truly see the effects, but they were certainly visible even then. Slowly but surely, he increased the strength of his sight while weakening everything else, until his eyes started to hurt due to the dim light that existed within here entering it in such a focused way.

"Seems like there's a limit to what I can do..." Eiro muttered as he cancelled the boost, and rubbed his eyes for a while. Since this was a thing, this 'limit', Eiro quickly went through all of his other senses to figure this limit out. That way he could maximize the strength this new ability of his when necessary.

And once Eiro was done with that, feeling a bit stiff all over his body, he saw his three spirits appear right next to him, before Nelli made a suggestion, "Do you want to figure it out with your 'sixth' sense as well? With your mana-sense when we're fused?"

"Ah..." Eiro replied, "Yeah, that might be a good idea. Gondos, your senses are the most pronounced, come on."

The Demon held his hand forward, and the Earth Spirit nodded his head. He dove into the Demon's hand as they fused, and Eiro looked at his sensory homunculus within himself. Already, his mind added a new layer to this. The homunculus had an even flow of mana-like energy flowing through its body that Eiro could now see. It was easy to manipulate, nearly as easy as regular mana was, and he was able to quickly focus it on specific senses.

This way, he could focus on a specific sense that he wanted to use to actually sense mana. But not only that. At the same time, if he weakened one of his regular senses and then focused on boosting his 'magic sense', while only overlaying the sense that he weakened so that it was close to nonexistent anymore, all he was able to sense using that real sense was magic.

He would only be able to see magic when doing this with his eyes, instead of things that were really in front of him. He would only be able to taste magic when focusing it on his tongue. This way, Eiro would be able to focus on magic a lot more easily when he tried to do so.

It probably was nothing he would use all too often, but it was nice to have the option. Eiro and Gondos split up, and both of them looked at each other for a moment, before Nelli asked, "So, what was it like?" She inquired.

Gondos turned toward her without being able to truly describe it that well, "It was... new. That's all I can say. Rather 'weird' to an extent. I was only able to see magic... nothing else."

"Interesting... That sounds like quite an experience." Nelli pointed out, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, "It was, yes. But all these sudden switches in senses feel sort of... nauseating. I think I will stop practicing this particular thing for a while." Eiro explained. He felt a little bit dizzy and as if his head was spinning around. It was not pleasant in the slightest, and it felt like he had to sit down and take a bit of a breather for a while.

The air in here was quite stuffy as well, so he figured he should head outside for a while just to feel the sun on his skin and properly take in some fresh air for a couple of minutes.

Lognir nodded his head and chose to take this time to be with his mate Krista, while the Demon headed outside and took a seat on a rock that he cleared from snow with a bit of magic.

Seeing Eiro's nearly blank stare as he looked at the distant horizon made Nelli feel a bit worried, "Is everything alright?" She inquired, having been with him the longest out of everyone here. She knew what Eiro was like in different moods.

The Demon turned his head and looked at her, but he didn't know what to say, "I think so. But I'm not all too sure, if I'll be honest. I feel so... foolish. I felt cocky and strong, like nobody could beat me... But now I realize how wrong I was. I can already see that there are many ways for me to become much, much stronger... and someone that has that many options open to him cannot be called truly strong. And especially..." Eiro muttered quietly as he summoned the card of the Major Arcana to his hand that he had with him.

"It still only says I have a 12% chance to survive if I were to activate it. I wonder, how strong are the Royals if even I would be so unlikely to survive..? And then.... How strong is the Monster King to be feared even by those Royals?"