DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro finished properly scanning the entirety of the inn that they were currently in, just to make sure that there wasn't anything here to help him out in here. Since there wasn't anything special about this inn, despite what the Demon had been hoping for, like some sort of secret tunnel between this inn and the cathedral, he stood up somewhat disappointed.

Either way, for now, him and Jess just had to start artificing. Jess had already prepared everything for that, setting up all the tools that they were going to need, and even preparing some of the magic circles in a semi-permanent setup.

"By the way, what exactly are we going to inscribe these on? I don't think we have any particular materials, do we?"

"Of course we do." Eiro replied with a smile on his face, as he walked over toward Jess' bag. He had given her a small box with jewelry earlier that she was supposed to carry in case they needed her to disguise herself as a noblewoman as well. Since she was a mage, she wasn't wearing anything that was instantly recognizable to be armor, so they could easily have her pass as a noble even after walking through the inn with her like she was dressed before.

Either way, Eiro got out the jewelry and grabbed the pearl necklace with a smile on his face, "We have everything we need right here."

"The pearls aren't pearls, huh?" Jess asked with a curious smirk on her face, and Eiro immediately nodded his head, "Exactly. Basically, we're going to be inscribing the spells onto these and will then put the pearl necklace back together. And then you're going to wear that when we head into the cathedral later.

"...You want me to wear an array of extremely lethal spells, of which many are extremely explosive, around my neck as we prepare to enter combat?"

"Mhm, that's exactly it. Don't worry, there'll be a fail-safe to make sure nothing happens to you. The thread running through them isn't normal either, it's a material that reacts in a negative way with the gemstones so that they can't activate in the first place, even if all other conditions are met. And while we head to Zaragon's chamber, you just have to take the necklace off and prepare to use them."

Jess slowly nodded her head as Eiro brought the marble-sized gemstones over toward the table that she set everything up on. For the most part, Eiro was sure that the fight with Zaragon would end anticlimactically fast, but at the end of the day, he really didn't know. He had no idea how strong Zaragon was back then, and eight years was a long time to become so, so much stronger. And on top of that, Zaragon had access to not only incredibly high-tier magic tools, but even plenty of artifacts. He seemed to be able to control that space's configuration freely as well, so it might be possible that Zaragon would put up an incredible fight against them.

And that is why they were preparing like this, so that they could fight back against whatever could possibly happen. Eiro took a deep breath as he stood in front of the desk. He grabbed the first inscription tool and pressed it against the gemstone.

"Start with the first one." Eiro said, and Jess nodded her head. She pulled the first of the adjusted magic circles over toward the gemstone, and slowly compressed it to the right size, before wrapping it around the gemstone. The size and pattern of the base magic circle was adjusted beforehand in such a way that it covered every bit of the round gemstone, forming a spherical magic circle in the end. Both Eiro and Jess had to stay as still as possible, keeping the magic circle and the gemstone in the exactly same position, which was especially bothersome to do while twisting the gemstone around.

Either way, now that the magic circle was wrapped around the gemstone, Eiro slowly but surely used his own mana and let it flow through the inscription tool, and followed the exact pattern of the magic circle, practically carving away at the gemstone and pushing the magic circle created by Jess into it at the same time.

This was actually a technique taught to Eiro by Armodeus. Usually, inscription worked in a much different way, and resulted in a somewhat different end-product. You were supposed to carve intricate patterns into the target object in a special way, and then when the wanted effect was supposed to be activated, mana had to be slowly and carefully placed into each ridge of that pattern for the activation to be possible.

Both the creation and activation required not only a high amount of precision, but an extremely understanding of the inscribed patterns. With this method, however, that was only the case for the inscription.

With a magic circle innately placed into the carved patterns during the process, it allowed for nearly instantaneous activation of the spell in question. During combat, this was a much more viable solution. However, the greatest drawback was that the object the spell was placed on would either get damaged or shatter altogether, making it impossible for the object to be used in that way again.

But at the same time, it allowed for some rather unique tactics that weren't possible with regular spellcasting, which is why Eiro and Jess were preparing these right now, just in case.

"Alright, that's the first one... Next." Eiro said, handing the finished gemstone to Bavet, who pushed the thread from the necklace back through it, "By the way, why don't you just have me hold that for you? Would be much easier, right?"

"Not really. You have shaky hands."

"Eh?!" Bavet exclaimed, "What do you mean, I have shaky hands, I- Most of the time I don't even have hands!"

"Exactly. You're not used to them. So shut up and let me concentrate." Eiro rolled his eyes as he continued inscribing the spells onto these small gemstones. Sometime in the middle of that, James and Krog got back as well.

"Just make sure your weapon are ready for now, and that you have everything you need." Eiro suggested, "Did you find someone that seems to be a good target?"

"Yep." Krog replied, "Some kinda priest from the other side of the country. He practically came up to us on his own to talk to us about the gods."

"Sounds good. Once I'm done here, we're heading downstairs and I'll talk to him." Eiro told them, "So if possible, we're going to head off right away. Just another half-dozen of these and we'll be done as well."

"Wait, already? Doesn't it usually take super long to do this kinda thing?" James asked with a wry smile, and Jess quickly explained in Eiro's stead, since he was concentrating on an especially tricky bit on the gemstone.

"Usually, yeah, but Eiro has great dexterity, and his high woodcarving skill apparently helps him out a little bit as well. The principle is the same, after all. And also, because I'm here and can concentrate on the spell's effect and chant, Eiro doesn't have to worry about that either, so he can speed it up quite a bit just through that." Jess explained with a smile on her face, and Eiro slowly nodded his head, "Mhm, what she said.."

"Huh, that's kinda neat." Krog pointed out, as he was cleaning up one of his battle axes, "By the way, would I be able to use magic with those things as well?"

"Technically, yeah." Jess replied, "You do have basic control over your mana, and all you need to do is activate the inscribed spell with your own mana to activate it, so... Yeah."

"Wait, then why don't I have something like that on my axes? That's so neat!"

"If you want them to shatter into pieces in the middle of your fight, be my guest." Eiro replied to him, as he placed the gemstone he just finished to the side, "Either way, it's not that easy to properly use these things either. Since they're pre-inscribed like this, there's no way to adjust them to the situation at all, so you need to be aware of how the spell acts beforehand. And since you never used magic before, it's going to be close to impossible for you to get a proper grasp on these beforehand."

"Urgh... Fair point." Krog replied with a wry smile, as Eiro grabbed the next gemstone to continue inscribing spells onto it.

It took a little while longer until he properly finished everything, and then handed the finished pearl necklace over to Jess, "There you go. I know I said there's no way for them to activate while on there, but just still be careful with them, alright? Make sure you don't drop it or let the thread rip."

"Of course, I'm not an idiot. Now, what are you going to do with the rest?" Jess asked, and Eiro swiftly showed it to her. It was a relatively simple process, after all. He grabbed the small, empty vial and pressed his fingertip onto it.

A black, rotten sludge poured out of the Demon's finger and into the vial. Although, just a couple of drops, "And then..." Eiro grabbed the Holy Energy Magic Stone and activated it with just a bit of his mana, letting the holy energy flow into the vial. Instantly, a holy flame sparked up, ignited through this liquid.

Eiro let his fingers flow around the outside of the vial, quietly whispering a chant. The flame shrunk down into nothing but a slight spark, the kind that would float away from a larger fire.

With a few more whispers, the spark seemed to suddenly be rather stable, before Eiro slowly pulled it out of the small vial. And then, he got another small piece of jewelry out. It was a ring, this time, with a large gemstone placed onto it. That gemstone was hollow, and prepared specifically to hold this spark of holy flame.

"And just like that, I prepared everything we need for our distraction."