DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro landed on the rooftop and folded his wings up again, "Bavet, go head inside already." He said, and the slime slowly dropped off his arm and transformed into a small bird, "Sure, sure, I'll try not to watch you kiss this time~."

"Please don't, it's sort of creepy." Eiro pointed out with a slight sigh, while the slime just flew away, quietly cackling. The Demon turned toward the woman that was sitting on the rooftop near him, and softly smiled at her, "I didn't expect to have you visit after that long night."

Ariella looked up as Eiro sat down next to her, "I know, but there were a few things that I wanted to talk about before tomorrow really comes."

"...I think I know roughly what it is that you want to talk about."

"I would be surprised if you didn't." Ariella chuckled, and slowly turned toward Eiro, who somewhat nervously looked back at her, "That kiss. Was it what I am hoping it is, or was it just... something else? I'm sorry, I really don't know much about these matters, but I have heard that there are many reasons for two people to kiss."

Ariella smiled lightly, moving her own hair out of her face, "The reason I kissed you is simple. I wanted to... figure something out. How I felt about you. I have known for a while now that you have feelings for me. You weren't particularly subtle about it, after all."

"Of course. Why hide something like that? Putting it out in the open is much easier. Makes the answer you receive much easier to read as well."

"...Not everyone thinks like you in that regard. A lot of people simply want such relationships to form naturally, instead of everything happening all at once like that." Ariella explained, "Nonetheless, in this case, you being so straightforward about it, but not pushy about it in any way, gave me the chance to really... think. But until last night, I was stuck between two choices. And that kiss helped me decide on one."

Eiro slowly looked forward at the horizon, the city stretching out in the distance, "And what is it that you decided?"

Ariella let out a deep sigh as she leaned over, laying her head onto Eiro's shoulder, "No need to be so nervous, you fool. You felt it too. There is no way I could leave now."

---

Eiro stepped into his bedroom. It has been 12 days since the party, and the evolution would be over in just another day. It was quite early in the day right now, but Eiro just felt like he had to take a nap. He hasn't felt this exhausted in a while. This seemed to be the very last step of Eiro's evolution. His internal structure had shifted around weirdly. His chest cavity had changed to allow for some sorts of growths in there, although Eiro had no idea what those 'growths' really were going to be. Maybe Eiro would get some more hearts or something. He just knew that his mana has been behaving somewhat weirdly over the past few days.

Eiro dropped down into his bed naked, and stretched all four of his arms out as his wings fell down from the side of the bed.

"I've got a feeling that this I'm lucky I'll be asleep for this." Eiro muttered with a light chuckle, as he slowly closed his eyes, and drifted off into sleep. But this wasn't the sort of sleep where he could just head into his mental library to read a little, but it was a dream where he was out of control despite being lucid and aware that this was in fact a dream. So it seemed like this really was that sort of unique sleep related to his evolution.

Eiro found himself in a dark space, with light mist flowing around his feet like water. And a bit ahead of him stood something that Eiro hadn't seen before. It was glowing patterns, stretching out like branches into the sky from a single point. They did seem to somewhat resemble the patterns on Eiro's body again, but that might just be him imagining such a pattern where there wasn't one.

Either way, in front of the source of these branches stood a figure of pure white. They had an androgynous stature, and no sort of things like eyes or a mouth to speak of that Eiro could notice when they slightly turned their head. They were like some sort of blank slate.

Eiro approached them curiously, noticing that they were further away than he thought. It seemed like the figure was about five, maybe six meters tall.

"And who are you?" Eiro asked bluntly, and the figure slowly turned around. Even without a mouth, it seemed perfectly capable of speech, and spoke in a voice that was once more completely androgynous.

"I am nobody." They replied, and Eiro let out a deep sigh, "Then what are you doing here?"

"Managing you and your abilities. That evolution of yours brought a few things into disarray."

Eiro wasn't sure what exactly they were talking about, but he slowly scratched the side of his cheek, "Let me guess, you're some sort of superior force again, aren't you? What is it this time, are you arcane? Divine?"

"Arcane." They replied, "But no, I am not a force. Rather, I am just a tool. The one that manages certain aspects of this world for the creator."

"...The creator of what?"

"The system, of course."

Eiro looked at the figure completely baffled, "You are the system?"

That question seemed to have annoyed the figure in front of Eiro, as they shook their head, "I am not the system, I simply manage it. I manage the information that goes in and comes out. I bring order into things. However, there is a certain balance to everything, a balance that you near destroyed."

"It's not my fault that I evolved, though." Eiro pointed out, and the figure stopped moving for a moment, "You are the one that had let himself be killed after receiving the gift of the creator. That gift was never meant to be given to a being of your kind. It was meant to go to a person. You 'monsters' tap into the force of the arcane to change your bodies from the grounds up, while people simply receive abilities from the arcane. The creator's gift was meant to give the reincarnated 'you' new special abilities and capabilities, but instead, you ended up reconstructing your body with powers that you were never meant to access."

Eiro looked at the figure confused, "But my evolutions were always just unique because of the cards that I collected. They weren't innately unique."

"That is because until now I could keep it under control. I had to personally access your system and fix the issues that were caused by that change."

"Is that why I can assign my own statpoints freely?" Eiro asked, and the figure slowly shook their head, "No, that was simply part of the gift given to you by the creator. I ended up having to hold back most of the influence of the gift, involuntarily. I think that might be why you had been so hostile when you first became aware of it."

"Nah, I think I was just an idiot." Eiro replied with a wry smile, but the being didn't seem to care about that comment.

"Either way, with the extra influence from those arcane misfits, I was no longer able to hold things back and give you access to power bit by bit every time you evolved. Instead, I had to quickly fix everything all at once. But then you were too bothered to even wait for a mere year. I appreciated the extra energy, though, and to be perfectly honest, I had little interest in spending too much time on you any longer." The being explained, and Eiro opened his eyes wide.

"You're that weird status page!" He exclaimed, and the being immediately turned around, "I am no such thing!" They yelled back, as if angry, but quickly collected themselves again.

"Again, I am no such thing. That is simply what happens when I take direct control of the system's functions. It was not designed for such things, after all. Oh, and just as a warning, had you waited a few more days to initiate the evolution, your soul probably would have been ripped into pieces and caused an immense cataclysmic event that could have very well wiped out the whole country you settled down in. That last bit is just a theory, however. Your soul certainly would have been destroyed, though."

"...Could you not have told me that?" Eiro asked with a wry smile, as he rubbed the bridge of his noise, "Anyway, what is this? Why am I here?" The Demon asked, and the being slowly turned around. It pressed its left hand onto the source of those glowing branches stretching out into the sky. They all started pulling toward the source, and simply turned into a small, coin-sized disc that the being pressed into the center of Eiro's chest.

"Since this whole ordeal is finally over, and I had been able to adjust the gift you have been given by the creator, I no longer have to care for you specifically. I simply wanted to speak to you face to face, to express the disdain that I feel when looking at you.. Personally, I do not think that scum like you is deserving of such an incredible gift."