DEMON'S VIRTUE

"We will relay this information to his Majesty, and we will then keep you updated. The final decision will most likely only come in a few weeks, if not months, so until then simply proceed as planned." The Head Warrior instructed Eiro, who quickly nodded his head. He stood up and walked toward the door, "Thank you for letting me know. For now, I will excuse myself." He said with a soft smile, placing his hand on the doorhandle. But before he could leave, the young hero, who had been silent this whole time, simply listening to the discussion between his father, Eiro, and the head Warrior.

"Wait! Erm... can you..." The boy muttered, "Can you... show me some magic again?"

Eiro raised his brows surprised, "You want to see more of my magic?"

"Yeah... your magic... is special. It feels like you have really great magic." The Hero replied immediately, before the head warrior turned toward the boy's father, and explained, "During the training exercises and ability displays today and yesterday, he impressed with an incredible control over magic."

Surprised, the man raised his brows, "He's a mage, wearing such an armor? He doesn't even have a wand or staff, does he?"

Eiro looked at them and smiled, stretching his hand out forward, "This is a prosthetic I made for myself. It's made with a special tree that has been grown through the influence of my mana. As such, it has become a material through which I can easily cast spells."

"...Interesting. Having your wand with you at all times apparently does tend to increase your control over magic. But I heard that you're also skilled in physical combat, such as hand-to-hand combat? How would that be possible with a prosthetic?"

Eiro smiled lightly, "I'm not sure if you've heard about it, but my father is 'Jura'." He explained, "The Prosthetist, the 'traitor of all people', as he's still often called. I learned the craft of creating true prosthetics from him. The prosthetics I make are a permanent replacement of the missing limb, and can be used as such, to an extent. Since the wood this is made from is special, it has become a true part of my body. If it's damaged, healing magic even works in order to repair it."

The man stared at Eiro with a deep frown, and the Demon could feel all the 'hidden' guards getting ready to move from the moment that Eiro explained who his father is. The Demon rolled his eyes, and simply chose to ignore it. It wasn't like he didn't expect that to happen. For now, Eiro slowly held his hand forward in front of the young hero, holding his palm upward.

He summoned Gondos to his side, and had the spirit create a head-sized sphere of dirt, which Eiro took control of before the Golem quickly returned back to invisibility. Eiro created grooves in certain places, trying to model it with a large amount of detail according to the drawings he had seen in books.

Then, Eiro created a sphere of water, that he had float above the modeled sphere of dirt. The water fell down onto the dirt, and flowed into the grooves. Eiro used gravity magic in the center of the sphere of dirt, creating a sort of contained sub-space where he could control everything properly.

The water filled all the gaps, and it became quite clear what Eiro was creating already. It was a sort of model of the world that they all lived in.

When the water settled down, Eiro started creating everything else. He made tiny blades of grass form tightly on the surface of the dirt ball, while turning specific parts of it into sand. Other parts, Eiro covered in a little bit of snow, particularly freezing everything around the poles of this fake planet.

And then, Eiro created another marble of water, and quickly froze it, creating a moon once he made the ice opaque. Apparently the moon was made of rock as well, but he had no real knowledge about this. For now, he figured making it out of ice would at least make it a bit more pleasing to look at, since it was easier for Eiro to make it shine like the moon. Of course, it had been shown that the moon only reflected the light of the sun instead of glowing on its own, but this was just easier.

When the 'moon' was finished, Eiro made it circle the tiny model of the world that he created, and scattered around some tiny droplets of water into the air, freezing them to create stars by simply fusing them with his fire. Eiro hadn't gotten access to light magic yet, although he was trying to figure out a good way to get there. So for now, he just had to do this.

And so, Eiro created the world in front of the Hero's eyes, with shining stars floating throughout the room. And all that within not even half a minute. The Hero's eyes were glistering with joy as he walked around the floating mass, and even the hero's father stood up, looking at everthing curiously.

"How did you do something like that? I didn't see you cast a spell." He pointed out, and Eiro just lightly smiled, "Of course, because that was just basic elemental manipulation. I could probably create a spell to do this as well, but that's going to take a while."

The man in front of Eiro locked eyes with him, "What do you mean, 'create' a spell? I heard that people sometimes change certain aspects of spells, or mix things together, but that's not true spell creation."

"You're right, it's not. But I, on the other hand, have a certain mastery of the Ancient Language. I have the skill as well. As such, I can actually create new spells and chants on my own."

"Ridiculous!" The hero's father exclaimed, and Eiro simply shrugged in response, "Believe it or not, it's the truth. Not that it matters, I don't have anything to prove to you for now. The abilities that I already showed off are proof enough that I have extreme worth to all of this." Eiro pointed out, as he placed his hand on top of the young hero's head, "Isn't that right, bud?"

"Don't touch my son." With a growling voice, the boy's father walked up to him and pushed Eiro to the side, "Just go, now. He saw your magic again, so that's all."

"Right, sure." Eiro replied. He glanced at the young hero, once more feeling that slight, unique 'vibe' from him. Eiro was convinced now that the boy was feeling something similar, even if he couldn't specifically figure out what it was. But considering that the boy took a particular interest in Eiro's magic, it was clear that something about him being the 'Sage' really shone through in the end.

The Sage was an expert and master of all magic, so it made sense for the young hero to make such a subconscious connection.

Eiro snapped his finger, and made all of the magic that he used fall apart. All the elements he used were pulled from the elemental planes and were as such purely magical, after all.

The Demon opened the door and stepped outside. And before he closed the door, he turned his head, and looked straight at one of the hidden guards, in a way where it couldn't be any more obvious that Eiro had spotted them. With a slight wink, he turned away again, before he made his way to the place where the gathering would be tonight. Most people were already there, just talking to each other. Particularly the companions of the champions were talking to each other a lot, since they already had the chance to meet over the past two days.

But the first person that approached Eiro was none other than Hijar. With a concerned expression, he had rushed up to him immediately, "Eiro! My brother's acting kind of weird... I know he went to talk to you earlier, so... what did you two talk about?"

Eiro smiled at him, slightly glancing past him to look at Biril, who was just silently sitting alone at a table, having a drink, "Nothing special. I'm pretty sure your brother just has a lot to think about. He's going to be fine, don't worry." Eiro said in a reassuring tone, and Hijar calmed down a bit, "If you say so, then I'll believe you... but I'm still worried."

"There's no need. If this keeps going, I'll talk to him again. Everything's going to be fine." He replied, when he slightly turned his head again. Eiro's kids were being swarmed by a bunch of different people. The champions and their companions didn't hesitate for a moment to try and get close to them. Sure, they didn't dare try to convince them to do something they didn't want to do, but they were clearly still hoping to get some sort of benefit from getting close to them.

Eiro wanted to just head over there and beat up anyone that did this, but... that's not what his children wanted. They wanted to take care of this themselves. The Demon looked back at Hijar with a smile, "Let's go grab something to drink. I think tonight is going to be a long one, so let's try and have some fun." He suggested, and Hijar raised his brows, before immediately nodding, "Sure! Let's go! They have this really good drink here that you've gotta try!" The beastman exclaimed, as Eiro followed him over to the bar.