DEMON'S VIRTUE

Eiro looked around in the elemental plane of water. Of course, it was just an ocean spreading into seemingly all directions. The water was illuminated through huge water magic stones, giving off the faint glow of magic. Although, this couldn't be called particularly faint. Due to the sheer size of these pure masses of magic, they were radiating light outward like small suns.

But more than that, it didn't seem like the water was getting denser the further he went down, letting the light travel an immense distance. There were spots here and there that seemed to be nearly randomly thicker in nature, and that made sense. After all, the water here was simply pure magic, so those were simply spots where said magic concentrated a bit more than in its surrounding areas. Although, it might be wrong to call it pure magic. In its essence, this was still true, but it was more like... it was somewhere inbetween magic and true, real water. It was hard to explain, but it was truly incredibly different compared to what Eiro saw in the central material plane.

However, even if he was more than just ecstatic at the sight of this world, it didn't take long until his focus changed away from the water itself, and over toward its inhabitants.

There were numerous creatures swimming around here that Eiro had never seen before. Mostly around him, they were different sorts of magical beasts in the form of fish. Of course, even though they were magical beasts didn't mean that they were great. Most of them were were at the strength level of any normal fish you could find anywhere in the world. But rather, they were unique species that Eiro had never even heard of before.

"...Should I write a bestiary of the creatures in the elemental plane of water? That would be rather interesting, I think... Especially the magical beast research course at the academy might like it." He thought to himself, starting to swim around by flapping his wings. Of course, the magical beasts in the water did take notice of him. Whether they were as small as Eiro's thumb, or larger even than the average whale, they seemed to pay attention to him, instead of simply swimming away in fear.

That in itself showed just the difference in intelligence between animals and magical beasts. Even if their physical prowess was different, these beings still held an innate control over magic. Magic was the physical expression of the mind, so of course a magical beast would be intelligent. Even if not sentient, of course. They were still nothing but beasts, at the end of the day. They could merely comprehend a few things more than normal.

Meanwhile, in the central material plane, three spirits were staring at the Demon's original body rather confused.

"But- What? How did you- Huh?" Nelli let out, quickly moving herself to the elemental plane of water herself. Of course, she ended up right where Eiro was in that plane, "You're really here... But how did you-"

"Oh, I practically turned myself into an elemental, at least as far as the gateway is concerned. And through that, I was able to move through said gateway." Eiro explained to her, casually laying in the water, before he really thought about what Nelli looked like right now, "Wait, you're... different."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Nelli asked with a frown, looking down at her body, "I look the same as I normally do."

"Well yeah, but you're... larger." Eiro replied immediately, flapping his wings to turn himself around. In front of him was Nelli. She still wasn't as large as him, but that wasn't because Nelli was the size of his lower arm anymore. It was because Eiro was simply taller than her. She was now the size of a person. More than that, she seemed just a lot healthier. The color of her skin and her scales were a lot more vibrant, and her complexion looked far, far healthier. Eiro hadn't even realized that Nelli could look any healthier.

The naiad slightly tilted her head, "I mean, I guess I never thought about it before, but it does make sense? I mean, you can sense it, right? The magic here works different to how it does on the central material plane, so a bit of a difference was to be expected... right?"

"I guess so. And if every naiad's size changes the same amount after travelling between the planes, then it would be pretty hard to notice." Eiro pointed out, swimming around Nelli, surprised to see her from this perspective for once. However, it didn't take long until the naiad let out a loud groan, "More importantly, how did you even do this? Don't your doubles fall apart if they get too far away from you? This one's in a literal other plane of existence..."

Eiro chuckled slightly, crossing his arms, "That may be so, but I do have an explanation for this. I am the guardian of the spirit gateway, right? Well, that doesn't mean I'm just the guardian of one of the sides of the gateway. So once I came here, this body and the spirit gateway became one, in some way. Of course, I can still split off of it again, but I can only do that by returning to the central material plane through the gateway. Either way... through the connection between this body and the original, it's like we're standing in the exact same spot. This body holds the most amount of power possible, basically." The double explained with a grin, "I already moved away a few hundred meters, after all. If that wasn't the case, then this body would have already fallen apart."

Nelli placed her hand to her chin and slowly nodded her head, "I see. If that's the case, then this is really something great... There are a lot of things that could help you become more powerful in this plane. I'm sure that your affinity with the water element is just skyrocketing right now."

"Ah... actually, not really. The increase of affinity happens through my body and soul being exposed to an element, but this body doesn't have a soul. There seems to be a certain degree of increase though, but it's just a fraction of what it normally should be." Eiro explained, "But more importantly, there are cities in the elemental planes, correct? Do you know where the one closest to us would be?"

Nelli looked around a bit, trying to see if she recognized anything around here. However, since that didn't seem to be the case, she quickly shook her head, "No, sorry. But if we move around, we should be able to find something."

"Hm, right... For now, you can go ahead and return to the central material plane, I'll just be swimming until I find something." Eiro explained, before Nelli nodded, "Alright, see you over there, then."

And so, Nelli's body disappeared again, diffusing into the water around her, before she reappeared right in front of the original Eiro, "So, while that double is moving around to try and find something, I'll have another one enter the elemental plane of fire." The Demon was currently explaining to Sarius. But seeing that she had returned, the Salamander first looked at Nelli.

"Is he really over there? Or is he just trying out a weird joke?" He asked, and Nelli quickly shook her head, "He's really over there. It surprised me too, but it's the truth. Having him enter the elemental plane of fire would really be a good idea. For you as well, Sarius. It means you can actually go back there for a while without the Salamander King getting angry at you."

Sarius thought about it for a while, and then opened his eyes wide, "Hold on, you're right! If I go there, and just use the excuse to show you around, then that's going to be perfect! Come on, you lazy bastard, what're you waiting for?"

Eiro held his hand forward, slightly glancing at Sarius as he did so, "If you call me that again, I will force you to enter the elemental plane of water instead."

"...noted. I just kinda got excited, y'know?"

"Right, I get it." Eiro sighed, watching as his new double infused his body completely with fire magic, to the same degree that the other one before infused his body with water magic. And so, fire magic was pulled to the elemental plane of fire, and Eiro stepped foot into that foreign land as well.

To his surprise, though, he was standing on solid ground. The fire magic in this plane had taken on interesting forms as it concentrated to different degrees. The ground looked practically like true soil, even if it was simply highly concentrated fire magic. The sky was lit up by flames in numerous colours, and the ground was hot enough to instantly char anything you placed on it. There were plants, however. Forests of flaming trees and fields of bright flowers.

Eiro slowly took in a breath, noticing that he was taking in anything but air. It was similar, just that it didn't have oxygen. Instead, it was fire magic that simply wasn't concentrated enough to ignite.

It didn't take long until Sarius stepped into this realm, appearing right next to the Demon. The two of them looked at each other, and Sarius quickly grew surprised, seeing that Eiro was now the same height as him, even if a few inches taller.

"...You shrunk?"

"No, you grew in size, I'm the same as I was before." Eiro sighed slightly, "That's just how this seems to work, probably has something to do with the nature of magic in this realm. Since you are made from the same substance, it changes once you enter here, while my body is currently made of my own personal magic, and of course my physical self. That's why it doesn't change or adjust once I get here." The Demon pointed out, smiling lightly, "But more importantly... Do you know where we are?"