DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Where we are? Hm..." Sarius repeated, looking around a bit, "Nope, not the slightest. But, you know... you can just-"

"Right, right, I'll fly around until I find something, you just go ahead and wait. I'll pull you over to me when I'm done." Eiro sighed, flapping his wings. As he did, flames moved through the air, igniting in reaction to the Demon's movement, "By the way, is it weird that I somehow imagine hell to look like this?"

"...Not too weird, actually. Speaking of, are you gonna head to hell anytime soon? You know, cause you actually have a kingdom there now or something." Sarius pointed out, but Eiro simply chuckled and shook his head, "No, I won't. At least not 'me'. I'll probably be spending at least a few years here in this realm, if not all eternity. I mean, why not, right?"

"Oh... right, you're a double. But also not? This shit's still weird." Sarius pointed out, and Eiro quickly shrugged, "Just embrace it, then. You're going to have to experience this a lot from now on, I imagine."

Sarius stayed silent for a few moments, before letting out a loud groan, "Yeah, you're right... I'll have to seriously complain to that old man if we end up meeting him. Seriously... just sticking me to a weirdo like you... I have no idea what he was thinking..."

"Sarius, remember me telling you how I would force you into the elemental plane of water? Yeah, you're not helping in stopping that from happening." Eiro pointed out with a smirk, as he flapped his wings, shooting up into the burning sky, before flying into the distance. Sarius was left there, annoyed, before slowly falling apart into flames, just to appear in the central material plane again.

The original Eiro was already on his way, though. He figured that he managed to get most aspects of the duplication under control by now. Of course, this wasn't the end of his experiments, but as for the rest, he would work on all that a bit later when he figured out exactly what it was that he wanted to do. He already had a rough idea, but there was still the need for him to figure out the specifics.

For now, Eiro made his way back into the town hall so that he could round up Bavet and Lugo before heading off.

"Master." Gobo greeted Eiro as he entered the building, "Just relax." The Demon replied instantly.

"Are you on your way out?" The Hobgoblin inquired, and Eiro quickly nodded, "Yes, I should leave for now. I would like to arrive ahead of my family to make sure that everything is alright at home. Some of my servants informed me that someone has been scooping around the manor."

Gobo raised his brow, "Speaking of, I know there are some servants around the place, but do you mind leaving a more... advanced one around here? Being able to communicate more easily would be really useful."

Eiro slowly thought about it, and quickly nodded, "Right, good idea." The Demon said, "I'll figure something out so that the servant will be useful to you."

"Thank you, Master." Gobo said with a quick nod, as Eiro slowly walked past the Hobgoblin. He wasn't sure if it was because his soul had been meddled with during his last evolution, potentially awakening certain emotions and subconscious memories, but for some reason Eiro felt himself to be like an old man lately, as if he was watching the next generation. Which was ridiculous, of course. As a lesser imp, he could have died of old age within a few years, but at the level he is now, especially being one of the rulers of hell, he is practically immortal. At the very least, he is unaging, and Eiro doubted that there were all too many things that could still kill him now. The Sage however, Eiro's former incarnation, was an old man at the dusk of his life. It was as if this fact was forcing Eiro to think more about the future, beyond just the things that would affect his children. He was actually quite interested in making this world better for the monsters living here.

"Maybe I should do some work for the reputation of Monsters soon." Eiro muttered to himself, smiling lightly as he walked forward, placing his hand on the side of Lugo's body as the stag approached him.

Eiro casually flipped through the pages of a book, trying to ingrain the format into his brain. And then, at that point, the main entrance opened up, and a few people stepped inside.

"Finally, back home! That carriage ride was just hell!" Arc yelled out loudly, letting out loud groans while immediately making his way to the main sitting room, where Eiro could also currently be found.

"Oh, dad... you're here already?" Arc asked with a wry smile, surprised to see the Demon just casually sitting there. He stood up with a smile on his face, placing the book on the table next to him, "Yes, I managed to finish things up pretty quickly at the monster town. More importantly, how was the rest of the trip?"

"Urgh... don't even start, it was sooo annoying. We ran into like a dozen hordes of monsters..." He groaned loudly, "And even worse than that, Koperia didn't let me fight any of them!"

"Of course I didn't, they were nothing but small-fry. Why would I wait for the carriage to slow down to let you out when I can just kill them all with a flick of my wrist?" The Necromancer asked, rolling her eyes as she stepped into the room, together with the rest of the group. Eiro smiled at her lightly, "Thanks for your help in keeping everyone safe though, Koperia."

"...Right, of course." She replied, "You owe me a few dead bodies."

"...They're in the basement."

"Great, thanks." Koperia said, and quickly turned around, swiftly heading to the hidden chambers in the basement, all the whilst two young children came running up to Eiro. Of course, he squatted down and gave them a quick hug, "Was everything alright, you two?" He asked, ruffling Avalin and Leon's hair with two of his hands.

"They were pretty easy this time around. Well, Leon usually is, but Avalin was as well, surprisingly." Sammy pointed out as she dropped down on one of the couches, as Eiro looked at the young girl, "Is that so?"

"Yup! I was a good girl~!" Avalin replied with a broad grin on her face, as if she was trying to show off for achieving something rather normal and expected, "Of course you were." Eiro said, rubbing his hand through her hair with a smile, before fully standing up again.

"Anyway... Kids, you stay here. Everyone else, I have something to talk to you about." The Demon said, slowly leaving the sitting room while the kids sat down on the couches. It was clear that especially Arc was sort of annoyed at being included with the 'kids', but he had no choice, since he knew that this was about business that he would find far too boring anyway.

And so, Eiro led these six people, his party as well as Koperia, Armodeus and Ariella, up into his study. Once there, the Demon closed the door waited for everyone to sit down.

"So. On my way here, I entered the elemental planes of water and fire." Eiro said bluntly, not playing around the topic in the slightest. There was no need to do that, after all. But surprisingly, the expressions of everyone here were not nearly as surprised as Eiro thought.

"...That so?" James asked with a wry smile, "What about it?"

"...Nothing in particular, I just figured I would let you all know. It is a sort of special feat, after all." Eiro pointed out, before Koperia let out a loud laugh, "Hah, special feat? I've been in planes far harder to get to, for vacation."

"I think ye're a bit of an exception, Koperia..." Armodeus pointed out, before turning toward the Demon again, "You sure there is not more to this? Sure, it is surprising, but it's not particularly beyond what we know you are capable of. Do you have a particular plan behind this?"

Eiro thought about it for a moment, "Not really. I was thinking about maybe finding some magic beasts or other inhabitants of that plane to turn into underlings or maybe even just servants depending on how annoying they are. And of course, finding the Spirit Monarchs to learn a few things from them, and maybe gather a few more blessings, might not be that bad of an idea either." Eiro said bluntly, "Although the doubles I sent there haven't reached any cities yet, they should soon."

"...Again, what about it?" James asked, still not particularly impressed. He had simply ignored what it meant to step into another realm, since he knew that he wouldn't understand it anyway.

Eiro let out a deep sigh, "Nothing in particular, it's just making me think a bit, you know?" The Demon pointed out, "Like... Through these doubles, I can travel other planes, but I can't currently travel through the central material plane to the extent that I would like. There are a lot of things and placed that I would like to find. Of course, that aspect was part of the plan anyway, but I would like to change on aspect of it." Eiro explained, starting to grin slightly. Now, it seemed like everyone was really paying attention.

The Demon slowly spread out his wings and let his tail wave from left to right behind him, "When the time comes for me to travel, I will not do so as Eiro Jura Daemonherz, a noble from Skyhart and member of the Hero's party. I will do so as Ragnir Arcanus. The benevolent Demon whose goal it is to change the stigma around monsters."