DEMON'S VIRTUE

"Ragnir Arcanus? I get what the 'Arcanus' is about, that's your new race, right? But what's with the 'Ragnir'?" Jess asked with a confused expression on her face. Eiro turned toward her with a smile, "It's nothing, it's just a common Demon name. I can't go running around with a fake name like Jeffrey, or George. I want there to be no doubt about the fact that I'm a true Demon."

Everyone was thinking about Eiro's plan, "But... why would you do something like that? I get that you want people and monsters to be able to coexist to an extent, but..." Ariella said conflicted, "Obviously I want that as well, but there's no way that's going to do anything..."

"Really?" Eiro asked with a scoff, "I wouldn't be so sure about that. Every day, rumours spread around the continent about people that do things I can do in the average afternoon. And more than that, I have some helpers that are going to assist me in spreading those rumours. Not long after I head out for my trip, everyone will know about the monster without monstrosity."

Koperia let out a sigh, "Listen, that's a good idea and all, but it's too risky. Obviously, nobody is really going to be able to hurt you, but there might be someone that can make an 'effect' message appear. They'll immediately learn of your name, Eiro Jura Daemonherz."

"Right, which is why I won't be going out until I find the 'World Pen'." Eiro explained, "And then I'll freely let people damage me, so that I can proof to them that I really am Ragnir Arcanus."

Krog crossed his arms in thought, "World Pen... That was a card or something, right? Isn't that one of the lost ones?"

"...Officially, yes, but I don't think it's really lost. The cards can't be destroyed, and there are rules set up to make sure that they can't be forever thrown into the ocean or some bullshit like that. But finding the card is going to be tough either way. We're lucky that most of the cards are on this continent. I hope that the World Pen is amongst them." Eiro explained to the group, "Not that this plan is going to be put into action anytime soon. It's just a quick update for you guys, since this is something that I will definitely be doing in the future."

Meanwhile, as the discussions about future plans continued within the central material plane, in the elemental plane of water, Eiro had finally found a place of interest. It was a giant bubble of crystalized water magic, roughly the size of the inner circle of Skyhart's royal capital. It seemed like the inside was still filled with water, but it was of a more even density than compared to the wild waters around here. And of course, some of the magic beasts that were swimming through the waters here were anything but peaceful, so the crystal bubble acted as a sort of wall as well.

Eiro swam toward the entrance that he could see. A large building had been constructed right in front of one of the circular entrances, standing there instead of a simple gate. The Demon swam through the large circular entrance, and was soon stopped by a being that Eiro had yet to identify. It was not a Spirit, but it also wasn't a magic beast.

This here was one of the races inhabiting the elemental plane of water. They were something inbetween people and magic beasts. The form that they took on was, unsurprisingly, quite similar to that of mermen. They had normal humanoid proportions, and all the limbs that came with it. Part of their bodies were covered in scales, gills were waving open and shut rythmically on the sides of their necks. Their skin was pale, and had a sort of blue-greenish tint to it, and was smooth like that of a whale or dolphin. If, instead of their legs, they had fish-tails, then they would be indistinguishable from mermen.

One of them opened their mouth, starting to speak. But they spoke in a language that Eiro didn't understand.

"Erm... do you speak common, perchance?" Eiro asked, and the two men looked at each other for a moment, "Of course we do. But you don't speak Aquarian?"

"I don't, I'm actually from the central material plane, sorry." The Demon explained, and one of the men scoffed, "Right, that's a good joke. Anyway, what is your business here, if you heed from the material plane?"

"I'm just travelling through. I was thinking meeting the Spirit King and Queen would be nice." The Demon pointed out quickly. There was little need for him to lie, after all. However, the two men just started laughing loudly, "We've got a comedian here, don't we?" One of them exclaimed loudly. Eiro rolled his eyes in response, somewhat annoyed.

"Mhm. Anyway, can I enter?" Eiro asked, and one of the men nodded his head, "There's no reason why you couldn't." He said, swimming to the side to make way for Eiro to get through. It seemed like this plane was rather peaceful, if they didn't worry about letting some weirdo through into the city.

Eiro swam past them, but quickly stopped, "Ah, right. Do you have something like a library here?"

"Hm, yes we do, it should be by the town square. Not many people go there, though, so it's been sort of abandoned." One of them replied, and Eiro raised his brow, "That so? Thanks, anyway."

Eiro started to move through the town. It was an interesting place, really. Structures were built out of crystal- and coral-like structures from any point on the crystal bubble. It was easy to move up and down as well, after all. There were plenty of people swimming by above and below Eiro. Most of them looked similar to those two men before, but there were a few Naiads here and there too. Of course, a few smaller magic beasts were floating around all over the place too.

It took Eiro a while to make his way to the town square, though. Rather, he was unsure what exactly was considered as the 'town square', since this huge city was built in a completely foreign way compared to what Eiro was used to. But he was soon able to find it, with the help of some passerbies giving him directions.

And once he was there, he of course quickly managed to identify the library. Eiro swam inside. Considering that it was supposedly abandoned, it was pretty large. Well, there did seem to be some algae growing on the shelves, so he sort of understood what they meant.

Eiro approached one of the shelves and pulled out a book. Right in theme with this whole city, the books itself seemed to be shells. Or rather, the shells were the books' cover, giving them a shape that he really didn't expect to see in books either. They were round. When he flipped the book open, he saw the pages. They were opaque, but still slightly translucent, like frosted glass. It was made of some sort of crystal formation as well, like most things in this town was. But even then, it acted like paper, although it was much stronger than paper. And on top of these opaque crystal pages, the actual content had been written. However, Eiro quickly realized that these books weren't written in common, but the language of the elemental plane of water, Aquarian. It was a symbol-based language, where just one symbol equated a word. That should be rather simple to learn, then.

On the other side, the original Eiro told Nelli that his double had found a city, and just a moment later, the naiad appeared in the plane of water.

"Huh? You already looked around?" Nelli asked surprised, "...And of course you're in a library."

"Obviously, I would never let a chance like this pass by. More importantly, I need you to teach me Aquarian."

"...I don't know Aquarian. I mean, I can speak a little of it, but I can't write or read it. I don't spend a lot of time over here, y'know? And it's not like Spirits really need language anyway. Even if we don't speak the same language as our contractors, as long as they understand the concept of language, we can communicate telepathically." Nelli pointed out, and Eiro sighed annoyed. He swam over toward someone that seemed to actually work here, "Sorry, but do you speak common?"

The woman quickly nodded her head, "I do."

"Right, perfect. Are any of the books here written in common?"

"I don't think we do, sorry." She said, shaking her head quickly. With an annoyed sigh, Eiro turned around, "Guess that means I've got some studying to do. Or rather, that other guy does." He grinned slightly, as he started picking up another book. Nelli looked at him with a frown.

"What do you mean, 'that other guy'?"

"What else? The original. While I'm here, reading everything, he's going to analyze things in the mental library. We'd been practicing and planning a few things for that before." Eiro explained, "All the doubles share the same mental library, so the original can just use the mirror to create a bunch of doubles that can think for us while we're busy doing other stuff. He's practicing it right now, actually. So we'll just have them analyze the books to figure out the written language, and I'll have you teach me a bit about the verbal language. And together with the things I'll pick up here in this city, I should be able to sort of understand the language in a few days. Especially when I start growing the skill." The Demon explained, with a smile on his face. And so, he started to ingrain the symbols in these unique books into his mind.