DEMON'S VIRTUE

It was late at night, while the children were already laying in bed sleeping off their sorrow of the day, while Eiro was sitting on the rocking chair that Jura often sat in during the day, with Nelli floating right in front of him.

"In case anything happens, I'm here. If you're overwhelmed, I'll cover your ears and nose in water, so breathe through your mouth if you can." Nelli explained quietly, and Eiro slowly nodded his head as he looked at the card in front of him. "Remember, the Pentacle Suit is different to the others, you can't get rid of the cards anymore as long as you live." She pointed out, so Eiro simply sighed as he looked at her.

"I know, I read about that." He replied, and then slowly breathed in as much air as his body could handle and then pushed his mana out of his fingers into the golden card inbetween them as he held his eyes shut.

The very moment that he did, he immediately felt more than just overwhelmed. It was an insane feeling. Despite his eyes being closed as tightly as Eiro could manage, he still felt blinded, although the only light in this room was the moonlight shining in through the window behind him.

It immediately felt as if a hundred people screamed into both of his ears at once, and he could smell literally everything. He smelled Arc, Sammy, Clementine, Rudy, Avalin and Leon, as well as all of the animals they kept together with Lugo. He could smell the roots planted at the bottom of the hill, and then there were scents he couldn't even recognize.

His mouth was filled with the taste of his last ten meals all at once, and they all tasted overwhelmingly strong so that Eiro nearly wanted to throw up.

He could feel his own heartbeat so strong that it seemed like a grown man was repeatedly punching him into the chest, something that nearly took all his breath away. All over his body it was like something was pressing against him as he took notice of the immense pressure his clothes somehow gave off onto him. It didn't hurt, but it felt like someone was pushing him around from every single direction.

"Argh..!" Eiro gave out quietly as his body got tense and he sat up, but both the sound of his feet rubbing over the wooden floor and the reverberating, loud scream of his voice made his situation even worse, and he tried to press his hands against his ears to just make it stop, but it simply felt as if two large hammers were hitting the sides of his head at the same time, before his hands were pushed away and the sound suddenly got muffled. It was still uncomfortably loud, but it was at least bearable.

And at that point, he finally managed to calm down a little and collected his thoughts again, slowly starting to breath through his mouth as his nose was covered in water as well, and his eyes were being wrapped in thick cloth.

The air tasted... dirty, and somehow drowned out the taste of Eiro's meals. For a while, Eiro didn't recognize that taste, but soon he connected it with a smell. The smell of wood, the one thing that was currently all around him.

Somehow, the feeling of knowing he was still where he was before like this was quite comforting, so the Imp soon managed to calm down, and then just whispered as quietly as he could, although to him it still felt like he was yelling, "Thanks...." The Imp said quietly, and then managed to sligthly get used to the feeling of that pressure he felt all over his body, and then even the stronger pressure that appeared when he was leaning backward against the chair again.

With deep breaths through his mouth, Eiro then slowly managed to get used to the taste of the air and the feeling of sitting down, he slightly pushed against the water around his nose to signal Nelli to remove it, and then Eiro slowly started to breath in through his nose.

The smells all around him made him feel dizzy and sick, as if he just wanted to throw up right away, but after taking them in for a little while, he managed to at least make that feeling bearable, and then tapped the water around his ears, before Nelli slowly made a little of it disappear, to slowly 'settle' Eiro into the loud noise that came to him out of this silence.

The first thing that Eiro did to slowly get used to it was tap the armrest of the rocking chair with his wooden fingers a little, slowly getting louder and louder to make sure he could get used to it.

This alone took Eiro a little under an hour until he got to a point where he was comfortable enough to speak at a volume where Nelli could at least understand him.

"Help me take the cloth off..." The Demon said quietly, and Nelli swiftly nodded her head in response, an action that Eiro noticed despite not being able to see her. So this was what Jura lived like, huh?

Slowly, Eiro could feel the pressure around his head getting less and less as the brightness increased and his eyes started hurting more and more.

Once the cloth was fully removed, Eiro just tried to open his eyes carefully, although he was soon overwhelmed by his notifications' light.

Just like before, this took another hour for Eiro to get used to, and he soon finally managed to read what the bright notifications in front of his eyes told him.

[You have activated and connected with the Five of Pentacles. You are now its owner]

[1/14 Cards of the Suit of Pentacles acquired]

[3/56 Cards of the Minor Arcana acquired]

[Aptitude with the Earth Element increased]

[Beginner Earth Magic Skill Learned]

With a slight sigh that nearly ruptured his eardrums, Eiro reached his hand out to get rid of the notifications, and when he touched the first one, he noticed something.

It disappeared, sure, but he actually felt resistance when the tip of his finger touched it, and he could feel the blue mist it fell apart into wrapping around his finger for a moment.

It was just a slight feeling, as if someone was lightly blowing against your finger. Barely noticeable, really, but in the end there it was. It was pretty surprising to Eiro, but in the end, he could explore this later. For now, he just wanted to get rid of the notifications, because they were hurting his squinted eyes.

For the next few hours, until the sun came up, all that Eiro did was try his best getting used to his new, extraordinarily strong senses. And then, when the sun actually fully came up, Eiro was simply constantly holding his hands in front of his eyes and only peeking through his eyes, because it was a little too bright for him.

"…Morning…" Rudy said tiredly with a deep yawn as he stood up from his bed and sat his feet down onto the floor, and Eiro could immediately feel those sounds reverberate through his body and he immediately pressed his hands against his ears again.

"Hmm? Eiro, are you alright?" The boy asked with a bit of worry, and the Imp simply slowly nodded his head while Nelli flew over toward him, whispering into his ear, although Eiro could hear her clearly even then. "He used Jura's Card… And now it's like his perception stat is a hundred times higher than before… So try to be as quiet as you can be." She explained, and Rudy raised his brows surprised and turned to respond to the Naiad, although before he could, Eiro just stood up, still pressing his hands against his ears as he walked over toward the beds. In the end, he would surely be fine no matter how loud they were. Jura was fine as well, so it was improbable for Eiro to actually get hurt just by his senses. So maybe he had to be a bit drastic about this, and slowly let his hands slip from the side of his head, his eyes still closed shut.

"Rudy… make the stew tonight… please." Eiro said, his own voice echoing through his head in a painful manner, and the boy looked over at Nelli confused, "Why does he-"

"Because it's easy to get used to… this feeling when I… Argh… Feel the highest extent…" The Demon said in a clear tone, and then slowly made his way over toward the door, the bottom of his feet hurting just from walking over here.

On another note, maybe his heightened senses really were dangerous to him… But there was no turning back now, he made his choice and he would stick to it.

"Isn't that a bit…" Rudy asked, "Insane?"

Slowly, Eiro nodded his head and extended his hand forward to grab the door handle. "It is… I will be in the… Basement room… The isolated one…" Eiro explained and opened the door as the scent of the forest immediately hit him like a punch, and he turned his face away for a moment before stepping outside onto the grass in front of him.

He simply tried to get around the house by running his fingers over the wood walls, and then turned around the corner when he couldn't feel it anymore, before slowly making his way to the basement-storage entrance before stepping down into it.

Since it was pretty dark down here it was already way more comfortable to his eyes, and it was pretty quiet as well, so he could let go of his ears as he slowly made his way through the room with Nelli's help.

The smell was pretty overwhelming, because of the many different kinds of wood from numerous different places, but even then, Eiro thought the smell of wood to be quite calming so he managed to get used to it pretty quickly. And then, Eiro sat down inside of the room that he found the casket and all the other things in, before noticing something interesting.

The floor underneath his feet was pretty soft and was surprisingly comfortable to walk on, and there somehow was barely any smell in here… The narrow entrance didn't let in that much light in. The air didn't taste like much, he couldn't hear anything from outside, and when the demon opened his eyes, he soon noticed that his eyes were fine in this room as well, and he just slowly stood in the center of the room comfortably like this, and then slowly grabbed two of his tools out of his treasury, starting to hit them against each other lightly to cause some sound, that sounded just like an explosion to the Imp himself.

He would just go ahead and try to get used to things that his senses reacted to this strongly as quickly as he possibly could. It would probably take a while, but at the very least, he somehow had to try his best to get there quickly to get started working on the practice weapons for the kids.

And if he could listen to whatever was going on in the forest, he would be able to find prey or plants far easier, something that would come in useful especially this winter, so he should be able to take the rest of the time properly practicing and training with the children to get them to a point where they could protect themselves properly within the next year… And then, they would leave to get the seals on Sammy and Leon removed. Somehow, while a year was a long time, it still somehow felt weirdly short. Maybe that was just because Eiro was feeling nervous about everything that was going on at the moment.. Either way, he had to do his best.