Demon's Virtue

638 Visit

Eiro rubbed the bridge of his nose, annoyed, “Really? Why the hell..?” the demon asked into the room, but the overseer simply shrugged, “Did you do anything to upset him?”

“I don’t think so? I mean, I haven’t really done anything except scare a few kids. And I doubt he’d come to me about something like that,” Eiro sighed, “How long until he’ll be here?”

“Maybe ten minutes?”

“...And when were you told that he’s coming?”

“A couple days ago, a Salamander came here in search of you. And when he figured out that you were in here, he said he would bring the Salamander King here,” the overseer explained, and Eiro couldn’t do anything but let out a loud groan, “Why didn’t you tell me beforehand?”

“What am I, your pet? If you had paid attention, you would’ve noticed that Salamander yourself anyway. I figured you had.”

Eiro placed the books in front of him down onto the table, “...Does the Salamander King have access to the tower?”

The overseer nodded without looking away from the book in his hand, “He has the same rights to enter the tower as anyone. Not that he has passed the tests yet.”

“That means if I did anything wrong, I can at least hide on the second floor.”

.....

“Theoretically.”

Eiro frowned, “What’s that supposed to mean now?”

“The tower is a place of knowledge, not violence. If the Salamander King threatens to use force, you will be brought out of the tower immediately. You can return once you have resolved the issues, of course, but if there’s anything that could damage the integrity of the books we house, then that will be removed, of course,” the overseer explained, but Eiro just sighed, “Fuck, alright. I guess I just have to face him, then. Urgh, this is going to be annoying... I think I actually know why he’s coming here.”

The overseer raised a brow, “And why would that be?”

Eiro quickly pointed at his heart, “The gateway that acts as this body’s core. We explained it to you already, right? The versions of us in the tower here and on the plane of water are duplicats. The original became the guardian of two spirit gateways, and then formed duplicates right around those gateways.”

“So he’s coming because you’re using the gateway as you wish?”

“I’d guess so.”

“Good luck with that, then.”

“...Right,” Eiro grumbled, taking his time to bring the books back to their spot, before moving down toward the tower’s entrance. As he was walking, he already heard a troubled voice ringing through his head, “Yo, come the fuck down here, the King’s here!”

“I know,” Eiro replied to Sarius, letting out a sigh as he pushed open the large double door that led him straight outside. In front of him, he could see the huge figure of the Salamander King, towering over Eiro. He was already giant in the central elemental plane, but here, he could only be called a giant. It made sense... that small Sarius was as large as a person here, so it would only make sense for the King to scale up similarly.

“Ah... long time no see?” Eiro said with a slight wave, and the Salamander King looked down at him, “It has been some months, yes. And in that time, I can tell that you have achieved quite... something,” the King pointed out, clearly staring deep into Eiro’s chest, as if he was looking right into the gateway.

“So ‘that’ really is the reason why you’re here, huh...”

“Of course it is! What else would bring me here? I gave you a blessing and made you guardian of the gateway, and this is how you use that gift?” The King asked, his words clearly implying that he was angry, but... his voice didn’t. Eiro was a little surprised, but couldn’t help but smile, “Yup. I mean, isn’t it kind of cool?”

The Salamander King smirked, while the other Salamanders following behind him as his entourage were clearly angered incredibly by the Demon’s words, “How dare you desecrate the gateway like that?!” they started to yell out, throwing insults at him. Meanwhile, Eiro and the Salamander King simply looked into each other’s eyes. They both knew where this was going.

Salamanders were wild and got angry easily, and they quickly turned to violence. It seemed like there were plenty of them that were right on the edge of doing just that, as well. Figuring that they might just need another small push, Eiro grinned and scoffed, “I mean, it’s mine now, isn’t it? I can do whatever the hell I want with it, even if I just end up using it as a trash-chute.”

Eiro could feel the magic around plenty of the Salamanders shifting, turning into simple attack spells that were about to be shot right at the Demon. But Eiro just smiled and looked at Sarius, “Do you want to take care of this one?”

“Hahh? What, why should-” Sarius yelled out, clearly already nervous enough because of this situation. But, finally taking the time to look at the King’s expression, his nervousness disappeared, and even he realized what was going on.

“Ah... I guess so,” the spirit replied, snapping his fingers just once. As if all the magic in the realm surrounding him just waited for his command, as though it was yearning to act under his will, a wave travelled through the fire-magic filled air. As those waves hit the spells created by the other Salamanders, suddenly, the spells turned on their casters. The spears, spikes, and orbs stopped listening to the ones that originally called on them, and instead threatened them, pressed against their chests or necks. And all that, with just a single snap of his finger.

Not only the other Salamanders, but the King as well, were more than just surprised at what they were seeing, “This... this level of control, in that little time? What have you done with him since I last saw him..?”

“What have I done? Exactly what you asked me to. I showed him how to control his raw power,” Eiro explained bluntly, “He picked things up pretty well, especially if I taught him while fused.”

The King smiled broadly, “I see, I see! So basically, after you fused, he received your level of skill in magic control!”

“Hah?” Eiro and Sarius let out at once, and Sarius quickly shook his head, “No way, no, you can’t compare me to that guy, that’s just unfair... If that’s the level I have to be at to become King, I’ll just give up already...”

The King raised a brow, “Certainly, he was quite skilled when I last saw him, but... is it to the degree where you cannot achieve it?”

“Th-That’s right! You’re a spirit, the future King! There’s no way you would be worse at controlling fire magic than a mere demon!”

Eiro looked at the Salamander that just said that, and locked eyes with him, “Did you just say ‘mere’ demon? I’m a fucking King, I’ve evolved into my own unique species! Or like... the original did, I’m a copy of his that he fused with fire magic, but like, still, the point stands!”

The Salamander King smirked lightly, “In that case, would you like to show us your skill?”

With a click of his tongue, Eiro nodded, “Of course! Yo, original, get to it!”

Eiro looked down at his body and frowned, “The fuck do you mean, why would I- Oh go fuck yourself you cocky prick, just because you-” the Demon angrily spoke to himself, making him appear close to insane to the Salamanders, before Eiro finally clicked his tongue, “Alright, fine! Please! Please do it, alright?”

Just a moment after, Eiro’s body started to swell up, “There we go, that wasn’t so hard now, was it?”

The duplicate grew in size, as the original manipulated the exact way that the duplicate’s body appeared. To make up for the mass that he was missing, the duplicate quickly pulled in huge amounts of fire magic from around him, as if filling in the gaps. Before long, Eiro was the size of the Salamander King, and soon, even towered above him. His body was slightly translucent due to the concentrated fire magic now making up the vast majority of his body. Strands of light were flowing through his body, as the power of the spirit gateway was clearly visible to everyone now that Eiro’s body was partially see-through.

And then, Eiro grinned, and clapped just once. A shockwave of magic traveled through the area as if a bomb went off. And then, all at once, the borders of that shockwave were pulled back in, right into a single spot, leaving nothing but a vacuum in the air where there was supposed to be fire magic before. The floating salamanders fell to the ground, as waves of new magic came crashing over them to fill in the space that had been created in an instant, while the enormous Eiro looked down at the fallen Salamanders, holding a large magic stone in his hand, that he just created with his own power.

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