Demon's Virtue

The party was able to soon see the floating island in the distance, as they were moving along the shore of the lake. Deep inside of this huge body of water, Eiro was able to sense the Lord of the Lake, restrained by the beings that had taken over the city on the island.

It seemed to be magically chained up, its powers slowly but surely being sapped. It was a miserable way to live. Even if it wasn't the Lonely Naiad's friend, Eiro would have understood if she wanted him to help it.

Eiro took a deep breath as he stared into the distance. He manipulated the liquids in his eyes all the whilst increasing the focus of his senses on visual ability. Like this, he was able to see what was going on in the city, at least roughly.´

Along the bridge that they were going to take, there was some form of Noble Monster stationed as a guard, to stop anyone that wasn't permitted from intruding. And the rest of the city... From what Eiro could see, the monsters inside were just using it as their playground, doing whatever they wanted.

Most of the buildings had been destroyed, replaced with structures created by the monsters themselves. And then, there were also the buildings on the shores themselves. The Inns that were placed before each of the bridges so that those that wanted to head into the city could rest if the bridges couldn't be passed.

"...Hm, that seems quite bothersome." Eiro sighed, "The bridges are flooded right now."

"Does that mean we'll have to wait until the water level lowers?" Jess asked, but Eiro immediately shook his head, "No, not really. I'll just use magic to push the water to the side so that we can cross the bridge without issue. It's just going to use up a good bit of mana, that's all." The Demon pointed out, "Mana that I would have liked to save, just in case something troublesome happened up there. But at the end of the day, we should focus on making it up there in the first place."

"...Right. I do keep forgetting just how powerful your direct control over the elements is." Jess said with a wry smile, "I'm mostly just good at drawing magic circles, but direct control is kind of... awkward."

"Don't worry about that. You're specialized, that's all. And since you're a full mage instead of mixing your expertise like I do, that's totally fine as well." Eiro reassured her, as Jess slowly smiled back, "Thanks, that's kind of reassuring to hear..." She replied.

It didn't take long for the group to reach the entrance onto the bridge. Within the inn placed at the bottom of the steep structure, there were plenty of monsters gathered for now as well.

"Jess, please create a fire magic spell that just spews flames through one of the broken windows. If you can, aim it at the one in the top right, it's some kind of storage rooms with plenty of paper and other burnables." Eiro suggested to her, and Jess quickly got to it as Eiro turned toward James and Krog, "And you two, make sure to fight any of the monsters that come rushing out of there when the building is set ablaze."

The two fighters quickly nodded their heads, pulling out their respective weapons, although James had a bit of a comment, "Although, wouldn't it be too obvious if we just set fire to the old inn? Won't the monsters on the island find out that they're being attacked?"

"Not really. You're underestimating how proud and stupid monsters can be, especially nobles, which are the only ones we have to worry about at this point. Even if they were to notice the fire, they'll think 'One of those dumb lesser monsters set fire to that building... How funny'." Eiro said bluntly, "Although, even then, it really doesn't matter in the first place. We're not really trying to be stealthy, since we have to kill all the monsters up there anyway. If they end up gathering in one spot because they want to fight back against us, that's just better for us in the end."

"Eh, makes sense. We really are a lot stronger than we were before, so they shouldn't end up being a threat to us." James said with a grin on his face, and Eiro smiled as he stepped up to the entrance to the incredibly long bridge that would take one hours to get across, just because of the sheer size of the lake. It was incredidble, really. Eiro had no idea how they even built these bridges. There weren't many that could use magic to help out in the creation of such an incredible structure.

Not that it mattered at the end of the day. Eiro walked onto the bridge up to the point where it was covered by water, and then sat down cross-legged inside of the water. He started spreading out the mana throughout the water in a straight line in front of him, practically creating a rectangular magic circle. It was basically a special 'zone' spell, made to push any water within it out of the way while Eiro supplied mana to it.

While Eiro was constructing this spell, he could hear the screams of monsters and smelled the scent of smoke and blood mixing together. So the others were busy at work right now as well.

It seemed like one of the monsters they were fighting escaped and was running right at the bridge. It probably thought that it had to get back up onto the island if it wanted any chance of surviving. And since Eiro was sitting there with his back turned toward it, it most likely thought that he was easy prey.

It was just that it took nothing but an instant for Eiro to push a large amount of venom into the blood of this monster, paralyzing its body immediately before it slowly died, drowning in its own blood. It fell to the ground before even coming into arms-reach for Eiro. Since the Demon's tail was decently long, it allowed Eiro to use such tactics.

Either way, after that monster died, Eiro continued constructing the spell. Soon, just around when the others were done as well, Eiro finished constructing the magic circle, and quickly activated it. The water that was making it impossible to cross the bridge at the moment was pushed to the side, as the group started walking it up.

"But really, why was this bridge flooded like that? It wasn't like that back in the day." James pointed out, "Or was it?"

Eiro immediately shook his head, "No, it wasn't. It's because of the island. It's floating lower than it used to. When they chained up the Lord of the Lake, they connected him directly to that mass of land. Its sheer weight is pulling the island down a bit, causing the bridge to submerge like this for now. It should have probably taken another few days for the island to lightly float back up enough for it to be possible to pass it normally."

"How disgusting..." Jess said with a deep glare as she looked into the water, "I heard the Lord of the Lake was a wonderful being... A monster that really wasn't a monster, protecting the people of this town. That they did this to such a majestic being..."

"Oh, the Lord of the Lake isn't a monster." Eiro said bluntly, before James, Jess and Krog immediately stopped walking, "What? What do you mean?"

"...It's not a monster." Eiro replied immediately, "I was able to sense it just now, it's clearly not a monster. It's a Magic Beast, possibly one even mightier than dragons. Although I don't really know what exactly it is. It just looks like a truly enormous sea serpent right now, though."

"...Seriously? Then why does everyone think it's a monster..?"

"Because it probably can't speak Common, and people are quick to call beings that scare them monsters." Eiro said bluntly, and the others looked at each other somewhat embarrassed. They knew that Eiro was right, so they couldn't say much in response. Seeing that they were feeling somewhat awkward after that reveal, Eiro let out a deep sigh, "Don't worry, I can't blame people for doing that, at least in this case. Again, it's not like it can speak Common and just tell them about how it's a magic beast and not a monster. And it does seem pretty monstrous even to me, so I get- Ah, Krog, walk a step further to the left."

"Huh?" Krog replied. He did as told, but he was clearly still confused. That was, until a small marble-sized ball hit the spot where he was just walking. It popped open, and a dirty green liquid came out, spreading onto the thick surface of the bridge. That part of the bridge immediately started melting away due to that acidic liquid.

Eiro held his hand forward as a magic circle was quickly formed in front of his palm. It was activated an instant later, and a pebble that was provided by Gondos was shot at the being that had noticed the group and tried to attack them. It was one of the things that had settled down on the bridge itself, a small plant-type monster that was growing in the area beyond where the water was covering the bridge.

Of course, Eiro immediately shot through the center of its body and killed it without issue. It was just a peasant monster, after all.

Nothing to worry about in the slightest.