Demon's Virtue

"You're saying that the Monster King visited you in the bar..?" A voice filled with confusion and fear asked, and Eiro quickly nodded his head before replying to Solomon.

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. I don't know why exactly he did it, but I'm going to figure it out, most likely at the very latest when the messages of the past three months appear before me in two weeks. He also gave me this small metal orb that I'm going to have Armodeus properly analyse. It doesn't seem like any specific metal that I know of." The Demon explained as he crossed his arms with a deep frown, "But something... positive came out of this as well." He stated, and Solomon frowned at him confused.

"What do you mean?" He asked, "What positive thing could come out of the Monster King just suddenly appearing before you?"

"...My essence is completely pure now. This new horn didn't just appear out of nowhere, it's the concentrated form of my essence's impurities that were stuck in my mana core." Eiro explained, but Solomon was still confused.

"So? What does a pure essence do for you?"

"For one, it increases my ability to manipulate mana to an extent. Since my core has been cleansed as well, my mana regeneration seems to have gone up a bit as well. But more importantly, it seems like I can make proper use of my essence in itself now. I have been trying to do it for as long as I could split my essence from my mana, but it never worked. Now, it does." The Demon explained, and quickly took a deep breath as he pushed some of his essence out of the tip of his finger. He used it to draw a simple, small magic circle.

And after activating it, the essence quickly came together in one spot and congealed into one small, perfectly round marble. It dropped down onto Eiro's hand, but the Demon manipulated it before he made skin contact. The marble floated above his palm. Then, Eiro made it move in front of his finger once more, and then shot it off toward the other side of the room.

In an instant, so quick that even the air wasn't able to react to what happened so that no sound was created by the sudden movement, the marble appeared on the other side of the room, floating just a fraction of an inch away from the glass pane of the closet.

"Teleportation?" Solomon asked, and Eiro immediately shook his head, "No, it's not teleportation. I don't possess spatial magic yet, sadly. Rather, this was just me manipulating this small orb. And now, take a look at this." Even though Eiro was not yet finished, Solomon was already utterly baffled. The fact that he could move that thing so quick that it mimicked teleportation, and then was able to make it come to a halt in front of the window in an instant? That was simply incredible.

But that wasn't all yet. Eiro slowly moved his hand around in front of him, and created another magic circle. The moment that Eiro activated it, the particles of mana that were floating in the air nearly instantly, but now at a speed that could still be recognized as actual movement, moved over toward the small orb, and then, the magical effect was activated there instead of in front of Eiro's hand where the magic circle was earlier.

The effect was nothing special, it was just a small gust of wind that came from specifically where that marble was floating.

"You can cast spells remotely now?" Solomon asked. Eiro quickly smiled, "Basically, yes. There are some restrictions using this method, but that's a good surface-level way to explain it. And of course, there are far, far more applications that pure essence potentially has. Increasing the amount of essence that's placed into a spell will increase its potency. Of course, usually that means that I would end up with a higher mana consumption to increase the power of the spell, since the spell will still need the regular base amount of mana. Either way, for me, I can then just use arcane magic to cast a spell. It's still a loss to an extent, since I will only be able to cast arcane magic using that leftover mana, but it's better than nothing."

"Interesting... so this will really increase your options when it comes to spellcasting quite a bit, right? But also, when you add more essence to a spell, is that the same as when you add life force to a spell? Effect wise?" Solomon asked, wanting to make sure he really understood the limitations of this technique, but he was surprised when Eiro immediately shook his head.

"No, no, not at all. Adding life force to a spell will simply increase the damage that the spell does to the opponent, the spell itself will be the same. Adding more essence to a spell will increase the power of the spell, so for example... I could shoot a projectile a lot faster, or I could make a stronger barrier. That sort of thing. It might increase the damage in response, sure, but it doesn't technically influence the damage in itself." Eiro explained, and thought about it for a moment, "I do wonder what sort of damage I could potentially do when combining these two. Using a spell that increased in damage quite a bit the higher the potency, and then infusing it with as much life force as I can spare... that should probably do a couple million damage."

"A couple mill- Eiro, what could you use damage like that for?" Solomon asked with a shocked expression, and Eiro chuckled slightly, "The enemies I will fight in the future will require that sort of damage for me to be even taken seriously."

"...Are you sure that you're fine with such a responsibility?" Solomon asked. Eiro looked back at him for a few moments and then slowly nodded his head. That seemed enough to convey parts of his feelings, before Eiro remembered something else.

"I mean... I'm not as alone now as I used to be. Sure, I will end up having to fight alone for most of it, but even then... I have companions now. And potentially, even a lover to come back to." Eiro explained to his friend, who wasn't sure what exactly he just heard, "A lover? Do you mean... Ariella?"

"She kissed me tonight. Yes, she kissed me. She looked at me, at who I really am, and then she initiated the kiss. I don't know what it means yet, and what will come from it... but thus far, that is a fact."

Solomon smiled as he placed his hand onto his friend's shoulder, "I'm happy for you, Eiro. But... do you really think you should have come here to meet me instead of heading off home with your... 'potential lover'?"

"What? Of course I should have come here. The Monster King just teleported into the middle of the city with incredible precision and caused me to be dead for basically a full minute." Eiro pointed out with a face of disbelief, and Solomon looked back with an unchanging expression, "You have a point. I don't understand why I'm not freaking out about this more in the first place."

"Probably cuz' you've heard so much random shit that you've been dulled to this sorta stuff." Bavet added as he flew down onto the table in front of the two of them, "But more importantly, shouldn't we start heading home now? There is class tomorrow, and if someone sees you in the king's bedroom at night, some unwanted rumors might spread, y'know?"

"...Maybe you have a point. Alright, come on, then let's go for now. If you need to know more about the monster king's sudden appearance, just let me know. You know how to find me." The Demon pointed out, as he made his way over toward the balcony. Solomon accompanied him with a sigh, "I sort of want to know more, but I wouldn't know how to put it into words for now. We will definitely speak about this some more once I get my thoughts together."

"Of course. That's to be expected." Eiro pointed out, as he spread out his wings behind his back, "I will be seeing you soon then, Solomon. Call me when you need me." The Demon said, and with a single flap of his wings, he lifted up high into the sky at an incredible speed, as Bavet was wrapped around his arm. At even higher speed, Eiro started flying toward his manor, reaching it within less than a minute.

And quite surprisingly, something that Eiro didn't expect, there were some guests here. Hannah was playing around with some of the nocturnal spider servants, while Ariella was sitting on top of the roof, seemingly just waiting for this Demon to arrive.