Demon's Virtue
chapter-331

"Concentrate." Lognir said in a loud, commanding tone as he kept spiraling magic all around the Demon, "I said, concentrate."

"I'm doing that, but you haven't told me what to concentrate on yet." Eiro groaned in response. As if it was obvious, Lognir let out a sigh, "Isn't it obvious? On your own aura. I'm teaching you how to manipulate your order, what do you think I'm going to have you concentrate on? Your feet?"

Eiro rolled his eyes, "No need to get so sarcastic about it. You didn't explain anything about it and just told me to sit down and concentrate. You're obviously trying to overwhelm my senses to make it easier for me to tune everything else out somehow, any I appreciate that, but you can't expect me to figure out every little detail."

The Demon stared at the Dragon in humanoid form in front of him, who just crossed his arms while tapping his foot on the ground, "Fine. I thought you were a prodigy or something, but I guess not."

"...You're really pissing me off."

"Good." Lognir pointed out with a smirk, "You know, you're right in that my magic is supposed to overwhelm your senses, and in part to give you clear things to focus on to tune them out once you get to that part, but that's not all in the slightest. Mostly, I'm trying to annoy you. You see, our Aura is deeply connected with our emotions."

"...I think I know what you mean. Especially when I feel angry, my Aura gets stronger." Eiro added, and Lognir nodded immediately, "That's exactly what I mean. Depending on different emotions, your Aura will adapt and change. Anger makes it stronger so that those in front of you can feel your seething emotions. They will know you're angry. Sadness spreads out further distances. That's why there is this feeling of loneliness in houses where someone grieving lives. And when you're annoyed... Your Aura fluctuates. It jumps around chaotically. That's the best way for you to find what it feels like when you expand or contract your Aura."

Eiro quickly understood what Lognir meant, and then realized that he should be able to do this rather easily. But maybe it was because of his deeply emotional self especially lately that he wasn't able to make use of this new part of himself.

Both 'Edward' the Demi-Lich and Lognir right in front of him were capable of manipulating their aura so much that they seemed nearly invisible. 'Truth' was a part of 'Order'. And if strong emotions can make it that your Aura becomes stronger, weak emotions can make it that your Aura becomes weaker. With 'Order' it might be possible for Eiro to sort out his emotions and control his Aura until it is weakened so much you don't notice him.

"Ah... I think I don't need all this noise anymore... I figured it out." The Demon said quietly to himself as he pushed out a large gust of mana, interrupting the magic of Lognir that was still twirling around Eiro.

Lognir crossed his arms a bit surprised to hear this statement, "Is that so?" He asked, knowing that Eiro was telling the truth. The Dragon stared at Eiro as the Demon himself explored a certain few memories. A few memories that should be able to help him out, after all, Eiro figured that most of what was happening there was that his Aura was practically disappearing.

And without any Aura at all, even the world itself would be unable to sense him. And with a 'negative Aura', it would directly avoid him.

The Ace of Cups. The potion of invisibility. If Eiro could emulate what his body felt like while drinking the potion, he should be able to at least somewhat pull in his own Aura. The Demon dove into his own mind and went through the process again and again and again, until he finally was able to grasp it.

And it only took a couple of seconds. Eiro's aura was like a thin film around his body. All that he had to do was to slowly pull that film into his body, as if he was fusing with it. It wasn't an 'Aura' anymore, rather, it was just his own body.

Surprised, Lognir raised his brows as he looked down at the Demon sitting there cross-legged, "You... Really did do it. Huh. That's surprisingly quick. What you did now was to basically turn yourself into a 'weakling'. Strong people will notice others that are strong instantly through their Aura. It's built up by all your stats and experience that you gathered over the years. Now, you look like a below-average, regular person while out and about. Nobody will particularly pay attention to you, because you don't have anything that sticks out. Well, if you can look somewhat normal, at least."

Eiro slowly pushed himself off the ground, trying not to lose his concentration with the current state of his Aura.

"Bavet." The Demon said, holding his hand out to the side. In bird-form, the slime quickly flew over to him, "You mean we should do 'that'?" Bavet asked.

"Yup. Just to test it out some. Try and turn my wings into a jacket of sorts, and my tail into a belt." Eiro suggested, "And this time, don't make it look so... 'High Class'. Make me look more inconspicuous."

Annoyedly, Bavet turned his bird-head away, "Everybody's a critic these days."

"And what, you're an artist? Please, just do it. I want to see what I could use to walk around cities now." Eiro suggested, and the slime quickly fell apart. The actual slime covered Eiro's whole body, mostly concentrating on his wings, tail and horn. Eiro absorbed this slime as if fusing with it, before Bavet's core was pressed into the center of Eiro's chest.

Slowly, his skin changed color and became like that of a human. His horns became hair, his wings became a jacket that was placed around his torso, while his tail became a thin belt keeping his pants up.

"There we go. That looks good, right? Nelli." The Demon smirked as he looked down at himself, while Nelli appeared with a wry smile, barely stopping herself from laughing as she created water for Eiro to manipulate.

Eiro froze the water and turned it into something like a natural mirror by changing the thickness of the water and how cold he froze it in different places. And then, he realized why Nelli was smirking. Sure, Bavet turned Eiro's horns into hair, but he didn't change their color. Which is why Eiro was now standing there with rainbow hair.

"Bavet. How is this inconspicuous?" He asked, before a mouth formed on the Demon's left palm, "Oi, shut up. You can't expect me to get everything perfect immediately after demands like that. Also, it doesn't look that bad!"

"I know it doesn't look 'bad', there's little difference to my horns. I love my horns, so I do like this hair quite a bit... But that doesn't change the fact that people don't usually have hair like that. Make it blond or brown. Just something that doesn't stick out."

The slime clicked his tongue as Eiro's hair changed color and turned into something more natural, "Alright. There we go. What do I look like?"

"...Like a really boring, average person. Maybe you should try to make the clothes look a bit cheaper though. To fit in with your weak aura. Not like a beggar of course, but not that high-quality." Nelli suggested quickly, and Bavet swiftly complied. At least the belt and jacket turned a little, tiny bit worse in materials and quality, and since Eiro's pants and shirt were rather straightforward and simple anyway, the Demon looked much more... normal than before.

"That is rather... Interesting. You really just look like a person." Lognir pointed out a bit surprised, "I think if you practice a bit more, do whatever you need to in order to be able to keep this aspect of Aura manipulation up, you should be good. Let's move on to another aspect, shall we? The one where you don't seem 'normal' but rather where you blend in with the world around you."

Hearing these words in this specific way, Eiro realized that this was something he should have learnt much, much earlier. After all... it was what the puppet was doing when Eiro was searching for it. It was blending in with its surrounding directly.

"...And how is that done?" Eiro asked while Lognir smiled, happy to explain everything to him, "I'm curious to see how well you'll be able to manage´this part. Instead of pulling it into yourself, you have to spread your Aura out to be as thin as possible. Usually, you always have a high concentration of aura within you, so even while you're sad, you are obviously still noticeable. But what you need to do is to spread your aura out thinly all the way across, the edges need to have the same concentration as in any place within you. That is how you hide yourself in the world."

"...Why is it that to seem more 'average', I have to concentrate it within me, but to become less noticeable, I have to spread it out around me?" Eiro asked, since he was obviously genuinely curious.

"That's simple. A grain of sand at the beach is easily hidden, but you can still focus on them singularly if you need to. But when you're not paying attention to the sand in particular, you barely take it in at all. The sand is just there. And if you pay attention to something, it would be the sand itself, not a single grain of sand. Amongst crowds, either should be fine to hide you. But in nature, it is best to hide yourself by becoming a part of nature itself." Lognir explained to Eiro, who quickly understood the concept after that explanation.

What you had to try was to fuse into your surrounding. Eiro had to try this out, then. It was part of 'stealth', surely. So, Eiro quickly went ahead and started to try and spread his aura out after disconnecting from Bavet.

He tried to spread it thinly, as if pushing the aura further away by letting out a little bit of it out of his body at a time. Like that, the Demon soon managed to spread his aura out thinly around him, and Lognir quickly complimented him for this fact, "Well, maybe I was wrong. You might be a prodigy after all... At this point, it's all about practice. Keep doing this and you'll get better at it over time. Now, let's move on to-"

"No, not yet." Eiro said quietly as he slowly tried something out. He fused his aura with the air around him using magic as a 'bridge' of sorts. And just like that, Eiro figured out how to hide just like the puppet can.