Demon's Virtue
chapter-337

Eiro sat there on the ground, trying to concentrate on what was within himself. He had been practicing and practicing, trying to properly figure out how to filter the vibes that his cards created out of his aura by using the Aura Barrier as a tool for this.

He was getting detailed tips from Lognir now, since this was largely about fine-tuning how this sort of stuff was supposed to work, so it seemed like the Dragon didn't mind getting directly involved this time around.

And then, a short while later, the Demon figured it out. Well, 'short' was relative. To Eiro, who was able to usually figure such things out near to instantly, it felt like forever, but for Lognir it was nothing but an instance. The fact that Lognir was such a long-living creature combined with the fact that Eiro had managed to finish this much, much quicker and easier than expected added to that feeling for him.

"Do you think it worked?" Eiro asked with a quiet mutter as he slowly stood up from the ground, trying not to let his concentration fade. If this worked properly, he wanted to keep it up for as long as possible until they figured out whether or not it did.

"I do think I feel a slight absence of something compared to before. But I'm also not a card-holder, so even if you filter out something completely wrong, it would feel like something is different. Let us ask that Dwarf instead, shall we?" Lognir suggested with a smile on his face, referring to Armodeus who was currently in another part of his cave, working on the Demon's armor that was made from Lognir's scales.

The Demon slowly nodded his head and followed Lognir out of this room and into the one Armodeus was working, and the moment they entered, Eiro heard a loud yell, "Oi, lad! I thought I told ya to keep the fuck out while I'm workin! It's meant to be a surprise!"

"I know, I know, I'm trying not to concentrate on it so don't make me even more curious than before..." Eiro replied bluntly, "But I need your help for now. Look at me. Do you notice anything different?"

Armodeus squinted his eyes and looked at Eiro with a glare of confusion, "Did ya get a new haircut?"

"..." Eiro looked back at him silently, and the elder Dwarf crossed his arms while taking an even better look at the Demon. It took him a while, but at some point, he finally realized what exactly was going on, "A bit of that thing ya mentioned... That card 'vibe' is gone, isn't it?"

Eiro looked back with a disappointed expression, "...Just a bit?"

"D-Did I say somethin' wrong?" The craftsman asked with a bit of worry on his face, but Eiro just shook his head, "No, no, I'm just annoyed that it's not working properly."

"Well, yer on the right track, aren't'cha? Better than nothin, right?"

"I guess so?" Eiro replied with a slight, disappointed frown on his face, "I guess I'll return to practicing..."

And just as Eiro was about to leave this part of the cave-system again, Armodeus gave a bit of a suggestion, something that Eiro had never really considered. Especially lately, his abilities all just grew so incredibly fast that it was hard to figure out the reasons for why he got stronger, but now that the elder Dwarf mentioned it, it did make a bit of sense, "Did ya take synergy into account?"

Eiro turned his head around rapidly and looked Armodeus deep into his eyes, realizing that the Demon really hadn't thought about that aspect yet. He was thinking about each of the cards' vibes separately as their own entities, but at the end of the day they all slightly worked together. Eiro didn't know if they actually got more potent, but it would make sense if that was the case. Armodeus did briefly mention that the 'vibe' in Eiro's aura was pretty strong even considering the cards that he had.

That meant that Eiro just had to figure out the right point, strengthening all of the vibes together with each other until he managed to completely get rid of the vibe that was still flowing out of his body together with the rest of his Aura! If he was able to figure that out, then that should be more than just helpful. For now, and for later when Eiro would actually start to properly block out the effects from his cards instead of just the vibess they created.

Immediately, Eiro closed his eyes and started to let his energies flow through him, trying to change the direct configuration of the Aura barrier to take this specific sort of synergy into account a bit more. He was slowly but steadily increasing it, until he heard Armodeus' words.

"There we go. That's more like it." The craftsman said with a broad grin on their face, "I don't think I can sense even an ounce of it anymore. But then again, I don't have yer perception, so there might still be some left in there."

"Thanks, but I think it should be fine for now. As a craftsman I'm pretty sure you have naturally high perception as well, so I'll hope that there won't be any sort of issues with that. And as I grow more used to the vibe, I can fix it a bit more as well, so it's fine." The Demon explained to Armodeus with a broad smile on his face, happy that he was able to get such help from him.

"So, that means we can move on to the next step?" Lognir asked, eager to keep going. It wasn't because he was bothered by the current step, like Eiro felt it sounded for just a moment, but it was rather just so that Lognir was incredibly excited to see what Eiro would be able to do and how quickly he would do it.

For someone with such a long life and little to do within it, these sorts of events must be rather exciting. And so, Eiro and Lognir left Armodeus alone again so that the craftsman could continue working on the armor for Eiro, while the Demon started to concentrate on the level of 'synergy' that he had to build up for the different cards in order to be able to filter everything out of his aura properly.

With that, Eiro should be able to properly create something like a version of the cards' abilities within his mind. Technically, the 'vibe' was already a sort of ability from the cards, just one of the few that was relatively easy to grasp compared to all the others. And with that vibe properly figured out, Eiro could use it, or so he hoped, as a stepping-stone to figure out everything else connected to the cards.

Or so he hoped, at least. The reality was a lot harder than that, of course. All the cards had unique abilities. Sure, the ones from the suit of pentacles were in the same area, but they still acted completely differently to each other, especially because one of them affected factual stats, and the other one affected nothing but a concept that could stretch out into anything it needed to be.

Eiro closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he saw the cards in front of his mind. With the two that took physical shape, that was actually rather easy. One of them was just a collection of rings, threads and blades, and the other was a golden, decorated cup with a pitch black liquid inside.

The other two, on the other hand, were a bit different. Neither 'perception' nor 'truth' had any sort of true physical form. What was he supposed to imagine? Symbolism?

He did read a few books about that, although the memories were the kind that were a little hazy. A symbol for 'Truth' could be seen as the scale. It fit more into the category of 'law', but it was close enough. As long as Eiro would be able to visualize it in his mind, it should be fine no matter what shape they took. All that mattered was that Eiro needed to be able to form a direct connection between the symbol and the meaning behind that symbol.

Eiro thought about it for a while, and sorted through a few different things that could mean truth. At the end, he somewhat settled on two things, for one the 'Owl', an animal signifying wisdom and truth, and the 'Scale',, signifying law and order.

Both seemed to be a good fit, so Eiro combined them within his mind. A scale in the shape of an owl. Law created through wisdom. Basically, it was the creation of Eiro's own 'law' that he figured out over the years of contemplation, and this was the Demon's one main truth.

As for the other card, the Five of Pentacles, Eiro went with a more straightforward idea. A homunculus. An artificial creature, the 'man in the bottle'. But not just any homunculus, a 'Sensory Homunculus'. A theoretical being created on paper only. It didn't have normal proportions, but rather each part of its body was shaped depending on their sensory impact.

Disproportionately large tongues, eyes, ears, hands, and so on, while many other parts of its body were scrawny. It was a horrid-looking creature that couldn't exist in real life. Or so he hoped. If some mad wizard chose to actually create one of them, then that would be a different story, although Eiro couldn't really see a proper reason for why anyone with a sane mind would do that. But he figured that's why they would be called a 'mad' wizard.

With these two extra, theoretical images based on what these cards' abilities meant to Eiro, he tried to figure out something about how to control them.

It was a bit easier with the two that Eiro was used to. The Three of Swords just needed to be moved around like normal, albeit only in Eiro's mind, and the Ace of Cups' potion simply spread out in a mist-like form to not only envelop Eiro but everyone else as well.

The owl-scale tipped from side to side, while the Sensory Homunculus wandered around randomly, trying to make use of its disgustingly weird form somehow.

Eiro kept looking within himself, he kept trying to figure out a way how to manipulate these mental items in other ways as well. He had to master them like this if he wanted to master how to manipulate them properly.

At least, that's what Lognir told him. Slowly but surely, the Dragon led Eiro to success. He could already feel his memories returning just thinking about when he would finlaly be able to actually get his memories back.