Demon's Virtue
chapter-683

Eiro rushed through the manor's hallways until he reached one of the secret tunnels. He flicked his wrist and opened it up before he got there, jumping through. This was one of the tunnels mainly used by the spiders, but Eiro could dodge past them without any worry. And more importantly, he needed to get to his destination as fast as he could. The Demon fell through the hole in one of the sitting rooms' ceiling. It had been turned into more of a 'base of operation' for Eiro's party's adventurer activities, which James, Jess, and Krog mostly partook in. Though, Eiro did go on quests with them a lot as well. After all, the only other things he could do were either preparing for classes at the academy, doing research, signing paperwork, or reading. However, at this point, most of the class-prep and research was being done by the mental duplicates, the paperwork was easily done in a matter of about twenty minutes no matter how much it was, since Eiro could just use all four of his arms simultaneously and reading the matters and deciding on them was even faster than that, and Eiro had already read all the books that he had access to at the capital.

The academy's library was large, but it wasn't even comparable to the tower of books. And whenever Eiro was at the academy, he would send a duplicate to the library to just continue reading where he had left off the last time. There were a lot of really useful books there, as Eiro had thought, but for the most part it wasn't anything super special. So right now, he had to order new books from corners of the kingdom or from other countries, and it was taking them fairly long to arrive. Not to mention, he also had to worry about building himself a new library, but his research into the spatial magic that was intertwined with the manor wasn't proceeding as well as Eiro had hoped. The man that had created all that magic was either a genius beyond anything that Eiro could comprehend, or he just liked to mess with people. Either way, the magical arrays were practically incomprehensible. So Eiro wasn't able to create a library big enough for his needs just yet. And the hidden library that was already attached to the real library had become more of a workshop for Eiro, and something like a storage for his spells and scrolls.

Either way, Eiro was able to partake in adventurer activities quite well, which led to the promotion for everyone in the party to S-Rank not being all too far away anymore. At this point, everyone's strength was really quite deserving of it.

"Okay," the Demon said out loud, his voice startling the three people that were currently in here to take a break, "You guys all switched back to your advanced classes like you were supposed to, right?"

James, who nearly choked on his tea, swiftly nodded his head, "Yes, yes, we did. Seriously, this house has doors. And I know for a fact you know how to use them."

"But that's boring," Eiro replied immediately, as he glanced over at Krog, "How's your access to the Giants' nature coming along?"

The Goliath scratched his cheek, "Fine, for the most part. It's not as stable as I'd like it to be, but useable."

Quickly, Jess spoke up as well, "Oh, and I finally managed to use that spell you made for me." "Oh?" Eiro raised his brow. Jess was an incredibly talented elemental mage that was able to use the four major physical elements, Water, Earth, Fire, an Air. There were a lot of different spells that made use of certain combinations between those elements on their own. Like Water and Fire magic leading to spells with super-heated water, or Air and Water creating a thin mist. But since it was incredibly rare for someone to have access to three, or even all four, of the major physical elements, spells that had been created for those combinations were just as rare. There were plenty of concepts and ideas for them, but to actually finalize a spell, it had to be tested a lot, which simply wasn't possible if you couldn't use the elemental magic that was required.

As such, Eiro simply did that. He completed some spells that had been theorized by other mages, and created others completely from scratch based on what he figured Jess would not only be able to get accustomed to particularly quickly, but what would also help the party out the most. And in this case, it was a spell derived from the concept of elemental infusion, which would place elemental magic within an object, usually a weapon, to allow for strengthened attacks. And in this case, the spell was much more complex than that. Jess would infuse her magic into James and Krog's weapons, actively manipulating the practical effects based on what was needed right in that moment. Jess was extremely observant and had a tactic-based mind, while also being able to read the intentions of her teammates particularly well. So, she was able to create particularly powerful and useful effects whenever needed. Like creating a rock barrier when they were trying to block, or creating explosive flames the moment a blunt attack impacted on an opponent.

"Perfect. Good job, you two," Eiro smiled, "Alright, in that case, we can really get started. I just-"

"So you don't want to know about me?" James asked with a wry smile, and Eiro raised his brow, "Not really?"

"Oh wow, thanks a lot..."

"What, you jealous?" Eiro scoffed, but James just rolled his eyes, "Obviously not. I just thought you could at least pretend."

Eiro sighed and just smiled, "Whatever. I already know that you've got your ability figured out, that's all."

James scratched the back of his head dismissively. He was a Light Elf. One of his parents was a Dark Elf, the other a High Elf. The former not having the ability to use magic whatsoever, while the latter was extremely gifted in that regard. And in Light Elves, this resulted in a massive amount of mana inside of the individual's body, that simply wasn't able to pass out through their skin, as though it were something like a barrier. That also meant that a lot of Light Elf children died at a young age from complications, as the mana practically poisoned them, but James had been able to persist without any major issues. And now, he had finally awakaned a special ability as a Light Elf. He was able to pull his mana out from his body, but he could only keep it up constistently while still having physical contact with it. Not only that, but the mana was something of a physical entity, which meant that James was able to create weapons, armor, or small tools with it. One of the things that James seemed to use it for the most was to create throwing-knives or needles. While these special mana-weapons crumbled very quickly once James let go of them, if he created them well enough, they could last for a few seconds. Long enough to hit and potentially injure a target. And since James also had a massive amount of mana within him, he could create a barrage of these weapons without the target being able to react. The fact that one of the class-abilities that he acquired in the past was a specific weapon-throwing ability only helped with this fact.

"But..." Jess started, leaning back with a deep sigh, "If you're asking us if we're ready, that means..."

"Mhm. It's time," the Demon smiled. At that time, the door was pushed open, and through it, a young girl came running. She was covered in a scarf and loose clothes, but they weren't enough to hide the girl's stiff movements. The moment she saw the others in the room beside Eiro, she froze, and awkwardly began to stutter, "E-Erm..."

"That's why I told you not to run ahead..." a woman said as she stepped into the room behind Eiro. Her large white wings were still ruffled up slightly from the flight here, and some of her hairs were wrapped around the golden-white ram horns on her head. Eiro walked up to Ariella with a smile, and leaned in for a kiss with her. After the two pulled away from ach other, the Demon placed his hand onto Hannah's head. He glanced at the girl's body for a moment, trying to make sure that her full-body prosthetics were doing well.

"How are you feeling? Any discomfort?" Eiro asked quickly, since Hannah's movements hadn't improved as quickly as he was expecting, but the girl quickly shook her head, "No discomfort. Just, tired."

Ariella laughed quietly, "She was up all night trying to come up with things her and the other kids could do together while we're gone."

"What?" James asked confused from his seat, "Isn't she an undead?"

"Mental exhaustion exists," Ariella sighed, "Not to mention, she's a special case. And just a kid, I'll add."

Eiro smiled lightly as he looked back at Hannah, "If you do notice anything, tell me right away, okay?"

"Okay," Hannah nodded enthusiastically. Her voice was a lot clearer and stable than it was before. Eiro had been making regular improvements on her artificial voice-box in particular, especially ever since he was getting more skilled with artificing. His prosthetic skills were useful for other matters, but they couldn't solve the complexity of a voice-box all on their own.

"I think Arc is outside in the garden. Do you want to join him?"

Hannah nodded quickly and happily, quickly rushing back toward the door. Eiro flicked his wrist and closed the door behind her. Him and Ariella walked toward one of the couches and sat down next to each other. And then, the Demon started, "So, now that we're all here. Let's talk. I have new information on 'The Devil'."