Demon's Virtue

"The Fool..." Eiro repeated in a muttered voice. He didn't expect this. Sure, he thought that Merlin was going to appear here somewhere; the Devil was the one that had spurred him on in the first place, and letting go of a powerful arcane mage like him would be beyond idiotic. But this?

How was Eiro ever supposed to expect that, "That guy's a lot better than I thought, keeping a whole other Royal under his wing..."

Even the Hierophant, Ariella's father, who had been manipulated by the Devil, had become a free man after becoming a royal. But to begin with, there was something wrong with Merlin, so maybe he was a bit easier to control even with his newfound power. Each of the cards of the major arcana had their own meanings to them.

Eiro's 'the world' had the meaning of completion and integration, and that was reflected in his powers of absorption. Meanwhile, the Fool's meaning was one of freedom, of new beginnings; the holder of this card would undergo a metamorphosis, and their body would become ever-changing.

Due to this, it was the only card of the major arcana that wasn't restricted to a monster, because its user would become a monster, no matter its species.

In the past, a dragon had become 'the Fool', and once before then, there was a Naiad that had taken on the card's powers. There were a lot of people too, elves, dwarves, or humans, all seeking greater power than they held before.

And as for this time around, the Monster King seemed to have had the plan of turning the Holy Priestess into the Fool; that was the purpose of the horde that Eiro was part of during the beginning of his life. However, instead of bringing her to the Monster King, Eiro had raised Avalin as his own child, refusing the duty ingrained into his body.

At this point, eight years after that point, the Monster King must have realized that there was no use in keeping up the hope for that to ever happen, instead giving the card to Merlin. As a man who had fallen in love with monsters as a whole and the possibilities they brought, Merlin would be a perfect addition. The fact that he could use arcane magic must have made the idea even more enticing.

Eiro clicked his tongue. After the metamorphosis and properly attuning to the Fool's powers, Merlin must have become even more powerful and versatile; the freedom that the card brought was something that Eiro could never underestimate. And then there was the bundle of keys that Merlin had hidden under his robes.

They were replications of 'that' Key, the one that could open everything, including one's very soul. Of course, being weaker, they probably couldn't access things at the same depth as the key, but it would still allow for someone like Merlin to have abilities that Eiro couldn't even fully comprehend.

"What? Not saying anything?" Merlin asked with a broad smile. He had two more rows of teeth behind his regular, human-looking ones, neatly hidden away.

The Demon sighed, "Sorry, I was just a bit distracted. I could barely recognize you."

"Right, right, right? I'm rather beautiful now, aren't I?" Merlin replied, glancing down at his own body, "With this body of mine, I have achieved things I never thought possible! Here, let me show you!"

Excited to show off this new talent of his, Merlin grabbed a small knife from under his robes. Eiro was ready for some kind of attack, but simply watched as Merlin turned the blade to his own arm. Excitedly, he began to carve into his own flesh, pursing his lips for a ghastly whistle. And Eiro quickly realised what it was that he was trying to do; he was carving a magic circle into his own skin.

The grooves were soon filled out by a flow of arcane magic that poured out of the wounds instead of blood. This was a much more disgusting version of what Eiro was doing with his magic circuits; creating a specific, permanent flow of magic to allow more efficient spellcasting. Before long, Merlin was done with one arm, and then moved on to the next, creating the same spell there.

Eiro would have attacked, but not knowing exactly how the Fool's powers truly blossomed within that man, it would be too risky. A battle against another royal could never be taken lightly, especially when it came to the Fool.

Different to other cards, it didn't bestow abilities with a direct 'theme'. The World would always be given powers related to absorption and the Devil would always become a lord of sins, but the Fool was different. It strengthened the individual's pre-existing talents and abilities to a massive degree.

And since Eiro didn't actually know everything that Merlin had hidden, he had no idea what exactly his powers looked like now.

But still, he knew that what Merlin was doing right now was dangerous, but he knew that he could react to it and shut it down once activated. And with that, he should also be able to get 'the Fool's scent. That way, he could isolate certain parts of Merlin's abilities and behaviour from here on out, and from there figure out exactly what the Fool had done to Merlin and his powers.

Soon, the magic circles had been fully carved into Merlin's skin, and Eiro watched as Merlin's fingertips slowly faded away. Though, that was probably not the right word; they didn't truly disappear, they just turned invisible, even if that was not the spell's actual effect. It was just a side effect.

Merlin's arms had turned into magic; they weren't wrapped or even infused, they were truly turning into magic themselves. This was ridiculous.

It was neither possible to turn magic into mass, nor mass into magic. Even spirit magic didn't 'create' mass, it simply used mana as a conduit to summon things from the elemental realms.

And sometimes, there were spells that used physical objects as a fuel for magic, but that was only the case to strengthen and attune the base mana to what was needed for the spell, destroying the material in the first place. But in neither of those cases, a true transmutation from mass to mana occured.

Eiro wasn't able to wrap his mind around this; this was true 'Creation Magic'. After all, if this was possible, it was also possible to do the reverse; if you had the right spell composition, then creating whatever you wanted out of mana was possible as well. Was this the power given to Merlin by the card? Grinding his teeth together, Eiro held his hand forward.

He had sent Gondos to the realm of earth for the time being, since Eiro didn't know what would happen here, and Nelly and Sarius were still in their realms as well, but Eiro couldn't afford to leave them there anymore. With a snap of his finger, three masses of magic gathered in front of the demon.

Rocks, fire, and water were gathering together in their own spaces, quickly forming the bodies of the three spirits.

"Ah? The hell'd you call us for? I thought we were supposed to stay with... your..." Sarius asked, looking around the room, before glancing at Merlin. Being a spirit, he was able to naturally sense magic to a degree that Eiro even struggled with. He, as well as Gondos and Nelly, could tell exactly what was going on right now.

And being connected to them, Eiro could tell what exactly they felt right now.

It was pure and utter disgust. If they could throw up, they probably would have done so.

"Eiro, what's going on here, how is... how is he doing that?" Nelly forced out, trying to look away from Merlin's arms. But a sort of morbid, nearly self-destructive mind was forcing her to keep looking. Of course, those three didn't react this was because of what they were physically seeing from Merlin. It was the use of his mana.

Eiro was more curious than anything about what Merlin had done, so he didn't care much for it, but to beings of mana like those three, it was like they were looking at a disfigured, mangled corpse infested with every kind of bug and disease you could think of. The way that Merlin used mana, and the sort of magic that his arms had turned into, was something to that degree.