Demon's Virtue

Eiro stood in the center of the white space, surrounded by the incarnations that had been 'released' from within him.

"So you're the Supreme Demon skill?" Eiro asked, looking at the crescent smile made from the space itself. He could feel something from it, but it wasn't responding, "I guess at the end of the day you're still just a skill. But... why are you like... this?"

The demon let out a deep sigh. Though, maybe he did have a guess. A Legendary Skill was something special, something that was basically the formation of the whole soul. If that was the case, Eiro should be happy that the Supreme Demon skill only took up a small space within his soul. And then, he started to understand something else.

One of the main functions of the Supreme Demon skill was that it allowed Eiro to manipulate other skills; this mostly showed itself in the form of boosting skills temporarily, or creating Superior Skills like the four still stood next to him right now, "So... being 'The World', I ended up fully absorbing these incarnations, but you released them again because I had some plans with them. Got it."

Eiro let out a sigh, glancing at the incarnations around him, "Skill aspects, out. Do your own thing."

As if listening to his command, the aspects started stepping out into the library. He would most likely see the space expand itself naturally as they got settled; workshops, training spaces, that kind of thing. The only part that Eiro was a bit worried about were the conceptual incarnations.

He couldn't just trap them anywhere; if he did that, it would most likely lead to issues with his actual emotional regulation. This space within his soul was basically a powerful metaphore, so if he stopped the emotions from moving freely, it would stop him from experiencing them freely outside of his soul as well.

But... he was still worried they could cause some issues. Eiro's greed or wrath, his destructive impulses. Fears and desires. They were all quiet powerful, and Eiro was worried about how they would end up affecting the mental library.

Worst-case, with this space becoming far more literal every single day despite its nature as a metaphore, they could destroy some of Eiro's memories, or even damage his belongings from the treasury.

Eiro pressed his hand onto the chest of one of the aspects. It was the aspect of one of his fears; the fear of loss.

"I think it might be better if I keep you guys closer to heart after all. Sorry," Eiro explained, looking the aspect into its eyes as its body was absorbed back into his own. Instead of letting these aspects roam freely, it would be much better to dissolve them back into his soul directly. It would keep them safe, too. Eiro walked around to all of the aspects, absorbing them into himself again.

After seeing what the Supreme Demon skill had done, he understood how the process worked, even if just roughly.

It didn't take long before the space was empty again. Eiro looked back up into the white space, "I'll figure out what to do with you soon, don't worry. I've got some ideas, but until then... just be patient."

The crescent smile in the air stayed the same as Eiro made his way back out of the space, stopping just before fully leaving, "Oh, and don't worry, I didn't forget that you tried to lock me out earlier."

Eiro closed the large metal door behind him, watching as the keyhole once more disappeared, locking the door almost permanently again. It would only be possible to open it with the key now. Was the Legendary skill just so special that even he himself wasn't supposed to get access to it? How ridiculous.

The Demon started walking around the mental library. He checked on a few more things, but soon enough, he knew he was mostly just delaying things. Eiro knew he had to get started.

Opening his eyes, as slowly as he could, back outside in his real body, Eiro stared up at the ceiling. He mentally pulled up a certain system window that he had pushed aside earlier.

---

[Possible Evolutions]

-[Greater Arcanus]

-[King Arcanus]

-[Holy Arcanus]

-[…]

-…

…

---

The list continued on and on. There were dozens of different evolutionary paths that he could choose, but it was obvious what choice he was going to make. It was the same as what he had always done.

---

[You have access to a Special Evolution. Do you want to commence Evolution into a Special Subspecies of Lesser Arcanus]

---

Eiro selected this option, and felt a familiar feeling come over him as the system deactivated. Drowsiness filt his body, but at this point in time, there was no need for him to actually sleep during his evolution anymore.

Though, for the first time, he had access to the arcane splinters; the core of what the system really was. Once more within his soul, the Demon took a glance at the enormous crystal floating far above him. The bright light that it gave off just a moment earlier was now dim, pulsating to the rythm of Eiro's breathing.

It was giving off less arcane energy than before, but there was still a constant flow, as if something was carefully being spread all throughout Eiro's soul. The arcane splinter was clearly guiding Eiro's evolution, using the power of all the different splinters that had already fused into it.

The Demon let out a slight sigh. He didn't know what he was hoping for, but everything was exactly as he had expected. Maybe he wanted to get some kind of new insight into arcane magic, but that clearly wasn't the case. Either way, Eiro knew that his body was going to start undergoing some rapid changes over the course of the next three months; the amount of time that this evolution was set to take.

Three months without the system might be a little annoying, but it really only opened the way for Eiro to get more in tune with his different skills and abilities without over-reliance on the system.

Whichever was the case, Eiro slowly closed his eyes again. Even if he didn't have to fall into that evolution-hibernation, he still needed to rest after everything that happened. And so, he slowly let himself doze off and enjoy some recovering sleep.

---

It took Eiro three whole days to take up. Though, the others in the party weren't any better. They only woke up half a day before the Demon had. The stress from literally going to hell and back wasn't something that the body took lightly.

As Eiro opened his eyes, he noticed that his body was in vast pain all over. Nightly twitches made his agility-strengthed muscles tear against his will, and the current beginning stages of his physical reconstitution was starting to get to the point where everything about him was being ripped apart in the first place, so that was a bad combination. Though, there might have been something good to it.

His body was surprisingly used to the ability now. Even if it was still rough for him to move without hurting himself, as long as he was extra careful, he should be able to walk without needing to manipulate his body through magic.

He carefully released the magical chains that he used to restrain himself, moving his legs off the side of his bed.

"Urgh, finally awake. Do you even know how long I've been waiting?" an annoying voice grumbled from the couch on the other side of Eiro's bedchambers. There sat the Devil, casually reading a book that the demon recognized quite well, while sipping on some tea.

"Another echo, seriously?" Eiro slowly stood up from his bed, walking over to the couch. As he did, he banished the book in the Devil's hands back into the mental library, "Who the fuck do you think you are, stealing my memories like that?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, was I not allowed to? I was just feeling a bit bored being stuck in the mind of the maniac who killed me," the Devil pointed out with a smirk on his face, "Though, it was pretty fun releasing some steam. I hope you won't miss those memories."

"Yeah, good try, but no. I've already dealt with completely blocked memories before, so after that I studied up on mental magic and created a multi-layered safety system," Eiro pointed out. Hidden deep within the library, there was something of a 'record' that kept track of every single memory in Eiro's mind, so that he could check on them properly.

He even kept a 'backup' of his own memories in there that he duplicated and compressed, in a whole other space within his mind, and now, soul. Each were protected by powerful spells that would make it impossible for anything to infiltrate, and Eiro knew that for a fact. And in the first place, why would he believe the words of the Devil?

Eiro flicked his wrist and once more violently tore apart the echo. He would have to add some more safety measures in the library though to catch any other stray echoes... but for now, Eiro let some healing magic flow through his hand, since that 'flick' just broke his hand.