Demon's Virtue

Eiro looked at the empty page in front of him. With a single thought, he could draw the magic circle on the page, or alter it just as quickly. It wasn't like the grimoire was actively helping him construct it, but it did increase his concentration to an extent. As if he was breathing, he was able to make use of all the different parts that would make up magic circles or chants, instead of having to 'remember' them.

In the end, this part didn't really make any direct difference, since Eiro was able to think at a speed similar to this anyway, but the creation of the magic circle happened just a lot more smoothly. It was like the moment that Eiro thought of the exact effect that he wanted, Eiro had already started creating it.

It was a nice feeling, and it was kind of like Eiro was able to create much more complex magic circles than he thought he would be able to.

Soon, Eiro finished his next spell. It was something akin to what he already did just through general manipulation of elements. This spell will simply make this a lot more stable, something that can actually cause damage comparable to the real deal, to a high-quality weapon. It was a weapon-creation spell.

Eiro first tried it out with ice, because it was relatively easy to manipulate into a sharp blade. As if on its own, the base he created for the spell turned into its elemental version, without Eiro having to do much, or anything at all, to do this himself.

He held his hand forward, constructing the spell bit by bit with the assistance of the grimoire, while he started to speak the chant, "Oh Lady of Winter, let me borrow your power of frost to turn it into a blade of ice to fight and protect."

Water that was being provided by Nelli soon gathered in the center of the magic circle before freezing over into a mass of ice. This ice then changed its shape, as if crystals of itself were growing off of it, thinning it out and turning into a sharp sword of ice.

It wasn't the kind of weapon that Eiro would usually wield, but it was a relatively basic one to test this out with. By changing some certain things about the magic circle's third layer, which was responsible for its specific form, Eiro would be able to turn this into any weapon that he wanted. At least provided that it was based off of blades.

So for example, he could create daggers, spears, or even throwing-knives with this spell, depending on the situation, but he couldn't create something like a hammer. It simply went against the things deeply ingrained into the spell itself.

Focus created strength. By concentrating the spell onto the 'blade' archetype, exactly this aspect of the spell's creation would gain its power to actually cut like a crafted item would, causing both magical and physical damage at the same time. Of course, Eiro planned on creating a similar spell for the 'bludgeoning' as well as the 'piercing' archetypes. In the end, this was rather easy, and Eiro was able to include each variant version for the different archetypes in the same page.

So when Eiro tried to cast the spell, the moment that he decided on which sort of weapon he wanted to create with it, the grimoire would end up helping him out and adjusting the output of what he was drawing and creating itself.

It was like... a contract in its own way. As if this grimoire was a spirit that was helping Eiro out in return for mana. He was able to see into it, and it was able to see into him. It was really quite interesting.

Slowly, Eiro let go of the blade, slowly controlling it. He had added aspects of the 'Mage Hand' spell into it to allow him to do so in this exact manner. Eiro was hoping to create more spells with these concepts so that he could have a greater arsenal of spells, and spells that he could cleverly re-use in battle.

Usually, a spell would be shot out, hit a target, and that was it except if otherwise designated during the creation of the spell. But while having this sort of connection to the spell's creation, where it was even sapping part of Eiro's mana to keep itself up without him having to actively supply it or anything like that, he could adjust what he was doing with the spell depending on the situation, and even make split-second decisions.

All this knowledge was truly wonderful in Eiro's honest opinion. As he was playing around with the spell, however, he heard someone approach from the manor. Eiro had been out for quite a while, for far longer than he had hoped. It was the middle of the night now, and James often ended up coming out here in the middle of the night to train when he couldn't sleep.

"Where have you been all day?" James asked, somewhat annoyed, as he approached the Demon. Eiro turned around toward him with a light smile on his face, "I had some business to attend to."

"...Some business, huh? Business that you can share with me?"

"I probably shouldn't, but it's not like it changes anything. I've told you about Merlin, right?" Eiro said, as he deactivated the spell that had formed the sword, causing the water to slowly disappear and disintegrate back into nothingness.

James scratched the back of his head with a slow nod, "I think so? The guy that was basically a brother to this Jura guy, right?"

"Mhm, that's him. Well, turns out that he was one of the people that planned and caused the events of that incident last year that crippled Charles. He worked with 'The Magician' to get an item that he wasn't able to find. Oh, by the way, that object is currently owned by me. Either way, Merlin and I fought for a while, he disappeared, and I've been making large-scale plans with Solomon for the rest of the day after that." Eiro explained, "And you know, turns out, we'll now have to expect a potential invasion of 'The Magician' into this place. It's all kind of fucked up, don't you think?"

"...You could say that." James replied with a wry smile. He really didn't know much about what Eiro was talking about, but even he had heard of that incident last year. It was something incredibly horrendous, and the whole city was in active mourning for a full week until things became somewhat normal again, "I'm sorry to hear that, man. Anything I can help with?"

"I don't... I don't think so, no. But thanks for asking. Ah, but there is something that we do need to talk about." Eiro said, quickly changing the topic to something else entirely, "Spring vacation isn't that far away anymore, and we should get 'that' done then. I'm not sure if I have the time for such a long trip in the summer."

"Ah, right... Well, do you think that I'm actually stronger now than I was a few weeks ago? Strong enough to be of any help during the fight against Zaragon?" James asked, and Eiro immediately nodded his head without a moment's hesitation.

"Of course I do. Even right now, with the chaos-manipulation still active, you're stronger than you were before. We should keep this practice up for a bit longer, and then make sure we hunt while on the way to the Holy Empire's capital."

"Right. Sounds like a plan." James said, "And then before we actually get there, you'll release that manipulation thing and we'll all get a whole lot stronger than before?"

"Yup, exactly. Well, if you exclude the few hours that you'll be in agonising pain, of course." Eiro added, and James glared back at him, "You didn't mention that part before."

"Well, it just makes sense, right? And stop crying about that already, I thought you got used to it by now."

"I'd be crying about it much less if you weren't just telling me that it's fine and were doing it yourself. If this method is so effective, why aren't you using it yourself?" James asked with a wry smile, but Eiro just rolled his eyes.

"Because my body is going to change from the grounds-up during my next evolution anyway. How much muscle mass I build up right now won't change anything... And by the way, I'm going to be using this method during my actual evolution to stimulate and increase the level of positive change to my muscles throughout my evolution. The process brings me excruciating pain every single time anyway, plus I have senses that are strong enough to even hear an ant die on the other side of the manor, on top of the fact that I'm going to be manipulating the chaos for every single part of my being. So, you know... What you're feeling now will be nothing compared to that." Eiro explained to James, who couldn't help himself but let out a deep sigh.

"What, is this some sort of competition now?" James asked, and Eiro shrugged in response.

"You're the one that complained I don't have to deal with this. Anyway, no matter that... It's just another month until spring holiday begins, until then we need to keep on training."

"And then..." James added, a broad grin forming on his face, "We can finally kill Zaragon for what he did...."