Demon's Virtue

Eiro activated the 'Blink' spell on himself and his body immediately started being pulled apart. His arcane magic enveloped his physical body and his cells, carefully cradling each minuscule fragment of his being. The demon could feel that arcane magic then pull those fragments away, like they were blown away in the wind.

Of course, that wasn't the case. The magic moved with specific, particular intention. His fully deconstructed body moved through the space in front of him. Luckily, his consciousness seemed to stay fully intact within this body as he moved along through this spell, so he could potentially use this spell on other people without worrying he would accidentally kill them in the process.

Just an instant later, a fraction of a second from an outside perspective, Eiro's body was perfectly reconstructed. His body felt fine, he didn't lose any health points, and his clothes and other items were in great condition still. It seemed like Eiro had managed to develop a wonderful spell.

The demon took a deep breath. Instead of creating the magic circle around him, he now reshaped his magic circuits into the form of the blink magic circle, allowing him to activate it almost immediately. The only thing that he still had to do for now was speak the supportive chant, but Eiro was sure he could compress it down even further over time. For now, actually using the spell was the best way to get a good feel for it, and the spell should become a lot more efficient over time.

For the time being, though, Eiro figured he should have a bit of fun with it. He knew that Meshi had a similar ability, though it was an advanced ability developed through the high mastery over the freerunning skill. Eiro's 'Blink' spell was very different in nature to that.

The demon stepped up to the window and opened it up just a crack, waiting for the right moment. Meshi and the freerunning aspect were currently training outside, and should get to a nearby spot in the gardens soon. With a slight grin, Eiro blinked outside into the gardens. His magic carried his body outside, and he appeared in the middle of the small gravel path.

Eiro saw Meshi turn around the corner, hopping over a part of the nearby fence. The freerunning aspect was following behind, trying to keep up with the master's movements. Seeing the proxy original standing in the middle of the pathway, Meshi's mischievous side came through as well. Meshi had a habit.

It's actually been rather annoying to Eiro. In the middle of training, Meshi would randomly pop up behind the demon and pat him on the shoulder. He would disappear again almost immediately, before Eiro could even react. Of course, Meshi was lucky that Eiro had currently sealed away the effects of 'Ultimate Agility', and that he wasn't particularly keen on using the 'Stopwatch' card at the moment.

Eiro looked at Meshi and smiled lightly, and the demon knew exactly what was about to happen. He could feel the master's presence fade, and immediately activated the blink spell.

Just as Meshi's hand was about to touch Eiro's shoulder, the demon's body fell apart into magic and appeared right behind the master, being constructed starting from Eiro's hand, which was placed steadily on Meshi's shoulder.

Startled, the master turned around, "What? How did you- What just happened?"

"I developed a new spell," Eiro replied, patting Meshi's shoulder. Excitedly, the master looked him up and down.

"What kind of spell was it? Was it some kind of illusion? I'm usually pretty good at seeing through those..."

"It wasn't an illusion. It's a 'blink' spell. Since I can't use spatial magic yet, I've improvised a bit," Eiro explained, "Basically, I break my body apart using arcane magic and then rebuild myself at my destination. The range isn't great, but I can move practically instantly."

Meshi's eyes widened, "A blink spell? Seriously? Teach it to me!"

"I mean, can you use arcane magic? Can you create 5-layered cascading magic circles? And can you compress around five hundred syllables into a single one?"

"... I can use a bit of air magic, if that's enough?"

"It's not," Eiro replied, "But hey, if i manage to simplify it to a point that makes it more practical for others beside me, I'll teach it to you. You'd still have to improve your magic a bit before then, though."

"Ehh..." Meshi groaned, letting out a long sigh, "I'd rather not... Can't you just, like, zap it into my head?"

Eiro thought about it for a moment, but quickly shook his head, "I can teach you the theory of the spell like that, for sure. I can take Knowledge magic, turn it into a physical representation, and then place it inside of you. That means you'll understand it for a little bit, but... you won't be able to do anythin with it."

Meshi clicked his tongue, "Fine. But you have to promise to teach it to me then, alright?"

"Sure. I promise."

"Hah! Now you can't-"

"You know for a fact that I'm not bound by demonic oaths," Eiro interrupted Meshi, "I told you that's how I killed the devil."

"... Worth a try," Meshi looked away, "Anyway, keep up the good work. You're improving at a breakneck pace."

"Thank you. It means a lot to hear that from you. I'm sure my freerunning skill is going to level up by leaps and bounds once my evolution is over," Eiro explained, smiling lightly, and Meshi raised his brows.

"Right, when is that happening, by the way?"

"According to the timer given at the start of my evolution, it should be another month. But it's not always perfectly accurate. Even so, the original body is currently at the beginning stages of reconstruction."

"Well, well, well... I'm very excited to see what you can do with your new body in a month, then. What would you say about a small race?" Meshi asked excitedly, and Eiro raised his brow.

"Am I allowed to use the blink spell and the full extent of my agility stat?"

"Of course! It wouldn't even be a challenge otherwise. No offence. Oh, but that stopwatch is cheating. Obviously."

"In that case, sure. Let's do it," Eiro responded, and Meshi immediately grew even more excited.

"Perfect. I'm looking forward to it!"

With that, Meshi and the freerunning aspect continued the training, while the proxy original body continued to test out his new spell. It did require a lot of arcane magic, but he was able to gather quite a bit of it at this point. He just needed to syphon a bit of it from his bedroom where the actual original body was currently being bathed in massive amounts of it.

First, Eiro had to really test out the range. The further away the destination, the longer it would take. That in itself was logical, of course, but the issue was that it didn't seem to be a linear increase. It was like his arcane magic slowed down, very quickly losing its momentum. It wasn't a big issue at short distances, but the blink spell left Eiro completely defenseless. Someone that could manipulate magic well enough might be able to completely mess everything up, taking advantage of that brief moment. So if Eiro's magic slowed down, that was too much of a risk for him to take, especially right now.

Though, theoretically, Eiro could travel to any point that he could directly see. Which, due to his eyesight, meant that he could travel as far as the horizon at any point, as long as the view wasn't blocked by a wall. Because of the way that the spell worked, the starting point as well as the destination had to be pre-determined, and the visual component was an important stabilizing factor in the spell's construction, so Eiro sadly couldn't just 'blink' to wherever he wanted.

Even so, that didn't mean Eiro couldn't change the spell in the future. He was still developing it, after all. But even right now, the spell had a lot of advantages. Mostly, the fact that 'momentum' was no longer a limiting factor.

When moving at extremely high speeds, stopping wasn't an easy thing. It required extreme reaction and planning for Eiro, which meant that he wasn't able to move at his fastest particularly for short distances. But with the blink spell, in the middle of combat, he could move to a different position and even stance almost instantly.

Not to mention, he could get into places that he couldn't get to as easily before. Like that window earlier; as long as he had a line of sight and a gap for the magic to flow through, Eiro could get practically anywhere.

Which actually gave Eiro another idea for something that he really wanted to try out with this new spell.