Demon's Virtue

"Concentrate, Leon." Eiro said in a strict tone, and the young boy sat in front of him with a quiet groan, "But Dad, I-"

"You're trying, I know that. That's why I don't want you to slip off and suddenly waste that effort. So come on, properly do it as I'm telling you." The Demon said, "Close your eyes and concentrate, alright?"

"Okay..." Leon replied quietly. Currently, Eiro was trying to help Leon get his skills under control by teaching him different mana-manipulation techniques that he could use while meditating.

As far as Eiro could tell, Leon's skills worked somewhat like an aura. Something that constantly surrounds him. And if that was the case, if it was that sort of energy, then it should be possible for Leon to control it as well.

"Now, inside of your head, form an image of yourself sitting here like you are. But, look at yourself from my position." Eiro explained, and a few moments later continued, "Then in the center of your body, imagine a small ball, from which water flows outward and fills your body out. As if you were a cup."

Noticing that Leon's heartbeat somewhat slowed down, Eiro was pretty sure that he properly activated the meditation skill that Eiro practiced with him over the past year in preparation for this kind of thing.

"Floating around you is even more of that water. It just has a different color. Can you tell me what that color is?" Eiro asked Leon, and the young boy didn't take long to respond quietly. It was nothing more but a whisper, but luckily Eiro was able to hear it without any issues.

"There are two... colors... Black and... red..." Leon muttered quietly, and Eiro sighed in relief. That meant that Leon was actually able to sense the effect of his unique skills. When it came to such image-training, the colors weren't really that important, though. It was simply something of a visual representation your mind formed when something wasn't actually visible like that.

Leon was slightly scared of the dark, so Eiro figured that the 'Black Water' represented the 'Feared by Monsters' skill. And since red was Leon's favorite color, Eiro figured that the 'Red Water' represented the 'Loved by Monsters' skill.

"That's not good, the water is flowing around without you letting it, right?" Eiro asked with a slightly bitter tone, to more easily guide Leon's in his meditative mind. It seemed like Leon's heart was starting to beat faster, as if he was somewhat starting to panic.

"Don't worry, you can fix it. You just need to make all the water flow into your body." The Demon advised. And even before he really knew it, something changed. It was as if the feeling of fear was suddenly gone, and all that was left was a pull toward Leon. He heard the slime-core in the bottle mutter something as well, but it wasn't important. It was really just something that confirmed to Eiro that one of the skills had practically been deactivated.

It didn't take long for the same to happen to the second skill either, though. Even the slime core calmed down. And with a smile on his face, Eiro slowly stood up and rubbed his hand over Leon's head.

"Good job. Come on, open your eyes. You finally did it." Eiro said with a smile on his face, and the young boy slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times.

"I... did it?" He asked surprised, and Eiro swiftly nodded his head, "Yes you did. Feels good, huh?" Eiro chuckled as he squatted down and helped Leon stand up properly again.

"It does!" Leon exclaimed, and Eiro just laughed a bit again as he took the hand that Leon was stretching toward him and stepped over toward the carriage. And as that was happening, Eiro also heard Sammy's voice in the distance.

She already technically managed to properly control the 'intention' in her voice so that her unique skill didn't activate yesterday, but she was still trying to practice a bit more so that she wouldn't accidentally lose control at a bad time.

"Everyone, come over here." Eiro exclaimed to gather everyone together, and everyone stopped their own practice or work and stepped over toward the Demon.

"We're heading off, Leon managed to deactivate his skills." The Demon announced when they came close enough to hear him. And immediately, Clementine walked up to Leon and gave him a congratulatory hug.

"Arc, come on. I'll help you bring the Aria over." Eiro said and held his hand outward to take the swords the young man was carrying from him to put them onto the carriage for now, and Arc slowly nodded and placed them into Eiro's hands. But when he did, he seemed a bit confused and startled.

"What happened to your hand?" Arc asked confusedly, and the Demon looked down at his prosthetic that had numerous cuts and notches in them at the moment.

"Ah, that's... Don't worry, I'll show you." Eiro said with a light and awkward smile as he pushed his hand into his satchel to pull out a small piece of his own blue wood, before also taking his carving knife out of his treasury and cutting off a small splinter off the wood as everyone was watching. Eiro then took that splinter and pressed it into one of the grooves he had on his prosthetic.

A few moments later, that splinter had already merged with the prosthetic and closed the whole groove up, "It's something that my hand can do now. After the fight I've had up at the mountain, my connectivity with the prosthetic went up to 70%, so I guess that's why it can do something like this now." Eiro explained to them, "So I took this chance to cut away some parts that slightly deteriorated through fighting."

"Ah..." Arc said with a slightly relieved expression, although just when he was about to turn around toward the Aria, something else came to his mind, "Erm... I know that your level increased a lot, but what exactly did you fight up there that made it possible, even?" The young man asked, and slowly, Eiro's smile disappeared.

"...I'll explain." Eiro said, and then looked around at everyone to make sure they were listening, "Up there, a monster was sealed. And that monster was a royal, . It was weak enough so that I could kill it, but through that, I became a 'candidate' for the next . I got a special ability because of it, and some general improvements, one of which was the high increase of connectivity with my prosthetic." The Demon explained, and everyone beside Gondos and Nelli, who Eiro already told about this, as well as Felix, who couldn't hear Eiro's words, looked at him surprised.

Eiro was a bit nervous at what their reaction would be. After all, that he might actually become one of the most feared beings in this world wasn't necessarily something easy to accept.

With a slight laugh, Arc just slowly shook his head as he held his hand up to his face, "Holy shit, that's awesome." He laughed, "Seriously, you're getting ridiculously strong. I'm definitely gonna win any 'My dad can beat up your dad' arguments in the future." Arc pointed out, and Rudy swiftly tuned in.

"Ignoring that nonsense from Arc, I have to say... That is actually pretty cool, isn't it? I mean, it's not like you're just going to become an evil overlord all of a sudden." Rudy added, and Eiro immediately grew relieved that that is what they were thinking.

Sammy and Clementine seemed to agree as well, and Leon and Avalin didn't really understand what they were talking about yet. Actually, only Sammy was a little conflicted. After all, she was the one amongst everyone here, beside Felix, that distrusted Eiro the most. He saw that when they were climbing the mountain. However, it seemed like she wasn't conflicted for the reason that Eiro thought she was.

"So just because of us you literally fought a Royal monster? Seriously?" She asked quietly, and Eiro swiftly nodded his head.

"Of course. I did it so that I could continue being with you all like this, because I didn't want to lose you." He said. At first, Eiro did want to just run from . It was dangerous, sure, but there was no reason to put himself in danger if they could have just ran away. Eiro wanted to become stronger, but not at the cost of the life of his children.

The only reason that he actually did end up fighting was because took everything from him that would ruin Eiro's current life without actually touching the children at all. Without Eiro's fear, empathy, or fatherly instincts... he didn't know what he would have done to these children after a while. It actually terrified him. But luckily, Eiro managed to get everything back after killing .

"But don't worry, Sammy. I would fight anything for you guys." The Demon told them, "And as Arc said, it made me a fair bit stronger through the ability I got. Gondos, want to demonstrate?" Eiro suggested, just to try and show Sammy that everything was fine. The Golem slowly nodded his head and floated up to Eiro.

The Demon lifted his shirt up, and Gondos pressed his back against Eiro's chest and practically fell into him. And before they knew, Eiro and Gondos merged together.

[Your body has merged with the Golem, Gondos Holmstir]

In practically the same places where there was water when he merged with Nelli, Eiro's skin was now covered in a thin layer of rock, and Eiro's skin became slightly more gray, similar to what it was like when Eiro activated the 'Rock Skin' ability.

Eiro's tail in particular was different to what it was like when he merged with Nelli though. With her, it was simply covered in a very thin layer of water, but with Gondos, it became incredibly thick. Thicker than Eiro's arms, somewhat similar to what a Lizardman's tail was like, just that it was made of rock.

With a slight smile, Eiro looked at the incredibly surprised children in front of him, "I can become one with Nelli and Gondos now." The Demon explained to them, although Gondos quickly left Eiro's body again, "It's hard on my mana, but it definitely makes me much stronger. And I can use spirit abilities as well, even if just for a second, really. When I merge with either of them, I can sense mana, I can create elements, and we even tried some refinement... Although I wasn't entirely sure how well it worked, because I nearly instantly ran out of mana to spare."