Demon's Virtue

Eiro and Nelly reached the tower of books once again. In here, the spirit monarchs wouldn't be able to bother them. While it was indeed possible to break through the walls if enough power was accumulated, that was not a power that either the naiad king or queen possessed.

And of course, once they entered the tower, they had to properly follow the rules in order to proceed; they would have to pass the tests.

Being spirits, they might actually be able to pass the test for the first floor rather easily; the process of analyzing those 'compressed words' was tough, but for beings that were made of magic, it might be easier than for others. Especially for those at their level.

But after that, they still had to read all the books of the first floor, then the second, third, and all the rest, to catch up to Eiro and Nelly. And even then, Eiro and Nelly could hide out on the secret floor that was only accessible to Morgan la Fey.

That meant that, for the time being, they could just take it easy and relax.

As they entered the tower, the overseer was there to greet them. With a slight bow, they spoke to Eiro, "Welcome, Morgan la Fey."

"... Didn't the other 'me' already tell you not to call me that?"

"You seem to have different personalities to some degree, even if you share a mind, so I wanted to be safe," the overseer responded, "Either way, as per my innate instructions, I am here to tell you that you now have access to every floor of the tower, in accordance with the will of Morgan la Fey."

Eiro smiled softly, "Perfect, thank you. But even so, there are still quite a few things that I have to read before reaching the top floor. Though it's good that I don't have to bother with the tests anymore. How is Anura doing?"

"Your servant is currently preparing for the test to enter the next floor, making sure that he truly comprehends everything there is that could appear," the overseer explained, and Eiro nodded his head proudly. It looked like the boost that the frogman got from becoming Eiro's servant really did help him out quite a bit.

Eiro and Nelly quickly made their way up. Anura was seated at one of the tables, taking notes while muttering to himself. His words were actively compressed, and he seemed to be trying to repeat the contents of certain books to himself to make sure he remembered them properly. Though, he still wasn't able to compress a whole book into just a few sentences and words.

The current Anura was able to compress around a page into a single word.

Figuring that he shouldn't bother him too much, Eiro simply moved on and got to the place where he had left off. He looked around, trying to see if there were any new books here. It did seem like a handful more books had been added to the collection while he was gone. Starting there, Eiro quickly went around and collected everything that he needed.

"So, are you just going to continue on as normal?" Nelly asked, watching the demon settle in the corner of the room. He looked at her with a raised brow, shrugging.

"Anything wrong with that?"

"Of course not, but... it just seemed a bit anticlimactic after everything that just happened."

"Hm... I guess so," Eiro replied, "But what else should we do? I don't have any particular interest in fighting the monarchs right now, and I refuse to simply flee from them."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Nelly agreed, settling near Eiro.

The demon looked at her hesitantly, "Though, I think maybe it would be a good idea for you to go over there and meet the others. One of the other duplicates already told them that you woke up and that you're fine, but I'm sure the kids would love to see you doing well."

A light smile formed on Nelly's face, "You're right, I should go and talk to them. Will you be alright on your own for a while?"

Eiro scoffed and looked away from the spirit, focusing on the books he was laying out in front of him, "Is that even a question?"

"Yeah, sorry, that was unnecessary," Nelly replied, patting the demon on the back, "In that case, I'll head out for a while. See you soon."

The spirit's body fell apart into droplets that seemed to quickly dissolve into the water around her, and the other duplicates quickly sensed Nelly over in the central material plane. Of course, Nelly appeared near the original body, still stuck in a coccoon. But instead of being inside of the room itself, she was brought to the 'magic access point' on the door.

That's how Eiro had set it up, to make sure that it would happen like this when Nelly woke up.

While that was happening on the other side, Eiro focused on his own work again. He quickly started reading the books in front of him. They were incredibly simple for him to just glance over and comprehend to the point that he was happy with for now. The mental duplicates would do the detailed analysis of the content and whatever else was hidden in the physical book itself.

Since he didn't need to account for the time that this process was going to take anymore, Eiro figured he could go all-out for a little while. He just had to glance at the pages, and didn't even need to read the content anymore. As long as he saw all the words well enough for the mental duplicates to do the rest, there was no need for him to worry.

That meant that he managed to get through all of the new books that arrived incredibly fast. And after that, Eiro swam through this floor. He used water magic to pull out book after book, flipping through the pages faster than he had ever done before.

It was to the point where Eiro was even momentarily worried he would tear the pages, but his magic control was high enough that this wasn't something that was going to happen all too easily.

With that, Eiro could effectively cut down the time that he needed to get through each book down to a third, maybe even a fourth or fifth once he got into the proper flow of things. The book would then be brought into the mental library and the mental duplicates would do the rest.

Before long, Nelly came back. She seemed to be quite emotionally drained, like she just had a good cry over there with the kids. Of course, Eiro knew exactly that this was the case, but the duplicates had tried not to focus too much on the conversations between Nelly and the kids to give them some privacy so he tried not to think about it too much.

"You could have stayed over there a little longer," Eiro pointed out, "In the first place, you don't have to stick around with us duplicates, neither you nor Sarius. I asked you to join initially to act as guides, but by now, you must just be bored sitting here, doing nothing."

Nelly looked over at the demon, swimming over to his side, "I know that I don't have to stick around here, but I just figured you'd feel a bit lonely. You've never been alone before."

"I-" Eiro instinctively spoke to refute that, but... Nelly was right. He hadn't been alone before in this life.

He started out as part of the horde. When he split off from the horde, he was with James and Avalin's party. When he split off from them, the moment he was really conscious, he was with his daughter Avalin.

Then the other kids joined, then Jura came along. He would have some moments of silence in the forest, but even there, Lugo was usually around, and since Jura could hear him no matter where he was anyway, maybe that didn't even really count.

After Jura's death, even when Eiro went off alone for some time, he would always have Nelly by his side, then Gondos, and then Sarius.

There was only a brief time he was actually alone, and it was when the former owner of the card of the 'Ultimate Domain of Truth' made everyone forget about him. And that was probably the worst time of his life.

"... Thank you," Eiro replied, continuing to flip through the books without averting his gaze from them.