Demon's Virtue

Within Eiro's cocoon, a lot of things were going on all at once. Every part of his physical being had been broken down, and that really meant every part. The original bloodstone, which had been fused with his veins or the duplicate of the mirror of duplication that he had placed into his eye; both had been broken apart by this crystal liquid.

And it wasn't even that it was a powerful acid, rather, if anyone else touched it, it might actually be rather benefitial to them. Like some sort of high-mana moisturizer.

But somehow, Eiro's body simply wanted to fall apart the moment he came into contact with it. However, of course, though he fell apart, it wasn't as though all this 'mush' was now being mixed together. Rather, everything was still in the exact position that it was meant to be in, just broken down and mixed in with this crystal liquid.

Though Eiro couldn't exactly feel it physically, he could tell from the flow of mana within the cocoon that every part of his flesh, his blood, his bones, and his very soul, was being strengthened and changed.

Of course, he didn't notice it from an inside perspective either. Even his brain had been broken apart to some degree, so his consciousness currently only really existed through his duplicates. Right now, Eiro was viewing the cocoon from the perspective of the temporary main body that he prepared for himself. But that new main body wasn't just standing here, staring at the cocoon.

But instead, he was preparing to finish something. The whole room had already been engraved with a large array that Eiro had copied from the room at the top of the manor's tower.

That array created by the former owner of the manor had the ability to vastly strengthen the magic that was fed into it, creating a space that was perfect for Eiro to adjust to new mana and increase his elemental affinities. Right now, he was trying to turn this office into something similar, but also different.

At specific key points in hte array, Eiro had placed duplicates of the mirror of duplication. This meant that, not only would any mana that was fed into the array be strengthened, but directly duplicated. While that duplicated mana would fall apart relatively quickly, it should be able to hold itself together long enough to properly affect Eiro how he wnated. That was the reason for the main array.

Now, it was time to place the finishing touches onto the cocoon. Of course, while the aspect of the 'Artificing' skill was currently conversing with Partax, Eiro still had access to his skills otherwise due to the mental link between all of the duplicates of himself.

He was a bit worried that he wouldn't be able to access them, but in the end, this wasn't directly the same as taking an aspect out of someone's soul using the Key. Though, it did seem to decrease the efficiency fo the skill to a certain degree, but it wasn't to the point where Eiro wasn't able to fully complete the array like this.

Eiro took a small chisel to the crystal cocoon. It was almost too hard to properly carve into, but this was one of Eiro's areas of expertise. He would never fail to carve into anything if he properly remembered his father's teachings. And so, while it took a bit longer than Eiro would have liked, he ended up properly carving the finishing touches o the array onto the crystal cocoon.

And then, the duplicate squatted down at the edge of the array. Due to the link created between this duplicate and the original main body, he was able to at least create a specific flow of mana.

Eiro's soul was inside of the cocoon, and as such was the only place that the duplicates could receive mana from, unable to perfectly produce it themselves. That was the main reason for the duplicates breaking down and growing weaker the further they were away as well, as the mana wasn't able to travel such long distances without suffering.

But that also meant that only the original Eiro was able to produce the ressource that was needed right now; Arcane Magic.

After being purified, splitting one's essence from their mana, that mana had to be carefully turned into arcane magic. And that was part of what this array did. Sort of automatically, passively guiding Eiro's soul into this process that was practically muscle memory, or the equivalent to that in regard to souls.

And so, the arcane magic would be directly fed into the array, which would strengthen and duplicate it heavily. That arcane magic would then be pulled back into the cocoon and be infused into the crystal liquid and Eiro's reconstructing body.

Meanwhile, the detached essence would be concentrated into a separate small piece that could be used for different enchantments, types of alchemy, and a number of other processes that Eiro could take care of after his evolution was over.

It didn't take long until the initial flow of arcane magic was established, flowing from the cocoon over into this small spot in the array. Immediately, the magic flowed throughout the engravings, growing in potency as it did, before hitting the mirrors.

The flow split apart and continued travelling throughout the room, and before long, every part of the engraving was filled with arcane magic, at which point, it began to saturate the room itself, and a vortex-like flow was created as the cocoon pulled all of the arcane magic into it. Meanwhile, Eiro's essence was being poured into the receptacle placed near the edge of the array at the wall.

Now that this was done, Eiro's duplicate stepped outside of the room, closing the door behind him. He pushed his hand against the pattern placed onto the center of the door, activating the barrier that was meant to keep all of the arcane magic properly contained inside Eiro's bedroom, while also locking the door so that others couldn't easily enter the space.

The amount of magic flowing around in there wasn't necessarily a ton right now, but the array was made to continuosly ramp up. Just the sheer amount of passive practice that Eiro was going to get in to create arcane magic would make the process much more efficient, on top of the fact that the amount of mana he could make use of would increase as the evolution progressed as well.

That being the case, as time went on, Eiro's bedroom would turn into an incredibly dangerous space with time.

---

"Come on, stop being so annoying about this," in the elemental plane of fire, the duplicate Eiro was sitting on a chair in front of the Overseer's desk.

"The answer is still 'no'. You have not fulfilled all the requirements for entering the last floor," they replied bluntly, not caring about whatever the Demon was saying. With a loud groan, the demon leaned back into the seat, looking over at the Salamander stood next to him.

"Sorry, it looks like this is going to take a lot longer than I thought it would," the demon apologized, but Sarius just shrugged.

"Eh, I don't really care all too much. It's a bit boring, but it's not like it'd be much better in the central plane. And I was called over there for some of the good parts anyway," the spirit replied, and Eiro pushed himself up from his seat.

"Right, especially cause the main body just started another evolution," the Demon pointed out, stretching slightly, before looking back at the caretaker, "Alright, so, as long as I offer you something worthy of the last floor, you'll let me through?"

The overseer quickly nodded, "Mhm. You have displayed your understanding, to a certain degree at least, of all the past floors perfectly well. Now you need to show that you deserve the top level of information by proving that you have already entered that realm to begin with.

And it can't just be the information; you need to show a deep comprehension behind the information and why it has the value it has."

"Fine. You got some blank books that I can borrow to write all this shit down in?" Eiro asked, holding forward one of his hands. The overseer glanced at him, reached down below the desk he was seated at, and pulled up a notebook, a quill, and some ink.

"Once you are done, please return to me and I will evaluate the information. Please mind that it does not have to be new information from the tower's perspective. Any information, whether we already possess it or not, is valid."

Eiro sighed lightly as he picked up the book, making his way toward the stairs. He had to check up on the kid waiting outside the tower anyway. Though, it was a little annoying to Eiro, he had to figure out what to write about. He figured that what the Overseer expected was some kind of scientific essay, and that part wasn't complicated.

What was annoying was figuring out exactly what of the knowledge he had he should go for that would certainly give him access to the top floor of the tower.