Chapter 279 - Infinite

The Demon's feet pressed into the hot magma as he walked through the space in front of him. The air in front of him was heavily distorted due to the heat in this place, but that didn't mean that Eiro wasn't able to see what was happening around him.

All of the Salamanders and Vulcani were bowing down to the Salamander King, gathering around him and starting to follow the two of them the moment that they passed. Eiro could hear the Salamanders whisper amongst each other about who this Demon was, but he figured he should just ignore it for now. Thinking was useless at the moment, after all, he would just forget about everything anyway. So instead, Eiro explained his situation, or as much as he could remember about it for now, to the Salamander King, "A wielder of a Legendary Skill... I knew that there was something special about you. These skills usually come at a great cost, although this does seem rather extreme... All of this, with that ability happened recently, after you received that Legendary Skill but before you evolved, is that not so?" The King inquired, and Eiro thought for a moment and nodded his head. That's what he assumed at least.

"If that is the case, there is no need to worry. As you already evolved into something Unique long ago, you must be aware. Only after you became a Unique being were you able to truly make use of those cards and the unique abilities you gained through them." The Salamander King explained calmly, "A skill of such caliber needs to be supported by a vessel that fits that caliber to truly shine. The same is the case with that Legendary Skill. Once you get the chance to evolve once more, that skill will probably become actually usable to you, while not having such extreme repercussions."

The Demon thought about what the Salamander King told him, and figured that it made a fair amount of sense if that was the case... It was bothersome that he already seemed to be forgetting about this fact, but that didn't matter for now. At least for now, Eiro knew that this Legendary Skill wasn't something that doomed him.

And exactly when Eiro was thinking about this and staring down at the ground in front of him, slowly shifting around underneath the weight of the King, the Demon stopped walking as the Salamander King placed his arm in front of him.

"We are here." He explained as he took a step to the side to give Eiro a proper view of this. However, the Demon wasn't entirely sure what it was that he was looking at. It was like a focused, compressed version of those heat-distortions that could be seen in the air all around this area. As if the light was broken to such an extent that it seemed like another world. Eiro was even able to see his own distorted reflection in the middle of the air.

"Step inside of that field. I will help you form the contract to be the protector of this Spirit Gateway." The Salamander King explained, but Eiro turned his head toward him surprised, "Who exactly am I forming the contract with exactly?"

With a smile on his face, the Salamander King placed his hand onto the Demon's shoulder, "Do you know what Spirits truly are?"

"I... think I used to know, at least." Eiro replied quietly, and the figure in front of him just calmly replied, "That is fine, I will just explain it again, then. We Spirits are creatures that were spawned out of the innate magic that seeps through everything that makes up this world. That includes this plane, the elemental planes, the plane where all spirits may reside, and every other plane that may come to your mind. This world is alive, maybe not directly sentient, but alive nonetheless. It has a will and the power to execture that will. The being, or rather the force, that you will form this contract with is the world itself. You will swear to oblige by the will of the world to protect this gateway, and in return, you will be given power. Power that may help you on your journey. Power that may assist in finding what you have lost, or power that may simply allow you to live a calm life if you so wish. It may appear today, tomorrow, a year from now, or never. But when you need it the most, it will be there for you, worry not." 

"A contract with the will of the world..." Eiro muttered quietly to himself. The Demon took a deep breath to prepare himself for it, before he slowly pushed his hand into the compressed distortion in the air in front of him.

Touching his reflection's fingertips, Eiro pressed his way through the field, and slowly stepped into it, "Good luck." The Salamander King said, as a deep shiver ran over the Demon's spine. What did he need luck for?

Eiro made his way into the space of this distortion and was overwhelmed by what he saw. The outside of this space that was completely distorted of course. It was like everything was slowly merging together in front of the Demon's eyes. As if you mixed together every color of paint you had access to, creating a pitch-black color.

For a moment, Eiro wasn't sure if his eyes were open or not. But then, he slowly looked underneath his feet and noticed that he was standing on a small white square. It was weird, it didn't feel like he was standing on anything. Then, his senses caught up to what was happening. Eiro was falling, at an incredible pace, toward that white square. It kept growing in size rapidly until it took up the whole ground even beyond the horizon.

And then, the Demon rapidly hit the ground. But it was as if he never really fell, but just stood there... He didn't feel any sort of impact, at least.

Eiro felt sick in response to how his senses were jumbled around like this. Eiro looked straight ahead to get his thoughts together again. There, he noticed something small rapidly approaching him, and he soon realized that it was... himself. It was his own back.

When Eiro raised his hand, that figure raised his hand as well. When Eiro turned his head, so did it, but not only that... Eiro was able to see another version of himself in the distance to his right. As well as to his left, and even behind him.

They were all rapidly approaching him as if they were all pulled toward each other, until they just as rapidly simply stopped about ten meters away from Eiro each.

But just when Eiro thought he might be getting a slight grasp on what was happening, four more Eiros appeared around him, filling in the 'corners' inbetween the other four Eiros. And then, even more came. And then more, and more, and more, until Eiro was suddenly in a field of infinite Eiros. Every ten meters in each cardinal direction, there he stood. 

Until the Eiros slowly changed. But always just so slightly, there was barely any difference to what he was like right now when he looked to the left, right, ahead or back. But after a while, Eiro saw that things were changing. In the distance he could see a version of himself that was probably ten meters tall and had six pairs of wings, and seemed to have lost his mind completely. And in the other direction, Eiro saw a version of himself that was basically completely like a regular person. No horns, wings, tail... Pale skin, as well as hair.

The Demon stared at all these versions of himself, versions that Eiro never even imagined as possible. Some had more limbs, others had less. But either way, they were all incredibly... different to Eiro.

These other versions in front of Eiro were simply just standing there now, and the Demon slowly approached the version of himself right in front of him. When he did, nothing initially happened, but after Eiro blinked, he suddenly noticed that his perspective had changed. He was now inside of the body of the Eiro he had seen in front of him, and when he turned around, the Demon saw the body he was just in slowly fall to dust, together with some other Eiros that were directly next to that 'original' one.

As if his body understood what he had to do earlier than his mind, Eiro approached the next Eiro, the one that felt the most natural, and placed his hand onto his shoulder. Once more, he switched positions with that Eiro, and even more fell to dust.

This continued on and on, but there was no end to this field of Eiros. He ran and ran, kept switching forms with the version of himself that simply felt right to him. This infinite field of Eiros seemed to become smaller and smaller in the Demon's mind, although this obviously wasn't the case.

Eiro's own body kept changing, shifting, and becoming different. That was, until he suddenly didn't know where to go else.

He was inside of a body that was different to his current one. It seemed like Eiro was on the path of getting to this form, but the body he was in was much stronger, much more powerful than Eiro could currently imagine. 

But he didn't know what he was supposed to do now. None of the other Eiros around him felt right. The opposite, they felt downright wrong. Eiro was panicking, he was unsure of what exactly was happening.

His mind was overwhelmed... For a moment, he had forgotten what his original body even looked like to begin with.

Eiro just stood there in confusion and became overwhelmed by hopelessness that coursed through his very being. He slowly looked down at the ground, then up into the sky.

The Demon closed his eyes for just a moment while trying to arrange his own thoughts, and when he did, he suddenly heard a loud roar. Startled, he ripped his own eyes open and looked into the maw of a fierce beast that Eiro had never laid eyes on before, as far as he could remember, at least.

It stood there, growling at the Demon. He himself looked down at his body. It was different again, but more like his original form was. Just a few steps away from that, or so Eiro thought in his mind.

And the moment that thought crossed his mind, everything around him simply disappeared in dust, simply replaced by a town. It was quite a weird one. Structures and objects he had never seen before, shadowy versions of people carrying things that he didn't recognize either. And there, right in front of him, an enormous tower that pierced the sky.

"No, it's no tower..." The Demon muttered quietly to himself. It was the giant tree that he had been shown by that Stag before meeting Lugo for the first time.