Chapter 282 - Astral Body

Eiro stood in the center of this large open space, looking at the notification that just popped up with a bit of a confused, unfocused mind. He wasn't sure what exactly just happened, he just knew that it probably wasn't what the Salamander King initially had in mind.

The Demon looked up at the seemingly quite upset face of the being in front of him, and explained the bits of pieces of what just happened that he could still even remember. And the moment that he did, the Salamander King stared back and said nothing while holding the same blank expression for a few seconds, as if he was just completely frozen.

"You... spoke to the will of the world?" He then asked, believing the Demon's words somehow, "But I thought... So you truly had a direct conversation with it?"

Eiro slowly nodded his head as he looked back at the Spirit King, who seemed to have to deal with this revelation a little bit first. Eiro was glad that he was immediately believed, however, something that he didn't actually expect to happen.

But either way, that wasn't of importance right now. He still didn't know what was going on and why he had 'absorbed' the spirit gateway. Seeing that he was most likely thinking about this, the Salamander King explained it without hesitation, or what he assumed to be the case, at least.

"While I have never heard of something like this ever happening, I believe that it is how you say. I had suggested to simply make you the guardian of this gateway. To have you protect it and in return gain some form of increased power to your flames. However, it seems that it has gone beyond that now. Instead of becoming the simple guardian of the gateway, the gateway has become a part of you. You should now hold a direct connection to not only the spirit realm, but also the elemental plane of flames, like us Salamanders do."

Eiro looked at the Salamander King with his brows raised, "You are connected to the elemental planes?"

"Of course." The King nodded, "It is how we conjure our elemental magic in the first place. This connection to the Spirit Realm, specifically the part that has a strong connection to the elemental plane of fire, is what allows us to move into the Spirit Realm at will."

"...So you think I can travel between the realms now?" Eiro asked, and the Salamander King looked at him with a complicated expression, "I am afraid not. A Spirit's body is made up purely of magic that has been given permanent form. While you may be an artificial being yourself, you are still a physical creature. Or more so than Spirits, at least. However... I think you may be able to visit the spirit realm through an outer-body experience of sort."

"An outer-body experience?"

"Indeed. It can be achieved through a specific method of meditation that has been combined with ancient magic. Your conscious mind disconnects from your physical body and instead changes to your soul itself, creating an Astral Body. It will let you delve into the Astral Plane, which overlaps with this physical realm, and with your new connection to the Spirit Realm and Elemental Plane of Fire, you should be able to visit either of those planes as well. Your physical body will become completely helpless, however. I may be able to teach it to you, but in your current state, it would be too dangerous for you to attempt it. While after this, we may not meet for a long time, there are others in this world that still know of this spell. Speak to them, and we may see each other earlier than either of us will expect."

Eiro slowly nodded his head in response to the Spirit King's explanation. This sort of thing will definitely be helpful to Eiro in the future, quite literally having a connection with an elemental plane as well as the spirit realm was impossible to not have some sort of strength-increasing impact on him. At least as far as Eiro could tell so far.

But just as Eiro was about to turn around, thinking that his business was over with this place for now, the Salamander King placed his hand onto the Demon's shoulder.

"There is one more reason you came here, is there not?" He inquired, and Eiro looked back at him surprised. Was there? Eiro couldn't really remember, if so.

"You were looking to form a contract with a spirit, were you not? Innately seeing magic is not a power you should have gained by absorbing the gateway, after all." 

And then, it popped into the Demon's head again after he connected all of the dots of his leftover memories with each other again. He had to use a Spirit to see magic to search the one that was manipulating the memories of the people with the help of the storm raging above.

Eiro immediately stared at the Salamander King and slowly opened his mouth, before he was interrupted, "I apologize, I still cannot form a contract with you." He pointed out, "No matter how intriguing it is, I still have my duties as King. Instead, I wish to introduce you to someone else that may form a contract with you. It is my successor, the one that will become Salamander King after me. Sarius Kitmagird. He is quite a powerful one, however, he only possesses raw power. There is little to no control within him, as he is actually the one being controlled by his own emotions." 

Eiro looked up at the Salamander King a bit confused, before he sighed deeply, "Sarius has anger issues. He is 'bratty' as many of you may say, unwilling to act his age of 500 years, and despite his capabilities, he has refused to learn much about this world. He spent most of his life in the Spirit Realm due to his privileges, only ever returning briefly to visit his birthplace in this realm. Please, I ask you to take care of him and raise him into a worthy successor."

After that sudden request by the Salamander King, Eiro was a bit surprised. For one, it wasn't like he was the best person to ask about how to manage your anger, and his own future within this world was quite uncertain to begin with. Eiro stared up at the King and thought for a while, before finally replying, "I accept. Having a contract with an extremely powerful spirit can only be good especially after I help him control himself." The Demon pointed out, and the Salamander King let out a deep sigh of relief, "Oh how glad I am that you think that way. Please, I have to find and summon him, so until then please wait with your companion."

"My companion?" Eiro asked confused, before he realized that he was supposed to have an escort with him, and that he was probably the one that the Salamander King was speaking of.

With a quick nod, the Demon turned around and made his way to the exit of this large hollow space, while all of the spirits that were currently here were looking at Eiro with mixed expressions. Some were happy that he was there, others... not so much. Eiro didn't really know why the latter were a thing though. For now, he just made his way out to meet with his escort again, who was already waiting at the shattered-open part of the glass capsule that Eiro had been in until now.

"Is something wrong?" Eiro asked as he looked at Clark, who simply stared back at him in disbelief, "Is that supposed to be a legitimate question..?" He replied, and Eiro bluntly nodded his head, "Of course, why would I be joking around at a time like this?"

Clark groaned loudly as he took a step away and sat down on one of the few chairs that were still leftover after the fights that happened here in this area, "Can we leave soon, at least? So that I can... re-evaluate my friendsh.i.p.s with the heads of certain countries?"

"Yes, we just need to wait for the Salamander King. He is getting a spirit that I can contract. Apparently he's pretty powerful. A bit troublesome, but I don't think he sounded all too bad when the Salamander King spoke about him." He said in a clear tone without a single ounce of deceptiveness. Eiro didn't lie, he simply didn't remember all the bad things that the Salamander King explained about him.

And so, Eiro sat down right next to Clark on another chair and looked at the open space in front of him. For now, the Demon was just thinking about random things while his heard was beating incredibly fast. So fast that it nearly felt like it was about to jump out of his chest, actually.

"Erm... Why are we waiting again?" Eiro asked as he turned his head over toward Clark, who proceeded to bury his face in his hands in frustration, "You know what? I just won't answer you anymore. Solomon told me as long as I have the royal badge with me you won't try and touch me. You'll forget about this conversation in a bit anyway."

"Hm... Is that so?" Eiro asked absent-mindedly as he turned his head around and looked at everything that came into sight, before he suddenly turned his head toward Clark, "Say, why are we waiting here again? Shouldn't we leave and get back to that king?"

"Urgh..." Clark groaned loudly, but all of a sudden, he realized something, "Wait, you remember Solomon?" He asked, and Eiro slowly turned his head and pointed at the half-burnt book laying on the ground near him with numerous pages of it scattered around. Most parts were burnt away, but Eiro was able to figure certain things out from context, at least. A lot of the parts seemed to be lost completely, but the most important things were still there, "I just read it in that book there, sorry. I don't really remember him."

"It's fine, I didn't expect you to anyway..." Clark sighed as he stood up. It seemed like while Eiro was inside there, forming that contract with the will of the world, he was looking around this place. Clark stepped over toward one of the nearby tables and picked up one of the books laying there.

And when he came back, he handed it back to Eiro, "Here you go. Write down anything that you can figure out from those books. Let's hope that it's enough so that Solomon won't rip my head off... Ah, and write down all that I'm about to tell you as well, it's important."