Chapter 300 - Look at me

Eiro looked up at the ceiling in thought, trying to connect a few more dots before he finally left this room again.

After the first penalty was finally over, Eiro was able to properly think again, although there were clear and gaping holes in his memory. It was quite annoying, even more so, infuriating. He didn't ask for an ability like this, and the repercussions were truly horrendous for him.

"On the other hand... I would have died without this, wouldn't I have?" The demon muttered as he turned his head and looked at the book that he brought in here with him again. It was the book that he noted down all that he could about what happened during the period of time where he was forgetting everything he thought about. 

The Demon grumbled a bit as he sat up, leaning against the wall. He wasn't able to do all that much in the past week. The only thing that he had really been able to do for the past few days was read the books that Gobo and Bavet brought him every day, as well as increase his status with the stat points that had amassed in the time that he had forgotten about this part of his abilities.

Luckily, Eiro was able to make the connection rather quickly again after going through all the memories of his life that he still had left bit by bit.

And now that the Demon assigned the stat points properly to some of the stats he figured needed some improving at the moment, his status started to look a little bit more 'random', like he wanted it to.

[Name – Eiro][Race – Elemental Imp][Level – 26]

[Health – 137.955][Mana – 338.550]

[Strength - 136][Constitution - 141][Resistance - 127]

[Agility - 212][Evasion - 107][Dexterity - 158]

[Intelligence - 315][Wisdom - 305]

[Perception - 206][Willpower - 161][Charisma - 102]

[0 Stat Points Available]

The worst part about this one week that was practically just confinement for his own safety was that he couldn't even practice anything properly. Using any sort of magic would have disrupted the Unholy Energy in this room, which could have possibly just meant his death because of some sort of ambient Holy Energy flowing into this space through one way or another.

"And that right after I absorbed a damned Elemental Gateway... I really have to try it out when this is over." The Demon said, staring up at the notification floating above him.

In just ten minutes or so, his reversed skill would turn back into , and he'll be able to leave again, finally.

He watched the countdown continue, and the moment that it hit zero, Eiro stopped the infusion of this room with Unholy Energy and opened up the hatch as he could feel that his body was slightly changing again as his Holy Energy Resistance returned to him.

The Demon jumped out of the room with a broad smile on his face. He took a deep breath of air that wasn't infused with that wicked sort of magic and quickly walked down the stairs toward where the others were.

But something... felt off. He wasn't sure what it was, but it made him worry. He sped up, his excitement wavering as he stepped into the room everyone had gathered.

Eiro looked at them, and realized what it was that was off. Immediately. After all, the things that were 'off' were staring right at him. Faces of people that he didn't recognize, trying to speak to him in voices that he couldn't remember hearing. Their tones were genuine, filled with 'Truth', Eiro knew that. They certainly were his friends and family, those most important to him, but he didn't remember them fully. He didn't remember anything about them, now that he tried it...

While he was in the tower-room, he didn't really mind that. He thought that it was the way that it was supposed to be, for some reason.

"The Unholy..." The Demon started muttering. While Holy Energy was something that practically represented all the virtues of life, Unholy Energy was something that represented the sins of life.

He had been hungry, but he was able to get past that. He was angry, but he close to always was, so he barely noticed. He was greedy for knowledge as he tried to recover his memories to an extent. But the one that was probably the most prevolent in him during the past week, considering the situation in which Eiro was incapable of moving out of this room, unable to properly stretch out... And since the first thing he did in there was to sleep... "That has to be a joke... Sloth?" Eiro whispered with a wry smile.

He simply didn't care enough to figure it out during that time, was that it? Did he live in blissful ignorance that whole week?

Eiro tried to seem natural for now as he approached everyone and greeted them. He hugged and held them for a while, one by one concluding who was who from the things that he remembered from his book, and the few memories that he did still have about them scattered throughout his head.

Slowly, Eiro's panick subsided a bit as he realized that this maybe was just something like an overwhelming reaction. Maybe it was going to be fine.

"So, how was it being up there for a whole week?" The boy with a broad, cheeky smile on his face who Eiro concluded to be Arc asked. With a smile, the Demon replied in a rather simple manner, "Well... Really boring, I'd say? There was not much to do... I was just sitting in there for a full week, nothing else but a bit of reading." Eiro pointed out as he turned his head toward the two single beings that he still remembered a bit. After all, they were the must unique here... A Hobgoblin and a Slime were rather easy to differentiate between the others.

But even then, Eiro still had trouble recalling specific memories that had to do with these two at the moment.

"Do you feel a bit sinful now, after bathing in Unholy Energy? Oh, can you use Unholy Magic now or something?" Arc asked, but Eiro just laughed and shook his head, "No, no, I can't. Well, I might have developed a small affinity for it. Maybe we should test that out, if there's any way to do that."

A man with a dignified demeanor started grumbling to himself a little bit in response to that. Solomon, Eiro assumed, then spoke up, "I'm not sure if it's really possible to test for Unholy Magic. It's that same kind of thing as with Holy Magic, where you need special materials for it. I don't really know what that would be with Unholy Magic though. If you want I can search for it a bit."

"Oh, that would be great, thank you." The Demon said. For a little while, they all just spoke to each other. Eiro was able to properly act as if everything was fine, at least as far as he himself was concerned at the moment.

They joked around a bit, Eiro spoke to everyone individually some more, and made sure that he was getting everything right with who they were and what they were like personality-wise. Eiro wanted to be able to recover his memories about these guys as quickly as absolutely possible. It should be possible, he had written it down in the book numerous times that he should be able to remember things after his ability had become normal again.

That's what the Salamander King told him, apparently, that nothing was ever truly lost. If that was the case, then he should be able to remember them as long as he interacted with them properly.

Solomon had been able to slightly resist the memory-manipulating spell due to his connection with that Dragon of Truth. And since Eiro had the Knight of Pentacles, the card that gave him access to the 'Absolute Domain of Truth', Eiro should be able to remember everything with ease, right?

"Oh, how has the weather been since I was up there? There weren't any windows there, and I could only sense things immediately around the hatch." The Demon pointed out. That room was made with extremely special means to be infused with magic, so it kind of made sense that he wasn't able to sense anything outside of it with the use of magic, but it was still kind of annoying and made things a little bit more boring for him in the long run.

"You're finally back, and you ask about the weather?" Clementine asked with a slight laugh. Eiro looked at her with a nod, "Of course. I want to know if you'll all be able to properly attend school. It's starting soon from now, right?" 

"Ah, right, about that." Solomon started, "It was delayed by a few days, but next Monday, they will be able to start their lessons. Some of the professors were unable to come back to town while I put it on lockdown because of that spell, but the last ones are coming back tomorrow. Oh, speaking of 'coming tomorrow', we're getting another visitor as well. Do you remember that mess-"

"Alright, that's it. Eiro. Look at me." A voice said. Eiro raised his head and looked at him. It was a man with a pale skintone, and his arm was replaced by a prosthetic that Eiro knew he himself made. He had been quiet the whole time, practically just glaring at the Demon without break while he had been speaking to his children and Solomon. Eiro figured that this man was 'James', then.

"Nice to see you again, James." The Demon said, but James immediately proceeded to try and punch Eiro in the stomach, his face twisted with anger, "Nice to see me again? Don't screw with me." James replied just after Eiro dodged the punch with a simple step backward.

"Is... Is something wrong?" Eiro asked with a wry smile, and James glared back, "Everything's wrong. Just so you know, I'm quitting, Party Leader."

The Demon stared back confused and in a panick, unable to figure out what was going on. Eiro knew that if this was James, then he was someone who he greatly appreciated. A close, trusted confidant.

"James! What do you mean?" A woman asked. From her demeanor and age... Eiro figured this was Jess, probably.

"It's just what I said. Do you think I would want to spend a single second longer with him after what he did?" Everyone in the room was rather confused about what James meant with this, except Solomon of course. He knew what James meant. But even Eiro wasn't sure exactly. 

So, he looked at the man in front of him with a frown and stepped out of the room, quickly followed by the Light Elf.