Chapter 551: Meeting of the Champions

Eiro and Koperia looked at each other, unsure how they were supposed to answer that question. Before Eiro's latest evolution, the answer was very obvious, which was that Koperia was far more powerful than him. But now? That was different.

If Eiro went all out against Koperia, would she be able to win, and vice versa? It was something that neither of the two had really considered now.

"If there is a place nearby, should we test it out?" Eiro asked curiously, and Koperia scoffed as she shook her head, "You know that my type of combat would require the sacrifice of many, many people so that it would count as me going all-out, right? No, let us just assume... we are on equal grounds for now."

"Hm... If you say so. Armodeus, have you ever seen Koperia in an all-out fight?" The Demon asked, turning his head toward the elder dwarf sitting right next to him, who thought about that question for a moment, "Some decades ago, maybe, so it's not really that accurate to how strong she's now."

"Hm? What time are you talking about?" Koperia asked with a light frown, and Armodeus quickly explained, "That time when y'all were fighting that cursed chimera dragon."

"Urgh... yeah, that was a tough one. I did go all out at the time. You definitely could have beaten me back then, Eiro." Koperia pointed out, just as the food was finally being brought over to the group.

For a while, they all just spoke about a few different random topics, although Armodeus did get the attention of everyone for a while as he told the story about the aforementioned chimera dragon, a huge creature put together out of parts of numerous dragons, making it more powerful than a normal dragon. It seemed like that whole group, those who now possess master grade skills, had fought against it together somehow. Or at least, the part of the group that had combat-based abilities. So while Armodeus was there to take care of everyone's gear, Jura and other weaker members of the group weren't there, so even Nelli hadn't really heard this story before.

"This group you speak of..." Kimmi, the guide, soon started, "Are they people like you, that simply have no interest in fighting the monster king?" He asked, looking at Koperia, who quickly shrugged.

"Basically. The lot of us are masters, and the only way we could reach that status is by obsessively doing whatever the hell we want. As long as fighting the monster king is unnecessary in furthering what we want, we won't do it." Koperia pointed out, quickly looking at Armodeus, "Ain't that right?"

"Aye, you've got a point. Plenty of people've been trying to hire me as their private craftsman for decades, but I've never accepted, cause all I want is to work on things that interest me." The dwarf pointed out, "Which is why I've decided to stay with Eiro, who was my friend beforehand already. By sticking to him, I'm going to get plenty of opportunities to work on unique stuff."

Kimmi looked at the two masters of their own trade, "While I respect that dedication... is that not somewhat selfish? We are talking about the good of all the people, after all."

"Hah, right..." Eiro scoffed slightly, unable to keep a slight chuckle in, and Kimmi immediately looked at him, "Sorry, but what do you mean with that?" 

The Demon let out a deep sigh as he looked back at the guide, "Listen, by killing the monster king, all you're doing is creating a new monster king, who will build up a new army that will need to be destroyed yet again. This cycle never stops. It's a fight without any meaning to it at the end of the day. Doesn't mean that I won't fight for the chance of making things easier, but in the end, that's an undeniable fact."

Kimmi lightly smiled as he heard what Eiro said, "It is as you say, these fights do seem quite useless, don't they? But I have a feeling that this is going to change quite soon." 

Eiro looked at Kimmi confused, since there was clearly some hidden meaning in that sentence. Did they have a plan to end this war as well?

--- 

The carriage came to a halt, and Eiro slowly opened his eyes. He just took a quick nap and spent a little time finishing up some reading in his mental libary. 

A few moments later, the door of the carriage had been opened, and the first to step out were, once again, Eiro's children. Of course, quickly followed by Eiro himself.

The Demon walked to the front of the carriage and quickly unhooked Lugo from it, since he didn't want anyone else to do it, and simply used magic to slope the ground so that the carriage would roll in the right direction on its own.

The group was quickly greeted by a familiar face, "It is wonderful to see you again." Silia, the overseer of the tournament in Skyhart, said with a smile on her face.

"Likewise." Eiro quickly replied, and proceeded to introduce Silia to everyone that she hadn't met yet, so that she was all caught-up.

"I see. And that deer is your familiar, as I heard?" Silia asked, curiously looking at Lugo, before Eiro quickly nodded his head while rubbing his hand over the stag's snout, "Yep, that's him."

"We will prepare a proper sleeping place for him as well, then."

"Thank you, I appreciate it." The Demon said, as he slowly turned toward the area in front of him. It was clearly just some sort of village, instead of a mansion like Eiro had expected, but that was probably one of the cultural differences between Skyhart and Baram. Each of the huts that were elevated on pillars seemed to be what a normal room in a mansion was, so it was basically the same thing.

Everyone was guided around, and got assigned huts in different groupings that they would stay in for the next few weeks. Instead of walking on streets, all the huts were connected through wooden platforms, probably in case of flooding. The ground was quite naturally moist, and a small river was running through this whole area as well.

"Everyone else can go ahead and unpack, and then you can relax. But I will have to ask Lord Daemonherz to accompany me. Your group happens to be the last to arrive, so it is time to meet with your future companions." Silia explained, and Eiro quickly turned toward the others. Krog, Jess and James were clearly somewhat bothered by the fact that they couldn't help out with these things, but that was just how it worked. At the end of the day, Eiro wouldn't be fighting alongside all those other people anyway, but he would be fighting with his current party, as long as they managed to power-up accordingly over the next few years.

"Then let's do that. It's alright if Lugo comes with me, right? As my familiar, he's practically a part of me. I would like him to be there." The Demon explained, and Silia immediately replied, "Of course, that is fine. The place where we will meet the others is outside, so that is fine." 

"Alright, you heard her. Come on." Eiro said, looking at the Stag, as they quickly made their way to their destination. They had to follow a forest path for a while, and after walking for about half an hour, they reached a wide open space. In a huge circle, the ground was paved with stone and patterns like those tattood on the skin of adult people of Baram were carved into everything. Gathered there were two dozen individuals outside of the Baram locals that had guided them here. Some of them seemed to be mages, others were towering warriors, but all of them clearly deserved to be here. Some more than others, sure, but there was not a single weak person here.

Although, some invididuals did stick out to Eiro. Three of them, to be exact. Three individuals that Eiro didn't expect to see here. They were transmigrators, which Eiro was able to see from some of the materials they were still wearing. Whether it was jewelry or part of their clothes, some of those things simply didn't belong in this world.

But for now, Eiro couldn't let his suspicion show, so he instead looked at someone that he was very glad to see here, someone that quickly approached him.

"Eiro!" Biril exclaimed with a broad smile, "As I thought, you also won your country's tournament. I didn't expect anything else." 

"Same to you, I'm glad to see that you're here. Did you bring Hijar with you?" Eiro asked with a smile, and of course, Biril immediately nodded, "If I hadn't brought him, my brother would have thrown a fit until I am back, so of course he is here with me. What about you, did you bring young Leon?"

"Yep, I brought all my children, and some other friends." The Demon quickly replied, as one of the more warriors approached the two, "Yo Biril, who's the rainbow-haired guy?"

"Ah, this is Eiro, an incredibly strong individual. He won the tournament of Skyhart." Biril explained, and the large man, who clearly seemed to be a Goliath just judging from his scent, build and appearance, leaned forward to look at Eiro.

"Huh, he seems kind of weak though. Doesn't have an ounce of a warrior's aura on him." He pointed out with a light smirk, "Must be a weak mage then."

"Oh? You're familiar with aura?" Eiro asked with a light smile, "But that means you must only be aware of it on a surface level, if you can't even recognize when someone is suppressing their aura. Here, let me show you."

And so, with a gentle smile, Eiro manipulated his aura. He kept it tightly around his skin lately, since his natural aura has become incredibly overpowering ever since his newest evolution, but for a moment like this, it might be useful to declare some kind of hierarchy.

So, Eiro just let go for a few seconds.