347 Chaos and Souls

Surprised by what his mate just did, Lognir turned toward Krista, "Did... Did you just teach him the essence of 'Chaos'?" The Dragon asked with a wry smile on his face. The Dragoness turned toward him and winked, "Maybe."

"Krista..." Lognir sighed deeply, "I literally just spent a couple of days teaching him how to make use of 'Truth' and 'Order'... If you suddenly teach him the essence of 'Chaos', all of that might go to waste, you know?"

Krista turned her head toward Eiro with a smirk on her face, "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

"...You might be right." The Dragon of Truth pointed out, "Eiro is as lot more impressive than I expected him to be. He might be able to grasp Chaos while still holding onto Order. But really... This guy has children on his own, you can't just do something selfish like this." Lognir pointed out.

With a quiet chuckle, Krista turned around, "If he can't handle it, that's his own fault, isn't it? If he, in his position, can't even handle a little bit of Chaos in his life and ends up going mad, he can't really complain. Anyway, it should take a few hours until he-"

"Did..." Eiro started while grinding his teeth, "Did you just say that this shit could have made me crazy if I wasn't careful? Why the fuck do you think I came here?! Isn't that kind of completely counter-productive?!" 

Seething with anger at this revelation, the Demon rubbed the bridge of his nose as he looked at the notification floating in front of you.

[You have obtained the \u003cEssence of Chaos\u003e] 

[You managed to grasp at what Chaos truly is, giving you a new perspective]

Eiro rolled his eyes and ran his fingers through the notifications. These have been getting thicker and thicker lately, as if Eiro would be able to actually grasp them soon. He had no idea why he focused on this right now, but he managed to quickly move on anyway.

He looked at Krista and Lognir who were both looking at them rather perplexed, "What? You think I'd let a bit of mental chaos mess me up? I can deal with stuff like that in an instant. Don't underestimate me." 

Eiro was still a bit mad at the fact that Krista would have let Eiro go crazy without hesitation, but for some reason, he felt somewhat calmer than he did before obtaining the \u003cEssence of Chaos\u003e. His mind was racing chaotically then due to the information that had been revealed to him after unsealing his memories, but now that he received this new ability, that chaos seemed easier to grasp. Even though it was still running as wild as before, Eiro felt safer knowing what this chaos truly looked like, and that he would have an easier time calming it down now.

Lognir looked at Eiro a bit surprised and raised his brows, "You know... You keep impressing me again and again. And it seems like you will continue to surprise me..."

Eiro looked at the Dragon with a blank expression. He wasn't sure what exactly was going on, but he felt like there was suddenly some sort of new energy floating around him. Something that he had never noticed before. While most other energies seemed like some sort of smooth, silky liquid to Eiro to an extent, this one was different.

It was like it wasn't there at all, flickering in and out of existence. And its positions were completely random as well... Even if Eiro wanted to pull this energy toward him, it would be hard to do so since it should be able to nearly instantly escape the Demon's grasp. However, it was still enough to cloak his hand in this energy for a moment.

Eiro looked at Lognir and held both of his hands behind his back in fists, "Lognir, tell me. Which fingers am I holding up with both of my hands?"

"...You want to use this for a party trick?" Lognir asked with a wry smile, and Eiro grumbled, "Of course not, I just want to see if this is enough to trick the abilities of 'Truth' you have." The Demon explained, "Unpredictability is important in combat. And being unpredictable while still being able to fight in my normal style is even more so. So just tell me which fingers am I holding up."

"...Fine. Left hand... Thumb and Index. Now you switched to Middle, Ring, and Little finger. And now just the little finger. Stop trying to trick me, will you? Anyway, your right hand...?" Lognir thought for a while. He managed to figure Eiro's left hand out perfectly, but it was the one that wasn't cloaked in chaos.

It seemed like Lognir was having trouble with that hand, "Index finger, maybe?" 

With a smirk on his face, Eiro shook his head, "It was all of them the whole time." The Demon said bluntly, "Alright, since I doubt you'd just lie for the fun of it, it seems like this really was what I thought it was. Although it's a bit weird..."

This 'Chaos' energy was completely different to anything else Eiro knew. It probably wasn't an 'energy', but rather just a natural force that Eiro suddenly became aware of to the extent of being able to sense it. When he cloaked his hand with it, it was like he loosely wrapped some thin silk around it. Silk that wanted to slip out of his hands any chance it got.

And to Eiro, Krista now looked as if she was basically wearing a Dress made of just that Silk. The Demon took a deep breath as he let this chaos fade away from his mind, and he ceased to see it for now. It would be tough to learn how to control it, but he should be able to do so somehow, sooner or later.

"Now that I'm done, I think it might be a good idea to use the rest of this time I reserved to be here to go back to my old home. There are some things I wanted to take care of there." Eiro explained, turning his head toward Lugo, "You want to go back there once as well, right, boy?" The Demon asked with a smile on his face.

"Are you going to take that Dwarf with you?" Lognir asked, and Eiro slowly focused his mind onto the sound of Armodeus' hammer slamming onto some metal, "Seems like he's still busy at work. I'll be back in a couple of days to come pick him up. Only if you're fine with that, of course." Eiro said with a light smile, and Lognir laughed a little.

"You are speaking as if you are that old man's parent. How interesting. Of course, he has grown on us quite a bit, I would say. He is respectful with what he was given to work with, and he has a certain way with words when we speak to one another. I would like to get to know this 'King of Craftsmen' a little more as well. Although you should probably speak it out with him." Lognir suggested, "He seems less terrified of us, but it would still be better to hear his opinion, would it not be?" 

Eiro turned his head toward the area where Armodeus was working and nodded, "I think so, yes. He will probably take a break soon, so I'll speak to him then." Eiro explained, "I'll get ready for now."

The demon made his way through the cave system rather swiftly. Really, for some reason, he just wanted to get out of this cave as quickly as he could. He was grateful to Lognir and Krista, but this whole situation, this whole training... Kind of overwhelmed him.

This 'Chaos' ability was useful, but didn't he get it a bit too easily? Sure, Krista said there was a chance to go mad, but to Eiro it seemed rather easy to break through that chance. Usually, Eiro wouldn't have questioned it, and would have just taken it as a 'Lucky turn of fate', but at this point, this might have not been just 'luck'.

But especially because of one of the things he remembered after unsealing his memories made him feel weird. Eiro himself was... Such a weird being. He was technically a Demon, but was there any other Demon with abilities compared to him?

And of course, that didn't mean 'Power'. There were plenty of Demon's more powerful than him. What Eiro meant was the 'Array of Abilities' that he had. He was straying so far from what regular Demons tried to do, to the point of being unsure if he could still call himself one.

But he certainly was nothing but a Demon at the end of the day. He wasn't a person, and he wasn't some other monster either. 

But... Eiro probably was never supposed to be a Demon in the first place. At least, that's what that small, cowering aspect at the back of the room in Eiro's chest seemed to show him... The room with all Aspects that made Eiro up at the time that was opened by \u003cThe Devil\u003e to take away Eiro's fear and his fatherly love.

That what he saw at that time was the thing giving him the most trouble right now. Like a full-on identity crisis that was brought forward just through a single hint at trouble. Something that made him different than what he thought he was.

That small figure that-

"Oi, lad." The Demon's thoughts were interrupted as Armodeus walked up to him, "You wanted to talk to me about somethin��?" The Craftsman asked with a smile as he took a break from work for a bit. Eiro slowly nodded his head, as he quickly explained his plan to the Elder Dwarf.

"I was going to head back to my old home. The place where I lived with Jura. I wanted to grab some different wood from the basement, and some from my old tree as well. And of course... just take care of Jura's grave a bit. Visit him, you know?" Eiro explained, and with a melancholic expression at hearing his late friend's name, Armodeus looked back at him.

"Hm... Aye, I'm fine with that. I'll keep workin' 'ere until you're back." Armodeus nodded.

Slightly calmer now that this has been dealt with, Eiro let out a slight sigh. Slowly, Armodeus frowned and asked something that's been on his mind, "Lad, everythin' alright? You seem like there's something you want to ask me."

Eiro raised his brows, surprised, "Oh... Yeah, actually. There is. I would like you to introduce me to anyone person of importance you can... Right now, I'm looking for a researcher of sorts? Someone that knows more about souls than anyone else."

"Souls, why're you lookin' for someone like that?" Armodeus asked, although clearly not saying that he didn't know anyone like that. And so, Eiro explained why.

"It's simple..." Eiro started, looking back at the figure of that scared young boy he saw huddled up within himself, amongst all other qualities that made him up, "I think I have the soul of a Human."