Demon's Virtue

"Why wouldn't you- Excuse me? Did you really just ask me why you wouldn't just kill these majestic creatures? The last of their kind?" Nelly asked with an almost disgusted expression. The naiad queen didn't seem to understand exactly why Nelly was so against the idea of slaying a particular few magic beasts, the ancient ones that have come to be together with this very plane.

"Listen, I understand the choice to some degree. Why you're saying isn't wrong. Their bodies would have been able to feed many people for a long time, they would have brought prosperity to vast regions of this realm. That is undoubtably true."

"Then what is the issue exactly?" the queen asked, a genuine face of confusion on her face. It was almost shocking to Eiro that she was acting like that. This was more than just 'questionable', but knowing Nelly, she was probably just trying to downplay the situation when she described things to Eiro earlier.

Maybe she herself was trying to lie to herself and acted like it wasn't really such a big deal; that she misunderstood or exaggerated the queen's stance in her mind. But clearly, that wasn't the case.

"I told you before, Laris, and I repeated it just now! Those are not simple beasts, they are the cornerstones of this realm! If they die out, if their magic is no longer in this world, the magic of this plane, and with that we ourselves as we are borne from this place, will change forever and without an opportunity to return to what we once were!"

"But... that's nothing more than a rumour. An old myth, a legend of the past generations. Why would we believe in something that so clearly does not make sense?"

"It doesn't make sense? Why would it not- They were born with this realm, they are as old as the elemental plane itself... They... they're the true incarnation of this place... If you can't understand that, then..." Nelly muttered, looking down at the ground with anger in her eyes. She dind't know what else to say to someone that clearly refused to think about the consequences of their actions.

Eiro listened for a while, not wanting to intrude on this conversation. Though, of course, he knew that Nelly was right. Every realm, not even just the elemental planes, had ancient creatures that were born along with the world. Gaurdians that kept up the cornerstones of the world, protectors of magic and everything that is true and correct.

The elemental planes each have multiple of such beings. The plane of water, for example, has four. The leviathan, the world serpent, the true kraken, and the lord of the abyss.

Eiro had actually briefly met the world serpent; a newborn was the one that lived underneath the floating city, one of the first townst hat Eiro had ever set foot on in this life, and that now acted as the foundation for the city of monsters.

Each of these creatures had unique aspects to them and were incredibly powerful once fully mature, so Eiro certainly understood why you would want to gain their powers. Even Eiro was considering, for a few moments, to hunt them down and slay them, as the amount of experience he would gain would certainly be enough to boost him quite a bit.

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Though in the end, he had decided to rely on something beside just levels and stats. He still wanted to find them, but instead of killing them, he wanted to offer trades to them. Maybe some level of protection so that he may gain something in return.

For example, in one of the books of the Tower's top layer in the elemental plane of fire, the location of the Phoenix's nest was described in a lot of detail. Just ingesting a few feathers should increase Eiro's fire elemental affinity a few times over.

Similarly, the kraken's ink should be filled with incredibly powerful magic that should work well for artificing or inscribing magic into spellbooks.

Even the guardian of the central elemental plane should be quite useful, the Titan That Holds Up The Sky, but right now Eiro has no clues whatsoever of where it could be. Either way, though, Eiro didn't understand why the Naiad Queen of all people didn't believe in the importance of those wonderful creatures?

Anyone that had even an ounce of magical knowledge, upon seeing one of them, would never doubt that fact. When you gazed upon them, there was just an intense clarity and a deep connection to the world's elemental magic.

"Hold on..." Eiro let out, realizing something, "Have you never even seen one of them?" he asked. Especially a spirit, a being not only borne from magic, but this very realm, with the ability to sense magic with every fibre of their being, should realize the true nature of those beasts. That was the only explanation that Eiro could come up with.

If the queen had never met one of them, and then simply fell for the narrative of someone trying to act for their own personal benefit.

The naiad queen raised her brows, tilting her head to the side slightly, "How is that of any consequence whatsoever?"

Eiro let out a deep, long sigh, and Nelly glared at the queen, "Hold on, you haven't even seen them? Don't all spirit monarchs have to travel to see each of the guardian beasts of their respective plane?"

"Well, yes, but that rule is just 'A Queen of that Generation'. The former naiad queen already did that before rescinding her position to me, and as she is still alive, we count as the same generation."

"So you- Have I not taught you better than that? How could you just ignore such an important task?"

The queen slowly frowned, "I had other matters to take care of! Just as you said earlier, the former queen is the rightful queen! No matter if I would have the qualifications, no matter if I would have won the race to queenship in any other generation, she became the queen instead of me, and because of her mere pity, gave me the title.

I had to spend many, many years just proving that I was a good queen, proving that I could be of some kind of worth to the elder spirits and the powerful people of this realm."

Nelly shook her head, "But that doesn't mean you can just let go of responsibilities that exist for a reason!"

"It's a reason that I, simply, don't care about, so just-" the queen stopped herself, and Eiro stared at her face. Slowly, he glanced at Nelly, speaking to her through the link the two had as contractors.

"Nelly. I believe she didn't give up on that plan," the Demon explained, and Nelly snapped her head toward him confused, before turning back to the queen, and then back to Eiro once again.

"What do you... what do you mean?"

Eiro slowly glanced over to the confused queen, who wasn't sure what Nelly was talking about, and then let out a long sigh when he replied out loud, "She hasn't given up on her plan of killing the guardian beasts."

Nelly's face went pale. Eiro was surprised that this was even possible, considering she didn't even have any blood. She immediately stared at the queen, who was looking back without even an ounce of nervosity.

"Is that... is that true?" Nelly asked, and the queen nodded, as if it were obvious.

"Of course, why would I give up on such a venture? It could save the lives of so many of my people," the naiad queen pointed out.

"Does the king know?"

"He knows that I have plans, but no. He isn't aware of any details."

Eiro looked over at Nelly, whose face was covered in an expression that could only be described as a combination of shock and horror, slowly moving over to one of sorrow.

"But... how could you ever..."

"Nelly, I don't think there's anything that we can say to convince her right now," Eiro pointed out. He placed his hand onto his chest, accessing the treasury through the spirit gateway. And from it, he pulled a small dagger with a slight curve, that seemed like it was made of stone rather than metal. It had small grooves running along its side, and a number of holes along the edge.

Nelly saw the dagger; the mountain-breaker enhanced dagger of ice and water, and nervously looked at Eiro's face. And then, the demon stabbed the dagger into the water in front of him.