Soon, Eiro and Solomon reached the place where the others were also waiting. Solomon took a seat on the mobile throne that was prepared just for him, while Eiro walked over to his children.
"Daddy!" Avalin exclaimed loudly and jumped toward the Demon, who quickly picked her up from the ground and held her up, "So, did you have fun here today already?" Eiro asked, and Avalin immediately nodded her head.
"Mhm! There were soo many tasty treats! So much super duper colorful candy!" She exclaimed, and Eiro stared deep into the girl's eyes before turning over toward Leon. Even he seemed to be a little bit hyper right now and was holding onto Eiro's hand, leaning back so that his hand was the only thing that was actually keeping him from falling down.
The demon turned his head toward Sammy, who was already awkwardly looking away from Eiro, "How much sugar did they have, exactly?"
"I... I don't know what you're talking about..." Sammy said, "I didn't give them any sweets..." She pointed out. And to Eiro's surprise... there was no power behind her words, meaning that the 'truth' didn't have to be twisted. Sammy was pretty good at suppressing the effects of her voice already, but there was still a little bit of a rest leftover, although all it did was make people more inclined to believe her words, and didn't actually 'control' them.
But even then, while she was suppressing everything and was already telling the truth in the first place, there was basically no residue of her power in her voice. So, with a deep groan, Eiro looked at Sammy again, "Then who gave it to them?"
"Erm..." Sammy started while scratching her cheeks, "That woman, Jess... She went off to a stall with Avalin and Leon for a moment, and then they came back and were already eating candy... And we didn't want to take it away again."
Immediately, Eiro turned around and stared deep into Jess' direction. She was looking at Eiro at that moment as well, so she turned away after being startled. Jess wasn't actually able to see Eiro's expression due to his mask, but the Demon was sure that she still knew what he was thinking.
"This is going to be a bothersome night... Let's hope they don't crash too early tonight." With Avalin sitting on one of his arms with her own wrapped around Eiro's neck for stability and Leon holding onto Eiro's other hand, the Demon turned back around to look at the Daughter of Winter again.
It seemed like the people that were chosen to present the offerings to the Daughter were currently walking up to her and placing them down in front of her. Surprisingly, Eiro noticed that some people were actually somewhat convinced that this was working out after all, despite the same people voicing their complaints just moments earlier. The main reason for that seemed to be that the Daughter of Winter was currently smiling.
During the many years before then that she had been visiting this town, it seemed like she usually had a rather... well, cold expression on her face. People thought that it had to be like that, as she was the Daughter of Winter and represented the cold itself.
At least they were changing their opinions, so everything was fine. But nonetheless, Eiro was still curious about what exactly Eiro was supposed to wait for. He had tried to give the Daughter the gem that he harvested from that Fractured Frost Walker, but she quickly said that Eior should wait until later, where something special was supposed to happen. Solomon seemed rather confused at the time as well, so she was probably not referring to some normal event that happened every year.
It took a little while for everything to be over, and once it was, the Daughter of Winter slowly leaned forward. It seemed like it was time for that event. Usually, right around now, the Lady would disappear from town, so it was probably the very last thing that the Daughter would do today.
She placed her palms onto the ground in front of her, right onto two specific parts of the carvings covering this whole plaza. Slowly they lit up from underneath the thin layer of snow covering the ground. From exactly that snow, numerous winterblossoms sprouted upward and covered the plaza in a mysterious shine and glitter as the ice flowers reflected the lights of the carvings.
But that wasn't all, because the very light snow that had been falling until now increased to an incredible amount, exclusively within the plaza. It didn't even reach the people encircling it. It was like a large pillar of snow simply appeared there out of nowhere, and it was close to impossible to see through there.
And then, all of a sudden, the blizzard-level snow started twisting around in the form of some sort of tornado. The pillar shrunk in width and soon only covered the center area of the plaza, before in one fell swoop, all the snow was blown away and disappeared without another trace.
To Eiro's immense surprise, so much so that he had no idea how he was supposed to react, a figure that Eiro hadn't expected stood there in the center of the plaza, right in front of the Daughter.
It was Lady Winter, in all her glory, as she looked around the place, "Oh? I was called here, I see?" The Lady asked in a surprised tone, "That can only mean that..." She started and slowly turned around, just to spot Eiro standing there.
"...that you are here." The Lady said with a light smile on her face, while Eiro slowly let down Avalin and let go of Leon's hand, so that he could make his way closer to Lady Winter.
"It is an honor to be able to see you again, my Lady." Eiro pointed out as he knelt down in front of the Lady. He could hear a few people that knew Eiro be surprised that he was bowing down to someone, including a certain three party members that Eiro would need to have a bit of a talk with later. With a quiet laugh, the Lady nodded her head.
"I can only share that sentiment. It is not possible for me to appear somewhere beside that place often. I am happy that today was such a day. But I must admit, I am surprised to see that you are here, dear Eiro." The Lady pointed out. Eiro immediately nodded his head.
"It was honestly a pure coincidence. I happened to meet the ruler of this Kingdom during my travels. Now we live in this capital town. I only found out a few weeks ago that this place is visited by one of your daughters."
"You truly experience as much luck as ever, do you not?" The Lady asked with an amused tone, simply chuckling into her hand. Eiro couldn't really deny that either. And then, he remembered that he still had something to give to the Lady.
"Ah, sorry, but in the past, the people of this town were quite uninformed of how your daughter was to be treated. I have now shown them the right customs, but I still wish to offer you something as an apology." Eiro started. With a flick of his wrist, a gem appeared in Eiro's hand. It was nearly translucent and was freezing cold, as if it was a chunk of clear ice.
The demon held it forward toward the lady, who slowly stretched her own hand forward and received it happily.
"How wonderful, I have not seen such a large gem as this in centuries." She exclaimed with a happy voice, "Do not worry, the people of this town have been absolved, as long as they treat my daughter with the respect she deserved from now on."
"Of course. I will ensure that-" Eiro started, but he was quickly interrupted in the middle of his sentence. He snapped his neck around. Without hesitation, Eiro activated his 'Rock Skin' ability and slid across the ground toward Gondos. The spirit and the demon fused, and Eiro's defense increased considerably.
Before anyone else noticed anything or could even react, a boulder larger than Eiro flew toward the Lady at high speeds. Eiro wasn't able to push her out of the way, simply because he wasn't sure if he was physically strong enough for that.
And he obviously couldn't just let the boulder hit her either. Eiro manipulated his life force to support his receptive strength as much as he could, while also trying to use earth magic to slow the high-speed, large rock down.
The moment that the boulder impacted on Eiro's palms, a strong gust of wind spread out through the plaza as a notification appeared in front of Eiro.
[-30.185 Health]
[Warning! Your arms have been broken!]
Eiro's prosthetic exploded into pieces along the joints and fell to the ground, with just a few smaller parts left connected to Eiro's skin. All of his fingers were gone, and really just half the palm was still there.
The demon ripped his eyes open wide in response to the pain permeating through his body while the sound of his bones cracking echoed in his ears. And the next moment, Eiro and Gondos were forcefully split apart, because the damage was too much for them to take while keeping the fusion up.
"My Lady..." Eiro growled loudly, "Go!" The demon exclaimed. That attack was very obviously faced at the Lady, and not at Eiro. At first he thought that it was meant for him, but Eiro noticed the source of this attack soon after.
It was some man holding fist-sized rocks in his hands. He was speaking about how 'some asshole blocked the attack', so it wouldn't make sense for Eiro to have been the target. He obviously had an incredibly high physical status, and probably a special ability as well. Because this boulder that Eiro 'caught' was just half the size it was now before it entered the plaza. It was actually still growing right now and was pushing Eiro back a bit as he leaned up against it in pain.
This was bad... this was really, really bad.
But luckily... the Lady was already in the process of disappearing when the boulder came flying toward here, and the daughter of winter was gone in the first place. The Lady had taken her place when she appeared here.
"I am sorry that I can't stay to help." The Lady said apologetically, but Eiro immediately shook his head, "No, it's fine! Just leave! Please!" Eiro yelled out and the Lady stared back at him, "Then let me leave you a gift behind.", and then, the Lady of Winter disappeared from behind Eiro. It seemed like she didn't have as much power as Eiro thought she did at the moment, having been transported here against the plan.
Eiro let his arms hang down by the sides of his body and slowly turned around. He had to get himself healed as soon as possible. But just as Eiro was walking, with Nelli and Gondos picking up the parts of his prosthetic behind him, he stumbled across the gem that Eiro had given the Lady. But something was different about it. It now had a light glow to it, and basically pulled Eiro toward it.
