With two smooth, fist-sized orb floating over his shoulders, Eiro stepped through the manor, happy that this had been dealt with properly. He now had a little less than a week left until Eiro would head off to see that Dragon of Truth, Solomon's Familiar.
"So, how come a Demon like you even is here?" A quiet, echoey voice asked. Eiro turned his head to the side and looked at the white orb, or rather, the girl that had been turned into this Will-O'-Wisp, Ariella.
"Yeah, exactly, isn't that kinda weird? How'd you get rich like this?" The boy that had been turned into the black Will-O'-Wisp, Mikey, asked. Eiro slightly shrugged in response, "Stuff happened."
"Well, obviously, but what kinda stuff?" Mikey asked annoyedly, and immediately, Sarius appeared right next to him and kicked the Wisp out of the way, "Shut the f.u.c.k up already, you're annoying as shit!"
Mikey just started floating there in place, unsure of what was going on, "I... Is that a Salamander?"
"F.u.c.k yeah I am. And I ain't gonna repeat myself again, so shut the f.u.c.k up! I'm tired!"
"How are you even tired, you've been sleeping for the past day or so..?" Nelli asked as she also appeared right next to Sarius, "Hm, I'm just trying not to waste energy in case I need it. Get it? Now shut it as well, bitch. Go and water the plants or somethin'."
Eiro let out a deep sigh. This would most likely all get a little bit annoying over time. He already heard Sarius and Nelli fighting every chance they got, but having Mikey there with them might make things even more annoying. And since Eiro didn't want to particularly leave these two behind while leaving, since it might be troublesome because they were turned into this through Eiro's magic.
But there was something that made Eiro think that these two could come in pretty useful as well. Not for him, these two would just hold him back, but they would be great assistance for someone else for now, if they were fine with it at least.
Because as Eiro just figured out, these two reacted in pretty unique ways sometimes, "Alright, Mikey. First, let's try this out." The Demon said as he grabbed the black Wisp and held it forward, letting his magic flow into its body.
"O-Oi, don't just grab me like that!" The Wisp exclaimed angrily, but Eiro simply ignored him for now. He knew that Mikey was just nervous, anyway. And so, the Demon filled Mikey's body up with Fire Magic with a certain sort of 'setting'. Well, it was based on Eiro's intention for the spell.
Either way, now, the Wisp was giving off strong waves of heat that were already melting the snow underneath Eiro's feet. And then, the Demon swiftly controlled the magic inside of Mikey's new form to swing him quickly through the area, using him to clear out all of the snow that piled up on the ground in front of them.
Soon, Mikey returned to the Demon, who looked at the black orb with a slight smile, "Isn't it pretty cool that you're basically a staff yourself now?" Eiro asked with a smile on his face, and the Wisp just floated in front of Eiro. The Demon figured that he was a little annoyed now, but he didn't really care that much for now. He wanted to properly try this out first.
"Listen, I don't really mind this, it actually feels kinda good, but at least warn me beforehand..." Mikey replied in an echoey voice, and Eiro just looked at him with a light smile, "Sorry about that. Ariella, do you want to try out your own new abilities as well for now? While Mikey seems to be a great conduit and storage medium for magic-"
"Please don't make me sound like some kinda magic item..."
"-I think your abilities should be a bit different, more focused toward physical damage." The Demon pointed out, and the white, smooth orb slowly floated over toward his hand, "We can try it out if you want. Will it work the same way as with Mikey just now?"
"It should. Here, let me try. Just go with the flow, and don't fight against it." Eiro suggested as he wrapped his fingers around the white Wisp's form, pushing his mana into her. In front of him, Eiro piled up some of the rest of the snow that he didn't have Mikey melt, just for this sort of test. He didn't really want to try it out with wood, just in case something could go wrong.
Either way, the Demon slowly held Ariella's new body behind him, and concentrated on what he wanted to do to that tower of snow and ice. And then, Eiro swung his arm forward at a high speed and threw Ariella toward the ice. While her new body was flying through the air, Eiro noticed the effect of what he assumed to be the main part of her new abilities that would allow her to still fight like she used to, at least to an extent.
Her orb-shaped body was squished flat and a sharp edge formed as the Wisp spiraled around. And just like that, she cut through a thick layer of ice on the snow-tower that Eiro made for this, before returning back to Eiro soon afterward.
"So, how was that?" The Demon inquired with a smile on his face, and the wisp that was floating over his hand stayed silent for a few more moments, before finally replying, "It... was pretty fun!" She exclaimed, "Can we do that again?"
Ariella's voice echoed through the backyard as Eiro relaxed a bit. Considering that they were both seemingly enjoying the feeling that their new abilities gave them, Eiro could only guess that their transformation into these Will-O'-Wisps worked out well.
"Sure, we can try it a few more times. Although, not with me. I would like you to work together with someone else. Considering my high power-output, you two might end up damaged if we keep doing this. So I want you to work with someone that roughly matches you two ability-wise. But don't worry, I personally trained him, so he should be able to handle your talents quite well." The Demon pointed out before he snapped his fingers. The sound of the snapping travelled a lot further than one would have expected, and a few moments later, footsteps could be heard approaching, making the snow underneath their feet crack.
And soon, the Mountain Hobgoblin Gobo stood there, sweating profusely after practicing as much as he seemingly did.
"Gobo, what the hell are you even doing? Didn't I tell you to make sure you get rid of your sweat with magic the moment that it starts gathering on your skin? If you keep doing this, you'll get sick sooner or later. I know that you're not that good at cooling your body with magic yet, so at least do this properly, alright?" Eiro asked of him. He waved his hand to the side and removed all of the sweat that had gathered on Gobo's body and on his clothes.
"Also, it makes you reek..." The Demon added with a slightly disgusted expression, and the Hobgoblin looked at Eiro excitedly.
"Sorry, Master! Gobo was-" The Hobgoblin slowly interrupted his own speech as Eiro stared at him a bit, and soon he corrected himself, "...I... I was warming up the area around the spiders while we were training them, so it was pretty hard for me to concentrate on my sweat too..."
"Then why didn't you just wait until I was here? I could have helped you out a bit." Eiro pointed out, and Gobo immediately shook his head, "No, Master! There's no use if you keep doing it!"
With a slight smirk, Eiro nodded his head, "Good boy."
At this point, it seemed like Gobo finally noticed the two orbs that were floating over Eiro's shoulders, "What are those, Master?"
"Ah..." Eiro replied as he slowly grabbed the white and the black orbs, pushing them toward the Hobgoblin although they were both a bit reluctant, "These are your new partners, starting today."
Immediately, Eiro felt a strong surge of electricity flow through his right arm starting at Mikey's black orb, while small spikes formed on Ariella's white orb that pressed against the Demon's skin, "Stop complaining, you two. I know he's a Hobgoblin, but he's a lot smarter than any other Goblin you've seen until now. Also, he's on his path on getting his monstrosity under control."
"Mhm, we've started unsealing it bit by bit a couple of days ago, and there aren't any noticeable changes to his behavior. And Eiro obviously would have noticed, so everything's fine." Another voice said, although it just came out of nowhere.
"Eh? Who's that?" Mikey asked confused. It seemed like even with his special sort of perception, he wasn't able to realize that the one speaking was actually the tiny spider that was sitting on Gobo's shoulder, "Bavet, stop hiding like that. You properly managed to instruct the regular-sized spiders, right?"
"Yup, they're all under control as well. Although I don't know what use those guys are in the first place..."
"Well, these Spiders have the ability to sense anything and anyone that's in the direct perimeter of their webs. Considering their numbers, they should be quite useful for surveillance." Eiro explained bluntly as Bavet slowly transformed. He jumped off of Gobo's shoulder and immediately increased in mass after 'releasing' his slime, soon growing to the size of a normal man.
Bavet stretched for a little while and then looked at the two orbs floating next to Eiro as well, "But really, these two are those dead kids you spoke about? They look kinda weird, don't'cha think?"
"Well, I did my best. This was the most efficient way to make them keep their ego for now." Eiro explained, and Bavet slowly scratched the back of his head, "That so? But you really want these two to become Gobo's partners? That's called bullying, right?"
"Don't speak so bad about him. He's pretty skilled, right?"
"Haha, that's not the issue here. He's just a dumb, ugly f.u.c.k." Bavet pointed out, and Eiro glared at the slime for a few moments, "You better be quiet before I-"
"...'Boil your slime away', I know, I know. You always pick favorites..." The slime said in a tone of voice that made Eiro think he was practically pouting.
With a deep sigh, the Demon placed his hand onto the head of the slime's current humanoid form, "There, there. At least you can come to meet the Dragon with me, right?"
Seeing how Bavet suddenly got excited like that, Ariella and Mikey had the same thoughts cross through their minds. And the most prominent one was 'What kind of creature did we end up joining?'.
Of course, even then, these two had only seen the tip of the iceberg of what made Eiro as weird as he was.
