Eiro was laying there in the snow, staring up into the sky, just seeing the notifications appear in the corners of his eyes. His whole body was feeling cold, but at the same time, he was feeling quite hot. It was weird, to an extent, but it also felt somewhat nice.
To the Imp, it seemed like he only now realized the power of these cards. His body had never been able to properly control the Three of Swords to its full extent, and there still seemed to be many secrets about it that he wasn't aware of just yet.
But this one card... The Ace of Cups... It was truly incredible. He disappeared from the awareness of everyone, even strong beings like that... 'Frozen Monstrosity'. And even though he seemingly wasn't supposed to do so, he was able to kill such a being very, very, very easily. Who knows, maybe Eiro would have been able to kill even Zaragon back there the first time he used it if he just tried. Although, that probably would have brought the Imp down a very, very different path than this one.
Either way, right now, Eiro had to make a choice. He made all of the notifications beside the ones about evolution disappear, and then let that notification just float there behind him while the Imp made his way over toward the Stag.
It was breathing incredibly heavily, and parts of its fur were drenched in cold blood. In general, the condition of the Stag had never been great, considering its limping and its missing antler. Maybe he should just kill it to let it out of its pain and misery.
Eiro hadn't gained much direct knowledge through Jura so far, but amongst the bits and pieces that he did learn from him was that each living being was its own thing. There was no reason to condemn all beings of one kind for the wrongdoings of one, and neither was it a good idea to trust all of one kind for the good that a single one did.
You had to take a look at the singular entity and then judge. Over the past few months, the only times that Eiro had killed was either for food, or because there was a troublesome monster in the forest that Jura told him to go kill. And of course, even those monsters were eaten when possible.
But in the end... this stag was too old. It's meat was probably too tough to be chewed even by the Imp's teeth, and it was so dirty that you could probably have that taste stuck in your mouth for months.
There were some swollen parts that seemed like they were filled with pus as well, and this stag was obviously very sick on top of the injuries it had gained right here.
So of course, there was only one possible solution to this issue. This stag's life had to be saved somehow, obviously. And so, the Imp looked at the house at the top of the hill. "Will you save it?" The Imp asked, quite clearly meant for Jura, but there was no answer in any way.
"Do you want me to save it?" He then asked, but once more, there was no answer.
"I see. My choice, then." Eiro said quietly, and while there once more wasn't an answer, this time around it felt like the silence said more than any sort of answer he could have received.
Slowly, the Imp looked around himself to try and find anything that could be of use to him, before he remembered one thing. Immediately he jumped up and ran around, trying to orient himself in this bare, white forest, before he ended up finding what he was looking for.
One of his traps. Immediately, he cut the rope loose and as he was running around to find one of the traps nearby, as he always placed two or three close to each other, he scratched of some of the poisonous sap that made the Imp feel so 'good' back then.
Before, he once tried to properly remember the feeling from then and in retrospect checked his whole body for what might have changed. For sure, he definitely felt less of anything. He just felt cozy and warm, and happy. But as he was running around, Eiro scratched his arm on some branches and ended up bleeding a little, although he hadn't even felt that pain.
And most animals that ended up eating this sap often fell asleep after having too much of it, because it 'relaxed' them too much.
It seemed like the perfect thing for the stag with its currently heavy breathing. And so, after of course deactivating both his cards and properly placing them back into his bag, Eiro pushed his mana into the Fire Magic Stone in the handle of his dagger so that he could try to melt this sap down a little bit, or at least turn it a little softer for now.
Just like that, Eiro managed to gather a handful of this chunked-up sap and brought it over toward the stag, before slowly pushing part of it into its mouth. The stag seemed rather aggressive, trying to bite the Imp, but luckily he was just using his wooden hand, so he didn't feel any of it and could just push it down the Stag's throat, flushing it down with molten snow.
It took a few minutes, but soon, its breathing finally slowed down and its eyes closed, so Eiro could now properly get started.
He knew a lot about how the bodies of animals worked now, considering how much he had been cutting them up finely over the past few months, and once there was a deer amongst the animals as well... It was much, much smaller than this stag, but their bodies should be similar.
The first thing that Eiro somehow tried to do was to stop the bleeding. And for that, he placed his hand directly onto the wound, making the stag slightly twitch for a moment. But at that point, Eiro had already been able to push his mana into the blood and at least partially 'redirected' it to at least lessen the amount of blood it was losing.
The Imp knew that this stag had broken bones as well, but he could only care for what he could see... He couldn't just cut the stag open, after all! Instead, he pushed his hand into his pocket and pulled out one of the magic stones that he hasn't been using ever since they got away from the Demonic Town, a Holy Energy Magic Stone. It should be able to help this stag recover to some extent, shouldn't it?
At the very least, that's what Eiro thought... In the end, nothing happened. It worked with Clementine back then, so why not now? Or... or was it because Clementine was insanely close to the topic of 'Healing'..? No matter how messed up it is, her unique skill lets her heal nearly any wound, she has an insane talent for healing, and two elements that are both known for their healing capabilities...
That... That might be it. That could have been the only reason why she was healed so easily. Eiro didn't know what he was supposed to do! He figured it would be easy like this, but it absolutely wasn't!
Was there another way? Any way at all for him to heal this Stag? And then, he remembered what Jura did back when the Imp first met him.
He wasn't sure how exactly it worked, but maybe he could try to replicate it... Slowly, he pushed his hot blade into the snow and melted it into water, before trying to 'lift' that water with his magic. It was hard, but soon, he managed to form it into some form of bubble on top of his palm. And into that bubble, the Imp placed the small Holy Energy Magic stone. After all, it should still be able to help somehow, and the Imp could use any help he could get.
And then, he slowly placed the bubble against the Stag's most serious wound, making it directly flinch in response. The water was still quite cold, after all. Eiro had a tough time properly keeping it in shape, but he had to concentrate properly.
With a deep breath directed outward that didn't even create mist anymore because of how cold Eiro's body was feeling, the Imp tried to remember that moment from back then in as much detail as possible.
He stepped into that memory, and instead of standing right where he did back then, he walked over toward Eiro and took on his spot, before he started to slowly chant.
"Naiad, logris urtur krus thul orgum, jiad harr wass. Jiadis Naia." He muttered quietly, before the Imp's body started to tense up. It was as if something was being sucked out of his very being and entered the water in the bubble.
It felt like all the air that was in his lungs had disappeared together with the stew fresh in his stomach, creating just two big holes that wanted to be filled immediately. But the Imp knew that if he did, he would fail. He didn't know how he knew, but he did.
And so, without any air, and with gaping pain in his abdomen, Eiro continued to chant, although he was unaware how he really did so.
"Naiad, logris urtur krus thul orgum, jiad harr wass. Jiadis Naia. Naiad, logris urtur krus thul orgum, jiad harr wass. Jiadis Naia. Naiad, logris urtur krus thul orgum, jiad harr wass. Jiadis Naia."
Over and over again, Eiro repeated this chant, until he couldn't anymore.
And then, he slowly opened his eyes directly at the stag in front of him. And... The wound was closed. There were some frozen bits of water around the place where the wound once was, but the wound was closed. It seemed like in general, the Stag's condition slightly improved. But...
Wait, there was something weird... It wasn't this dark when the Imp started this, and somehow, his whole body seemed as if it was frozen in place. He couldn't move properly anymore. He would probably be able to react to it later, but for now, the burning pain he felt in every nook and cranny of his body was overwhelmed by the pure pressure behind him.
"So he is the one, is he not?" A Woman's voice asked, echoing through the forest with a cold tone that reverberated throughout Eiro's whole being.
"Yes, yes he is." A familiar voice, Jura's, replied. Slowly, the Imp turned around, making the ice stuck to his body slowly crack. But soon, he laid his eyes on the Woman.
She was tall, very, very tall. She might have been twice as tall as that 'Frozen Monstrosity', even. She had pure white skin, and wore a thick white fur-jacket on her body. The only color on her whole being were her pale blue lips and the ice that made up parts of the decoration on her body, reflecting the light of the moon.
"How curious. A usually Flame-Alligned Demon, letting his body be taken over by frost to save a creature's life. And on top of that, a blessing from an old friend of mine. Jura, thank you for showing him to me." The Lady of Winter said, her lips slightly curling up into a warm smile as the Imp felt his body itself gain back its feeling and movement, frozen heat concentrating on the center of his chest as that happened.
And before the Imp knew it, flowers started to sprout around him. Out of the cold, barren dirt, flowers made of ice appeared, while the Imp could hear the giggling of children. They weren't Eiro's children, but others that he didn't know yet. They peeked their heads forward from behind the Lady of Winter, each carrying a different one of the plants that Eiro and the Imp gathered before.
They looked practically like younger versions of the Lady of Winter, and especially one of them stuck out to the Imp. She was the smallest of all of them, and the only one not carrying anything, something which she seemed to be quite sad about.
Eiro didn't know why he did it, but he felt like he should. Slowly, he stood up, making even the last of the ice around his limbs crack, before he cut off the head of one of the flowers in front of him, an action that seemed to shock not only Jura, but also the 'Daughters of Winter'. But the Lady of Winter only seemed intrigued, and watched as the Imp approached the smallest of the Daughters.
On that first day, when Eiro meditated for the first time and returned, he saw that the three girls, so Sammy, Clementine, and even the little Avalin, were giggling happily. And when he saw the source of that happiness, he was surprised. The flower that he picked to make that 'Opium', the Poppy, was stuck to their hair as a decoration. They were somehow so proud of it when they showed it to the Imp, so he figured something like that was supposed to make people happy.
So, instead of letting that young girl stand there sad like that, the Imp figured he should rather cheer her up a bit. She did look quite similar to Avalin after all. And not the little one that simply inherited that name, but the original. She looked just far too similar for the Imp to let her stay sad like that.
And so, he lightly ran his thumb through her cold, ice-like hair and adjusted it a little, before placing the flower into her hair with a light smile on his face.
