Eiro stood in the center of thisrge open space, looking at the notification that just popped up with a bit of a confused, unfocused mind. He wasn''t sure what exactly just happened, he just knew that it probably wasn''t what the Smander King initially had in mind.


    The Demon looked up at the seemingly quite upset face of the being in front of him, and exined the bits of pieces of what just happened that he could still even remember. And the moment that he did, the Smander King stared back and said nothing while holding the same nk expression for a few seconds, as if he was justpletely frozen.


    "You... spoke to the will of the world?" He then asked, believing the Demon''s words somehow, "But I thought... So you truly had a direct conversation with it?"


    Eiro slowly nodded his head as he looked back at the Spirit King, who seemed to have to deal with this revtion a little bit first. Eiro was d that he was immediately believed, however, something that he didn''t actually expect to happen.


    But either way, that wasn''t of importance right now. He still didn''t know what was going on and why he had ''absorbed'' the spirit gateway. Seeing that he was most likely thinking about this, the Smander King exined it without hesitation, or what he assumed to be the case, at least.


    "While I have never heard of something like this ever happening, I believe that it is how you say. I had suggested to simply make you the guardian of this gateway. To have you protect it and in return gain some form of increased power to your mes. However, it seems that it has gone beyond that now. Instead of bing the simple guardian of the gateway, the gateway has be a part of you. You should now hold a direct connection to not only the spirit realm, but also the elemental ne of mes, like us Smanders do."


    Eiro looked at the Smander King with his brows raised, "You are connected to the elemental nes?"


    "Of course." The King nodded, "It is how we conjure our elemental magic in the first ce. This connection to the Spirit Realm, specifically the part that has a strong connection to the elemental ne of fire, is what allows us to move into the Spirit Realm at will."


    "...So you think I can travel between the realms now?" Eiro asked, and the Smander King looked at him with aplicated expression, "I am afraid not. A Spirit''s body is made up purely of magic that has been given permanent form. While you may be an artificial being yourself, you are still a physical creature. Or more so than Spirits, at least. However... I think you may be able to visit the spirit realm through an outer-body experience of sort."


    "An outer-body experience?"


    "Indeed. It can be achieved through a specific method of meditation that has beenbined with ancient magic. Your conscious mind disconnects from your physical body and instead changes to your soul itself, creating an Astral Body. It will let you delve into the Astral ne, which oveps with this physical realm, and with your new connection to the Spirit Realm and Elemental ne of Fire, you should be able to visit either of those nes as well. Your physical body will bepletely helpless, however. I may be able to teach it to you, but in your current state, it would be too dangerous for you to attempt it. While after this, we may not meet for a long time, there are others in this world that still know of this spell. Speak to them, and we may see each other earlier than either of us will expect."


    Eiro slowly nodded his head in response to the Spirit King''s exnation. This sort of thing will definitely be helpful to Eiro in the future, quite literally having a connection with an elemental ne as well as the spirit realm was impossible to not have some sort of strength-increasing impact on him. At least as far as Eiro could tell so far.


    But just as Eiro was about to turn around, thinking that his business was over with this ce for now, the Smander King ced his hand onto the Demon''s shoulder.


    "There is one more reason you came here, is there not?" He inquired, and Eiro looked back at him surprised. Was there? Eiro couldn''t really remember, if so.


    "You were looking to form a contract with a spirit, were you not? Innately seeing magic is not a power you should have gained by absorbing the gateway, after all."


    And then, it popped into the Demon''s head again after he connected all of the dots of his leftover memories with each other again. He had to use a Spirit to see magic to search the one that was manipting the memories of the people with the help of the storm raging above.


    Eiro immediately stared at the Smander King and slowly opened his mouth, before he was interrupted, "I apologize, I still cannot form a contract with you." He pointed out, "No matter how intriguing it is, I still have my duties as King. Instead, I wish to introduce you to someone else that may form a contract with you. It is my sessor, the one that will be Smander King after me. Sarius Kitmagird. He is quite a powerful one, however, he only possesses raw power. There is little to no control within him, as he is actually the one being controlled by his own emotions."


    Eiro looked up at the Smander King a bit confused, before he sighed deeply, "Sarius has anger issues. He is ''bratty'' as many of you may say, unwilling to act his age of 500 years, and despite his capabilities, he has refused to learn much about this world. He spent most of his life in the Spirit Realm due to his privileges, only ever returning briefly to visit his birthce in this realm. Please, I ask you to take care of him and raise him into a worthy sessor."


    After that sudden request by the Smander King, Eiro was a bit surprised. For one, it wasn''t like he was the best person to ask about how to manage your anger, and his own future within this world was quite uncertain to begin with. Eiro stared up at the King and thought for a while, before finally replying, "I ept. Having a contract with an extremely powerful spirit can only be good especially after I help him control himself." The Demon pointed out, and the Smander King let out a deep sigh of relief, "Oh how d I am that you think that way. Please, I have to find and summon him, so until then please wait with yourpanion."


    "Mypanion?" Eiro asked confused, before he realized that he was supposed to have an escort with him, and that he was probably the one that the Smander King was speaking of.


    With a quick nod, the Demon turned around and made his way to the exit of thisrge hollow space, while all of the spirits that were currently here were looking at Eiro with mixed expressions. Some were happy that he was there, others... not so much. Eiro didn''t really know why thetter were a thing though. For now, he just made his way out to meet with his escort again, who was already waiting at the shattered-open part of the ss capsule that Eiro had been in until now.


    "Is something wrong?" Eiro asked as he looked at rk, who simply stared back at him in disbelief, "Is that supposed to be a legitimate question..?" He replied, and Eiro bluntly nodded his head, "Of course, why would I be joking around at a time like this?"


    rk groaned loudly as he took a step away and sat down on one of the few chairs that were still leftover after the fights that happened here in this area, "Can we leave soon, at least? So that I can... re-evaluate my friendships with the heads of certain countries?"


    "Yes, we just need to wait for the Smander King. He is getting a spirit that I can contract. Apparently he''s pretty powerful. A bit troublesome, but I don''t think he sounded all too bad when the Smander King spoke about him." He said in a clear tone without a single ounce of deceptiveness. Eiro didn''t lie, he simply didn''t remember all the bad things that the Smander King exined about him.


    And so, Eiro sat down right next to rk on another chair and looked at the open space in front of him. For now, the Demon was just thinking about random things while his heard was beating incredibly fast. So fast that it nearly felt like it was about to jump out of his chest, actually.


    "Erm... Why are we waiting again?" Eiro asked as he turned his head over toward rk, who proceeded to bury his face in his hands in frustration, "You know what? I just won''t answer you anymore. Solomon told me as long as I have the royal badge with me you won''t try and touch me. You''ll forget about this conversation in a bit anyway."


    "Hm... Is that so?" Eiro asked absent-mindedly as he turned his head around and looked at everything that came into sight, before he suddenly turned his head toward rk, "Say, why are we waiting here again? Shouldn''t we leave and get back to that king?"


    "Urgh..." rk groaned loudly, but all of a sudden, he realized something, "Wait, you remember Solomon?" He asked, and Eiro slowly turned his head and pointed at the half-burnt bookying on the ground near him with numerous pages of it scattered around. Most parts were burnt away, but Eiro was able to figure certain things out from context, at least. A lot of the parts seemed to be lostpletely, but the most important things were still there, "I just read it in that book there, sorry. I don''t really remember him."


    "It''s fine, I didn''t expect you to anyway..." rk sighed as he stood up. It seemed like while Eiro was inside there, forming that contract with the will of the world, he was looking around this ce. rk stepped over toward one of the nearby tables and picked up one of the booksying there.


    And when he came back, he handed it back to Eiro, "Here you go. Write down anything that you can figure out from those books. Let''s hope that it''s enough so that Solomon won''t rip my head off.... Ah, and write down all that I''m about to tell you as well, it''s important."