The others looked at Eisen with rather confused expressions, while the old man himself simply took deep breaths while trying to supress his urge to scream out in pain, because this hurt him an incredible amount. It was a smooth, quick cut, so it probably wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it was still very, very bad.
For now, the old man just drank a health potion and had the wound close up and have his health recover to the top again. The finger didn’t grow back, but it would do that once Eisen just went to sleep.
"Grandfather! Why did you do that?" Kiron asked with a deep frown, just glaring at the ego-item who was currently holding the knife back against his shoulder to turn it back into a knife, and Eisen just lightly smiled and tried to calm him down, "Don’t worry, don’t worry. It seems to be a legitimate ingredient for this. I hope at least, otherwise I’ll be a bit mad as well." The old man pointed out with a slight laugh, and then looked at the ego-item standing next to him.
"Well, what next? I hope it’s nothing too complex." Eisen joked slightly as he held his hand up. He wasn’t really in the mood for joking, but he really wanted the ego-item to see that Eisen wasn’t the same person as he was back then before the originals lost their experience.
The ego-item simply looked at the bottle and shook his head, "Nothin’ else. That was it." It explained, squatting down and looking at the bottle for a while. Eisen was rather confused himself, as he wasn’t entirely sure what exactly the reason for creating something like this was, but in the end, the ego-item seemed to be waiting patiently for something to happen. As that was the case, Eisen figured he should wait as well. If this was it, the ego-item would have already told the group his decision of whether or not he could trust Eisen and the others now.
For a few moments, the group just sat there and waited. Those moments quickly turned into minutes, until the group had been waiting for roughly fifteen minutes before the ego-item stopped just staring at the bottle.
Over that period of time, Eisen had also been able to observe a few changes to everything. The main change, however, was really just that Eisen’s finger had basically disappeared. All that was left was a compressed and combined mass of bones working as the bottle’s cork, while Eisen’s flesh and blood disappeared into the actual bottle.
Eisen wasn’t entirely sure what was supposed to happen, but he knew that it worked, at least. And when the ego-item stood up, he simply stood in front of the bottle and turned toward Eisen, "Alright, it’s done. Pull the bone out of the opening." He said, and Eisen slowly nodded his head. He stepped up to the bottle, pressed the tips of his fingers onto the sides of the bone-cork, and pulled it out of the bottle.
The moment he did, deep black mist flowed out of the bottle, and the ego-item slightly sighed, "I see. So you’re even more rotten than you used to be, I see. I observed you do this once, and I saw the mist be gray, at least. Now, it’s pitch-black." The ego-item said, "That means that you’ll have to die."
With a slight grumble, as if he was too bothered to do all of this, the ego-item scratched the back of his neck, before raising his hand above his head. A giant metallic hammer appeared there, just floating above him, and it seemed ready to be smashed down onto the group.
But Eisen wasn’t getting angry because of this, because he was starting to see something else, "But isn’t there something white in there?" He asked, and the ego-item snapped his neck toward the bottle, "What do you mean, something white?"
With a confused expression, the ego-item took a step toward the bottle and looked into it, before letting him arm drop down. The giant hammer fell for a little bit, but then simply crumbled apart and disappeared into nothingness.
"How the actual..." The ego-item muttered, and slowly pressed his palm onto the opening of the bottle. With a rapid movement, he then pulled his hand away, and a thick stream of mist came out of it, followed by a small white blob just floating right above it, with a little part still reaching down into the actual bottle. It had a water-drop shaped body, just upside down, with a single large eye in its center. It was perfectly, completely smooth, and its body was completely white, while giving off a slight bit of black mist.
"A white body, with a black aura? The fuck’s that supposed to mean!?" The ego-item asked, utterly confused, and Eisen just stared down at it, "Wait, what is that?" He asked, and the ego-item looked back at him as if Eisen was an idiot.
"You really don’t fuckin’ remember? It’s a Homunculus, you senile old man." The ego-item said, and both Xenia and Jyuuk took a step closer. After all, they had been working on creating the basis for a homunculus for a while, which then turned into Fafnir later on, but it was something completely different.
"Isn’t a homunculus supposed to be a brute? Just a big guy for menial labor?" Xenia asked, and the ego-item stared at her with a frown, "That’s another kind completely. Those have actual proper bodies they can use’n’shit. This is a ’Solomon’s Homunculus’. Only meant to get you information. They take on a color depending on material-specifications of the creator. This time it was to show the color of the soul. Basically, whether or not you’re a dick. Usually it’s uniform, but it’s just like this now." The ego-item groaned annoyedly, "But fine. Guess this is gonna take longer."
"Homunculus, tell me. Why’re you black and white?" The ego-item asked, and slowly, a small mouth appeared on this white droplet-shaped thing as it began to speak. It was a rather annoying, high-pitched voice.
"The person in question is good at their core, but chooses actions many may see as questionable." It explained in a surprisingly eloquent way, at least for its appearance, and then waited for another question as far as Eisen could tell. The ego-item ground his teeth together and then crossed his arms.
"Fine. Then tell me, did he really lose his memories? Is he another person? Or is he just lying to me?" He asked, and the homunculus slowly replied, in the exactly same annoying voice and tone.
"The person in question has memories worth 70 years of his life. 70 years spent in another world, and some months spent inside of this one." It replied, seemingly struggling with the other two questions that the ego-item asked, and he simply stared back over at Eisen.
"The fuck’s that supposed to mean? Another world?" The ego-item asked, and Eisen looked at the ego-item rather surprised, "What do you mean? I never told you about that?" Eisen asked, and the ego-item just stared back angrily, "You threw me away, remember? When were you supposed to tell me?" He replied bluntly, so Eisen just slowly nodded his head.
"Right, I apologize." Eisen said, "Then let me make up for that now." He added, and then started to explain the whole story in a rather compressed manner to the ego-item. He basically just told him whatever he needed to know, and nothing more. At least for now.
"Homunculus. Did he tell the truth just now?" The ego-item asked, and the homunculus slowly spoke again.
"The person in question has not shown any sort of deceit. Everything that was just explained was the truth, and nothing but the truth." The homunculus explained, but the ego-item just ground his teeth continuosly. It seemed like that was a pretty bad habit of his.
"So you’re telling me that all that ridiculous bullshit is true? You’re from some other world?" The ego-item asked, and Eisen simply nodded his head.
"Yes, it’s true. I can explain whatever you want. Or you can ask the homunculus. Actually, could I have that one when you’re done, I still owe someone a favor, and I think it may be far easier to repay it when I can give her that." Eisen pointed out, thinking about the fact that he still had to meet with Raziel a couple of times to properly keep telling her about everything she wanted to know, but something like that that would be capable of answering any question she had now or in the future would definitely lift a heavy, annoying weight off his shoulders. He would’t really have to bother with that all too much anymore, and could just do whatever else he wanted without issue.
With a deep groan, the ego-item rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Aren’t you taking this a bit too lightly? This isn’t over yet. So what if you don’t remember? So what if you’re from a different world to this one? That doesn’t tell me that you actually fucking change, you asshole. Give me proof that-"
"I assume that the homunculus can’t lie?" Eisen interrupted the ego-item, who just nodded his head annoyedly, trying to get all of this into his head. He was incredibly human for an item, really.
"Good. Homunculus, tell him about my thoughts relating the person I used to be in this world, as well as my thoughts relating him himself." Eisen said, and without hesitation, the homunculus looked at the ego-item and started to speak.
"The person in question feels deep hatred and digust for the former ’Eisen’ as far as his knowledge about him reaches. Surely he has not heard much, but he dislikes the parts he heard. The person in question in their current state would never abandon anyone, definitely not a ’Child’ they created themselves. The person in question is very loving and caring toward those that he has any sort of obligation to. Nonetheless, they are hoping to recover their memories of that time in order to find whether or not the former ’Eisen’ was truly so horrible, or if there were more things behind it than that." The homunculus explained and then rather abruptly stopped. Its pattern of speech was a bit weird where you didn’t know when a sentence actually ended, but otherwise, it said everything that Eisen wanted it to say.
The ego item slowly stared back at Eisen with a light frown, "You truly regret what you’ve done to me?"
"I do." Eisen replied without a moment’s hesitation, and the ego-item simply sighed out deeply, trying to figure out what he should do.
"Fine, I’ll give you a chance to explain yourself a bit more. Then, I’ll choose if I’ll kill you or not."
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