729: An eye for an eye

An eye for an eye

A few hours later, Eisen woke back up and slowly opened his eyes. Luckily, he was able to see again, and the pain around his eyes had disappeared. That was truly a more than uncomfortable feeling, having pulled his own eyes out like that.2

He immediately went to sleep after doing so before the pain caught up to him, so it wasn't too bad for him, actually. The old man slowly looked around the room and then spotted Constant, "Did you put my eyes in the jar like I asked you to?"

"Of course I did, Eisen." The Core Helper exclaimed with a broad smile on his face, swiftly holding up the mason jar with the two glowing, golden eyes inside of it toward Eisen. The old man grabbed the small jar, and locked eyes with his own eyes in there. Luckily they were still active, so everything would end up working out properly.

Eisen figured that the transformation of his eyes would stay active due to how the old man created the masses of yin and yang. Even though it was detached from him, the transformation would stay active, so he hoped the same would be the case with his eyes.

Luckily this was backed up by a few documents that Eisen found, but he still couldn't be 100% sure. Good thing that he didn't put himself through that without any benefit, since Eisen wasn't particularly sure that his eyes would really stay that way.

However, now, he could get to work. The liquid that the eyes were now sitting in was a special potion that the old man prepared, and the eyes were currently absorbing that potion into them. It was a potion that would strengthen the power of Eisen's visual ability. The eyes were already taking on a bit of the color of the potion, which showed that they were truly absorbing it properly, but for now the old man quickly used his alchemical transformation abilities to speed the process up a little bit.

Once he was satisfied with the state they were in, he quickly pulled the eyes out of the jar and swiftly placed them onto the area where he was going to work with them. 

Swiftly, Eisen cleaned the eyes up a bit, removing the bits that he most likely didn't need and the parts that were simply dirty, and then took out Bai. He turned Bai into a scalpel and slowly penetrated the outermost layer of the skin, swiftly extracting the liquid that was inside of there. Eisen placed that liquid to the side and then started to take the eyes apart into their specific parts.

Eisen swiftly dried up the parts that he wouldn't end up needing, and saved the rest, while mixing the dried parts with some crystals to create the right eyes for the Special Guardian.

And then, the parts that he would indeed need to reuse, he treated in a special way that instead practically just made liquid crystals soak into them, so that they would keep their regular properties but still turned into something that wouldn't rot away inside of the Guardian's eyeballs.

The old man then proceeded to put the eyes back together, filling the liquid, turned into something that was practically a potion, back into the eyes. And just like that, the golden shine of the irises was extended through the whole crystal eyes.

Now, hopefully this was going to work out when Eisen placed them into the Guardian and spread that special soul throughout it. If not... then he wasted his time with this whole idea, and would need to come up with something else.

He pushed the eyes into the Guardian, attached the rest of the metal plates around those eyes, and then slowly pushed the soul into the Guardian's body. He made sure that everything beside the nucleus was spread throughout the body properly, and then gave the Guardian's body the spark of mana that it needed to jumpstart.

The moment that this happened, the new Guardian's body started to creak loudly, as if the glass inside of it was about to shatter. The metal plates acting as the Guardian's skin took on a new, more flesh-like texture. And meanwhile, the eyes changed rather rapidly as well.

However, just in the way that Eisen hoped. The base spherical form stayed, luckily, but the irises were a neverending descending spiral that glowed in a faint golden light. Eisen stared at those eyes for a few more moments, before he was sure that they wouldn't shatter apart or melt like they did earlier.

The Guardian finally managed to gather his thoughts and slowly looked down at his body, "...This... Is my new body?" He asked quietly, "And... And can I really see again?"

"Oh? So those eyes work like normal? Can you still see my connection to the other world?" The old man inquired, and the Guardian raised his head with a swift nod, "Of course, of course, I can still see it! It's like it was the most natural thing in the world... How wonderful! Thank you for giving me this opportunity with this amazing body! My life will start anew!"

Eisen looked back at the Guardian and let out a long sigh, "I'm sorry if this is going to be disappointing to you, but you're not really 'alive'. You're technically an 'Item', or rather a 'Golem' right now. In this country, you will still be treated as a person of course, and there are many, many others that are like you here, but... You are unable to age, and unable to reproduce. Or feel any physical urges that you may have become used to while living, like hunger, thirst, and lust of course."

The newly born Guardian turned his head toward Eisen surprised, before smiling lightly, "Ah, that's totally fine. Do not worry about that! Even if that is impossible for me, considering the time that I've spent suffering in hell, I've become used to not being able to do such things. Time runs rather slowly there, you see?"

"I know what you mean, yes. Well, I guess I'll just have some people introduce you to the town, I sadly have a lot of things to take care of at the moment. But they are trustworthy people, so don't worry. This town is a safe place, so there's no need for you to worry about anything. I would recommend not trying to leave without anyone trustworthy and powerful by your side, since we can't directly protect you outside of these islands."

The new Guardian slowly nodded his head. Eisen turned his head to the side and quickly called for Serio. Without a moment's hesitation, the Town Core Guardian appeared right next to Eisen and held onto the newborn Guardian's shoulder.

"Then I will be introducing this youngster to this place, your Majesty." Serio said with a broad smile, and the new Guardian looked at Eisen surprised, "Y-Your Majesty?" 

"Yes?"

"No, I mean... You are a King?" The Guardian inquired. Eisen looked at him and nodded, "Yeah... Didn't I mention that before? My name is Eisen, or officially now 'Eisen de Grandour'. I'm the King of this country, Asgard. But you know, Serio will explain everything to you. I'm a bit tired, and I literally had to rip my own eyes out for you, so I have to relax a little.

Even more confused than before, the Guardian looked at Serio next to him, "Is that a metaphor I don't understand?"

"Of course not, he means that literally. Now, let us head off." Serio exclaimed with a broad smile.

"Wait, you ripped your ey-" And just like that, Serio and the newborn Guardian disappeared in a blue mist, while Eisen just let out a deep sigh, "Alright... Now, what shall I work on next?"

As Eisen thought out loud, another figure appeared right next to him, just that it was Girland this time around, "Are you sure you should not prepare for your trip to the Country of Giants first? You need to leave in the next two days if you wish to arrive on time."

The old man turned his head toward the Country Core Guardian and raised his brows, "I actually just planned on flying over there for a day or two, it should only take maybe... let's say seven or eight hours for me to get there."

Girland stared at Eisen and shook her head, "That is completely unacceptable, your Majesty. I cannot allow you to go on such a trip on your own. Not only is it dangerous, but it would also make our country appear badly if you were to go there on your own without proper escorts."

"..." Eisen stared back at Girland and slightly rubbed the bridge of his nose. She wasn't wrong, but this was going to be annoying, "Fine, then have-"

"The ship is prepared and stocked, the crew is ready to go, Sigurd and Fafnir managed to close down the Dungeon for now, your Knights are fully-equipped and ready to go, and we have brought your escort-golems and a few extra Guardians, Monsters, and other People from all over our country to us so that they can accompany you, as would be expected of a King of your greatness. Of course, your apprentices are also ready to go now. We have also prepared some gifts for you to hand to the nobility and royalty of the Country of Giants."

Eisen silently looked back at her and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Fine. I guess your plan includes us leaving right away?"

"Indeed so. We are actually behind-schedule, since I was unaware of your plan of taking your own eyes for the creating of this new Guardian. However, it should be no issue if we leave right away." Girland said bluntly, and quickly waved her hand to the side, creating a gate that would lead Eisen right to the harbor where the others were probably waiting already.

"You brought Askr as well, right?"

"Of course. That child is properly attached to the ship already, your Majesty." Girland said bluntly. Eisen stood up from the chair he was sitting on and looked at Constant to say goodbye to him, but to his surprise, Constant brought a bunch of wooden crates and barrels upstairs, "I prepared some materials for you to use while on your trip. And make sure to bring back some unique materials from the Giant Country."

Eisen looked at the Core Helper and rubbed his hand through Constant's hair, "Fine. Thanks for this, Constant." The old man said with a light smile on his face, before the Guardian smiled back broadly.

And so, Eisen stashed all of them away in his item storage and then said goodbye to Constant, thanking him once more, before Eisen stepped through the gate, ready to make his way to the Giant Country already. Ahead of his own personal plan, at least. 

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