Eisen watched the despaired golems standing in front of him, as they listened to the words of the man that they hated the most.
"I... I can't believe this..." Supp muttered in a confused tone of voice, "So we... we killed everyone..?" He asked, looking down at his hands, before falling to his knees in disbelief. But even though he didn't want to believe Eisen's words, he still did. After all, Eisen had created a contract that forced him to reveal everything in regard to what had happened here. But even then, not everyone believed him. With an expression so furious that it was impossible to compare it to before, to the point that it felt like the metal making up his face was going to stay warped in this position forever, Tank stepped forward, pressing his foot into the ground, forcing the dirt to the side.
Tank glared angrily, the artificial voice-box placed into his throat struggling to keep up with the emotion he was trying to express, "This- you, just-" He yelled out, clearly still struggling to properly form words. Tank was trying to speak, but not a single sound left his mouth, as his emotional thoughts simply overwhelmed him right now. Eisen slowly closed his eyes for a few moments. Since he only just experienced that memory again, to him, it was like that event had just happened a couple of minutes prior. He still felt sick to his stomach, and the despair that he was filled with back then was fresh in his mind. And those emotions were filled with regret, and hatred for the kind of man that Eisen used to be. Instead of letting those five rest, Eisen turned them into golems, and forced them to do his bidding. It made Eisen feel disgusted to his bones.
"I told you this because I know that my former choice was wrong. You're adults, much older than I was back when this all happened. It's not my right to keep this secret from you." Eisen explained to them, slowly averting his gaze, "Of course... I can-"
"You can do what, Eisen? Mess with us even more? Just... just leave, please..." Croco said in a sobbing voice, even though no tears came out of her eyes. No matter how much they looked like they were human, at the end of the day, they were nothing but mechanical dolls. Eisen hesitated for a moment, but then made another suggestion, "Now that I know why this all happened... There are more options. If you ask me to leave after this after all, then I will. However, I am going to leave something with you that allows you to contact me in case you change your mind at any point."
"Why would we ever change our minds?! Just leave, you sick b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Tank exclaimed, finally able to put at least part of his thoughts and emotions into words. But Eisen simply continued speaking, because he felt like he had to give this option to them, at least, "Again, if you want me to leave, then I will. But there is another choice. I can reveal to you everything, so that you can know not only what happened, but why it happened. Your lives had been manipulated, so I think you deserve to know who did it, and why they did it. Beyond that, I will support you in every possible way, now and in the future."
"We don't want, or need your support, don't you understand that?!" Tank yelled out, but before he could continue, Supp stood back up and walked in front of him, "Wait, no... just... you are the one who used us as tools... are you trying to s.h.i.+ft the blame onto someone else now?"
Eisen shook his head, "No, that's not what I'm trying to do at all. While I hope that I'm a different person than I used to be, at the end of the day, it was still me who did all that to you. There is no excuse for what happened. It's just that, beyond what you were aware of, there are other people that did something horrible to you, and I believe you deserve to know about it."
The five Golems all listened to Eisen's words, and silently came to a consensus. Obviously, they were able to communicate without words. They had spent nearly every conscious moment together for the past hundred thousand years. At that point, you didn't need words to get your thoughts across to each other anymore. Supp looked at the old man in front of them, and slowly started to speak. Even though they all agreed, some hesitation could still be heard in his voice, "Then go ahead... tell us. Tell us about everything."
"...Then go ahead and take a seat. It's a long story, and you might have a few questions, so this is going to take even longer." The old man said, watching as the five gathered together more closely, simply wanting to be as close together for all this as possible.
And then, Eisen started to explain the story. And since it was what they asked for, Eisen told them everything. The other world, the fact that this one was created and manipulated for some end-goal that n.o.body could fully grasp just yet, and the reasons why these five were created. He told them everything that he could about Samuel and whatever he knew about the Demon that had done this to them, as little as it was. Just as he thought, the five of them had plenty of questions. Not just about the situation itself, but they wanted to know more about Earth, and the concepts that they were originally named after.
Perplexed and silent as they tried to get a proper grasp of everything, the Golems held onto each other. Soon, they started to whisper to each other, and although Eisen's senses were more than strong enough for him to hear them, he purposefully distracted himself. Eavesdropping felt even worse in a moment like this.
"...Leave, and don't come back on your own." Tank soon said, "What you told us doesn't change much about what you did..."
"We just need to figure out what to do next. But again... don't come to see us anymore. If we want something, need your help, or whatever else might happen, we may come to you, if necessary. But otherwise... We really, really don't want to see you again." Croco said, frowing deeply, as Eisen slowly nodded his head. While he knew that this was going to be the outcome, he still felt bitter about it. But that was just how it was. He didn't want to force himself into a place where he genuinely wasn't wanted. Since he didn't think he could say anything that would make this situation better for now, Eisen turned around and started walking back through the town, toward the camp that had been set up. Once he was a bit further away, he transformed into his true demonic form and lifted into the sky, flying over the town so that he could return back to the others.
Once he was in sight, nearly everyone in the temporary camp rushed over to where Eisen was trying to land, "How'd it go?" Sky asked, having already been near here before. The old man turned his head to look at him, but didn't know what he was supposed to say.
"Absolutely horrible." He finally let out, looking at the compressed, sentient smoke that was trapped inside of the crystal orb, "I'll tell you what I found out later. I have to collect my thoughts for now." Eisen said, walking past everyone that had rushed toward him with a deeply calm expression, and everyone quickly knew that it was better to leave him alone for now.
He stepped into the Dungeon, past the Armor Golems and Dungeon Monsters busily working on and expanding this s.p.a.ce more and more, making it more presentable for future dungeon divers. With a wave of his hand, Eisen created a gate that immediately brought him to his private room on a deeper level. Once inside, he sat down on the edge of the bed, "Kirisho, could you come out for me?" He asked, and the mist spirit soon poured out of the bracelet hanging from his neck. She looked at the old man sitting in front of her, placing her hands onto his shoulder worriedly, "Is there something I can do to help?" Kirisho asked, and Eisen slowly nodded his head. He held forward the hand that was still holding onto the crystal orb filled with the sentient smoke.
"I wanted to ask if you could tell me if this thing has actual thoughts, or if it just acts on instinct. If it can still think, I plan on turning it into a golem core to ask it some questions, but otherwise, I'll have to think of something else." He explained, and Kirisho smiled lightly, slowly running her hand over the surface of the crystal orb.
"Could you open it up for me?" Kirisho asked without hesitation, pressing her palm onto the smooth sphere. Slowly, Eisen opened a small hole, and watched as a bit of Kirisho's mist flowed into it. Immediately, Eisen could tell that she had been able to at least influence it somehow. Until now, the smoke was raging in there like a storm, trying to escape from its prison, but now, it was like it went limp, simply settling inside of the orb.
"I don't know if it would be right to say that it is still thinking, but...." Kirisho slowly let out, "At the very least, it doesn't just act on instinct? There is something going on, but it's so fractured, so chaotic, that I might as well be trying to read the content of book that had been shred to dust."