Eisen sat there for a while, just looking at the items that he had just prepared. Dried up, rusted... rotting and falling apart. The fact that he had made these things just to let them fall into decay was both uncomfortable and unusual for him.
Of course, he was the one that had made this choice in the first place, but now that he was looking at the irreversible state of his items, he was having some rather complicated feelings.
But of course, that was the reason why he had made it. These five giant floors were going to be riddled with things that made Eisen feel like crap. Come-down ruins, traces of battles lost, and the things that the people had left behind. Particularly the last of the five floors; the ruins of an old giant city, infested with giant monsters that were feeding on the decay of what had once been.
The destruction that would have ravaged that place was a force of nature that was impossible to fight against.
The old man took a deep breath. He sighed and stood up, opening a gateway leading to the second giant floor, which was currently still not under construction, but was instead used to house a certain giant.
Khan was seated on a log bench that Eisen had prepared for him. It was cushioned with layers of fur and was set up against a large stone so that Khan could lean back. Eisen had tried to accomodate him as well as he could, and quickly decided on making furniture for Khan that he could use during the trip back to Asgard.
Since it wasn't possible to keep him shrunken down for an extended period of time without taking an extreme risk of injury, he was basically locked inside of this place up until the point of arrival. Once in Asgard, Eisen could create some better accomodations for him, whether within Prototype or on one of the other islands.
Whichever the case, he wanted to ensure that Khan would have a good life in his country, and make sure to allow him to do whatever he wanted.
As such, he finally came to Khan, who had been avoiding the conversation this whole time, trying to finally get an answer.
Eisen approached the elderly giant, who was currently whittling something out of a piece of wood he asked Eisen for, sitting down on one of the other logs in front of Khan, "How's your day been?"
"Coulda been better. The sea air's makin' my joints hurt," Khan grumbled, and Eisen laughed slightly. So that Khan had at least a bit of fresh air and could enjoy the journey in spite of being basically trapped here, Eisen had asked Sigurd to place a connection to the entrance gateway inside of this space whenever it wasn't use elsewhere.
It was basically a small window that Khan could look through to enjoy the journey.
Khan smiled, "I see. I'm glad you were finally able to do so."
"...Did I speak about that a lot? Wanting to leave?"
"I don't think you ever did, actually," Khan replied, "But whenever you were telling me about your achievements... making some grand new item, or some escapades you and the other peaked ones got into... there always seemed to be this yearning in your eyes. Your wanting for not something more, but for something else. Something that this world would never be able to give you."
"...Earth is my home, but so is this world. I first stepped into this world as a sense of escapism. My body was too weak for me to recklessly do what I wanted anymore. My shoulder was tense, my back hurt, and I went through tubs of pain-relieving salve so fast that my pharmacist was worried about what I was doing with it. But then, I came here, and... I was reborn into another world.
A world without my children, without my friends. Without the people I so cherished. And from that moment on, all I wanted to do was escape from here," the old man said, his feelings flooding out of his mouth without anything to stop them, "I resented this world, I truly did. But I came to love the people here. My parents, my siblings. My friends, lovers, and the children that I fathered.
For a while, I'm sure I was just trying to act like earth was nothing but a long lost dream, but... I couldn't act like that forever."
Eisen looked out through the dungeon's entrance onto the ocean. The sun was setting, and the sky was dyed in purple and red. The old man looked at Khan, and then asked him a question in turn, "Why do you want to come to Asgard? I'm ecstatic to have you there, of course, but what is it you want to do there? Is there anything I can help you with?"
Khan smiled lightly, shaking his head, "There's nothing in particular I want. Really, I just want to live somewhere new for a while. Breathe another country's air. I traveled the continent thoroughly, to the point where there's no place I can't write a book about, but...
I haven't left in nearly two thousand years," he explained bitterly, "Even giants travel on ships while shrunken down as much as they can. It saves space, and with that, money. Trading vessels wouldn't take me because of my size, and the weight of my stone. And personal vessels simply weren't large enough to accomodate me either.
Since all our trading partners outside of our country have ports built for non-giants, all our ships have to accomodate that as well. I tried finding my way there on my own once. Buying a ship just barely large enough for me to sit on, sailing it to the central continent. But I hit a storm, and nearly drowned. My petrified body made it impossible for me to swim against the currents.
I hadn't been that far out from the coast yet, and managed to make my way back luckily enough, but... since then, I didn't dare try again."
The elderly giant looked at Eisen, a genuine smile on his face, even if it was mixed with the bitterness of the situation he found himself in, "Even if I gave you little choice, just appearing here and forcing myself onto you... I truly thank you for allowing me to see a new world once more."