Chapter 898: Temporary Servitude



"In my opinion, we should just get rid of you right here," Eisen said bluntly, staring down at the Filth, trapped in that cube. It stared back at the old man, clearly growing nervous. It really adapted a bit too much to this world.

"We refuse to go back to that world!" .net

"So what, who cares about what you want?" Brody scoffed, his arms crossed, "At this point in time, you're nothing but trouble. And no matter how terrified you are of those things, you're the same in the end, right?"

The filth stayed silent, unable to deny what Brody was saying. Meanwhile, Eisen was running his hand through his beard, trying to just think about this a bit more. It was definitely true that it was dangerous to just leave the filth here in this world. It could grow stronger or reveal some kind of ability that they couldn't deal with, and if that was the case, everything could be ruined.

But at the same time, this was an opportunity that they couldn't just let up. This was a being that came from a literal whole other universe; a place that works with different rules. It was much more foreign to either of the worlds that Eisen has lived in than those worlds were to each other, but in the end, that was just something that mattered once that world was accessed.

The methods of accessing other worlds must be, at the very least, similar. And the Filth clearly understood the travel between the worlds to an unusual degree; maybe because it was a being of ideas and concepts, it simply understood the concept of this travel between worlds instinctively once it had done so.

With the help of the Filth, they could garner some sort of advantage over Samuel. The Filth could become a wildcard; one that Samuel had tried to use against them in the first place. Eisen doubted the holy empire simply found out about something like this without Samuel's help in one way or another.

If the Originals could learn about how the connection between two worlds worked, they could potentially learn of new ways to put a stop to Samuel's ploys altogether. They could prevent earth from being flooded with mana, a substance so incredibly foreign to that world.

Looking closely, for now, it didn't seem like there was any of that 'substance' leaking out from the crystal cube. And on top of that, the Filth was clearly not use to feeling emotions, so it should be easy enough to manipulate it using Charisma-based abilities. They should talk to Evalia about that later.

"... You said earlier that you won't serve us. But only if you promise that you will, will we start thinking about letting you stay here," Eisen said bluntly, and the Filth's hands seemed to tighten.

"We..."

With a slight stare, Eisen began to let out some of his 'influence', using his demon- and royalty-based charisma abilities to place severe pressure on them.

"... we agree... If it means that you will not force us to return, we will serve you..."

"What's going on?" Eisen asked with a frown, and the Filth, whose whole body was shuddering, carefully replied.

"This space is different from what we felt before. Like there is something missing..."

The old man raised his brow, looking over at the others that were clearly thinking the same thing, "Were you able to sense the system's signal?"

"System... We know about the word and the importance, but we don't fully understand. Why are you blocking this 'System' in this space?"

Eisen sighed, "We'll tell you if we feel like we need to. Either way, just calm down, there's no need to be worried about that... What a scaredy cat," the old man walked over to his chair and sat down, while one of the others sent a message to Evalia to ask her to come.

As they were waiting, Brody, who seemed quite bored, asked something that the others had been wondering for a while now as well, "So... What's with all the hands?"

"... We don't understand."

"Like, why are you completely made of a bunch of hands? Are you... the fear of hands or something?"

"We do not represent any particular fear or horror. We were an amalgamation of it all, given a particular shape through the ritual. Now, we are the incarnation of Filth, of that which is wrong and ugly and should not be," it explained, "Though, through the words of the ritual, more specifically, we were given the form of the Hand that rises from the Filth."

"Huh," Brody let out, "So I guess you could've been anything if they had done the ritual differently, not just hands?"

Eisen let out a slight hum, "Well, some of them were trying to push through their faces instead of hands, so maybe there was some kind of subtle influence before that gave part of that world the form of faces instead of hands?"

"That sounds possible..." Xenia muttered, "Filth, do you know of any other contact that's been made with your world in the past?"

"There may have been attempts, but we do not remember any instance of a gate," it replied, and Eisen frowned deeply.

"Then how the hell did they know how to do that summoning?"