Chapter 55: 55. I love my right arm.
"...I am Judas" his voice cracked, unsure if Ferris trusted him.
But ferris remained still and didnt speak a single word, he knew that judas's answer want a complete one.
As he drilled holes into Judas's eyes, Judas finally mustered up the courage to speak.
"The Judas you met in the real world is the real Judas, " he said with an honest tone, though he didn't know if Ferris took that for granted.
Judas continued.
"as for the real me, I'm a combination of both Kerio and him."
. . .
"Haah.." Ferris sighed then sat down on the floor made up of void. "You're not answering my question"
He hardened his expression "I asked, if you really are the true Judas"
. . .
Just like before, they couldn't handle ferris's voice and authority. They lemented silently with a grim expression, and guilt began to flow through them.
"Kerio and Judas died that day, even if I have their memories. I'm a completely different person" they answered
"Does your sister know?" Ferris asked, finally softened his expression and gave them a chance to relax.
They shook their head, "I used a combination of Judas and Kerio's blessing to change her memories, I also did the same for the version Judas that met you"
Since they weren't in complete resonance, Ferris took the opportunity to think things carefully before speaking.
I didn't know zippermans blessing could perform crazy feats like that, speaking of Zipperman...
"If you're Kerio, then who's Zipperman?"
This time, they were stuck for a while, thinking of a clear and cut answer. "Well, I wasn't there to react. But my guess is that they managed to steal my body"
So Zipperman isn't Kerio, then what about Judas's body? Ferris thought deeply.
Seeing this, they began to speak "I'm not sure if they managed to take Judas's body, but I can guarantee that I took everything that made up his soul when I transplanted it back then"
"As for Kerio, he left a bit of his soul in his original body to do the finishing touches, after all, if he took out his entire soul, he'd just die instantly."
Ferris slightly nodded but he noticed something off and was curious, "you said that so nonchalantly, don't you feel anything?"
Taken a back, they replied rather quickly, "n-no, I do! I really do, it just feels weird to talk about me in a 3rd perspective"
Is he guilty? Ferris hummed his nose, then asked another question.
"When I asked Judas about the labrotory he didn't know a thing about it" ferris said, he had a guess that they had a hand on it.
"I blocked the majority of his memories from that place, I also did the same with his sister"
"I see, well... Since you told me the truth, you deserve to know this much"
Ferris began to tell his little encounter with judas's sister, the kidnappings, and the strange plant based blessing he encountered.
Each word he spoke made Judas and kerio more shocked, it sounded more like a fairytale.
Ferris refrained from continuing his story, if he told him about the ridiculous encounters with prodigy prince and the abberant, it was possible that Judas and kerio would stop believing him.
"That's a little hard to believe, but... I guess if it's you" they swallowed Ferris's story as factual information.
"If you mentioned that blessing, then I guess they would be involved"
"Do you know what they're called?" Ferris asked.
Unfortunately, Judas and kerio didnt know. "For us, we just woke up in a sort of facility... the only thing we remembered were some experiments related to our blessings, and a few other things."
"We were just kids back then, we never bothered to understand why we were there...
We only wanted to escape"
Seeing their grim expression, Ferris decided to go off topic from their past. "What happened after that?"
"After that... That strange hero took us to a police station and left us there?
...
Hmm, Now that I remember, we werent even received by anyone there, that hero just took off and left"
Sounds like a complete asshole... Ferris thought, what made him more angry was that there was a high possibility that the hero came from his world, and was probably a knight.
But regardless, the group behind the kidnapping of blessing users and the group that experimented on the three children were the same entity.
And that hero seemed to have a connection with them in some way.
...
The flaming bush said I'll keep encounter them in the future, so it's only a matter of time before I figure out more about them.
Ferris stayed silent for a while, before making his last move. "I have one last question...
Why won't you let me repair your essence?"
"That's..." Suddenly, the being know as Judas and kerio became flustered and unable to speak properly.
There was a moment of silence between the two, in Judas and Kerio's perspective, the atmosphere became hard to breath in.
But for Ferris, the air simply became awkward. You went that low?
Well, I was like that at one point.
But it's none of my business if he does wanna talk about it.
"...It must've been a mistake" he said to Ferris,
Very well then, Ferris stood up from his resting position and stretched his arms. "Let's go then, just like last time"
They nodded gratefully, and knelt down. "Do your thing"
Wait why is he kneeling? Ferris was a little taken aback, we're practically in eachothers mind, doing things here physically is just inefficient.
But.
Ferris stared at the being with two souls, he knew at first glance that they were truly grateful so if he voiced his thoughts, it wouldn't have been the appropriate time.
Walking towards them, Ferris also knelt down and placed his palms of their chest.
"Before I do this, who will I be talking to when you wake up"
"I seperated my soul for too long, you'll only be seeing Judas and his blessing" they said then paused for a bit.
"Kerio should've been the one to die that day, that's why I kept his soul deep inside my consciousness and only let Judas experience the outside world."
. . .
It was best to not reply, and that's what Ferris did.
When he saw that they were finally ready, Ferris began to repair the shattered layers.
"Could you tell Judas to not overuse his blessing?"
Hearing that question, they began to chuckle, "actually, I think he's more reckless than you"
Ferris groaned inside, he did not want to keep taking care of Judas. Should I teach him how essence layer works?
I can already see the potential of his blessing, I would be stupid to not make a deep connection with a strong ally.
This world holds many secrets that even this original body doesn't know.
To uncover the truth, I need strong allies.
***
Opening his eyes, Ferris saw a familiar ceiling.
And the smell of dried blood and a mix of other unpleasant things.
Fixers house?
Looking down, he noticed that he was covered by a soft blanket, and behind his back was an equally soft mattress that hugged his muscles.
Then he felt something familiar.
Hmm... This warm feeling...
It feels amazing... Ferris decided to check it out by uncovering the blanket.
Unsurprisingly, he saw his right arm!
His instinct kicked in instantly, as a knight, he must show his gratitude.
Fixer must've been the one to do this, he thought, then shot up from his bed.
Where is she?
"You seem healthy"
Ferris heard a familiar voice call out to him, it was enough to snap him out of his post awakened state.
Elizabeth?
Rubbing his forehead, he carefully arranged his thoughts to a normal level.
The resonance with Judas must've been too deep, it almost felt like a true dream.
"Is Judas ok?" Ferris asked, staring straight at her eyes.
Just a meter away from him, Queen was sitting on a chair with her legs and arms crossed and a rested expression.
"Thanks to whatever you did, he's alive" she answered.
That's good... Ferris looked at his regrown arm.
Knowing the nature of fixers blessing, he wondered what happened to him while he was asleep.
While thinking, his eyes caught something peculiar near him.
A very red chainsaw, that gleemed under the soft light of the room.
Seeing that made him grateful that he was asleep the entire time.
After that terrifying revelation, Ferris noticed another important aspect that changed within him.
Instead of feeling drowsy when he woke up, he instead felt the comolete opposite.
My 9th layer is finally maximized. Ferris was happy with his achievement.
Not because it overall improved his fighting ability, but because of a unique characteristic of a maximized 9th layer.
Passive essence flow within the muscles.
Compared to when he didn't have a completed 9th layer, Ferris always had to manually apply his essence to which body part that needed it.
But as an experienced knight, this short coming was practically non existent, however, if he were to try and pour everything on his entire body, the amount of his essence being drained would've been extremely inefficient.
However, with the passive essence flow.
His muscles was constantly circulating essence like a powered circuit. With his heart as the battery and his body as the wire.
This removed the need to pour his essence every single time, not to mention, the essence circulation was efficient enough to be used in long term combat.
But of course, to save his essence, instead of pouring his essence, he could restrict it by intentionally lessening the essence draw on non important parts which passively improves the overall strength.
But in a fight, the essence saved would've been negligible because of how efficient the circulation is.
So this would only be used when he's doing nothing important like fighting.
Closing his eyes, Ferris weakened his overall self by restricting his passive essence flow.
There we go.
After he did it, Ferris immidietly felt the drowsiness coming to him.
But this didn't worry him, having to constantly have alot of essence flowing through you would eventually overheat your body no matter how efficient it was.
And besides, not restricting his essence would've been considered unhealthy.