Defeating the Arbiter was no easy task. Even though it was merely a phantom dredged from the Well by Adam before he dissipated, it was still a formidable enemy for Lobotomy Corporation.
After slaying the Arbiter, Ye Lan collapsed into a coma before he could even exit his assimilated state. While his injuries had been treated during his assimilation with the Mountain of Smiling Bodies, the "parts" transplanted from the corpses gradually lost their effect after he de-assimilated.
These non-functional parts were nothing more than rotting chunks of flesh, dripping with black ichor. Not only did they fail to replace his lost body tissue, but they also infected his wounds, causing secondary damage.
But for Ye Lan, the most severe injuries were not physical, but mental.
Consecutively assimilating multiple ALEPH-class Abnormalities had placed extreme pressure on his psyche. The twisted emotions and memories of several Abnormalities had merged with his own. His awakening depended entirely on when he could distinguish which emotions and memories were truly his.
At the very least, after he lost consciousness, the few Abnormalities connected to him through Final Observation all returned to their containment units on their own. The employees who arrived later only found the unconscious Ye Lan, allowing his little secret to be kept for a while longer.
The employees promptly recovered the comatose Ye Lan and sent him to the main regeneration reactor in the Security Department. To heal his star employee—the very one who had specifically asked about the reactor's effectiveness through Angela—Netzach personally oversaw Ye Lan's treatment.
However, Ye Lan's abnormal mental state was not something Netzach could solve directly. In the end, he could only pump large amounts of mental contamination neutralizing gas into Ye Lan's treatment pod, hoping he could rely on his own strength to escape the multiple layers of contamination, the likes of which Netzach had never seen before.
Due to Ye Lan's unprecedented and unique situation, all the Sephiroth, including Binah, came to his treatment room one after another to check on his condition. Not even Ayin had ever received this kind of attention.
If Manager A wasn't still sorting through his memories and hadn't yet remembered who he was, even the fully-realized Ayin would probably have felt a twinge of jealousy upon learning of the situation.
But to Ye Lan at that moment, the outside world meant nothing. In an endless dream, he sometimes became a small bird in a boundless, dark forest, and other times a giant monster with a terrifying body, devouring every living thing in that forest.
Sometimes he felt himself embracing his comrades, adding to their numbers in a feeling of infinite security. Other times, he felt he was nothing but a lump of flesh, and everything around him was not his own.
As the dream progressed, his identity constantly shifted. He experienced the knowledge and feelings of every Abnormality he had performed a [Final Observation] on.
Finally, he sank into a state of chaos. All the emotions and memories from the Abnormalities had dissipated during his descent into the dream. What ultimately sank into the chaos was only his truest self.
"Who am I?" Ye Lan asked, waking from the confusion.
"I am Ye Lan..." the surrounding chaos answered him.
"Where am I?" Ye Lan asked.
"I am in my own heart..." the chaos continued to answer.
"How do I go back?" he asked again.
"All I have to do is want to go back..."
And so, Ye Lan opened his eyes.
He was floating naked in a large tank filled with some kind of liquid. Through the transparent shell of the tank, he could see Netzach and the other Sephiroth standing outside, observing him.
Seeing him awake, Netzach pressed a button. The liquid in the tank drained out from a port at his feet. As Ye Lan landed on the floor of the tank, he was about to speak but was distracted by something in his hand.
A ring, seemingly twinkling with starlight, was clenched tightly in his fist. Before he'd even noticed it, he had nearly embedded it into his palm.
"What is this?"
Though Ye Lan didn't know what the ring was, a feeling from deep within his heart compelled him to put it on, as if it were a part of him.
"How are you? Do you remember who you are?"
The moment Ye Lan stepped out of the tank, before he could even put on clothes, Netzach began to question him repeatedly.
Numbed by the repetitive questions, Ye Lan turned to him and said, "Ma... Mana... Manager! Manager!!"
"Eh!? Eh!! Oh... oh no! Quick, get him back in the treatment pod!"
Ye Lan had only meant to scare him, but he didn't expect Netzach to actually fall for his less-than-subtle performance, even grabbing him and trying to stuff him back into the pod.
Yesod, who hadn't had much screen time until now, pressed down on Netzach's hand and stared at him helplessly. "That's enough, Netzach. I think you're the one who needs to get in the treatment pod. Ye Lan was just annoyed by your questions and decided to mess with you."
"Ah... is that so?" Netzach breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Ye Lan. "You really scared me, man. I was so afraid that my one time trying hard wouldn't be enough to save you..."
"Netzach, I really have to thank you this time."
"Ah, it's nothing..."
"No, I really do. You should wipe your shell. You're leaking Enkephalin."
"Ah... so that's where I gave it away."
Embarrassed, Netzach found some tissues and wiped the Enkephalin off his shell. Besides causing hallucinations and euphoria, this potent psychoactive drug could also help one concentrate when used in moderation.
To treat Ye Lan, Netzach, who had already quit the drug, had injected himself with it once more.
Yesod looked away. "Netzach, you only called me in because you saw the Enkephalin, didn't you..."
"Hmph!"
The Sephirah with the purple "Yesod" lettering on his shell crossed his arms over what was presumably his chest and turned his head to the side.
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