Blood Assimilation

With the memory issue settled, Randy turned to his newly created incarnation whose eyes were fluttering open after assimilating with his consciousness and memory.

Moments later, his Incarnation finally opened its eyes and looked around in slight confusion as it still had the memory of Randy before he duplicated his consciousness. Only after seeing Randy, who was silently watching it from the corner, was it able to understand the general situation of what had happened.

At that moment, the Incarnation's face became full of life, realizing its existence as a person as well as what his existence represented.

The Incarnation looked down and briefly examined his body.

He smiled strangely, then said: "Well, this is a very awkward experience."

And then he tentatively spoke in a clear voice: "So, I am the incarnation, huh?"

Randy: "..."

The Incarnation noticed that there was no response despite intentionally speaking out loud.

He raised his head and looked at the corner of the Safe Room where Randy silently squatted, observing the situation. For some time, there was no sound or movement between the two of them. They merely stared at each other as if that was all they could do.

The Incarnation suddenly broke the silence and said: "Are you going to talk to me or do you intend to continue staring at me?"

Randy: "…"

The incarnation: "…"

The Incarnation: "You still won't talk to me?"

Randy: "…"

The Incarnation: "This is getting nowhere. Forget it!"

The incarnation relented but still said: "Just so you know, I know what you're thinking right now because we're the same person. I am you. As such, I have the same personality as you. We share the same thoughts and ideas, the same interests and passions, and the same mannerisms as well as the same mindset. Right now, you're merely curious about whether I have a defective personality like in the first incarnation. Therefore, I don't mind it if you don't want to talk to me. It's just weird seeing you act like that in front of me."

Randy: "…"

"Still no response? Whatever. Anyway, since I'm an incarnation, my task should be to return to the Imperial City and meet up with the Crown Prince. What a pain. I shouldn't have made that promise, but I need to show that I'm not some hostile individual they need to keep their eyes on. Why did I act so rashly at that time?"

The incarnation decided to ignore Randy and focus on the things he planned to do as an incarnation.

Randy: "..."

Randy, on the other hand, carefully observed the actions of his incarnation as he didn't know how to react. It was extremely bizarre for him to watch someone, who looked exactly like him, act and talk like him. At least his first incarnation was a bit different in the way that he acted and behaved.

The original version of the first incarnation could be described as simply absent-minded and crude, but the post-resuscitation version could only be described as cunning and mischievous like a teenager. However, the newly created incarnation had his exact personality and his exact manner of speech. The incarnation even assumed his actions were ones that he, the incarnation, had committed and was reproaching himself for his actions. This was not something that he could get used to in a short time.

Regardless, he would need to get over that fact and deal with the current agenda as soon as possible. Thus, after struggling with the strangeness and awkwardness for a few seconds, Randy eventually decided to get himself together and speak to his incarnation.

"So… Uhm… I need to give you something."

Randy's whispering words interrupted the incarnation's thoughts, and he looked up and doubtfully asked: "What was that?"

Randy cleared his throat and spoke in a clear tone of voice.

"I have a [Memory Seed] with me here."

After saying that, he telekinetically hovered over a transparent object toward his incarnation.

"A [Memory Seed]?"

Observing the floating object, the Incarnation doubtfully asked, trying to recall where he heard the term. As he was still processing the memories in his head, he had yet to comprehend the meaning behind some of the memories, especially ones that carry profound meanings.

Randy realized that the incarnation hadn't completely assimilated the memories, as memory scour was mentioned in one of the overview explanations from the Ancient Black Tome. Furthermore, knowledge about the [Memory Seed] was acquired after he duplicated his consciousness. Therefore, his incarnation would have no idea how it worked, even if he had remembered the overview.

With that in mind, he decided to clarify.

He pointed at the Holy Knight, and then explained: "That was part of the knowledge acquired from the Ancient Black Tome. The [Memory Seed] carries the memory of that person lying over there."

"The Holy Knight?"

The incarnation frowned and said: "Do you want me to act like him or something?"

"That's not it."

Randy shook his head but then realized: "No, that's right. But don't worry, I have taken precautionary measures to remove all unnecessary memories from it. As a result, it won't affect your personality. But before that, I need to share my recent memories with you to make it easier to understand the situation."

After he finished speaking, under the influence of his Psionic energy and the telepathic connection developed between him and his incarnation, he shared his recent memories with the incarnation.

A few moments later, the incarnation, whose eyes had been closed in order to better absorb the memories, fluttered his eyes open.

"Oh? That's what happened."

The incarnation had a look of astonishment, and then he muttered in enlightenment: "The Ancient Black Tome's sea of knowledge had been triggered once again. Cryptic spell? So [Memory Scour] was a cryptic spell? A spell for searching for memories of the dead using Mental Force? I assumed the system might have translated the Mental Force in the Tome as Psionic Energy when I gained access to the knowledge in the Tome."

Recognizing something, the incarnation asked: "So, that Holy Knight's name is Zolat?"

"That's right."

Randy nodded in confirmation and then said: "Now that you understand the situation, take this [Memory Seed]. I solidified my psionic energy to the extreme, then replicated the Zolat's memory and stored it inside the [Memory Seed]. This was the only way I could share it with you as it wasn't originally my memory."

"All right."

The incarnation nodded before manipulating his Psionic energy to generate a hand that grabbed the ethereal, crystal-like orb that hovered toward him using telekinesis. Afterward, he allowed the ethereal orb to enter his mind through his glabella.

A short while later, the incarnation slowly opened. He had completely taken in Zolat's memory, and at the same time isolated it from his own memories just like Randy had done.

"Zolat Grant, a direct descendant of the Grant Family, an influential aristocratic family with many contributions to the Human Kingdom throughout the history of Acruxia. So that's that bastard's background. No wonder he could do such things despite being a Holy Knight. Did you get rid of the memories related to Klara?"

"Yes. Among others."

"I guess they had the same content. Anyway, so I need to disguise myself as Zolat Grant and infiltrate the Church of Light. So this was because of the first Incarnation's schemes? Still, I didn't think that a defective incarnation would suddenly develop such strange abilities. What is the cause of it? Maybe I should check on him and see what he is doing when I return."

"You should do that, then. I will stay here to train my mana for a while. I don't know when I'll be leaving here. Therefore, in the meantime, I will leave you to handle things in the Imperial City. The connection between us is much stronger compared with the one between the first incarnation and me. Moreover, with the help of the system, you should be able to establish a temporary connection with me in case anything happens."

Randy gave out his instructions to the incarnation and the incarnation only nodded in understanding without the need for further clarification. After all, he could understand the subtle meanings that needed to be understood. That included some suspicion that 'they' had on their minds and wanted to confirm after infiltrating the Church of Light.

The incarnation suddenly said: "But don't you think we need to have different names or something to differentiate ourselves by? Maybe I should call myself Holy Knight Randy? Or Holy Knight Drany?"

"I don't know. You can decide that on your own."

"Very well. Then, for now, I will be called Holy Knight Randy until I find a suitable name to change it to."

"Okay."

"… That's it? No suggestions? Seriously? Never mind. I will be on my way, then"

Holy Knight Randy shook his head helplessly as he smiled bitterly, recalling the multiple reactions of Randy, who had been avoiding eye contact with him throughout their conversation. He found it amusing. At the same time, he was confused about why Randy was acting strangely in the first place. Why would he act like that toward him, even though they were technically the same person?