Isis snorted as she failed at suppressing her laughter. Freya outrightly chortled and Gaia smiled. Sedna sighed at her nephew's question. It was difficult for them to see Zero as their father but En had a point.
The brunet shuffled his feet with both cheeks tinted red in embarrassment. En was technically right. However, the young boy wasn't Great One. He was Zero. As Zero, he had no recollection of creating the Great Gods but he experienced being taken care of by them as a child. If anything, he saw them as his parents instead of his offsprings. It was only natural to call En uncle out of respect.
En sighed at the explanation Zero gave him. He felt a huge headache coming on. Despite Zero's technical age and seniority, he behaved exactly like an innocent child. The King of Trials couldn't hold it against an innocent being. Ignorance is not a sin although it could be counted as a crime. Then again, his job was to determine sins and not crimes.
Clearing his throat, En put on his most serious expression and looked at Zero. He was going to have Zero stop calling him uncle no matter what!
"Zero. I understand that you want Egui here to be your friend. I can put his soul back together and write off all his sins. I can even give him a new life and name but on one condition."
Nervous, Zero asked what it was. The boy knew that he had nothing to offer En so if the scary King of Trials decided he wanted cakes or cinnites, Zero couldn't afford it.
En bent down and spoke in his most serious tone. "I want you to be friends with me as well."
The goddesses fell over in surprise and Zero blinked.
"WHAT?!"
"How do I become friends with you?" Zero asked nervously. He wasn't technically friends with Egui yet and didn't know how people became friends normally. Didn't you have to do something to be someone's friend? Egui told him a story and Zero brought him back although it all started with Zero's mistake. But they still did something for each other so it was easier to be friends. What about En? Zero was scared of En's eyes... they were as passionate as Freya's when she was in 'teacher mode'. It made Zero want to run away.
En thought for a while. That was right... he'd never had a friend in his life either. How does one make friends again? In fact, what do friends do?
Looking at En's troubled face, Freya snapped a few more pictures with her intergalactic communicator. Merlin and Steve Jobs had worked together on this new model in Heaven. Those two weren't gods yet but their creation was god level quality.
That's it! En brightened up and took Zero's hand in his before giving the boy his intergalactic communicator. It was an older model but still good enough. He'd already gotten a new communicator and transferred the contacts back in the purgatory office but didn't bring it out because he was more comfortable with the old model.
"This. You must keep it and use it. I will call you using the communicator from time to time so we can talk even though we are far apart. If you do this, we will become friends and I will help you with Egui."
Zero held the device in his hand. It was tiny and could be clipped on his shirt. He didn't know how to use it yet but he can ask Sedna later. Behind him, the goddesses gave En a dirty look but held their tongues. En simply ignored them and told Zero one last thing before he excused himself to fix Egui's soul.
"Also, since we are now friends, you need to stop calling me Uncle. Just call me Enma or En like my mothers."
Zero grinned. "Okay, En! I'm happy to have you as my friend!"
With that, En left and promised to bring Egui back in two days.
"Zero!" the goddesses cried and pounced on the brunet. "You must also answer our calls!"
Slightly shocked by the aggressive behaviour, Zero told them he had no idea how to use the communicator.
"Oh, don't worry. It's actually really easy! See this here? This is the charging point where you transfer energy using magic. Over here you can change its appearance..."
As the goddesses explained the various functions and features of the communicator, Zero's stomach rumbled. He felt unwell as the rumbling became louder. However, the goddesses who were too engrossed in their explanation didn't notice the noises until Zero swayed on his feet and collapsed weakly.
"Zero? Zero!"