Beep
The line disconnected.
And the room fell into silence.
The conversation only lasted a minute as other party didn't waste time in unnecessary pleasantries.
" Eren I'll go to Ashfield." Said Elizabeth,
"there is possibility that all this has sparked cause of me being here, so I should go."
" That doesn't matter, I am coming with you." Eren clenched his fists, the frustration made his heart pound loudly.
But this also made him clear of what he needed to do.
" Are you out of your mind?, Didn't you hear me just now?" Jasmine shouted, Though she sounded angry it was more than that, she was worried.
Eren didn't reply, he held her eyes locked for time that seemed like eternity. He wanted to say many things but he had no words.
" They're just somone you know for few days, don't throw away your life for them." She said, her voice breaking up in melancholy.
She was an awfull liar.
" Those two are my family now, And I will not abandon them."
" Then I'll go to netherwell." Said Evelyn.
" But-"
"No buts" evelyn disrupted eren from saying further, " As Elizabeth said, We might be the reason this has happened in the first place.
Amelia is in Ashfield, Cecilia is in netherwell and rest of them in central plaza and they had played this move for reasons we don't know. hoping that this information is authentic." She was skeptical for the information that came out of a sudden call.
She also expected that this new information was a trap for them, or it could be exactly what it seems, a sadistic ploy to play Matthew.
" We have no choice but to divide, and since those two sisters are valuable
There is no doubts they'll be guarded by high ranking cultivators, So let us save them and you just stay put." She gave no time for eren to respond and looked at Elizabeth,
" How do they look?" She asked, as if all the debate had ended.
" It's those girls at cafe I took you."
"Oh those two, This shouldn't take Time then, now off I go sweetheart." Despite situation being tense, she didn't seem to disturbed. She caressed his cheeks, ruffled his hair into motherly love and looked at Elizabeth with grinning smile.
" Let's go."
Both Elizabeth and Evelyn set the co-ordination to where twin sisters were held and without wasting any breath, vanished with dissipating light of teleportation device.
Eren was left behind, he could not laugh at evelyn's way of fun in teasing Elizabeth at the moment.
They were helping him, helping him with something he couldn't have dealt with his own, even if he had help of hundreds of his clones, result would have been same.
Yet he hated it, he hated his powerless self that they deemed to leave behind, so he wouldn't get in the way. He was frustrated.
" E..E..Eren?" Suddenly his anger dissipated by the voice that softly fell on his ear, the voice held pain and fear.
Eren looked at Jensen who seemed have lost few years of his mortal life. Jensen was a mess. he was poor. old, holed clothes just hanging on malnourished earthy build. Anyone could tell that life was not so kind to him but even then he didn't let that fade his gentle smile but now, Eren had never seen him this pitiful.
Eren looked at marco and jasmine, then shifted his gaze to Jensen.
" I'll bring lucas back."
Jasmine looked at marco,hoping he would knock some sense to him but he said nothing.
" Eren, I'm not letting you go."
Eren ignored her as he walked to the door.
Jasmine wanted to stop him but she found marco tugging her hand, he shook his head and said nothing, again.
" Why are you stopping me?" This enraged jasmine even more." This boy is throwing his life away"
She took a step towards him, but Marco stood before her, stopping her. She could easily subdue him,outrun him, even kill him if she wanted to but she had believed his descision all her life.
Jasmine didn't argue but that did not mean she accepted his choice this time, she looked ahead of his shoulder,at eren.
" You're weak eren, You hear me. You know nothing how this works. How are you gonna save anyone?" She shouted but eren said nothing, he kept walking.
" If you walk out of that door Eren, You're dead to me. You hear me."
Eren halted in his steps and looked at jasmine, his face saddened by the choice he was making but he had already chosen.
Without saying any further, he walked ahead.
*********
Eren stood on tall building, with central plaza on sight from certain distance. This building was too tall and bit far for him to notice everything with details but he could make out general figures.
Plaza was a large square garden of sort, much fancy than regular parks. It had sorted red and white blocks for the floor with statue in the center.
Statue was surrounded by plants and flowers on three sides, and on front was the podium where red candles were lit.
Eren observed that all flowers were red, meanwhile the statue was jade white with typical red eyes.
He had seen many of such statues around the places and was familiar with it.
' Yohan, God of blood.' He thought, seeing a vampire figure cladded in simple robe of ancient manner with no accesories, no weapon and no mount beside him.
He stretched his muscular arms open, and blood fell on the floor off his hands.
Eren pondered if that was his blood or his enemies but he hardly had time, statue held belief of so many but not his.
Plaza was 50 meter in radius,with every corner having a shade of neatly trimmed oaks and arranged benches for those surfing through.
It was simple, but clean. Cleaner than other public places he had seen.
And eerie, right now.
Usually it would be crowded but today, it was empty. No soul in sight.
Surrounding this plaza on all sides were square shaped historical palace. The palace was a marvelous wonder, different from rest of the city.
Modernization had simplified the architecture to more efficient designs, but this palace didn't follow such logic.
It was ancient, sturdy looking walls with carved patterns, wooden windows and piercing black spire on center top of each row.
Magnanimous large gates with no portcullis were carved in all the rows, sheer size of the palace was nothing but a marvel.
Ground floor of this square palace was open, air filled lobby with lots of open windows to gaze both inside and outside. And there were four corner, where stairs ascends to first floor.
First floor as well as second and then third, were used for formal gathering of nobles and royal, with an official permission ofcourse. Same with the open plaza, though only richest of rich could afford it.
First and second floor consisted of royal hall, auditorium, banquet hall, guest rooms as well as small barracks here and there.
This place was designed to be host a celebration, while king only visited this when necessary. Otherwise it was an open temple of sort, to not only gain support but to bind them by faith.
Faith is one single emotion that veils logic and rationality, And this often gets taken advantage of.
Eren wasn't bound though, besides he never believed in God to begin with.
He looked at this piece of wonder with nothing but cold rationality, He pitied for those who couldn't even afford small hut while this broad range of space was occupied for tourism. He pitied those who dies of hunger while people offered fruits, sweets and all sorts of cuisines to the statue out of blind faith.
Putting aside his displeasure to the whole system of religion and its believers, eren focused on what was outside this square shaped palace.
Heavy and armed vehicles, high ranking warriors and mages, they too armed with advance weapons. All surrounding the palace, their guns, arrows, sword and all sort of weapons pointed at the closed eerie palace.
Dozens of drones levitating above, in search of movement but As if world was in a stalemet, nothing moved. Atleast nothing that was in sight. First and second floor was completely closed off, where eren suspected captives were held.
Eren was really far, on the most tall building in the area. Only then he could get a read on situation. Afterall, getting close the central plaza with all the police force out there, was near impossible.
But eren had no plan to back off, He came prepared.
He looked at himself, his clothes were not upto occation. Dark Blue silk shirt with black formal pant, though he folded his sleeves for convenience.
He looked at Jensen who stood beside him, afraid of even slight wind.
Eren couldn't say anything, he knew words to relieve him of his tension would do nothing. So Eren just tapped his shoulder and looked at his face,
" I'm sorry." He said, and next he struck him. Swift uppercut whistled him unconscious.
Eren had never done it, but he hoped that his strength was just enough to not injure him but render him unconscious for few hours.
Eren didn't wanted Jensen to act on his impulses out of desperation,
' What I'm about to do is not prudent, and I won't allow you to follow me.'
Eren gazed up, At the crane that loomed over his head like an omen of death.
It looked small as it was still hundred meter high, but it's size didn't impress eren at the moment.
It was merely a tool for a means, eren grabbed on to the iron cable that hung over it. Eren had taken liberty to not care for manners, he broke iron cable that was part of crane and tied it to far end of on top of crane, makeshift rope swing as a product.
His idea was simple madness, but only he could pull it off.
Eren disregarded all the negative thoughts and jumped on the parapet wall. He gently walked out to left corner with rope tightly grabbed on. There was another, not big as this but still quite tall, building was between plaza and this building where eren stood. Luckily with enough periferal motion and speed, eren could get around. Atleast he hoped it would work out as he imagined.
As he held the rope in his hand, Several memories flooded back. His time in white forest, Though he didn't learn fancy fighting skills but he learned survival. He was capable of running, tree climbing, rope Swinging and even managing to minimise the brunt of high fall. All that he learned to get away from beasts that were out of his leagues.
Ofcourse such skills were embedded in class survival 101 by alena.
Thinking her methods instantly filled eren with motivation, Not because she was good but the opposite, she was worst.
' Do first and think later.' Eren quoted alena, but even he knew that such simple logic were not her style.
It was after long ardous training of survival 101, eren realised that it was not that she wasn't capable of teaching but there was nothing to teach. Personal experience was just the way to go about it, she did just that and she made eren do the same.
Eren chuckled at her undeniable logic, Her words brought her scent, her face and her charm to life. But it also brought hard learned lesson eren had avoided thinking.
Eren remembered that day he killed the vampire family who tortured the kids for days, he had made up his mind to stand up for himself but he didn't. And now he was again standing at the edge of choice, choice between selfless despair and selfish cruelty.
But since he was here and all,
' Haven't I already chosen?' His eyes flashed with resolve he had showed when he tried to save his brother.
' Being a survivor is not enougn.' He needed to be sincere with himself.
His eyes turned cold and his presence grew thin until it vanished from the world, trick he learned from alena. Trick to be a predator, Sharp, invisible and patient.
' But being a predator is not enough as well.'
Now his eyes Changed, more of emotional change that wouldn't be visible to anyone.
His violent sea waves of emotions settled, like a serene sea, something unimaginable.
No worry but no love as well.
" Even if that kid dies, it would not mean much to me." Eren lied to himself, he would be affected by death. He knew it in his heart.
" No, I'll be sad if he dies but," Eren paused introspecting his own self as another quote from alena surfaced.
' Mortal love comes with attachment, but attachment itself is attached with greed, selfishness and fear. And as long as such emotions is not relinquished, one can never truly become a god, afterall only God is capable of loving without attachment.'
Though eren could understand this now, he simply didn't believe that it was easy to achieve.
" God huh.." For the first time in long while he showed conviction.
" I'll be a god if that's what it takes to make my dream come true." His eyes flashed with intent, yet his face remained radiantly stoic as if all the rage for revenge were keenly kept in rein.
What eren didn't realise was that such choices were not easy for anyone, but he had done something unimaginable without anyone noticing. He had taken a first step towards godhood.
Afterall being a god meant, in simple terms, Feeling everything yet never bring bothered by it.
Gentle wind pushed him off the edge and he followed it without any resistance.
His body swayed gently for a while before it gained the momentum, Eren brought out black cloak and quickly covered himself from top to bottom mid swing.
He especially made sure that his horns were hidden, ofcourse doing this was sure to attract attention but then again, what he was doing was not exactly discrete either.
Eren tapped into mana sense as his vision darkened under the robe, his body swung around in full force and just as he suspected, every skilled gaze immediately turned to him. Guns pointed at him, waiting for their superior's order to shoot but by then eren had dropped the rope.
Centrifugal force swung in action, eren could feel his speed increasing as he shot like a pinball, directly inside the center of plaza.
He expected police to start attacking any minute but they didn't,
And so he did shot straight in, Eren coiled his body for the impact and soon, with a sound of cracking he collided and collapsed on the floor, before the god of blood.
His broken body didn't wait as it mended on its own and eren stood up just fine, but floor didn't had such power.anf remained broke.
Eren didn't remove his makeshift cloak, there weres till drones who watched his every action.
Eren didn't waste any time and instantly jumped up on first floor window,
Brilliant steel sword manifested in his hand as he slashed his way in, or atleast he tried.
Sword was rank 3 weapon, something only mid tier noble could afford but for eren this was one still one of the lesser swords. He only brought it out because it was absolutely necessary and this was the only one he could handle.
Sword diagonally slashed, slasging through thick wooden window for cut that wasn't clean, precise and complete. The wood despite being old retained it's original durability, and this made Eren's attack look like nothing as it stopped Eren's sword midway.
Eren felt the jerk of impact and strain as he pushed further, but sword was stuck in, unable to proceed through and unable to pull back.
So Eren did what he was doing for all this time, stupid head on charge. He settled his feets on outside sloped sill, maintained his balance and pelted window with consecutive kicks.
Yes he was barging in without much thinking.
Afterall, he didn't knew wether they were hiding in one row or every row. His mana sense failed to perceive inside palace. But there was no magical barrier of sort.
' Granalite, That too of top quality.' Ofcourse eren expected this, afterall this was a place where king occationally visited, so it was bound to be luxurious, even the wood he was kicking veiled the inside perfectly.
' What's this made of?' Eren grumpled to himself as he kicked and failed to do much damage but he continued.
Twenty kicks nothing, 30 kicks nothing, 40 kicks a crack, 60 kicks tunneled a spilnteted hole. But it was not enough, Eren wondered if his horns would comply and shook his head in disappointed answer.
So he grabbed the sword tightly with both hands, pushed the window in and in return jumped out, he swung out only to swing in next, and as he did he directed he feets directly to the hole he created.
Eren let go of his sword, starighened his posture like an arrow and shot like one, towards the hole and with a pain of poking splinters here and there he barely managed to pass through.
Though splinters hurt as he pulled them out, eren stood up just fine. Actually more amazed by the fact that his horns didn't get in the way.
Eren looked at the fancy window, a crude hole in it and tip of sword poking in. Eren willed his ring to suck in the sword, he wasn't going to let it go that easily.
That was both stupid and selfish in this situation, not very practical at all. And heeding to his intent, ring worked it's magic.
Sword turned ethereal, ready to be sucked in but eren realise that ring was consuming more mana than usual as it stored the sword this time.
' It's using mana to pull the sword out of resistance.' and in a moment it did succeed, sword vanished inside his lustreless black storage ring, eren double checked if it was really there. And it took time, to find a sword in mountain of treasure, that too twice.
His mana sense now inside, he knew that he was not in danger just yet.
Eren looked around, he was in hallway. It was built with old mindset. Designed with abundance of paintung of kings.
Eren looked at door that remained open to his left, giving him detailed explanation as to what had occured inside.
He walked inside with a stern face, gazing at dozens of bloodied dead bodies on the floor without showing any expression. He didn't show it but he was affected.
He searched for lucas, believing that he wouldn't be here. And he was not here, but that did not fill eren with any relief. Contrary, he was more unsettled by the numbers of room he had counted on this row and every one then was left open.
How many more death he needed to witness, and how much more he needed endure this game of hope and despair before he eventually found lucas.
He wanted to be immovable, unmoved by his emotions but he also knew that it was this suffering that was a smithing him into it.
Eren glanced at the large room, room spoke royalty. Fancy carvings, painting, ornaments, torcheres on the wall, a Big and shiny chandelier made of gold and diamond hanging on the ceiling. Eren noticed that there was modern touch, Central Air conditioner, a TV, and even golden LED lit inside torcheres. Judging by sitting for odience, annoted sitting for authority and even separate partition distant to one corner suggested this was a courtroom.
Eren only glanced, finding nothing useful. So he started walking along the corridor. on his left were rooms. First he saw court, second he saw ballroom, then chamber of apothecary, then few mildly decorated rooms. Eren guessed those were guest rooms. And yes, they all were litered with decapitated, distorted, mashed up, smashed up, mutilated, skinned, burned and tortured dead bodies. Eren didn't find any identifiable body that held similarity to young lucas.
Eren didn't avoided staring right into this mayhem, he stood right in middle as he inspected every mutilated, burned and skinned deadbodies for some sign. He didn't bet his eyes from death, he didn't feel sad but he didn't feel happy either, though he didn't feel anger surging up.
Calming his nerves, eren walked along the corridor, To his right were painted wall, telling a story of great king and his adventures in the realm of ravenvale. But he was looking at a mere part, rest progressed as one walked in hallway, towards the another row. Atleast if eren walked in that direction, he was going back so story was folding back in past.
He noticed it, but didn't gave much credit for artistry. Sure it held charm of expert making, and was managed this well for very long time but to Eren's miserly eyes, this was just waste of manpower, back then and even now.
Eren reached the end of corridor, junction to another row on his right. Eren walked with heavy expression, finding no one alive, only dead bodies.
Eren read the pictures and realised that origin of king was begining along with origin of queen. This was in his directio.
This also made him realise that this was the entrance to whole palace, as stairs in the middle appeared right before the beginning of origin.
Origin of queen was the same, Born of royalty with ambition to serve the nation for it's people.
As he turned another right, he followed the story to another end, swiftly walking through few large halls, apothecary, ballroom and courtroom at the end.
Queen's adventure were different than king's, while king slayed dragons and beast, queen fought long eared plant monsters and humans. As he took the right turn once again, he was now in last corridor of the square shaped castle.
Eren felt stupid, He had circled all the way to arrive here when he could've been here if only he had chosen the other direction.
Eren walked further, noticing that there were no rooms in this part of palace, only after walking for some time that he noticed the door that remained closed at the exact center, where king's and queen's adventure came to end in frution of vampire's victory.
They joined hands, Showing an alliance that would bring peace and prosperity.
It was simple story, also an actual history eren had read before. Not that he believed it to be this much straightforward but history none the less.
Eren drew back his gaze back and looked closely at the intricately carved large wooden door. Door just like Granalite walls obstructed his mana sense from peering in.
So he steeled his resolve one last time and pulled his sword out.
Proceeding according to his original plan, Though it wasn't much of a plan.
He hoped for something this time, but nothing on the other end would be any kind to him and he knew it. Putting his distressed thinking aside, eren pushed the door open with waryness.
Door opened for him to see what was inside, Dead bodies. Even more than he had seen other rooms, as this chamber was unusually large.
But unlike before, there were living one as well, and not friendly by the heaviness of the vibe of them.
They were masked, standing disorganized among the littered bodies, silently. And as creaking of door attracted their simultaneous gazes onto eren at once, Eren felt his heart sank and head hurt. Eren felt fear as all nerves in his body screamed, shiver ran down his spine and throat dried instantly.
Eren looked around, feeling the heaviness pressing him against it but he did. He breathed agape, rolling down of saliva down his dried throat pricked and erratic heart forced him to feel the beats.
Responding to his presense, everybody else huddled away to separate end in orderly manner. Disorganized bunch lined in orderly formation without any resistance which created an open path to the end of the hall ahead for eren to see.
There he saw most beautiful throne, pristine white jade throne carved to be more thorny, but eren could tell they were canine fangs. And though sharp, it looked exquisite, especially adorned with red cushion on it.
Eren could not admire the fine work cause of unwanted presense seeting on the throne.
Another masked man, Hiding his face but soft chuckle gave glimpse of his hidden expression.
Picking his 6'2" tall giant muscular built, he opened his arm in welcoming manner.
" Guest has arrived, Welcome young master Eren."