" Did I not teach you to use teleportation device?"
" ....."
" Then why the heck are we running up the stairs?"
" shut up evelyn, There is police or military behind us and I don't understand what's happening with eren." Elizabeth ran up the stairs, they were on opposite corner of throne room but such distance was nothing for them. Yet she could still feel evelyn's gaze, staring the obvious disappointment.
" It would've been-"
" Yeah yeah.." She ran, instantly appearing on the other end of corridor. Evelyn sighed to her lovesick dielema and appeared beside her, before walking upto the large fancy door.
They were aware of deaths, though it mattered little to them. Rumbling of collision behind the door striked Elizabeth to open it and she did.
Evelyn stood beside her, obseving how she would cope with reality.
Evelyn,for better or worse, knew eren and wasn't in love with him but her companion, Elizabeth was lovestruck. Evelyn saw the woman who grew up strong and unwavering to even most dangerous and difficult situation and enemies, looking fragile in this moment. Evelyn had no words to explain, she just waited for Elizabeth to see for herself.
Inside the large room,
Eren stood naked with a broken sword in hand, his appearance bloody and opposite to him stood his masked enemy with an hammer. It took a moment for elizabeth to notice that eren was missing his left arm but to her absolute shock, it got regenerated right before her eyes.
Unlike her widened eyes, masked man showed cheerful attitude, seeing that two breathtaking beautiful woman were standing, puuting away the fact that he was shredded along with his clothes, injured and soaked in his own blood.
" You must be the foreign variables, foiling all our plans. Is there anything I can do for you lovely ladies?" He rolled his eyes back to eren and exclaimed, " Where are your manners young master?"
Eren showed no reaction, only an unwavering gaze unhindered by anything and anyone.
Elizabeth froze, unable to understand and unable to identify eren.
Eren felt their presense, and he was overcome with deep seated fear that something would happen to them as well. Now, among this chaos Eren genuinely considered his existence to be of an darkest of omen, bringing misfortune around.
But this also restrained him to not show any sign of weakness, His enemies had made it clear for what they indended to use against him. So Eren didn't glance, knowing his gesture of concern could be used against him.
Eren could tell that both Elizabeth and evelyn were strong, even stronger than giant. But he had no intension to include them in this mess, for this was his responsibility.
" Eren?"
" ...."
Eren did not answer elizabeth, instead kept his eyes front.
Sudden cry of animalistic instinct proded giant to immediately move, and shifting his weight to left he looked surprised with himself, barely dodging the attack that nudged the stairs behind. He looked at eren, surprise expression followed by a smirk.
Eren dashed once more. And this time giant met his broken sword head on, before he could fully swing his sword to form a wider slash. And his hammer that was crude to begin with showed another cut without any sound of explosion but it's durability allowed him absorb the impact. Giant immediately punched his right, force of that punch was enough tear right through eren and it would've done so but it was caught midair, giant gave elizabeth an unappreciative look for what she was doing.
But this locked in position gave eren an opportunity to attack this upclose with 100 percent accuracy rate, his will shaped a crescent blade that cut giant's neck deep. A major artery was cut shallow but he bled, that wound was fatal.
Giant felt the imminent threat as elizabeth extended her hand, her pearly white skinny index finger pointing straight like an arrow. As she moved, she didn't needed any other weapon, one finger was enough.
But Eren snapily grabbed her hand, stopping her midway.
" Go stand with evelyn."
Elizabeth didn't listen, she stood questioning his motives in worry.
" Stand aside." This time eren spoke loudly, and those words forced elizabeth to move aside against her will. Evelyn watched silently, maybe a flicker of anger might've risen in her eyes before she closed them and opened them stoic.
Elizabeth could not understand, it happened so fast that she had no time to understand how this came to be. She had much to question.
Eren watched as giant covered his hand over oozing neck and backed away, he laughed as he enjoyed the pain and dropped his hammer.
" You cannot beat me, further more of this would be just boring." Giant showed a gleam, " How old was he when he died, 14 right?, So yeah, We killed him." His words making his face widen in amusement, and he purposely mentioned his age to make his statement that much convincing. Coming from a stranger, such words could be bluff and he needed eren to believe. " To be more precise, my boss ordered someone else, that someone ordered me, I ordered someone else and someone else ordered someone else, you know death is eay but torture's not. Especially when you're dealing with a 14 year old, weal yellow rank boy. But the torture was ordered and that I served."
Eren closed his eyes, afraid for worse that had yet to come. " We paid his companion to purposely beat him up and pretty little boy had no choice to suffer everyday, he had his baby brother to feed. So he did not just came home for last month looking crap because of monsters you know." Giant chuckled, dragging his weakened body closer to eren.
" But son of a bitch held on, so it became boring, I even had learned that someone ordered to rape him but then someone cancelled it but which ordered was followed remains a mystery." Giant leaned forward to eren, wispering as he continued his amusement, " The day he died, I saw him begging for your life. Pitiful kid didn't even knew that you were the cause of his miserable life. So we told him what we knew, hoping that would make him turn against you." Giant's whisper became sullen, devoid of fun remembering something unpleasant, " He said he would rather die seeing his brother smile one last time before he could even think of betrayal."
Maybe the resistance of 14 year boy had made him angry and that fire of discontent lingered till now,
" But how could we let him have last laugh. He wanted to see your smile so we played a simple prank. Yes, I was there for first and last time. White forest and it was my idea." Giant's shoulder trembled in excitement and pride in his own cruelty, " I told him to get back to you as soon as possible, that he could see you for one last time but he did not know that he was poisoned, posion that would render him blind before he could find you. Oh and yeah.." Giant tapped eren's shoulders to get an reaction, " I saw you as well, Sweet little kid covered in dirt, begging on streets while nobody paid any attention. Not just me but many of us saw and enjoyed. Here I even have recording." phone appeared in his hand as light shimmered and played a video that started with screams of agony. Eren knew that voice even when riddled with pain, it urged him to open his eyes and when he did, he saw that His brother was being beaten. someone stepped on his arms and broke it.
" Oh wrong one, Here." Giant hurriedly retracted his arm and changed it This time eren saw himself, Young crying kid running barefoot, from one men to another. Eren closed his eyes once more, taking deep breaths to calm his heart that has rattled once more. It did not help. Eren once again looked at giant, ignoring the video playing on his face.
His eyes solemn, not of just anger but pure hatred. To his command a horizontally vertical cleave cut giant's hand clean. Eren poured every bit of mana he could put, he went beyond his limit of 20 percent.
Giant flinched, cried as he tumbled back in pain. His eyes teared, though pain did not shatter his enthusiasm of the moment. He enjoyed watching eren breaking up in pieces just as much he had enjoyed watching yuta being tortured.
" Haha...That's motivation....Haha.." Eren pulled his mana once more, enforcing his body to it's limit. He exerted it for an attack and it's fluctuation allerted giant to avoid but he did not know from where the attack would pop. Giant ran chaotic, not in pattern for eren to have a clear shot. Eren dashed behind, lagging but not out of sight, with an invisible cleave held tight before he find an opportunity.
Giant felt the mana around him fluctuate once more, and as he came know it always followed with surprising invisible attack. he was running wild on account that eren wouldn't be able to aim.
But this time eren did not miss, giant lost his balance and fell, He turned but failed to sit up and noticed that both of his legs were cut.
Eren once again felt his mana reserve emptying, making him realise that output of this attack had drained all of his mana, he was blank and once again being filled. And while he waited for his weakened self to regain it's mana, he walked closer.
Eren walked slowly as his bare foot made no sound, his eyes bore hatred yet his brain failed to produce viable solution to direct it. He simply wanted to kill him, but no too easily, not too fast. He wanted to make him feel his pain, but nothing came to mind.
Eren stood above him, like a towering monstrosity crowned in horns.
" Young master." Eren, with all his strength poured down to his leg, stomped on his chest.
Giant grimaced as he laughed and asked, " Don't you wanna know who did this and why?"
Eren stomped once more, showing no interest in any of his bargaining schemes.
Giant coughed feeling pain in his chest, " My boss has left a long list of names with proof, I have it in my phone." giant looked at his severed arm, but eren paid no attention to it as he stomped once more.
Eren did care for who was responsible but for now, he could not hold himself to think and process any more of information, he just felt the need to vent this blob of lava out of system. So he stomped once more.
Evelyn moved, forcing eren to stop and glance at her. For she was not Elizabeth, her action were questionable.
She picked up the phone out of giant's severed hand, her eyes speaking more clear than ever.
" What do you think you're doing?" Eren held his rage at bay, Barely holding it together.
" Revenge is fool's errand eren. Now that you have shown your colours, I can no longer trust you to keep your words." She hinted her gaze to Elizabeth. Phone in her hand cracked with her grip tightening.
Eren's figure blurred as he immediately appeared before her but by then it was too late, he only had crumbling pieces to see falling of her hand. She had done it.
Eren did not stop, he was ready to pounce while simultaneous cleave followed before him though he suspected it to be of no use.
But he was left stunned that his attack failed to cut even the cloth, let alone skin. He was fast on his pace to follow up with hand to hand combat and close range cleaves but he was too ignorant. He was thrown back with just an air pressure of simple flick, reminding him how far beneath he was.
" Despite all this?" He complained to himself, beating himself for weakness he just couldn't overcome.
" What are you doing?" Asked Elizabet, She was unable to move one bit and every attempt resulted in unimaginable pain within her chest.
And situation kept escalating out of her understanding,
" I'm sorry for your loss Elizabeth but he must die."
Eren stood up once more, her words meant nothing to him.
" No, I'm not going anywhere till I have my vengence." Though his overbearing declaration earned him nothing but agonizing pain, he was burning as pink flames engulfed him.
His skin burned, cracked and charred but not a pip came out of his mouth, only when deeper nerve and tissue started burning that his screams filled the room.
"No, No,NO...STOP IT...STOP...DON'T HURT HIM." Elizabeth cried as she watched her loved one burn,
" It would take more than this." Evelyn pitied Elizabeth and even felt sympathy for eren but nothing more than that, she was pragmatic woman looking at future for her and her family. To her eyes, eren was a threat that needed to be ripped out as soon as possible. She could hear elizabeth's plea turning loud, till it was no longer plea but an order. And threat of death in disobedience was hinted in her voice.
But evelyn did not stop. Flames burned eren, bringing him on his knees.Burning away at flesh that kept regenerating and so what evelyn really burned was not flesh but his soul.
Elizabeth realised this as well, and this filled her with even more grief, for she knew that it was just torture.
Giant dragged himself through corpses toward the wall and laughed enjoying their breakout.
" You cannot die, You still haven't heard the best part." Giant lifted his other hand up and light shimmered, bringing something out of his ring.
He looked elated under the mask even though his appearance looked pitiful now more than ever.
Eren could not see as his eyes had burned black, he could only hear a portion as deeper level of tissue had not yet fully damaged. So he focused, mana on his command concentrated toward his ears directly from outside and not just core, as his core was insufficient. Mana was the supplement needed to regenerate and eren provided, unbeknownst to it's cost.
" Here I have your brother." Eren heard him veiled in his own screams, twisted his neck as he poured even more mana toward his eyes and saw him, waving a severed hand.
Everybody saw it, evelyn noticed that hand was thin and small of a boy. Eren saw a black scar amidst flames and memories flooded him with pain not physical.
" How many pieces are there?" Giant asked in mirth and gave silent knowing pause, " Probably dozens." he said, widening his lips more and more." Where are they?, All over world." He asked and answered himself, his words were torture. And he preferred it that way because death was short and easy, while torture was slow and satisfactory.
Maybe and just maybe for a second Elizabeth noticed a wisp of smoke rise above eren's head, she suspected he was crying even when fire burned his eyes, lacrimal gland and everything around.
Understanding his feeling had filled her heart to grief as her eyes teared up. She knew eren to be a sensible guy, troubled at moments but this was beyond her wildest imagination. Now everything made sense of weak broken heart she came to love, but knowing it cracked something within herself as well.
She looked devastated, pain twisted her beautiful face mournful. Solemn grievance had rid her self of resistance, along with pain that came with it. but her teary eyes widened once more when she noticed that eren's screams had become more intense. It was not flames, she could tell that flames had lost its power as if even evelyn showed some sentiment.
Eren's screams came in fits, like a maniacal laugh covered in agony. And nobody knew what went under those flames, what kind of expression he was making? But his soul wrenching screams filled those present with fear, even giant whose laughter had never ceased, froze in silence.
It took Elizabeth a moment to realise that mana was fluctuating around eren, very minutely. What remained invisible to their eyes was that large amount of dark element that only eren could see was being sucked inside of him.
Eren had no conscious thoughts to feel it, understand it and even if this were to somehow come to his attention, he wouldn't know the consequences.
Situation turned even more absurb as his subconscious influxed more and more mana inside him, and everybody knew what that would result in, an explosion.
And realising how vast his immortal soul would be even after all the damage, and the explosion it would cast as self destruction ignited every bit of mana and soul within the shell of mortality, it brewed different kind of fear within everyone.
Eren came to be more sane as pain subsided with receding flames, his screams were gone, his face unveiled and only showed bleak stillness as he walked once more, his pink visage covered in flames moved toward giant who instinctively crawled along the wall behind his back with crippled legs.
" You cannot kill me, I know where the next piece is." Giant cried in fear, Last bit of his bravado invoked no sort of emotion within eren, so giant kept dragging himself back as he saw eren's face among dying flames.
Eren stood whole, not realising that flames were gone, his body had regenerated. He did realise that his body was absorbing both large amount of mana and darkness, but it did not matter as he brought his feet up once more before giant's face.
" I'll kill you." He muttered as he slammed his feet in rage, " I'll kill you." This time more audible, with vicious strike to face that broke giant's nose.
" I'll kill you." Even louder.
" I'll kill you." Faster and louder as he kicked more powerfully, more frantically.
" EREN STOP." Elizabeth screamed, to reach out to eren, she had stood aside watching for far too long. She had witnessed eren's tragedy while being unable to comfort him and guilt of it had reached it's limit.
So she resisted, her muscles hardened, face reddened and veins became visible as she pulle the invisible chains that captured her soul. And in doing so she suffered unimaginable pain but no amount of pain meant anything if she were to lose eren. She had one thought, to save eren, even at the cost of her own life.
" EVELYN STOP HIM.." though evelyn didn't look, she didn't speak even though her flames were gone. She was standing motionless, and that was abnormal in this moment.
To their eyes eren's body was absorbing large amount of mana, he was becoming a humanoid bomb. And evelyn would surely want to stop that but she wasn't. Something was very wrong.
Just then,
" Aaaahhh....." Evelyn screamed her soul out, Making Elizabeth realise that evelyn too had been chained in something.
" NO..." Elizabeth screamed, her eyes bloodied as she begged the God she knew for power to save eren, but her screams were mixed in pained screams of Evelyn and vengeful threats of eren.
" I'LL KILL YOU." Eren cried as he stomped again.
THUMP...
The wall behind the giant trembled.
" NO.." Elizabeth screamed again, louder, fiercer and riddled in even more pain,
" I'LL KILL YOU." but eren did not stop to listen, he did not stop.
THUMP..
Wall trembled with each of his strike, ready to fall apart at any time.
" Aaaaaaggggghhhhhh...."
" NOOO..." Elizabeth and evelyn screamed at pinnacle of resistance and somethinh finally cracked.
Elizabeth flew as she instantly appeared behind eren, her senses once again peeked as she materialised heavy ice sword in her hand, she swung it up and met a fine sword bringing mountain worth of pressure down with it.
Evelyn held that sword, her intentios were clear and easy for Elizabeth to understand, though they didn't allign with her own.
" I'll say this once, back off Or die." Elizabeth lifted her eyes up and evelyn met her gaze firmly, both seemed to have no intension of backing away but evelyn, surprisingly, folded.
" Take him away, We don't have time." Evelyn pulled back, threw away the sword she had picked up and stood disappointed, peering ahead elizabeth's shoulder.
" I'LL KILL YOU...." His kicks had broke giant's jaw and nose, and he was still pelting down.
" I'LL KILL YOU...." Eren kicked not realising that giant's facial structure had disfigured and bones were cracked to it limit.
" I'LL KILL ALL OF YOU..." And as he crossed the limit,he broke his face, crushed his eyes and doing so spintered his own foot, though it amounted into nothing as he kept bringing his rage down again and again.
Eren's voice had deepened though it varied as his body lingered between trauma and cure.
Elizabeth enclosed him in tight embrace against his resistance from behind and soon light covered them as they vanished.
Suddenly all the trembling, loudness of torture and suffering was gone. Even the fluctuations of mana reeled back to it's original latent state in few short breaths.
Evelyn looked at the mess around her and then looked giant, barely alive for a moment. Evelyn thought to ask but chose not to, after all he was blind, breathless, voiceless and most of all faceless.
" She made sure I won't cause any other trouble." Evelyn muttered as she noticed a single arrow kill the enemy on the other side of wall, saving the people eren came here to save and left a passage for them to walk out. Evelyn noticed them walking this way, took a breath as she tidied her clothes and vanished inside the light.
**********
" You mean to say that it took you all this time because flimy pink flames were blocking every single path." Rex was a silent man, additional in command as he ranked just below mathhew and followed him closely.
Right now he stood before team alfa, their leader who was reporting in with only three alive civilians out of all the captives, looked no different than any other day.
" So you entered a room and someone trapped you inside, you came out breaking the door but then flames, And you state pink flames obstructed your path. Did you think of going around circle?" Rex seemed angry but he never expressed it, much like right now.
" Sir, We were trapped till they left. And we saw no dead bodies, I know better to not trust civilians but i'm sure sir nolan is not lying. And he also attest that it was those pink flames that burned bodies, leaving nothing behind." Team leader noah made his statement, leaving no plausible answer for Rex to shot back.
Rex held his eyes up, looking around where everybody seemed on edge by the circumstances, terrified by what this meant for their position as protectors.
He looked at mathhew for his validation on noah's report, and saw him even more visibly annoyed.
" Report if anything new happens." Mathhew grumbled and left in a hurry.
" He must be desperate to find his daughters." Said noah, but only Rex knew that mathhew had no desperate tears to shed.
Rex saw his car drive away and didn't even bother offer him any advice of caution, he was way to hard headed to listen to anything and anybody.
Rex brought his attention back to noah and dismissed them, then looked at nolan who sat in a van beside other two civilian. He was about to go talk to them when subtle heat pricked his skin, he looked at the central plaza which was being engulfed in pink flames.
Every officers that had went in, came out running, uninjured.
And within a breath, central plaza was no more. The ancient fortress, vampiric legacy and place of beliefs for millions just vanished, leaving nothing behind, not even a single speck of ash.
And with it vanished traces of every individual who had set their foot inside, and police was left with no footprints, no fingerprints, no blood stains, no any other fluid samples, no dead bodies and certainly not any mana signatures left behind after a magic spell this big.
" I told you, It leaves no traces. If they don't want us to find them then we can't, I just ask why they left us out?" noah gave a ' Told you so' look to rex and left.
Distant to them, on a tall building stood evelyn, little amused by her deed but then something soured her mood.
' That idiot.' She thought and vanished inside light once more.