Eren chuckled to himself as he walked in empty dark street, it was silent and that was eerie but eren was in good mood.
Memories were fresh in his mind of what had transpired at fredo's noodle shop.
Nolan was adamant on annoying eren, Jensen tried to control them but it was futile and Lucas had joined in nolan's party. They were having fun picking up on eren, Eren lost few other noodle plate after that initial loss, Obviously due to his own lack of vigilance and strength. Fredo didn't complain and served as much as eren asked but every plate ended up in lucas and nolan's hands, And delicious noodles in their mouth. They enjoyed graciously as they chowed down on those noodles with goofy grin to annoy eren.
It was annoying as it was painful to bear but he had to take revenge.
So on finding sneaky opportunity, eren slipped large amount of chilly powder in it. He didn't mix it so that it would change colour, he also didn't acted to lose. Eren tried his hardest to get away from nolan but failed at the end, result that he knew very well would occur.
And after few bites chilly finally showed it's effect, igniting agonizing fury on tongue.
His face reddened as intense spiciness of chilly pricked his tongue, his mouth salivated profusely and secretion ran down his nose, his eyes blinked as it teared up.
Nolan blew his lips and mouth, walking awkwardly here and there, sometime sitting on one corner like like lost child, To calm the burning sensation. He was in agony.
Eren smiled victoriously as he watched nolan in agony, he also looked lucas and his gaze made lucas gulp in fear. As if warning came like straight arrow.
After few minutes nolan finally regained his peace, looking at eren with anger and fear, and after that coarse words that came out his mouth were,
" Good one." Saying so he coughed up again as remaining pain still pricked his throat.
Memory made eren chuckle over and over again, after that nolan sat quietly. Not bothering with eren, atleast for few minutes and then again stole Eren's plate when he was distracted. Annoying eren relentlessly.
ofcourse the noodles he was eating was spicy as hell, why? because eren anticipated that he would do something like this again.
Eren ate those spicy noodles as well to make nolan believe they were fine, but advantage eren had was his immortal body.
Every action was met with reaction. spicy food was just like any other type of infection and such. Once infected body, reacts to annihilate the foreign organism and it's effect as protective mechanism, similarly chilly produced irritation of mouth and body tries to relive that pain by salivating profusely.
But eren was immortal, even his torn body could regenerate on blink of an eye, so what was this little stinger of irritation. It healed in instant and eren didn't met any displeasure.
Ofcourse even if he didn't had this regeneration ability, eren had lived through awakening torture for years so he was confident in his ability to endure this pain regardless.
Eren masked his reaction perfectly that nolan would believe it and soon he did, that's how he ended up spiced again, flushed and teared up again.
Everybody looked at eren for explanation how did he ate those extra spicy noodles? But he didn't answer. They were licing in mystery and pranks.
But fredo had to close the shop, unwillingly ofcourse. But his child needed his mother and he had to prioritise him above anything.
Everybody understood his position, even apologised for taking much of his time. He felt guilty to end this meeting and invited everyone tomorrow again.
Ofcourse Lucas was ready, his brother Jensen wasn't. So nolan annoyed him till he was convinced as well. Eren didn't say his choice, first he had to see how scene at home would go only then could he come again.
Ofcourse nolan was still adamant on urging eren to come,
" Don't worry, I didn't mind the pain. It was just prank and I don't feel offendrd in the least. So don't be shy to come here again." He said, eren didn't answer but his gesture itself was heartwarming. To the point where eren felt guilty to cause him suffering.
With unwilling mood, fredo walked toward his home with sleeping michael in his arms. Kid had lulled to slip amidst chaos.
And after that everybody headed back to their home, nolan followed Jensen and Lucas as he planned to stay with them.
Eren too walked toward his time being home, reluctantly. He didn't hate it, there was nothing to hate in it.
Marco and jasmine were lovely couple, both had sympathy, compassion, logical yet emotional awareness and aweful lot of love in their pockets, which they didn't shy away from sharing with eren.
But maybe because of such, Eren found it hard to live in it.
Eren lived his life carefree until it was broken to pieces by cruel world, everytime he found something to cherish in his heart that world ripped it out, painfully and accurately.
It was not hard to predict that, eren feared being alone but what more was that, He blamed himself for being eventual and partial reason for his loved one to depart. He feared, he will do the same to Marco, jasmine, Amelia, cecilia, Jensen and Lucas, even violet.
Today's incident was a mocking reminder that death danced around him.
And despite his reluctance he couldn't help but go back to them, to where he found some joy. Out of pure selfishness and that disgusted eren with himself.
His thoughts had no limit, his mind was spiderweb of worry and frustration.
But something else broke his chain of thoughts, Eren heard wiring buzz sound from behind.
He had heard it before so he knew how troublesome it would be depending upon the situation.
Eren hurridly turned back, and as he expected a spatial gate was being formed.
He had no time to process as gate opened with loud bang.
*******
it was dark back alley somewhere.
Few shadows danced occationally in flickering street light that shone in creepy alley.
There were sound of punches and kicks, few vampire boys were beating an small human boy. The bullies were older, stronger and nourished, and the one who was being bullied was weak, thin, dirty not only because of footprints of kicks but simply because of poverty.
The boy couldn't held his weaken leg in place and fell, That gave bullies easier reach to kick his face. Few kicks landed just the way bullies intended, Kick to stomach almost made him vomit and kick to face broke his nose.
The boy hurridly curled his leg up, hid his head with clenched fists. The boy would cry if this was something new but he was accustomed, his teared had dried long ago and all that was left in his eyes were seething anger.
' I'll kill them, I'll kill them.' Even the pain of kicks could not distract him from his intense thirst for blood.
And once satisfied, bullied stopped their assault.
" Did you really think you could get away after stealing from me fucker." One vampire boy spit on him saying so with disgusted expression.
" Like hell jacob, He stole what??...a piece of bread. Your father is already making him wash the toilet for days and this... Fufu.." Other vampire chuckled, " This is just cruel."
" You're one to talk mateo, I seem to remember that you pissed on him yesterday." Another one said,
" Oh yeah, I thought I was forgetting something." Mateo shifted his gaze to lying, beaten up victim and smiled devilishly.
" Oh yeah the piss." and saying so jacob opened his zip.
Those who were standing beside laughed, joining him in the sadistic fun they enjoyed.
The boy felt heat of urine, disgust of the cruelty and odour but said nothing. Just waited, waited till they finished and left.
And only after few minutes, he picked himself up, his clothes were ripped to shred. Not covering anything in this freezing cold, Another cruelty on pitiful child, cruelty of nature.
Boy wiped the blood above the lips, which brought another wiff of disgusting urine smell and that pricked, pricked his heart. But boy said nothing and walked back to other end of alley with bloodshot eyes.
Wind changed and so did the world at visible pace, few years passed in instant. The vampire boy awakened, his veiled ego finally rose above his head and in heat of anger, he murdered jacob, his baker father and his friends. He showed mercy to woman who played no part to but was just married to the man who did play.
But this act of benevolence brought him more trouble.The dirty boy belived he was just when he killed, that he was only repaying the kindness that was shown to him.
But baker's wife didn't see his sufferring, she only saw her own and put a large amount of bounty on dirty boy's head.
The boy was smart, he knew people's gaze and he certainly knew killer's gaze, he could differentiate. And suddenly he could feel that he was surrounded by those gazes.
He was being hunted by age of fifteen,
He suffered more, killed more, endured more but it never ended. Bounty remained, it increased over the time period and so did the numbers of his enemies.
His life was constant struggle, never ending suffering and never ending enemies.
And then one day a masked man appeared, asking him to join the organisation that researched in illegal manner. Masked man was upfront with his workplace.
In return he was offered a free life, free from bounty hunters as there will be no bounty anymore.
Invitation was appealing and ofcourse dirty boy didn't find his work evil anyway. Simple, because he didn't saw world in black and white, it was just gray.
The dirty boy agreed.
As part of an agreement his bounty was taken off and in return he dedicated his life to organisation.
The organisation taught him to read, taught him to fight more proficiently, taught him values and gave him a home he didn't had.
In return they asked him to kill, to assassinate, to plunder, to aduct and kidnap. From minor choirs to great shady deals, he dealt with them for the sake of organisation for years.
The dirty boy was not dirty anymore, he was masked and organised but he never trusted the organisation, even when there was moment of warmth. And as he feared, one day he was considered unfit, disloyal and useful no more. He resisted but against the might of whole, his oneself failed.
Later oganisation discarded him, he was used as an experiment test subject.
Suddenly a consciousness emerged in the world, it's presense hostile and striking.
" Is that why you became such madman or maybe that's just how you were?" he spoke without any body, his voice was soft but manly yet His words held the boy in contempt, As if his existence itched him to core.
This consciousness watched as dirty boy's memories lapsed in the world.
" You think that's insulting?" A deep voice answered back, the boy that was used in an experiment was him. He held anger but recently that anger seemed vein.
Only two consciounes were speaking so world became meaningless.
world was changing at visible rate. Suddenly the back alley where boy was being bullied was reinacted again. As if very real illusion was casted to play on repeat.
This was a mindrealm. But whose mind realm?
" You were the same as me, Used as nothing but lab rat?" deep voice said in pity, not that he really cared.
" Don't lump me with you pathetic bunch, I was a blue rank administrator in the organisation." Soft male voice was filled with hatred as he spoke, his will strong that his body visibly manifested in the world.
His face sharp, neatly shaved and ready as he wore expensive robe. His golden hair was sight of attraction but there was no one to gaze on him.
Suddenly world stopped moving in memories.
He was here, floating in the labroom where the boy was experimented on, he looked around with suspicions. He waited but then his expression changed to mockery, " I bet you don't even know the name of organisation, Fucking pawn."
As if responding to his words, another individual manifested in the room. He was tall Just as the man before, but dark hair and brown eyes. His appearance was dirty with scarred face as always with bloody fists and ripped clothes. This was madman.
He held expression of solemn ruthlessness, despite not showing it openly.
" So you're a bit more useful pawn but pawn at the end." His words didn't held any respect or mockery for blonde guy.
The blonde man was offended, his facial muscles twiched in anger yet he remained silent. His very existence in this place was proof that his words were undeniable.
" How do we get out of here?" The dirty man, the madman asked, looking at the chair where he was tied before they shoved a blue core to his chest. He suspected that, blue core belonged to blonde man.
" As if you even know what this place is?, Getting out, hmph.. dream on."
The dirty man had enough of blonde's attitude,
" This place is mind realm, I've heard. And since you're here, annoying me means that the blue core they inserted inside me was yours." The black hair man put the pieces together, it was hard to imagine that this was the same madman who tried to kill Elizabeth and Evelyn just a second ago.
This surprised the blonde man, surprised by his cognitive ability.
" So transformation messed with wiring of your head, I see." blonde man made an only possible conclusion, there was no other reason.
The boy he had seen in memories had deeply wounded heart, but he still had checked emotions. And the guy before him was the boy, hatred in heart but held at bay by precise mental fortitude. In no way, he was a sociopath. He was a psychopath. Just like him.
" We're here because body was destroyed, but it will regenerate, then you'll be back to be a madman."
Madman eyed him with question, why madman?
" Oh don't look at me like that, I'm on the same boat, same body. What we're seeing is result of what that mysterious foreign blood does.
Most time body is not capable of holding such powers and gets destroyed but with introduction of this blood in experiments, Let's say the situation has changed." The blonde knew few things, but that still not explained why dirty man became madman.
" I don't have hunger but my body does, Insatiable hunger." Said the madman, expressing what he felt.
Blonde pondered to what he said, that's how he felt when he temporarily gained control of his body.
It wasn't his personal trauma, but something this perversely evolved body was doing to his brain.
" huhu..." Blonde was lost in thoughts when he heard a soft laugh,
Dirty man showed sign of maddening,
" Seems like your body is affecting your mind, meaning body is end of it's regeneration." blonde had disgusted hatred towards madman.
" You'll be next." Now there was no sane dirty man, only madness.
Blonde didn't respond with words, a fine steel sword manifested in his hand.
Mind realm was animated place, where possible visualization became reality.
Madman didn't knew much about mind realm, but he had insticts sharper than beastials. As if replicating himself as blonde, madman willed in his own perverse thoughts and similar sword manifested in his hands, but he wasn't satisfied.
He grinned, knowing how easy it was. Another sword manifested in his other hand soon after.
And without much notice madman jumped in the mortal combat.
His battle fury was as ferocious as wild and wounded beast, he didn't care for his body and striked incessantly.
But blonde only responded with defensive stance, while madman had two swords and barrage of powerful strike at his arsenal, blonde had finesse. Every swift and precise action of his made him untouchable even in this precarious situation, he seemed to be toying rather than fighting. Especially since only used one hand.
And that was annoying madman even more.
" Do you know that there is no death in mind realm, I wouldn't die even if you kill me." Blonde's words were enlightening and as he said them, he purposely missed madman's strike that cut his left arm off, that strike was followed by another strike of other sword that cut decapitated arm to another two pieces.
Yet blonde hardly showed any reaction, No pain and no worry, Just confidence. Madman was left confused even in his frenzied state, he seeked blood but there was no blood where he cut.
Blonde looked at him with unsual smile, something he rarely showed and then his sword pierced madman's chest.
And he bled.
" I lied." Blonde's grin became wide, His hand that was cut vanished in air, Where he was cut too became blur and madman's vision became clear as he saw what was happening.
Mirage of cut hand vanished, his real hand was neatly hidden behind and what madman cut was merely an illusion to sneak past his guard. It wasn't that madman didn't feel that cut a bit weird but he was too occupied by rage that he neglected it
And blonde succeeded, entrapping him his scheme.
The madman felt his chest bleed, clothes that soaked in blood. As he bled more, insanity cooled and rationality took over, temporarily.
His first thought was to create a image where his heart wasn't cut, he pushed blonde man away and he gently stepped back without much resistance.
Madman removed the sword, imagining with all his will, to stop the bleeding but it only worsened as sword that held the dam of blood was no longer there.
And within few seconds his consciousness became whispering, his body that wasn't real became pale just like how a normal body would be with severe bloodloss, his eyes became blur and finally closed without any strength.
Last thing madman saw was arrogant yet repulsed grin on blonde's face, yet that didn't annoy him at all.
Madman was mad no more, he was no more.
" You have skills to fight because all your life you've only known how to fight, but what's also important is to know, how to avoid it." Blonde smiled and turned around. The lab room where he stood started disappearing.
It wasn't his doing, now that owner of memories didn't exist so memories stopped existing as well.
" That can only be achieved by knowledge."
His floating word didn't reach madman whose memories finally vanished with last of his will. He was finally dead.
But it wasn't over, New space formed. New theme, this belonging the blonde man.
But he didn't like it, he ignored as world played around him with memories. It was his mental space yet he failed to control it, getting further annoyed and closed his eyes.
Actually closing eyes didn't do much with what was going around him, His body was a will and not actually human anatomy.
He saw, smelled, tasted, felt and sensed on will and not by physical senses, he had no physical senses in here even when they were projected on his will body.
What he was doing, was inspecting where he was and what really was around him. He was skillful, His mana sense tapped into surrounding with which he observed chaos of elizabeth's self destruction.
He was now a cyan rank, his range of mana sense was large enough to cover whole western dumpyard and that precisely made him realise what the scale of explosion did to it.
The cracked pit where MB 9 had exploded was no more, and there was even larger crater there. Large area had vanished in the impact, even the backup goons with it. Such was the strength of explosion of cyan rank cultivator.
Blonde felt the heat, and realised that he forgot to inspect his own body as he was too occupied with surrounding but then another bad premonition hit him.
His eyes hurridly shut open, which made him realise his body was reconstructed fully but just as he regained the human senses, he saw a large beak growing bigger until it enveloped him completely and he was thrushed in darkness again.
' That bitch, How did she survive?' blonde's thoughts were chaotic, He knew what he saw.
The moment he opened his eyes and before the darkness swallowed him, gave a small window of microsecond yet he clearly saw that.
A huge blind bird, a monster to be precise. It's skin was sizzling with flames that still burned. Blonde had only known it from legend yet he was sure, it was a phoenix.
Phoenix on his last breath, after taking that huge explosion head on but alive phoenix nonetheless.
Blonde had guessed it, that phoenix was definitely Evelyn. And she closed all the routes for blonde's escape by her dying breath.
' Monster have inferno for a stomach, to digest heavy bones and flesh of another monster. And even if she dies, her monster body will takes years before it decompose.' just as he said, he slipped inside her monster stomach.
And Instant that he felt his body demateralised into acid of flames, he was again thrusted in mind realm with no pain.
' She knew my regeneration had limit, my soul will stretch to regenerate body. It will fail in this environment but it will keep going. Till it won't be able to and break.' blonde had accepted his death, There was no escaping this time.
It would be only miracle if he somehow found something that could save him, but just then he sensed something.
Very small thing floating around him, or rather floating around his senses in the acidic stomach as he had no material body.
He tried investigating but failed, his cyan level mana sense was mostly pressed down by owner of this body, afterall body held most authority of individualistic mana.
It was nearly impossible for blonde, what he was trying was almost as if going against a heavy tide with human strength. But nearly impossible didn't meant impossible.
With every bit of will be could muster, blonde touched the unknown with his mostly limited mana sense.
He was shocked to feel it, it was a black ring.
Existing even in this insane environment and that was bewildering.
But he wasn't blinded by those emotions, he willed more, inspected inside and his emotions lit up with what he saw.
Without wasting any second, he called out the ring with but of mana that he still possessed. And Instant a golden ring shaped appearuss manifested inside the stomach, acid was ready to swallow it but just as it manifested, it lit up with light and did it's programmed job.
On the outside, phoenix felt nausea but pain was agonizing. And just then a huge light enveloped her and when light vanished, she wasn't there. She was gone.
Yes, The golden apparatus was indeed a teleportation device.
Blonde man merely wanted to teleported this tiny amount of stomach content where his not materialised Will existed, wherever he would go. Anywhere but outside of here.
But he didn't expected that The whole phoenix would teleport with him and with that, teleportation device was gone out of reality with one use.
And as he found no sir to breath, no safe surround to regenerate. Blonde realised that he failed, his soul also reached the limit. His consciousness faded in acid without a word. He only held hatred even in his last moment.
********
In the dark alley,
Wiring buzzzing sound became louder,
Light emitted from nowhere and from it came huge torrent of flames, it was a burned phoenix.
It's feathery body was burned to ashes and even it's skin was charred, it was blind as well.
As if nausea from the teleportation caused it but huge bird instaly threw up pools of acid, coughing and screeching with burned vocals of monster.
But phoenix held one motive, to kill the immortal enemy.
As her senses tapped into surrounding she noticed a presense standing on vomit and instantly attacked it.
But her left leg gave up and she tumbled.
Her momentum fell short as she only managed to bite on half of shadowed upper torso and crashed on the floor.
Her head pulsed, body heated up even more as soul piercing pain wretched havok inside of her, she realised what was happening.
' Two cores are trying to merge, absorbing way too much mana from surroundin.And as this body is unable to hold it in anymore, it'll blow up.' Evelyn hurridly transformed back to her original form, her physical appearance looking mildly injured with bleeding from chest where foreign core was thrusted in, her soul, her core and monster form was severely damaged.
So she rapidly pulled out a teleportation device out of storage ring, setting coordination to where she was just a minute ago with ragged breathing and soul wrenching pain.
Her eyes involuntary drifted ahead as he pressed the button to teleport, where she definitely saw a naked boy standing in vomit of acid with confused expression.
Unusually the boy had three pair of horns,
But untill then she was already gone.
' Eren!!!'