The road ahead lay buried beneath a thin veil of ash, crushed flat by time and footsteps long erased. What little light filtered through the canopy above arrived dulled and green, as if the forest itself strained to keep the world at arm's length. Each step forward carried a faint crunch, soft but persistent, echoing louder in silence than any shout ever could.
Eren moved carefully, senses stretched thin.
The Gluttony System remained quiet.
That alone unsettled him.
Ever since his awakening, silence from the system had meant only two things: preparation… or punishment. He preferred neither. His breathing stayed measured as his gaze swept across the trees, the broken roots clawing through soil like skeletal fingers. Mana lingered here, old and stagnant, clinging to the air in threads so faint they barely stirred when he passed through them.
This place had been used.
Long ago, perhaps. Or recently. The difference mattered little.
What mattered was that something had fed here.
Eren slowed, crouching beside a shallow depression in the ground. At first glance, it looked like a collapsed patch of soil. On closer inspection, it was anything but natural. The edges were scorched inward, not burned, but consumed. The mana residue was unmistakable. Something had devoured energy directly, leaving the physical shell behind like discarded skin.
His jaw tightened.
"So it's not just me anymore," he muttered.
The system's presence stirred faintly at his awareness, a pressure behind his thoughts, watching. Always watching.
He rose and continued forward.
The forest began to thin as he advanced, trees giving way to broken stone half-swallowed by moss and vine. Ruins emerged in fragments: a wall here, a collapsed arch there, all bearing the same hollowed scars. This hadn't been a battlefield. There were no signs of struggle, no scattered weapons or bloodstains.
This had been a feeding ground.
Eren stepped into what must have once been a courtyard. The center was marked by a circular sigil carved deep into the stone floor, its lines warped and uneven, as though something had chewed through the pattern itself. He felt it then—a faint pull in his core, a low thrum of recognition.
Hunger.
Not his own.
The sensation was distant but familiar enough to send a chill crawling down his spine.
Before he could examine the sigil further, the air shifted.
Eren pivoted just as movement rippled at the edge of his vision. Figures emerged from the ruins, their forms flickering like mirages before stabilizing. Three of them. Humanoid, but wrong. Their bodies were wrapped in layered plates of darkened bone and metal, fused together without seam or rivet. Where faces should have been, only smooth masks stared back, etched with jagged openings that glowed faintly from within.
They didn't speak.
They didn't need to.
Eren felt the pressure hit him all at once. A devouring intent, heavy and invasive, scraping against his senses like a blunt blade.
"System," he whispered internally.
This time, it answered.
[Threat detected.]
[Devourers — Lesser Class.]
[Caution advised.]
Lesser.
The word did little to comfort him.
The Devourers moved as one. No wasted motion, no hesitation. The ground cracked beneath their steps as they surged forward, their presence dragging at the mana around them, stripping it bare. Eren reacted instantly, drawing power into his limbs as he twisted aside. A clawed arm slammed down where he'd stood, pulverizing stone into dust.
He countered without thinking, driving his blade upward in a tight arc. The strike landed clean, biting into layered armor—but instead of resistance, the metal flexed and folded inward, absorbing the impact. The Devourer staggered back a half-step, more surprised than injured.
The others adjusted immediately.
Eren cursed under his breath.
They were learning.
The system pulsed.
[Adaptive entities detected.]
"Of course they are."
Mana surged through him as he pushed harder, forcing Gluttony's pull outward. The familiar ache bloomed in his chest, sharp and intoxicating. Power flooded his senses, sharpening the world until every movement felt etched in crystal clarity. He lunged again, this time targeting the glowing fissures beneath the mask.
The blade pierced deep.
The Devourer screamed.
Not with sound, but with force. A psychic shockwave tore through the courtyard, rattling Eren's bones and sending him skidding backward across stone. He barely caught himself before hitting the edge of the sigil. Pain flared across his arms, but he ignored it, teeth clenched as he forced himself upright.
The wounded Devourer convulsed, its body collapsing inward as something inside it unraveled. The system reacted instantly.
[Devourer core destabilized.]
[Consume?]
Eren didn't hesitate.
"Yes."
The pull snapped tight.
Energy tore free from the collapsing creature in a violent rush, flooding into him like a tide breaking against a dam. Heat burned through his veins, raw and ravenous, forcing a groan from his throat. He dropped to one knee as the system processed the intake, symbols flashing behind his eyes faster than he could track.
[Energy absorbed.]
[Efficiency: 62%.]
[Partial resistance acquired.]
The remaining Devourers recoiled.
For the first time, something like hesitation crept into their movements.
Eren rose slowly, breath heavy but steady. The pain was still there, but beneath it pulsed something stronger. Familiar. Hungry.
"So you can feel it too," he said quietly.
They attacked again, but the rhythm had shifted. Where before Eren had reacted, now he advanced. Each step forward pressed the Devourers back, his presence grinding against theirs. He slipped past a strike, severed a limb, then another, his blade guided as much by instinct as by intent.
One fell. Then another.
The last Devourer attempted to retreat, its form distorting as it tried to dissolve into mana. Eren wouldn't allow it. He reached out, forcing Gluttony outward in a focused surge. The air screamed as the creature was dragged back, its resistance collapsing under the weight of his pull.
The system chimed once more.
[Devourer consumed.]
[Growth registered.]
Silence reclaimed the courtyard.
Eren stood alone among the ruins, chest rising and falling as the last echoes of battle faded. The sigil beneath his feet dimmed, its warped lines finally going still. Whatever this place had been, its purpose was finished now.
But the unease remained.
He looked down at his hands, watching faint traces of energy coil and vanish beneath his skin.
"These things… they're spreading," he murmured.
The system offered no reassurance.
Only a single line remained, hovering at the edge of his awareness.
[Hunger recognizes hunger.]
Eren exhaled slowly and turned away from the ruins, already moving forward. Whatever waited ahead, it wouldn't be the same world he'd entered.
And deep down, he knew the truth.
Neither would he.