CHAPTER:19 [Bloodline Echoes]
After the brutal duel with Feng Lin, Kai blacked out completely and was rushed to the infirmary, where he remained unconscious for a full two days. That final devastating strike from Feng had done wonders… though not the wonderful kind.
(Agh… where the hell am I?)
As Kai slowly cracked open his eyes, a horrifying vision slammed into him like a hammer from the gods. He saw a humble house engulfed in raging crimson flames that roared toward the heavens. A small child — himself — sat on the grassy ground, bawling his eyes out in pure terror.
Then a deep, desperate voice cut through the chaos.
"Kai! Run away! Run into the forest!"
Without a single thought, the child version of Kai shot to his feet and sprinted straight into the dense, pitch-black forest behind him.
He ran for what felt like an eternity, lungs burning, legs screaming, until he finally stopped at the base of a towering mountain to catch his breath. Huffing heavily, hands on his knees, he suddenly realized something that made his blood run cold — he was in a child's body.
(What the hell is happening?!)
A flood of confusing thoughts crashed through his mind in that brief moment of respite. But before he could fully process anything, a sinister shadow slithered through the darkness, closing in fast. Panic exploded inside him. He ran deeper into the forest, only to be caught in the sticky trap of a gigantic tarantula. He squirmed and struggled with all his might, but the webs held him like iron chains. Just as hope died in his chest, the dark shadow that had been pursuing him sliced the massive spider cleanly in half.
Kai jolted awake from the nightmare, gasping wildly.
He opened his eyes far too wide and far too fast. The bright ceiling light hit him like a flashbang from hell, blinding him instantly. Squinting desperately, he finally made out a smug face hovering above him — pale skin, long dark black hair, and those questionable dark eyes. The bastard was casually picking his nose with his pinky finger.
"Oh, you finally woke up. I thought you died or something," Feng Lin said with a lazy grin.
Kai frowned at the absurd sight of a so-called prince picking his nose like a common thug. It was the most random, ridiculous thing he had ever witnessed.
"How long have I been sleeping?" he asked, voice dripping with irritation.
Feng looked at him with a completely unserious expression.
"Two days. Oh, sorry — two and a half days."
Kai fell silent, mind still trapped in that haunting vision. It didn't feel like a normal dream… it felt like a buried memory clawing its way back to the surface. They chatted for a while, but Kai kept drifting into deep thought. Eventually Feng stood up.
"Stay here in the infirmary tonight. It's already evening anyway."
Kai couldn't sleep at all. Half of it was because the metal bed and its rock-hard foam felt like lying on a torture rack. The other half was that horrifying dream, which refused to leave his mind. It stuck out like a festering sore thumb, replaying over and over. Hours blurred past until morning arrived without him realizing.
Kai dragged himself out of bed, yawning deeply with a bone-tired expression. He changed into his academy uniform and left the infirmary. After wandering through the massive academy grounds, he reached the cafeteria, ate breakfast in silence, then headed to class. The lessons dragged on for hours until lunchtime finally came.
Feng invited him to eat together. They stepped into the cafeteria, which was exploding with noise and bodies like a battlefield of hungry students. Kai and Feng claimed the quietest corner, placed their trays on the shiny metal table, and sat opposite each other.
They chatted casually for a while until Feng suddenly asked,
"What's wrong with you lately? Why do you look so out of it all the time?"
"It's nothing… Just that after you knocked me out, I had this strange vision. It felt more like a memory, but I don't remember anything like that ever happening."
Feng looked genuinely surprised. He thought for a moment, recalling something similar from his own background.
"It must be an ancestral memory. Something like that happens often where I come from — memories passed down through one's blood."
Kai laughed bitterly.
"Heh. It's such a coincidence that my ancestor had the same name as me."
Feng's expression turned dead serious.
"Then it must be yours. Maybe you've forgotten something."
Eren thought about it deeply. He suddenly remembered that when he was reincarnated into Kai's body, he had only received half of Kai's life memories. His face grew solemn.
"How do I recover these memories?"
Feng gulped down the last of his food, then leaned in close with a deadly serious expression.
"I don't know."
And then he burst out laughing like a complete maniac.
"Oh man, look at your face! You were paying such close attention!"
He laughed even harder. Kai's eye twitched violently with every cackle, dark thoughts of painfully murdering his so-called friend flooding his mind.
They finished lunch and returned to the dorm. They split up and went to their separate rooms. It was already midnight, but Kai still couldn't fall asleep. That horrifying scene from the dream refused to leave him. He stood up, entered the circle of runes he had carved earlier, and sat in a lotus position.
He began meditating to enter his consciousness. Soon the entire room erupted with brilliant illusory light, and he arrived once more in the white foggy world — mountains piercing into an endless void where no sky existed.
As he started walking through the eerie realm, the foggy world instantly responded, shrinking the distance between him and anything his heart desired. Kai began testing the limits of his god-like control. He pointed at obstacles and they vanished. He willed himself across vast distances in the blink of an eye. He reshaped the world itself like soft clay, materializing whatever he wished or simply tossing entire landscapes around like toys. He truly was the absolute God of this domain, and the foggy world accepted his rule with open arms.
After indulging in his divine playtime, Kai's expression turned deathly serious. In a dominating, ice-cold voice that echoed across the entire realm, he commanded:
"Take me to where my memories are sealed."
His voice thundered through the world, making it shudder in fear and obedience. The foggy realm instantly shrank the distance. In a split second, Kai stood before a towering mountain with a massive crack sewn shut by glowing golden chains.
He stared at the seal, raised his hand, and clenched his fist. The golden chains shattered like brittle wax.
The crack burst open. A raging sea of memories swallowed him whole. He was nothing more than a helpless pebble crushed beneath a tsunami of the past.
Suddenly he was a small child again, sitting barefoot on grassy land with innocent black hair and a pure face. A sweet voice called out. He turned to see a beautiful little girl with silky black hair tinted pink running toward him.
"Kai, what are you doing here barefoot? You know what Mom and Dad say — worms will enter your legs if you don't wear shoes!"
Before Eren could react, the child version of himself pouted innocently.
"B-but I like it like this…"
The little girl sighed.
"Let's go eat dinner."
The two children walked home with their normal, loving parents to a simple wooden village house. They gathered around a rectangular wooden table and enjoyed a peaceful family meal. After dinner, their parents tucked them into their rooms.
At midnight, a sickening screeching sound — like someone chewing on bones with bare teeth — echoed through the house. The boy got out of bed and followed the noise to his sister's room. The moment he opened the door, his pupils shrank in pure horror.
A creepy man dressed in black was devouring his sister alive.
He stumbled backward in terror and ran downstairs, only to find his father desperately fighting another masked man in black.
"Kai! Run away and don't look back!"
Kai sprinted outside with all his strength, but froze when he saw the entire village engulfed in roaring crimson flames. He looked back — his home was nothing but rubble and raging inferno. Then he heard his father's voice once more, now engulfed in flames himself.
"Kai! Run away! Run into th—"
The man fighting his father stomped down on his back with crushing force. The monster who had eaten his sister stepped out of the flames, wearing a black robe and a mask with strange lines on the right side, the left side of his face twisted into an eerie, unhinged smile. Kai ran into the forest but was caught by the guy who ate his sister.
Instead of killing him, they dragged Kai away to a place called Terra — a twisted laboratory disguised as an orphanage. There he was tortured, mutilated, and experimented on without anesthesia. His bones were rearranged in impossible ways, his body ripped apart again and again, all to create the perfect killing machine using monster blood. In the end they failed. They discarded him like trash and erased every memory of his parents and the orphanage. He lived on without complaint, without knowing.
Tears streamed down Eren's cheeks as he stood beneath the white, devoid sky of the foggy world. In a solemn, broken voice he whispered:
"He truly had an unfortunate life…"
END OF CHAPTER:19