The tunnels spat Eren out like an arrow and the arena swallowed him whole. It was even more grand than he remembered. He looked up at the stands in wonder."Holy shit." He whispered, turning in a circle to take it all in. His opponent, Zack, did the same in amazement.The arena stretched out like a grand amphitheater with tiers of seats rising high around the central stage. The architecture was a testament to grandeur and functionality at once, designed to accommodate thousands of spectators while focusing all attention on the arena floor below. Sunlight streamed through the open arches casting light shadows that danced over the floors which were covered in sand.He scanned the throng of people for Silas's reassuring face. Above and below. East and west. There was no sign of the man who had easily become a mentor to him in the preceding weeks. With the crowd, Eren realized it would be next to impossible to find a single person. He hoped Silas would be watching. He knew the dir
"I won't lie to you. Sometimes, I wish Solvane Winchester was my Gramps." Tristan said.Drake threw his head back and laughed hard and long. Daniel chuckled until he was wheezing and out of breath. They had just seen the Winchester patriarch's speech televised and Tristan was enraptured."If Solvane Winchester was your grandfather, which he would not be in this world or the next, but if he was, that would make you a Winchester. And what sort of Winchester would that make you?" He made a flicking motion at Tristan's hair. Dark and frizzly. It was nothing like the fine silver locks by which the Winchesters could be identified everywhere.Tristan kissed his teeth, making a smacking sound with his mouth. "Yeah, whatever."He was hurt. He was very easily hurt by things, which Drake found quite amusing. The guy was nearly a giant. Drake cackled with Daniel. Soon, the laughter died down in his throat when he realized most of the contestants gathered around the screen before them. The ma
Who would have thought he would live to see the day?Eren stared at his hands in amazement. They glowed with phosphorescent, blue light. He threw a hasty glance in his opponent's direction to confirm his position. Eren did not appreciate the surprise he had received earlier, and if possible, he wanted to avoid another.Zack Palmer studied him with new respect in his eyes. "No one has ever blocked my attack like that." He called across the space between them.Eren shook his head. He had gained some confidence in the encounter. Weeks of preparation, weeks of fighting robot models in Silas' mansion, weeks worrying that he would not survive a real fight since he could hardly claim to have been in one. Because look what happened the one time he tried to fight Drake off with a club.After all that anxiety, he had managed to hold his own in the first few minutes of the fight. It felt like hard earned redemption. It gave him confidence."Well, in your defense, you hadn't met me." Eren
The walk back to the locker room was the longest walk of Eren's life. Confetti rained down from the stands onto his back. All over his suit. Some pieces of glitter and paper got into his hair. Like the tournaments, this too was a long standing tradition. They celebrated the opening contest almost as much as the final bout. The beginning and the end side by side.Despite the throbbing in his head and the pain at his side, a part of Eren still could not believe he had opened the games, that he had won, too. Maybe I am dreaming, He thought. Maybe Drake hit me so hard that I am still in a coma.He feared that he would wake up any time from then, swaddled in a hospital gown, gasping for air with oxygen starved lungs. But he trudged all the way to the locker rooms and nothing happened. No awakening. No drawing on the air for breath.The announcer's voice kept booming over the intercom and Eren dragged his unwilling body, wondering where the exhaustion had emerged from. The doors clo
BOOM!The last of the explosions boomed so loudly, Eren held his hands to his ears. The blasts took him by the feet and dragged him through the slick mud of memory - That one evening. His mother holding a smoking shotgun with its barrel pointed heavenward. The part of her face angled towards him was cast in shadow, and for a stark moment, he was stunned at how picturesque she was. Like a statute, perfect and perfectly still.Elizabeth Trost had started something resembling a garden at the back of their house. A pet project of sorts. There were tomatoes in a corralled patch of loamy soil and reddened fruits bursting from the branches of pepper plants. A few stalks of corn swayed at the back too. Nothing nearly enough to be substantial.She tended to it in the hours after work, gently, as though it was her child. A second child. It calmed her, she claimed.Eventually the garden bloomed into more than what she had planned for, and of course the birds came. His mother made herself
Tiana learnt early how to wear a mask. How to be a mask.It was quite simple actually. Force a bright smile onto her face. Sprinkle false confidence into her step. If sitting, place one leg on top of the other—it was easier to conceal knee jerking that way. Find something to keep your hands occupied so the trembling is not visible. Do not fidget.It was easy to look composed. To be composed was a harder task. Her heart pounded in her chest. Anxiety ate at her."See?" Sid was saying to Eren, "I'd make a good friend.""Shut up, man." Eren said coolly. But he shoved him with his shoulder, as if to say, you are alright.More than anything else Tiana envied their freedom. Their groundedness. Especially Eren's. Unlike her, he was not tied to a Clan name. He did not bear the weight of nobility. Little was asked of him if any.Only that morning, before being driven to the arena, she had sat with her mother at their table, and even though it was only the two of them, she felt that weight p
After the seventh fight, they summoned Tiana.She was speaking to Sid and laughing about something he had said when her name boomed over the speakers. All eyes in the room settled on her and she seemed suddenly very small, unsure. Then as Eren watched, her face rearranged itself. She was sliding under something. Or perhaps, behind something.Eren knew what it was like to hide away from the world so long that it became a personality. A kind of armor, but of the mind. Everyone had something that they fell behind when they needed to. But Eren had watched her animated for the better half of an hour and he had seen the mask peeling to reveal the person beneath. He liked who she was underneath all that chainmail. He hoped her mask never became her.Her would-be opponent, a huge, muscular guy smirked at her and exited the locker room for the corridor. Tiana got to her feet, folded and unfurled her fingers nervously and started walking to the tunnel."Good luck, Tiana." Sid called afte
For Sid, fighting was not just an art form - it was clarity.Most children were taught violence only because their parents knew they would need it to contest in the tournaments when they were of age. But Sid's mother had never been in the picture. She left when he was young and now she was like a figure in the rearview mirror. The older he grew, the more distant his memories of her grew, the less he remembered. His father was a scientist, the wealthy kind, who solved problems by throwing money at them. He parented Sid from a distance, too, drawing him close only when he needed something from him.Young and surrounded on all sides by wealth and little humanity, he was always acutely aware of how different he was from others, how alone. His peers loved him. How could they not? He inherited his father's charm and his mother's beauty, the kind that made you heady, that made people act like he was a fleeting experience, like he would vanish if they did not turn and try to grasp at hi
“Samantha Dennin." A female security officer poked her head into the gymnasium of the Academy, looking around for her. “Lord William had requested your audience. Immediately."Samantha stood up abruptly, looked at the officer, and offered her a curt nod of affirmation before removing her gym towel from her neck and following the Security officer out of the gymnasium.The air outside the gym was crispy and cold. Samantha could hear winter’s whisper from the wind and the cold.She smiled as she breathed in the fresh air. She looked forward, and in the distance, she could see the towering building, The Titan, where William Winchester's office was. She was not at a loss about what was going to happen. The new academic session of Winchester Academy started a few days before, and she had hoped that she would be able to participate in it, but William Winchester hadn't said anything yet. For her, whatever William Winchester said would determine the course of her life.“Come in." She hear
It had been three days since the battle, and the Academy was still buzzed with the news of the Great Fight as the students tagged it. Construction started immediately after the fight, and students joined in to make it faster and more effective. The sun shone brighter, and the people were happier. As William had briefed the media, the enemy was incapacitated and wouldn't be coming back. While it shined sunshine and rainbows, doom spelled darkness in the deepest parts of the Academy prison yards. In a state-of-the-art prison, Silas sat, locked up by order of the Awakened judiciary, until his judgment. Vatican Sol was also locked with him. The only problem that the Academy had was the runaway father and son. Edward Dennin and his son, Trevor Dennin. Finding them was becoming a problem because of Edward Dennin's expertise in hiding. However, William made sure that the security team wouldn't rest until they found them both. This became their motivation to look harder and find
Zachary raised his head and was face to face with Silas. He desperately struggled to keep his breath going. He had held on for more than five minutes, waiting for nothing. He just wanted to keep Silas Homer busy so he would not pursue Eren. Eren stood around thirty steps away, transfixed. Zachary understood that he needed more time and was willing to help him obtain it. Zachary had two things that made him determined. The first one was that nothing would happen to his son for as long as he was conscious on the battlefield, and the second was that he wouldn't die until he explained the actual situation to his son.“You think you're all it?" Zachary asked, a disgusted look on his face. Silas's eyes widened like a madman's, obviously not accepting of what Zachary said. “I'm better than a weakling like you!" He shouted. “The world does not need weaklings. You all do nothing more than infest the world with your weakness. It's sickening.”Zachary rasped and chuckled, his face amused.
Night was fast approaching, but the fire of war still burned bright on the summit. Fights continued in different places and spots as MANNA burst forth in various ways and diverse strengths. Despite the bloody battlefield, the colors in the sky splashed out in equipoise. The blues and green and orange, the sky prided itself in its contrast to the mortality of men. The sky looked upon the men of the ground with pity as they stole life from one another and sent their souls to nowhere.Eren Trost ran into the battlefield with a roar of rage and snatched the Helm of Tyrants from Silas Homer, yanking it from his head. The older man didn't notice that a few of his hair was torn along with it. His pride and trust in the Helm of Tyrant were going to be his doom, and he didn't know it yet. Slowly, the great level of MANNA, which was running through his veins and synced with blood, left him. Realizing that he had been rid of the power he depended on, Silas Homer looked around in haste, des
The day was beginning to bleed into the evening, but the fighting field retained its activity. Jared Khan was faced by his children at the eastern end of the fighting field. Kathlyn had her hand on her hip as she faced her father, angrily questioning him about his decisions.“Dad! You don't have to do this.” She ran towards him to stop him from hurting innocent people. Jared Khan ignored them and tossed the guard he had just beaten up, who had slumped to the side. After he saw that the space around him was empty and no guard or soldier was standing that he could attack or fight with, he reluctantly faced his children.“Father, " Drake started. “Why are you doing this?” He transformed back and stood behind his sister, hoping that she could knock him back into reality.Drake had always believed Kathlyn to be their father's favorite. Growing up, she always got their father's love and attention, which was different from his experience. Drake hoped that his sister's being more loved
Eren kept his gaze on Sid. Not out of caution but to seek his little bit of regret. But he got nothing. Despite his rage and anger-infused questions, Sid didn't respond; he just retained his blank, emotionless look, further enraging Eren.“Say something!" Eren shouted again, hoping Sid would respond and, at the least, tell him why he was doing what he was. Why did he choose to follow Silas despite his sinister plans to destroy the Awakened society and the world as they knew it?Despite Eren's hurt, which he deliberately ignored to focus on restoring his image, finding Silas, returning the Helm of Tyrants, and finding the truth behind his mother's death, he wanted to believe that Sid wasn't doing it voluntarily. He wanted to believe that he had a reason why he betrayed his trust and followed Silas“I have nothing to say to you, Eren," Sid said, unsheathing his daggers tucked in the leather pouch. Eren's face slowly pulled into a confused frown, and he wracked his head, trying to
A dark cloud covered the sun and enveloped the area in the seminar hall, making it look like the evening. MANNA glowed in diverse colors in different spots and places as the Awakened society attacked one another. The Awakened who followed Silas came rushing into the arena, and William's trained soldiers attacked them with power and strength on par with Silas's Awakened. Flashes of sword fights and MANNA shots filled the seminar ground. The dark cloud that covered the sun slowly peeled off its surface, revealing the faces of each person to their opponent.The thrill of victory dried off Eren's nerves as he ran to the fighting ground, his heart beating hard as he approached the middle of the fight. He could see William's braided white hair in the distance, and he rushed to the scene, stopping about twenty steps behind him to get a clearer vision from the proximity. A smirk grew on his lips as he counted; he realized that they had more numbers than Silas's team. William and other p
On the night before the summit, the Academy held its breath in dread and anxiety. Despite the preparations that had been made, the question of the uncertainty of what could happen still lingered in the air.The Helm of Tyrants was the most feared trinket in the Academy, so it was kept safe in the Academy Head’s office, the safest place on the Academy grounds, second only to the Academy vault. The uncertainty of the next day kept William in the middle of his office by 8 p.m., pacing a hole in the ground.William walked to the northern end of his office, where the transparent glass wall was, and looked out of the window; the north side of the Academy was completely open to him. Thoughts of what could happen the next day filled his mind. He thought of thousands of scenarios in which they won and a million in which they lost. His father had spoken to Zachary and him since they were teenagers about the Helm of Tyrants and its great power. In the wrong hands, the world as they know it
Drake sat opposite the large window in his Academy dorm room, his hands intertwined behind his head as he rocked the wooden dorm chair. Sighing for the fourth time in a minute, he brushed one hand through his hair, the dirty blonde shining a hue of gold as the morning sun streamed into his room when the clouds cleared off it.“Ugh," He groaned, his hands sliding down his face, muffling his voice. This is sweet hell, he thought and stood up abruptly, causing the chair to tip back and almost fall. Drake swiftly held it back and positioned it to face his desk, the chair frame now facing away from the window.Drake stood up to check the window. The glass was completely transparent, giving him a clear view of what was going on on the ground floor. It was bustling with activities. Drake perceived it as preparations for Silas Homer’s suspected plan to destroy the major clan leaders and senators all at once during the nation's leaders' summit, which was a few days away.He used animal he