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
Sid was swallowed by the crowd in the locker room as soon as he reentered it."Hell of a fight." Gaine Winchester told him and offered his hand for a handshake. They clasped hands.There were people all around him. At his back, giving him unsolicited, congratulatory pats, clasping his shoulder, shaking his hands like he was a national hero or something. Sid was accustomed to this, being admired. But this time it was worse. They had just watched him hurt a person. He did not feel like a national hero. Yet they were all over him, pawing at him. Eren would have been disgusted, Sid thought.He extracted himself from the crowd of pandering hands and someone stepped into his path. It was a girl. And Sid resisted the urge to snap at her."How did you do it?" She asked him.Sid raised a brow at her. "The fire," she continued, as though he did not know what she was speaking about, "You walked through it."Whoever she was, Sid did not recognize her. There were too many people in there f
‘Pray they stop me in time’, Eren had told Daniel. As he stepped into the arena, he realized he knew nothing of the extent of Daniel's powers. Daniel's ability was the ability to shape shift, like Drake. But he had barely used his abilities in the previous fights because his opponents were easier to beat. What would he do now that he knew Eren was a real threat? Eren dismissed the thought and tried to remain unruffled. The crowd welcomed him with cheering. Flower petals floated down from above. He gazed above in awe, momentarily distracted. The arena had been scrubbed clean of the blood and grime from the last few fights. The third stage had begun and just the same way he had started the tournament, his fight was beginning the third stage. Eren took his position at the other side of the circle and watched as Daniel emerged. His arrival was celebrated with cheering, too. The announcer announced his name and he raised a hand grinning as if he was some kind of prince.
The next blow Eren dealt Daniel nearly tore his head off his shoulders with the force of it and he was flung across the arena where he slammed against the wall, crumpling to the ground like a paper doll. A shock wave rippled through the arena after the blow. The crowd gasped. When Daniel hit the wall, the bricks cracked and a rift jagged like a bolt of lightning could be seen. "Get up!" People called from the crowd. "Come on!" They yelled all sorts of encouragement at the fallen fighter from the stands. The shouts turned into a chant and soon the arena was alive with it. ‘Not if he had a say in the matter’, Eren mused. He advanced on Daniel as the screams of Get up! grew more insistent. A blow like that, he surmised, would put down most people. Yet, bleeding at the mouth and from the ears, Daniel crawled forward, eventually using the wall as leverage to heft himself to his feet. Eren was upon him in a moment, as quick as a blur. He managed to regain his com
Sid Nivron watched the fight in the terse quiet of the locker room. They all did. The Awakened stood around in their combat suits, watching the match in earnest. The pairings were random, so it was best to learn everything one could about any one that seemed even remotely like a threat. And after that contest, Sid could see it on all their faces - the silver haired boy was high up in the rankings. The contest had ended as Sid had hoped, granted, with Eren as the undisputed victor. It had, however, not gone quite as he had expected. The rage, he foresaw. The brutality with which Eren handled his opponent was a surprise; one he could not have dreamed up in two lifetimes. Gaine grinned at the screen when the medics entered the arena to take Daniel away. "And that, my friends," He said to no one in particular, "was what you call a proper contest." The ripple of unease that passed over the spectators did not seem to have any effect on him. Drake Khan preten
If there was one thing Drake Khan did not like about this world, that thing was surprises. He loathed them. Utterly despised them. This special hatred he had reserved for surprises came from the fact that, being a Khan, surprises were rarely ever good ones. Most days he prided himself in keeping his life on a short leash, and there were few things worse than a hound acting out. If there was ever a time things had gotten out of hand, it was then, in that moment. He watched Eren from his perch across the room. Drake had never been the smartest in school, so he was not too startled. However he could not understand what happened to Eren in the month he went away without leave. But the thing was, no one else seemed to understand the transformation the boy had gone through either. He was not sure whether to call it adolescence. Under what bloody sun had the lad become so bloody sturdy? He was enormous compared to who he used to be. "Is that Eren?" He had heard
“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