Eren's Ascension

Three people moved through dark forest, one unconscious- hanging on man's back while girl following behind him, hurriedly as they left but still stealthily to not attract unwanted troubles.

Upon reaching faraway from their initial place, only then they calmed, it was troublesome but man again set a tent up, placing unconscious child aside.

Girl sat beside the boy, her gaze seemingly perplexed with fear and worry.

" Are we safe?" The girl asked.

" As long as we don't make too much noise." The young man lifted unconscious child and went inside the tent, girl followed him behind.

Atmosphere itself was heavy, there was so many many questions to be asked yet no one to fully answer what they'd just witnessed.

" Levy, have you seen something like that before?" Asked lonely girl, Nina. Her eyes horrified from remembering mere few moments of past.

"...." Levy remained silent, not like he could say anything anyway.

What they'd witnessed was not just unusual but catastrophic, even for levy- who roamed the limited world he lived throughout his 30 years of life.

" What is he?" Levy asked.

A question none of three knew was asked, An orphan child with no family, cripple with no eyes or a monster who devoured life itself.

" Let's forget this even happened." spoke Nina, her statement bewildered levy to some extent but one moment as if understanding her meaning he nodded.

Feeling anxious yet they both soon drowned in sweet dreams, exhausted from all the running and battling.

******

It was about time when that beastly tiger broke Eren's ribs, his insides had become mush and iron taste of blood permeated his taste buds.

Unbearable pain caused him to stop breathing yet his barely awake consciousness and unknown power showed him his true nature.

Greenish ethereal figure plunged a black object in another ethereal green life force's head, yes levy killed the tiger.

Cool relaxing emotion surfaced as adrenaline started losing its effect, Despite pushing his mind and body to limit and having intense desire to just gave all up, Eren's consciousness remained wide awake.

As if it wasn't in his control anymore.

Mere seconds passed when he saw dead tiger's green energy slipping inside him violently, Eren felt his inside burn like fire, enough to make him forget about his previous injury.

His consciousness didn't fade, not untill he felt his insides moving, only if he could see. His pale body became even paler, savage foreign energy broke his bones, ripped muscles and plopped organ till his body was nothing but bloody liquid from inside.

Of course from outside it looked as though a horrifying creature lived inside, but as fast as body was destroyed, much faster it got repaired. Whole process lasted five minutes and finally ended.

Eren's unconscious body remained steady, his breathing calming to normal along with pulse that was quickened.

He felt eternity in those mere moments of torture before he opened his eyes and what he saw surprised him

Eren stood outside his hut, same clothes and same face but happy, blissful with pure smile on his own face. ike he forgot everything that happened.

It felt like swoosh when heavy wind passed on his face, his eyes twiched and scenery changed.

Centre of village decorated, multiple stalls and bustling crowd.

Eren couldn't see people's faces or rather, he never focused on that. His expression joyfully and giggles on his lips but sudden sense of deja vu washed over his mind.

Eren blinked and scene changed, from lively to horror, fun to despair, joy to pain, from life to death.

Blood everywhere, body littered around like dirt and faces still hidden behind veil of bloody fog but he didn't care.

He didn't knew why but he looked ahead, there stood two people. Young boy and older woman, their appearance normal for abnormally bloody scene.

He knew them well, they were his only family, Yuta and Sera.

Smile on their faces but instant it vanished as their figures became demonic, their face still the same but with complete black eyes and evil smile on their lips.

Eren looked down, standing in pool of blood as he saw disfigured faces of some people he knew from village but that wasn't the end.

upon closer inspection he saw some black strings leaving his fingers but only to be bewildered next, they weren't leaving, they were entering.

All the blood, gore, decapitated heads and severed body parts turned into black dust that entered in his fingers with string like flow.

Eren's expression frightened to his core, it seemed as he was unaware of anything yet aware of everything.

Hesitantly but he looked ahead, only to see yuta standing inches away from him with his pitch black eyes, sudden closeness made his mind even more chaotic and his heart trembled with fear, but then he heard yuta.

" Wake up, Eren."

Eren abruptly woke up, sweat over his forehead and breathing heavy as chest moved up and down rapidly.

" Bad dream?" Eren turned to his side, hearing Nina's voice gave him relief. His thoughts that were halted ran ahead, he was attacked and nearly died?

In his memories he had no recollection of what happened after he went to unfortunate nap.

" Eren what happened?" Nina asked, her voice filled with worry.

" Nothing, just a nightmare but what about those monsters?" Eren calmed his breathing, and despite how tense he was just a second ago, the way he asked the question seemed quite normal.

Without any worry as he already knew the answer to it.

" Thanks to you levy killed it easily but how did you knew the knife was there?" Upon hearing her question, eren recalled the time of incidence.

That moment, Like a light just lit inside him. he couldn't describe it but felt as though now he could sense everything around him, atleast in radius of 10 meter.

Now dark world became grey, atleast till his sense reached. Outside of that range still veiled in darkness.

Living beings were ethereal green and non-living things black. Eren vividly remembered those moment when he saw huge green figure pressing him down, pain he felt and his own action.

" Eren!!"

" I don't know." Eren answered.

" Maybe it was mana sense." Levy said it out loud, eren felt his presence beside Nina.

" What's that?"

" You kids needs to learn so many things." levy sighed in exhausted manner, His personality was reserved. He was mature and thoughtful but not very talkative and teaching things to these kids was not his thing.

" Where to begin?, let's just start from beginning." as he spoke arranging his thoughts in order.

" Do you know the words cultivation and cultivator? He asked, specifically to Eren. Nina already knew the basics as she was a cultivator herself.

" They can do magical things. My brother was one but he never really talked about it." yuta's face in his thoughts and then that dream, he felt weird.

" They are unique and what makes them unique is their capability to utilise mana in the air to become stronger.

Think of mana as energy floating around us everywhere, it's magical, nonsensical thing but it exists, it is sole evolutionary thing.

Remember that beast earlier, it was that big yet I was stronger because I am also a cultivator." Levy explained but eren expression remained pondering, questioning what he wanted to convey.

" Cultivator have a mana core inside the chest,here."he purposely touched Eren's sternum to make his point.

"Mana veins to absorb mana from environment and mana core to store it inside, that is true cultivator.

That beast evolved into big size because of mana but didn't had one core, that's why it was weaker." Levy didn't brag, He didn't took pride in his strength as he found it pretty pathetic.

That tiger was weak, afterall monster who with their mildly developed intellect and awakened mana core utilised mana well, they belonged to another level of monstrosity but levy wasn't comfortable speaking about such horrible creatures when these children were barely lived after meeting a half evolved tiger.

" Then how can I form my mana core?" Asked eren, his goal that he just made.

" You can't, it does not work like that. If you have talent then you'll naturally awaken it.

Just like myself and nina, Beside this awakening usually occurs at age of 12 to 14." More he spoke, more Eren's face fell in sadness. Nina saw his dejected face then slapped his back hard.

" Don't worry, I'm sure you'll awaken in no time afterall didn't you use mana sens or whatever that was." Her childish laugher sounded near eren.

" Yes that, although weak but that's only reasonable explanation, you must have seen grey world and green flashes." Eren nodded happily, despite not knowing how he did and why couldn't be do it now? But he was happy in his achievement.

" Although that is very simple technique but still you've yet to awaken so it might be hard to do, much less maintain it for long time so just be patient, okay? I'll teach you all I know." levy smiled gently, he found it hard to converse with people but surprisingly he was not so bad to it, even he felt greatly pleased with himself.

Grrrr

Eren's stomach growled with hunger, his face flushed visibly as he bobbed his lips.

" That's normal since you were unconscious for two whole days."

" I was?" Surprised but calmed his reaction quickly, maybe this was the only thing he learned after facing those dangerous situations.

" Yeah levy carried you but then giant snake came..Ouch..ouchh-"

" okay let him rest a bit and prepare the dinner." Twisting her ear, levy dragged Nina back. If left alone, she would go on and on about all the details without leaving single thing.

A small smile appeared on Eren's face just imagining the scene where levy dragged loudmoth Nina to work.

Grrr

His stomach rumbled again, he couldn't feel any presense yet felt embarrassed.

" I'll endure it." The air which showed naive and unaware existence, changed to passionately determined one.

As Nina previously stated 'full two days.' Night again covered the bright sky and world became silent without chirping birds and rampant beasts.

Nina cut few fruits they'd found along the way as they weren't lucky to find meat for today, they could hunt beast but not only it would be troublesome, but also dangerous if other beasts or monsters were to appear suddenly because of bloody smell or loud commotion, So they decide against it.

Eren tried moving, his entire body hurt like he was beaten up straight as punching bag, his constitution still little thin and malnourished but he ate fruits with little energy he had and went to sleep, he wanted remain awake as he felt guilty making them do all the work but on Nina's forceful insistence he agreed.

******

" Wake up." Eren's eyes flickered open in haste, the voice he heard felt empty and threatening but before him laid nothing but barren dark world, with no trees or birds or any living thing for miles.

Eren stood up, his body didn't hurt. That made him realise how weird this was.

There was no moon yet everything dimly visible, ofcourse visible but nothing to see in empty place, As the world itself was just desolate room with no life, not even simple grass.

A moment of realisation hit him hard,

" How can I see all this? And where am I?" His own voice normal, something he'd forgotten after yuta's death. He still remembered the day he cried untill his throat went sore and after that no amount of happiness made his voice calm.

It was sore, deep and empty with lack of vitality and emotion. But now this felt weird and where was this place?

Swoosh...

Huge gust of wind came from behind along with bone chilling intent, he abruptly turned around but nothing. Like that intent was his own fear and nothing much.

Scenery still desolate but soon the sounds of shallow rumbling was heard in distant sky.

Eren found it strange, his head moving to locate resounding movement but before he could, another wave of wind passed. These time small plants grew at visible rate, their growth unatural and unbelievable but that wasn't even the end.

The plants became trees and soon whole area became dense enough to be called a forest. Full Moon shone brightly and series of mountains came to existence.

" What the hell is going on?, Nina, levy where are you?" his heart face raced in unnatural situations, he called out but no response which made this absurdity even more frightening.

" Noisy brat." Female voice, sharp, powerful and authorative but its source still remained unknown but a huge presense was felt.

Eren glanced to his side, turning to look properly saw distant mountain, it was odd. Eren rubbed his eyes in disbelief but sure enough he saw mountain moving a bit.

Only as he focused intently Eren found the source of his inexplicable fear, before him laid gigantic presense. Inside the great darkness opened two big red eyes.