'Destruction births life. It's one of the fundamental rules of Creation.'
Maya remembered her father's teaching as she looked at Eren with vigilance and expectations. She had an inkling that in lay her chance to cultivate a soul.
Maya felt that Lin Lehan and Eren were cut from the same cloth when it came to being fascinated by the way the mana worked. They both were innovators at heart. And their drive to discover something new made them dangerous to everyone around them.
Maya could see on Eren's face that he was keen on doing explosions like these just to understand the effects of intent-driven mana. Her father had a similar mindset.
Eren wasn't aware that he was being watched so intently by Maya. The butcher just waited for her to clear the battleground.
It felt as if a meteor had struck the heart of the city.
A huge crater was formed at ground zero. The surroundings around it were devoid of any form of structure. The buildings and the constructions that were around the city square were no more. The abandoned city looked as if it didn't have a heart anymore.
Eren saw the figures of three participants standing in the middle of the crater. He flapped his wings and flew towards them at breakneck speed, like an eagle eager to catch its prey.
Swoosh.
Eren landed a bit away from the three surviving rankers. There was a translucent spatial cube protecting the three rankers, he observed. It was a very special Sansara Perk.
The sympathetic vomiter, as Eren had called her earlier, was the deployer of the defensive-type Sansara Perk. Sadly, she could only protect Darven and Harja with her barrier. And from the looks of things, they weren't enough to assure her safety.
***
The final battle between Eren and the surviving participants didn't last long.
Seeing that the Domain of Gluttony was no more, the participants started to cast their elemental spells against Eren. The butcher could not deploy any Sin Series domain in such a short time because of the strain on his soul.
However, he had found another use for the Mark of Gluttony.
Just like Argo, Eren learned that he could destabilize his opponents' elemental spells by devouring the foundational concepts involved in their basic building blocks. The butcher used spectral mouths to devour and destabilize these spells.
Destabilizing spells did not require the deployment of the Gluttony Domain. He could harness the gluttony mana within him to cast the spectral mouths for devouring.
Eren couldn't use devoured mana and concepts in his own attacks in the absence of the Gluttony Domain. However, it wasn't really a drawback for him. He had plenty of mana reserves available to handle wounded rankers.
Gondel wanted to capitalize on the fact that the survivors were busy with each other. He was way too scared to act at first. But he tried to sneak in and approach Maya while the fight between Eren and his opponents was at a critical stage.
The participants dueling with Eren didn't care about the Sansara Sage's Legacy anymore. Unfortunately for Gondel, Eren was paying attention to Gondel's movements all the time. He used Ertaur against the geek, preventing him from completing the test.
Red Lightning Bull did an excellent job. He had become a C-rank entity after ranking up with Eren. And with Eren's lightning attainments granted to him, the bull managed to keep Gondel busy.
As a result, the sympathetic vomiter, Darven, and Harja Mel were forced to accept their defeat. They were on their knees, desperately looking down. Fear of survival took over them.
Eren also managed to neutralize Gondel the geek after that. He just took the array key from his hand before killing him. The butcher devoured the array creator right away in front of the three surviving rankers, making them more afraid of him.
Eren wanted to devour Gondel ever since he saw the guy's mastery of array manipulation. That's why he allowed him to survive to this point. He wanted to claim the geek's knowledge and experience for himself, which could help him in his future endeavors.
***
"What is your name?"
In a cold voice, Eren inquired about the sympathetic vomiter. He didn't have any weapons in his hand as he stood in front of the three defeated participants. However, the three rankers did not doubt in their minds that Eren's bare hands were enough to finish them off in their current situation.
The sympathetic vomiter looked at Eren with a deadpan expression. She thought that the butcher had a weird fetish for knowing a bit about his victims before he finished them off. Still, it wasn't like she was averse to the idea of humanizing herself in potential killers' eyes. She took a deep breath before replying with equal coldness in her voice.
"Nysa. My name is Nysa Nael."
Eren nodded at Nysa before asking her another question.
"Nysa, I'll only ask this once. Do you want to live?"
A bit of light returned to Nysa's eyes when she heard Eren's questions. She didn't want to get her hopes up. But she really wanted to live and advance as a ranker.
Compared to Royal Ren's standard, Nysa Nael wasn't among the most impressive rankers. However, she had a sound head on her shoulders. She had her own dreams and aspirations.
A ranker like her wouldn't want to end her journey so abruptly under any circumstances. Nysa looked into Eren's emerald green eyes intently before nodding her head in approval.
"Good."
He then looked at Darven and Harja Mel before asking them the same question. These two male rankers didn't have suicidal tendencies either. So they also replied affirmatively.
The butcher smiled brightly and clapped his hands.
"That settles it then. You will serve as my cover and take the heat off me.
But you will have to do what I say. You will be injected with foreign mana in the next moment. Don't fight it. Accept its intrusion with all your heart and soul.
Let it affect youâ€" change you."
Eren didn't allow his war prisoners to ask him any more questions. He changed into his summoner class before starting the process of creating new pawns for the end game.
