Instant Reset!
Expedited Regeneration!
Eren snapped his fingers and activated his bloodline Ability at the same time, allowing him to recover from serious injuries within a few blinks. His bones mended and the severe cuts deep enough to hurt his organs became flesh wounds.
The Rank Upgrade had its perks. Eren was really becoming the undying cockroach that his enemies labeled him to be just before their deaths. At his current level, if his body had any real threat, it came from his own soul that had been turned divine. It was as if his body was struggling to contain his soul within itself.
The battle with Eliza was turning into a beneficial event for Eren because of his condition. The constant damage and regeneration made his body subconsciously adjust its attributes to better suit his divinity.
As a result, Eren kept growing in his Ranking Status at an alarming rate the more he fought Eliza and got battered in the process. It was as if he was using the Witch of the Enderflames and her flames to temper his physical form.
The battle also helped Eren stabilize his newly formed A-Rank mana core. He was solidifying his gains and readjusting to his newly obtained Rank with each passing second.
Of course, Eren had lost count of how many times he was forced to use Instant Reset. This wasn't the kind of growth he was seeking. However, Eliza's skills forced him to tread on this path. She really was every bit of a monster the legends about her depicted her to be.
***
'This brat…. How did he grow so much within just a decade?'
Eliza tried to get her breathing to normalcy as she thought to herself. The splitting headache she felt was growing because of the state of her soul and the continuous battles she was forced to fight. She could have suppressed Lady Zee's soul completely if she had just enough time and rest. With her Sin of Pride's always-active Ability, it would have been an effortless process. However, her current situation allowed Lady Zee's subconscious soul to completely fuse with hers, making it a part of herself.
Lady Zee's soul had lost its original identity, becoming one with Eliza. Thus, Eliza couldn't continue to suppress Lady Zee's subconscious anymore because her soul and even the Sin Series Ability treated it as a part of her own soul.
Basically, Eliza couldn't suppress her own soul.
Lady Zee's memories and her experiences were slowly fusing with Eliza, making it difficult for the latter to retain her identity. As she fought with Eren in the real world, she also fought with Lady Zee's soul in her Soul Space. The mental war she fought with Lady Zee was worse for Eliza because it did not have a clear winner.
The only thing that kept Eliza in control of her current situation was her Always-active Ability. Thus, instead of fighting against Lady Zee's consciousness, Eliza decided to completely assimilate with her soul while retaining her core personality intact.
***
The standstill between the two Grandmasters only lasted for about a minute. After stabilizing their forms, they both were ready to reopen each other's wounds afresh.
"You… you are a weird man, Eren," Eliza spoke up after taking a deep breath. "I sense a bit of anger in your attacks directed towards me. But the more you are fighting with me, the more your feelings of anger are turning into something else," Eliza said as she looked at Eren and observed his deadpan expression.
"Yeah? Then what am I thinking right now?" Eren smiled and asked Eliza. He let her Soul Sense wash over him without any hindrance, allowing her to get a firm read on him. He did that because he was not scared of her Spiritual Force anymore. Even though it was as potent as it was before, Eren felt as if there was something different about his soul that wouldn't be suppressed by mortal souls anymore.
"You are neither excited nor disinterested to fight with me. Not really," Eliza said as she narrowed her eyes on Eren. "Rather, you just want to be done with me. You are more concerned about what should be your next course of action. You are thinking of leaving Anfang soon. So your mind is already revolving around that possibility," Eliza said as she gripped her sword hard. Her near-boundless Spiritual Force had allowed her to read others' intentions effortlessly, a feat known to Eren from the very first time he had met with her.
"Isn't that normal?" Eren asked as he raised his eyebrows and looked at Eliza with a puzzled look.
"It is not," Eliza said and shook her head in denial.
"It would have been more normal had you fought with me while feeling the rage inside you. It would have been normal if you had tried to vent your frustration on me, which I'm sure you would have felt over the last decade.
And yet, here you are, battling with me not out of personal vengeance but as a way to be finally done with the last problem you have in Anfang. Earlier I had thought of you as one of high-functioning psychopaths. However, I doubt even they would have the kind of defunct emotions you have. It feels as if your soul is someone's failed experiment.
The only real and genuine emotions you showed were directed at your demon beast companion Reen. And even then, they were….." Eliza paused abruptly as something clicked in her mind.
"Wait," Eliza's eyes widened in surprise as she processed the implications of her analysis.
"How... how many Sin Series Marks do you have on your soul right now?" Eliza asked Eren warily, hesitant to believe her own hypothesis. She knew Eren had received more than two Sin Series Marks on his soul; she had monitored the destruction of her Purgatory.
However, she found it hard to believe that Eren could carry more Sin Series Marks than her, especially considering he was just a Master Ranker, and his Spiritual Force wasn't as profound as when he had received those remaining Sin Series Marks.
"Well... all seven of them," Eren replied nonchalantly.
Only now did Eliza realize the reason why the Seven-headed Serpent Statue had acted oddly when Eren had received his first two Sin Series Marks in her presence.
