"I have been waiting for you to come here, you know. But the people you were supposed to come with were different. I consider it more of a prison than a home, but you are welcome.
I've been waiting for you for quite a while now. Hehe! You are the sweet fruit of all my efforts I have taken from the last few centuries."
Eliza commented while walking towards Eren slowly. A small spark of green flames would appear beneath her steps as she continued her stride. Eren guessed that any ordinary floor would have been ruined by the flames even with a faint contact.
"Sage Eliza, you mean you were waiting for a demi-human like me?"
Eren asked with as much politeness as could pour into his voice. The latter shook her head and continued:
"I know the alliance purged the demi-human clans long ago. Even if they do exist, they won't come out of their hiding and explore places like these. The survival instinct can make a coward out of the bravest of rankers, after all.
What I mean by my previous statement is that I waited for your arrival because of what you have inside you. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
Eren feared Eliza was talking about Alephee and got tensed. But then he remembered that her presence wasn't detected by the dungeon or tower's mechanisms at all.
Eren pondered for a bit while keeping his head down until he eventually came up with a conclusion. He raised his head again and asked to confirm:
"My demon beast? Reen?"
Eliza stopped in her tracks and looked at the teenager before bursting into evil laughter:
"Fufufufufu! Yours? Yours? Boy, do you even know what I had to do and how long I had to wait to make that creation come into existence?
The thing that you have obtained by your sheer luck is mine. It always has been.
Arthur Renar was just the tool I used to accomplish that since I couldn't venture outside. But nobody, and I mean nobody has the right to call that thing theirs in my face."
Eren opened his eyes wide in surprise as the world spun around him again. A swirl of thoughts was raised in his mind before it became a storm strong enough to make him forget about his rank and asked Eliza in a cold voice:
"You mean you were behind Reen's creation? What do you mean by using Arthur Renar as a tool?"
Eliza heard Eren's question thrown at her and found it amusing. She didn't get angry. She didn't let her emotions affect her surroundings anymore.
"Fufufufufu! I need a new body, Eren. You saw what state my original body was in. A soul sense manifestation is what you see before you. But my original state is that of an old decaying ranker on the verge of leaving this world forever.
I have used all the methods I can, known and unknown, to delay the eventuality that's about to hit me. My Sage rank also has its limits. I can only cheat death for so long."
Eliza paused and then raised her hands to look at them. She then looked upwards and sighed before continuing:
"That's why I needed a new body. A body that can host my soul without creating any conflict. An ideal vessel that doesn't reject my residency while allowing me to keep all my powers and ranking status intact for the most part.
You must be aware of your demon beast's special traits even without me telling you. Why do you think an artificial demon beast with those strange properties was created in the first place?"
Eren felt a varied range of emotions when he heard Eliza's shocking declaration. All this time he had been thinking only the upper echelon of Edinburgh's kingdom was involved in the creation of Reen.
But he never would have imagined in his wildest dreams that someone like Arthur Renar could be used as a pawn by a Sage ranker to do her bidding. All so that she could gain a new lease on life.
Eren felt even more fear than before. That's because facing reality was terrifying. But facing reality alone was even more terrifying.
'What if Reen gets taken away?'
Eren kept his hand on his left chest and felt his heart rate increase. There was a tinge of anger mixed in his range of emotions as well. Anger that was directed to anyone and everyone that was looking to take away an integral part of his newfound life.
Eliza saw what was happening to Eren. she could almost decipher all his emotions and most of his thought process with her powers. But she didn't speak. There was no empathy in her eyes.
"Reen's physique is made in such a way that a vessel using her as the base won't have any mana signature conflict no matter who resides in it. The vessel would be able to accommodate rankers of any elements and inherent features.
If there is any form of conflict between a soul and its vessel, the body would reject the occupancy of the soul immediately. Even if I were to create an artificial human infant using the stem cells based on my current body, the body itself would develop a trait of its own.
It would never be devoid of its inborn elemental affinity and innate nature. No matter how similar kids are to their parents, they can never be completely like them, can they? That's how the will of the world works.
But what if you create a clean slate and imprint what you have already etched onto your existence? Something that is created by keeping the will of the world from interfering in its genesis.
Now that's what I'd call starting with a clean state! Right?"
Eliza looked at Eren and narrowed her eyes. But the latter knew she wasn't exactly eyeing him. It was as if her gaze had entered his body and was staring at Reen.
Reen was equally shocked and terrified by the revelation. She tried to hide even deeper while pleading with Eren to save her from getting separated from him. The butcher had no answer to her pleas. Never had he desired the power to change his fate as he did now. Never had he felt so helpless to change his destiny as he did right now.
The only thing he could do was to put his pride aside. And beg. Ask for a miracle to save him and his true companion from their present predicament. Or beg that everything that exists in this world gets destroyed along with them.
"Reen… is connected to my existence.
She… she is someone I can't live without. Before you do anything to us or ask anything from us, please tell us the whole story. I wish to know."
Eren bowed to Eliza Samael and spoke with his voice shaking uncontrollably. Unbeknownst to him, tears were forming in his eyes.
AN: Carry on my wavered son...
