The day before Eren left the Oni dungeon. Evening 6 PM.
The sun was preparing to set on the horizon. The gray clouds were trying to mask an all-orange sky. But in doing so, they were just distancing themselves from each other, running thin.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Eren and Alephee were about to wrap up their spar. But for some reason, Eren pressed on. It was as if he was sensing a breakthrough into something.
Eren had been having these feelings for the last couple of days. But what he was feeling at this point was more intense than before.
Alephee could sense what was happening inside Eren's mind. So she didn't try to disturb him from his current mindset and aided it by sparring with him well beyond their agreed-upon time limit.
Eren and Alephee both were using the lightning and fire element spells they had access to. This was the first time Eren felt like he was battling a much superior version of himself.
Alephee was fighting with Eren while being mindful of her attacks. She didn't want to overwhelm Eren with her attacks because it felt like he was fighting with her subconsciously. He was letting his instincts take over him.
For the first time in a long while, Eren felt like his perception was lacking. He felt like he was a bit slow to process things even under the effects of his time-element spells.
He could only hear his heartbeats in his peculiar state. The clashes of weapons had become inaudible to him. At first, he thought that he must be feeling like this because he was battling against Alephee who knew time-element spells better than anybody.
But he soon came to realize that that was not it. This was his subconscious mind trying to level the spell up because it felt like it was under constant duress these days.
The time-element spell Sedated Perception wasn't enough for Eren anymore. He needed something more. Or he needed to slow down his opponent who was keeping up with him no matter how hard he tried to outmaneuver.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Both Eren and Alephee exchanged various moves in close combat. The former was sparring with Alephee but his attention seems to have been divided by something else.
State of epiphany!
Eren finally entered the illusive state while he continued sparring with Alephee. Active participation in the battle was a prerequisite for such a peculiar state. So she kept the pressure on him with her attacks.
Alephee was keeping up with Eren by using Sedated Perception as well. But suddenly, she found that the vessel she was using as a medium to cast the spells felt like it had been submerged underwater.
Alephee's movements became relatively slow. She felt like an external interference was keeping her vessel from moving the way she wanted to. This was even though she was a time-element spell user herself.
Alephee created a distance from Eren using Blitz Steps and looked at Eren's face instead of his attacks. The guy still seemed like he had been hypnotized to fight with her. But there was something different about his eyes.
Eren's eyes had suddenly become pure white. There was no iris left in both his eyes anymore. The white viscera had occupied the entire canvas of both eyes.
"This…"
Alephee narrowed her eyes and used her soul sense to know what was happening to Eren. She had first thought that the breakthrough was related to his mana circuits. But it seemed that his training and constant adversity had produced some unexpected results.
Alephee was about to move when Eren narrowed his ghostly eyes on her. In the next moment, the feeling that her body was submerged in the water intensified. As a result, her movements got so slow that she stopped moving.
Eren's movements remained unaffected by this phenomenon, indicating that only Alephee's body had gotten slower. He approached her without any fear at this point. His sword gets charged with his lightning-element mana.
Alephee understood what was happening to Eren as she saw him approach her while in a state of epiphany. She could only smile before dispelling the effects of the time-element spells her body was being subjected to.
Eren had fused his two time-element spells into one to acquire a unique ability. He did not need to cast Sedated Perception and Stunning Speed separately anymore. Activating this ability would grant him the effects of both the spells.
And this ability could be activated with his eyes. But that was not the whole story.
The time-element spells had also evolved after being transformed into abilities. The ability could now force Eren's opponents to process time differently, subjecting their bodies to a different passage of time.
It meant that Eren could buff himself while debuffing his enemies if and when he wanted to. This would allow him to gain an overwhelming advantage over his opponents even if the debuff lasts for a short period.
This was a truly terrifying ability. When activated at the right time, it had the potential to create loads of flaws in Eren's opponent's defense. He would be able to land a critical blow on them if the timing of the ability's activation is done right.
Eren had pleasantly surprised Alephee by acquiring this ability. Usually, only innate or inherent spells have a higher chance of turning into an ability. In the end, even a prodigy Adept ranker was not usually qualified to transform one of his spells into abilities, no matter how familiar they were with casting spells.
It was true that Alephee's existence had allowed Eren to acquire the ability faster. However, that did not negate the efforts he had put in.
This was his first Ability he had gained by putting in the efforts. Not something that was bestowed by some otherworldly statue or bloodline. As such, it spoke volumes about how hard he had struggled to achieve something like this.
This was no luck. Eren had been making conscious efforts to get his time-element spells to turn into an ability for him. He had invested quite a lot of time and energy to synthesize the ability for himself. This was the culmination of all his strategic planning and diligence.
Alephee had to admit that Eren was talented in his own right. It was just that his talent lay in putting in more grueling work than the rest and planning things.
AN: Chapter 421 mentions how Eren trains himself to use Sedated Perception so that it could eventually become an ability for him.
