Sienna felt like her vision had been shattered into many pieces when Eren crushed her heart.
She was too stunned to continue resisting. And she was too afraid to show signs of trepidation on her face. A series of images started appearing in her head as she started living her life in reverse.
Deception. Manipulation. And dominance through family background. Sienna used these traits as her go-to tools to achieve her goals. And her position in the family allowed her to do that without facing any repercussions.
However, just as Sebastian had said to Eren in passing, she wasn't like this from the beginning.
Sienna started remembering her happy days. The days of her early childhood made her stand out from the rest of the Slughorn scions. Her talent started becoming apparent as she began training to become a ranker.
She held a lot of promise with the way she made non-ranked potions, making House Slughorn believe that she was going to become an exceptional potioner. This was what allowed her to be seen as one of the most valuable scions in her clan.
However, Sienna herself started noticing that she was changing in her mid-teen years. Something she couldn't avoid. As if her individuality as Sienna Slughorn was just an outer shell for something much more devious. And that part started affecting her as a whole.
Was she changing or was she reverting to who she really was? Sienna couldn't tell. She started thinking of an easy way out and became more cunning. She started learning what were considered to be the most detrimental traits a ranker could have. And her talent and her cunning made it easy for her to learn and master them too.
All of Sienna's life memories flashed in front of her eyes in a flash. And the outer shell that was Sienna Slughorn broke when she met Eren's eyes. Sienna had felt her heart getting crushed a moment before. But she started feeling something much more painful and profound from within her soul. As if her very soul was reshaping itself.
Zoom!
Eren felt a strange force act on his body as he was sent flying in the air. This force was so vast and profound that he couldn't measure it. In fact, he wasn't even sure if it was a force or merely a concept that had 'push and chop' written all over it.
The hand that he had used to crush Sienna's heart had been cut by something unexplainable. A streak of blood marked Eren's path because of his sudden amputation.
Things could have been much more serious for Eren if a thin barrier hadn't protected him. It prevented serious injuries from landing on his body. Eren wasn't sure how he had received the thin layer of protective barrier. But he got his answer soon enough when he looked at Alephee.
'Damn it. I was a bit late.'
Alephee thought to herself as she raised her hand towards the now-flying Eren and changed his trajectory. The butcher was made to land beside her. He looked at Sienna strangely before looking at her chest. His chopped hand was still lodged in her chest.
Sienna was now surrounded by white smoke that started to affect the fabric of the space around her. Her eyes became devoid of iris as she looked upwards with her mouth open.
The woodland creature holding her down disintegrated all of a sudden. Eren felt like the world was changing its colors as a strange kind of mana pulse started originating from Sienna.
Sienna's body was lifted off the ground by an unknown force or lack thereof. It was as if gravity itself stopped acting on her by creating an exception. Even after Sienna closed her eyes, the illumination they radiated was visible due to the light escaping through the slits.
Sienna was then surrounded by white fog that felt like some sort of personalized mana. Being the user of the Sin Series Abilities himself, Eren identified that mana right away. It had otherworldly origins. Or to be precise, it was mana that belonged to someone that was hiding deep within Sienna.
A domain of unknown origin was created around the three people which separated Eren's surroundings from the inside of the domain. In the domain, strange mana prevailed over Anfang's natural mana.
Everything started looking monochrome black and white to Eren as he looked around. The world had not been robbed of its colors. It was just that the mana originating from Sienna was so strong that it affected his perception.
It took him a while to process the pain. He gritted his teeth and used his bloodline Ability to regenerate his chopped hand. He also coughed and spat a clot of blood that had formed in his lungs. Even with the thin barrier protecting him, his lungs had collapsed due to the force of the push.
"What… what is going on?"
Eren looked at Alephee questioningly. He could tell that she already knew what was about to happen. The homunculus kept her gaze focused on Sienna as she commented.
"Don't worry. Everything will be over soon. "She" holds no power over here."
Eren wasn't satisfied with Alephee's cryptic reply. But he kept her mouth shut when he saw how serious she had gotten looking at Sienna. He could tell that she was on edge.
Eren found Alephee's reaction alarming because she was used to treating Sages as houseflies. The fact that she was serious in this situation told him that the "she" Alephee was talking about was someone more powerful than tens of Sages combined.
"Hehehehehe!"
A fading and half-slumbering consciousness possessed Sienna's dying body and started laughing maniacally. It made Sienna open her eyes and look at Eren and Alephee with a piercing gaze.
Sienna's eyes had turned completely white. There were runic tattoos around her eyes. Her hair locks started turning into snakes. And her skin became pale. Sienna still looked like Sienna for the most part. But the same could not be said about her presence.
"Nice to meet you, the inheritor of Elder Echor."
