Chapter 159: Chapter 159

"Don't!" Emerging from the shadows right before his fair lady's hand touched the filthier one of the man whom he considered as a father, Eren pulled her to his bare chest callously before wrapping his arms around her with no finness nor consideration to her trembling state, in fact, he was so angry at her he wanted to keep squeezing until he broke all her bones, every last one until she was no longer able to move or walk away from him in order to commit her heroic idiocies such as joining the Gods in their suicidal mission for the sake of the greater good.

After his encounter with Historia's ghost, or whatever the thing he saw in the bottom of the river was, Eren wasted no time before flying to the center, cursing himself all the way for not thinking about it earlier, of course she would be in the center, it was the only place in their world where he didn't have eyes and ears in, the place where the dark energy was the weakest, it explained how he couldn't sense her presence anywhere no matter how hard he tried, and it also confirmed what the ghost said about the things his fair lady was about to do.

Not only did she walk away from him, not only she let go of his hand in the middle of the road, leaving him broken and lost, no, his beautiful and heartless fair lady went and joined the enemy...

Maybe they were not the enemy to her, maybe they were the ones with whom she belonged all along...a goddess, a guardian...

No! Eren mentally growled, she was his, she belonged to him, even if he had to rip her from the bunch of bastards she joined, he would do it gladly.

His...

Burying his head in her short silver locks, Eren inhaled the intoxicating scent of his beloved, the woman whom he thought owned the purest and kindest of hearts, while in reality was the cruelest, most heartless, evilest, stupidest, most nonsensical creature in the world.

Was she really going to do what Historia said she would? Was she really that cruel? Was she able to hurt him, no, break him that way? Eren thought while inhaling her scent, he was so mad at her, mad to the point of exploding, and only the tokes of her intoxicating smell managed to calm him a little, reminding him that no matter how mad and betrayed he felt, no matter how raging the darkness was inside of him, whiplashing the beast and forcing it to outburst and destroy everything around him, he couldn't just forget that this shaking evil creature was the woman he loved more than everything, the one he wished to protect with his life from any harm coming her way.

Or any harm she walked into...

"Don't you dare take one step closer to them! Don't you dare go where I can't find you! Don't you fucking dare leave me!" Releasing all his shadows at once, Eren created a dark angry storm around him and his fair lady, hoping it would protect them from the harmful ears and eyes that watched them with complexed emotions, but none moved a finger to stop the demon or the half goddess he was capturing in his arms.

"Eren!" It couldn't be, Sara told herself at first, not willing to let her mind trick her into thinking that her demon was there, that her hopes nd prayers were answered by someone and she was granted with her last wish to see her demon before dying, she couldn't let herself believe that, even when her mind was blank of explanations, one moment she was too absorbed in her pain and self pity, and in the next, she was engulfed in the most painful hug that brought all the warmth and safety back to her heart, he was there, she slowly realized, making her last wish come to life, just like he did with many others, his arms were caging her like a death trap, his voice angry and roaring, shaking her to the core and rummaging the little resolution she gathered to go on with the ritual...

It was painful, excruciating, Sara thought, not just the tightness of his hold, but the hurt and disappointment in his voice, the anger that shot from his every pore, alas, it was far less painful than the thought of leaving him behind without getting to see him one last time, without looking into his deep red eyes and beyond their beauty to what his dark yet precious soul hid, without feeling his touch on her body, painful yet carful, angry yet loving, bruising yet protective...

For a second, Sara felt the warmth of his nearness chase away her fears and pain and replace it with that feeling of utter content and satisfaction.

For a second, she believed that she was only trapped in a nightmare, and just like everytime, Eren was there to wake her up, reassure her and chase away her fears, for a second, the warmth of his hug tricked her to believe that she was lying next to him as she faught against her laziness to wake up, he was so warm in his unique way, but the same warmth dragged her out of her soft illusion just to throw her under the feet of the terrifying realisation that threatened to smash her sanity.

He was there...in the center...during the returning ritual!

"Eren! What are you doing here?" Seeing the expressions on Sara's face change from shock, to content and safety, and then to utter horror in a blink of a second warned Eren about what she intended to do, and by the time her body reacted to step away from his, his arms and shadows tightened more around her, imprisoning her between his chest and shadows, and even though his trick to cripple her escaping attempt worked just as he hoped, he couldn't help but wonder why it felt so easy.

His arms around her were like nippers, and for the time being, Eren didn't care about Sara's comfort nor luxury, he just wanted her safety and for that he used his demonic strength, but even with that, Sara was a half Goddess, his strength was no match of hers, so why was her resistance so...weak and negligible?

"Why…a..are…you..here?" Sara gasped out the words, barely able to correctly pronounce them with all the pressure her demon was applying on her ribs, she felt that they were at the verge of snapping, just like her resolution which was breaking with every passing second to reveal all of her pain and despair, in her words, in her voice, in her expressions and futile resistance "You can't be here! You have to leave right now!"

"I am not going anywhere without you!" Roaring violently, Eren snapped head to glare menacingly at his fair lady, his eyes seeing more than what he wished them to, for he wasn't just looking at his fair lady, but also at the crimes she committed against his heart, the heart that only lived for her, and the words sh was saying, whom did she think she was fooling? Did she really think he didn't knew her enough to hear the pain and fear in her voice?

No way in hell was he going to leave without her, he thought, digging his claws in her flesh, if hurting her was the price of keeping her than fuck it! He will hurt her harder than he ever did.

"You must! Eren!"

"Why? So the bastards would present you to death? As if you were a fucking pig groomed to be slaughtered? What in the fuck is wrong with you, Sara? Why aren't you using your head?" Screaming loudly, Eren unleashed his anger, no longer caring about the impact of his words on his fair lady's feelings, not with Historia's words resonating in his ears, Historia, that heartless bitch, she knew all along what fate would her daughter face and she still had her, and the rest of the Gods, and there he thought that he hated them before, Eren thought, his hatred was not comparable to the loathing he felt once he learned about the things they planned to do with his fair lady, them, who had lived for thousands of years until life became meaningless and easily discarded, wanted to take Sara with them, his white jasmine who barely bloomed, he could not forgive them for that, even if they were all stronger than him, he planned to kill them all, One way or another he was going to make them pay for the things they did and planned to do, and the world could burn after that for all he cared.

But first, he had to take his heartless fair lady to safety, somewhere where she wouldn't be able to commit any foolish acts of self sacrifice…

"Eren! I am not going anywhere!" Even when she knew that her attempts to break free from the iron grip of her enraged demon were as futile as her hopes to leave that place alive, Sara still jerked and trashed against Eren's chest, causing his claws to dig deeper into her skin and tear her flesh, he was hurting her, and yet she couldn't blame him, for she knew that she had hurt him to the point where her pain was too small and insignificant for him to notice.

"As if I would listen to you! I don't know how they managed to trick you, or maybe they are controlling you with their mind games! Either ways, I am not leaving you here even if I had to fight everyone in here, including you! Do you understand?!"

"I am afraid no one is going anywhere…the ritual had already started..." Kalan spoke calmly, his voice coated with tiredness and boredom as his drooping eyes stared at the naive couple fighting the inescapable, the shadows doing little to nothing to hid them from his eyes and the eyes of his brothers.

The imbecile thought his little darkness was a match to the strength of Gods, he thought he could walk out of the center alive, and also take the hybrid with him, how pathetic, Kalan thought, it was inevitable, and the faster they accepted their doom the easier it would be for the all of them, him and his brothers included.

It was finally the time, they were at last ready to return the energy to the center and then to the rest of the world, it was the time for them to rest, to unload the heavy weghts on their shoulders and join their sister in the after life, he was tired, and so were his brothers, being a God was never a luxury, if anything, he considered it as a curse, and right when his solace was inching towards him, the young demon decided to show up.

"I was going to say watch as I take her away, but unfortunately, you won't be able to see us walk away for you will be all dead before that." Eren's voice was edgy and loaded with anger, an animalistic tone coating it, but his heart trembled with fear at the words of the God, for he knew the vile creature wasn't simply playing with words or delivering empty threats, something was indeed happening in the center, something bad, for a start, the shrine which was supposed to be destroyed was faintly throbbing with energy as if it was slowly being recharged, the Gods on another hand looked paler and...older than before, or maybe it was the fine lines that marked their complexions and exposed their exhaustion, even his fair lady, her fair skin seemed pale, her luscious locks looked flat and lifeless, her warm body wasn't s warm as he remembered it to be, but what worried him the most was the way her resistance weakened with each passing second.

Whatever was happening in the center, it was happening fast, which meant that he barely had anytime to get Sara out of there, something he was so adamant on doing, even if it costed him his own life.

"She is not going anywhere! And neither is..."

"I am not going anywhere with you, Eren! So leave now before I make you!" Taking the chance of his focus being shifted to the God, Sara gathered her strength and pushed Eren away from her, his claws ripping off small chunks of her flesh, causing her blood to ooze out of her and teint the cristal floors, a sight so horrific and painful to Eren who was directly reminded of another time in the past when he also hurt her...

"Sara, I..."

"I said leave!" Seeing his pained face and unfocused state, Sara screamed at him, trying her hardest to sound angry and threatening instead of how she truly felt, desperate and broken.

She couldn't allow him to stay any longer, Sara thought, the ritual had already started, it did the second she stepped in the center, her paths were opened for the energy to flow out of her, it wasn't painful, however, it felt sickening, like an unwelcomed dizziness, Sara knew that she was doomed, the ritual was irreversible...

Irreversible, true, but also stretchable…

Enough to save her crazy lover from the death trap they were in...

"A...are you going to fight me, my fair lady?" Whispering out the words, Eren tried to not sound as shocked and betrayed as he truly was with Sara's actions but failed miserably, he knew that his fair lady wasn't just going to follow him easily, and even considered the possibility of dragging her out of the center kicking and screaming, however, he didn't think she would fight him, hell, even when his eyes were focused on her as she stood with her back facing the Gods in a protective manner while her palms were stretched forward, ready to attack him, he still couldn't believe it, his fair lady wouldn't do that, his fair lady wouldn't betray him like that?

"Sara? What are you doing? Why are you doing this to me? To us?"

"For fuck' sake Eren! Don't you get it? There is no us anymore! In fact, there was never an us to begin with, we were never compatible, I am a Goddess, you are a demon, I am the light while you are the darkness! We can never exist together, not without one of us annihilating the other!"

"Then annihilate me! But not you, and not our love, Sara, please! I am begging you!"

"You are leaving me with no option but to throw you out of here myself." For a fleeting second, Eren saw a glimpse of unlimited pain and sadness in Sara's eyes, she looked as if she was dying as she took her attack stance, making the demon lord even more confused, for in the next second she was right in front of him, her fist flying quickly towards his abdomen.

The pain was medium, Eren thought, his fair lady was able to break stones with a single punch, for her fists to deliver such bearable pain was questionable, bringing more distress to him than what the real impact of her punch would have brought…

"This is just a warning, Eren! Leave now before I throw you out of here myself,and this time, I won't be this careful..."

"Why?" Losing what little sanity he was holding on, Eren released more of his shadows, his claws and fangs elongating as the madness steered violently inside his mind, clouding his every thought with that ugly word that spelled betrayal…

It wasn't her punch, it wasn't her threats, it was the fact that she punched him, she indeed punched him, and for what? The Gods? If she had attacked him for any other reason he would have accepted it gladly, but to attack him for the sake of his enemies and whatever divine shit they were performing was beyond what he could take, not even for her...

"Why, you asking me?!" For you, for you to live, for your chance of happiness and love, one that would stay and live, and not a doomed abomination that was never supposed to happen in the first place, Sara thought bitterly, but hid it all under a sassy smirk, "Because, this is my destiny, I am a Goddess and I was destined for greatness, now I realize it, You on the other hand, you are only dirtying this place with your presence!"

"Who do you think you are fooling, Sara?" Dodging one of her lightning bolts, Eren tried to sound sarcastic, but her words managed to cut right through one of his most sensitive spots, the one where he always felt that he was beneath his fair lady and didn't deserve her nor her love...

But, would that stop him from taking her?

Not in a million years!