Chapter 33: Chapter 33

“I always found it weird that you humans, despite your diversity, all believed this one story, about your heroic legacy, and how you defeated the evil in the world. The history of mankind, that is what you call it” Eren spoke calmly, his voice didn’t have a single trace of hostility, for he hoped she would understand, and maybe, just maybe, his earlier actions against her can be forgiven, and then they, together, can find out a way to save the world and write down a new history with a brighter future.

“The tricky thing with such stories is that they happened too long ago. and time, my fair lady, is more than capable of blurring the lines between realities and lies.”

“Yo...You mean that the history of mankind is a lie?” Sara, even though she was still scared couldn’t help but ask.

Eren sighed in relief, for she finally had enough courage to ask, he wanted her to engage herself in the conversation so she wouldn’t stay focused on her fear, and for that, he spoke in a very calm voice and took breaks after each sentence, allowing her curiosity to build up, enough for her to dare and ask.

There was still something in her to be saved, he thought happily as he remembered the curious girl she was, the one that bombarded him with endless questions about everything.

He missed that side of her…

“Well first, this world wasn’t exactly a paradise before, nevertheless, it was not as bad it is now, I think we can simply say it was just peaceful.” He said while tapping his finger on his cheek while discreetly watching her from under his eyelashes, it was something he pretended to do before when they would be discussing something and he would have to think it through, the body language was something important in leaving a good impression and gaining someone’s trust, he knew that, and he wanted her to think back about the good moments they shared, the peaceful conversations, the times when she trusted him and talked to him leisurely without fear, just so she can feel less scared.

He had to trick her out of her fear!

“This world, just as you mentioned, is one of many that formed an infinite universe created by the creation energy, also known as the life force, the light force, whatever you want to call it, just know it was the reason our world, and the one it used to be, existed.”

Eren looked at his cup, annoyed, the damn thing was empty yet he was still not satisfied, it was something he had been noticing about himself lately, that the blood he was consuming wasn’t filling him up, he was always thirsty, and thirsty demons were never stable demons.

“Everything had its counterpart, my fair lady, the parallel opposite it needed to remain balanced and existent, life had death, light had darkness, good had evil, and the universe knew the peer of the creation energy as the equally pure and powerful dark energy, at first, the two energies never blended together for they were too different, they just existed, in harmony at first, but then…” Eren stopped talking for a few seconds, lost in his own thoughts.

“To be honest, no one knows what truly happened, but the harmony was destroyed as the dark energy started consuming the light one, separating and swallowing the worlds, we don’t know if other words survived, if not, then this narrow one is all we have. And it is collapsing”

“What do you mean by collapsing?” Sara asked, and the man next to her heard her heart beat faster, however, it wasn’t out of panic this time, his little tricks did their job to some point, her expressions were a bit calmer, not as terrified, and her voice was steadier.

Some progress with the curious cat.

“We will come back to that later, now allow me to tell you the story about our ancestors.”

“Our?”

“Yes, my fair lady, this world, is like a dote of light in a sea of darkness, with the creation energy focused on the center, like a sun shining with life. the furthest places from the center were those where the creation energy barely reached and dark one took over, the edges, or as you humans call them, the hells.

I don’t know whether life existed before the dark energy took over and isolated our world from the rest of the universe or not, what I know is that there were no Gods, not the ones we know of at least, no humans, and no demons, there was but a single race, a common ancestor for the three of us, let us call them the originals, together, they lived in peace, with death being a rare occurrence and solely the result of exterior factors, but never from within, never from old age. Not for long though.”

“What happened?”

“The world lost its balance, it lacked something!”

“Death…” Sara whispered, realizing what the shadows lord meant.

“Precisely! My fair lady, life cannot go on without death, for it completes it, a world without death is an unstable world, one that won’t live long before its energy is consumed before it resources are consumed, this world, is bound to the rules of the universe, and it needs death to balance life.

The world couldn’t keep on going the way it did, for life is like the sun, it needs to set down for it to rise up the next day. Our world was faced by it first dusk as darkness cornered it, the balance was lost, the creation energy trembled for it was greedily consumed by the livings without a chance for it to be regenerated, and life, all forms of life, were going to extinct, for the light energy which was the shield that protected the world from the dark energy was weakened, and the world was faced by the danger of collapsing on itself.”

“The old needs to be put to rest so the new can rise…” Sara mumbled to herself but the shadows’ lord heard her, and he knew that line for it was actually one of the Gods “pearls of wisdom” that the humans believed and recited in every given opportunity.

“Indeed, My fair lady, however, not everyone was willing to die, not everyone was willing to let go of the sweet immortality, I mean, just imagine dying, imagine a state of inexistence, your mind would freeze instantly as it won’t be able to process that terrifying though. When it comes to death, no one would want to die in order for life to continue, no one is that selfless.

Chaos and fear spread in the world, our ancestors were divided among themselves, you can say the once shared bonds were broken by the selfish instinct of survival, rivalries rose, brothers turned into enemies, and in the middle of that ordeal, a small group of individuals, the ones who were smart enough, as well as greedy and selfish enough, the ones who understood the world, the energies, and its dynamics, and understood what was coming, were quick to make a move that changed the world forever.”

“It can’t be!!” Sara gasped, her eyes widening.

“You guessed right, my fair lady! Those few individuals, are none other than the so-called Gods.”

“But how?! If we were all the same as you said, how did they become what they are now?!”

“Where are they now, my fair lady?” Eren asked calmly, a half-smirk gracing his lips, the smirk of someone who had just proved that he was right.

“The center!!” Sara’s two words were a mixture of a gasp and a whisper, a scary realization settling in her mind.

“You do remember what I have told you before, about the life force being focused on the center of the world, the so-called Gods, took advantage of everyone’s fear and chaos and claimed that force as theirs, I don’t know how did they do it exactly, but they turned themselves into vessels for the creation energy, and with that, they gained infinite power, one that made them set new rules for this world.

The main rule was that everyone, except for themselves, was meant to die when their time comes, life would seep out of them and their bodies would grow old and decayed until they die, while their life force would regenerate the creation energy and ensures the world remained balanced.”

“If that is the case, then their actions have saved the world!” Sara quickly regretted saying those words as she noticed how the shadow’s lord expressions flickered into an angry one for a second before he hid it with a sigh.

“What they did, sounds noble, don’t you think? They had saved the world, but no, my fair lady, for they had only saved themselves, gained unimaginable power as well as immortality by offering the rest as continuous sacrifices for death to claim, if their intentions were to save the world, then they should have been on this same track with us.” Eren stopped to take a deep breath, calming himself down, he didn’t know what was wrong with him, his thirst and unsatisfaction, as well as having the girl he desired lying naked in his bed with nothing to hide her body for his eyes but the black covers, were making him more agitated and unstable.

“Let me ask you this, my fair lady, what is the average life span of a normal human?”

“About eighty years old?” Sara said

“Correct, and it is even less for demons, that my fair lady, is not even the half of our life span, for the rest is being stolen by the Gods, it is our lives they are living and will continue to live as they steal more and more from the next generations if there are any.”

Eren stood up and walked toward the table where the bottle of the blood was, he was thirsty, too thirsty and it was making him angry and impatient, emptying what was left inside it in a cup, he gulped it all down in one go.

It took Eren all his self-control not to throw the empty cup at the nearest wall with all his might, he didn’t want to make the girl more scared now that he finally managed to divert her mind away from the trauma she had suffered, however, the thirst was starting to be more than uncomfortable, nearly unbearable no matter how much blood he consumed, running his fingers through his silky dark hair, he took a deep breath before walking back to his seat.

Sara’s eyes were fixated on him, and the fear she managed to forget for few minutes because of her curiosity and shock was bubbling it way back to her heart again, especially with the aura the shadows’ lord was exuding and the shadows that began to dance around his legs.

“Just ignore them.” Eren sighed the words when he saw her looking at his shadows, they were a part of him, they felt what he felt, they were thirsty and agitated as well.

“One would think that they would stop at what they have already done, don’t you think, my fair lady? But they didn’t. to assure they would stay in power and no one would endanger their newly found status, they started acting like, well, Gods, setting unjust rules, forcing everyone else to live the way they wanted, until half of the population couldn’t take it anymore and revolted against them, against the injustice. Those who did my fair lady, were my ancestors, the original demons.

All they wanted was a fair chance in life, for everyone and not just themselves, but guess what happened.”

Eren looked at Sara with intense eyes, and she knew he wanted her answer, the one she couldn’t yet believe.

“You were betrayed…”

“By their own brothers, yes, by your ancestors, the original humans!”