Chapter 53: Chapter 53
Despite barely having the strength to walk, Eren kept on running, not stopping, not looking back, just running away from the borders, away from her.
The sight of her blaming eyes was forever engraved in his memory, the amount of pain and betrayal they carried only made him run faster, telling himself he was a curse, that she would indeed be better off without him.
Will she? His steps came to a sudden halt, a terrible fear settling in his heart with that thought, the fear of something happening to her while he wasn’t around to protect her!
Taking a step back, Eren contemplated the idea of running back to her, to har scent, to her face, to her lips and their divine taste, but the memory of her blaming eyes stopped him again.
Her eyes were lethal indeed, but there was something else, the great war! He was going to war and couldn’t take her with him, the shadows’ empire wasn’t safe for her and he didn’t have anyone that he trusted enough to watch over her in his absence, Joseph was going to be extremely busy with running the empire, and besides him, there was no one, the shack was the best place for her, away from him, for he can only offer her darkness.
That, and the fact that he still needed to finish the ceremony with the few drops of blood he sucked from her lips while kissing her, it was almost laughable, Eren thought, cursing himself for making her go throw all the pain when it was the mere thought of her father being in danger that brought her other half to the surface, even for few fleeting seconds, he knew the pain and torture weakened the walls which held her divine half back, but the real trigger was her father, and it actually made sense, after all, those were the powers of Historia who loved King Edard to the point where she left the center for him.
He should have known, Eren thought, he should have paid more attention to her feelings, the very first time her divine blood surfaced wasn’t when the priest tried to rape her nor when she almost drowned in the river, no, it was when she went out that day to wait for him by the river’s side to ask for his help in finding her father, and for that she resisted the starvation, the exhaustion and the cold rain, Eren noticed how fast she healed from her fever, it was miraculous and he knew it was because oh her divine blood, however, he didn’t think thoughtfully about the reason and just considered it to be the experience itself and not the feelings that lead to it, the second time was when his demons chased after her in the forest when she was returning to the shack from the castle, she was running abnormally fast for a girl in a gown and heals, the demons were also wary of the faint aura she was emitting, he sensed it himself but he was no ordinary demon and wasn’t threatened at all by it.
The third time was the one on which he learned the real reason that caused her blood to resurface, in her nightmare. The three times had one thing in common, she was trying to save her father, the third time however, was the strongest for some reason, maybe her resistance was at its weakest after all the torture she went through or maybe because she was unconscious.
The blood awakening was a slow process, Eren thought, maybe that was for the best and she can learn how to control her powers, he knew what the excessive untrained power can do to the body and mind and he didn’t want that happening to her.
“What happened to you!” Eren turned sharply, surprised, but not alarm with the familiar voice, his eyes quickly found the ice queen’s calculative ones as she ran them all over his body, focusing on his bloodied lips.
“That fire bastard!” she finally said after few seconds of carful, shameless staring, the burns where all she needed in order to figure out what happened, after all, the only fire demon strong enough to give the shadows’ lord such ugly burns was none other than the fire lord, Rima concluded before shaking her head, disappointed with the outcome and the implications of the two lords’ fight.
“I told you that the fire demons cannot be trusted!” Eren almost scoffed at her, but he couldn’t because of the blood in his mouth, he still gave her a dry glare, for he was in no mood to hear her taunting him or reminding him about the secret discussion they had few weeks ago when he first proposed the alliance to her.
Since the very beginning, Eren chose to trust the ice queen rather than the fire lord, not because he knew her, but because she wasn’t so self-centered and narrow minded like the fire lord, in matter of fact she almost had the same standards as him, only that hers were a little bit cleaner and higher than his, she didn’t believe in the pure blood supremacy as well as saw him as equal, and she was the best ally, only that she didn’t have enough numbers and therefore they had to rely on the fire lord’s help.
“Please tell me it is not what I think it is!” Rima pointed at her lips while looking at Eren’s with an almost disgusted look, seeing him nod, she sighed out her disgust before walking until she was standing next to him, not intimidated by his bloodied form nor his nudity.
“Better be done with it then!” she said before placing her cold lips near his, the lips barely touched, only enough for her to take few drops of the divine blood from his mouth, the whole process was too uncomfortable and embarrassing to the both of them, especially to Eren who pulled back in less than a second for he didn’t want anything meddling with the taste of the last kiss he had.
“This is just horrible!” Rima swallowed the drops, trying her hardest not to think about the way they ended up being in her mouth, shaking her head to get rid of the unwanted thoughts, she looked at the shadows lord with a serious face.
“This is a very small amount, Eren, it won’t be enough for all of our armies!” seeing the unchangeable look on his face, Rima didn’t push the matter any further, the shadows’ lord must have knew that fact, so there must be a reason for him to come back with only few drops.
“I believe the fire demons won’t be a part of our forces either, that leaves us with half the forces!”
“The hybrid couldn’t survive the awakening!” Eren said with an expressionless face, not willing to give more explanations, but what surprised him was the fact that the ice queen didn’t ask for any of those, instead, a sad frown settled on her face.
“You almost look as if you cared!” and it annoyed him for some unknown reason, the pity in her eyes, maybe because of the possibility of it being fake.
“She was innocent, Eren, she had nothing to do with any of this, and I hate the fact that this was the only way!” The ice queen said while looking at the horizon, at the place where the shadows lord had came from, but she couldn’t see anything, even with her sharp demonic eyes which were only met with shadows, she knew the shadows’ lord had some kind of connection with the hybrid girl, and she doubted the fact that he might have killed her himself, so maybe it was the fire lord’s doing, that theory sounded believable and even explained the battle between the two lords and the state the dark forest was in.
“There is no clean war!” Eren answered her while looking straight into her eyes, he knew what she was looking for, but he also knew that the magic in the necklace would hide his fair lady from all demonic eyes.
“Just like any other war, the innocents are always the first ones to go, and Eren…” meeting his gaze, she said in a calm yet determinate voice. ”Let us not let her sacrifice go to waste!”
“We don’t have any other choice!” he said while they both started walking towards the other edge of the forest.
“Now, it is my turn to share what I have got!” seeing the interested look on the shadows lord’s face, Rima began explaining directly.
“The bad news is that not all human kingdoms are wiling to help us, only the Taghit kingdom is, the good news is, the human king agreed to join our fight!”
“Are you serious!” Eren didn’t expect that much, all he hoped for was a safe passage, but to join the fight!
It could be a trap, but the ice queen wasn’t the kind of person who would be easily tricked!
“Yes, he understands it is their war as much as it is ours, his troops are now moving to the shores of the forbidden sea, to a little town called Tahat.”
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand soldiers, and five hundred ships!”
“That is…”
“More than our combined armies, yes, and we no longer have to worry about crossing the forbidden sea, however, we better start moving, don’t bother with anything unnecessary, everything we need would be provided by them, including the blood!”
“How is that?”
“He said he has few criminals who are supposed to die anyway!” she says and they both understood the meaning of his words.
“One last thing, Rima said while standing at the frontier between the dark forest and the human lands, it was almost dawn, and Rima wondered if it would be really possible to walk in day light.
“Keep the location a secret even from your followers, we don’t want any surprises on the way, such as the fire nation taking revenge on us!”
“They can’t step that far into the human lands without the divine blood!” what they can do is attack the empires when they were not there!
“They can terrorize the humans!” she said with a knowing look and he nodded, unable to disagree.
“I guess we will meet again in a day or two!” he said, feeling reassured for the very first time in so long, to say the ice queen was reliable was an understatement, the woman alone did the impossible, for she had brought the two kinds together.
“I guess so, and please, don’t mention the ceremony to anyone!” she said while stretching her hands beyond the frontier, beyond the shadows until the sun rays touched her fingers, it was hot, but it didn’t burn her skin.
“Feels nice doesn’t it?” being a hybrid, Eren was able to walk under the sunlight occasionally, and the sensation of the sunrays on the skin was indeed indescribable, even when it weakened his shadows, the experience was still worth it.
“It feels miraculous!” the ice queen however, never had the privilege as she lived her entire life surrounded with darkness and ice, the feeling on the hot sunrays on her skin was so overwhelming to the point where she had to fight back the tears.
Freedom, she thought to herself, even when she knew that what she had was but a small taste of it! The rest was yet to come.
“This is it, the beginning of a new day!” she said with a hopeful smile, and the shadows’ lord nodded in agreement.
The beginning of a new day, a new era, Eren thought, his heart a little lighter than before, their chances had grown with the human alliance, they had hope this time, and so did he.