As he pulled the last of the Desperation into himself, a final, jagged memory from the shard pierced his mind—not from the hunters, but a hidden message left within the violet energy itself.

“We are pleased with your actions, child. We are watching, little one.”

Aden’s eyes snapped open as the shard in Eren’s chest turned a dull, stable orange. The heat vanished completely and the silence returned.

Eren slumped forward, unconscious, falling into Aden’s arms. Aden stood there, holding the boy, his mind a haze of missing years and forgotten faces.

He looked at his hand. He recognized the shape, but the name Aden felt like a word from a language he no longer spoke.

‘Did you hear that too?’ Aden’s asked the Entity with a hidden tremor in his voice.

‘Hear what?’ the Entity replied. ‘The sound of your Void absorbing the energy from the Tetrarchs desperation?’

Aden shook his head and stumbled backward, Eren still in his arms, before slamming into the wall behind him and cracking it on impact.

Lorelei rushed to his side, but he merely shoved Eren into her arms. His mouth opened to say something, but he didn’t hear what left his lips. A minute later, Lorelei nodded and went to the room where the other kids were sleeping.

Zero followed suit, but not before casting him a side glance filled with uncharacteristic confusion.

‘What did you hear?’ the Entity pressed.

Hearing the click of the door, Aden walked to the edge of the red-hot window and rested against it with a heavy sigh. ‘Something about someone being proud of me.’

‘What did you say? I didn’t hear you,’ the Entity said, a hint of confusion in his voice. After all, he existed within Aden’s soul—it should have been impossible to miss anything Aden tried to convey.

After a brief moment of consideration, the Entity assumed Aden was simply thinking to himself—an internal monologue. But a second later, he dismissed the idea. Aden didn’t yet possess that level of control over his mind.

Not that he needed to.

After all, Adaptive Resonance had already granted him a high resistance to mental attacks.

‘Huh?’ Aden’s voice rang out, cutting through the Entity’s thoughts. ‘This isn’t the time for your dumb jokes.’ His tone sharpened with irritation.

The Entity groaned, having expected that response. The lack of trust over such trivial matters had always irked him, but this time, he had no desire to argue.

‘I’m serious. Let’s not make a mountain out of Mount Tai. Just repeat what you said,’ the Entity replied, his tone measured.

Aden fell silent for a moment before speaking again. ‘A voice… it said something… what the— I can’t—’

‘Remember,’ the Entity finished, his voice laced with quiet fatigue.

‘This is getting out of hand,’ Aden and the Entity said at the same time. Their voices overlapped within his soul, blending into a strange, echoing resonance.

The sun had already risen, casting a warm glow over the slums and stirring the less privileged into their daily routines. Some prepared themselves for another day of begging, while children spilled out of their makeshift homes, excitement bright on their faces—blissfully unaware of the events that could have erased them just minutes ago.

Aden’s gaze settled on one of the boys running through the streets, tapping on rusted trash bins with a small stick as he tried to wake his still-sleeping friends.

Aden watched him, trying to understand what could spark such joy in a life like this.

But no matter how hard he tried… he couldn’t.

‘Aden,’ the Entity called in a calm tone. ‘Why do you seek this strength?’

Aden lifted his gaze to the sky, settling on the blazing sun. His eyes narrowed, not from discomfort, but by choice.

‘I want to protect the few people I have around me,’ he said quietly, ‘and make sure I don’t lose anyone I deem worthy of life.’

‘And do you think you’re achieving that?’ the Entity asked. ‘Do you think the strength that’s tearing apart the very core of your being is worth it?’

‘…I don’t remember who told me this, but they said if you can save someone, you have an obligation to do so.’

‘Isn’t that a foolish statement?’ he added with a wry smile, his ashen silver hair stirring in the soft wind.

‘Foolish? Extraordinarily so. And you have failed to accomplish even that,’ the Entity replied.

A low chuckle escaped Aden as his gaze drifted back to the lively scene below.

‘Should I find people to protect, just so that when I die, I won’t be alone?’

‘Is that the true purpose behind your pursuit of strength? To be seen?’ the Entity asked, a hint of realization threading his voice.

‘…I don’t know anymore,’ Aden admitted, his eyes drifting past the broken buildings into the distance.

The Entity said nothing more. They remained in silence, the slow drip of water from broken pipes and the soft creak of a door in the wind filling the space between them.

In the adjacent room, Zero and Lorelei sat facing each other, with the children resting between them. Their chests rose and fell in steady rhythm, their breathing calm despite everything they had endured.

Eren, still bare, showed no sign of discomfort even in his unconscious state.

“When are we going to tell him?” Lorelei asked, her voice edged with dissatisfaction and a trace of sorrow. “We’re supposed to be the ones protecting him, not leading him toward destruction.”

Zero’s expression remained passive as he began carving dark, glowing runes across Eren’s chest.

“Tell him what, exactly?” he asked.

Lorelei tilted her head to the side, her expression a mix of shock, anger, frustration, and helplessness.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe we tell him the truth of our existences? Where we came from? Where the First and Second are? Why he’s our Master? The Ring? Why he’s been chosen? Why—”

“That’s enough, Third,” Zero interrupted. “He can hear us.” His expression remained unchanged as he continued carving runes across Eren’s chest before moving on to the others.

Lorelei clenched her teeth, her brows tightly furrowed, but she said nothing more.

Zero briefly raised his head. “When we reach the Demon Continent on this planet, the fog over his eyes will be lifted.”

With that, he returned to carving the runes onto the children.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep