Chapter 122: Eren is Leaking

The afternoon sun beat down on the parched earth, casting long, distorted shadows across the caravan. Aden led the group over the final obsidian ridge, exiting the stifling pressure of the gorge. The silence of the wastes was immediate, broken only by the rhythmic creak of wagon wheels and the heavy breathing of exhausted horses.

Behind him, the mercenaries moved in a haunted shuffle. They kept their eyes averted from Aden, their earlier bravado replaced by a wary, tight-lipped distance.

Aden stopped abruptly and raised a hand. The lead wagon lurched to a halt.

“Check the boy,” Aden said.

Lorelei shimmered into view beside the lead carriage. Eren lay slumped against a crate of refined ore, his skin the color of ash. Faint red sparks occasionally jumped from his fingertips—the volatile discharge of a forced breakthrough.

“His foundation is unstable, Master,” Lorelei reported, her voice thin. “He reached into his life-force to fuel that final strike. If he doesn’t enter deep meditation now, the Attuned Realm will collapse back into his core and tear his meridians apart.”

The scout leader scrambled down from his perch, his face pale with dust and sweat. “Why are we stopping? We’re a mile from the South-Point Outpost. We’re sitting ducks out here!”

Aden turned. The sapphire light in his eyes flared, cold and sharp. “The boy needs to breathe. The vibrations of the wagon will shatter his pathways. We stay here for thirty minutes.”

“In the open?” a mercenary shouted from the rear. “The Creepers will be out of their holes the moment the sun dips!”

Aden didn’t answer. He stepped toward the center of the caravan and drove the butt of his dark steel blade into the dry earth.

A dome of sapphire mist erupted from the point of impact, expanding rapidly until it encased the wagons and the men. The temperature inside the veil dropped, the howling wind of the wastes silenced by the shimmering barrier.

“No one leaves the circle,” Aden commanded. “Lorelei, take the children to the center. Armin, Reiner—stay with Eren. Keep him upright.”

As the spectral woman guided the smaller boys toward their brother, Aden walked to the edge of the dome. He sat in a lotus position, his blade resting across his knees, facing the northern horizon.

Ten minutes into the silence, a rhythmic thumping vibrated through the ground.

Aden’s ears twitched. Five riders appeared on the horizon, their silver armor flashing like mirrors in the sun. At the head of the group was a woman with spun-gold hair and a crimson cloak. She pulled her mount to a halt fifty paces from the dome, her hand resting on the hilt of a claymore etched with glowing runes.

“By the authority of the Eternal Light!” she bellowed. “Identify yourselves. This sector is under Interdict. Who authorized a Resonance flare of that magnitude?”

Aden stood up. He stepped through the sapphire veil, leaving the caravan protected behind him. He walked toward the Paladin, his grey cloak snapping in the wind.

“The Vanguard authorized it,” Aden said.

The woman’s eyes narrowed, taking in the black ichor on his boots and the unnatural sapphire glow in his gaze.

“There is no Vanguard registered for this route,” she countered, her hand tightening on her blade. “You carry the scent of the Abyss, stranger. And the boy behind you… his Resonance is volatile. It smells of forbidden evolution.”

Aden stopped ten paces from her horse. The air between them hummed—a collision of sapphire frost and the golden heat of the Church’s influence.

“The boy is Attuned,” Aden said. “And your interruption is unwelcome. I have a contract with the Adventurers’ Guild, signed in the blood of a Hive-Lord. Take your questions to the Guild-Master in Grey-Rock.”

The Paladin drew her claymore. The blade erupted in a brilliant, golden flame. “The Guild has no jurisdiction over the soul. Dismantle this dome and surrender the boy for assessment, or I will treat you as a manifestation of the Void.”

Aden let out a low, dangerous chuckle. He raised his dark steel blade, the metal beginning to vibrate with a violet-black hum.

“I’ve had a long morning,” Aden whispered. “And you are three seconds away from becoming part of the landscape. Choose.”

Behind the dome, Eren’s eyes snapped open. They were a solid, vibrating crimson. He stood up, his hand reaching for the latch of the wagon door.

The Paladin’s horse reared, sensing the sudden spike in atmospheric pressure. The golden flames on her claymore licked higher, casting long, flickering shadows against the sapphire dome. She didn’t blink. Her training had prepared her for heretics, but the man standing before her felt like a hole in the world.

“A choice?” she spat, her voice ringing with sanctified iron. “The Light does not negotiate with the Void.”

She kicked her mount into a gallop. The four riders behind her drew their maces, their silver armor humming with a synchronized, holy resonance. They moved as a single unit, a wall of burning metal closing the distance in heartbeats.

Aden didn’t brace himself. He exhaled, his lungs venting a faint blue mist.

As the Paladin swung her flaming claymore in a massive horizontal cleave, Aden stepped forward. He didn’t parry. He tilted his head, the blade whistling past his ear with enough heat to singe the edge of his hood. His hand shot out, catching the horse’s bridle.

Harmonic Realm: Static Inertia.

The horse stopped mid-stride, its momentum instantly cancelled. The Paladin was nearly thrown from her saddle, her golden fire sputtering as the sapphire frost crawled up the animal’s legs and into the reins.

“I gave you a choice,” Aden said.

He pivoted, his dark steel blade trailing a line of violet-black light. He struck the flat of the Paladin’s claymore. The impact sounded like a cathedral bell cracking. The holy flames vanished, extinguished by the sheer weight of Aden’s suppressed Resonance.

The other four riders reached him. One swung a mace crackling with lightning; another thrust a lance tipped with sun-glass. Aden moved between them like a ghost, his body blurring in a series of jagged, impossible angles.

He punched the air. A shockwave of blue energy erupted, hitting the riders with the force of a battering ram. Armor buckled. Horses tumbled. In three seconds, the purification squad was a heap of groaning metal and panicked animals in the dirt.

Aden stood over the lead Paladin, who was struggling to rise, her silver breastplate dented. He pointed his blade at her throat.

“Go back to Grey-Rock,” Aden commanded.

“Tell your Bishop that the Vanguard is finished with the Church’s interference. If I see a crimson cloak on this trail again, I won’t use the flat of my blade.”

The woman looked up at him, her golden hair matted with dust. She didn’t see a man anymore; she saw the very Abyss she had been taught to fear. She scrambled to her feet, whistling for her mount. The other riders followed suit, their pride shattered alongside their armor. They didn’t look back as they retreated toward the city.

Aden sheathed his blade and turned toward the dome.

The sapphire veil shimmered and dissolved. Eren stood by the wagon door, his red eyes fixed on the retreating dust cloud. His breathing had stabilized, the crimson glow of his skin settling into a steady, healthy thrum. He looked at his hands, then at Aden.

“I could have helped,” Eren said, his voice carrying a new, resonant edge.

“You were busy not dying,” Aden replied, walking past him toward the lead wagon.

“There’s a difference between a breakthrough and a battle. You’ve done the first. Now, you’re going to learn the second.”

The scout leader stepped forward, his eyes wide as he looked at the dented armor plates left in the dirt. “You just struck down an Inquisitor’s squad. You know they’ll be back with a Legion, right?”

Aden climbed onto the driver’s seat and grabbed the reins. “Then we’d better be far away from here by the time they arrive. Move the wagons. We’re heading for the Black-Stripe Outpost.”

The caravan lurched into motion. The horses, sensing the urgency in Aden’s grip, pulled with a renewed vigor. As the sun dipped lower, casting the wasteland in shades of bruised purple and orange, the wagons rolled away from the gorge.

Aden looked at Eren, who had taken his seat on the bench. The boy looked older, the innocence of the slum-dweller burned away by the heat of the morning.

“The State of Equilibrium,” Aden said, staring at the horizon. “It starts with the breath. If you can’t control the air in your lungs, you’ll never control the fire in your blood. Start now.”

Eren closed his eyes and inhaled. The journey had only just begun.

The wagons rumbled over the uneven shale, the rhythmic clack-thud of the wheels acting as a metronome for Eren’s breathing. He sat cross-legged on the wooden bench, his back pressed against the iron-reinforced side of the lead carriage. Each inhalation was a struggle; the newly forged pathways in his chest felt like raw glass, stinging with every pulse of the Attuned energy.

Aden kept his eyes on the horizon, his hands relaxed on the leather reins. He didn’t look at the boy, but he could feel the erratic spikes of crimson Resonance leaking from Eren’s skin.

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