— The Struggle Within the Fallen Soul —
"Aarav, hold on!"
Eren's shout tore through the blood-soaked void, sharp enough to cut through the choking stench of decay and despair. His boots splashed against the darkened ground as he forced himself forward, eyes locked on the collapsing figure ahead.
"You still have a pure heart," he pressed on, voice tight with urgency.
"Hatred won't save you. It never does. Think of Mira—she's still waiting for you!"
Aarav staggered as if struck by an invisible hammer. His hands flew to his head, fingers digging into his scalp, nails scraping skin.
"It... hurts..." he gasped, breath coming in ragged bursts.
"Eren... save me..."
His face contorted violently.
One eye shimmered with unshed tears—trembling, terrified, filled with regret that cut deeper than any blade.
The other burned crimson, blazing with a hatred so dense it seemed to warp the air around it.
Before Eren could close the distance—
A whisper slithered out of the void.
"Aarav..."
It didn't roar.
It didn't echo.
It leaned in—slick, intimate, coiling around the soul like a lover's breath against the ear.
"The world betrayed you."
The shadows pulsed faintly with each syllable.
"Why struggle?"
"Why endure?"
"Become the Fallen God."
Images flickered at the edges of Aarav's vision—knees in the dirt, hands bound, laughter ringing above him.
"Slaughter them all."
"Turn their screams into prayer."
"No!" Aarav cried hoarsely, forcing his spine straight even as his body trembled.
"Mira didn't betray me! Eren didn't abandon me! There is still light in this world!"
A soft chuckle rippled through the void.
"Light?"
The word was tasted. Mocked.
"This world is filthy," the voice purred.
"Rotten to the core.""Every human heart reeks of hypocrisy."
The darkness thickened, pressing closer.
"Release it."
"Become your true self."
"Join me."
Aarav's body convulsed.
Black and white light ripped across his features in violent surges, goodness and malice colliding again and again, each impact tearing another scream from his throat.
"You've forgotten, haven't you?" the voice whispered, now sharp as a blade.
"Those villagers you called family."
"The ones who dragged you into the icy river."
"The ones who sealed you alive beneath the bridge—"
Aarav screamed.
The fragile balance shattered.
Seeing the darkness surge like a breached dam, Eren didn't hesitate.
His hand rose.
The Lumin & Umbra Sigil ignited.
Golden radiance erupted outward, roaring into existence as a sphere of sanctified light wrapped around Aarav, forcing the shadows back. The air screamed as corruption recoiled, hissing like acid on fire.
For a single heartbeat—
Hope held.
Then—
The void struck back.
Hatred surged in a tidal wave, thick and crushing. The golden barrier buckled, cracks racing across its surface before collapsing inward with a thunderous implosion.
The shockwave slammed into Eren's chest.
Pain detonated.
His vision lurched as his body was hurled backward, boots skidding uselessly across the ground.
His left eye burned.
Crimson flooded his sight.
Voices erupted inside him—raw, unfiltered, merciless.
Seraphine Lark.
The woman he had loved for three years.
"Eren, it's over."
"I'm done being poor."
Her voice returned with brutal clarity, as if she were standing inches from his face.
"Damien Vale—the heir of the Drax family—has money, power, a future."
"And you?"
A pause. Deliberate. Cruel.
"You can't even afford a car."
"I won't be your burden anymore."
Ten days ago, those words had been sharp.
Almost beautiful—
precisely because of how cleanly they had killed something inside him.
Seraphine Lark betrayed your love.
Another voice followed, colder, heavier.
Damien Vale framed you.
He pushed you toward death.
They deserve to die.
Eren's breath hitched.
Dark veins crept from his burning eye down his neck, pulsing, writhing like living shadows beneath his skin.
Once, he had believed love was the purest thing in the world.
Now he knew.
It could rot.
Corrupted by greed.
Warped by power.
Twisted into a weapon sharp enough to destroy a soul.
"Eren..."
The demonic whisper returned, delighted now, savoring every fracture spreading through his mind.
"Give up."
"Open your heart."
"Accept me."
The void leaned closer.
"You crave revenge, don't you?"
"Merge with me—and awaken completely."
Images surged—knees on cold stone, hands bound, execution lights flaring.
"Power.""Freedom."
"The right to trample those who cast you aside."
The world tilted.
Gravity vanished.
And Eren fell.
---
— The Abyss That Devours Light —
Darkness swallowed everything.
Not the absence of light—
but a presence dense enough to crush it.
Eren found himself standing within a warped illusion.
A city he knew.
Streets twisted at impossible angles, buildings sagging inward as if bowing to some unseen weight. Above, a blood-red twilight smeared the sky, thick and stagnant, like coagulated dusk that would never fade.
Bodies littered the streets.
Friends.
Enemies.
Strangers.
They lay where they had fallen, frozen mid-collapse, faces pale, eyes wide and hollow. As Eren stepped forward, their gazes followed him—unblinking, accusing.
"You could have saved us."
The words rose together, not shouted, not whispered—
spoken with the dull certainty of a verdict already passed.
Shadows surged.
Chains of living darkness coiled around Eren's limbs, cold and heavy, tightening with every breath. They dragged him forward, boots scraping uselessly across blood-slick stone.
Above him—
Something loomed.
Its shape refused to settle, stretching beyond comprehension, a silhouette that bent the illusion around it simply by existing. It did not speak.
It waited.
And in that waiting, Eren understood.
This was no fragment born of Aarav's hatred.
No echo of a broken soul.
Something else nested beneath it—
something that fed on despair, cultivated resentment, and lingered patiently for human hearts to fracture.
A parasite.
A god that did not belong to this world.
"So fragile," the abyss whispered at last, voice seeping from every direction at once.
"Even light rots when soaked in hatred."
The chains tightened.
Cracks splintered through Eren's consciousness, memories blurring at the edges, thoughts bleeding together. The illusion pressed closer, urging, promising.
If he surrendered—
He would not die.
He would continue.
Another vessel.
Another Fallen God.
"No..." Eren muttered, teeth clenched as he forced breath into lungs that felt filled with ash.
Images surfaced.
Mira's smile—warm, unguarded.
Aarav's laughter beneath the summer sun.
The countless nameless people who endured suffering without surrendering their humanity.
I will not fall.
A flicker of gold sparked within him.
Weak.
Unsteady.
Trembling against the weight of the abyss.
Then it surged.
---
— A Light That Breaks the Purgatory —
"No!"
Eren roared, the sound tearing through the illusion like a blade.
"I will not become a hollow god!"
"I will not be your puppet!"
Even if I seek revenge—
I will do it with my own hands!
Golden radiance erupted from his core, brilliant and pure, flooding outward in waves. It was not mercy.
It was conviction.
The chains of shadow shattered, disintegrating into ash mid-air. The blood-red city screamed as fractures raced through its structure, buildings collapsing into light.
Demonic whispers howled, voices shrieking as they burned away.
"You are me..." the abyss thundered, its form distorting violently.
"To destroy me is to destroy yourself—"
"You're wrong," Eren said coldly, standing firm amid the storm of light.
"You are only what humanity allows you to become."
The words landed like a sentence.
The voice faltered.
Then faded.
In the sea of blood, Eren blazed like a second sun.
He plunged forward, tearing through the dense core of resentment entwined around Aarav's soul, golden light ripping it apart strand by strand.
"Aarav!" he shouted.
"Come back to me!"
The demonic shell shattered.
Laughter rang out—clear, free.
"Eren...Thank you."
The darkness dissolved.
Where it had stood was a thin young man with gentle eyes and a peaceful smile.
The real Aarav.
"You saved me from hell."
Eren exhaled, exhaustion finally breaking through, a faint smile tugging at his lips.
"No," he said softly.
"You saved yourself."
Aarav nodded, gaze drifting upward as if seeing something far beyond the collapsing illusion.
"Tell Mira... I'm free now."
"Tell her... to live well."
Light shimmered.
Aarav's body dissolved into countless motes, drifting upward like falling stars swallowed by dawn.
"Aarav... rest easy."
For a moment—
Even the blood sea fell silent.
Cael, Rowan, Nadia, and the others watched from afar, awe and sorrow mingling in their eyes.
They had witnessed a soul's redemption.
But Eren did not relax.
In that final connection, he had seen the truth.
When Aarav was buried alive beneath the bridge—
Something ancient had stirred beneath the earth.
Something not of this world.
The mist shifted.
A distant rumble echoed through the abyss, slow and patient.
Aarav was gone.
But the evil that had shaped this purgatory—
Was still watching.