— Trial in the Mist —
The night was deep as ink.
With Johan and Xunhuan Lee's thunderous snores echoing behind him, Eren slipped away beneath the veil of darkness and vanished into the black mist's silent embrace.
He dared not go far—just twenty meters in.
"The shadow energy here... it's so dense."
Excitement flickered through him. The ambient power here was several times richer than anything inside the prison walls.
Crossing his legs, he activated the Meta Dippe.
The air began to swirl as the mist's corruptive force poured into him like a storm.
Within minutes, his first energy core—the Root Ocean—overflowed.
Yet the surrounding mist remained inexhaustible, whispering temptation.
Such abundance. How could he stop now?
A wild thought seized him:
What if my whole body became one vast core?
Fragments of old teachings surfaced in his mind:
"When one reaches the seventh layer—the Meta Singularity—the seven cores merge into one, forming a boundless field."
That realm was far beyond his reach.
Unless...he called upon that ancient tome again.
He climbed a small hill, pressed his palms forward, and the slope trembled, forming a hollow cave. He sealed himself inside and sat in silence.
Moments later, in the depths of his consciousness—the ancient book unfolded once more.
Light erupted. Energy roared like the birth of a cosmos, tearing through his body.
Pain followed—blinding, merciless, unending.
Veins bulged, bones screamed, yet he endured.
When his eyes finally snapped open, they burned with quiet triumph.
"Success."
The seven cores had linked—each node now connected into a single, continuous circuit.
It was a structural breakthrough: the pathways were open, ready to receive and channel power.
He stepped back into the mist and activated his technique at full force.
Instantly, his absorption rate multiplied tenfold. The black mist howled, twisting into a vortex that poured into him without end.
---
— Surge of the Black Mist —
"ROAR—!"
A bellow tore through the silence of the night.
The black mist churned like a boiling sea, heaving in furious waves.
Eren's eyes flew open, his heart nearly stuttering to a halt.
Damn it— The commotion from his absorption had been too great, actually disturbing the entity deep within the mist!
His energy cores weren't even one-tenth full. Stopping now would not only waste all his previous effort but could also lead to a violent energy backlash.
Clenching his jaw, he did the opposite, circulating his technique even more frantically. The shadow energy poured in like a hurricane, the vortex inside him spinning wildly.
"Thud—thud—thud—"
Disorderly footsteps sounded from all directions, drawing closer, like the ominous beat of a death drum.
Eren swept the area with his psionic awareness and saw countless pairs of crimson eyes igniting within the mist—
Thousands of Shadow Fiends, howling, were charging toward him. Their oppressive aura felt heavy enough to freeze the very air.
No retreat!
His gaze sharpened. He threw all caution to the wind, removing every last restriction—
BOOM!
The black mist within a thirty-meter radius was instantly compressed into a vacuum. The world went silent—as if even sound itself had been crushed out of existence.
The army of Shadow Fiends halted uniformly at the edge of the vacuum, their collective roars shaking the heavens, yet none dared take a step forward. The eerie standoff was unnerving.
However, the true danger had only just begun.
RUMBLE—!
The sky emitted a low, angry growl.
From the depths of the mist, something stirred.
A colossal blood-red hand emerged — vast as a mountain, its palm lines deep as ravines, radiating death and annihilation.
The giant hand pressed down slowly.
The void distorted, the air itself seemed to crack. A violent storm of energy swept across a hundred meters, like the arrival of doomsday.
Eren's face instantly turned ashen. His body was locked in place by the terrifying pressure, his bones emitting alarming creaks.
He tasted blood in his mouth. Only one thought remained in his heart—
I can't die! I absolutely cannot die here!
With all his might, he mobilized every ounce of energy within him, ready to burn his very life force for a final, desperate counterattack.
At that very moment—
A streak of pure, blazing white light suddenly cut through the night sky!
It shot out from the direction of the camp, so fast it was barely perceptible even to spiritual sense. Accompanied by a commanding shout:
"—Disperse!"
BANG—!!!
The moment the white light collided with the blood-red palm, the world lost its sound.
A dazzling light explosion erupted, like a second sun. The shockwave rolled out in all directions, the earth trembled, and dust and sand billowed.
Ten seconds later, the light gradually faded. The colossal blood-red hand had shattered into a sky full of bloody motes, falling like meteors before being swallowed by the void.
From deep within the sea of mist, a roar of utter fury and resentment shook the heavens and the earth.
Immediately, the thousands of Shadow Fiends retreated like a receding tide, vanishing back into the black mist. Silence returned as abruptly as it had been broken.
Eren stood rooted to the spot, drenched in cold sweat, his heart pounding like a war drum.
He could almost visualize himself being ground to dust—if not for that timely white light, he would have been obliterated.
He slowly turned, his gaze fixed intently on the origin of that white light.
A storm of questions raged in his heart:
That power... who was it? Could there really be such a powerful expert hidden within the camp?
---
— Silence After the Storm —
The moment Eren stepped out of the mistgy zone, Johan, Xunhuan Lee, Nadia, and others rushed to his location. Nearly the entire camp of GVA had been stirred.
Everyone's nerves were taut; the air was thick with tension and fear.
"Strange..." Nadia was the first to speak, her brow furrowed deeply. She looked toward the seemingly calming sea of mist, her tone laced with unease. "Have you noticed—the black mist seems to have thinned?"
Prompted by her observation, the others realized it too: the once impenetrable mist now allowed visibility up to twenty meteThe fog.
"Eren."
Nadia's sharp gaze locked onto him, cold and piercing like a hawk's. "What happened?"
Eren forced himself to remain calm, letting a mix of bewilderment and lingering fear—matching the others'—show on his face.
"I'm not sure either... I just got up to relieve myself." He spread his hands, his tone natural. —He certainly couldn't tell them he'd been secretly absorbing shadow energy to cultivate inside the mist.
Nadia didn't speak, merely watched him quietly, her gaze seeming to pierce through his facade.
After a long moment, she finally spoke, her voice cold. "Eren. You. Come with me."
Inside the tent, the atmosphere was even heavier than outside.
"No outsiders here," Nadia's voice was low and carried undeniable pressure. "Speak. What exactly did you do inside the black mist? Why did you provoke that giant hand?"
Eren's mind raced. A complete denial would only raise more suspicion.
After a moment of feigned contemplation, he looked up, his gaze appearing sincere yet tinged with regret.
"Since I can't hide it from you... I did enter. My constitution allows me to absorb shadow energy, as you know. I just wanted to see if I could achieve some form of 'resonance' with the mist. Perhaps I could find a way to counter it."
—A half-truth, turning his secret cultivation into an "experiment."
"Resonance?" Nadia's eyes suddenly gleamed, and she leaned forward slightly. "You mean, attempting to control the black mist?" Her tone held a suppressed excitement. "If that's truly possible, the implications would be monumental..."
Eren let out a light sigh, a bitter smile appearing on his lips. "Unfortunately, I failed. Not only was I unsuccessful, I also angered the entity deep within the mist."
He deliberately took responsibility for the "failed experiment," making his story more believable.
He considered asking about the origin of the life-saving white light, but Nadia cut him off first.
"Enough. Remember, Eren, you are crucial to this operation. Do not take such reckless actions again. Your life is not yours alone to throw away. Now, go and rest."
---
Back in his tent, the night remained oppressively heavy.
Lying on his bunk, Eren couldn't sleep for a long time. The image of that sky-blotting, mountain-sized blood-red hand replayed in his mind, threatening to crush his nerves.
"It seems I must be far more cautious when absorbing shadow energy from now on," he warned himself sternly. "Gradual progress, no more causing such disturbances. Otherwise, if I fully awaken that existence within the mist..."
—He didn't even dare to finish the thought.
But more unsettling than the shadow of death was another, burning question:
"That white light... who was it?"
He could still feel the echo of its warmth, lingering in the cold night air.
Was his savior's appearance a coincidence? Or... was there another purpose behind it?