Night fell over Stonefall like a closing wound.
The city still breathed—workers repairing walls, soldiers reinforcing barricades, lanterns glowing across the broken streets—but an unease had settled over everything. People moved carefully now, glancing at shadows that had begun to feel… wrong.
Eren felt it most of all.
Because the shadows were not just shadows anymore.
They were possibilities.
And the possibilities were multiplying.
The Futures Split
Eren stood atop the command tower overlooking the city.
Wind moved through the damaged battlements, carrying the scent of stone dust and distant fires.
Below him, Ruby directed night patrol rotations.
Alive.
For now.
But around her—
The world fractured.
One future showed a bolt tearing through her throat.
Another showed the ground splitting beneath her feet.
Another showed the black shadow from before swallowing her whole.
But now there were more.
Many more.
Futures stacking on top of each other like broken mirrors.
Neural Pattern Stability: 22%
Foreign Residue: 19%
Eren pressed a hand to his temple.
Each vision came faster than the last.
And they were beginning to overlap.
The Assassin Moves
Across the city rooftops, someone was already watching.
The assassin had arrived three hours earlier.
He had studied the patrols.
Measured distances.
Mapped escape routes.
His weapon lay across his knees—a slender repeating crossbow, silent and precise.
He had one target.
Ruby.
Orders had been clear.
Kill the lieutenant. Break the rebel command chain.
Simple.
Clean.
Efficient.
The assassin lifted the crossbow.
And took aim.
Eren Sees It
The vision slammed into him.
Ruby speaking with two guards.
The assassin firing.
The bolt hitting her heart.
Ruby collapsing.
The vision ended.
Eren shouted from the tower.
"RUBY MOVE!"
She looked up.
Confused.
That hesitation—
Saved her.
Because the bolt struck the wall beside her instead.
Stone shattered.
Soldiers instantly drew weapons.
"SNIPER!"
Chaos erupted across the courtyard.
Futures Collide
But the moment the attack began—
The visions exploded.
Not one future.
Not two.
Dozens.
Ruby dying in different ways.
The assassin escaping.
The assassin captured.
Stonefall burning.
Stonefall collapsing.
Stonefall… disappearing.
One vision froze everything else.
Stonefall.
Gone.
Not destroyed.
Not ruined.
Gone.
Where the city had stood there was only empty earth.
Like it had never existed.
Neural Pattern Stability: 20%
Foreign Residue: 22%
Eren staggered.
The Devourer pulsed violently.
Something inside the fragment reacted to that particular future.
Strongly.
Hungrily.
The Hunt Begins
Below, Ruby was already moving.
"Roof teams! Lock down the eastern quarter!"
Guards spread through the streets.
Crossbows raised.
Torches flaring to life across the rooftops.
The assassin cursed silently.
The shot had failed.
But he had expected resistance.
He shifted position.
Preparing for a second shot.
Eren Intervenes
Another vision.
The assassin reloading.
A second bolt.
Ruby's skull shattering.
Eren moved before the future could happen.
He leapt from the tower.
Stone cracked beneath his landing.
Soldiers flinched as black veins briefly crawled along his arm—the Devourer stirring in response to danger.
"East roof," he said calmly.
Ruby pointed immediately.
"Three squads with him!"
But Eren was already gone.
The Rooftop
The assassin saw him coming.
Too fast.
Too direct.
Something was wrong.
The man moved like he already knew where the assassin stood.
The crossbow lifted.
The bolt fired.
Another future flashed.
The bolt piercing Eren's eye.
Eren tilted his head slightly.
The bolt missed.
It embedded in the chimney behind him.
The assassin froze.
"How—"
Eren crossed the remaining distance instantly.
The assassin reached for a dagger.
Too late.
Eren slammed him into the roof tiles.
Hard.
The man's ribs cracked.
The Interrogation
Guards arrived seconds later.
Ruby climbed onto the roof soon after.
She studied the captured assassin.
"Who sent you?"
The man smiled through blood.
"You already know."
"The Church?"
Silence.
That was answer enough.
But Eren wasn't looking at the prisoner.
He was looking at the city.
Because the visions hadn't stopped.
They were getting worse.
The Impossible Future
Stonefall again.
But this time the vision showed how it vanished.
The Devourer.
Or something like it.
A massive shadow stretching across the entire city.
Opening.
Consuming everything.
Buildings.
People.
Memory.
When the shadow closed—
Nothing remained.
Not ruins.
Not ashes.
Just absence.
Foreign Residue: 25%
Eren felt something cold in his chest.
Because the vision had one detail that made it far worse.
The shadow wasn't attacking the city.
It was coming from inside it.
Ruby Notices
Ruby approached quietly.
"You're doing that thing again."
"Yes."
"Am I dead?"
"Not yet."
"Comforting."
She followed his gaze across the city.
"What is it this time?"
Eren hesitated.
Then answered honestly.
"I just saw Stonefall disappear."
Ruby blinked.
"…disappear how?"
"Like something ate it."
She frowned.
"Well that sounds extremely bad."
"Yes."
"And this thing?"
Eren looked down at his arm.
The faint black veins were still visible.
"...might be connected to me."
Ruby went silent.
For the first time since all of this began—
She looked afraid.
Inside the Devourer
The fragment churned violently.
It wasn't just reacting now.
It was evolving.
Adapting to Eren's mind.
Learning how to predict his predictions.
Foreign Residue: 27%
The digestion process had changed.
It was no longer a simple struggle between host and fragment.
Now it was something far stranger.
Two predators.
Sharing the same body.
Learning from each other.
And Somewhere Far Away…
A presence stirred in the deep void beyond the System.
Not the fragment inside Eren.
But the original.
The Devourer.
A being older than the System itself.
For the first time in centuries—
It noticed something.
A small echo.
A fragment of itself.
Inside a human.
And that human had just glimpsed one of its natural hungers.
Cities.
Civilizations.
Entire timelines.
Devoured.
The Devourer's attention turned slightly toward the world.
Curious.
Very curious.
Back in Stonefall
Ruby folded her arms.
"Alright."
"Alright what?"
"If your monster might erase my city…"
She gave him a sharp look.
"…we're going to figure out how to stop that."
Eren didn't answer immediately.
Because the visions were changing again.
Now he saw two final futures.
One where the Devourer inside him consumed Stonefall.
And one where something worse arrived.
Something that made even the Devourer recoil.
And in that second future—
The System itself was screaming.