To You, From This World to the Next
Summary: A blasé god of death roamed the earth for centuries, seeking for something that would alleviate his constant boredom. It was by chance that he laid his eyes upon him—that being that will turn his mundane life upside-down.
Levi screamed as he tore through a nymph's chest, coating his whole body with blood. Baring his teeth at anyone who would dare try to enter the throne room, he had his sights dead set on the one who had led all the legions of soldiers and nymphs to his abode—
Erwin and Carla.
Levi was once told many eons ago, by the Fates, that he would someday cause a war so great, it would create a rift between the human realm and of the deity realm—a war that would cost many lives, those of both mortal and immortal. And Levi took all those warnings in stride, brushing it off as nothing but hogwash.
But he remembered those words well, and he had become even more cautious since the day they told him that.
Who knew that that war was all because of his love for a mortal hunter, whose heart was torn between living in the netherworld and the human world?
Levi hummed as he sliced through a soldier's body, a wry smile making its way to his lips as he recalled the events for the past three weeks. He had been watching Eren consistently since then, not moving from his spot in front of the still sleeping male.
Eren's body had remained weak, yet the flowers that have shielded him remained, coiling around his whole body like a protective barrier. The only thing that reassured Levi that Eren was alive was the fact that there was still life around him. The breath of nature still flourished in the coldness of his usually barren throne room, and Levi refused to move from where he was sitting on the ground, fearing that should he move even a single step away from Eren, the grass and the flowers around them would crumble and wither away. And Eren might wake up and see the disaster in Levi's presence—and the hunter would be saddened.
Levi did not want that, so he stayed close to Eren's side.
Hange had loyally stood by the death god, smiling and joking and reassuring Levi that all would be fine even if he moved away from the hunter. An occasional banter would be thrown between Ymir and Hange, and Levi, at rare times, would cut in between the two to mutter a quick and witty remark, and Hange would heartily slap the god's back, despite her protesting hand. Ymir would stifle a laugh while Historia would giggle as she smoothed Eren's hair. "You need to walk around and let yourself relax once in a while, now that we know Eren is alive, all would be fine," Hange had once said to him, but Levi had merely shook his head and held Eren's hand in between the gentleness of his taloned hands. He refused to move and look away from the hunter's face, and Hange didn't bother Levi again.
The death god had taken care of Eren for the entirety of the two weeks. Oftentimes, he would pat and smooth away the mortal's locks with shaky, taloned hands. Levi knew that he shouldn't touch Eren too much during his healing stage, but the soft breathing from the mortal would always crumble his resolve. There were also days that Historia would touch Eren, simply to check if he was all right. She would always smile, and Levi would go back to touching Eren's hair, not saying a word to anyone unless directly asked about Eren. A sign of frazzled nerves and a strong desire for comfort that Levi had sought, Hange once noted to an observant Ymir. Ymir had only nodded, not trusting her mouth to speak, for once.
Fourteen days have been spent like that, with Levi cradling onto every shred of hope every time Eren would drift in and out of consciousness. The hunter had said nothing during his times of haziness, but there was, on one occasion, that Levi had almost broke down once more.
A lone tear had slipped from Eren's closed eyes on one cold night, and Levi wiped it away, just as Eren parted his lips to say something—a name. A name that the king knew all too well.
And then there was none.
The week after that had began as Levi's nightmare coming true. Starting with the news of the harpies falling swiftly one after another, right in front of the gates of Erebus, the god of death knew the Fates' prophecy was about to bear fruit.
Then came the loud roaring reverberating throughout the whole underworld, shaking it to its very foundations, and it was during that time that Historia, the goddess of the hearth, gave an unconscious Eren a protection of sorts from the evils that were sure to come.
It was also during that time that Hange and Ymir sorted out peace talks to the roaring soldiers and it only ended in vain two days later.
"They want the boy back! They want the boy back and they want him now!" Ymir had shouted as soon as she entered the throne room, followed closely by an agitated Hange, who had looked quite close to ripping someone out of their flesh.
"They can't have him. Not now!" Levi had yelled, who had remained kneeling in front of the unconscious Eren. Historia, who had noticed that the death god was becoming a bit jittery in his outcries of frustration, merely bit her lip and idly patted Eren's head.
She had seen the eyeballs beneath his eyelids dart towards Levi's direction—and nothing more.
"Eren is still recovering," the gondolier had said, idly biting her thumbnail as she paced towards Levi, her eyes dulled with a crazed look. "And it's not like we're going to give him back to them anyway even if he's well." She had snapped her head sharply at Levi's surprised face that day, and she knelt in front of him and promptly held his taloned hands, ignoring the swirls of smoke that have coiled and burned around her wrists.
"I know you're not going to let him go this time," she had hissed at him, those eyes of hers were wide and almost terrifying, her grip on the king's hands were too painful, but Levi knew well that she was trying hard to make her point across without saying too much words.
He knew that she knew for herself that she was now slowly spiralling into the arms of lunacy—a familiar trait of Hange that surfaced only when she knew that the people she cherished were in real danger.
Levi's jaw had tensed.
"How many are they?"
And the war for Eren had then began.
Yelling for Erwin's name as Levi tore through another soldier's flesh, the death god growled as he threw the soldier's head towards the god of war and charged at him.
"Erwin, you bastard!" His eyes swelled in fury. He had quickly shoved Eren back to his throne room as soon as a nymph tried to attack them both. Ripping its face off cleanly, he quickly shut the doors back, not before telling a blank-faced Eren to never open them unless everything was quiet and over.
Levi never saw Eren lamely nod, as the king was now blinded with rage.
Swift were the death god's moves, his anger for the war god, who was hovering just above his trusted soldiers, very imminent. Levi bared his teeth, ready to tear down the god decked in gold, were it not for a seething Carla who blocked his way.
"Stop this foolishness, Little Death! You ought to know better than to declare war!"
Levi halted in mid-attack, his talons still poised and waiting to draw golden blood. Silver eyes seethed at the goddess, and he growled.
"I certainly did not declare a damned war!" Levi yelled, pointing a clawed talon at Carla. "For all I know, you must have dragged that war-freak with you!" Erwin flinched at Levi's words and at that taloned finger being pointed at him, he looked away, mumbling something to himself. "I never intended to start a fight!" The death god tried his best to keep himself as calm as he could in front of the goddess, for no matter what, she would always be Eren's birthmother.
Carla growled, her expression now masking irritation. And for a moment, Levi could see where Eren inherited his features.
"You declared war the moment you took my son away from me. How bold and tactless of you. Hah! Letting all the ravens run loose in all of Greece and Italy? With seeds of pomegranate stuck to their bodies as they rounded the fields of Enna? Is that your idea of a joke?" Her brows furrowed even more, her face inching closer to Levi's, a deadly glare set upon her usually kind eyes. "Don't mock me, you pompous, wretched Death-Grabber!"
Levi's face scrunched, his expression curious and lost as he huffed, ignoring the goddess's terms of insult. "I don't know what you're talking about. I have never ventured outside of Erebus since Eren came here. I'm afraid I have lost track of time. Plus, I have never controlled animals. They would die by my presence alone before I could order them. Besides, that would be very low of me. Why order someone, or in this case, animals, when I could do it myself?"
Carla's teeth gnashed at the king's haughtiness. His cold smirk did nothing to ease her anger—in fact, it only fuelled it. He didn't even flinch when she gave him her darkest glare.
"I still can't believe my son fell for someone as horrid as you. I don't see what he saw in you. Why would he befriend you and choose you as his own? And to think that I would have given my blessing to you even if you are the complete opposite of my son. I would have given you all the blessing in the world because my son loves you so much! To the point that he's willing to give up his freedom! And yet you have led him to his demise. You, who has hidden his self away from all of creation behind a badly-made mask—"
"You don't know everything, so don't judge."
Carla stopped short at Levi's words, keeping silent as he glared daggers at her. Her eyebrows rose, and she sneered to herself.
"Have I struck a nerve, Little Death?"
All the while, Erwin killed every being who had tried to harm the god of death. He dared not to intervene between their conversation.
"He is not to be touched," he had said to his soldiers, and they begrudgingly obeyed his command.
Eren frowned as his hand touched the cold doors, ears intent on listening through the ruckus from the other side. As soon as he had been embraced tightly, he was turned around, and he had faced the death god. A chaste kiss to his brow was given, a loud sound of a screech was heard, and Eren was pushed and locked back to the throne room, right before he could even give Levi a proper greeting.
The hunter sighed, noting the withered leaves that gathered around his person. Feeling weak once more, he slumped to his knees, crouching in front of the wide doors like a pup waiting for his master's return. A wave of questions crashed his oddly numb mind. Why was he still alive? Why was there fighting?
"Eren?"
The son of Carla craned his neck and looked at the source of the tiny voice. "Historia...?"
The goddess smiled at him. In her hands was a golden basin filled to the brim with clear water. Offering it to him, Eren shook his head and was about to speak, until he realized that his throat felt very parched. He bit his lip, and took the proffered water. Cupping the refreshing liquid in his hands, he messily drank to his heart's content, aware of Historia's kind eyes observing him with a smile. Gulping down the last drops of water his shaky hands could take, he wiped his mouth, and mumbled his thanks to the giggling goddess.
"Why are there fighting outside?" he asked as soon as he had his fill of refreshment. "Why is Erwin there? Why—why is my mother there?"
Eren stepped closer to Historia, his eyes a tad wider. Fear, she could tell. And she stilled when he gripped her shoulders and asked her again.
"Why are they fighting?"
And Historia, seeing the flash of innocence over his face, wanted nothing more than to shield Eren from the cruelty of it all. And her heart shivered as she reached out to him in a comforting embrace, whispering to him, "It's going to be all right, Eren. It's going to be all right."
At the back of her mind, however, she was not as calm as she appeared to be.
Her thoughts raced on how to stop all the fighting outside, she really wanted to, but she had no power over that.
That was Ymir's forte, not Historia's. And all Historia could do was to give comfort to the boy in turmoil.
The doors creaked open, and for the briefest of moments, Historia's eyes sharpened into slits, her visage grew frightening at a second's glance.
She wouldn't dare let anyone harm Eren.
The sounds of fighting continued to rage on, and her hold on Eren tightened as someone tried to sneak in—
—and in came Petra, her face and cloak showing splatters of gold.
Historia breathed a sigh of relief.
"Eren needs to get out of here. The king's orders," she said as quickly as she slammed the doors shut. She briefly glanced at the sight of the golden liquid on her spear, and she wiped it on her cloak dismissively with a huff.
She walked over to Eren and knelt behind him, touching his back. And she enveloped him in an embrace as tight as Historia's.
Eren didn't know what to say, so he just stayed still, blinking.
"I'm sorry for all that I've done, Eren. I didn't know," she broke her embrace and looked at him with a hardened stare. "I didn't know. And I'm sorry that you had to go through all of tha—"
Petra's words were cut off as Eren hugged her. He patted her on the back, and for a moment, she could hear the smile from his voice as he spoke.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but whatever it is that is bothering you and it involves me—and if it bothers you that much that you are seeking my acceptance so much, then yes, you are forgiven. Although," he broke the embrace and looked at her, and Petra smiled as Eren smiled as he held her hands, and kindness shone in his eyes as he spoke, "I really need to know what it is that I just forgave you for."
Petra felt her breath stop short, and she blinked as she thought of the proper words to say. It seemed that the mortal remained oblivious as to what she did.
Innocence truly held him dear.
"Eren," she started sweetly, willing the nervousness away from her cracking voice, "I have done you... great wrongs, and it cost you the king's love, and also your life and—I don't think I deserve your forgiveness but—"
Eren simply shook his head with a silent smile upon his face, and he caressed her cheek, and that smile bloomed as his eyes sparkled with life once more.
And Petra realized at that moment, that no one would be fully immune to the charms of the young hunter Eren.
"It's all right now, it's all right now," Eren began, his voice soft and almost hoarse. And his next words brought tears to the sentinel's eyes.
"Just always stay by his side to keep him safe. He could be lonely sometimes and needed someone to talk to. When I'm not here, please stay by his side."
Petra nodded, and a broken laugh erupted from her lips as she wiped away her tears—from what emotion, she would never know. She smiled at the hunter, patted his shoulders stiffly, and nodded at him.
"At this moment, all of his subordinates are fighting alongside the king. And he told me to keep you away from the fight," she reassured him, and at a glance, her eyes flitted over to Eren's arms, and she held back a gasp as she looked at the smiling hunter. She forced a smile at Eren, and she stood up and offered him her hand, "Bring you to somewhere safe. Are you coming with me?"
Historia kept a sharp ear and eye on the fighting that roused the underworld to a true, living hell. She paced back and forth restlessly, her eyes looking at the heavy doors every now and then, and Ymir, who had been silently standing behind her since Petra and Eren have snuck away to a safe place, finally let out a sigh and tutted at the goddess.
"Stay still, Historia. You're going to trample on the flowers—well, you are trampling on the flowers."
Historia stopped pacing, and looked at the doors once more. Fumbling with her fingers and biting her lip every now and then, she glanced at Ymir, "Are they all safe, I wonder... The king, the gondolier, the Cerberus... Eren."
Ymir said nothing for a long time, opting to merely blink at Historia's question, and when the goddess started pacing again, Ymir spoke.
"They will be fine. As long as we cannot feel the underworld crumbling to its foundations again, then they are fine. The destruction of the netherworld is the destruction of the god of Death."
Historia took a deep breath, and eyed the doors once more as she stepped closer towards the noise, "I wonder who is winning..." And just as she expected, the hurried sound of Ymir's feet echoed all around her, and she was not surprised as her arm was taken hold and she was turned around.
"Now that, I will not allow. You stay here. I will go check, if you so wish to know of it that much."
"No, no. It's fine. I can manage. Don't go out there."
Petra led Eren towards the safest place she could think of—Tartarus.
It was the only place that Levi himself had restricted Eren to go to. And it was the perfect place to shield Eren from the eyes of war.
"This is the abomination that Levi told me not to go near to," Eren mumbled to Petra as they neared the entrance to the deepest cave in the underworld. His teal eyes roamed the looming stalactites and stalagmites; his fingertips grew clammy to the touch as he blindly grasped at Petra's cloak. He smiled, however, when his presence alone had turned the entrance of Tartarus into a living paradise. "Why lead me here?" he breathed out, amazed. He felt his heart pounding at the sights as they entered the changing scenery of the cave. Despite the breathtaking sights, however, they could hear the distant cries of pain from the inside.
Eren didn't dare ask what the sounds were about.
"No one has ever set foot in here. No one aside from the Cerberus and the king himself. You are the first outsider to have ever been into this place."
Eren gulped, unsure of how to respond as he plucked a rose from the cave's walls, "Not even... Erwin of the War?"
Petra nodded and smiled, "Not even Erwin of the War." And she patted his shoulder, and looked at the sharp, now moss-covered rocks above their heads. "You will stay here until everything has returned to its peace and order. You will wait here while I return to fighting. Once that's over, I will return to you," and she smiled reassuringly at Eren, winking at him playfully. "Besides, someone needs to stay by the king's side as he fights. It is the Hunter's wish."
And Eren laughed and looked away, wiping at something at his beet red cheeks. The smile turned into a full-blown grin, and he and Petra shared a moment's laughter and peace.
Once they have calmed down and returned sober, Petra gave Eren one last comforting squeeze on the shoulder, "Whatever you do, and whatever happens, steer clear away from the ravens. Steer clear away from them, and stay within the outer parts of this place. Don't go deeper into this hell. Or the king will have my neck."
And with that, Petra left Eren behind. He watched her jump from the cave and vanish into thin air, leaving behind a wisp of familiar black smoke.
Smoke that returned to Eren's being once more.
The hunter watched as his fingers emitted the familiar smoke. He didn't know when it had returned to him, but he was glad, nonetheless. He smiled as it played around his fingertips, its swirls coiling around his whole body, and he felt warm as an ebony tendril looped around his neck.
He laughed to himself, and kissed the black mist.
"I thought I have lost you forever."
Eren stared at his arms, humming, and his gaze stopped short as he closely inspected his flesh—flesh that was now littered with little blisters that refused to heal.
They took the shape of a large pair of hands—hands that have long nails.
Eren gingerly touched his arms, and the smoke followed his movements. He hissed as new skin and flesh reformed before his eyes. He gulped, and his mouth went dry as he realized something dear.
"—so, let me get this straight. You gave Eren back Levi's protection. That... smoky thing."
Historia nodded all too enthusiastically, her hands clasped as she let Ymir catch on. She watched as Ymir's brows furrowed, her arms gesturing wildly at her, and Historia bit back a giggle.
"You gave it back... when Levi wasn't looking. What," Ymir scratched her head, her mouth formed in an almost permanent gape as she tried to connect everything that Historia just said to her. "How did you—"
"By letting him touch Eren all he wants," Historia shrugged. "It was how he did it before," she leaned closer to Ymir, and smiled as she looked at the heavy doors, "even though he himself didn't know how that happened." She turned her gaze back to the tanned woman, and she laughed at her expression. "The king himself didn't know how he did it before. The Leader herself told me. But, this time, when I had revived Eren, I thought that that protection could be given back to him. And it did." Historia's smile faltered, and she looked away from Ymir, "Only..."
The goddess's guardian tilted her head, her eyebrows raised as she urged Historia to go on. The blonde visibly gulped and scratched her arm, her expression almost regretful.
"The price to pay to have Eren by King Levi's side is steep. Everything needs a balance."
Ymir blinked, shaking her head, "I don't understa—"
"The touch. The touch between them as lovers. It's gone."
Icy blue eyes stared intently at the seam before her. Her frown was etched on her pale face, and for a moment, an observant Bertolt could almost see the regret swirling in Annie's eyes as the seam showed Eren hissing in pain.
His eyes saw her lips move, a mumbled phrase slipping in between a breathless string of apologies—all directed to Eren.
A stiff hand was placed on his and Annie's shoulders, and a grave-looking Reiner bore holes in the scenes taking place in front of them.
"Everything is going as planned, everyone. Whatever you see in front of you from now on, don't take it to heart. Don't let pity reign inside you. Doing so would mean ruin to us all."
Reiner said as much, but the silent Bertolt knew—
—sympathy had sprouted in Annie's heart.
"It's all for the best, Eren," they heard her absentmindedly mumble to herself, and the two Fates said nothing to her, opting to merely offer her a comforting pat on the shoulder.
From a distance, the loud cawing of a raven could be heard, and it was only then that Annie blinked, and she beckoned the bird to her, and it perched on her hand, cawing and flapping its wings at the blonde.
"Just a little more," she said to the raven, more so to herself—as Bertolt noted silently. "Just a little more—and we'll all live in a world we all yearned for."
Reiner eyed her, then at the changing seam, where the battle for Eren raged on.
He smirked when he saw a certain god yell out, and he huffed as that god spilt golden liquid from his arm.
Reiner's eyes shone in delight, and Bertolt gulped as the blond spoke up.
"Time to turn the tables to our favor."
Annie darted her eyes at the seam for a moment, and a small smile graced her lips.
"Turn everything to our side, Death's Hunter."
A/N: I'm sorry, I'm not sorry.