Aden didn't wait for Zero's analytic voice to come through before he calmly pushed the door open. The wood didn't creak, it simply dissolved where the heat touched it.
The room was a swirling vortex of bruised purple and searing orange. Eren was suspended in the center, his clothes already scorched away, his skin glowing with the intensity of a dying star. The Violet Shard was embedded in the center of his chest, pulsing like a jagged, poisonous heart.
"Eren," Aden said, his voice occupying the space entirely.
The boy's eyes snapped open. They weren't amber anymore. They were two pits of molten glass, overflowing with a liquid fire that hissed as it hit the floor.
"It's... too much..." Eren gasped, his voice vibrating with the metallic resonance of the shard. "The hunters... I can hear them screaming inside me!"
Aden's expression remained passive as he walked calmly toward Eren. His brows furrowed ever so slightly, betraying the storm of thoughts racing through his mind.
