~Chapter 22~
~Tears of blood~
The giants came, one after the next. This wasn't a game—how could I have taken it so lightly?
All at once, they began stomping and punching at us. I quickly reacted, forming a dome of ice around us as I shielded Eliza.
Inside, I looked at her. She was trembling, her face pale and filled with tears.
"I'm sorry, Madoxx," she said, her voice breaking. "I'm being a liability right now."
It was understandable. She hadn't even gotten a chance to grieve properly for her sister before we were pushed into this strange world.
"I can't do it," she continued, her voice cracking as tears filled up in her eyes. "I'm so angry at myself. I was so useless back then, at the orphanage. I let my sister get injured, and I was so pathetic that I died."
She clutched her hands to her chest. "I'm angry at you too, Madoxx. You were supposed to protect her. But instead, you brought back me—a useless girl like me."
The giants stomped on the ice dome, breaking layer after layer. I kept reforming it, shards of ice scattering everywhere, but my focus was completely on Eliza as her words cut into me.
"Every time I imagine her face, my heart hurts, Madoxx. It breaks into pieces." She collapsed to her knees, trembling. "I failed to protect her. I let her die, and then I stole her essence. How can I live with this?"
She burst into tears, crying uncontrollably. All the sadness and guilt she'd bottled up until now came flooding out.
"My sweet, innocent sister who couldn't even lie in a stupid game of Hot Pocket…" Her voice trailed off as the giants outside screamed and violently attacked the dome.
I looked around and saw my ice barrier distorted as it rippled blurry in space and time.
"I-" I said softly, barely audible over the chaos outside. "It's my fault. And if you need to hate me, I accept it.
"If you need to hit me, I'll take it. If you need to kill me, my life is yours. But I won't apologize," I said, my voice growing louder. "I made a call that broke my heart, but I won't apologize for saving your life!"
The ice dome shook under the relentless attacks from outside.
"Ever since we found that cabin in the woods, I've had to watch all my friends die in front of me—one after the next—and I couldn't do anything about it!" I shouted. "Even before the cabin, I watched Livana die right in front of me!"
"I've never in my life been able to save anyone." I screamed.
The ice cracked further, chunks falling away.
"Then I saw you," I continued, "and I knew I couldn't lose you again. Ola and Ren had already lost their will to live, and you were about to die. I did what I thought was right! I refuse to lose all three of you at the same time.
"For the first time ever, I had a chance to save one of my friends—and I did, Eliza. I saved you."
I looked at her, my voice trembling but firm. "So even if you hate me, I won't apologize. Because even though my heart is broken into pieces, I can live knowing I saved you. I saved Zen. I saved Athena.
"So please," I begged, my voice raw, "fight hard. Fight so that, even if you feel guilty, you know you used your sister's essence—her will, her power—to save more people in the future."
At this point, I was screaming, and the dome around us was barely holding.
Eliza looked up at me, tears streaming down her face.
"I could never hate you," she said finally, her voice shaking. "I hated myself for being weak."
As she spoke the distortion became stronger and stronger.
Her words hit hard as she continued, "I hated myself for having to rely on you to save the day. Even that night with Magnus, at the dorms—I prayed you would do something, anything, to get us out of there.
"Even now, I hate myself for relying on you to shield me, to comfort me—on the battlefield, of all places."
The giants smashed through another layer of the dome, the ice vibrating under the pressure.
"I hate being weak," Eliza said, her voice low. "And I hate that I can only get stronger using this stolen power. I hate not being able to control my own fate."
She hugged me tightly, her arms trembling.
"But I loved my sister. I loved our friends. I loved the games we played, the fun we had, the late-night talks, the early-morning fights. I love living, Madoxx. That's why I feel guilty—because I robbed my sister of that." Her voice softened, barely a whisper.
The ice had transformed into a strange, rippling mass, a glitched wave of spirals and blurry, invisible images. It still looked like ice, but it was warped and distorted, as if reality itself was unraveling or changing. Whatever was happening wasn't just happening to the ice—it was affecting everything around us. The ground, the air, the entire environment was glitching and twisting unnaturally. It seemed as though Eliza had somehow triggered Ola's abilities.
"But I understand it now, Madoxx."She let go of me, standing up.
"I want to use my sister's sacrifice," she said, her voice rising. "And show her she didn't die for nothing!"
She turned to face the giants, her fists clenched.
"I want to make it worth something!" she said softly as she looked back and smiled at me.
nodded and stepped to her side, ready to strike,
A titan slammed its fist into what remained of the barrier with unimaginable force. The barrier shattered, sending shards of ice flying in every direction.
Eliza stared down at her hands, her voice barely above a whisper."Tears of blood," she said.
In that instant, space and time warped violently, reality bending and breaking
apart-but this time, it felt more controlled. Each titan pulsed and glitched, caught in a vortex of distorted limbs and blurry chaos. It was a strange and unsettling sight. All I could see were their massive forms collapsing into the vortex, one by one, until they were gone.
When it was over, the battlefield was littered with hundreds of glitched, dismembered titan limbs scattered around us like the remnants of some nightmare.
Then she clenched her hands and the limbs exploded sending bits and pieces of body parts everywhere.
It looked like it was raining blood and guts as the giants exploded.
When it was done the battle ground was filled with blood and guts all the giants except for Kang where gone.
I looked at Eliza and she had red bloody colored tears falling from her eyes before she passed out.
I caught her before she fell you did great I whispered to her now it's my turn I said looking at Kang.