Daniel had approximately half a second to appreciate the fact that his life was about to become considerably worse.
Then the wall exploded.
Stone fragments tore through the tunnel. Arlen screamed and threw himself sideways, dragging Daniel down with him. Eren moved in the opposite direction, his blade flashing as something pale and impossibly long punched through the opening.
The thing's fingers struck the ground.
They were too long.
That was Daniel's first thought.
Not the claws. Not the grey skin stretched over knobby joints. Not the way its fingers bent backward before correcting themselves with a series of wet clicks.
The fingers were simply too long.
Each one was nearly the length of Daniel's forearm.
Then the rest of the creature emerged.
It had the general shape of a human being, if human beings were assembled by someone who had only heard about them through unreliable gossip. Its shoulders were narrow, its torso unnaturally elongated, and its head tilted sideways at an angle that suggested its neck had been broken several times and had grown tired of the arrangement.
Its face was smooth.
No eyes.
No nose.
Just a vertical mouth running from its forehead to its chin.
The mouth opened.
Rows of small, irregular teeth shifted inside it.
Daniel stared.
"Absolutely not."
The creature lunged.
Eren intercepted it.
His blade struck the creature's forearm, cutting through the grey flesh with a sound like a knife passing through wet leather.
Black fluid sprayed across the wall.
The creature recoiled.
Eren didn't waste the opportunity. He drove his shoulder into its chest and shoved it backward through the broken opening.
"RUN!"
For once, nobody needed convincing.
Arlen hauled Daniel upright.
They stumbled toward the drainage passage while Eren retreated behind them, keeping his blade between himself and the creature.
Daniel's right leg screamed with every step.
"How many of these things are there?" he gasped.
"I don't know!" Arlen shouted.
"Excellent! I was worried you'd have a useful answer!"
Behind them, metal rang against stone.
Eren cursed.
Daniel looked back.
The creature had caught his blade between its teeth.
Eren pulled.
The creature bit down harder.
The steel snapped.
For one impossible moment, Eren simply stared at the broken weapon in his hand.
Then the creature smiled.
Daniel had never seen anything less deserving of a smile.
"Eren!" he shouted.
The boy threw the broken blade into its face and ran.
They reached the drainage passage just as the creature struck the wall behind them. Stone cracked under the impact.
Arlen pushed Daniel forward.
"Keep moving!"
"I am moving!"
"Move faster!"
"I'll inform my broken leg that we're behind schedule!"
They staggered through the narrow passage, slipping over wet stones. The air smelled of stagnant water and rust.
Behind them came a sound Daniel wished he could forget.
The creature was crawling.
Not running.
Crawling.
Its limbs struck the walls and ceiling as it pursued them, moving with a speed that made its unnatural proportions seem almost graceful.
Daniel's lungs burned.
His vision blurred.
The system flickered in the corner of his eye.
\[WARNING: FOREIGN ENTITY IN PURSUIT.\]
\[THREAT CLASSIFICATION: UNREGISTERED.\]
\[COMBAT RECOMMENDATION: AVOID ENGAGEMENT.\]
"Brilliant recommendation!" Daniel wheezed. "I'll just ask it to respect my personal space!"
\[RECOMMENDATION ACKNOWLEDGED.\]
"THAT WASN'T A REQUEST!"
Arlen pulled him around a corner.
The passage ended at a rusted iron ladder leading upward.
At the top was a circular maintenance hatch.
Arlen looked at it.
Then at Daniel.
"Can you climb?"
Daniel stared at the ladder.
"Can I climb?"
"Yes."
"I can barely walk."
"Then I suppose we're all going to have a very interesting afternoon."
Arlen grabbed the first rung.
Daniel followed, hauling himself upward with his arms while trying not to use his injured leg.
Every movement sent fresh pain through his ribs.
Halfway up, the tunnel behind them filled with a wet clicking sound.
Daniel looked down.
The creature had reached the ladder.
Its eyeless face tilted upward.
Its mouth opened.
"DEVOURER."
The word echoed through the passage.
Daniel's hands froze.
The creature climbed onto the wall beside the ladder, its limbs spreading across the stone.
"DEVOURER."
Its voice was different now.
Less like a collection of people speaking together.
More like something remembering how to imitate a human being.
"COME BACK."
Daniel climbed faster.
"With pleasure," he gasped. "Just tell me where the exit is!"
He reached the hatch.
Arlen pushed against it.
It didn't move.
He pushed again.
Nothing.
"Help me!"
Daniel put his shoulder against the metal.
Pain exploded through his chest.
He nearly collapsed.
"Why," he panted, "is every door in this place designed by a sadist?"
"Push!"
"I'm pushing!"
The creature was climbing closer.
Five meters.
Four.
Three.
Eren appeared beneath them, grabbed the ladder, and began climbing with one hand.
In the other, he carried a broken length of iron pipe.
"Move!"
Daniel and Arlen pressed themselves against the ladder.
Eren swung the pipe at the creature's head.
The impact rang through the tunnel.
The creature dropped several meters.
It landed on the wall, limbs spread wide, and immediately began climbing again.
Eren stared down at it.
"That's new."
Daniel looked at him.
"Your standards for new experiences are concerning."
Eren climbed the remaining distance.
Together, the three boys shoved against the hatch.
This time, it moved.
A narrow shaft of daylight appeared.
Daniel had never loved sunlight so much.
They pushed harder.
The hatch opened with a metallic shriek, and all three tumbled onto a patch of muddy ground.
Daniel landed on his back.
For several seconds, he lay there, staring at the sky.
Clouds drifted overhead.
Birds called somewhere in the distance.
The world looked perfectly ordinary.
He almost cried.
Then the hatch moved.
A long, grey finger curled around its edge.
Daniel sat up so quickly that his ribs threatened to mutiny.
"Close it!"
Arlen slammed the hatch downward.
Eren threw himself against it.
Daniel joined them, using his entire body to force the metal shut.
The finger snapped beneath the edge.
Black fluid splattered across the ground.
Something struck the hatch from below.
Once.
Twice.
Then a third time.
The metal buckled upward.
Daniel's heart sank.
"That thing is going to get out."
Eren looked around desperately.
They were standing in a narrow courtyard surrounded by abandoned buildings. The structures looked old, perhaps a century or more, their stone walls covered in moss.
A rusted sign hung above an archway.
Daniel couldn't read all the lettering, but one word remained visible.
QUARANTINE.
Before he could think about that, Eren spotted a thick iron bar lying beside the wall.
He grabbed it.
"Help me!"
Arlen joined him.
They wedged the bar through the hatch's handle and forced both ends beneath the surrounding stone.
Daniel pressed his shoulder against the metal.
Another impact came from below.
The bar bent.
"That's not going to hold!" Arlen shouted.
"Then find something stronger!" Eren snapped.
Daniel looked around.
His eyes settled on a collapsed wooden cart.
He dragged himself toward it, ignoring the pain in his leg, and pulled a heavy wheel free.
He carried it back and shoved it beneath the iron bar, wedging it against the ground.
The next impact shook the entire courtyard.
The wheel cracked.
But the hatch remained closed.
For a moment, everything was still.
Then the scratching began again.
Slowly.
Patiently.
From beneath their feet.
Daniel stepped away.
"Nope."
He pointed at the hatch.
"That's a problem for people with better equipment and substantially fewer internal injuries."
Eren leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.
Arlen sat on the ground and pressed both hands against his face.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Daniel noticed the blood on Eren's hand.
It was dark.
Almost black.
"You're hurt."
Eren glanced down.
A thin cut crossed his palm.
"It's nothing."
Daniel looked at the blood.
Then at the broken weapon.
Then at the place where the creature had bitten through the steel.
Something didn't add up.
The creature had attacked Eren repeatedly, but it had never managed to seriously injure him.
Except for that small cut.
And the blood on Eren's palm wasn't red.
Daniel's stomach tightened.
"Eren."
"What?"
"Your hand."
Eren examined it.
For the first time since emerging from the tunnel, genuine confusion crossed his face.
He wiped his palm against his trousers.
The black stain remained.
Then, slowly, the wound closed.
Not like an ordinary cut healing.
The flesh simply drew together, as though the injury had been a mistake that reality had decided to correct.
Arlen scrambled backward.
"What the hell was that?"
Eren stared at his hand.
"I don't know."
Daniel felt the system activate.
\[FOREIGN BIOLOGICAL SIGNATURE DETECTED.\]
\[ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS.\]
\[SUBJECT: EREN JAEGER.\]
\[RESULT: INCOMPLETE.\]
\[WARNING: SUBJECT CONTAINS AN UNREGISTERED BIOLOGICAL FACTOR.\]
Daniel's mouth went dry.
"System, analyze his biological factor."
\[ANALYSIS IN PROGRESS.\]
For once, the system didn't immediately refuse.
A progress indicator appeared.
Then it stopped.
\[ANALYSIS INTERRUPTED.\]
\[REASON: SUBJECT'S BIOLOGICAL SIGNATURE IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH HOST'S CURRENT EVOLUTIONARY FRAMEWORK.\]
Daniel stared at the notification.
"Incompatible?"
Eren looked at him.
"Who are you talking to?"
"Nobody."
"You've been doing that since I met you."
"It's a private conversation."
"With nobody?"
"He's very understanding."
Arlen looked between them.
"I think the two of you might be suffering from head injuries."
"Finally," Daniel muttered. "Someone in this group is making sense."
But his attention remained on Eren.
The boy had healed from an injury that should have left a scar.
The system had detected something inside him that it couldn't classify.
And the creature in the tunnel had called Daniel the Devourer.
It had also recognized Eren.
The first has awakened.
The second has returned.
Daniel slowly pulled the two metal tags from his pocket.
He placed them side by side on the ground.
Eren crouched beside him.
For several seconds, neither boy spoke.
Then Eren pointed at the older tag.
"That one."
Daniel followed his gaze.
"What about it?"
"Look at the back."
Daniel turned it over.
He had already examined the inscription, but now he noticed something beneath the numbers.
A tiny symbol.
Three intersecting lines enclosed in a circle.
The same symbol was engraved on the second tag.
Daniel rubbed the surface with his thumb.
The system flashed.
\[ARCHIVAL SYMBOL RECOGNIZED.\]
\[ACCESSING HISTORICAL RECORD...\]
\[RECORD DAMAGED.\]
A line of text appeared.
\[CLASSIFICATION: PRE-WALL EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM.\]
Daniel felt his stomach drop.
Pre-wall.
Before the walls were built.
Before the civilization he knew had taken shape.
Before the timeline he remembered had even begun.
Another line appeared.
\[PROGRAM DESIGNATION: DEVOURER.\]
Daniel stopped breathing.
Arlen leaned closer.
"What does it say?"
Daniel hesitated.
Then he read the words aloud.
"Devourer."
Eren's expression changed.
"That's what they called you."
Daniel looked at him sharply.
"Who?"
"The people who kept me in that room."
Eren stood.
"They said the Devourer was supposed to be the first. They said the second had been waiting for him."
Daniel's mouth went dry.
"Waiting where?"
Eren pointed toward the hatch.
"Down there."
A low rumble passed beneath their feet.
The iron bar shifted.
The wooden wheel cracked again.
Daniel backed away.
"No. Absolutely not. We are not going back down there."
"I didn't say we should."
"Good. Because I would rather eat my own shoes."
The system chimed.
\[EVOLUTIONARY OPPORTUNITY DETECTED.\]
Daniel froze.
For the first time since his transformation, the system's voice sounded almost eager.
\[FOREIGN ORGANISM PRESENT.\]
\[CONSUMPTION MAY UNLOCK A NEW EVOLUTIONARY PATH.\]
\[WARNING: ORGANISM CLASSIFICATION REMAINS UNAVAILABLE.\]
Daniel stared at the hatch.
Then at the notification.
He had survived his first transformation by sheer luck.
He had barely survived the collapse.
He couldn't even transform now, and the system was suggesting that he eat the thing beneath them.
"Let me get this straight," he whispered. "The creature that snapped a steel blade in half, crawled across walls, and nearly turned us into decorative stains is now an evolutionary opportunity?"
\[CONFIRMED.\]
"Have you considered therapy?"
\[REQUEST OUTSIDE CURRENT CAPABILITIES.\]
Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Of course it is."
Eren watched him carefully.
"Can you fight it?"
Daniel looked at his injured leg.
At his bloodstained hands.
At the hatch that was beginning to bend upward again.
"No."
It was the first completely honest answer he'd given since arriving in this world.
Eren nodded.
"Then we'll find another way."
Daniel looked at him.
There was no hesitation in the boy's voice.
No grand speech about freedom.
No declaration that he would destroy every enemy in his path.
Just a simple statement of intent.
They would find another way.
For some reason, that frightened Daniel more than Eren's unnatural healing.
Because he remembered what happened to people who refused to give up.
They changed the world.
And the world made them pay for it.
A distant bell rang.
Once.
Twice.
Then a third time.
The sound came from beyond the courtyard, somewhere in the direction of the inhabited districts.
Arlen stood abruptly.
"We need to leave. If anyone sees us here, we're going to have questions to answer."
Daniel glanced at the quarantine sign.
"Questions are the least of our problems."
He bent down to retrieve the tags.
The moment his fingers touched the older one, a sudden burst of heat passed through his palm.
He dropped it with a hiss.
The metal struck the ground.
A blue notification appeared before his eyes.
\[HIDDEN CONDITION FULFILLED.\]
\[EVOLUTIONARY ARCHIVE PARTIALLY RESTORED.\]
\[NEW MEMORY FRAGMENT AVAILABLE.\]
Daniel stared at the message.
"What?"
The world went silent.
The courtyard disappeared.
For one brief instant, Daniel stood somewhere else.
A vast chamber stretched before him, its walls lined with glass cylinders filled with pale liquid.
Inside each cylinder floated a human body.
Some were children.
Others were adults.
All of them had their eyes closed.
Metal restraints held their limbs in place, and thick tubes disappeared into their necks.
A man stood before a table covered in documents.
Daniel couldn't see his face.
But he could hear his voice.
"The first subject failed."
Another voice answered.
"Then proceed with the second."
"The second is unstable."
"Then make it stable."
"And if it develops independent consciousness?"
The man paused.
"That is the point."
Daniel tried to move.
He couldn't.
He tried to speak.
Nothing came out.
Then the man turned toward him.
For the first time, Daniel saw his face.
It was his own.
Older.
Paler.
With a scar running from the corner of his mouth to his jaw.
The man smiled.
"Welcome back, Daniel."
The vision shattered.
Daniel collapsed to his knees.
Arlen grabbed his shoulder.
"Daniel! What's wrong?"
Daniel couldn't answer.
His hands were shaking.
His heart hammered against his ribs.
The system displayed one final message.
\[MEMORY FRAGMENT CORRUPTED.\]
\[SUBJECT IDENTIFICATION: DANIEL CROSS.\]
\[ARCHIVAL STATUS: PREVIOUS INSTANCE DETECTED.\]
\[WARNING: HOST IS NOT THE FIRST DEVOURER.\]
Daniel stared at the words.
Then he looked at the tag lying on the ground.
For the first time, he wasn't afraid of the creature beneath the hatch.
He was afraid of the possibility that someone had done this before.
Someone who looked exactly like him.
Someone who might have failed.
And somewhere beneath his feet, something began to laugh.
Not the creature.
Not Eren.
Something deeper.
Something that sounded as though it had been waiting a very long time.
End of Chapter 9.