Everyone watched the SS-Rank Calamity with bated breaths.
Even Shir, resting on the altar's edge and still recovering from his earlier trauma, found his jaw tightening. His eyes stayed wide, fixed on the distant lightshow.
"He's ascending…" Shir muttered to himself.
Though he had been turned into a fiend and retained his S-Rank, he could feel it—his foundation had taken a hit. He would need a long time to even get close to what he was witnessing now. And that thought burned quietly in his chest.
Everyone else kept silent.
Eren's hair blew gently in the breeze. Another Stellar Sativa was lit.
He knew. One day, if he truly wanted to reach the peak of the mortal form, he'd have to face this same calamity. And so would everyone else with him.
***
The storm passed eventually.
The heavy clouds began to scatter, the crashing waves returned to their normal rhythm, and the suffocating pressure lifted from the island.
