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The bridge of understanding was fragile, woven from instinct and shared vibration.
<
Savage chuffed softly, a vibration of deep regret. <
The Vulpimancer stilled, its five good eyes searching Savage's blind face. Confusion warred with the ingrained terror. This small, pack-scented cub… it apologized?
<
Eren's heart ached. This wasn't a demon. It was a lost, tortured soul, weaponized by monsters and set loose in a world that could only see a monster in return. Shit!...Armin had been right. He needed to—
A sound; a sharp, whistling hiss; pierced the moment.
A sharp sound whistled past, cutting through the air. Eren spun, but too late. Before he could react, a glowing net erupted from the shadows, slamming into him and the trapped Vulpimancer with unerring precision. The energy web expanded on impact, wrapping around them both in a cocoon of crackling agony.
Electricity surged through Savage's body; white-hot, searing pain that lit every nerve on fire. It wasn't just shocks; it was targeted, amplified, designed to overload senses and scramble muscles. Savage howled, a raw, primal roar that shook the nearby trees, his body convulsing as the net tightened. Beside him, the Vulpimancer echoed the cry, its larger frame thrashing wildly, the crystal cage shaking under the combined assault.
Eren tried to shift, to break out or break free, but the net disrupted everything; his thoughts fragmented, his control slipping. Savage collapsed on his hind leg and foreleg, claws weakly scrabbling at the glowing strands that burned like acid where they touched. Through the blinding glare, Savage's blurred sonic sight picked up vibrations. Figures approaching. Human-shaped. Cold areas indicating armory.
The net pulsed again, agony ripping through him. Savage roared once more, the sound laced with pain and fury, as the world blurred into red-tinged darkness. The humans closed in, their faces masks of triumph.
They emerged from the treeline, blades drawn. The purge squad. And they were walking toward their captured prizes.
Valerius led them, the Snare launcher smoking in his hands, his ruined eye a grotesque testament to his resolve. Behind him, the Silent Knight, Agil, Gideon, and the others hauled their human prisoners. Valerius's remaining eye fixed on the twitching, netted forms of the two "abominations."
"A two-for-one cleansing," he rasped, a bloody smile stretching his lips. "The divine ledger will be pleased."
Mikasa and Armin's eyes widened.
"Eren!!!"
Armin stared, his world narrowing to the glowing net that ensnared his best friend. The energy web crackled with malevolent light, wrapping around Savage's orange-furred form and the trapped Vulpimancer like a cocoon of lightning. Eren's transformed body thrashed weakly, his blind eyes wide with pain and fury, but the net tightened with every movement, sending jolts of electricity arcing through his muscles. The air hummed with the device's power, a low, ominous buzz that drowned out the distant screams from the training grounds.
"No… Eren…" Armin whispered, his voice barely audible over the chaos. His hands trembled at his back whilst Mikasa stood beside him, her grey eyes blazing with a mix of terror and rage, her fisted hands shaking in rage, ready to fight bare-handed if needed. Hannes lay unconscious a few feet away, blood trickling from the fresh bash on his temple, his chest rising and falling in shallow breaths.
Valerius regarded them with cold amusement from where he leaned against the shattered trough. The Knights flanked him, blades drawn, their faces set in fanatic resolve. Gideon winced slightly at the fresh bruise on his jaw from a kick he had gotten from the small Ackerman as he held the two kids, while Agil held his weapon steady.
'I should have been faster.' Armin's mind raced, the present horror yanking him back to the frantic, desperate minutes just passed.
Minutes prior…
It had been mere minutes since Eren, in his imposing Obsidian form, had leaped away into the night, shattering the earth with his launch. The glowing green comet of his body vanished into the treeline, leaving Armin, Mikasa, and Hannes in the shadowed clearing with the defeated Knights scattered around them like broken dolls.
Hannes was the first to move, making sure to restrain the still struggling Agil. "Alright, you little hellions. Plan B. We secure these bastards and get the hell out of here before their friends show up."
Mikasa was already moving, her blade at the ready. But Armin's eyes weren't on the fallen knights. Armin stood frozen for a moment, his heart pounding. Eren's parting words: "I'll consider it"; echoed in his mind, a fragile promise amid the chaos.His gaze then drifted to the crates the Knights had been unloading. One was cracked open from the fight, its contents spilled slightly which they had been able to neutralize. But the other… was intact, humming faintly with a low, ominous energy.
"S-Something's not right," Armin stammered, pointing. "There's another one."
Hannes cursed, still struggling to tie up Agil that was snarling…creative curses he's glad he doesn't understand for some reason.
"Hold still, you prickly bastard, this won't hurt a bit... actually, scratch that, it probably will."
Agil glared venomously but was too dazed to resist effectively, though he still foul mouthed the garrison.
"…Or you could keep up with that. One world-ending gizmo just isn't enough for you crazy fanatics." He grabbed a second coil of rope from the Knights' own supply wagon heading to Gideon having finished with Agil. "You two, keep an eye out. I'll truss up Sleeping Beauty over there."
Gideon, the mountainous knight, was out cold, a spectacular bruise blooming across his jaw and nose. Hannes set to work with a sailor's efficiency, binding Gideon's wrists behind his back, then looping the rope around his tree-trunk thighs and ankles. He used nearly the entire coil, and he was straining to pull the bindings tight.
"Mikasa, help me with this one—he's built like a damn ox."
Together, they bound Gideon, wrapping loop after loop around his massive frame.
Agil meanwhile was still spitting curses the whole time. "You'll burn for this! The divine order will—"
"Shut your trap," Hannes snapped finally having enough, stuffing a rag into his mouth.
With the Knights secured, Mikasa turned to Armin, who was prying at the crate's latch. Inside, nestled in the same molded padding, was an identical device. But where the first one had a visible, crystal-like core, this one's interior was shrouded by a solid, featureless metal plate. It hummed with a lower, deeper frequency, a thrumming that Armin could feel in his teeth.
"It's... different," Mikasa said, her voice tight.
Armin knelt beside it, his brilliant mind racing. He remembered Gideon's grumbled words, overheard just before their discovery: 'The 'Screecher' is ready. The 'Snare' needs to be charged. Give us half an hour.'
"The other one needed half an hour to work." Armin whispered, his eyes wide. "This must be it. The 'Snare.' It's recharging. Look!" He pointed to faint, hairline cracks in the metal plate, through which a pulsing, violet light could be seen. "It works on some sort of core as well. It's building charge!"
"If it recharges, it can be used, so let's make it useless." Mikasa concluded, her grey eyes hardening. "We break it. Now."
Mikasa reversed her grip on her knife, aiming the pommel at the device's casing. "Stand back, Armin."
She brought it down with terrifying force. CLANG! The metal dented, but didn't yield. Again. CLANG! A crack appeared. The humming spiked, becoming a worried whine.
Armin scrambled for a rock, joining her. THUD. CLANG. CRACK.
Inside, through the widening fissure, they could see it: a swirling, miniature storm of violet plasma, contained by glowing bands of energy. It was beautiful and horrifying.
"NNNNGGGHHHH..."
A low, pained groan cut through their efforts. They froze.
Gideon's eyes fluttered open. Confusion swam in them for a second, then cleared into dawning, thunderous rage. He tested his bonds. The ropes strained, creaking ominously. His eyes focusing on the kids prying at the device. Rage surged through him.
"Oi, brats! Get your grubby little hands away from that!" Gideon bellowed, straining against the ropes. The bindings creaked, fibers stretching. "That's Order's property!"
Gideon's gaze locked on Agil. "Agil! Help me out here! These runts are tampering!"
Agil, muffled by the rag, shifted, testing his own restraints. The two Knights heaved in unison; the ropes groaned, one strand popping with a sharp twang.
Before it could escalate, a rustle from the shadows made everyone freeze. One of the other Forever Knights; the one who'd been unconscious earlier—stirred, groaning as he pushed himself up. "What… the hell?"
Hannes's face paled. "Oh, hell. Forgot about the chorus line."
The stirring Knight's eyes focused. He saw his commanders bound, saw the children attacking the Snare. With a pained grunt, he fumbled for a dagger at his belt. One of the fake Cadet Corps instructors, also roused, flanking the Knight.
"Cover Armin!" Hannes yelled at Mikasa, drawing his own chipped Garrison blade.
Mikasa didn't hesitate. She placed herself between Armin and the waking threats, a small, fierce sentinel.
Armin frantically went back to work, using his rock to chip away at the cracked casing. The plasma within pulsed angrily. He just needed to reach the containment bands...
The Knight with the dagger stumbled forward, but the impostor instructor was faster. He lunged, not at Hannes, but at the ropes binding Gideon. His blade sawed at the thick cords.
"No you don't!" Hannes intercepted, their blades meeting with a shriek of steel. But the impostor was equally trained, and Hannes was a Garrison soldier better suited to drinking and patrols than duels. He was forced back, step by step.
The forever knight beside the imposter drew a hidden dagger, slicing through the ropes binding Agil and Gideon with swift cuts. "On your feet, brothers. The purge waits for no one."
The ropes fell away.One of the ropes around Gideon's wrists gave way. He roared, a sound of pure triumph, and with one final, titanic heave, the remaining ropes around his arms burst apart. He ripped the bonds on his legs like they were paper streamers and surged to his feet, a mountain of fury made flesh. Agil followed soon after, spitting out the rag.
The bulky knight's gaze, burning with malice, landed on Armin, who was frantically trying to pry a glowing component loose from the Snare's innards.
"YOU!" Gideon boomed, taking an earth-shaking step forward.
"Armin, hurry!" Mikasa urged, her eyes darting between the fighting Hannes and the knight now advancing their way.
Armin redoubled his efforts on the device. His fingers pried at the plasma core. "Almost… got it…"
Just before Gideon could reach his target, Mikasa placed herself between Armin and the approaching knight. "Don't." she warned, her knife back in her hand.
Gideon looked down at her, a nasty smirk spreading across his bruised face. "Or what, princess? You'll give me a stern talking-to?"
Big mistake.
Mikasa didn't talk. She moved. A blur of motion, a pivot, and her foot; driven by legs that could shatter wood; slammed up and into his jaw with a sound like a walnut cracking in a vise.
CRUNCH.
Gideon's head snapped back. The smirk vanished, replaced by a look of stunned, agonized surprise. He staggered, clutching his newly re-bruised jaw, blood seeping between his fingers. "You little...!"
Mikasa didn't give him the opportunity to talk back, she lunged again. Aiming to maim.
Armin's fingers closed around a warm, crystalline rod deep within the device; a primary containment regulator. This is it! He began to pull. Ripping out the warm pieces of plasma conduit. The blonde was inches from prying out the last plasma conduit when a voice cut through the fray.
"Stop what you're doing… or the man gets it."
Armin froze. He looked up.
The impostor instructor had his sword pressed against Hannes's throat. Hannes had been disarmed, a thin line of red already welling under the blade's edge. The Garrison man's eyes were wide, furious, but utterly still.
"Drop the rock. And you," the impostor said, his eyes flicking to Mikasa, who had Gideon momentarily at bay. "Drop the knife. Or this supposed farmer dies."
Mikasa's knuckles were white on her blade. Her eyes met Hannes's. He gave a tiny, almost imperceptible shake of his head—don't.
"Don't listen to him, kids!" Hannes rasped.
The sword pressed deeper. A trickle of blood ran down Hannes's neck.
Armin's heart hammered against his ribs. The regulator was halfway out. The plasma inside the Snare whined, fluctuating. He was so close.
"LAST CHANCE!" Agil snarled.
With a sound of pure anguish, Armin released the crystal rod. It slid back into place with a soft click. The plasma's whine stabilized.
Mikasa's knife hit the forest floor with a dull thud.
Gideon, wiping blood from his mouth, let out a low, satisfied laugh. "Smart brats. Pity." He took a step toward Mikasa.
"Leave them alone!" Hannes roared, struggling. The response was swift and brutal. The impostor reversed his grip and brought the pommel of his sword down on Hannes's temple with a sickening THWOCK. Hannes's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed like a sack of grain, unconscious.
"No!" Mikasa lunged, but Gideon's massive hand shot out, catching her by the front of her jacket. He lifted her clear off the ground and held her under his shoulder firmly like a sack of potato, he ain't falling for another cheap shot twice. She kicked and twisted, a wildcat in his grip, but his hold was immovable.
"Feisty," Gideon grunted tossing her to the knight that had grabbed hold of Armin and bound him. "Careful, she's trouble. Agil, get over and help me with this deadweight."
Agil took a step forward but winced at the spotting bruise he had from Obsidian's attack. "Took you long enough to ask."
"What about the other blight disguised as a child?" The imposter instructor asked as he lifted Hannes.
"We first head over to boss, then we can worry about explaining that. Move out." Gideon ordered, lifting the contraption of a device to his shoulder.
They were forced back to the main camp, the Knights having retrieved their precious, still-charging Snare device. The last thing Armin saw before they were dragged into the nightmare of the quad was the clearing, Hannes lying motionless as he was being carried, and the open, humming crate holding a weapon they had almost disabled.
(Back to Present)
The memory evaporated, slammed away by present horror. Valerius was giving orders, his knights moving toward the twitching, net-shrouded forms of Savage and the Vulpimancer.
The Knights moved forward at Valerius's command, blades held ready to subdue the net-shrouded creatures. Gideon, his jaw still throbbing from Mikasa's kick, led the approach with Agil at his flank. But as he neared the smaller orange-furred creature…something on its shoulder caught the torchlight. A faint, greenish geometric symbol, shaped like an hourglass, glowed softly through the matted fur.
Gideon froze mid-stride. "Hold on."
Agil glanced over, irritated. "What now?"
"That mark." Gideon's eyes narrowed, memories connecting with brutal clarity. "On its shoulder. That's the same symbol I saw on the kid's wrist. Right before he… changed."
Agil leaned closer, his own expression turning to recognition before sharpening. "You're right. The wrist device. It had that same hourglass."
He looked from Savage's trapped form to the towering, heat-distorted Vulpimancer, then back to Valerius. "Sir. The shapeshifter; it's not just mimicking forms. It's the same entity. The child is the Crystal Titan. And that symbol… it's the key."
"Hold on, this thing can change to more than one monstrosity?!" A forever knight called out, resulting in the rapid murmurs of the little band present.
Armin's spine felt like it was plunged with cold ice while Mikasa's expression darkened more to murderous anger the more she heard the talks.
Valerius's remaining eye gleamed with a cold, calculating interest. The pain in his socket seemed to momentarily fade beneath the weight of this revelation. He pushed himself off the trough and strode forward, ignoring the twitching energy of the net and the Vulpimancer's low, pained growls.
"Change of plans," Valerius declared, his voice cutting through the crackle of the Snare's residue. "…We're taking them both. Alive."
He crouched down, bringing himself to eye level with Savage's head. The Vulpimancer had no visible eyes on its smooth, domed face; only the five burning orbs on its head and the milky sixth; but Savage's blind, canine face was turned toward him, nostrils flaring in fear and fury.
"Let's see what makes you tick," Valerius murmured, not with scientific curiosity, but with the cold relish of a fanatic about to dismantle a heresy. He reached out a hand, not to strike, but to examine, his fingers hovering near the Omnitrix symbol on Savage's shoulder. "A living transfiguration… a blight that wears human skin. Rod will want to study this corruption firsthand. To peel back the layers and see what sin lies at the core."
Mikasa, held fast by a Knight, went rigid. "Don't you touch him."
Her voice was low, a blade of ice in the smoky air. It wasn't a shout. It was a promise.
Valerius didn't even glance her way. "The creature is no longer 'him,' girl. It is a specimen. A testament to the corruptions lying within humanity."
Armin strained against his captor's grip, his mind racing from tactical calculations to white-hot anger.
"You talk about purity and order, but you're the ones acting like monsters! Dissecting, torturing… you're not purifying anything! You're just obsessed with taking things apart to prove you understand them!"
Valerius finally looked up, a thin, bloody smile on his lips. "And what would you have us do, boy? Reason with it? It is an abomination. Its very existence is a violation. Understanding its construction is the first step toward eradicating its kind." He stood, brushing dust from his trousers. "At least most of the witnesses have been dealt with. These two will be our testament. Proof that the Forever Knights stand vigilant against the encroaching dark."
He turned to the forever knights still standing, "Get hold of them both! The demon dog and this changeling. We withdraw immediately!" Valerius barked.
"Touch him and you die!" Mikasa snarled, fighting against the knight who held her. "You've done enough!"
Armin's mind, usually a place of cool logic, was a storm of fear and fury. He looked at Valerius, at his fanatic's gleam, and something inside him broke. Especially with what this man standing in front of him had the audacity to idly say.
'At least the witnesses are dealt with.'
…All those innocent kids aspiring to be soldiers…
"So that's all you have to say for yourself." Armin shouted, his voice cracking. "You call all this a purge, a cleansing! You kill children, you torture creatures you don't understand, for what? Some 'higher purpose'? You're not purifying anything! You're just adding more pain to a world that's already drowning in it!"
Valerius sighed, a long-suffering sound, as if dealing with a particularly slow child. "Must we go over this again? The cosmic order—"
"IS A LIE YOU USE TO JUSTIFY MURDER!" Armin screamed, tears of frustration in his eyes. "You see something different, something unknown, and your only answer is to destroy it! You're not guardians of some divine order—you're just scared! Scared of anything you can't control, so you smash it before it can prove you're not as powerful as you think!"
Valerius's single eye narrowed, the smugness fading into something colder, sharper. Armin's words had struck a nerve, peeling back the dogma to reveal the fear beneath. "You speak of things beyond your—"
He was cut off. Not by Armin, but by a sound from the net.
A low, shuddering, guttural growl that vibrated up from the earth itself. It came from the Vulpimancer.
Savage was straining, trying to push the crackling net off, to reach the creature, to re-establish that fragile connection. But the Vulpimancer wasn't looking at him anymore. Its five eyes were fixed on the knights, on Valerius, on the Snare. The milky sixth orb blazed with a sickly, hateful light.
The grunts and whines that had held confused communication were gone. Replaced by one, psychic-sonic scream of betrayal that echoed in the minds of everyone present.
<
The thoughts weren't words, but raw emotions: shattered trust, re-awakened trauma, and a fury so deep it felt primordial.
<
The parasite within its chest; the Xerxathi graft; reacted. It didn't just pulse; it convulsed, glowing white-hot as if resonating with the creature's absolute, panicked determination to survive. A primal command surged from the Vulpimancer's terror-stricken brain: ESCAPE. SURVIVE. DESTROY THE CAGE.
The command hit the symbiotic reactor like a lightning strike. It compiled.
The Vulpimancer's body began to vibrate, not with phasing, but with an intense, internal oscillation. Its fur smoked. The air around it shimmered, then rippled with visible heat waves. The diamond shards of Obsidian's cage, pressed against its skin, began to glow red, then white-hot.
The knights backing away faltered. "What is it doing?!"
The net of energy, designed to overload nerves and disrupt phasing, met a new kind of resistance: pure, concentrated thermal energy. The Vulpimancer's core temperature skyrocketed. It became a living furnace.
SIZZLE-CRACKLE-POP!
The energy net flickered, the strands glowing orange, then snapping one by one as the superheated air around the beast ionized and disrupted the field. The diamond cage softened at the points of contact, the crystal lattice breaking down under the extreme heat.
With a sound like a thunderclap contained in flesh, the Vulpimancer expanded.
It wasn't just standing up. It was swelling, muscles growing grotesquely, fueled by the parasite's frantic energy dump. Its height increased two-fold, then three. It was no longer a large hound. It was a titanic beast of purple flesh and blazing blue sigils, a walking inferno that towered over the shattered quad. The parasite within was now a furious, glowing white scar visible across its entire torso, pulsing in time with a heartbeat that sounded like a forge bellows.
It reared its massive head back, jaws distending, and let out a roar.
This was not an animal's cry. This was a natural disaster given voice. A physical wave of sound and psychic backlash that rolled outwards, washing over everyone in the vicinity.
For Eren, Mikasa, Armin, even an unconscious Hannes, and every cadet or Scout within a hundred yards, it was like a door in their mind was kicked open and a torrent of raw, alien consciousness flooded in.
PAIN. Old pain, deep pain, the cold metal of cages, the sterile smell of labs, the clicking of indifferent voices.
ANGER. Betrayal. The crystal merchant. The two-legs who hurt. The net. The trap.
…HUNGER. A vast, yawning, cellular void. Not for food, but for energy, for the very life-force to feed the ravenous thing in its chest that was now burning its reserves to keep it alive and terrifying.
The emotions were dark, heavy, twisted; a feral, titanic rage that swallowed the earlier hints of reason. It was the storm after the spark of understanding had been snuffed out.
____________________
Mike helped up a sobbing cadet to her feet behind a shattered wall, before he could ask for her well fare, his instincts screamed at him, leaving him frozen. His head snapped up as the wave hit him. His nostrils flared, but this wasn't a scent. It was a feeling, a psychic stench of rage and hunger that made his stomach clench.
"What in the name of the Walls...?"
The cadet beside him let out a piercing wail as she turned to purge her insides.
____________________
Hange, finally reaching the outskirts of the main carnage and spotting Moblit's dangling form, skidded to a halt. Her heart skipped to a stop.
Oh God…
"Please don't be dead. Mobli-!"
The wave of alien emotion hit her like a physical blow. The scientific curiosity was momentarily swamped by a primal, instinctive revulsion and awe. She turned, her glasses reflecting the growing blaze from the quad far ahead. "What... what is that?"
____________________
At the main gate, Keiji, Abel, and Nifa; who were tending to their wounds and securing unconscious Knights; all stiffened. They looked at each other, faces pale.
"Did you feel that?" Nifa whispered, her hand going to her head.
"Like... a bad dream, but awake, almost like when we are facing titans…except a horde of them." Abel muttered, a chill running down his spine even with the loss of blood he has.
Keiji stared into the dark interior of the grounds, toward the source of the now-visible glow lighting the treetops. His calm composure finally cracking after a long time as sweat trickled down his face. "Something just went very, very wrong."
This week just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
Chapter 27-31 are already available on Patreon.com/Weeb Fanthom.