Paradis Island.
Inside Wall Maria, in the city of Maria.
Years of infighting had taken their toll, and the veterans of the Survey Corps were thinned to almost nothing in the battle against the hundred-meter Rod Reiss Titan. The once-valiant Corps had swelled with fresh shoots—recruits.
Most came from the Military Police, and from the less battle-tested Garrison and Cadet Corps. They had plenty of anti-personnel experience—bandit-hunts, crime suppression—but when Titans loomed, many times taller and crueler than any human, the mental defenses they'd prepared shattered in an instant, ground to pulp between massive teeth and swallowed whole.
"Help—help me!!!"
The hoarse screams tore at the heart.
The operation to retake Wall Maria and exterminate the Titans had begun, and as expected the Survey Corps met the greatest enemy of their lives—Titans.
Several ten-meter Titans smashed through their formation, splitting them apart, then picked them off like poultry, one by one, swallowing with obscene leisure.
Terror choked the air. Even the horses skittered in panic. Eren and the comrades who enlisted with him were lucky: when the Titans hit, they happened to be near a rise and scrambled up to safety.
The others weren't so fortunate. A cluster of ten-meter Titans hemmed them in like moving mountains.
Eyes blown wide, they shouted themselves raw, spurring their mounts to flee—yet the Titans pounded after them without letup.
From veteran-compiled field manuals, they knew these were "grim reapers among grim reapers": Abnormals. They ran and leapt and, for reasons unknown, fixed on humans with rabid persistence.
Now they understood what despair meant.
"Don't eat me!!"
"Don't kill me!!"
"Ahhh!!"
"Mom…"
"God, didn't you say you'd save me?!"
Crowds were knocked from the saddle by Abnormals, bodies thudding to the ground.
Cahill Copt was a ruin of cuts and bruises. The moment he staggered up, a mass of Titans ringed him, staring as if he were some curious trinket.
Suddenly words deserted him. He toppled, whole body shaking, heels scrabbling backward.
"I… please…"
Tears streamed down his face, snot mixing and dripping from his chin.
He was terrified, but no scream came; his features just twitched, useless.
"Hooo…"
Breath.
Huge, rough breath.
A Titan brought its face close and fixed on him, studying him.
He snatched up a fistful of grass, ripped it free, and flung it at the Titan.
The Titan blinked, then bumped him with its nose, a grin twisting its mouth.
Heat like a person's—hotter than a person's—washed over him. Everything turned horribly real, like the time as a child he fell beside the stove.
Back then, his mother would hide a laugh behind her hand, then lift him gently and soothe him.
But now…
A massive hand pinched his head and lifted him up.
"M… Mom…"
Tears filmed his eyes. His limbs hung useless.
His neck snapped. Breath cut off. He thrashed, blood seeping from eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
At last he went still.
Thud.
Everything below the head—along with the ODM gear strapped to it—hit the grass and smeared with dirt.
Bored, the Titan tossed his head down after.
There the head lay, wind-nudged against his body, nestling at his side.
"Reform ranks!!"
Erwin gave the order. He'd already forced a breach with the vanguard and now directed the others to converge and punch through along his path.
In that hopeless crush, the commander's voice filled them with a fierce will. The urge to live took hold again, and they drove for the opening at full gallop!
"Reform ranks!"
"Reform ranks!"
Company leaders relayed Erwin's command with crisp precision.
Captain Nanaba led the rookies—Eren and the other new Survey recruits—down off the rise to link with the main body.
A seasoned veteran, her judgment and execution were solid. She only sighed as she watched the carnage below.
Eren stood more stricken still.
In his mind, the ugly Titan devouring his mother replayed again and again without pause.
"Eren!"
Someone snapped him out of it.
Mikasa.
Of course it was Mikasa.
"What?"
Eren turned to her.
"We have to go."
Mikasa grabbed his arm.
He hesitated, then shook her off.
"Got it. I said I don't need you looking after me. I'm not your little brother or your son."
He took his horse's reins and led it down the slope.
Off the rise, they pushed hard to close with Erwin's column breaking out.
But against expectation, more Titans kept coming—more and more.
"Commander! I've never seen anything like this—why are Titans increasing?!"
Beside Erwin, Oluo panted, spurring his horse.
"Outside the Walls, nothing is impossible. Don't grow complacent because life inside is easy."
Erwin kept his eyes forward.
"Understood!"
Oluo fell in.
Even so, the Titans dogging them wouldn't shake loose.
"Right ahead!!"
A shout cut across the wind.
Heads snapped that way—three ten-meter Titans.
"Damn it! Pinched again?!"
Oluo cursed.
"Oluo, link up with Hange's squad. I'll draw them off."
Erwin's decision was immediate, and Oluo could only obey.
But then—
A small figure spurred forward, overtaking everyone.
"Hold position."
As he passed Oluo, the voice was quiet and cool.
Oluo focused and recognized him as the Scorpio Corps observer sent to audit Titan kill counts.
What is he—?!
"Hey!!"
Oluo shouted, but too late.
Levi fired his ODM, vaulted, spun—two flashes, two Titans down. A cable yank, a darting line, and he blinded the last one; when it couldn't see, his blades flicked and lifted the slab from the nape.
He stood amid the corpse and the roiling steam, dabbing his blades clean with a handkerchief.
"Tch."
The filthy Titan blood turned his stomach.
The column slipped through safely.
From afar, Erwin watched Levi and, for a moment, saw Roger as he had been.
If back then…
He hadn't treated him as an enemy…
Would anything be different now?
Regret tugged at Erwin as his horse carried him on, his silhouette drawing lonelier with distance.
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