"What the hell... is that thing?"
The Survey Corps scattered around, and the Garrison soldiers holding the gate between Shiganshina and inner Maria all wore expressions of extreme terror. Because, out of nowhere, a Titan with a peculiar appearance had appeared.
It was not a mutant, absolutely not. The entire body of this Titan was covered in a layer of armor, and its actions were not the careless, flesh-eating frenzy of ordinary Titans. Because...
It took a running start, stood on its toes, bent its body, its thighs and knees preparing to leap.
"Close the gate immediately!!!"
Keith Shadis shouted at the panicking Garrison soldiers. He signaled the Survey Corps to organize an immediate attack. He had figured out the goal of this thing: if it succeeded, humanity would lose all of Wall Maria.
Unfortunately, the realization was too late, for the Armored Titan had already launched itself.
"Fire!!! Fire!!!"
The artillery barrels fired their rounds in vain, but the cannonballs couldn't even scratch the Titan's outer layer of armor. The Survey Corps immediately organized a quick attack, and the result was that the blades, which could cleanly cut Titan flesh, snapped in half.
The Armored Titan paid no attention to anything around it. It focused solely on the gate that was slowly descending. And then...
Boom!!!
Amidst the desperate screams of the residents and the Garrison soldiers, a massive explosion rang out. Countless bricks and stones flew everywhere from the gate, along with the guarding soldiers. The Armored Titan braked with its heels, leaving a large hole punched through the Wall behind it.
It turned its head, releasing a plume of smoke from its mouth to obscure visibility, combined with the dust kicked up by the broken stones to conceal its body, and vanished without a trace.
Just ten seconds later, Asahi appeared exactly where the Armored Titan had disappeared. He sliced the smoke plume in half with his sword, but gained no results.
Below him were only scattered residents and Garrison soldiers lying lifelessly. Many had been crushed by rocks, or killed by the kinetic force generated by the Armored Titan's charge.
"Damn it!"
Asahi stood in grim silence amidst the incomplete corpses. The Survey Corps commander, Keith Shadis, descended from the top of the Wall to his side.
"Sir..."
"Don't call me that. First, organize the retreat. I will hold the Titans back as much as possible."
"Yes... yes!"
Watching Asahi turn back toward Shiganshina, Keith sighed heavily. It seemed that question couldn't be asked now.
No, they had a much bigger problem now.
The man in the dark cloth, no matter how strong, was still human. He would eventually tire, eventually run out of energy. He certainly couldn't kill Titans forever.
They would get through here, into humanity's territory.
All of this, including the moment the Armored Titan breached Wall Maria, was witnessed by the Yeager family on the refugee boat.
All of them, and the passengers on board, were in a state of extreme fear and panic. Children and adults alike were no exception. Only Grisha, if one looked closely, had a distinct kind of panic.
It was as if... he was terrified because he knew the truth, unlike those around him who were terrified by ignorance.
"I should have done it sooner, I should have done it sooner, I should have done it sooner..."
He continuously muttered. Because of Asahi's appearance, Grisha's resolve to carry out "that task" had been overshadowed, or more accurately, covered by soft-heartedness.
His head was spinning in a complicated mess.
What should he do now?
"Dad?"
Eren gently pulled Grisha's sleeve. The moment his son's eyes looked straight at him, the terrifying determination to do something horrible also collapsed.
He couldn't do it.
Suddenly, a voice rang out behind Grisha.
"Find the man... in white."
He frantically turned his head, but behind him were only the worried faces of Carla and Mikasa.
It was all like a hallucination.
But at least he knew what he had to do.
Before... that moment came.
"Carla, Eren, Mikasa."
Grisha called out the names of his family, the three people he loved the most. To the point that for their safety, he could sacrifice his life.
"Forgive me."
Grisha suddenly burst forward, separating from his family, separating from everyone, and leaped off the boat, sinking into the cold water below, leaving Carla, Eren, and Mikasa stunned.
They rushed to the edge of the boat, shouting down, but there was nothing below.
Asahi landed on the tallest bell tower of Shiganshina, his eyes heavily surveying the entire city one last time.
Titans had flooded the area.
Although he had killed over a hundred Titans, wiping out the Titans in Shiganshina several times over, they kept pouring in relentlessly.
He was nearly exhausted.
His body felt like it was enduring a thousand cuts in hell. All his cells were frantically screaming to tear apart. His joints wanted to separate and disintegrate. Enduring it for one minute was an unimaginable ordeal; yet, since the fighting began, he had been constantly enduring it.
For a man who had been tortured in the deepest abyss of despair and an endless eternal nightmare, physical pain could not make him retreat. But Asahi still stopped the slaughter, because this method was too inefficient.
What he needed to do was seal the breach in the Wall.
Ignoring the Titans heading toward the bell tower, Asahi sat leisurely on it, calling out to the system.