Booms echoed across the land as Gohan and Frieda fought one another. It was an even fight in a sense, with Gohan's advantage in power unable to put a real dent in Frieda's ability to heal. Steam billowed from her body perpetually, almost to the point of obscuring her from view if they weren't moving around as much as they were.
Her body burned, she was in a constant cycle of agony as Gohan broke bones and she reformed. But more than that, the fire that burned within her was eating her alive. The will of the first king was overwhelming, even as she did as she was told she was being compelled to greater and greater heights. Her body was so far beyond her own now, so altered by the drawing in of power, the changing of her form just to try and match Gohan in battle.
It felt like there was barely a shred of herself still left.
Like a puppet inside of her own body, she fought on. She hit harder and harder, fighting with every drop of effort she had inside her. But it wasn't enough, it would never be enough. The will compelled her. Compelled her to fight, to win, to become more. The Titans she had unleashed were dead, and she had pushed herself so far past her limit she didn't think there was anything left. But still it compelled her.
So she fought dirtier.
She struck at Gohan's injuries, beating down on every wound he had. She bit his arm when they grappled, even at the cost of her teeth when he ripped it free. When she healed her mouth, she let loose a blast of Ki from within. She was fighting more and more like a wild animal, whatever it took to win.
But it just was not enough.
Gohan was no mere fighter as he'd described. Even at his young age, he had been through more fights of life and death than most had in their lifetimes. He knew struggle and hardship beyond belief, and as he himself had sworn, he would never give up.
He still hurt though, and the damage she was doing was most certainly being felt. She heard his hiss of pain as they struck one another at the same time. A snarl formed on his lips, the both of them forming Ki blasts that knocked them both away.
She broke her arm as she hit the ground, shredded a section of her leg too. But sparks of lightning and steam had it mending instantly. She would not stop fighting, not until she was dead, not until the will of the first king had been carried out, nut until-
She froze.
As she had begun to rise, she saw the creature below. Maybe it was her nature as a god, or just her life as her sister, but Frieda saw the form of Historia within her Titan immediately.
When had it happened? How had it happened!? She couldn't believe it. A great pain clutched at her heart, seizing her as she looked upon the sister she had wanted to save. The sister that she had to kill.
She flinched at the impulse. It wasn't her, those feelings weren't her. The desire was not her. It was him… the king. He wanted her dead, just as he wanted them all dead. She gripped her head tightly, a surge of pain and blinding emotions surging through her. She didn't want her dead… she didn't want her sister to suffer as she was.
She had to save her, she had to kill her.
"No!" Despite all of her power, her rejection felt weak. She was not defiant, she was begging. "No no nonono… please. I don't want this…"
But she had to. She had to kill Gohan. Stop him, so that they could all die in penance for their actions.
It raged within her, pulled at her from inside. Historia did not matter, none of them mattered. She had her chance, Gohan was likely wounded. Every second she did not chase him was a betrayal.
She was pulled towards the fight, away from her sister.
She had to stop Gohan, she had to kill him. To repay the blood debt they owed, the set right the injustices they had committed. She had to, had to, had to-
A woman in her hands. Even at her distance, Historia knew who the woman was. Ymir was about to die, dying willingly to save Historia from her fate. Their relationship would end, their future would die in one gargantuan bite. Something new compelled her. It was not the first king, it was… it was Frieda.
Whatever was left of her, Frieda pulled away from the fight, away from the king and his divine will. She pulled towards Historia. She had to do it, she had to, she had to save her sister.
The tendrils of compulsion wrapped themselves around her mind. The will of the first king was devouring her, eating her very essence alive. But still she pulled away. Her hands stretched out, a spark of lightning at her fingertips as she burned every scrap of energy to grasp hold of the power within her. She gripped the powers of a god and commanded them to her will.
There was a snap in her mind.
The power flowed out from her, obeying the will of a god. And the last thing Frieda saw, was the jerking halt of Historia's Titan. The last thing she felt was the smile on her own face, as she took brief control back of her life.
And then she was gone.
Gohan flew back to a strange sight. Ymir was on the ground, staring up at the Titan that had abruptly dropped her. The massive creature was twitching, spasming as sparks rolled over its body before it reeled back and ROARED. A primal scream, hideous in its agony as the creatures' hands flew back to its neck. Fingernails dug into flesh, blood spurting outwards as it began to rip apart muscle.
A loud ripping sound reverberated out. Like the sound of tearing cloth, the flesh finally gave way as the entire neck was ripped in half. Blood exploded outwards, soaking the entire land. Gohan covered his eyes as it splashed upwards and even reached him. When he opened them, he saw a figure inside of the devastated remains of the Titans stump.
Historia was on her hands and knees, shakily trying to stand before she fell down. She collapsed into the pool of blood, almost at risk of drowning herself before Ymir grabbed her and pulled her free.
Ymir was rocking Historia gently. Historia was unconscious, but Ymir was entirely frozen to the world around her, it was only Gohan that noticed the inhuman sounds in the air. Gohan looked over at Frieda, her body spasming as she choked with teeth bared. She was gritting her teeth so hard that they began to crack, a mucus like foam spilling from her mouth as her eyes rolled back inside of her head.
Lightning crackled around her body, as she spasmed again and opened herself up. With arms wide open she screamed. This was not her screams of before, it was not fear or rage in her voice. There was something primally wrong about her as her voice bellowed out across the land.
Gohan didn't wait. He rocketed towards her, fist raised and plunged to strike. Just as he threw his punch, she exploded.
Gore blasted outwards followed by steam and bone. Gohan was sent flying backwards, past the Rose wall and deep into the dirt. When he blasted his way out, the sky had darkened into night. No, not night, the sun had been blocked by shadow.
A fleshy body was still expanding into being overhead, the sun being blotted out as it covered the sky with its form. Mighty pillars of bone raced down and dug themselves into the dirt. They buried themselves deep, Gohan could sense them as they penetrated further and further down, seeming never ending.
His senses screamed at him as he felt power building up everywhere. It surrounded him, surrounded the island, surrounded them all in… rings.
Stone exploded everywhere across the walls. Every wall, every stretch of it cracked and fell apart. The soldiers manning their posts fell into the fleshy abyss that laid beneath their feet. Concrete fell away and crashed down onto homes and businesses, crushing those that were in their way.
Despair gripped Gohan's heart as he felt it all, felt every death as the people were slaughtered by the awakening of the Wall Titans.
Reflexes screamed at him, but Gohan was too distracted to move quick enough. His eyes looked upwards, and he saw the dozens of bones that spiked towards him. He began to move, dodging the first few that tore through the earth where he'd been standing.
But there were so many.
One pierced him through the leg, another into the side of his stomach and two into his right arm. A dozen more slammed into the rest of his body, not strong enough to pierce his body but they crushed him into place.
He screamed in pain, blood flying from his mouth and wounds. Muscles were torn, his body wrecked as the new Titan's body pressed down on him.
The new Titan was near impossible to behold. A giant ribcage took up the main form, each of the bones that had attacked him and burrowed into the earth splintering off from its body. Stretched and torn flesh wrapped around bone, muscle running a labyrinth network across its form. It tapered down towards a pair of misshapen legs, overly bulged with muscles and bleeding perpetually. Its head was ripped open, a screaming face broken apart like an open mouth as inside of it was a human form.
It was Frieda, connected by a long tongue that connected to the spine.
Only it wasn't quite so. Her body looked mangled, wrong in a way that suggested she had been frozen midway through shifting into something else. Or… someone else.
Its open skull looked down at him, the eyes inside locking on Gohan as he lay pinned in place by the spikes of bone and weight on his chest. And then, it began to speak.
"Hear me Eldian people."
Beneath the capital, in the underground city, Petra hobbled along in the hands of her assisting citizens. Hannes and Carla Jaeger moved with her, as slowly the crowd made their ascent out of the city. The light of the outside was calling to them, and they made their way up. Eren had left his mother and Hannes in the now safe hands of the rebelling locals, and as the fighting had come to its close had gone ahead to assist Mikasa.
Even if she was still severely wounded, Petra was more than willing to do the same. But she was the first to notice what was wrong. She sensed the Ki as it flared, felt it stretch beyond her senses as it seemed never ending. She fell back in fright, landing in the hands of Hannes as he steadied her.
He and Mrs Jaeger looked at her worried, their mouths opening to ask what was wrong until they heard it.
"Hear me Eldian people."
Reiner's transformed Titan stood ready for the fight as the wall crumbled around him. Zeke and Pieck had transformed as well, but only the Armoured Colossal Titan seemed like it would have any chance of survival as they stood surrounded by the Wall Titans.
Pieck was afraid.
She had known fear before, been trained how to deal with such a situation. Nothing compared to the moment she found herself in. Walls of Titans were pressing in on her from all sides, and a terrifying wave of helplessness fell over her. Even in her Titan form, it felt as if the end was inevitable.
Then it was all gone, as all she heard was a voice.
"Hear me Eldian people."
Marco threw himself over Marlo and Hitch as debris landed all around them. Despite his wounds, despite how much agony it caused him, it had been the impulsive thing to do. Dust had settled all around them, and even through the hacking coughs people found the lungs to scream in fright.
The walls had fallen, stone crushed many caught in the way as the creatures beneath were unleashed.
Eld stood in shock horror next to Erwin. The once seemingly forever resolute commander was left speechless. The end of days had seemingly come, the enemy of all time in their homes and looming over them all. All accompanied by the distant sight of a far more daunting creature.
People screamed. People cried. But all people heard when the voice spoke.
"Hear me Eldian people."
Carly Stratmann had fallen to the ground in terror at the sight of lightning sparking through the sky and the walls falling away. All around her people screamed and began to flee, where to they had no idea. The Titans were everywhere. Staring up at the creatures that surrounded her, she heard a voice in her mind.
"Hear me Eldian people."
All around them, the Eldian people in the internment zone clutched their heads in agony. A voice was calling out to them, one so far off and yet so close. One man fell to the ground in pain, his final thoughts before the voice overwhelmed them were of his daughter and of regret. Before the voice conquered his mind, Annie Leonharts father wept.
"Hear me Eldian people."
The servants gasped and rushed to help them as they fell. A pounding in their heads that only the Eldians in the manor could feel. The few servants of their own who were Eldians did the same, clutching in pain as a force wormed its way inside.
Lara Tybur shoved away the maid that tried to help her. Attempting to scramble to her feet on her own before the force drove her back down. The words boomed in her minds, and in the minds of every member of the Tybur family.
"Hear me Eldian people."
Time seemed to freeze around them. Every person, every Eldian on Paradis and afar were locked away in a new world. They could see it, all of the Titan that cast its shadow over Paradis Island.
None could move, but they all saw. Both the Titan, and each other. Jean saw his frightened comrades, those who had seen the transformation beginning in the sky above them and the walls collapsing. He saw the terrified mothers who clutched at their children, their futile attempts at protection all that they could do. The fearful expressions of the soldiers near the walls, the few of those who had seemed to survive the walls activation.
They all saw it.
Ymir, Historia, Erwin, Levi, Eld, Armin, Sasha, Mina, Mikasa, Eren, Mike, Ilse, Marco, Marlo, Hitch, Hannes, Carla, everyone was there. Even Reiner, Zeke, and Pieck. The three members of the Marley Warriors on Paradis was as frozen as all others under the otherworldly spectre of death.
"Hear me Eldian people, the end of your time has come. You have been kept within these walls to atone for your past crimes until your extinction, but for too long you have been granted a freedom for which you have not used to atone. Your sins are too great to forgive, and only death can correct the balance. Hear me all Eldian people, your extinction has come!"
A chill went up the spine of every Eldian across the world. Their deaths had been proclaimed by an almighty figure, their murders prophesised. For so many who lived beyond the walls, such an event had seemed so impossible. Yet none could deny what was happening.
"I WON'T LET YOU!"
Another voice reverberated through their minds. For those few who knew him, they recognised the voice in an instant. The words did not carry the same bombast as the first, those words that had declared their doom. The words however, were spoken with such ferocious certainty. They were spoken with the familiar tenacity and determination, of Son Gohan.
"Do you hear me? All of you, I won't let you die. I will protect you, I'll protect all of you. I am Son Gohan, and I WILL NOT LET BE VICTIMS ANYMORE!"
Telepathy was a power that Gohan had rarely used, learning via osmosis from his father when he had demonstrated the technique. But between the small time he had spent practicing his psychic abilities and his Saiyan heritage allowing him to naturally learn witnessed abilities easier, he could manage it.
His mind may have been squeezed tightly under the pressure, it may have hurt his very core, but Gohan did it. He had to.
He would not allow these people to think that he would abandon them. Power was flooding his body as his strength continued to return, and he would put every ounce of it to the test.
For the Eldian people trapped in a mindscape of the impossible, it was if a light had emerged. A power was engulfing the realm that held their minds. A power bright, pure, and powerful.
The realm shook under Gohan's power, before it broke away and they returned to reality.
Aura exploded around Gohan, shattering the bone spikes that pierced his flesh. The pain was immense, and his body was in tatters, but he would yet stop. He soared up high towards the massive creature, dodging bones as they shot towards him.
One stabbed straight at him. He punched through it with a single blow and weaved past those that tried to ensnare him. It wasn't just bone, but webbings of flesh that burst into existence with puffs of steam and sparks of electricity. He burned through them without any slowing down.
He was racing straight for the head, where he had seen Frieda's body inside of the split open skull.
When he neared the top, a mighty hand attempted to swat at him, but it was far too slow to hit him. Passing the hand and arriving in front of the skull however, he finally stopped.
What he had thought was Frieda's body could barely be called human anymore. It was a mangled mess of two bodies fused together, as if one had ripped itself free from the inside of the others. Within Frieda's body, the form of a man had torn itself outwards. An older man, one whose grey hair hung long and loose.
Frieda's body hung limp, eyes vacant like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Her clothes were torn into rags, stretched over both bodies and thankfully preserving both of their decency. Looking into Frieda's distant eyes, it seemed that whatever happened had killed her in its process.
"What the hell are you?"
"I am the First King." The creature spoke with both heads, a deep rumbling tone reverberating as both mouths spoke. "I am Karl Fritz, sovereign of the walls and of all Eldian people. And you… are Son Gohan. The foreigner, intruder into the affairs of others."
"I am Son Gohan, the protector." His declaration was followed by another surge in his aura, pressing back against the waves of power pouring off of the creature before him. "I will protect the Eldian people from anything that threatens them, even you."
His eyes rested again on Frieda, feeling as though he finally understood the extent of her lack of control. All his arguments to try and stop, to have a peaceful resolution, all of it was for naught. She had never had a choice. This king, this man, had stripped it from her. So much death and despair traced back to him and his misguided sense of justice.
Now there was another death he had to avenge.
"I won't let you hurt anyone else. You're going to die, once and for all."
"I am connected to our god, Ymir herself grants me the power to execute my will as is my divine right. I had believed pacifism would bring justice in time, but you have shown me I was wrong. This paradise must be culled of the unjust before any true peace can be achieved. And so I must start, now."
Lightning arced from his body and down to the three rings of Titans. Each ring of the creatures was struck and power bloomed up their bodies. The Titans of Wall Maria moved to turn inwards, beginning their march towards the centre of the land. Massive plumes of dust and dirt were kicked up as 200,000 Titans commenced their death march. The Titans of Wall Rose turned inwards, rotating on the spot before… nothing.
"What?"
It was Gohan who realised it first, feeling the rising Ki nearby as the mangled body of Frieda twitched back into life.
"I won't let you hurt her!"
Frieda's voice was a clicking growl of broken teeth from a misshapen set of vocal chords, but it was her. Just as she had re-asserted herself to return Historia to her human form, so too was she fighting back from within to protect her sister again.
"You damn traitor! I'll-"
A fist cracked the kings jaw, Gohan striking while the man was distracted and hitting hard. As he moved, Gohan and Frieda shared a look with one another. Her eyes met his, and silently begged him to do it. To stop the king and protect her sister.
She may not have had the strength before, but with her sister directly at risk of murder, she was summoning every ounce that she had left. The Wall Rose and Sina Titans remained frozen, but they would not be held for long. Gohan was now working on a time limit, he had until the Wall Titans crossed the distance from wall Maria to Rose to save the others. Less if Frieda failed to keep the kings' control away.
From the way she shook with the pain of the struggle, it seemed he would have a preciously short amount of time.
He lay into the king with punch after punch, battering the mans fused body into a pulp. The king cried out in pain, the weak and pathetic cries of an old man. When a female's cry screamed out, Gohan froze. Frieda had screamed out in pain, the body changing again at the last minute and transferring the pain of every hit to her instead.
It was enough to make him hesitate, and that was enough for the king to strike.
Energy blasts formed quickly in his hands and were thrust into Gohan's chest, blowing him backwards and out of the split skull. He span end over end through the air before suddenly halting himself. With gritted teeth, he put his hands together and prepared a blast.
"Ka…"
Blue energy formed in his palms, building as he poured more and more into it.
"Me…"
Energy pulsed up the inside of the king's Titan. The Titan was the complete limit of his power, of all that he could draw from his supernatural abilities. His Final Titan.
"Ha…"
Blue energy built more and more, brighter and more powerful with every second. Light shined blindingly from between his fingertips. He just needed a little more.
"Me…"
Purple energy built at the edges of the Final Titans split open skull, pooling into a ring that had the entire creature glowing. The ring of power was colossal, bigger than any blast he'd ever seen. But Gohan didn't stop, as instead he struck.
"HA!"
His Kamehameha beam tore through the sky and straight towards the king, powerful enough to destroy both him and Frieda if it hit.
If.
The ring of energy from the Final Titans skull blasted out. It crashed into Gohan's beam, a thunderous roar of mighty power washing over Gohan's Kamehameha. Like a tidal wave against a rock, the Final Titans energy poured around the beam as it stabbed through. The two blasts did not stop, as Gohan's blue beam pierced through the centre of the kings attack which poured down onto Gohan.
Both would kill each other in the attack if they held on.
For a moment, the inevitable seemed certain. Both would kill the other in their respective last attacks. But finally, one of them flinched.
Gohan pulled his hands away from the attack and threw up a barrier of energy, bracing himself as it crashed into him.
The explosion was immense, driving Gohan's form into the earth and across the ground. His entire body was burning under the attack as he was engulfed. He could think of nothing but the searing pain.
His attack had continued however, driving up and directly towards the king. If he stayed still, continued his attack on Gohan, he would die. But his will would be complete. Frieda's resistance would fail, the wall Titans would become rampaging and mindless creatures, the extermination of the Paradis Eldians would be complete. All he had to do, was press his attack.
He flinched.
The blast blew apart his lower torso, a fatal attack to anyone without the Final Titan's enhanced regenerative abilities. He was a gagging and thriving mess, but the Titan kept him alive. It would have to be enough, as deep in the recesses of his mind, he sensed the motion in the earth.
Gohan was freed from the ground, bloody wounds and burns covering his body. But his determination hadn't faltered for even a moment. There was another pulse of energy through the air. Not an attack, but a signal.
The Wall Titans of Maria had begun to sprint, racing towards them at a blistering pace.
But still, Gohan smiled. The King had flinched, revealed his hand and was empowering the Titans in desperation. This fight would be as much strength as it was a battle of wills.
Gohan's victory was already assured.