"Eren, Mikasa…" Armin hesitated, his face filled with fear as he glanced out at the world beyond the walls. Ultimately, he clenched his teeth and summoned his courage, following after them.
"I can't believe it… Annie really is a Titan…" Mina muttered, her expression filled with despair as she stared at the Female Titan lying below.
"Damn it, what's going on here? Reiner and Bertolt are Titans?" A short-haired girl with brown hair, who had arrived with Mikasa earlier, growled in frustration.
"Jean, what do we do now?" Connie asked in a trembling voice, his eyes fixed on the three immobile Titans below and the approaching Pure Titans in the distance. Fear was written all over his face.
Sasha, Marco, and the others also turned their gazes toward Jean Kirstein, the brown-haired boy who stood as one of the strongest among the 104th Training Corps graduates, aside from the already descended Eren and Mikasa, and the now-revealed Titan shifters.
"Ugh…" Jean scratched his head in frustration, as though ready to throw in the towel, before shouting in resignation, "What else can we do? We can't just stand here and watch Mikasa and Eren put themselves in danger! We're going after them!"
With that, he gritted his teeth and activated his omnidirectional mobility gear, leaping off the wall.
Seeing this, Connie and the others had no choice but to suppress their own terror and follow Jean, one by one jumping down from the wall behind him.
On another section of the wall, Zixin, the reincarnator team leader, observed the situation below. Her eyes suddenly lit up.
"We're heading down too. Now's the perfect opportunity to complete our mission. With those soldiers from the Training Corps down there, we can take advantage of their distraction and deal with the approaching Pure Titans. Having them draw attention will make it much easier for us to kill Titans," Zixin said firmly to her teammates, her tone resolute.
"But those three…" One of the male reincarnators hesitated, glancing warily at Eriri, Kohina, and Antilene.
"Forget about them. Don't provoke them, and don't get involved with them. Those three aren't people we can afford to deal with. As long as they don't interfere with us completing our mission, we'll be fine," Zixin replied without hesitation.
Truthfully, she had no desire to cross paths with Eriri and her group. If the information provided by the Lord God Space was accurate, then Eriri and her companions couldn't possibly belong to this world. Zixin was convinced of this.
Her only goal was to finish the mission as quickly as possible and leave this world, which felt incredibly dangerous to her.
"All right, let's head down. Those Pure Titans are getting close. We need to kill as many as we can before the Training Corps soldiers retreat back to the walls. But remember, prioritize your safety."
After saying this, Zixin cast a pointed glance at the burly man in her team and his three lackeys before leading the way, leaping off the wall herself.
"Tch!" The burly man let out a disgruntled snort, then cast a furtive glance at Eriri. For a brief moment, a flash of greed flickered in his eyes before he jumped off the wall to follow.
But the burly man wasn't completely oblivious. He knew well that Eriri wasn't someone he could afford to mess with, so all he could do was follow Zixin and the others down the wall, his face filled with frustration and reluctance.
Whether it was the position of team leader in the reincarnators' squad or the unparalleled beauty of someone like Eriri, everything he desired would be within his reach as long as he gained overwhelming power. Power that could crush everything.
It wouldn't be like now, where all he could do was fantasize in silence, stewing in his indignation.
At that moment, the burly man's thirst for power grew exponentially, consuming his thoughts.
"Onee-chan, should we go down to watch too?" Kohina tilted her head, her large, curious eyes blinking as she glanced at the now-empty wall and directed her question at Eriri.
"No need," Eriri replied casually, pointing to the spot where they had been sitting earlier. "We can just sit there and watch."
The position offered a perfect view of the battlefield below, directly overlooking the three massive Titans lying on the ground. It was an ideal spot for spectators to take in the whole scene.
"Eriri, the way those guys were looking at us earlier really annoyed me. Can I go take care of them now?" Antilene said coldly, her gaze fixed on the burly man and his three cronies from the reincarnator squad, who had already reached the ground outside the wall. A powerful aura began to radiate from her body.
Though the reincarnators' glances had been subtle, to Eriri and her group, they were as conspicuous as if they had openly displayed their malicious intent. It was almost no different from showing evil intentions directly to their faces.
"Don't be so hasty. Killing them outright would be too easy on them," Eriri said with a sly smile as she gently patted Antilene's ear. But her eyes, too, were as cold as ice.
She had already sentenced the four reincarnators to death long before. However, their lecherous and greedy gazes just now had sealed their fates even further, ensuring that their deaths would be anything but swift or painless.
Hearing Eriri's words, Antilene's face broke into a sinister grin filled with anticipation. The powerful aura surrounding her faded as she abandoned her immediate plans to rush down and kill the four.
"Alright, let's head to the audience seats and enjoy the show," Eriri said with a chuckle, ruffling the hair of both Kohina and Antilene before leading them back to the spot where they had been sitting earlier.
Meanwhile, at the forefront of the group on the battlefield below, Eren had already reached the Armored Titan. Without saying a word, he drew his dual blades and swung them toward the Titan's neck.
The three massive Titans were all lying flat on the ground, which meant their napes—the vital weak points needed to kill a Titan—were pressed against the earth and not exposed.
Through rigorous training and systematic study, Eren knew well that only by slicing through a Titan's nape could they be completely killed.
Before, he had never understood why this was the case. But after learning from Bertolt, he now knew the truth: inside the nape of each Titan resided a human being. Killing the person inside was the only way to end the Titan's life.
Although Eren couldn't directly reach the nape of the Armored Titan, he planned to cut through the entire neck from the front to achieve the same effect.
However, the task was far easier said than done. Even lying down, the Armored Titan's sheer size meant that its neck alone was significantly higher than Eren's own height.
This meant that the Armored Titan's neck could fully resist Eren's strikes. As long as the neck wasn't completely severed in a short amount of time, it would quickly regenerate.
"Damn it! Why can't I cut through it?!" Eren shouted in frustration as he leaped onto the Armored Titan's massive body. Wielding his standard-issue dual blades, he relentlessly hacked at its neck. However, even as the blades snapped under the pressure, the Titan's neck remained intact.
At that moment, Mikasa arrived at Eren's side. She shouted over the noise of battle, "Eren, I'll help you!"
"Mikasa!"
Seeing Mikasa swing her blades at the Armored Titan's neck, Eren's chaotic emotions settled somewhat. He quickly replaced the broken blades on his maneuvering gear with fresh ones and joined Mikasa in their relentless assault on the Titan.
By this time, Armin, Jean, and the others had also reached the Armored Titan.
Though none of them tried to stop Eren and Mikasa, their expressions were grim and conflicted. Eventually, Jean and Connie also joined in, lending their strength to help carve through the Titan's massive neck.
Finally, through the combined efforts of everyone, the Armored Titan's neck was gradually cut away, revealing the red, sinewy muscle underneath. Nestled within the exposed nape was Reiner.
Seeing Reiner fused with the Titan's red muscles, the group's faces darkened with a mix of shock, rage, and disbelief.
Eren stepped forward, grabbing Reiner by the collar and lifting him slightly. With clenched fists, he smashed his knuckles into Reiner's face again and again, his voice dripping with fury. "Reiner, you bastard! After doing something so unforgivable, how dare you join the Training Corps? How dare you act like nothing happened and live alongside us?!"
Punch after punch landed on Reiner's face. His nose and cheeks were quickly bruised and bloodied, while Eren's own fists became battered and torn from the impacts.
Despite his bloodied knuckles and the searing pain, Eren showed no signs of stopping. He swung his fists mechanically, venting all the rage and betrayal boiling inside him.
However, Mikasa couldn't bear to watch any longer. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Eren from behind, pulling him away.
"Eren, your hands are injured!" she said firmly.
"Mikasa, let me go!" Eren struggled in her grasp, trying to free himself from her hold.
But compared to Mikasa's extraordinary strength, Eren's efforts were futile. No matter how much he thrashed and fought, he couldn't escape her embrace.
In the crowd, a beautiful young girl with long golden hair, Historia, looked at the brutalized Reiner with a trace of pity in her eyes. However, she said nothing and remained silent.
"Historia…" Beside her, a tall, freckled girl with dark hair, Ymir, glanced at her silently.
Ymir harbored a deep, dark secret. Although she appeared to be only around fifteen or sixteen years old, she had spent nearly sixty years as a mindless Pure Titan.
It was only five years ago that she regained her humanity after devouring one of Reiner's comrades. This act turned her into one of the Nine Titans—the Jaw Titan.
Now, seeing the miserable state of Reiner and the others, Ymir felt a deep unease. She feared that Eriri, perched high on the wall, might expose her own Titan identity.
She wasn't afraid of being killed by the soldiers within the walls if her secret was revealed. What she feared was being separated from Historia, the girl she cared about most in the world. Ymir couldn't bear the thought of losing the chance to protect Historia.
At that moment, Armin's panicked voice broke through her thoughts. "This is bad! Titans are approaching! Eren, Mikasa, we need to get back to the wall right now!"
Just a hundred meters away from the group, a Pure Titan with a grotesque smile plastered across its face was lumbering toward them. Further in the distance, more Titans could be seen advancing at a slow but steady pace.
Though this particular Titan's movements were sluggish, each step it took covered an immense distance. For a creature its size, the hundred-meter gap would only take about ten or twenty strides to close. In mere moments, it would reach them.
"Eren, we're out of time! End this quickly!" Mikasa urged, her voice filled with urgency. Her expression turned stern as she fixed her sharp gaze on him. "Don't tell me you can't do it."
"How could I not?! He's the reason my mother died! There's no way I can let him go!" Eren shouted through gritted teeth, his tone trembling with rage. He pushed himself free from Mikasa's grip and stepped toward Reiner.
Tightly gripping the dual blades in his hands, Eren approached the motionless figure of Reiner, his eyes filled with fury.
"Eren, just kill me." Reiner's voice was weak, his half-lidded eyes devoid of any light. His face showed only despair, a stark absence of any will to live.
Though reluctant to die, Reiner seemed resigned to his fate, as though he'd accepted there was no way to escape.
"Reiner, do you have no regrets at all?!" Eren snarled, pointing one of his blades at Reiner's face. His voice was laced with anger and disbelief as he demanded an answer.
But Reiner didn't respond. Instead, he closed his eyes, silently awaiting the blade that would end his life.
"Eren, stop stalling!" Mikasa yelled again as she glanced at the approaching Titan, now almost upon them. Her grip on her own dual blades tightened, and her expression darkened with determination.
Without waiting for Eren, Mikasa readied herself to engage the Titan. She prepared to strike its weak point before it could threaten them further.
However, before she could make her move, a group of ten unfamiliar soldiers clad in Garrison uniforms suddenly appeared from another direction. The leading figure, a long-haired woman, swiftly cut through the Titan's nape with remarkable precision.
The Titan collapsed instantly, its massive body falling to the ground with a thundering crash.
Mikasa froze, her curiosity piqued by the newly arrived soldiers. Their leader's skill was nothing short of astonishing. If someone with such abilities had shown up in the Survey Corps or the Military Police, it wouldn't have surprised her. But in the Garrison Regiment? That seemed almost implausible.
After all, most who joined the Garrison Regiment were either those who failed to qualify for the Military Police or those too scared to join the Survey Corps and fight Titans directly. These new arrivals were clearly an exception.
"That was amazing!" Connie, who had been paralyzed with fear moments earlier, now stared in awe at the long-haired woman. The tension on his face was replaced with a look of astonishment.
The others—Sasha, Jean, and even the usually composed Marco—watched the group of soldiers with wide eyes. Like Connie, they were clearly impressed by the skill on display.
Meanwhile, Eren remained motionless. Despite Mikasa's repeated urging, he couldn't bring himself to strike. His hands, still gripping the hilts of his blades, trembled slightly from the internal conflict raging within him.
Though he'd screamed earlier about his hatred for Reiner and vowed to end him, now that the moment of truth had arrived, he hesitated.
Seeing this, Mikasa's face darkened. She called out to him firmly, "Eren, what are you doing? You need to remember—he's not our comrade anymore. He's our enemy. Understand?"
Without waiting for his response, she stepped toward Reiner, her expression cold and unyielding. "If you can't do it, then I will."
With that, Mikasa swung her blade in a clean, decisive arc, slicing through Reiner's neck.
A geyser of crimson blood erupted from the severed artery, spraying wildly into the air. Fortunately, Mikasa reacted quickly, pulling Eren back to avoid the torrent of blood. The two moved just in time to prevent being drenched in the spray.
As Reiner's body convulsed violently on the ground, Eren stood frozen, staring blankly at the scene before him.
"Ah…" Armin, standing nearby, let out a gasp of horror. His face turned pale as he watched Reiner's body writhe in its death throes. Unable to stomach the sight, Armin stumbled backward, tripping over his own feet and landing on the ground with a thud.
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