Chapter 26 : The fallen one.

"Good. Can we start now?"

asked the demon god, a sinister smile stretching across his face as Reiner's comrade's howls of pain echoed in vain. In fact, from his point of view, these howls were akin to a sweet melody.

"Fire!"

shouted the squad commander, trying to finish off his adversary as soon as possible. He had realized that time was against him, and that his only chance lay in this moment.

In response, another deluge of plasma rained down on the demon god. However, he blocked them without the slightest difficulty. His smile suddenly thickened, and simultaneously, a fire so black it absorbed all light devoured the titan closest to him, leaving only a melting carcass in its wake.

"Ah, I got carried away..."

The demon god muttered in mild disappointment, repeating the same action while aiming for another titan. As the fire receded, the titan seemed slightly damaged but perfectly functional, leaving the entire squad to prepare for the worst while firing at the demon god.

However, when their ally, who had been engulfed in flames, let out a bestial roar as he fired on their position, they all understood what had happened. The fire had killed and resurrected their comrade in a matter of seconds.

It was then that the titan's inorganic voice sounded in Reiner's ears.

"Pilot, engage the newly-appeared enemy. He poses a direct threat to your comrades at the rear, and their emotional ties may compromise their ability to fight back effectively. Eliminate this threat immediately."

The titan who had just turned hostile attacked his former comrades mercilessly, as the demon god looked on in satisfaction. However, the latter's expression twisted into a strange interest when the only titan with Athena's emblem painted in immaculate white, cut down his former comrade with a murderous salvo.

From then on, only his titan's voice echoed in Reiner's ears.

"Launch of emotional support protocol... You did the right thing, pilot. You didn't kill him, he was already dead. You only shortened his suffering and saved his friends from finishing him off with their own hands."

"I know but... I did it without thinking... I... I killed someone in cold blood without even thinking about it... I just followed the advice you gave me without even thinking... How am I any better than that monster if I behave like him?"

"Pilot, since your arrival here you've relentlessly extinguished a great many lives, and even threatened to kill one of the demon gods with your own hands. How would finishing off a reanimated human being be any different from killing a demon god?"

"Huh? Why do you say that? Of course it's different, they're not human, and they're our enemies..."

Reiner's eyes widened as he realized what he'd just said, while his sentence grew weaker and weaker as he spoke it. An acidic rise seized his throat as his eyes trembled. However, the titan's voice rang out, without even considering Reiner's feelings.

"Exactly, they're our enemies. This former comrade was an enemy. Killing him was therefore the most logical and sensible choice."

"No... you're wrong..."

"Wrong, abnormal pilot thought process, the objective is to defend the camp. Please resume your offensive, your comrades will flee and be exterminated. One of the pilots was killed in one of our enemy's tests during our short conversation."

"You don't understand... you have no feelings so I can't hold it against you, but I despised humans for what they thought of androids taking me superior to them, yet I thought the same way telling myself it was normal..."

"Error, please come to your senses or you will die in... lasted estimated at 1 minute and 32 seconds, thirty-one, trent-"

"I understand..."

Reiner replied, shaking his head, aiming his gun at his enemy while activating his loudspeaker.

"Sorry."

"Why are you apologizing? Your comrades are decomposing alive while you're thinking, you know?"

Replied the demon god, showing a sinister interest in Reiner as he stopped whatever he was doing to talk to him, barely blocking the shots threatening him.

Reiner didn't respond, instead activating a transmission to his unit in a calm voice, hiding everything he was feeling in order to appear confident.

"We're not backing down. He's alone, we can do it. If he gets through, he'll exterminate all life in the camp."

"What are you talking about Spearhead! We'll just get hammered if we stay, better to wait for reinforcements and stall while we can!"

"What if he's not alone next time?"

Reiner replied, silencing the opposition as they looked resignedly at their adversary. Each titan tried to position itself in the demon god's blind spots, attacking from different directions. The squad leader even asked for artillery support, but this was wishful thinking. He spoke to his squad, a little discouraged.

"We'll have to face it alone, the artillery can't make a strike on a single opponent..."

"I can't take it anymore... I feel myself decomposing alive... I...arrrg..."

"Back off! Franking 006 back off!"

the commander shouted, to no avail. The machine didn't back down, attacking its former comrades instead. Reiner destroyed the enemy titan again with a precise shot, a pained expression on his face as he gritted his teeth, his stomach burning harder than ever. He regretted all his actions, but wanted to spare anyone this pain, both psychologically and physically. So he took it upon himself to do what others would struggle to do, but his cold act only motivated some of the few survivors to flee, thinking that he would be sacrificed in the same way. However, only their cry echoed in the ears of the last three members of the squad, as all the fugitives were annihilated, with the exception of a single titan who narrowly escaped death.

Seeing the demon god's attention focused on the escapees, Reiner opened the hatch of his titan. With one hand, he clung with difficulty to one of the metal ladder bars, before throwing one of his grenades with all his might at the demon god with his other hand. Almost immediately after his throw, he re-entered his titan to fire at the demon god, hoping to distract him.

The latter looked puzzled at the grenade coming towards him, not knowing what it was. But almost immediately afterwards, he had to defend himself from Reiner's shots with a quick gesture of his hands, while Reiner shouted to the other two survivors in his squad.

"We can do it, if we run, we'll end up like the other runners!"

"An honorable death is preferable to a cowardly one."

Replied the squad leader, while the last survivor didn't even bother to reply, already knowing his fate. But at that very moment, the grenade exploded right on the demon god, creating a huge explosion that released a few bursts of radiation, as well as a murderous flurry of Shrapnel in all directions.

The sand created an imposing curtain of smoke, as the survivors both looked in Reiner's direction, astonished that anyone would do such a reckless thing - and, what's more, that it actually worked. But Reiner didn't let his guard down, firing again into the middle of the smoke screen, revealing the demon god, his unhealthy grin more stretched than ever. Holes could be seen on his body, as parts burned or destroyed by the explosion regenerated to the rhythm of the green light emanating from his hands. As if unhurt, he spoke to Reiner, looking delighted.

"It's been a long time since I've been hurt this badly, only the old ones can beat me in terms of strength... so...coming from you... tell me, what's your name?"

"Why?"

Reiner replied, frowning suspiciously.

"The reason is simple, every exceptional fighter deserves to have his name remembered after his death. I'll make sure your name is remembered. Besides, I'd also personally like to know the name of whoever did this to me."

The demon god pointed to his body regenerating at a terrifying rate.

"My name is Reiner, but it's not my time to die, it's yours."

The demon god seemed delighted by the answer, but was suddenly struck by a shot from the squadron commander, who tore off part of his torso from his blind spot, before another part of his torso was torn off by the last surviving member of the squadron. However, as if he hadn't noticed, he stared at Reiner with an intense gaze. Yet a flicker of hesitation crossed the demon god's eyes. His sinister smile faded ever so slightly, and he seemed plunged into rapid reflection, before suddenly speaking again.

"Reiner... Well, Reiner, you've got promise. I'll try to keep you alive so we can meet again in a different context."

The demon god sighed, his smile betraying an unexpected emotion of regret.

"It's a pity I can't choose to deviate from the path my necklace dictates... In any case, don't blame me if you die at the end of our confrontation, I can hardly control my forc-"

His sentence was cut short by Reiner, who fired a burst of plasma that pierced a small part of the demon god's head. His wounds were festering with a black liquid, yet his smile seemed to pierce his face as he literally stretched from one corner to the other of his destroyed face.

"Well, a little more to the right and you could almost have put me in a very uncomfortable position, impressive. And you don't wait for the others to finish talking? I like it, I'd stop taking care of myself, so show me the extent of the determination you've just proven."

He added, before reducing to nothing the two parasites who had taken advantage of his discussion to hit him with a simple backhand, without even looking at them.

"On the other hand, you won't be able to help them. It was predictable that you'd try to save them by monopolizing my attention, but they would have died anyway, and either come back undead or been killed in the most horrible way. A gentle death was the best I could give them."

The wound-riddled body then faced the titan Reiner was clumsily piloting. No balance of power could be seen, and Reiner knew how this would end, yet he couldn't let go of the slim hope he carried for victory. Running away was not an option for him, and even if he could have run, he wouldn't have.

Reiner took aim at the demon god, then asked something unexpected.

"Tell me, what's your name?"

"Why do you want my name so late?"

"You had said that every great warrior deserved to be remembered after his death, and I think that's fair. So I decided to apply your precept."

The demon god burst out laughing, a sincere laugh. His sinister aura had disappeared, everything seemed so calm all at once, as if what had just happened was a lie. Even the demon god's voice was steady and gentle as he replied.

"It's regrettable."

"What's that?"

"That we're enemies, I wish I didn't have to face you, you're the first person to share my point of view.... And as for my name, I don't have one, everyone who has to call me qualifies me... what's the name in your language...heuum.... Hybrid, yes, they call me hybrid."

"So you do have a specificity."

Reiner added, a slight smile appearing on the corner of his lips as he finally resigned himself to his fate. However, his fighting spirit wasn't affected in the slightest. He was simply buying himself a little more time to let his boiling weapon cool down, while quenching his curiosity. He had no desire to die here, and intended to survive to see his loved ones again.

"Those who look like me can't control death like I can, so it's obvious that I have something special..."

Replied the demon god, no longer looking Reiner in the face. His will to fight seemed to be at an all-time low. He regretted having spoken, regretted having found someone who didn't hate him unjustifiably, when he was one of the people most apt to hate or fear him.

"You're a cross between a demon god and a demon?"

Reiner asked, intrigued.

"So that's what you call our two species? Demon and god... it's a good representation of our duality, it's... strangely apt. But yes, that's it. Anyway... enough chit-chat, the more time goes by, the more your comrades die, and the more likely I am to get punished."

"You're right."

Reiner replied, almost immediately firing a plasma blast that grazed the hybrid's arm. The demon god didn't defend himself, attacking instead by hurling the junk that was once titans with a murderous swing right at Reiner, who couldn't dodge and was thrown backwards before hitting the ground heavily. The hybrid turned his back, slowly moving away as wind wrapped around his body, convinced of Reiner's fate. But just then, one of his legs was pierced by the trembling cannon of Reiner's titan, still covered in scrap metal.

"Not bad."

Said the hybrid, to which Reiner replied, his speaker working with difficulty as his voice was distorted.

"Haha...I was aiming for the head..."

The titan's hatch opened just as Reiner's words rang out, letting him out. The demon god stared at Reiner, definitively crushing his titan as soon as he was out.

"I said I'd try not to kill you, you can't defeat me anymore, give up."

Reiner didn't reply, pointing his trembling weapon at the demon god. He was terrified, but fired one last shot that the demon god didn't parry. The hybrid regenerated all his wounds, but kept the marks Reiner had made as scars, then stared at him.

"I'll keep these scars to remember your name. You were brave and admirable to the end, and I prayed for your survival, but if we meet again, don't confuse bravery with temerity."

He then expelled Reiner without delay, crushing him mercilessly against what remained of his titan. Reiner spat out a spray of blood, but his lower back hit the titan's frame even harder because of the recoil, causing him to lose consciousness almost immediately as the pain was so great. He could only barely whisper a last sentence.

"I...don't...want...to die...".

The attack he had suffered seemed imposing, but was nonetheless far less powerful than the demon god's last projection of scrap metal onto Reiner's titan a few seconds ago, testifying to his lack of will and desire to kill Reiner. Only one of the drones filming the battlefield could be seen on the desolate plain, as the hybrid disappeared. The last echoes of battle faded, leaving behind a devastated landscape and hearts heavy with sacrifice. A page had been turned, but Reiner's fate, hanging between life and death, remained uncertain, suspended in the darkness of the future.

Then, in less than a second, everything became blurred. Nothing was visible, and only Alice's robotic voice echoed in one mind. The mind of Salvatoris.