Return to Shiganshina(10)

Zeke looked forward to meeting his half-brother.

From what Reiner and Bertholdt had shared with him previously, he was certain that Eren Yeager was related to him.

His last remaining family member. He had been brainwashed by his dad. 

Don't worry Eren. Your brother is coming to save you.

The Cart Titan reached the top of the walls. He scanned Shiganshina for any signs of life from there.

Most of the wandering titans here were dead - to his surprise. The Armored Titan and Colossal Titan were nowhere to be found. Were they defeated? Where is Eren?

"Warchief, incoming enemies."

He could make out four figures that were headed in their direction.

In normal circumstances, the Cart Titan would have destroyed them in a blink of an eye. But with him being held in Pieck's mouth, the titan had lost most of its offensive ability. Zeke knew he didn't have the luxury of hanging around in his current state.

"There's no choice then. We'll have to withdraw."

The Cart Titan's strength was in its utility and speed. The Survey Corps would find their chase to be futile.

"Roger."

Pieck began sprinting, jumping from one roof to another.

As they pulled further away, Zeke caught the sight of Levi emerging atop the walls where they earlier were. 

Did he really defeat all those titans?

Zeke screamed. "You have to be kidding … that was fifty titans. Fifty Titans!" 

===

Levi wobbled, his body now covered in steaming titan blood from head to toe. He had never failed any of Erwin's orders before and he wouldn't fail now.

"I swore to Erwin. I swore to him that I'd kill you!"

He pressed the triggers, but no sound came. His engine was dead.

"Heichou!"

Petra, Oluo, Jinn and Gunthur landed in front of him.

Seeing Petra was safe, a weight felt like it had been lifted off his shoulders.

"Quick, Petra! Give me your gas and blades. NOW!"

"Roger!"

The girl started to take off her equipment with no hesitation.

"W-what happened out there?" Gunther turned to face the fields.

Being atop the walls granted them a bird's eye view of the situation. There were innumerable corpses of soldiers, flesh, equipment and steaming titan bodies littered across the ground. A horrific sight probably even for battle-hardened soldiers like themselves. 

"The entire regiment went for a suicide charge led by Erwin to distract the Beast Titan to give me a chance to kill it. Almost everyone is dead, except for a lucky few. The Beast Titan ran out of boulders at the end to throw."

His chest tightened. Erwin … he was most at the front of the charge. Most definitely dead. If only he was alive. Even if heavily injured, he could still sav-

"LEVI! THE COMMANDER IS ALIVE. SAVE HIM!"

Levi turned to the direction of the scream. 

Below the walls, Levi saw a group of soldiers running in their direction. Was that Floch? Erwin was on his back.

Wait. Erwin is alive? He had been too distracted chasing the Beast Titan to even properly survey the aftermath of the charge.

His eyes flew wide open as he reached for the injection he had kept all this while …

===

(Sometime later)

Eren watched from a distance with the other officers of the Survey Corps.

Erwin's titan was walking towards a tied-up Bertholdt on the ground, who was still sound asleep thanks to the effects of the sedative.

"So … can you tell us now why you suggested Bertholdt was the best choice for Erwin to eat, Armin?" 

Ruth asked, her eyes weary. She was one of the squad leaders.

The battle was hard fought. The Survey Corps had won. But it did so at a heavy price.

When the survivors of the Survey Corps had gathered together in the aftermath, Floch and the few others who had been lucky enough to survive the Beast Titan's Barrage had brought back Erwin's body - who was miraculously alive, but on the verge of death.

They knew that the commander could be saved by transforming and having him eat on the Titan. 

But the question was who should they let Erwin eat.

They had captured the wielders of the Armored Titan and Colossal Titan.

Armin had suggested Bertholdt to be the unlucky candidate. Given Erwin's dire situation, the other officers of the Survey Corps gave their seal of approval and decided to go ahead with it first. The priority was to rescue the commander first. Armin was not someone who made decisions without thinking. His contribution and foresight in this battle only added weight to that.

If Erwin died due to them squabbling and wasting time over who he should eat, that would make them the greatest criminals of humanity. Everyone knew how important Erwin was.

Now that it was almost over, they were waiting for the explanation.

"Bertholdt's titan power is relatively straightforward for a new shifter to harness. Its true potential comes from the devastation it can cause during its transformation. In contrast, if you were to compare it to the Armored Titan, you'd need to be skilled in abilities like close combat to fully unleash their capabilities" Armin said. "It's possible that a titan shifter could learn to manipulate the Colossal Titan's explosion radius, but the key point is that the level of expertise and skill needed to utilize its power is quite minimal. A rookie or a seasoned warrior, as long as you possess the Colossal Titan's abilities, you can transform into it and unleash the same level of devastation."

Eren nodded. He could see the face of realization and approval written all over the faces of the other officers.

In front of them, the commander's titan fell, steam emanating from it's lifeless corpse.

"It's Erwin! He's back!"

There were shouts and a puff of gas - Levi had already taken off, the first to reach him. Eren engaged his gear as well, firing his anchor hooks into a wall nearby as he joined the other officers, heading towards Erwin.

The commander was pulled out of the steaming titan body by Levi. The process was a success. Erwin's missing right arm was already grown back. 

He let out a small sigh of relief. 

The commander was too important to them, they could not afford to lose him.

Eren then turned his eyes towards the direction of his house.

It was finally time to find out the secrets hidden in the basement.

===

A/N: Double Release Today. I've been doing a daily release for quite a while now. Might have to slow down significantly or stop for a while due to work. 

Enough stones might bully me into posting more.

Until then. Ciao and thanks for reading.