After injecting the spinal fluid, Ellie’s vision was plunged into pitch darkness, her consciousness seemed to be instantly ripped from her body, plunging into a boundless, bizarre space.
After who knows how long, a soft tactile sensation finally rose from beneath her feet.
“Eh?
Where is this?”
Ellie opened her eyes in a daze, before her was an endless expanse of silvery-white sand.
The sand beneath her feet was unimaginably fine, yet stepping on it left no footprints behind, she raised her head, only to see, at the edge of the sandy horizon, a towering giant tree condensed from brilliant light.
This giant tree didn’t seem to be physical; countless branches of light, like glowing neural pathways, extended infinitely into the depths of the void.
Just a single glance gave one the illusion that their soul was being sucked in.
“Whoa…”
“This must be the ‘Paths’ connecting all of Ymir’s subjects, right?”
Ellie looked around curiously.
“Where is the Founding Ymir?
Why didn’t that little loli who likes building sandcastles come out to greet me?”
What a pity.
Even with all her might straining her eyes to look into the distance, her surroundings remained dead quiet—where was there any sign of Ymir?
( ｡ • ́ ︿ • ̀｡ )
However, Ellie could vaguely sense that she was being watched by a pair of eyes, yet she couldn’t see anyone.
From the distant towering giant tree converged from countless rays of light, a wondrous thrumming was emanating.
“Thump—”
“Thump—”
With every tremor, countless vague presences emanated from the branches of the Tree of Light, one of the slender branches of light slowly lit up at the exact moment she appeared.
“Emmm…
Does that mean I can communicate with this tree?”
She tried taking a few steps forward, approaching the glowing towering tree but, before her foot could fully come down—
“Boom—”
The sandy ground beneath her feet suddenly collapsed like a quicksand trap!
“Waah!
I just got here!
You can’t just rush me out like this!”
Ellie let out a miserable scream, and her consciousness completely plunged into the bottomless darkness.
…
Who knows how much time had passed.
“Hiss…
My head hurts so much…”
Ellie groggily opened her eyes and the first thing that came into view was a dusky yellow sky.
Rubbing her little head, she slowly sat up on the hard wall bricks.
The surroundings were dead silent; the Colossal Titan’s massive skeleton had long since evaporated completely.
Beneath the original skeleton, the traces of Bertholdt’s existence had completely dissipated into the wind along with the steam and the chaos within the city.
Ellie blinked blankly, then, she abruptly lowered her head to look at her own hands.
“I’ve woken up?!
Wahaha, I succeeded!!!”
ヾ( ≧ ▽ ≦ * )o
Excitedly, she checked her body up and down, the skin previously scalded by the ultra-high temperature steam had been covered in large areas of redness and blisters but at this moment, wisps of white smoke were continuously rising from the wounds!
The damaged skin rapidly peeled off, and newborn flesh grew back at a speed visible to the naked eye!
“This recovery speed…”
Ellie pinched her already healed arm in astonishment.
So fast!
Even more miraculous was that when she closed her eyes, she could still clearly sense a massive power deep within her body!
That power was like a dormant volcano!
Whenever she wished, she could awaken it at any time, transforming into a sixty-meter Titan towering above the city walls!
“Hehe…”
Ellie couldn’t help but proudly straighten her back.
“So this is the Power of the Titans, starting today, I’m someone with hacks too!”
At that moment, a breeze from high above happened to blow past.
“Achoo!”
Ellie shuddered, suddenly feeling a chilly draft over her body.
This feeling was just like walking outside in the dead of winter wearing only a single unlined garment.
No…
more than that…
This bone-chilling coolness…
was beyond that.
It was like winter swimming in a frozen river wearing only a pair of big shorts.
Especially on her chest and…
legs, as if some skin that had always been hidden was suddenly exposed to the air…
Was it her illusion?
There was also a faint sense of shame…
It was as if she weren’t wearing any clothes…
Ellie lowered her head to look.
“Waah—hhh—!!!”
The little loli’s miserable scream instantly resounded across the entire top of the wall!
“Where are my clothes?!
Where did such a big piece of clothing of mine go?!”
Ellie tightly wrapped her arms around her chest, abruptly squatting down on the ground and curling into a ball!
Her little face instantly turned completely red!
“What the heck!
Why did my clothes disappear after turning into a Titan?!”
“In the anime, after Eren reverses his transformation, his clothes are clearly still on his body!”
“Why…
why am I stark naked?!
Could they have been burned away by the steam?
This isn’t scientific!
This isn’t two-dimensional at all!”
“No, I remember now!
After Ymir turned back into a human, she didn’t wear clothes either!”
If some sharp-eyed Garrison Regiment member scanned her with binoculars from below, she could just jump straight down from here!
“Boom—!!!”
Suddenly, an earth-shattering roar came from afar, the ground shook violently, and even the indestructible city wall trembled along with it.
Ellie couldn’t care less about shame; she hurriedly clung to the edge of the wall, poking out only half her head to look into the city.
She saw billowing dust and smoke in the direction of the inner gate; and a huge figure covered all over in golden armor who had smashed through the heavy gates of the inner city!
“That guy Reiner…
moves pretty briskly.”
Ellie gritted her teeth, her expression grave.
Once the inner gate was breached, the Garrison Regiment must have fully retreated and as for the horses and supplies Ellie had hidden in the corner of the wall beforehand…
They were either taken away by the fleeing crowd or trampled into dust by rampaging Titans!
“Forget it, I can figure something out even if the supplies are gone.”
“The most important thing right now is to find something to wear first!”
Ellie hugged her arms tightly, hunching over, rummaging haphazardly through the pile of supplies left atop the wall like a little beggar rummaging through a dumpster for food and after rummaging for quite a while, she finally pulled a tattered old cloak out of a split wooden box.
Although it carried an unpleasant musty smell, she couldn’t care about that anymore.
She wrapped the cloak around herself, and tucked her fair body snugly inside the giant hood.
“Alright, at least this hides the important parts!”
After solving her clothing problem, she reached the ground via the elevator and retreated toward Wall Maria along the route she had scouted out beforehand but, only halfway through her run, Ellie’s expression darkened.
The originally planned route was blocked by a collapsed clock tower!
To make matters worse, there were even a few hideous Pure Titans wandering aimlessly around the ruins nearby!
“Tsk, how unlucky.”
Ellie rolled her eyes and had no choice but to change her route.
“An Abnormal Titan on the left, a big-eyed Titan on the right…
Hey hey hey, don’t look over here!”
“Go away!!!
Don’t walk towards me!!!”
Half an hour later, Ellie finally shook off those Titans without any mishaps and squeezed into an ordinary residence that had largely collapsed.
“There shouldn’t be anyone here…”
She poked her head around to check, and after confirming that there was no one in the house, she ran to the bedroom to rummage around.
The wardrobe had fallen to the ground during the tremors, and the clothes inside were scattered everywhere.
Ellie rummaged for a long time before finally finding a coarse linen long dress of a barely suitable size and although the hem was a bit long and the color was dusty, it was much better than the tattered cloak.
“Phew…
Now I finally look like a normal person.”
At least she didn’t have to worry about the tattered cloak on her body suddenly being swept away by the wind while running!
She patted the dust off the hem of her skirt and let out a long sigh of relief.
Pushing open the back door of the residence, she could see that the distant streets were packed with a dense crowd—that was the tide of refugees frantically retreating northward toward the northern fortified district.
Ellie reached out her two small hands to mess up her hair, grabbed a handful of dust from the ground, and unceremoniously smeared it on her fair face.
When she raised her head again, she had transformed into a shivering, pitiful little girl.
“Next, let’s escape inside the wall along with the crowd!”
================================================================
It’s Ellie…..
Ellie Reiss.
Wonder how she gets through?
Have a good one 🙂
================================================================