I looked at the blue eyes of the earless giant in front of me, and for the blink of a moment, many images of laughing and running children and the echoes of childhood dreams started to pour into my mind like someone had turned on a tap.
This... what is this?
At first, I couldn't grasp the memories that had started to flood my mind at this crucial moment. These were the memories of Eren—or more precisely, the memories of this body. Although astonishing to me, remembering that I was in another body after death meant the memories of someone else didn’t cause me to panic much.
In a blink, my eyes regained their clarity just like before. But unknown to me, along with these memories also came the instincts of this body and the deep feelings that its subconscious brain held. I didn't notice that.
On the other hand, Armin, watching the elf-like Titan tying its hair and taking a sharp fighting stance—which seemed normal but was completely different from any classic training he had ever seen—wondered what had happened in these few minutes.
Eren seemed different than before, but Armin couldn't grasp how or where.
How could he? Knowing the history between Mikasa and Armin, they could understand mood swings, sadness, and certain changes in Eren's behavior, but who could have thought the person in front of them—although possessing the outer shell of Eren—was actually a special military officer from Earth?
To him, it didn't matter whether it was Mikasa, Armin, or anyone else related to this body; he would kill anyone who was his enemy and wanted to take his life. Armin calmed his chaotic thoughts and focused his concentration on the Eren in front of him. Eren looked at Armin's hands, which were thicker than the largest trees he had seen in his previous life, as Armin started to lift his arms in front of him to protect his vitals. So, he is trying to shield his neck, guessing that I will take advantage, deliver a strike, and appoint him to King Yama.
Don’t worry, Armin. I am not that kind of person—or maybe I am that kind of person, but this body won’t allow it, so it’s your lucky day, boy.
Armin, who was not proficient in close combat to begin with, became even more vigilant by looking at the calm, elf-like Titan in front of him making no further moves.
This is the perfect time, but why isn't Eren attacking? Could it be because of our friendship?, sharp pain came form his heart, like someone has grasped it and gave a hard squeeze.
If Eren could hear the thoughts and internal monologue Armin was having, he would only say: You have quite the imagination, kid. Trying to kill me and expecting me to spare you because of a friendship that existed a millennium ago? The moment your blade’s tip pointed toward me, we became enemies.
Unbeknownst to Armin's rich thoughts of friendship, Eren took a step forward and bent his right knee at a ninety-degree angle, creating momentum for the following back leg that landed squarely on the open abdomen muscles of the Colossal Titan.
Armin’s Colossal Titan’s massive body took many steps back from the kick that landed on his stomach with monstrous velocity, his feet burying into the ground and sliding back, leaving a trail of deep marks in the earth. Smoke and steam filled the air.
The next kick followed the same angle and tried to hit the exact same spot.
Armin, the mind of his team, didn’t take long to understand that Eren was trying to make him fall.
A fallen Titan of his size, in front of an enemy of the same size with speed like this, would be nothing but a sitting duck.
So, no matter what, he couldn’t fall. If he fell, that would be the end of everything—every sacrifice, every life that they had left behind. So, he adjusted his waist and avoided the impact by moving in the same direction.
Although Eren was fast, his speed was within a normal range, so Armin could clearly see his movements. Understanding his tactics, Armin prepared for the next upcoming attack, and just as he predicted, a punch followed by heavy air pressure behind it was thrown at his chest.
Armin crossed his arms and took the impact on his hand bones. Cracking sounds echoed, showcasing the terrifying force behind that punch. Smoke started to rise from his broken forearms.
Eren looked at the tragic state of the Colossal Titan in front of him. The smoke rising from his head had stopped, but new smoke started to pour from his broken hands.
This body is really something, I thought as I opened and closed my fingers into proper punches. The way this large Titan body moved, he couldn't feel a difference between his real body and this massive form.
But he understood the situation, so he couldn't waste any time on Armin. Now that he and Armin had started a dogfight, his experience in the army and modern training methods were more than enough to use this body in a manner that would end this fight in just minutes.
However, he was thinking about something else. Right now, his main question was: what should be his next course of action? Should he continue the Rumbling, or should he stop it here?
To him, this Rumbling held no personal importance. Although he was from the military, he still held his values and morals. The reason he had quit the military in his past life was because of this very thing: the wars and killings that were instigated just to sell weapons. He had truly understood that when he entered a bombarded house that his martial commander had ordered to be bombed.
Inside the house, the only thing he saw was a mutilated corpse crushed beneath the fallen debris of the concrete roof.
The comrade next to him vomited on the spot, but he looked at the corpse closely and, by the clothes, understood she was a woman. She was holding something in her embrace. What was it? He looked and found out it was an infant. She had shielded the infant in order to protect him, but both had died.
He and two other members resigned from their duty after that. The fourth person in their squad—the one who had vomited—did not resign. He didn't know the reason, but money makes even ghosts work, so that might have been the case with that member.
So for him, the Rumbling was not something that could be taken lightly as a simple "continue or stop" matter.
If he stopped, the world would rise again and eat the Eldians like the vultures they were after the first king took them to Paradise Island—or maybe this time, they wouldn’t just enslave them, but start an outright slaughter.
But he shouldn’t worry about that just yet, because for that to happen, the world would need years, if not centuries. Because of the Rumbling, the world and the Eldians had ended up on the same plane and shared the same starting line, so it was highly unlikely the Eldians wouldn’t develop measures for their own safety—and on top of that, they had Titans.
But he wasn’t entirely sure about the Titans, because when he tried to command the Colossal Titans and other Titans to lose their powers, it hadn't worked.
He could still feel the connection, and maybe he could pass along messages, but he couldn’t directly control the other main Titans now.
Reason and rationality told him the cause for this could be his soul; Ymir didn’t recognize him. So, using Titans to ensure their long-term safety was highly unlikely.
By calculating all the consequences, he came to a conclusion: although stopping the Rumbling might not be a good move for the Eldians in the far future, due to the world's fear of the Rumbling and their ignorance regarding the Founding Titan's true limitations, there was no way the world was going to war anytime soon.
By then, the Eldians would have developed alongside the rest of the world. Furthermore, he himself simply couldn't commit this genocide any further.
Just as he and Armin were engaged in their dogfight and he came to the decision of whether to stop this or not, a shadow flashed across his face. He couldn't see what the object in the sky was at first.
But when the distance lessened, he saw a bird—no, it wasn’t a bird.
continue—