Chapter 301: Despair Descends
Seeing the lifeless body of Reiner, Connie glanced fearfully at Mikasa, whose face remained emotionless.
"Mikasa, you were really ruthless," Connie muttered.
The others' expressions were similarly uneasy, though no one voiced any objections. After all, they all knew that Reiner was the culprit behind the destruction of Wall Maria and deserved his fate.
"He was the enemy. Enemies should be killed," Mikasa said coldly.
The group exchanged looks, unsure how to respond. Jean, however, cast an irritated glance at Eren.
"Tch, this is all Eren's fault."
He had seen everything earlier and understood that Mikasa had dealt with Reiner on Eren's behalf. If Eren hadn't hesitated, Mikasa wouldn't have had to step in like that.
Eren, on the other hand, seemed stunned by the recent events and simply stared at Reiner's corpse in a daze.
"Eren?" Mikasa's voice carried a hint of concern as she looked at him.
Her words snapped Eren out of his stupor. Taking a deep breath, he turned to Mikasa and said, "I'm sorry, Mikasa. I'm fine now."
Eren quickly composed himself. Deep down, his hatred for Reiner, the Armored Titan, was overwhelming.
At that moment, Armin, who had gotten back to his feet, nervously pointed at the Female Titan and the Colossal Titan, then asked Eren and Mikasa, "Eren, Mikasa, what about those two? Shouldn't we retreat to the wall? With the wall as a barrier, those Titans won't be able to reach us."
Armin glanced into the distance as he spoke. Hundreds of meters away, three or four more Pure Titans were lumbering toward them. Even further back, countless Titans of varying sizes were visible, some of them abnormal types with terrifying speed.
Their situation was perilous. Facing so many Titans here was not a wise choice.
"Annie, Bertholdt…" Eren gazed silently at the remaining two Titans.
The Armored Titan's corpse, which had been lying on the other side of the Colossal Titan, had already started evaporating after its neck had been severed. Now, only half of its body remained on the ground.
Eren wanted to extract Annie and Bertholdt from their Titan forms just as they had with Reiner, but there wasn't enough time to do so.
Before they could decide, Zixin arrived with her team, having just dealt with a Pure Titan. She approached Eren and the others.
"Are you all okay? A large number of Titans are heading this way. Are you planning to retreat to the wall or join us in taking them down?" Zixin asked, her gaze lingering on Mikasa and Eren.
She had heard from intelligence reports that Mikasa was the strongest among the recruits. With her help, hunting Titans would undoubtedly be much easier. Additionally, they knew Eren could transform into a Titan, which made him a formidable asset if he could stay rational.
"What kind of joke is this? There's no reason for us to fight those Titans! The wall hasn't been breached like Wall Maria five years ago. Besides, I'm heading to the Interior tomorrow. I don't want to become Titan fodder," Jean said, his voice rising in agitation.
Though he had followed Eren and the others beyond the wall earlier, it was only because of the circumstances. If given the choice, he would rather avoid fighting Titans altogether.
After graduating yesterday, Jean had decided to join the Military Police Brigade. A peaceful, stable life was within his reach, and he wasn't about to jeopardize that.
Jean's words left the others in silence, but Eren appeared contemplative.
His goal was to drive out all Titans. Fighting them directly was something he desired. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so determined to join the Survey Corps.
Zixin observed the group of teenagers, most of them only around fifteen years old, and fell into a pensive silence.
Her original plan had been to have Eren and the others assist in hunting Titans, but the reality was far from what she had expected.
The Pure Titans' slow advance made them less of an immediate threat, and there was no justification for keeping Eren and the others here to face these Titans that were unlikely to breach the walls.
Armin quickly echoed Zixin's suggestion, "That's right, senior. Let's retreat to the wall together."
"We can't just leave the Female Titan and the Colossal Titan here. What if they escape? I think we should take this chance to eliminate the threat," a male member of the Reincarnation Squad suddenly interjected.
Connie glanced uncertainly at the wall, where Eriri stood, and muttered, "With that person there… they probably won't be able to escape, right?"
The others nodded in agreement. After all, Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie had been exposed and subdued by Eriri. Without her intervention, they might still be in the dark, and Wall Rose could have faced the same fate as Wall Maria five years ago.
As time passed, the approaching Titans drew closer. The abnormal Titans, initially trailing behind, had advanced to the front and were now overtaking the leading Titans.
Seeing the danger closing in, Mikasa grabbed Eren's arm firmly. "There's no time, Eren. Let's go."
Ignoring Eren's resistance, she pulled him toward the wall. Armin, Jean, and the others followed without hesitation.
At the back of the group, Mina hesitated, glancing sadly at the Female Titan—Annie—lying immobile. Ultimately, she turned and followed the group toward the wall.
As Mikasa and the others disappeared into the distance, a burly man in the Reincarnation Squad took the opportunity to confront Zixin.
"Hah! So this was your grand plan? Completely useless. And you still have the nerve to call yourself the squad leader?" he sneered.
Despite his harsh words, there was a hint of glee in his tone. While he hadn't yet had a chance to eliminate Zixin outright, reclaiming the position of squad leader was a prize worth the trouble.
"Stop talking nonsense. If Zixin's plan is so useless, do you have a better one?" Xiaoyu retorted, glaring at the burly man.
"If it were me, I wouldn't have been so polite to those fresh recruits. They just graduated. We could've commanded them as seniors to fight the Titans with us."
"Oh? And why didn't you say this earlier? Does whining after the fact accomplish anything?" Xiaoyu scoffed. "Do you think everyone is as brainless as you?"
Xiaoyu's biting sarcasm left the man fuming, veins bulging on his forehead. His expression turned sinister as he snapped, "Are you looking to die?"
"Enough!" Zixin frowned, cutting off their argument. She cast a warning glance at the burly man. "This ends now."
She took a deep breath and continued, "Let's retreat to the wall. Staying here is too dangerous. We'll reassess the mission later."
Zixin's spirits were low. She had used up a restorative potion but had only managed to act once. It felt like a complete waste.
After everyone had left, the Titans finally reached the area where the Colossal Titan lay.
Curiously, these Titans seemed uninterested in pursuing Eren and the others. Instead, they swarmed toward the Female Titan, the Colossal Titan, and Reiner's corpse.
The incapacitated Annie and Bertholdt were completely unable to move or speak. They could only feel the danger creeping closer and closer.
Their enormous eyes filled with desperation and pleading as they looked toward the wall, where Eriri and her group sat at the edge.
But Eriri showed no intention of intervening. She simply watched the unfolding scene with amusement, as if enjoying a spectacle.
Not long after Eren and his group used their vertical maneuvering equipment to climb the wall, the Reincarnation Squad reached the wall's base.
However, just as they were about to use their gear to scale the wall, an unexpected complication arose.
Zixin and her six original team members successfully made it to the top of the wall. But the burly man and his three cronies found themselves unable to climb.
Whenever the hooks of their maneuvering gear hit the wall, they were deflected, unable to find purchase and anchor them. The four were left stranded at the base of the wall, panic and disbelief flashing across their faces.
"What the hell is going on? Why can't it latch on?" the burly man shouted in frustration.
"Big Brother, my maneuvering gear can't latch onto the wall either…" a short-haired man nearby said, his voice trembling with panic.
"This doesn't make sense! My hooks are perfectly fine!" another man exclaimed in confusion. Moments earlier, his hooks had easily anchored to the ground, but now they were completely ineffective against the wall.
Meanwhile, Eren and the others stationed on the wall, along with the Reincarnation Squad, were too preoccupied with the shocking scene below to notice the predicament of the four stranded men.
The abnormal Titans that had reached the Female Titan and Colossal Titan began tearing into their necks, their intent unmistakable: to consume Annie and Bertholdt, hidden in the nape of their Titans' forms.
One of the fastest abnormal Titans reached Reiner's corpse first, snatching it up and devouring it before abruptly leaving the area, paying no attention to the four stranded men below.
The bizarre behavior of these Titans left everyone on the wall—Eren, his comrades, and even the Reincarnation Squad—utterly stunned.
Even the Reincarnation Squad members were caught off guard. The information they had purchased in the Lord God Space did not cover the intricacies of how the powers of the Nine Titans were passed on.
At that moment, Eriri broke the silence. "Curious, aren't you? Why these mindless Titans are fighting over Annie, Bertholdt, and Reiner's bodies?"
Eriri was seated on the wall just ten meters away from Eren and the others, alongside her companions. Her calm voice snapped everyone out of their shocked daze.
"Do you know why they're doing this?" Eren quickly asked.
"Of course. In this world, apart from these mindless Pure Titans, there are nine special intelligent Titans. The Armored Titan, Female Titan, and Colossal Titan you just encountered are three of them," Eriri explained.
As she spoke, she cast a meaningful glance at Ymir, causing Ymir's body to stiffen and her face to pale. However, Eriri chose not to expose Ymir's identity as the Jaw Titan and continued speaking.
"All Pure Titans were once humans. When a Pure Titan devours a human possessing one of the Nine Titans' powers, it regains its sanity, returns to human form, and inherits the Titan power of the person it consumed."
"What? All Titans were once human?"
Eren and his companions were shocked to the core. While they had speculated about the origins of Titans after discovering Reiner, Annie, and Bertholdt's true identities, the confirmation still left them utterly shaken.
They didn't doubt Eriri's words. With her abilities, there was no reason for her to deceive them.
Eriri smiled faintly but said nothing more.
Below, the Female Titan and Colossal Titan were soon completely devoured by the Titans. Eriri snapped her fingers, and the three Pure Titans that had inherited the Armored Titan, Female Titan, and Colossal Titan powers suddenly disintegrated into ashes, vanishing from the world.
Simultaneously, the powers of the three Titans disappeared along with them. From that moment forward, the Nine Titans had been reduced to six.
Eriri deliberately refrained from exposing Ymir's identity or revealing to Eren that he possessed the Founding Titan and Attack Titan powers.
As for how the story would unfold without the Female Titan, Armored Titan, and Colossal Titan, Eriri was uninterested. The subsequent events and whether Eren would reveal his Titan powers no longer concerned her.
With the powers of the three Titans eradicated, the mindless Pure Titans reverted to their instinctive, man-eating behavior. They soon turned their attention to the burly man and his three companions below the wall.
More than twenty Pure Titans, wearing various eerie expressions, began shambling toward the four men.
Seeing this, the burly man's expression shifted dramatically. His earlier annoyance vanished, replaced by sheer terror.
"Captain! Captain! Hurry up and save us! We can't climb up!" he shouted desperately, looking back at the approaching Titans while screaming for Zixin's help from atop the wall.
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