Shing!!
A flash of steel. Roger didn't so much as move—he didn't even turn his head, as if he didn't care at all—letting the man behind him swing a blade down at him.
The man had clearly steeled himself, ready to die; even if that final stroke couldn't harm Roger, he would bring it down regardless.
But the moment he swung, someone flashed in from nowhere, drew the blades from his ODM gear, and, with impossible speed, swept a horizontal block across the attack.
Clang!
Steel rang on steel. The attacker's blade was knocked flying, and the guard followed with a kick that sent him sprawling.
Everyone stared at the scene—at Roger slowly turning, smiling as he looked at the attacker who'd been kicked to the ground.
"Long time no see, Mike."
As he spoke, he glanced at the man standing in front of him—Levi Ackerman.
Levi held a broken blade; the edge had dulled from striking too much hard material. Even so, he'd stopped Mike's strike—stopped the attempt on Roger's life.
And the reason Roger hadn't cared about Mike's approach was because he'd seen Levi move.
He trusted Levi; he understood the situation completely, so he hadn't spooked the prey.
But Mike, knocked down, had tears streaming as he pressed to the dirt, rage twisting his face.
"Shut up, monster," he ground out. "If I'd known back then that you were that Titan in the trees, I would've killed you no matter what!"
"And then watched you and your comrades die?" Roger asked lightly, not arguing.
"What do you mean?" Mike lifted his tear-streaked face, confused.
Roger let out a wry breath, glanced up at the sky, paused a few seconds, then said:
"People always forget kindness and cling to hatred."
"…"
"If you'd been able to kill those Titans yourselves back then, I wouldn't have used that method to infiltrate inside the Walls."
Suddenly, Mike remembered—Roger's Titan hadn't killed a single one of them. On the contrary, single-handed and "by a twist of fate," it had killed the Titans that had them surrounded.
"I… I'm sorry…" Mike dropped to his knees, unable to stop the tears. "But Holst and Oluo—and the others—are dead! They died in your battles. Some didn't even leave a body!"
Roger fell silent at that.
"It was an inevitable sacrifice."
His voice was cold.
Death in battle can't be avoided. If you refuse to fight for fear of death, you'll never get what you want.
"How brain-dead can you be?" Levi snapped, glaring at Mike. "What kind of crap thinking made you decide to assassinate Roger? Can't you read the situation?"
He crouched and pointed his broken blade around them.
"Left side: a hundred-meter-class Titan. Killed by Roger's own hands."
Everyone followed the tip of his blade. The last scraps of the hundred-meter-class Titan still steamed, and even from the shrunken skeleton you could see how apocalyptic its scale had been.
Then the broken blade pointed right.
"The War Hammer Titan. Also killed by Roger."
Crystal spikes from its hardening hadn't fully faded. One spike rose dozens of meters, a ruined shell of the Jaw Titan's body hanging from it.
A chorus of shocked clicks and murmurs. Awe spread.
Especially Erwin. In his eyes that spike meant many things. He felt the road ahead stretching farther, more unknowns waiting to be explored.
Last, Levi pointed at the fallen Colossal behind him—the vast corpse.
"If I remember right, a few years ago this big guy had you all on the brink of despair, didn't he?" Levi drawled. "Don't tell me you've already forgotten."
The Colossal's body kept venting steam, billowing upward. Mike stared at it, then at the tatters clinging to Roger's frame, and finally realized just how stupid he'd been.
"I lost my head!" Mike hissed. "I just—seeing our comrades die, for a moment I—"
"Go rest, Mike," Erwin finally said.
When Mike had rushed Roger, Erwin hadn't signaled anyone to stop him.
Truth be told, Erwin was wary of Roger.
A man with power so mysterious and overwhelming—whatever he did shook the earth. If he lived, who knew what kind of threat he might one day pose to humanity?
So: if he could be killed, best to kill him.
And if not, Mike could be arrested afterward.
But Erwin hadn't considered that without Roger, they had no real way to defend against the enemy incursion.
Fortunately, there was still room to steer things back.
"I've already sent men to find Commander-in-Chief Zackly," Erwin said, "to brief him and decide whether to take control from the royal government."
"The sooner the better, or the nobles will bolt," someone said.
"They won't. Our dragnet is comprehensive and thorough," said Nile Dok.
Everyone stared at him, awkward.
He suddenly remembered: for years the three branches had mobilized tens of thousands to find Roger…and never even touched a hair on his head.
He, too, went awkward.
"I'll push it myself," he said, fired his ODM gear, and left.
Erwin looked around. "We'll handle the cleanup. By tomorrow at the latest, I'll come to you. I hope you still remember the truth you wanted to tell."
"Be my guest."
Roger shrugged, stretched; his whole body ached.
"Boss!"
Tours hurried up and took Roger by the shoulder.
The Scorpio Unit gathered. Their numbers were a sliver of what they'd been, but those left were the best of the best.
"We're heading back."
Roger waved a hand and led his people away, vanishing into the thick steam.
After he left, Erwin kept watching his back until it disappeared.
"This world really does belong to the young," Dot Pixis said, pulling a flask from his coat and taking a drink. "Too many new changes. Hard on an old man."
"Commander Pixis," Erwin said suddenly, turning to the old commander.
"What is it, Erwin? Another thought?" Pixis asked, curious.
Staring after Roger's retreating silhouette, Erwin said, thinking aloud:
"Once we're back, expand the Corps immediately."
"Ah, that? I'd do it even if you didn't ask."
"Exhaust every resource. We need at least five times our current strength."
"Five times?!"
"Yes. We still have time. Otherwise…"
Erwin sighed.
"Otherwise?"
"Otherwise we'll have to poach people from the Scorpio Unit."
At that moment.
Marley.
Titan Soldier Internment Camp.
A soldier pushed the fully paralyzed Theo Magath's wheelchair through the camp.
Magath glanced at the endless rows of Eldians in cheap, black-and-white prison garb and nodded, satisfied.
The chair rolled on until they reached an open ground, where Zeke's Beast Titan sat cross-legged, eyes closed, as if meditating.
"Zeke."
Hearing his name, the Beast Titan opened his eyes. A deep voice, tinged with warmth: "Ah, Mr. Magath. What is it?"
"Nothing much." Magath craned his neck to look up at him. "The higher-ups want a count of our Titan soldiers—specifically, elite ten-meter-class."
At that, the Beast Titan smiled, scratched his jaw, and held up one finger.
"What does that mean? Only a hundred?"
"No."
"A thousand?"
"Seventeen thousand four hundred twenty ten-meter-class; over eight thousand five-meter-class; and a number of Abnormals—too many to count," the Beast Titan said. "If we deploy them all and split into three expeditionary armies to conquer the world, there'll be no problem."
"Good. Then we wait for them to return," Magath said, stunned yet pleased. "Otherwise we'll have to…"
"Wage total war."
The Beast Titan finished the sentence, rose to his feet, and each step sent a tremor through the earth.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810.