There was no warning, no omen. The freshly repaired Wall blew to powder.
Everyone was baffled—including Roger Eikam.
No one knew what had happened. Voices rose and mingled as people searched for a solid answer.
Roger knew this much: he and Tours had left the crystallized Titan less than ten minutes ago. If someone had buried a bomb under it, they would have had to sprint in the instant he left, dig a hole, and plant it.
Impossible.
Or rather—beyond human capability.
Never mind that no human could dig through War Hammer crystallization; the explosive yield to blow a Titan statue like that would need a wagon to haul. How would you hide that on your person? How would you smuggle it under the crystal that fast?
Unless…
"There was a bomb there from the start."
Roger reasoned it out. To blast hardened crystal, the charge had to be pre-planted. Otherwise, it couldn't be done.
But then—
How could War Hammer crystal be ripped apart by an "ordinary" bomb?
Roger couldn't make sense of it.
Whatever the case, they had to go look.
"Let's head over, Tours."
"Ah—yeah."
Tours was still a little dazed. He hadn't expected this. As Roger moved to ride over, Tours' gut twisted.
"Boss, maybe we shouldn't go—at least let the Survey Corps check it first."
Tours stumbled over the words.
"What's wrong? You scared?" Roger frowned. He had never seen Tours like this.
"No!" Tours snapped back. "It's just a feeling. There's something dangerous over there."
Roger lifted his head and looked. Aside from the crystal debris, he saw no one.
…
…
No.
Wrong.
Something pricked his vision. He narrowed his eyes.
The scene ahead… blurred, as if bent out of true. Weird distortions crawled across reality, and with them, tiny black points winked into being.
Very strange points.
Roger fixed on the closest one.
Before he could focus, in a fraction of a second, the point vanished.
And as it popped out of existence, the blur cleared. The world settled.
Roger urged his horse forward at a trot. Still nothing obvious.
"Boss!" Tours caught up. "Anything?"
"Nothing," Roger shook his head. "But someone's pulling strings. Your instinct was right—something more dangerous is closing in. We just don't know what."
The Survey Corps had already moved in. Erwin led the way—no one wanted answers more than he did.
They spread out and investigated, meeting no threats.
With that, Roger didn't linger. He hurried to the breach.
Inside the gap, he swung down, picked up a shard of crystal, and studied it.
"From the fragments, it was definitely blown—but there's no scent of powder." He sniffed again, traced a fracture. "And the lines… look like an internal blast. Did I… make a mistake?"
"What is it?"
Erwin came over as Roger arrived.
Roger wasn't sure how to explain. To keep Erwin from spinning off into other suspicions, he exhaled and said, "Maybe operator error." He smiled thinly. "I'm still new to this power."
"If you try again, will it hold?" Erwin didn't press—just asked.
"No problem," Roger said politely. "Sorry to trouble you. Let's reset and do it right."
Tours led the pullback.
With the first run as reference, Roger was sure the crystallization wouldn't splash shrapnel, so he posted several watchers—including Levi—at a hundred meters from the breach.
From the top—
Roger transformed again. With experience now, he yanked the War Hammer's power to max and sealed the gap quickly.
Another statue, nearly identical to the last.
He dropped from the nape again.
This time, he ordered Tours to hold the hundred-meter line. No one closer.
Tours complied.
Roger landed, took a seat off to the side, and stared at the statue.
One minute.
Two minutes.
Quiet.
Ten minutes.
Twenty minutes.
Still quiet.
At last—
A little after twenty minutes, the world blurred again.
The black dots reappeared—bigger this time.
Roger turned in a slow circle. He was ringed by those black dots—or "black holes."
They drifted, unstable. Some thinned out and vanished for good.
And then—
A thought flashed. Roger vaulted onto the crystal statue—fast—and went over the top.
Sure enough.
The instant he cleared the crest, he saw it: one "black hole" had split from the swarm and hung alone behind the statue—
And from that hole, a hand reached out.
A white suit sleeve with two buttons at the cuff. The hand inside made a sign: a fist… with the thumb raised.
In a snap, the thumb pressed down.
Boom—
Like a chain reaction, the statue detonated from within.
"!!!"
The blast swallowed him whole.
He got mad.
"You've been mocking me from the shadows? Then you're paying for it!!"
Roger roared, leapt from the statue's shoulder, and ducked the nearest blast. The drop broke both legs, but it put him right in front of that hand.
He whipped an arm back and clamped the white sleeve—caught the wrist in his grip.
"Get out here!!!"
He shouted—and with the explosions thundering around him, he yanked hard.
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