From the strange Titan's perspective, the Abnormal in front of it was the very source of its fury. It wanted nothing more than to tear that Abnormal apart.
But just as it charged…
The Abnormal's nape was sliced clean off by something else entirely.
"What is that?!" Armin and the others froze in shock.
A humanoid creature—human-sized—had appeared out of nowhere, and before the mysterious Titan could even reach its target, this being had already killed the Abnormal that devoured Thomas.
The creature did nothing but kill Titans—mercilessly, efficiently, instinctively.
"Its hands… its face… but…" Mikasa and the others stared wide-eyed at the terrifiying figure.
It had short brown hair. The upper half of its face was covered with a layer of skin, beneath which three thin blood-red slits opened like monstrous eyelids. The lower jaw had no skin—meaty and tooth-lined like a Titan's. But the creature's body unmistakably belonged to a human.
And the uniform… the boots…
It was wearing the Trainee Corps uniform.
Even more shocking—its arms were normal only near the shoulders. The further down they went, the more they turned into crystalline appendages… ending in two-meter-long blade-like crystals that gleamed with hard, deadly brilliance.
The creature blurred into motion—leaping high, spinning midair. In that instant, the blood-slits over its eyes widened, and it saw everything: the trajectories, the future actions, the incoming attacks of every Titan around.
"Seriously… what kind of monster is that…" Jean whispered as the creature soared thirty meters above the ground.
"That uniform… is that… a trainee?" Reiner muttered, horrified.
Then the creature descended like a flash.
The first thing it did was slice through the mysterious Titan's ankle joint, collapsing it instantly. While the Titan toppled, the creature ran across its falling body like a stepping stone and launched itself straight at the cluster of Titans that had been attacking it earlier.
The soldiers watched, breathless.
A human-sized monster—yet with Titan-like strength. With inhuman jump height and speed. With the disciplined precision of a trained soldier. In just two seconds, it had killed every one of the Titans that had overwhelmed the mysterious Titan.
Blood rained.
Bodies fell.
And the creature stood amidst the carnage, coated in steaming Titan blood.
Mikasa stared at the silhouette… at the stance… at the movement that felt so painfully familiar to her.
"That thing… look!" Jean shouted.
The creature, having slaughtered all nearby Titans, slowly turned—its boots echoing on the stone—walking toward the collapsed form of the mysterious Titan.
But the mysterious Titan no longer moved.
Steam poured from its body, its flesh evaporating. It could not regenerate.
And then, before everyone's eyes—
A split opened in the nape.
Inside… was someone they all knew.
"Eren…?" Armin breathed.
Mikasa's eyes instantly filled with tears. Against all hope… the one inside the Titan… was her family. Eren Yeager was alive.
"Mikasa! Wait—something's wrong with that thing!" Armin shouted.
Because the creature was still walking toward Eren.
Slow. Steady.
Still in its killing mindset.
"No…" Mikasa sprang forward.
She screamed, swinging her blade with all the strength of the top graduate of the 104th.
But the creature merely lifted one crystalline arm—lightly—almost defensively.
The impact shattered Mikasa's blade instantly and sent her flying backward through the air.
"Mikasa!" Jean, Reiner, Annie, Bertholdt, and Armin all launched downward to intercept, spreading out to block the creature's path.
"What the hell are you?!" Jean roared, charging with his blades.
For Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt, the shock ran deeper. A human wearing their uniform… with Titan abilities… with a monstrous body that was neither Titan nor human. Their faces held fear, disbelief, and something else… a strange recognition.
"!!" Jean swung down.
And right then—
The creature's skinless jaw began regenerating.
Heat blasted out. Steam roared around it.
"Jean, look out!" Armin yanked Jean away just in time, as blistering heat burst from the creature's body.
Mikasa regained her footing, switching to a fresh set of blades. Her brows tightened. Her breathing steadied.
"You're not taking another step toward Eren."
Steam thickened. The creature's silhouette trembled. Something began changing within.
Its upper facial skin—peeled away.
Human eyes—dark and focused—appeared beneath.
The lower jaw regrew smooth human skin.
The crystal blades evaporated, replaced by flesh… bones… hands.
The steam thinned—
And a human girl collapsed forward, unconscious.
It was me.
Sandra Gant had kept her promise. I had lived.
"Sandra…?" Mikasa whispered, stunned.
The moment she recognized me, she dropped her blades entirely and sprinted toward me. She slid to her knees, lifted me into her arms, and held me tightly—hugging as if she would never let go again.
"Sandra… Sandra…" Her voice broke. "You… you're alive…"
All the strength, all the coldness she had forced herself to carry—it shattered. Tears poured down her face as she clung to me.
Armin approached Eren, who lay unconscious beside the steaming corpse of the Titan he had emerged from. He gently lifted him, hand trembling.
He didn't understand.
He saw Eren get eaten by a Titan.
He saw Eren's limbs get torn off.
And yet here he was—alive. Breathing. His heartbeat strong. And the limbs he had lost… had fully regenerated.
Everything had changed.
Everything.
--------------
Access Advance Chapters on my Patreon : patreon .com / MPHFics