In the underground shipyard, the gigantic miners' lamps hanging from the dome emitted their usual bright white light.
Inside the vast underground cavity, Gale stood before a heavy iron door, his face filled with coldness, as if he were about to cross that door into hell.
Hange took a deep breath and, as though entrusting the future of her life to another person, raised her hands and handed the mahogany box to Gale.
"Thank you for trusting me, Captain Hange." Gale held the wooden box and embraced Hange. "It sounds strange, but sometimes I feel like you're my mother. Thank you very much for taking care of me and trusting me these past five years. I'm truly sorry for all the disasters I've dragged you into."
Hange's eyes filled with tears. Images passed before her eyes: the times they had worked together in the factory, their faces and hands covered in machine oil, the times they had cheered and high-fived each other over technological breakthroughs.
As a member of the technical team, she often worked day and night with Gale in the harsh environment of the factory. Gale was both her mentor and her friend; she often forgot that he was only sixteen years old.
"I'll take care of the rest," Gale said with a genuine smile. "You must be tired after such a long flight. Go get some rest."
"Ah! Damn it!" Hange shouted, tears streaming down her face.
Gale said nothing and confidently walked into the place where he would inherit the power of a Titan.
The guards on both sides ordered the Titans to open the iron door.
Gale walked directly toward the white and sacred light, and with a loud bang, the iron door slammed shut.
Hange punched the wall, holding back her tears.
Gale was inside Shipyard Number One, an underground cavity with a seventy-meter-high dome.
The equipment and components of Shipyard Number One had been completely removed several days ago, and now, aside from the chained girl, only Gale remained.
Lara Tybur had been injected with a large amount of anesthetic and had not yet awakened from her deep sleep.
Gale opened the wooden box and took out the syringe shining with silver light.
He was a genuine Eldian; injecting this medicine into himself would transform him into a Pure Titan, allowing him to devour the inheritor of the War Hammer Titan.
What a bloody and cruel ritual; the power of the Intelligent Titans was passed down from generation to generation in this way.
"I didn't even have time to ask your name, but I'm sorry, I don't have time to fulfill any of your wishes." Gale looked at the girl and froze.
If he failed, he would die in a few years.
The promise of living to remain by Historia's side would go unfulfilled, and if he made a mistake for any reason, he would not only be at Eren's mercy, but he would also lose everything.
But he was not afraid; it was merely a human instinct reacting to the fear of death.
"I must not fear."
"Fear is the mind-killer."
"Fear is the little death that brings total annihilation."
"I will face my fear."
"I will permit it to pass over me and through me."
"For the freedom of those I care about."
Without hesitation, he plunged the syringe into a vein in his wrist and pushed it all the way in.
Boom!
It was a strange sensation; his entire body burned, golden lightning flashed around him, and he consciously saw flesh and bone extending throughout his body.
Then he entered a hazy, dreamlike state.
His consciousness sank into darkness, as if he were in a desert beneath a starry sky, silent and motionless.
He saw a girl carrying a bucket of sand, dressed in ancient slave clothing, walking across the sand.
The progenitor Ymir stopped before an unfamiliar Gale.
At that moment, Gale's consciousness flowed toward her like a river.
She... longed for something from him.
Gale felt that this something was a unique thing that had become linked to her.
Then the surrounding scenery changed; it was a simple village, a village of only a few hundred people.
The men and women of the village walked barefoot across the ground, carrying clay pots on their heads.
Bandits on horseback burned down their village, and the girl became a slave.
She was taken elsewhere to survive, where there was a ruler called King Fritz, who owned everything in the village; the livestock and the slaves belonged to him, and no one dared challenge him.
As a slave, the girl worked for King Fritz.
"One of you has let a pig escape," King Fritz murmured from his wooden throne. "Step forward, or I will take one eye from each of you as punishment."
"Slaves don't need two eyes," replied the girl after being accused by everyone.
"Was it you who let the pig escape?" King Fritz asked condescendingly before saying, "Good. Give me your tongue."
"Now tell me, was it you who let the pig escape?"
The girl, her tongue torn out, could not answer.
"Since you do not answer, I assume it was you."
"Very well, you are free," King Fritz said coldly.
Like a pig, King Fritz drove her into the forest.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Wooden arrows pierced her back, thigh, and shoulder.
"Pain, fear..." Gale experienced the same negative emotions she felt.
"I must not fear."
"Fear is the mind-killer."
"Fear is the little death that brings total annihilation."
"I will face my fear."
"I will permit it to pass over me and through me."
Ymir whispered the same words Gale had spoken before injecting the Titan serum into his body.
Like Gale, she was terrified—terrified of death.
In that primal fear, she sank into the dark waters beneath the giant tree.
Some kind of "creature" sensed her fear, and amid the deafening roar of heaven and earth, the first Titan of the world was born, the true Founding Titan.
"My slave Ymir, you paved the way, cleared the wasteland, built bridges, and helped my Eldian tribe achieve glory and prosperity; therefore, I reward you with children for me."
King Fritz remained seated upon his cold throne, staring at the girl.
"In the name of Fritz, destroy Marley!"
The girl conceived the children of King Fritz, giving birth to three daughters: Sina, Rose, and Maria, the Founding Titans who helped the Eldians win the war.
Ymir felt happy.
However, King Fritz was targeted for assassination.
A warrior raised a spear and hurled it at King Fritz upon his throne.
The girl, knowing that the future rested in her hands, stepped forward and took the king's place, the spear piercing through her body; her blood dripped from the shaft.
King Fritz remained above, looking coldly at the girl.
"What are you? Get up."
"I know a mere spear cannot kill you, my slave, Ymir."
King Fritz stared at the lifeless girl, his expression finally changing.
From the darkness came the sound of a butcher's knife cutting through flesh.
"Eat! Daughters!"
"No matter what happens, you must inherit Ymir's power!"
"Maria, Rose, Sina! You must continue living and expand the clan!"
"We cannot allow Ymir's bloodline to die out. After the daughters die, let the grandchildren eat the spine; after the grandchildren die, let the next generation eat the spine, generation after generation!"
"Through my descendants, I, Eldia, shall also rule the land with my enormous body!"
"My Titans shall reign supreme forever."
"As long as this world exists, forever..."
Gale wanted to touch the girl, but... he could not.
He could not move within that space. He could not react in any way.
He could only passively accept those images, his consciousness sinking once more into darkness as he heard the sounds of chewing.
He saw the final scene: a moonlit night.
Ymir, the progenitor, a girl enslaved, arrived at the pigpen.
She smiled and opened it.
She had not been falsely accused; that night, she had been the one who released King Fritz's pigs.
Even though she had foreseen the consequences of letting them escape.
"Is that true?"
Gale's consciousness returned, and surrounded by steam, he separated from the masses of flesh and blood. Giant markings appeared across his face as transparent crystals gently fell away.
"Ymir, is that what you longed for from me?"