The rain had stopped, and the thunder and lightning in the sky had dispersed, restoring the sky to its inherent clear blue.
Only cold gusts of wind blew through, causing the vegetation to sway, scattering the wisps of smoke and heat emanating from the ravaged carcass of the Colossal Titan.
It had been defeated. Although the process was somewhat lengthy and difficult, overall, there were not too many surprises or complexities. The Colossal Titan's power, inherent in its colossal physique, was literally encoded in its name, with a height reaching sixty meters, surpassing even the Walls surrounding humanity's remaining sanctuary on Paradis Island. The process of transformation, or conversion from a purely spiritual state to an incomplete material form, had inadvertently granted the Colossal Titan a lethality factor that was nearly insurmountable in close combat: heat.
It was not a special ability, but rather the heat rising from the muscle fibers that had not fully converted, demonstrating their life. The host body could not fully bear the excessively large and complex "components" of the Colossal Titan, which is why its state resembled a specimen in a medical teaching room. At the same time, the force from the Paths system had likely determined this state to be injured, thus continuously supplying energy to complete the Colossal Titan, leading to a perpetual cycle of heat generation.
With such destructive power and capability, the Colossal Titan was absolutely a formidable foe to the civilization confined within the Walls, despite its numerous weaknesses such as slow, sluggish movement, and so on.
But for Asahi, that was more than enough.
"Perhaps... this is also why this individual decided to stay behind as rearguard."
Asahi thought to himself.
"The slow Colossal Titan stayed to cover the retreat, buying time for the naturally agile Female Titan to escape. I was then forced to confront the Colossal Titan, because there was no certainty that if I ignored the Colossal Titan and continued pursuing the Female Titan, the former wouldn't go berserk and wreak havoc nearby..."
"That possibility is very high; after all, even a cornered worm will turn."
The destructive power of the Colossal Titan was too immense; merely standing still was a catastrophe. Until the direst moment, he couldn't take that risk.
Asahi pulled Bertolt, who was unconscious from exhaustion and excessive mental drain, out of the Titan's nape. Looking closely, he was clearly just a young boy; for Asahi, who was well past his thirties, there wasn't much difference between a teenager and a child.
The same went for Reiner, who was captured.
Despite this, even if they were just children, they had all caused a terrible tragedy.
In his eyes, a sense of fury appeared, filled with murderous intent and coldness. It wasn't merely a descriptive word; it genuinely affected the minds of the surrounding soldiers, causing them to involuntarily take a step back.
Asahi quickly controlled his emotions and handed Bertolt over to the soldiers for detention. At the same time, the Scout Regiment soldiers returned and quickly exchanged information with him.
"Report, Commander-in-Chief, the landing site of the remaining Titan has been located. It's about 5 kilometers to the northeast of here."
"No Titan carcass was found, only footprints. It appears to have fled."
The Colossal Titan's throw was easily a hundred meters high, perhaps several hundred meters. Combined with enough power to throw that far, even if the Female Titan curled up, her bones should have been shattered. So why was Annie able to survive and continue fleeing?
Asahi guessed it was due to the "hardening" ability he had seen, even "touched."
His guess was correct; Annie had hardened. She was very clever, hardening not a specific part of the Titan, but hardening herself. As long as the source—herself—was not dead, the Titan could continue to recover.
"Alright, stand down. Clean up this area and detain the Titan manipulator."
"Understood."
Asahi departed alone. Even though the soldiers saw he was no longer there, they dared not be negligent or lazy, dedicating themselves to the assigned tasks.
It wasn't that they didn't want to be lazy; they simply didn't dare. Yet, Asahi hadn't brainwashed anyone, and the oppressive aura was merely a moment of anger unintentionally released.
All of this was because he had slain the Colossal Titan.
He was currently speeding back while tallying the current damage.
His bulletproof armor was reported as damaged; more accurately, it was nearly melted. He was helpless about this, as defeating the Colossal Titan required approaching it, which was no different from jumping into an incinerator. Bulletproof armor is not specialized in high heat resistance; for it to have held up this long was beyond imagination.
"Three Titans. Two have been captured by me, and one has fled. This incident is preliminarily concluded. Now, the first thing to do is extract the Attack Titan from Grisha."
After that, the worst-case scenario is nothing less than war. He hoped to delay it for a longer time, preferably a few years. The longer the delay, the more he could gain.
Perhaps even ending this war before it truly begins.
However, he couldn't deny that maintaining a passive stance for such a long time was not his usual style. But Asahi currently didn't have many cards to play, nor many choices.
...
Stohess District, the center of Wall Sina.
"You may withdraw now."
Erwin motioned for the scout soldier in front of him to retreat, his eyes still focused on the report before him. It was nothing less than a report on the sudden appearance of those possessing Titan power and their confrontation with Asahi. He was not surprised by their appearance; in fact, Erwin had planned to suggest to Asahi that they formulate a plan to eliminate this extremely dangerous underlying threat. Unexpectedly, they dared to strike first.
"I guess Asahi deliberately lured them out..."
He thought to himself, his eyes devouring every word on the report.
"One has been captured? That's good."
"We must accelerate the process."
Erwin folded the report and quickly returned to his previous work.
Here, he was not idle. Besides recruiting soldiers, the Survey Corps, in cooperation with the government, was tirelessly unearthing what remained hidden by the former noble government, including important discoveries and inventions. Although the old regime had continuously stifled innovation and development, they hadn't completely destroyed everything; about 20% still remained. However, this 20% still contained a massive amount of knowledge, which was currently still being categorized.
Darius Zackly was currently reviewing a report similar to the one Erwin received. In the quiet study, he watched intently, quickly noticing a detail.
"Splintering... Titans... from the Founding Titan."
A look of faint surprise flashed across his stoic face. This was information he had been completely unaware of; the nobles he had tortured mercilessly had never mentioned this. His eyebrows slightly furrowed, one hand stroking his bearded chin, Darius wondered.
"Were they hiding it from me? No, those pigs wouldn't have needed to hide it."
"Or... did they not know? One of the hidden abilities of the Founding Titan, besides memory alteration."
"This type of clearly combat-oriented ability... has the Anti-War Vow lost its effect?"