"Grisha, are you ready?"
"You... just do it."
In the spacious research room, only one person lay on the table, while the other stood nearby with an extremely solemn expression.
Because there were only two people, the entire laboratory seemed deserted.
The door leading in, the viewing area, the corridors from the other sections, the windows... all had been closed off by him, completely concealing the scene inside. At the same time, he had issued a command to the staff not to approach this area today.
He knew from the beginning that a segment of the research staff in the facility were spies for others. Erwin... was unlikely. It wasn't that he thought Erwin was extremely righteous, but rather that the two sides were still operating under mutual trust and had no reason to harm each other while sharing the same objective. But Darius Zackly was different; the initial "cooperation" with him was essentially an uneven crush of military force between the two sides, and he was sure that while outwardly peaceful, the internal situation was difficult to predict.
However, this was also why he hadn't exposed the spies mixed into the facility. Not to mention that they were also a resource, this could also be seen as a silent understanding between the two sides, where everyone looked at the other and retreated a step.
Asahi guessed correctly; Darius was not as outwardly calm and agreeable as he appeared. For him, Asahi was no different from another "noble" appearing to oppress him, replacing the old aristocracy. Even if Asahi wasn't power-hungry or directly treated Darius as a subordinate, his mere existence was already a great sword hanging over Darius's head, or at least that's what he thought.
In short, caution was necessary. Especially with the incredibly "world-shaking and bizarre" act Asahi was about to perform now.
He took out a syringe and injected it into Grisha. The man's weak face gradually relaxed and became completely still. Even his respiration, circulatory system, and nervous system slowed to the maximum degree to keep Grisha in a state of deep coma, even beyond that of a vegetative state.
This was necessary because, through experimentation and prediction, extracting the "Attack Titan" from Grisha's spirit carried a very high risk of causing permanent spiritual damage, turning him into an idiot. Therefore, Grisha's spirit needed to be in an extremely stable state—deep rest—to perform the procedure. Otherwise, the greater the spiritual disturbance, the lower the success rate, and even if successful, sequelae would remain.
It was no different from anesthesia in surgery.
And now, he was about to become the doctor.
The process being delayed for nearly half a year was not without reason. He had researched and discovered that over time, the Titans corresponding to their owners would gradually assimilate the spirit of the wielder. Grisha, Reiner, Bertolt, and Frieda were no exceptions. This meant that when the 13-year term ended, the owner would be completely assimilated by the Titan spiritually, no different from an unexpected death. Life itself would be entirely absorbed by the Paths.
That was also why Frieda could sense the previous owners of the Founding Titan.
"Perhaps... this isn't death."
"No, for an ordinary person, it is certainly death: the body stops functioning, cells lose activity, organs cease transportation... but for Death itself, they are still alive."
What is the definition of life, ultimately?
What is defined as "living"?
Asahi still couldn't give a precise answer, but he firmly believed one thing: "living" was not just limited to that.
Grisha transformed into a spiritual life form. He still had his memories, experiences, and personal feelings; he simply no longer had a physical body and resided in a place outside physical reality. Would that not be considered living? Defining life and death by one's own standards is an overly arrogant act.
Each Titan is a collective consciousness of its past owners, and the Paths is the collective consciousness of the entire Eldian people!
In a sense, such individuals have achieved consciousness-based immortality, or one could say, "eternal life."
The point of debate here is not life or death, but whether it is ultimately... good or bad.
He didn't think that the disgusting power that could corrupt a person's will to the extent that they could devour their own kind was a good thing. Even if they were tormented by this immortality to the extreme.
Now, let's focus on the main task.
Grisha was near the end of the road, half a step away from being completely assimilated, making the chance of successful surgery smaller than ever.
From his storage, he took out an object resembling a large helmet, sleek all over, with glowing lines appearing on it. At first glance, it looked very much like an item from the future. No, it was definitely from the future.
This item was a type of equipment that interfered directly with the spirit, materializing it in the form of brain waves. In the distant future of some world, this was the main tool for... playing games.
After fitting it onto Grisha's head, he prepared a table next to him with the necessary tools, along with a multi-purpose first-aid kit. Wearing a face mask and gloves, fully covered, conducting air purification in sterile conditions, everything was finally ready.
His gaze became hazy. Everything around seemed to lose its standard colors, ushering his being into an alien realm. Here, everything was pitch black. No, within this pitch-black realm, myriad colors were faintly visible. Asahi saw something rising and extending from Grisha's position. The materialized spirit looked like a tangled spool of hemp thread woven together.
Although this was not the first time he had entered this state, each time he gained a new "enlightenment."
Everyone has their own personal "reservoir" of spiritual will, but that is not all. The external world is a spiritual reservoir even greater than that. Asahi wondered if his will could grow strong enough to fill the massive reservoir of this world.
When that happens, he would become... a God, controlling the entire world with his will.
These thoughts only flashed by in an instant.
In both worlds, where the physical and the spiritual, which had been separate, now intermingled, Asahi practiced simultaneous concentration, drawing with two hands, performing surgery on both levels at once.
In the physical world, he turned Grisha face down, then used a sharp scalpel to begin cutting a line down the spine. In the spiritual world, he groped through Grisha's tangled spiritual threads, distinguishing two different streams of spirit.
One stream was calm. When converted into a brainwave pattern, it was extremely soft and stable, with minimal fluctuation. This familiar will was none other than Grisha's. It was even slightly below the level of deep coma brainwaves, sufficient proof that the medicine was working.
The other spiritual stream was extremely abnormal—jagged, mixed, and utterly chaotic. Its brainwaves far exceeded the level an ordinary person could exhibit. Although it had assimilated the mixed spiritual wills of many previous owners, Asahi could still distinguish a few different fluctuating wills within it.
Undoubtedly, this was the "Attack Titan."