"I recorded the secrets I discovered in a small notebook. I need you to look at it, find the secret, and decide what to do."
Levi Ackerman, the strong warrior, felt troubled and silent at this moment. He did not immediately follow Erwin's request but questioned the Survey Corps Commander.
"Erwin, your trust in Asahi... isn't it too much?"
"What do you mean?"
"It feels like he's leading us into an abyss."
Erwin fell silent, and so did Levi. In his mind, two voices faintly resurfaced. They were agonizingly familiar, so much so that even now, he didn't dare revisit those memories.
"Trust us, Levi!"
"That's right, just trust us..."
But the outcome, as they both knew, needed no further explanation.
"Trust others, or trust yourself?"
In the past, a crumbling Levi had asked Erwin that question. It was because of his subsequent answer that the strong warrior of the Ackerman clan decided to follow him, decided to trust him.
At this moment, everything seemed to repeat itself.
"I don't know. It's not false modesty, I truly... don't know."
"We are just tiny human beings, being spun around in the cruel wheel of fate in this world. And the ones who decide how the world operates and what the world's ending will be are not me, not you, not anyone here, but the giants."
Erwin smiled, but his eyes were filled with a sense of anguish and a touch of despair.
His dream was the truth of this world, but now there was an entity that could easily strip away everything he and his fallen comrades had struggled to obtain, just with a thought. In a sense, this was truly meaningless and insignificant.
This applied to anyone, even someone with extraordinary intelligence like Erwin Smith.
"I... trust Asahi, because he will free me, he will free my dream. Ha... it's absurd that this answer lacks any logic... but are you satisfied, Levi Ackerman?"
Erwin looked directly into Levi's eyes.
...
Bang!!!
With a devastating punch, the entire Gipsy Danger immediately fell to the ground. Although it managed to stand up instantly, the colossal figure of the Founding Titan was already right in front of it. Countless Titans grew out of the Founder's body, forming entire squads to attack, trying to tear this massive Jaeger into a hundred pieces. Unfortunately, with a body made of super-hard steel, capable of withstanding the swipes, bites, and slams of beasts from other dimensions, the Titans facing Gipsy Danger were no different from flies and mosquitoes. The colossal Jaeger was simply seen grabbing Titans and crushing them, or tossing them around like bags of garbage.
It was to be expected. An approximate height of 80 meters compared to a 15-meter Titan is truly like an adult dealing with a toy.
"Frieda! Stop, it's not too late for this tragedy to end!"
Asahi shouted, but Frieda seemed intentionally deaf, still frantically attacking him, using her massive body to exert pressure while continuously creating Titans to overwhelm him with sheer numbers.
With every sword strike, with every stomp, dozens of Titans were annihilated, and several were squashed beyond human recognition. But for every few dozen that died, a few dozen new ones were created. Frieda at this moment truly resembled a final boss in an RPG game, constantly "spamming" small monsters without any apparent limit.
To the extent that even Zeke, the Beast Titan standing on the Wall, was dumbfounded, having completely abandoned any intention of joining the fight.
He considered himself to understand the abilities and nature of the Titans quite well, but this... was completely beyond the norm!
Zeke understood, of course, but that was only the physical aspect, or rather, the things that "Titans" manifested in the physical world. The essence of the Founding Titan, however, was the colossal reservoir of the spirit, soul, and will of the Eldian people. Every Titan that materialized into the real world was formed from an infinitely small part of that reservoir. They were the "grains of sand" that he had seen in the Paths.
This means that as long as the "sand" is not completely depleted, Frieda in her Founder form can endlessly create Titans, injecting the consciousness of an Eldian into them. Even if the Titan body is destroyed, it only sends the consciousness back to the Paths, and the loop will repeat again, and again...
A terrifying fate for the Eldian people.
Asahi wanted to stop it from continuing, but unfortunately, Frieda was no longer listening to anything he said.
Within the body of the Founder, she seemed to have lost all her humanity. The old Frieda had completely vanished, and the current Frieda... had only one mission in mind.
That was to free the Eldian people from the Walls, even if she had to crush everything, destroy everything, and kill the entire world to do it.
Even if she had to... kill her benefactor.
Erwin said that the giants decide the world, but he never said they were the ones who could decide freedom.
She currently seemed to be just a pawn of fate, marching toward an inevitable conclusion.
"I'm... truly sorry..."
She muttered in her mind, yet continued to fight without mercy.
The clang of steel and motors, mixed with the deafening screams of the Titans, turned the night, which should have been tranquil, into utter chaos. Asahi fought fiercely. The cockpit controls and the three-dimensional targeting AI danced continuously, putting him in a state of super high combat readiness.
"Plasmacaster!"
The right hand of Gipsy Danger transformed. The finger joints twisted, the structures combining to form a cannon turret with three pincers protruding to focus the energy point. After just three seconds of energy accumulation, Asahi raised the Plasmacaster and fired straight ahead. The incredible heat incinerated and disintegrated the obstructing Titans into pieces, tearing open the curtain formed by countless Titans. He lunged forward with the Chain Sword from Gipsy Danger's forearm, aiming straight for the colossal figure ahead.
He wanted to incapacitate Frieda, and the first thing to do was to force her out of her Titan form!
However, the deeper he pushed, the closer he got to the massive body of the Founding Titan, which had retreated near the Wall, Asahi felt something was wrong, like some danger was lurking, or something was about to arrive.
Despite this, he couldn't stop. The Plasmacaster still fired, the sword still struck, the body still moved, inching closer to the Founding Titan. Its massive, unwieldy body was not suited for fighting, which was clearly shown by Frieda only daring to attack a few times before retreating, then primarily creating Titans to obstruct him.
However, just as he was about to approach the danger zone, the three-dimensional display suddenly projected an image of something rapidly approaching him.
"Huh?"
Asahi glanced back and saw a person wearing Survey Corps uniform. The figure was a bit short; his name seemed to be Levi. Erwin had briefly mentioned him before.
"Asahi! Watch out for the Wall!"
"Huh?"
"The Wall! The Wall is made up of millions of Titans! And they...!"
Levi hadn't finished his sentence from afar when Asahi could no longer hear anything, because all the lights in the command center had turned red, accompanied by an incredibly massive increase in the enemy count.
In the diagram, the newly appeared enemies were evenly spread out, forming a wall, a curtain. And their location... coincidentally was Wall Sina.
No, it wasn't a coincidence. It was always meant to be this way.