A fifteen-meter-tall body, solid muscles all over, covered layer upon layer with rock-like crystallizations resembling armor. Its face showed no mouth, blocked by a thick, heavy mass.
A titan never seen before; even the Garrison soldiers were thrown into panic.
Bang! The Armored Titan suddenly charged toward the gate of Wall Maria at astonishing speed.
"Fire!!" The Garrison officer in charge shouted, his voice trembling with tension.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Powerful shells blasted toward the Armored Titan. Shells that could usually pierce through multiple titans struck its body and yet caused no damage at all.
"Reload, quickly!" the officer urgently ordered. "There's no time! That titan is too fast! Run!" The Garrison soldiers fled in panic.
Before everyone's disbelieving eyes, Wall Maria, which had protected humanity for over a hundred years, was smashed open in a thunderous impact, leaving a massive breach.
"That titan—we've never seen it before!"
"Wall Maria… has been breached…" Armin stared blankly at Wall Maria. The ferry had already left the harbor, and the people aboard silently gazed in the direction of the Shiganshina District.
Wall Maria had been destroyed. Humanity was in danger.
"Damn it, it hurts!" Yago clutched his forehead in pain. His head began to ache again for no clear reason, as if something were trying to burst out from inside his mind.
"Yago, what's wrong? Internal injuries?" Lucia asked with concern. She clearly remembered Yago being struck by falling rocks, yet he seemed completely fine.
Yago told her that the stone hadn't hit him very hard; it had gotten stuck between the bricks inside the wall, and he had only suffered a bit of internal injury.
"I'm fine." Yago shook his head and looked toward the Shiganshina District. Faintly visible, countless titan silhouettes were slowly pouring through Wall Maria. Humanity had lost its first line of defense. Perhaps one day in the future, Walls Rose and Sina might also be breached.
Yago clenched his fists. Although he didn't know why he could become a titan, since he had obtained this power, then he would use it to protect everything!
...
The Shiganshina District had already turned into a living hell. Titans rampaged everywhere. The lucky human survivors trembled as they hid among the ruins. Countless titans wandered about; from time to time, someone would be discovered, letting out a scream of extreme terror, followed by the horrifying sound of chewing.
Crack! Knocking away the broken blade in his hand, the Garrison commander of the Shiganshina District stared despairingly at the hell before him.
Whoosh! Whoosh! The sounds of the vertical maneuvering equipment rang out. These were his subordinates—almost every one of them wounded.
The Garrison had always been looked down upon. They were not as elite as the Military Police, nor as courageous as the Survey Corps. Yet in moments like this, it was countless Garrison soldiers who used their lives to buy time for civilians to evacuate.
The lives of Garrison soldiers were lives too. Moreover, they had held out long enough. Of the more than one hundred Garrison soldiers in the Shiganshina District, nearly two-thirds had been sacrificed, with fewer than thirty still alive.
"Reporting, sir! There are too many titans! Almost all soldiers have all been wiped out! Pika Squad has only three soldiers left!"
The commander's face turned ashen, his voice trembling.
"Wall Maria has been breached. Issue the order—full retreat!"
"Yes!"
Seeing the signal to retreat, the remaining Garrison soldiers in the Shiganshina District fled desperately. There were too many titans; if they didn't leave now, they would surely die.
"I'm going to join the Survey Corps! I'll drive all these titans out! One day, I'll take back our homeland!" Eren shouted to Mikasa and Armin.
"Eren…" Mikasa froze, not knowing what to say for a moment.
Carla, who had always opposed Eren joining the Survey Corps, wanted to say something but didn't. Perhaps parents should respect their children's goals.
Eren's words seemed to bring a spark of vitality to the despairing crowd on the ferry. If even such a small child had this much courage, didn't that make the adults seem cowardly?
"Hey, Mikasa, Armin, how about we join the Survey Corps together?" Eren looked at his friends with hope. Mikasa agreed without the slightest hesitation. "Eren, wherever you go, I'll go!"
Armin hesitated a little. His personality was still somewhat too timid. Joining the Survey Corps—could he really do something like that? Armin fell into deep doubt.
"Joining the Survey Corps? Count me in, Eren." A familiar voice sounded beside him. Eren turned around. "Yago?"
Yago smiled and said, "Surprised? Uncle Vige used to be a Squad Leader in the Survey Corps. When I join, I want to be a Squad Leader too. Who knows—maybe I'll be your superior someday, Eren."
"That's not decided yet!"
Lucia looked at Yago. In a daze, she seemed to see Vige again. Back then, Vige had been just as optimistic as Yago.
He always said, "Our Survey Corps will definitely achieve victory. When that day comes, the walls won't be needed to defend against titans anymore. We'll surely live in a world without titans!"
...
Time passed quickly. Since Wall Maria had been breached, the area inside it was no longer safe.
The ferry headed straight for humanity's second line of defense—Wall Rose!
The ferry arrived at the Trost District outside Wall Rose, where many civilians who had fled from within Wall Maria had already gathered.
Garrison soldiers wearing uniforms with a rose emblem maintained order and distributed food.
Yago received a completely cold potato and half a piece of bread. His stomach was already unbearably hungry, so he couldn't afford to be picky.
While eating, Eren suddenly got into a conflict with a Garrison soldier distributing food. The cause was Eren overhearing the soldier say that rescuing these refugees was a waste of food, and that they might as well let the titans eat them all.
Hearing this, Eren's hot blood surged, and he immediately punched the Garrison soldier hard.
"You little kid! Are you looking for death?!" The Garrison soldier flew into a rage and swung a punch at Eren. Mikasa immediately stepped in to protect him.
Snap—the Garrison soldier's hand was firmly grabbed. It was Yago. Yago squeezed tightly.
"Ah! Damn! Let go!" The Garrison soldier was in such pain that tears nearly came out. Where did this little punk get such strength?
Yago flung the soldier's hand aside. "Picking on kids—how are you even proud to call yourself a soldier!"
"You—!"
At that moment, Armin stepped in to smooth things over.
"I'm very sorry. My companions are just extremely hungry and got a bit anxious. I apologize for the trouble we caused you."
Eren's mother also came over leaning on a cane to apologize to the Garrison soldier. He couldn't very well argue with a child, cursed his bad luck inwardly, muttered,
"These kids don't know gratitude," and turned to leave. As he went, he glanced at Yago—the kid really was strong.
Aunt Carla sighed. "Eren, you can't be so impulsive in the future."
Eren was still indignant. "They don't know anything at all! They've never seen titans devour humans! What right do they have to say things like that? I'm definitely going to join the Survey Corps! One day I'll return to Wall Maria and kill all those titans! I refuse to live like livestock inside the walls like you!"
The more Eren spoke, the more agitated and extreme his tone became. Slap! Eren suddenly felt pain on his face, and a clear handprint appeared.
Eren froze and looked at his mother. Carla sternly scolded him,
"Eren! How can you say that? Mikasa is a girl, and Armin and Yago are your friends. Apologize to them at once!"
Eren lowered his head, seeming to realize that his words had been inappropriate.
"I'm sorry, Mikasa, Yago, and Armin. I shouldn't have said that…"
"It's okay."