The plane roared toward Fort Salta, but for Ken, the physical world was already beginning to dissolve. He leaned his head against the cold metal vibrating hull, his blue eyes losing their human focus.
"I'll be back in a minute," he whispered to a sleeping Mikasa.
He didn't move physically. Instead, he reached into his Digital Book and "deleted" the distance between his consciousness and the Paths.
ZAP! GOOOO!
The sound of the engines was replaced by an infinite, haunting silence. Ken stood on a desert of endless white sand under a sky of swirling nebulae. In the center was the massive, glowing Tree of Life—the intersection of every Eldian soul.
And at the base of that tree sat a child.
Eren Yeager, in his younger form, was staring blankly at the sand. He looked exhausted, his eyes hollowed out by the weight of a thousand futures he couldn't change.
"You're not supposed to be here," the boy-Eren said, his voice echoing from every direction at once. "This place is only for the Subjects of Ymir. You... you don't have a 'Script' here."
Ken walked across the white sand, his modern sneakers leaving no footprints. "That's because I'm the one who writes the script, Eren. Or at least, the one who fixes the typos."
Ken sat down next to the boy. He didn't look like a god; he just looked like the same 16-year-old nerd from Tokyo. "I saved Sasha. I saved Hange. I gave Armin a map to a world that isn't burning. Why are you still trying to destroy it all?"
"Because it has to happen!" Eren suddenly shouted, the Paths around them shaking with his rage. "I saw it! The cycle never ends! If I don't flatten the world, Paradis will burn! My friends will die!"
"You're looking at the wrong pages," Ken said calmly. He reached out and touched Eren's forehead.
[Authority: Narrative Overwrite — 'The Alternative Ending']
For a split second, the Paths flickered. Ken didn't show Eren the destruction. Instead, he showed him a vision of a wedding. He showed Eren standing at the altar with Mikasa, Armin laughing in the background, and Sasha complaining about the lack of meat on the appetizer tray. He showed him a world where the Titans were simply... erased.
"You can't change the past," Eren whispered, his eyes filling with tears as the vision faded. "Ymir... she won't let go. She's waiting for the end."
"Then I'll give her a different end," Ken said, standing up and looking toward the glowing Tree. He could see a small, shadowy figure watching them from the distance—the Founder, Ymir.
Ken pulled out his Digital Book. "I'm going to erase the 'Curse of the Titans' itself. Not through death, but through a 'Continuity Error.' When you reach the Fort, Eren, don't fight back. Let Mikasa reach you. I'll handle the rest of the narrative."
Eren looked up at Ken, a flicker of hope—real, terrifying hope—returning to his eyes. "You'd really do that? For us?"
"I told you," Ken smiled, his blue eyes flashing with a blinding white light. "I'm coming to save you from yourself. Just hold on a little longer."
With a sudden burst of static, the white sand vanished. Ken opened his eyes back in the plane, the wind howling through the cracks in the door. He looked at the Scouts, who were gearing up for the final jump.
"Get ready," Ken told them, his voice steady. "We're about to write the final chapter."