---
The interrogation had reached a stalemate, a tense battle of wills in the cold, damp dungeon. Levi was a coiled spring of furious suspicion, convinced he was staring at a traitor. Erwin was a master strategist, faced with an unsolvable puzzle. And Akira was an immovable rock, his silence a shield for a mission they could never comprehend.
The frantic, desperate clang of the castle's main alarm bell shattered the standoff.
"It's... it's Wall Rose, sir!" the panicked soldier had gasped, his words an impossible, world-shattering statement. "It's been breached! There are Titans inside the Wall! We don't know how! They just... appeared!"
Erwin and Levi froze, their minds reeling. Titans inside the second wall? It was a catastrophe beyond their worst imaginings, a strategic nightmare that made the failure of the 57th Expedition seem like a minor setback. The very foundation of their world was cracking.
Just outside the dungeon, Mikasa and Erin, who had been waiting anxiously, heard the commotion. They saw the panicked look on the soldier's face and their blood ran cold.
After a moment of stunned silence, Erwin's mind, ever the strategist, began to work. He looked at Levi, his face grim, the weight of an impossible choice settling on his broad shoulders. "Release him," he said, his voice heavy with reluctance. "We have no other choice. We need the weapon."
Levi's face contorted in a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. He hated the order. He hated the logic of it. But he knew it was the only move left on the board. With a curse spat under his breath, he snatched the iron keys from the guard and strode towards Akira's cell, Mikasa and Erin following close behind, their hearts pounding.
He unlocked the heavy door, his movements sharp and angry, and threw it open with a resounding BANG.
"Alright, you bastard, you got your wish. The world's gone to hell again, and we—"
He stopped.
The cell was empty.
The heavy iron cuffs lay on the stone floor, twisted and shattered as if they were made of cheap wire. The thick chains had been ripped clean from the stone wall, leaving deep craters in the masonry.
Akira was gone.
He hadn't waited for permission. He hadn't waited for their debate. He had heard the call for help, felt the distant terror of innocent lives in danger, and he had answered it. He was only a prisoner because he had allowed himself to be.
Erin gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. Mikasa, however, felt a fierce, painful surge of pride mixed with her terror. Of course. This was the Akira she knew. The hero who could not be caged.
Levi stared at the empty cell, a complex storm of emotions warring on his face: grudging respect, infuriating frustration, and absolute, cold fury. The weapon had unchained itself.
---
Chaos reigned within Wall Rose. The idyllic countryside had become a slaughterhouse. Titans, ranging from three to fifteen meters, roamed the fields and villages, appearing from nowhere with no discernible breach point in the wall. It was a horrifying, inexplicable invasion.
The southern corps of the 104th, stationed for routine duty, were thrown into a meat grinder.
"WHERE ARE THEY COMING FROM?!" Connie screamed, his ODM gear sputtering as he dodged the grasping hand of a five-meter abnormal.
He landed hard on a rooftop next to Sasha, who was frantically trying to reload her blades, her hands shaking so badly she could barely work the mechanism. "I don't know!" she cried, her eyes wide with terror. "They're just... here! We've lost so many already!" Her mind flashed to the last time she had seen Akira, standing as a crimson giant, protecting the traitor. The confusion and betrayal still stung, but right now, all she could feel was pure, primal fear.
Their squad had been decimated. The chain of command had shattered. It was every soldier for themselves, a desperate, losing battle against a tide of smiling, mindless monsters.
Then, a new sound cut through the screams and the thudding footsteps of the Titans. It was a deep, guttural roar, but it was followed by a sound they had never heard before. The sound of a voice. A calm, curious, and utterly terrifying voice.
Perched atop the crumbling ruins of Utgard Castle, a new nightmare watched the chaos with detached amusement. It was a massive, seventeen-meter Titan, but unlike any they had ever seen. It was covered in thick, dark fur, its proportions long and ape-like.
"Well now," the Beast Titan rumbled, his voice a calm baritone that was more chilling than any roar. He watched as a soldier on horseback tried to flee. With a movement that was both lazy and impossibly fast, the ape-like Titan snatched the horse, ignoring the screaming rider. He examined the terrified animal for a moment, then, with a flick of his wrist, he crushed it.
"A horse?" he mused to himself. He then picked up the screaming soldier, held him up to his face, and simply dropped him. He wasn't even eating them. He was playing.
He turned his attention to a group of soldiers trying to make a stand on a nearby tower. He ripped a chunk of the castle wall from its foundations, hefted it in his massive hand, and then, with the practiced ease of a star pitcher, he hurled it. The massive piece of stone flew through the air with deadly accuracy, obliterating the tower and the soldiers on it in a shower of rock and gore.
"Ah, much better," the Beast Titan said with a cruel, intelligent smile. He looked down at the terrified humans scrambling below. "So, you all speak my language. That's interesting. I was starting to get a little bored."
Connie and Sasha could only stare, their minds completely broken. This wasn't just a Titan. This was their devil.
Just as a group of mindless Titans closed in on their rooftop, their gas gone, their blades broken, their hope extinguished, a flash of brilliant blue light streaked past them.
It was a blur of motion, faster than anything they had ever seen. It wasn't a giant. It was a man.
Akira, his blue eyes burning with a cold, focused fury, moved like a phantom. He was in his human form, a single, salvaged blade in his hand, but he moved with the power of a storm. He used his Ki-enhanced strength, each slash of his blade a perfect, brutal, and beautiful arc. He cut through the napes of the three Titans surrounding them with an efficiency that was breathtaking. One. Two. Three. They collapsed in steaming heaps before they even knew what had hit them.
He landed silently on the rooftop beside his stunned friends.
"Akira?!" Connie screamed, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and terror. "What the hell are you doing here?! I thought you were a prisoner! A traitor!"
Sasha, between terrified sobs, just stared at him. The boy she had a crush on, the man who had protected a mass murderer, had just saved her life without a second thought. Her heart was a confused, painful mess of overwhelming relief and profound fear.
Akira's face was a grim, focused mask. He didn't have time for a long explanation. "No time," he said, his voice low and urgent, his blue eyes already scanning the horizon, drawn to the massive, strange Ki signature he could feel in the distance. "Where's the breach? What's causing this?"
---
He didn't wait for an answer. He knew where he had to go.
"Get to safety. Regroup with the others. Warn them," he ordered, his voice leaving no room for argument. Before they could reply, he was gone, a blue streak leaping from the rooftop and racing towards the source of the chaos.
He arrived in the shadow of the ruined Utgard Castle to see the Beast Titan perched on its crumbling peak, watching the slaughter with the air of a king observing his subjects.
The ape-like Titan saw him coming. His strange, intelligent eyes narrowed, not with recognition, but with pure, analytical fascination. He had seen this one before, a blue blur of motion on the battlefield. The reports from the other warriors hadn't prepared him for this. This wasn't just a skilled soldier. This was something... else.
"Well now," the Beast Titan said, his voice a low rumble of genuine curiosity. "You're no ordinary island devil. That speed... that power... it's not of this place." A cruel, excited smile spread across his furry face. "What are you?"
Akira landed on a rooftop across from him, his single blade held ready. "I could ask you the same thing," he shot back, his voice cold as ice. "Are you the one who broke the wall?"
The Beast Titan chuckled, a deep, rumbling sound. "Me? Oh, no, no. I'm just here to see if the Founding Titan is ready to play. But you... you are an unexpected and delightful surprise. A new piece on the board I didn't even know existed."
With a flick of his wrist, the Beast Titan ripped another chunk of the castle from its foundations and hurled it at Akira. It moved with blinding speed. Akira dodged, the massive boulder of stone obliterating the building behind him. He pushed off the rooftop, his Ki-powered leaps carrying him through the air, but the Beast Titan was relentless, throwing debris with a speed and accuracy that was impossible to counter. Akira was fast, but he was being forced onto the defensive. He knew he couldn't win like this, not against a Titan with this level of intelligence and raw, destructive power.
The Beast Titan, seeing that he had his opponent on the ropes, decided to end the "game." He ripped the entire bell tower from the castle's peak, a truly colossal piece of masonry, and hurled it not just at Akira, but at a large, intact building behind him, a building where a group of terrified civilians were hiding.
This was the trigger. Akira saw the terror in their eyes, heard their screams. He knew he had to transform. But Power Type was too destructive for this populated area. Lightning Type might not be strong enough. He needed balance. He needed control. He needed to be a protector.
As the massive boulder of stone was about to crash down and kill dozens of innocent people, Akira landed on the ground, his feet cracking the cobblestones. He looked up at the falling mountain of rock, a defiant roar on his lips.
A brilliant, pure white light, tinged with the familiar cyan of his own soul, erupted from him. It wasn't the furious violet of his Lightning Type or the raging crimson of his Power Type. This was the light of hope. The light of his true self.
His iconic Base Type emerged from the light, his silver, red, and purple body growing to meet the falling debris. He caught the massive boulder with both hands just before it hit the building, the muscles in his giant form straining as he held back death itself. The civilians inside screamed, not in terror, but in awe, as a new giant stood as their shield against a brand new nightmare.
---
•To Be Continue•
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