---
The world held its breath, suspended in a single, impossible moment.
The colossal bell tower, a mountain of stone and shattered history, hung frozen in the air. Its descent, which promised a crushing, indiscriminate death, had been halted just feet from the building sheltering dozens of terrified civilians. Holding it aloft, his muscles straining under a weight that defied physics and reason, was a new giant. His iconic silver, red, and purple body was a beacon of impossible hope against the backdrop of a smoke-filled, terrified city.
The civilians inside the building, who had been bracing for the final, thunderous impact, could only stare up through the dust-choked air in stunned, silent awe. Their minds, conditioned by a lifetime of terror, saw a giant and expected a monster. But this was not a Titan. Its eyes glowed with intelligence, not hunger. Its form was sculpted and heroic, not grotesque. This was something else. A protector. A savior.
But no one was more shocked than the monster perched atop the ruins of Utgard Castle.
The Beast Titan's cruel, intelligent smile faltered, his lips parting in a silent gasp of pure, unadulterated disbelief. His mind, a cold, calculating machine that had processed every variable of this invasion, simply could not compute what it was seeing. A moment ago, he had been toying with a strangely powerful human, an "island devil" with unusual abilities. Now, that same human had transformed, had grown, into a seventeen-meter giant of light and color.
"What... what are you?" the Beast Titan murmured, his voice a low rumble of genuine, fascinated shock. This wasn't part of the plan. This creature wasn't in any of Marley's intelligence reports. It was a complete unknown, a variable so wild it threatened to derail his entire mission. The game had just become infinitely more interesting.
With a primal roar that was a promise of retribution, Akira heaved the massive bell tower away. The muscles in his giant form bunched and strained, the sheer force of the motion cracking the cobblestones beneath his feet. He didn't hurl it at the Beast Titan—an act of rage that would have been so easy. With incredible control, born from a desperate will to protect, he threw it into a distant, empty field. It sailed through the air like a discarded toy and crashed with a ground-shaking thud that sent tremors through the earth, harming no one.
His priority was clear. His purpose, absolute.
Then, he turned his full attention to the furry monster on the castle ruins, and his cyan eyes burned with a righteous, holy fury.
---
The fight began not with a clash, but with a test. The Beast Titan, a master strategist, kept his distance. He ripped another massive chunk of the castle wall from its foundations, hefting the multi-ton boulder as if it were a simple stone. He hurled it with the force and accuracy of a cannonball, a whistling projectile of death aimed straight at the giant's chest. He was testing this new creature, trying to gauge its strength, its speed, its weaknesses.
Akira, in his balanced Base Type, met the challenge. He didn't try to block it. He flowed. He moved with a martial artist's grace, his form a blur of red and silver as he sidestepped the projectile. It screamed past him, obliterating a line of houses behind him in a cloud of dust and splintered wood. The Beast Titan threw another, and another, a relentless barrage meant to overwhelm and crush.
Akira became a dancer in a storm of annihilation. He shattered the smaller projectiles with swift, powerful chops, his hands glowing with a focused cyan Ki. He gracefully dodged the larger ones, his movements fluid and precise. He was closing the distance, leaping from rooftop to rooftop, each landing cracking the stone beneath his feet but never breaking his stride. This was a classic Ultraman fighting style—agile, defensive, and relentlessly heroic, a stark contrast to the brute force of his enemy.
When he finally reached the castle ruins, the brawl was a clash of opposing philosophies. The Beast Titan was all savage, brutal strength, his unnaturally long arms giving him a massive reach advantage. He swung wildly, each blow carrying enough force to level a city block. Akira was a master of combat, a whirlwind of controlled power. He ducked under a wild, sweeping punch, the wind from the blow tearing at the air around him. He drove a lightning-fast kick into the Beast Titan's knee, the impact echoing like a cannon shot, forcing the larger creature to stumble. He flowed around a backhand, delivering a series of rapid-fire chops to the monster's ribs and joints, trying to unbalance the hairy behemoth.
---
Miles away, a column of green-caped soldiers on horseback raced across the plains, their faces grim, their hearts pounding with the urgency of a hundred frantic reports.
"Commander, another flare from the advance team!" a soldier yelled over the thundering of hooves. "They say the Beast Titan is engaged! But... they say it's fighting another giant!"
Erwin's face was a stoic mask, but his mind was racing. "Another one? Is it the Female Titan?"
"No, sir! The report says... it's the Titan of Light! It's Akira!"
The name sent a shockwave through the group.
Mikasa's heart leaped into her throat, a painful, violent mixture of terror and fierce, soaring pride. He's fighting. Of course, he's fighting. She spurred her horse faster, her mind a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. He's a fugitive, a branded traitor, and he's still out there, protecting people who hate him. You idiot, Akira... you beautiful, selfless idiot.
Erin, riding beside her, felt a surge of pure, unadulterated hope that burned away her fear. The man who had taught her to control her own power, who had shown her the river inside her fire, was now unleashing his. "He'll stop it," she said, her voice filled with a conviction that surprised even herself. "He'll save everyone. He always does."
Levi, riding at the head of the column, just gritted his teeth, his expression unreadable. The "traitor" was now the only thing standing between the Beast Titan and the complete annihilation of the southern district. The situation was a strategic nightmare, a Gordian knot of loyalties and betrayals that he couldn't even begin to untangle. All he knew was that he was riding towards a battle that was far beyond his control, and the only weapon that mattered was one he had condemned.
---
As the main contingent of the Scout Regiment crested a hill, the sight that greeted them was one of apocalyptic grandeur. The seventeen-meter Ultraman was locked in a life-or-death struggle with the monstrous Beast Titan, their battle turning the ruins of Utgard Castle into their personal arena.
The Beast Titan, ever the cunning strategist, realized with growing frustration that he couldn't win a straight brawl against this bizarrely skilled giant. He needed to change the rules of the game. He disengaged, leaping back, and let out a piercing, unearthly roar—a sound that carried an unnatural, horrifying authority.
And the mindless Titans below responded.
The horde, which had been aimlessly wandering, suddenly turned as one. Their dead, smiling eyes fixed on the building full of civilians that Akira had just saved. They began to shamble forward, a lumbering, inexorable tide of hungry flesh.
It was a brilliant, cruel tactic. It forced Akira to make an impossible choice: continue fighting him, the true threat, or turn his back to save the helpless civilians.
Akira didn't hesitate for a single heartbeat. He spun around, his back now completely exposed to the Beast Titan, and put himself between the horde and the building. He began blasting the smaller Titans away with quick, precise Ki beams from his hands, each shot a clean, efficient vaporization. But for every one he vaporized, two more took their place. He was getting swarmed, a lone hero against a tidal wave of death, his attention dangerously divided.
On the ground, Levi saw it all. He saw Akira's impossible choice. He saw the civilians about to be devoured. In that moment, his personal feelings, his fury, his suspicion—they were luxuries he could not afford. Annihilation was imminent.
"FORGET NAKAMURA FOR NOW!" he roared, his voice cutting through the chaos with the force of a command from God. "ALL SQUADS, TARGET THE SMALL ONES! CLEAR A PATH FOR THE GIANT! PROTECT THE CIVILIANS! MOVE!"
For a split second, the soldiers hesitated, their minds reeling from the order to help the "traitor." But Levi's command was absolute, their training ingrained. With a unified, desperate cry, the Scouts leaped into action, a swarm of green hornets descending into the fray, their blades flashing as they began to fight alongside the very being they had just condemned.
From a pile of rubble, Erin watched Akira getting overwhelmed. A new fire ignited within her. It wasn't the wild, uncontrolled rage from before. It was resolve. It was loyalty. With a defiant roar that was all her own, she forced her battered, steaming Attack Titan back to its feet. She wasn't fighting for revenge anymore. She was fighting to help him.
She charged into the horde, a whirlwind of fists and fury, creating an opening for Akira. For a breathtaking moment, the two giants fought back-to-back, a silver-and-brown whirlwind of destruction, a perfect, impossible team.
Mikasa, seeing her two closest friends fighting together, felt a surge of adrenaline that sharpened her senses to a razor's edge. She saw a ten-meter Titan break through their line, its grinning face looming over a terrified child who had run from the building. She didn't have a clean angle to attack. In a moment of pure instinct and absolute trust, she fired her ODM hook not at a building, but at Akira's massive, outstretched hand.
Akira, sensing her intent with his Ki, caught the cable without even looking. With a powerful spin that was both controlled and immensely powerful, he slingshotted her through the air. She became a human cannonball, a spinning whirlwind of death that sliced through the napes of three Titans in a single, breathtaking pass before she landed gracefully on a rooftop.
The Beast Titan watched this display of coordinated chaos with growing fury and disbelief. These "island devils" were not the disorganized rabble he had expected. They were a cohesive, deadly unit, fighting with a synergy he couldn't comprehend, all centered around the glowing giant.
Levi saw his opening. The horde was thinning. The Beast Titan was distracted, his attention fixed on the impossible teamwork below. "NAKAMURA!" he screamed from a high rooftop, his voice raw. "GET ME CLOSE!"
Akira understood instantly. He crouched down, his massive palm open. Levi landed on it, his blades held in his signature reverse grip. With a mighty roar, Akira hurled his Captain through the air like a living missile, directly at the Beast Titan's face.
Levi became a human blender. His dual blades were a blur of motion as he expertly, brutally, sliced out the Beast Titan's eyes, blinding it temporarily.
The blinded, roaring Beast Titan was now a perfect, stationary target. This was the opening Akira needed. His color timer, which had been a steady blue, began to blink frantically now, a dire, beeping alarm that signaled his time was almost up.
He crossed his arms in the classic L-shape, gathering the last of his fading light, the hope of the soldiers below, and his own burning will into a single point of brilliant, searing energy.
"CELESTIAL RAY!"
A brilliant, white-hot beam of pure energy shot from his arm, striking the blinded monster square in the chest. The Beast Titan roared in agony as the beam tore through its fur and flesh, leaving a massive, smoking, cauterized hole in its torso. It stumbled backward, its new eyes already beginning to steam and regenerate, but the damage was done. It looked at the glowing giant, a new level of respect and raw fear in its gaze. With a final, frustrated roar, it made a strategic retreat, bounding away and disappearing over the horizon.
The silence that followed was absolute, broken only by the panting of exhausted soldiers and the crackle of fires.
Akira stood for a moment, his giant form trembling, before his color timer went dark. The light faded from his body, and he collapsed to his knees, his giant form dissolving into a shower of light particles just as Levi, Mikasa, and the others landed around him. He hit the ground hard, in his human form, his body a canvas of blood and bruises.
He had won. He had saved them.
But as he pushed himself up onto one knee, his chest heaving, his blue eyes met the faces of his friends. He saw not just relief, but a deeper, more profound confusion. The questions, the suspicion, the betrayal—they were all still there, hanging in the air like smoke. He was still a fugitive. He was still a traitor in their eyes. And the battle for his own soul was just beginning.
---
•To Be Continue•
---