In the broken and destroyed Trost, wails of people sounded amidst the chaos.
Soldiers, who have advanced on their adversaries with hope, now fall back in panic.
Their fearful eyes landed on Eren, the Attack Titan.
Inside the nape of his Titan form, Eren looks at Kevin with hateful eyes.
The hue of green shines intensely in his iris.
Memories of the future, of what had already happened, flash in his mind.
Gritting his teeth, Eren thought in frustration, 'From where did this guy come? He shouldn't even exist.'
Since around six months ago, Eren suddenly started gaining strange memories, in which he saw the destruction of their world, everyone died, Armin, Mikasa, and behind all of this there remained a single figure, and that was this strange titan in front of him.
In his memories, he himself warned him continuously; to be precise, the 'future him.'
At first he became confused and even thought of himself becoming insane, but as time went on, he started to see the same event happening as in reality, and that was when he started to understand the significance of the memories, after which the memories of the future became very clear, but at that time it was already very late; all the possible futures lead to the same inevitable, and that is this strange titan.
Eren didn't understand the motive of this person, but one thing is clear: it is all about survival, in which either he or this strange person will survive.
Kevin looks at Eren, completely ignoring Reiner and Annie; he maintains his focus on him.
Kevin has thought of different scenarios in which they will meet, but now looking at the shortening distance between him and Eren, Kevin lets out a quiet sigh.
The thought of 'what if?'
The scenario would have been different; instead of him becoming an adversary of Eren, he would have become his friend, and then this whole scene would have been different.
But his fundamentals, the devourer, and his skill put him at odds with Eren, but even then he may have considered it differently if the time limit of three years was not imposed on him.
But what can he do? Even now he is in the dark about his possible future.
The only path for him is to move forward and only care about his own survival; it doesn't matter even if he has to ruin the world, which he had yearned for, because, after all, in the end what matters is who will win.
"Eren." Kevin speaks loudly, a hint of warning in his tone.
The blood-red eyes look intensely at Eren, into his green eyes.
Suddenly, flashes of memories started to pour into Eren's mind.
The crumbled walls, deep craters in the ground, images flash one after another.
The distorted and broken scenes of two titans fighting with each other, then suddenly everything pauses, and a single image hangs before his eyes.
Mikasa lies on the ground, surrounded by cold red blood, her lifeless eyes gazing in the void, which seems to directly look at him.
Then blank—
Anger rises in Eren's heart; his blood starts to boil with hatred. Again the same memories and same scene: letting out the roar of grief, he starts to run at Kevin.
"Do you want everyone here to die?" The question from Kevin abruptly halts Eren.
Kevin, looking at Eren, said knowingly, "You should understand that in this attack titan form you will never be my opponent, and only by transforming into the colossal titan do you have a chance."
His loud voice echoed, stirring the strings of pain in Reiner's and Annie's hearts.
"And look around, you are surrounded by your friends. Do you really want to vaporize them just for a chance to resist me?"
Looking at the talking titan, the civilians and the soldiers go into hysteria.
Whereas Armin stood with a vacant look, unable to understand what was happening.
'Hmm, it seems he did care for them.' Kevin thinks, his blood-red eyes staring at Eren, seeing that Eren had stopped after he warned him, a hint of relief appears in his eyes, although he didn't fear facing Eren or anyone, but still the colossal titan is troublesome even for him, and with how close he is towards his goal, there is no need for him to gamble in a risky battle.
And with Eren devouring the Colossal Titan, it also implies that Eren is able to access memories of the future, but to what extent? Makes another point for him to remain cautious.
But the next moment, with a heavy thud, Eren again started to advance towards him.
'What! Does he not care about his friend?' A shock ripples in Kevin's eyes; looking at Armin, Jean, Sasha, and other figures from the canon who are close friends of Eren, he thinks, 'If he transforms into the Colossal Titan, then the chances of them surviving are very low, so why? Or does he have another reason?' Kevin ponders for a second but then shakes his head. 'If it has come to this, then so be it.'
The next moment, cold words pour out of his mouth.
"Mikasa is in my hold."
The word slices through Eren's heart and mind, instantly paralyzing him.
"Do you want her to receive the same treatment as your mother?"
The chilling sensation crept over Eren; the image of Mikasa drowned in the pool of blood appeared in his mind.
The dream refreshed, the image of his mother and Mikasa overlapping each other.
"I will give you a chance."
Eren looks at Kevin, blood almost flowing out of his eyes.
"If you want to save her, then come to Shiganshina District."
Saying that Kevin turns around and starts to move away from there.
"Remember, don't be late; otherwise, don't blame me if you don't find her in one piece."
With the final words, intense smoke started to discharge out of his body, enshrouding his whole surroundings.
Roar
Eren lets out a roar of anger.
Understanding that Kevin was going away from there, he started to run at him; the fifteen-meter-tall titan zoomed past the broken buildings and plunged into the smoke.
For a moment, nothing happened; silence spread everywhere. After some time, smoke started to thin out, and the lone figure of the Attack Titan became visible.
Its shining green eyes fall on Reiner and Annie.
Goosebumps rise on their body; the feeling of dread seeps into their bones.
Everything happened so fast that no one was able to understand a single thing.
The turning of events and the missing bits of information confused everyone.
Reiner looks at Annie, trying to find a semblance of support or anything to understand what is going on.