Chapter 147: Echoes of the Abyss (End of Playthrough Two)
Paradis Island.
Armin knelt on the cold ground, his hands clawing at the cracked stone. The map table in front of him was overturned, battle plans and documents scattered in the bloody dust. The communications equipment hissed with static, punctuated by the shrill tone of a dead line—another post, gone.
Through the gap in the ruined wall, the distant horizon glowed with the fires of despair. The coastal defense line had collapsed. Eren… he couldn't hold out much longer. He was only one person. He was strong. But he still wasn't strong enough. He alone could not reverse Paradis Island's inevitable defeat. The thought was a knife twisting in everyone's heart.
Eren's mind raced, but it felt heavy, as if filled with lead. Marley's overwhelming power, their Magical Girl corps, the technological gap, and Kyubey's inescapable contracts. He thought back on everything he had done in this life. He was chained to Paradis, needing to constantly watch for Kyubey. If he left, it would make its move. If his comrades learned the truth of the contract, this entire timeline would be a failure. Given their selfless natures, their inability to stand by, their conscience that couldn't treat others as expendable like Marley did, they would all inevitably walk the path of a Magical Girl.
And for him, Eren, personally… whether Paradis survived or was destroyed, if that happened, he would have already lost.
In the command post, faced with this hopeless situation, Armin still refused to give up. Even if hope was just a speck of dust, he had to find the one, single opening before the darkness swallowed everything.
…
Mikasa Ackerman gasped for breath, her back against a charred rock, her body covered in wounds. Her uniform was in tatters, blood matting her black hair. She had watched Floch explode in a ball of fire, had watched Grisha's position be annihilated by artillery. And Eren…
"Eren…" Mikasa's voice was a low, grief-stricken, and self-loathing whisper. Once again, she had failed to protect him. She didn't even have the right to intervene in this unimaginable war. She had sworn to protect him, but every time he needed her most, she was this powerless. Her hands gripped the red scarf at her neck, now stained with blood. It was the most precious thing Eren had ever given her. If… if there's any way to save Eren… any way to lessen his pain… I would give anything.
Just then, a sudden, unnervingly calm voice sounded behind them.
"Eren… he doesn't look like he's going to last much longer."
"Kyubey!"
"Kyubey's here!!!"
Mikasa whipped her head around. At the same moment, Armin stumbled out of the ruins of the command post, having also heard the voice. Not far from them, a small white creature, its ruby-red eyes glinting, sat calmly on a broken barricade. It was Kyubey.
It ignored the other soldiers who were stirring with excitement at its appearance, its gaze fixed only on Mikasa and Armin. They looked at each other, seeing the bottomless despair in the other's eyes. And… the spark of hope, rekindled by Kyubey's arrival.
They both knew, with absolute certainty, that no conventional method could save this situation. To grasp this final hope… perhaps the only way left was the "miracle" that this creature Eren called Kyubey could offer.
Kyubey padded elegantly toward them. Other soldiers, seeing it, excitedly tried to make a contract, willing to offer their souls. But Kyubey ignored them. Its target was clear from the start.
"More than anyone else, you two want to help Eren Jaeger right now, don't you?"
Their breath caught. It was the truth. A truth they couldn't deny and had to face.
Kyubey tilted its head, its voice sweet. "The burden on his shoulders is too heavy for him to carry alone. Don't you want to share some of it? If you give up now, then it's all over. Will you betray all the efforts Eren has made for your sakes, or will you choose to share this despair with him, this despair that will lead to your ultimate doom?"
"If you've made your decision, then make a contract with me and become Magical Girls."
…
On the coastline, Eren's consciousness was flickering. He was just… killing. Killing. But somehow, he could clearly hear the conversation between Kyubey, Mikasa, and Armin. Every single word.
A fear deeper than death itself yanked his fading consciousness back. He desperately tried to look in their direction. But it was already a checkmate. Make a contract, and they would die in the future. Don't make one, and they would die right now.
All he could do was watch helplessly as Kyubey's small form sat before Mikasa and Armin. He watched his comrades' faces, saw the despair and hope warring within them. He watched their expressions slowly harden, turning to resolve.
If making a contract… can really help Eren… if it can really let everyone on Paradis survive… even if the price is becoming a Witch, to fall into an eternal abyss…
"I…"
"If… if it can help Eren—"
They both took a deep breath, as if with all the strength they had left. They looked toward Eren in the distance. They looked at each other.
"This might be… the only way to break this stalemate."
"We can't let Eren keep fighting alone!"
And when Eren saw this, heard this… the rage he had been suppressing finally, uncontrollably, erupted. Rage at Marley. Rage at Kyubey. And most of all, rage at his own powerless self.
Again… AGAIN!!!
The loom of fate turned coldly, spitting out the same threads, weaving the same ending. No matter how he struggled, no matter how he tried to cut those bloody strings, the people he cherished most always, always, ended up walking that cursed path.
Those innocent days in the Cadet Corps, the laughter under the sun. The brief peace of watching the sea at sunset. The warm light in his home, his mother's gentle smile, his father's gruff concern. Floch's revelation, his own uncontrolled rage, his suffocating fear.
Did he rewind time, did he climb back up the ladder of a broken loop, just to personally lead them into the maelstrom of destruction again?! Everything he had done, everything he had endured, what was it all for? Was it just to fruitlessly trace one circle of despair after another?
Was the future he craved just this—watching them, again and again, throw themselves without hesitation into the bottomless abyss called "Witch"?!
He would not allow this fate. He would not stand by and let this future replay itself.
If this struggle was doomed to burst like a bubble, then—THEN HE WOULD DO IT AGAIN!
AND AGAIN!
AND AGAIN!!
AND AGAIN!!!
Until the very tracks of fate were forced to bend!
"Next time… Next time, I will definitely—"
The broken, obsessive vow burned and collided in the deepest part of his soul. Eren's Soul Gem flared with a blinding light.
Time rewind—activated!!!
…
High above, the Kyubey watching the scene simply glanced at Mikasa, at Armin, and at the other Kyubey in front of them. Its gaze finally settled on the figure of Eren, who was rewinding time.
In an instant, the entire world dissolved in Eren's perception. The fires of Paradis, the wreckage of the Marleyan fleet, Kyubey's cold silhouette, Mikasa and Armin's sad, resolute faces—all of it, like a painting thrown into a vortex, twisted, warped, and was torn to shreds.
Except, for some reason, he had the lingering feeling… that Kyubey's eyes… had been staring right at him.
…
Colors blurred, sounds distorted. His consciousness was violently torn apart and forcibly reassembled. After a wave of intense agony, there was only an endless darkness.
He didn't know how long it had been. A faint light pierced the dark. A familiar voice sounded in his ear.
"Eren… Eren, wake up."
"…Hm?"
Eren groggily opened his eyes.
"Mikasa? Your… hair… why is it so long?"