"Why is Eren here?" Asahi was astonished. Logically, a young boy shouldn't be able to reach this place.
But immediately after, he realized that reaching this place was extremely dangerous. Only a soul or a pure will-body could stand here, and in either case, damage would be severe. It could cause madness, a vegetative state, or even death.
Asahi hadn't actually confirmed whether this place was dangerous, but a defenseless child wandering here was too risky.
Eren didn't recognize him, because at this moment, he was a figure glowing with white light, not the Asahi he had once seen.
But he remembered the voice of the mysterious person who mentioned 'white' and the instruction that 'someone will arrive here soon.' With just a glance, Eren immediately determined that the person referred to in the instruction was Asahi.
"The first thing: send my regards to me, 2,000 years from now."
"The second thing: stop the future."
"The third thing: seek freedom."
The moment they met, Eren immediately spoke the three things he had been instructed to say, which even he didn't understand. Asahi, the listener, didn't understand either.
"Eren, what are you saying?"
"I don't know either. Someone told me to say that..."
"Who was it?"
"I don't know."
The conversation stopped. Then Eren suddenly remembered something.
"Oh right, that person also told me to lead you to that place."
"That place?"
"He called it the Coordinate."
Saying this, Eren pointed toward the glowing tree-like structure in the middle of the desert. Then he held out his other hand, waiting for Asahi to take it.
For some reason, even though he was initially cautious, the voice behind him made him feel reassured and trust unconditionally every time it spoke. Even though the mysterious person never showed their face or revealed their purpose, Eren deep down was absolutely certain that this person would not harm him.
Asahi hesitated regarding the small hand reaching out to him, but the hesitation lasted only a moment. He also reached out and took Eren's hand. And so, the boy led him to the thing called the "Coordinate."
"The Coordinate... just as Grisha once hypothesized in his notebook. It is the place that connects all Eldians, or in other words, the Founding Titan..."
"Could it be that when I first arrived here, the Founder's Will fled into the Coordinate?"
"If I go there, will it attack?"
Countless situations and possibilities ran through Asahi's mind. Suddenly, he felt a source of pressure being placed upon him. This pressure was very faint, almost negligible to him, but it definitely existed.
He looked at Eren beside him; the boy appeared completely normal, as if unaffected.
The large and the small figure continued to advance. The closer they got to the Coordinate, the stronger the pressure became, to the point where he had to stare at it. Meanwhile, Eren next to him remained completely unperturbed. Asahi could now confirm that the Coordinate was targeting him, and only him.
"Is it because I'm not Eldian? But why didn't the pressure appear when I first arrived?"
Asahi asked himself. At this moment, Eren led him into the Coordinate.
BOOM!!!
He felt Eren beside him vanish, disappearing without a trace. And immediately after, the immense amplification of that pressure slammed onto Asahi, causing him to stagger. It was like a small boat swaying precariously before a deep-sea tsunami.
This pressure was like millions of people fiercely shouting right into his ears, millions of screams with various frequencies overlapping, creating huge sound waves that could pierce a normal person's eardrums and shatter their brain in an instant.
At this moment, the Founder's Will manifested again—no, more accurately, it showed its true form.
In the pure white space of the Coordinate, a strange organism appeared before Asahi. It looked like a human spinal cord, with a long segment and countless tendrils growing out of it. It resembled a spinal cord, and also resembled primitive organisms.
The Coordinate held the souls of all Eldian people from the past to the present, and the terrifying pressure tearing at Asahi originated from their souls. Perhaps ten, a hundred, or a thousand souls couldn't threaten him, but what about tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions?
All of this was controlled by the "Founding Organism." It came crashing down, intending to directly strangle Asahi. He sneered. This thing certainly threatened him, but trying to kill him would take forever!
From Asahi's body, the pure will-body began to unleash an unbelievably mighty power. This was the second time since his awakening that he had pushed his will-power to the absolute limit.
Willpower collapsing, psyche being suppressed, constantly being killed and revived over thirty years. After all that tempering, plus the final sublimation when he absorbed all the nightmares, his will-power had grown to an unbelievably strong level.
A million souls surging in was terrifying, indeed, but the arrow representing his belief, his path, and his will would pierce through everything!
He raised his hand to his forehead, pulling out the arrow with the imperial gold rhomboid tip. He made himself the bow, the arrow was drawn, released, and fired.
Phang!
The imperial gold arrow magnified infinitely, burning away the pressure from the Coordinate. A tragic shriek echoed from the Founding Organism, along with the sight of its spinal cord-shaped body being torn into a hundred pieces.
Finally, the infinitely magnified arrow enveloped everything, and Asahi could no longer see clearly.
Outside the Coordinate's origin, the space was all sand. A person clad entirely in black stood there, holding the sleeping Eren in their arms. This person looked straight inside, muttering under their breath.
"Good luck, White One."
"Save her, and bring us to the best possible outcome."
Saying this, the mysterious person turned, carrying Eren away from this place.
"What does 'acting like a young girl' mean?"
"Well... acting like a young girl, I think it means like this girl here."
"You like her too, don't you?"
"Yes."
"Because she is very kind and always thinks of others."
"Because this world is very painful and cruel, you should become someone everyone loves."
"So, while we are alive, we must help each other, okay?"
Sent to you, 2,000 years ago.
In a time long, long ago in the past, when the Walls had not yet been built, when the Eldians were not even the Eldians yet. When Titans did not yet exist.
At that time, the Eldian Empire was still focusing on building its military and expanding its territory.
They robbed, burned, killed, and raped the smaller, weaker powers around them, using them as a springboard to confront other major powers on the continent. Consequently, countless slaves from other ethnicities were captured and brought into Eldia. Among them was a little girl named Ymir.