⚔️ Chapter Twenty-Six: The Death March Begins
The streets of Trost District buzzed with anticipation.
Children waved flags. Vendors shouted over one another. Crowds leaned forward with hopeful eyes.
The main force of the Scout Regiment was returning—battered, but intact.
At the front rode Commander Erwin Smith, grim-eyed and quiet.Beside him, Captain Levi, ever unreadable.And not far behind, with a cheerful wave, was Section Commander Hange Zoë, already mid-conversation with a poor soldier about Titan intestines.
Among the crowd, Eren and Mikasa stood quietly.
Eren spotted him first.
Hannes.
Now a Captain in the Garrison.
"Hey!" he shouted, walking toward them, eyes shining. "Graduated, huh? You two grew up so fast."
He laughed—but it didn't last long.
His voice dropped.
"…I should've saved her."
Eren's expression didn't change.
"I forgave you a long time ago."
Mikasa nodded. "We wouldn't be here without you."
Hannes smiled, watery-eyed.
"Then… go do something great, kids."
...
Above, along the Wall, cadets busied themselves maintaining the cannons.
Sweat. Chatter. Steel.
Conny, Thomas, and several others stood near Eren.
"I've been thinking," Thomas muttered, "about what you said the other night."
"Yeah?" Eren asked.
"I'm joining the Scouts."
Conny nodded. "Same. If you're going, we're going."
Kaelen leaned against the cannon frame.
"Well, I'm always happy to see people join Eren's Death March."
Armin rolled his eyes. "You know that name is going to scare people away, right?"
Kaelen shrugged. "Exactly."
A new voice piped up.
Sasha.
"I have meat."
Everyone turned.
"…What?"
"I stole it," she said proudly. "From the higher-ups' storage."
"You what?!" Armin gasped.
Eren raised an eyebrow. "If everyone eats it, they won't know who took it."
Kaelen added, "We could build a small fire. Use some of the gunpowder to cook it properly."
Sasha's eyes sparkled with joy, "Whew, I was afraid you guys would ask me to bring it back..."
And then—
Lightning.
A blinding flash erupted just beyond the gate.
The sky seemed to bend.
The ground cracked with thunder.
And then…
A shape.
A massive, towering shape.
The Colossal Titan.
Heat roared from its skin.
Steam gushed like breath from hell.
The wall shook. Cadets screamed.
Metal groaned as bolts popped.
Several cadets were thrown off balance.
Sasha, reacting on instinct, caught Samuel by the arm, pulling him to safety just before a stone slab crushed the space they'd stood.
Eren didn't panic.
He grinned.
"Five years…"
He leapt toward the edge of the wall, ODM gear whirring, he didn't even care about nearly getting hit by the rubble and had only one thought.
"I've kept your death waiting for five whole years."
The Colossal Titan lunged, destroying the upper cannon emplacements in one sweeping, deliberate motion.
Eren dodged, heart pounding, gear releasing a burst of gas as he swung around a broken beam.
"He's aiming for the cannons…"
He stared at the gate below.
"And the wall... That wasn't random either."
He's intelligent.
And that made him more dangerous than any Eren had trained for.
He launched himself forward.
Steel blades out.
Wires hissing.
"DIE!"
He flew—fast, fast—straight at the nape.
Victory is within reach.
And then—
Steam.
A roaring wall of white heat.
It slammed into him.
Too hot.
Blades slowed.
Hands scorched.
He pressed in.
Closer.
Closer—
Nothing.
The Colossal Titan vanished.
Gone.
As if it had never been there.
Eren tumbled to the Wall's edge.
Breathing hard.
Sweat steamed from his skin. "What...did he just...disappear?" Eren muttered a curse, he didn't even get to injure it yet.
...
Garrison soldiers screamed for formations.
Civilians panicked.
The alarm bell was ringing across Trost.
The gates were open. The breach was real.
And Titans were on the move.
Upon the Wall, cadets began grabbing weapons.
Strapping on gear.
Eren stood alone for a moment, hands shaking.
But his eyes—his eyes burned with fire.
"We fight now."
Kaelen approached.
"I'll stay on your left. You always leave that side open."
Eren looked at him.
"…Thanks."
Krista arrived a moment later.
Breathless.
Still holding a half-bitten piece of bread.
"Did it… disappear?"
Kaelen nodded. "Yeah."
Krista's lips trembled.
"But it left the gate open."
Kaelen looked down.
Thousands of people.
Open roads.
No defence.
"Yes," he said quietly.
"It did."
How annoying...to think a Titan is capable of instantly appearing and disappearing like that? Humanity is going to die at this rate.
The city burned with a quiet urgency.
In the upper levels of Trost, new cadets stood near the barricades, blades shaking in their scabbards.
Fear was thick enough to chew.
Armin's hands trembled around his harness. Mikasa, near him, wasn't looking any better, not due to fear of Titans, but Eren had disappeared during the chaos
"They can annihilate us… at any time," he muttered.
He saw their shadows first—Titans, lumbering. Grotesque. Grinning.
Each one a caricature ofa man. Each one a nightmare made flesh.
And they were coming.
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[Auther: Yo. I'll be double uploading today, and by that, I mean I'll update MHA, since I finally got back in the game with appriopate rest..]