"Tch..."
Levi landed on a rooftop, steam constantly rising from his body due to the Titan blood splattered on him. His entire body was filthy, causing immense discomfort for someone as cleanliness-obsessed as him, his cold face continuously scowling.
He used the only clean handkerchief he had left to wipe the stickiness from his hand. Levi's gaze shifted to the left, a few houses away, where Kenny had just landed.
"This person..."
Kenny Ackerman was completely covered by his armor, making identification difficult. But his fighting style felt incredibly familiar to Levi, as if he had encountered it on someone before.
But before he could think further, Erwin landed right beside him, slightly breathless.
"Levi, keep buying time."
"Then you stay here. Standing too close will get you killed."
"Don't underestimate me."
Erwin said with a smile, immediately firing his grappling hooks to move again. Levi shook his head and followed instantly. Their time-buying plan was very simple, or rather, apart from this simple plan, the four of them had no other choice.
They continuously slashed at the Titan's furthest points—its fingers. Why slash at the fingers? Because that was the easiest place to retreat from. If they dared to attack closer to the torso, they could easily be caught or swatted away by the Founding Titan; being pulverized in mid-air would be a light outcome.
Meanwhile, Asahi was zipping along close to the ground, utilizing the architecture to mask his movements. His eyes scanned around with extreme focus, constantly avoiding the myriad obstacles in his path, maneuvering left and right with exceptional skill.
Once again, that surging feeling returned. The sensation of his entire body and spirit being pushed to their limits. His pupils contracted, locking onto a single point: the Founding Titan's heel!
PHANG!!!
Asahi shot out from the dirt road, using a propped-up wooden board to launch himself in an arc through the air. In that instant, he saw that one of the Founding Titan's eyes was no longer looking at the five people causing a disturbance but was staring intently at him. It had detected him. Its other hand made a sweeping motion to push the Survey Corps away, while the hand it had used to punch earlier carved a cross-cutting line on the ground to block him. Its massive body leaned down.
The swing created a shockwave that decimated a quarter of the town, forming a trench sixty to seventy meters long and five meters deep. Along with it was a chaotic mixture of pulverized bricks and wood fragments. Against the terrifying power of the Founding Titan, everything created by humanity was truly too fragile.
"Asahi..."
Erwin was supported by Mike from behind, stabilizing himself on the ground. Horror was concealed in the depths of his eyes. He dared not imagine how the army inside the Walls could possibly stop this thing.
One such strike could wipe out an entire division. Yet, to the Founding Titan, the effort expended was like an individual merely bending down to scratch the ground. It could scratch a hundred times, but humanity did not have a hundred divisions to spare.
Suddenly, the thick cloud of smoke and dust stirred up by the debris and dirt was sliced open by a line. From within, Asahi emerged, holding his sword in a downward-striking stance.
A thought flashed through his mind. So, that feeling of surging to the extreme limit was the cell reaching the brink of breaking through to a higher level. In the moment the Founding Titan's attack blocked all escape routes, Asahi entered a state of unified focus, pushing himself beyond his limit and cutting out with a single slash.
Although he had experienced power higher than this before, and more than once, this sensation still made him marvel. His entire being felt unhindered, his five senses heightened, and even his physical potential increased. Asahi felt at least ten times stronger than before.
These thoughts only crossed his mind in a flash. Asahi returned to the battle before him. He activated his special ability.
The world, whether wide or narrow, large or small, is created from countless stacked layers. And each layer, whether thick or thin, has distinct flows running through it, which can even pass through different planes of reality.
Asahi saw the flow he needed. A winding path, but one that led to victory. His eyes shone brightly.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The Founding Titan continuously launched attacks at Asahi, making the entire town shake as if on the verge of collapse. Yet, every time a blow was about to land, he skillfully managed to evade it by a hair's breadth.
In this moment, he saw the entire "world"!
Whoosh!
Asahi successfully climbed onto the Founding Titan's body. With complete disregard for physics, he shot straight upwards, heading directly for the nape of the Founding Titan's neck, which couldn't react in time. Looking at the target before him, Asahi took a deep breath.
And then, the black blade slashed down.
The sound "phang" couldn't even be fully emitted because the slash was supersonic, turning the path of the blade into a near-vacuum environment. A clean cut appeared on the nape of the Founding Titan's neck. Asahi, without a word, plunged straight into it. Several meters deep was a hollow area, which was where Frieda was located.
"Frieda Reiss!"
He shouted her name, intending to wake her up. Unfortunately, Frieda remained in a dazed state, seemingly having lost all connection to the outside world. In the meantime, the Founding Titan roared frantically. Both its hands frantically clawed at the back of its neck to pull him out, while tendons and muscle tissue rapidly appeared, enveloping Frieda. They were blocking him from pulling her out.
Asahi continuously swung his sword, but he could only keep half of her head exposed, and how could he pull a person out with only half a head showing? In this crucial moment, he enacted his final strategy.
The initial plan was to open a path into the Founding Titan and pull Frieda out. Without Frieda, the Founding Titan would spontaneously dissolve. Unfortunately, the Founder's will had blocked this final step.
Now, his only option was to expel the Founder's will once more, allowing Frieda to regain control of her body first. Only then could this riot be stopped.
The reason the second plan wasn't used from the start was its unpredictability. Even Asahi wasn't sure it would succeed, or even if it did succeed, whether it would end this situation. In short, it was full of variables.
A terrifying aura radiated out, disturbing the surrounding reality. A golden arrow, a burning torch, a blazing meteor—symbols of his will—pierced the boundary between reality and illusion, entering an undefined black void.