Music: Rittai Kidou, Remixed version

"He must be around here..." a male voice says.

"I will make him suffer a hundred times what he did to us, this nasty demon!" another says.

Levi has got down from his horse to approach the colossal titan's disintegrated corpse. But some Marleys were arrived before him. He scowls. These morons will complicate his task... There is already one trying to extract the person in the titan's nape. Since it is on its back, it seems difficult, and the Marley crawled under the neck to open the nape with his bayonet. He also hears a few other voices from the other side of the steaming carcass. Tch... He will have to eliminate them.

He advances near the man under the titan's nape.

"You're not searching in the right spot." he says sedately. "It's below."

"What?? Wait, who the fuck are y--" His words are choked in the blood geyser that flows out of his jugular vein.

Levi removes his bloody blade and wipes it with a cloth he takes out of his jacket.

"Tch... Disgusting."

He climbs at the top of the colossal titan's skull. Below him, four Marley soldiers are calling their comrade; without any answer. He calls them out:

"Don't even try to attack my soldier. Nor me. You wouldn't win."

The men start to laugh.

"Hahaha! In addition to being small, you're stupid, you monster? You're alone against four! You have swords, and we've sub-machine guns! What you gonna do, dwarf?"

Levi does not answer. He keeps his swords' handles in his hands and puts his fingers on the buttons used to release the blades. Then he agilely jumps from the titan's skull, and, while he is in the air, he throws his blades ahead by making a wide arms movement.

He gracefully touches the ground, squat. The two blades are stuck in the throats of two of the men, who fall on the ground with a bloody squish. Their faces freeze in an expression of pure terror and pain.

The two remaining men raise their rifles towards him, but Levi has already stood up, and, raising the sides of his mantle, he shoots two hooks with his 3D maneuver gear. They hook with an extreme accuracy on the two rifles pointed at him that are snatched from the soldiers' hands. Levi catches one in the air.

The soldiers unsheathe their light guns at the same time, but their opponent is way too swift for them: he shoots a burst of gunfire at each of them before they could pull the trigger. They collapse, their bodies riddled with bullets. He crouches, and lifts one of the soldiers by the collar to look at him in the face.

"Never... call me... 'dwarf'."

But the Marley can't hear him: he is already dead. He stares at the rifle he is still holding in his hand.

"A perfect weapon to kill humans, right?"

He throws it negligently on the ground, and turns to the titan's skeleton, barely covered with flesh. He will have to extract the young soldier from the nape. He carefully leans under the neck, which is still hot and vaporous. Thanks to his long soldier's experience in the Survey Corps, he instinctively finds the area where the titan shifter's body is located. Using his sharped blades, he cuts all around the nape. He takes his time to not hurt Armin, even if he could regenerate.

Even if he rarely shows it, Levi has a lot of respect for his soldiers. In particular for Armin Arlert. Not everyone has his ability to have dreams, and even the strongest soldier of humanity admires it. For the moment... he has no regrets. He gets the unconscious young man out, and installs him on his horse.

"Come on, brat." he says while extracting him out of the mass of flesh. "We're leaving."

He goes to the gallop to come back towards the other soldiers when he sees, just next to him, the huge cargo that brought the titans. Nothing is coming out now, but the hatch is still open. Levi remembers what Hanji said: "He certainly carries some munitions and fuel...".

Levi hesitates to leave Armin without any protection for several minutes, but there is no danger in sight. The opportunity is too attractive... He gets off his horse and brings a torch with him. He comes near the ship before crossing the metallic hatch. He discovers a huge room, high and long, like a warehouse's interior. In the back, hundreds of woody cases are orderly stacked.

"Some munitions and fuel? Interesting..."

He lights up his torch.

"It would be unfortunate... if an accidental fire breaks out here..."

He casts his afire torch right towards the woody cases, and the runs out of the cargo. A few seconds later, tons of munitions and fuel make the cargo explode from inside in a huge flame that burns for a long time, even in the downpour. He quickly comes back to his horse, that didn't move a bit despite the stunning noise. The Survey Corps' horses are extremely well trained. Levi goes to the gallop while holding ahead him Armin, who is still unconscious. He frowns. The situation seems bad for his soldiers. Again, people will die today. He couldn't help but think that he should have been able to avoid this... Their death won't even be worth a dime...

And... what's going on on Eren's side?

♦ ♦ ♦

Music: 進撃 st-hrn-egt 20130629 巨人
By Hiroyuki Sawano

He is going to shoot.

The face of the man behind the machine gun expresses his hate and his anger. I froze, terrorized and powerless. There is no loophole. Would the dark hole of this cannon be the last thing I'll ever see? No... I can't die here... Not like that... I can't abandon Eren... The machine gun fires. I close my eyes.

"Fight!"

Arising from nowhere, this words resound in my mind. At the same moment, a huge shadow goes over me.

There is no outbreak of pain, no blood flowing from my body. I don't have my life flashing before my eyes, and I don't sink into darkness. The Marley in front of me just turned his angry expression into a terrorized one. A giant hand befalls on him, instantly crushing his bones.

"Eren..." I mutter, dazed.

His titan stands in front of me, in an almost animal position. He misses a whole arm, and his two feet are in the state of incandescent stumps. His face is partially torn off and the extreme heat of his body creates some little flames on its surface. His only eye remaining expresses an infinite anger and pain. He cannot stand up, and he moves by using any part of his body that still allows him to advance, regardless of the injuries and the mutilations he sustained.

He finishes crushing the destroyer which targeted me. He is breathing loudly, and his breath has become a hot steam. It is obvious that doing any movement in his state requires a superhuman effort. Nevertheless he has to carry on.

"Eren!" I yell. "You can do it! There are only two battleships to destroy!"

I don't know if he heard me, but he heads as best he could towards the other boats that are not far from the shore. He jumps with little vigor to dodge the torpedoes and the bombshells. However, one of them hits his wrist and breaks it. Eren continues even if he no longer has his hands and his feet, he swims with difficulty towards the penultimate destroyer. He opens his large distorted jaw, and crunches the hull as strongly as possible. He succeeds to make rift that lets the water seep in. He doesn't go further. It will be enough to sink the boat.

Only the last boat remains.

Eren heads towards it.

The destroyer shoots a shell with its cannon.

The shot accuracy is fateful. The impact literally tears the titan's head off and throws his inanimate body on the beach.

I stay tetanized for several seconds. I can't believe what I just saw. So close... It's impossible...

But Eren doesn't stand up. The Marleys are already coming towards him to capture him.

"NO!! EREN!!!!!" I yell desperately. I run towards him, in tears. We lost. I can't even imagine the aftermath. What will happen to Eren? I try to come next to him, but some men are already heading towards me to immobilize me. Alone against five armed men, I'm powerless. They brutally throw me to the ground, and they block me in this position with their boots while they tie my hands up behind my back. I struggle, determined to fight until the end, calling out Eren's name with all the energy still remaining in me. It's useless. I feel someone solidly muzzling me with a dirty and very tight clothe.

One of the men raises his rifle, and knocks me out with the hilt. The last thing I see before I faint is Eren's inanimate body, unceremoniously pulled out of the titan's nape.