All of a sudden, Roger seemed like a different person; his whole aura had changed.
Standing atop the Wall, his body was veined with black markings that slithered everywhere.
They felt almost sentient, ravenously interested in Roger's flesh.
They struggled and writhed, swarming toward his head as if answering a call, creeping upward like man-eating black serpents.
Roger knew he couldn't let them run wild any longer.
Their ultimate goal was to seize his body and make it their own.
He didn't know exactly what would happen if they succeeded, but there was no way he'd let these things use his body as an experiment.
Not far away, the War Hammer Titan tightened its grip on the long-handled hammer. It stared at Roger Eikam, baffled that his body had changed so drastically.
Not just his hands—his whole form had turned shadowy and scarlet, like a phantom you couldn't grasp, bristling with killing intent.
Trapped in the crystallized cage, Levi had already sat down. He'd tried every method he could; this cage wouldn't open to anything.
Unless he found a substance harder than the crystalline bars—and up here on the Wall's summit, nothing like that existed, nor was there anywhere to search.
Now the "monster kid" finally showed his true face. Like an actual monster, his body had swelled a bit, his claws and fangs growing ever sharper.
He looked like that when he turned into a Titan, too, but Levi understood—even any Titan couldn't compare to Roger right now.
A grim, slaughtering pressure rolled outward from him, sweeping aside all resistance.
Levi had felt such a presence once, in the Underground.
Back then he'd been a ragged, hungry punk, pushed around by anyone stronger.
Then one day he met Kenny the Ripper and learned how he'd gutted dozens of MPs.
The aura on Kenny that day was the same as the aura on Roger now.
Someone was going to die.
So Levi thought, and a prickle of unease needled him.
Roger seemed to have lost his reason entirely. If his power rampaged, shattered its restraints, and destroyed everything around them—then what?
"Tours—!"
From a distance, Levi called out to Tours standing behind Roger.
Hearing him, Tours looked over.
"Get away from Roger. He might not be in his right mind. If you stay close, your life is in danger." Levi warned, then pointed at the cage around him. "Help me open this," he said.
Tours glanced from his frenzied boss to the imprisoned Levi, weighed it for a moment, then led the Scorpio Group over to Levi's cage. They threw everything they had into freeing the trapped Levi.
At that moment, Erwin stood farther off.
Beneath his feet lay a perfect position.
Advance, and he could launch a sudden strike for a killing blow.
Retreat, and he could withdraw at once, leaving the enemy reeling.
"Erwin, shall we help? This Roger guy clearly isn't a match for that white Titan!"
Behind Commander Erwin Smith, the Military Police commander Nile asked for permission to engage.
He and Erwin had been classmates and his grades were no worse, but he still trusted Erwin's judgment more.
Because in every battle, Erwin's decisions were the most accurate and his assessments the most complete.
"Wait a bit longer."
Erwin spoke, quietly observing the field, his forces still and ready.
No one knew what the commander was thinking—least of all Eren Yeager.
Even with Mikasa clamping hard on his shoulders, she still couldn't stop him once his emotions surged.
"Dedicate your hearts!!"
Young Eren bolted forward; behind him, Mikasa and Armin chased hard.
In an instant, every soldier turned to look.
Erwin flicked his gaze over and gave a small signal to the man at his side.
"Yes."
The man sprinted out, kicked the disobedient trainee who had charged without orders—Eren—flat to the ground, and pinned him there.
"Let me go!" Eren shouted.
Mikasa glared daggers at the man, one heartbeat away from drawing steel.
Just then, Erwin approached.
"I can let you go—but tell me your name."
"…Eren. Eren Yeager."
Eren answered, chin high and stubborn as he stared at Commander Erwin.
He didn't get it. Why waste such a good opportunity?
The Titan was right there. Everything was ready. And the commander still wanted to sit on the sidelines?
"Eren Yeager." Erwin suddenly crouched, studying the man pinned beneath Miche.
"Commander, we trainees want to fight. Please send us in." Mikasa requested, hand to heart.
"It's not time yet."
"So we wait for him to die?" Eren shouted. "Commander, Senior Oluo said he came to support us. If he dies, won't that white Titan be even harder to deal with?"
"If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense," Miche scolded, though in his heart he also didn't want to fight a monster like Roger—turning an enemy into a friend would be ideal.
But clearly, Commander Erwin didn't see it that way.
After a short silence, Erwin looked out at the two monsters in the distance and asked Eren:
"Eren, which one of those two is humanity's true enemy?"
"…"
Eren fell silent at once.
Strictly speaking, neither was a friend—both could be called enemies.
But which one was the real enemy?
No one knew what to say.
Erwin understood that only he could find that answer.
And that answer would be paved with human corpses.
"Prepare for battle," he said at last. "Await my order."
By then, Roger had finished changing his entire body and suddenly pounced at the War Hammer Titan before him.
The War Hammer Titan was ready for that.
Its wrist turned; it yanked the haft of its long war hammer and swung it in a brutal arc, smashing it down on Roger, whose height had swelled to a full two meters.
BOOM!!
A savage, crushing blow!
The hammer slammed Roger's human body into the Wall, pulping him—smashed to mince!
Blood burst. Stone chips screamed through the air.
Everyone's chests rattled from the shock.
"Terrifying!"
"This is unreal!"
"How can anything be that strong?!"
The smoke curled. The War Hammer Titan slowly drew back its weapon and lifted it.
Through the haze, amid the ruin—
A figure stood casually in the crater. Not a hair harmed, and still wearing that eerie smile.
"?!"
At the War Hammer's nape, Lara Tybur gasped. That had been her full strength. She'd felt it—the hammer had pulverized him to paste!
What…?
How is that possible?!
"Sorry. I'm in a hurry."
Roger suddenly grinned, feral. He lowered his body into a runner's crouch, whispering under his breath:
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
KRAK!!
With an explosive crack, Roger sprinted—almost in an eye-blink—thundering straight at a foe over seven times his height. He drove a fist with all his might—
CRACK!!!
His punch crushed into the War Hammer Titan's shin. Bone split and bowed; the giant's whole frame lost its balance, pitching sideways and slamming into the ground with a brutal crash!
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