His hair was seared clean off, his limbs melted by fire. Roger's whole body baked in the blaze, breath strangled in his throat.
His consciousness blurred; the world in front of him dimmed.
In a daze, he remembered his oath:
—If Marley isn't destroyed within ten years, then it means I'm dead.
The old humiliations and hatred rose, vivid as yesterday.
Eldians had no human rights, penned in internment zones like pigs and rats.
Roger still remembered how he and his friends once climbed over the wall to build sandcastles at the beach; on the way back, a friend who didn't run in time crossed paths with Marley's military police.
Back then Roger was naïve. He thought if his friend apologized, it would end there.
He was wrong.
Those inhuman Marley MPs, thinking it unlucky to run into an Eldian kid after afternoon tea, loosed their dogs and tore him to death.
That blood-stench, that heaving, nauseating reek, those terror-split screams—Roger would never forget.
He'd never forget how, when his grandmother and he scavenged fresh leaves, a local vendor spat on her head, ground her back under his boot, and forced her to lick the dirt.
Roger would never forget her voice, tears of helpless hatred choking it. He would never forget.
He'd had enough.
He'd had more than enough.
Bertolt, even if we once shared easy days.
Annie, even if you and I once carried the same loneliness, trailing behind the others, lunchbox in hand, watching some vile officer smack it into the dust and snarl that "failures don't deserve to eat."
Pieck, even if you once showed me kindness, and young feelings once budded.
All of that is past.
All of it is over.
Dying and alone here, with no onlookers to see, tears finally slipped from the corners of Roger's eyes—only to be ripped away by the heat.
When he opened his eyes again, something in him had shifted.
He had shed the past.
"Anyone who stands in my way dies!!"
Like a king pronouncing sentence, Roger roared the words.
The black markings flared, winding tight around his body and restoring his limbs to wholeness.
Feet planted, Roger strode out of the fire and stared up at the Colossal Titan's head above.
Because Bertolt had transformed atop the Wall, he had only formed the Colossal Titan's upper half.
As the woven mass of its upper body neared completion, the Colossal's eyes rolled—and fixed on a familiar figure.
Roger.
Bertolt froze.
"How—?!"
Panic jolted him. He had never heard of anyone surviving the Colossal's transformation blast.
That blast was monstrous.
Even Titans couldn't bear it.
They burned to ash in the flames—
Except the Armored Titan behind its plates.
But—
Roger, right now, was not in Titan form.
Not the Jaw Titan.
Not the War Hammer Titan.
Definitely not the hard-plated Armored Titan.
The Colossal Titan stared, wide-eyed, at Roger.
He looked him over.
He looked again.
He confirmed Roger was unarmed—no Armored Titan plating, not even a scrap of Titan flesh on him.
Still only fragile human meat and bone.
Still standing in the fire, without a scratch.
Suddenly Bertolt remembered the day in the outskirts of Liberio—when a super-giant, black-flamed Titan ran wild at an inheritance ceremony.
The shock of it had been beyond words. Even now, it made a sixty-meter Colossal Titan feel small.
"So you really are a monster, Roger!!"
Bertolt snarled, swinging the Colossal's right hand to swat Roger away.
But as that massive hand came on, Roger slipped aside, easy, and a clean white radiance burst from his body.
The power of the War Hammer Titan.
Roger began to transform—summoning a War Hammer Titan's might he had never used before.
By then, the Female Titan had slid down from the Wall and landed. She turned, looking back up.
At first, when the Colossal Titan's blast bloomed, she had felt relief—certain Roger had been killed.
But then a dazzling light flared beside the Colossal, and she stiffened.
She knew that light—War Hammer Titan light.
If it shone now, it meant Roger had called on the War Hammer Titan's power.
And if he could use the War Hammer Titan's power now, then—
The Colossal Titan's blast hadn't harmed him at all.
"…"
Annie said nothing.
Perched on the Female Titan's shoulder, Pieck saw it too.
Knowing Roger as she did, she had half-expected this already, and her plan was ready.
"Annie, we're leaving."
"Abandon Bertolt?!"
"If we don't go now, there won't be time."
"Are you kidding me?! He's—"
"If the War Hammer fully manifests, the Colossal has no chance." Pieck's calm was colder than steel; the light had gone out of her eyes. "Marley's judgment is completely wrong. They underestimated Roger's resolve and capability. Provoking a madman like this is Marley's greatest mistake since its founding."
"…"
Annie had no answer; she agreed.
Unlike Reiner, Porco, and Marcel, she knew Roger's strength very well. She knew the close-quarters she had drilled for years were mere showy flourishes in front of him.
Because he was a true prodigy—the one and only.
Her high whip-kick that burst the Jaw Titan's skull had been her best moment.
And that had only worked with the Armored Titan beside her, both of them using size to suppress the Jaw Titan.
Now—
Roger carried not only the Jaw Titan, but the Armored Titan and the War Hammer Titan—three powers at once.
And beyond that, he bore a strange, unfathomable power of his own.
Given that, yes—their odds were thin.
But…
Really abandon the Colossal?
Would Marley allow that?
Absolutely—
Not.
"Pieck." After a long war inside, Annie spoke. "If we can't recover the Jaw Titan, the Armored Titan, and—most of all—the Colossal Titan, then even if we go back, we'll only doom our families. Marley doesn't allow failures. That means we can only die on this land!"
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