Chapter 92: Dying and Living, Living and Dying
"Did you guys… just suddenly—" Hange pointed at the two on the ground, then back to where she and Armin had been standing. "When we walked over there, you collapsed? And then when we ran back, you came back to life?"
Mikasa nodded, confirming Hange's account.
Eren and Levi exchanged shocked glances.
"It seems… that's what happened," Eren said uncertainly.
Armin had also realized what was going on. He looked down at the gem in his hand, then back at Eren and Levi, his eyes filled with bewildered suspicion. "Could it be… related to this gem? The distance?"
"Possible!" Hange's eyes lit up again with research fervor. "Distance! It must be the distance! Come on! Let's run an experiment!"
She began issuing commands with unquestionable authority. "Eren, Levi, stay right where you are! Don't move! Mikasa, you monitor their condition! Armin! Hold onto the gems and come with me! We'll back away slowly!"
The five immediately sprang into action. Hange and Armin, holding the Soul Gems, backed away step by step. Eren, Levi, and Mikasa watched each other intently.
Fifty meters… sixty meters… eighty meters… Eren and Levi were fine, though their expressions were grave.
Ninety meters… ninety-five… Still no change.
One hundred meters!
The instant Hange and Armin crossed the approximate 100-meter line…
Thump! Thump!
Eren and Levi simultaneously collapsed backward again, exactly as before. They were dead!
"Stop!!!" Hange yelled immediately. She and Armin quickly ran forward a few steps, back within the 100-meter range. Almost instantaneously, Eren and Levi came back to life!
They repeated the test several times, and the results were astonishingly consistent. One hundred meters. No more, no less. It was like an invisible boundary. As soon as the person holding the Soul Gem moved more than 100 meters away from the body, the body would instantly "die." The moment they returned within range, it would instantly revive.
"My god…" Hange muttered, staring at the gem in her hand. Her eyes were filled with an unprecedented shock, and also the extreme excitement of seeing a completely new possibility. "Could this thing be…"
Armin, having arrived at the same unbelievable yet most logical conclusion, spoke, his voice dry, "Our souls… or rather, our consciousness… is stored inside this gem? And our bodies… are just vessels, powered by the gem?"
A brief silence fell over the training ground. The sun was still shining brightly, but this paradigm-shifting discovery seemed to freeze the very air.
Hange took a deep breath, her eyes blazing with fanaticism. "Unbelievable! This is a revolutionary discovery! The body is just a vessel?! Does that mean… as long as the gem is intact, the body is practically immortal?! For combat, this is—"
Her words hit home. Levi's cold eyes glinted. He subconsciously touched his own Soul Gem. "Tch… a core that must be protected at all costs. But conversely… as long as the core is safe, the body can…" He didn't finish, but the tactical value was obvious. Combined with the pain suppression, this was a perfect mechanism for "weaponizing the body."
Eren clenched his fists tightly, a resolute will burning in his eyes. "As long as this is here, I can keep fighting—no matter how broken my body becomes!"
Mikasa's gaze instantly locked onto Eren's Soul Gem, her eyes becoming incredibly determined. Protecting Eren's core became her new mission.
Armin, however, frowned, his mind rapidly analyzing the pros and cons of this mode of existence. "This certainly increases survivability dramatically… but it also means the gem becomes our single point of failure. If the gem is destroyed—"
As he spoke, everyone understood the potential, fatal risk.
"But overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages," Hange concluded quickly. "And experimenting with destruction is too risky. If it really breaks, they might pay an unimaginable price."
This discovery also cast their earlier pain suppression ability in a new light.
"I see…" Levi murmured. He moved his injured arm again. This time, he consciously separated his awareness from his body's sensations. If the soul and consciousness reside in the gem, then the 'pain' felt by this flesh… is just a self-deception, a signal to make me feel like I'm still human. But in this cruel world, what was wrong with this form of existence? It was actually more conducive to survival.
He tried moving the injured joint more forcefully. There was a faint grinding sound from the bone. No pain. Absolutely none. Before, he had needed to concentrate to "suppress" it. Now that he understood what he was, he could simply "define" it as irrelevant information unless necessary.
"Let me try too!" Eren, seeing this, punched himself hard in the chest. There was only the physical sensation of impact, no pain whatsoever. "It's true—I don't feel anything at all!"
Even Armin, who had the most difficulty blocking pain before, now understood.
"Perfect! Absolutely perfect!" Hange practically jumped with excitement. "Soul containers! Pain suppression! As long as the gems are protected, you're practically indestructible fighting machines! And maybe tireless too!" She looked at Eren, Levi, and Armin as if they were priceless treasures. "Although the gem is an absolute weakness… if used correctly, this advantage could be enough to turn everything around!"
[Non-Human Chat Group]
Tom Cat: [Cat's_jaw_drops_watching_the_calm_analysis.gif]
SpongeBob SquarePants: Wow! They figured it out! Their souls are in the little rocks! But— they don't seem very scared? That's totally different from the little boy named Mitsuhiko in the last show!
Squidward: [Facepalming_with_a_tentacle_cant_watch_expression.jpg]
The power of Magical Girls had revealed another, stranger, and more potent aspect of itself to the people within the Walls. It brought not just enhanced combat ability, but a fundamental alteration of "existence" itself. To them, this wasn't terrifying. It was a glimmer of hope—something they could rely on in this cruel world.
However, immersed in the huge tactical advantages of this "immortality" and "painlessness," no one had yet noticed that through this near self-destructive, frantic training, through the constant pushing of their physical limits, the three Soul Gems belonging to Eren, Levi, and Armin, deep within their originally clear brilliance, had quietly acquired a faint layer of—
Black corruption.