Chapter 27: The Secrets of the World
Below the Rose Wall, District Two.
After beginning to hold the defense line at dawn, the Brotherhood members soon realized something was off today.
The wave of Giant attacks, which had been relentless yesterday, grew sparse. The Brotherhood quickly learned the reason: District Three had been breached. The news came from Chen, who had returned to the group.
Upon hearing this, Regimental Commander Adam wasn't surprised. After all, District Three was a temporary team composed of independent contractors; a broken front line was normal.
But when Chen revealed the real reason District Three fell, Adam felt utterly defeated. The District Three leader had actually fled. Although he hadn't taken his sister-in-law with him, this kind of desertion left Adam speechless.
However, after understanding the specifics, Adam felt a vague unease. The disappearance of the protagonist Eren, and the attitude of the plot character Mikasa, both pointed to one thing: the District Three leader might be planning something.
Adam was troubled. His team was a peace faction, never actively provoking other contractors. But if other contractors came to provoke them, they would never tolerate it.
After much deliberation, Adam decided not to provoke Su Xiao. However, the Brotherhood wasn't going to sit idly by.
One of the Brotherhood members had learned a sealing technique skill in the Naruto World. Although the sealing technique wasn't high-level, if they were given two days, the hole in the wall could be completely sealed. So Adam ignored the breached District Three. The reduction of Giants in District Two would speed up their progress in sealing the hole there.
Just as the sealing technique had blocked most of the hole, a disastrous piece of news arrived. The protagonist Eren was carrying a huge boulder and heading straight for the hole in District Three.
Seeing this, Adam nearly spat blood. The protagonist was so damn obedient. It hadn't even been half a day, and he had already been lured into being a laborer.
As the boulder crashed against the wall with a thunderous roar, the first place in the siege defense battle was taken.
Adam was not a narrow-minded person. Each war zone had to complete the mission by their own means. If others took the lead, it was their own skill.
"Brothers, the hole is about to be sealed. That blue equipment is also a good reward. Everyone has worked hard."
Adam tried to boost morale.
"The boss is so optimistic."
"The boss is forever second place."
The Brotherhood members responded listlessly, but the atmosphere within the group was harmonious, with no complaints. Seeing this, Adam smiled bitterly and shook his head.
The hole in District Two was about three meters wide. Most of it was blocked by rubble covered in black tadpole-like patterns. In another three or four hours, the hole would be completely sealed.
But just then, Adam heard a loud crash from outside the wall. Golden light shone through the hole.
"This is...?"
It took Adam less than five seconds to guess what that golden light was.
"Everyone, get away from the wall immediately!"
Adam roared. Although he shouted for others to retreat, he himself rushed to the hole alone.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"
Adam pressed his hand to the ground. A large number of trees rapidly grew from the soil, eventually forming a wooden wall.
Compared to Hashirama Senju's Wood Release, Adam's Wood Release skill was only a grain of light. But Adam, who had mastered several Wood Release skills, had great growth potential.
Boom!
A loud crash came from the side of the Brotherhood members. The wall they had painstakingly sealed was kicked in from the outside.
Several steaming giant toes appeared inside the hole. The Colossal Titan had appeared again.
The kicked stones carried immense kinetic energy, shooting outward like bullets. If these stones hit a person, it would be like a hammer smashing a tomato.
The wooden wall woven from trees became the Brotherhood's lifeline, blocking all the stones. The dozens of Brotherhood members were only blown away by the powerful shockwave.
In less than three seconds, District Two was breached. The Brotherhood members were scattered like petals in the wind.
A Giant covered in bone armor rushed toward the hole in District Two. With no obstacles, the Armored Titan successfully escaped through the hole.
The Armored Titan escaped with Annie, and the Colossal Titan immediately turned into a cloud of steam.
In fact, District Three was the ideal breakthrough point for the Colossal Titan. But a large number of Survey Corps members were gathered there, and the Armored Titan dared not flee in that direction.
'Bertholdt Hoover (Colossal Titan),' who had been lying in ambush on the wall, noticed this situation. So he chose District Two, which was mostly sealed and had fewer Survey Corps members.
Compared to the contractors, these three spies who possessed the 'Power of the Titans' were more wary of the Survey Corps.
...
Inside the wall, amidst a pile of ruins.
Su Xiao picked up the 'Vertical Maneuvering Equipment' from the ground. This thing was good for running away, and he was currently a member of the Survey Corps.
Now that the 'Three Intelligent Giants' inside the wall had all escaped outside, the difficulty of the siege defense mission had greatly decreased.
Standing on the rooftop, he looked at the devastation in District Two from a distance. Su Xiao sighed inwardly. The Brotherhood was really unlucky. But that suddenly appearing wooden wall caught his attention. It looked familiar somehow.
Su Xiao began to consider his next move. First, he needed to speed up the progress of the siege defense missions in the other two districts. If the mission was completed smoothly, he could obtain a blue-quality piece of equipment. If that blue equipment happened to suit him, his combat power would increase considerably.
However, compared to completing the siege defense mission, Su Xiao was more looking forward to the 'Three Giant Group' coming to find him.
His current location was inside the wall. Although the area inside the wall was not small, it was too small compared to the entire continental plate of the Giant World.
The Giant World was not just the area within the three concentric walls. It was a very vast and interesting world, a mix of technology and a trace of magic. According to Su Xiao's research, the general situation of the Giant World was as follows.
A long time ago, on a very vast continent (not the location of the walls, but a much larger continent), there were two major countries: the 'Marley Empire' and the 'Eldian Empire.'
The 'Eldian Empire' was weaker than the 'Marley Empire.' The two countries fought for years over territory. The 'Eldian Empire' was losing on all fronts and was on the verge of destruction.
But one day, a woman named Ymir from the 'Eldian Empire' coincidentally obtained a power.
The way this power was obtained was later called by the Marleyans as making a contract with the 'Earth Devil.'
Ymir herself was a war orphan, so she deeply hated the Marleyans. After gaining power, Ymir devoted herself to her homeland, the 'Eldian Empire,' and helped them in the war.
That's right. What Ymir obtained was the Power of the Titans. The most original, most ancient, and most powerful Titan power.
A body over a hundred meters tall, a body covered in bone armor, indestructible strength, and even the ability to alter or erase the memories of nearby humans.
After this terrifying monster joined the war, the Marley Empire was utterly defeated. In less than five years, the 'Eldian Empire' ruled that continent, establishing an extremely powerful empire.
As the strongest being in the world, Ymir naturally became the Queen of the empire, the sole ruler.
Although Queen Ymir possessed great power, she was still subject to aging and death. On her 117th birthday, Ymir died amidst the wails of her children.
On her deathbed, Ymir instructed her nine children to eat her flesh after her death.
Ymir's children did as they were told. The power of the Founding Titan was divided into nine. Each of Ymir's nine children obtained one of her abilities. Her children named these Titan powers: the Attack Titan, the Armored Titan, the Female Titan, the Colossal Titan, the Beast Titan, the Jaw Titan, and so on, nine in total.
The glory of the 'Eldian Empire' continued. However, Ymir's children soon discovered a situation. After inheriting the Titan power, their lifespans became short, only 13 years. And Ymir had lived exactly 117 years, which, divided into nine parts, equaled 13 years.
Not only that, the Eldian royal family also discovered that only the Eldian race could inherit the Titan power. Marleyans could not.
This point was taken seriously by the Eldian royal family. They enslaved women of other races, forcing them to bear children of Eldian blood.
The nine Titan powers could be inherited by devouring the previous inheritor. If the previous inheritor died without being devoured, that Titan power would randomly appear on a newborn Eldian child.
This further consolidated the rule of the 'Eldian Empire.' This empire ruled that vast continent for a full 1,700 years.
The Marley Empire had long since perished under the crushing power of the Titans. But the Marleyans were not willing to be ruled like this.
After a thousand years of rule, a genius of extremely high intelligence appeared among the remaining Marleyan royal family. This genius understood that they could never defeat the 'Eldian Empire' in a direct confrontation. However, he thought of another method: using a divide-and-conquer strategy to sow discord among the nine major Titan families.
The empire, which had existed for nearly two thousand years, was already corrupt. Through the efforts of several generations of Marleyans, the nine major Titan families turned against each other.
A brutal civil war began. The Marleyans took this opportunity to seize seven of the Titan powers, almost turning the tables.
But a great mountain still stood before the Marleyans. One of the nine major Titan families was too powerful. This family possessed the strongest Titan power among the nine, a power very close to the Founding Titan. Therefore, this Titan power was also called the Founding Titan power. This power could control the lesser Titans awakened by 'ordinary Eldian civilians.' These lesser Titans were very similar to the current Mindless Titans.
During the long war, when the Founding Titan had been passed down for 145 generations, the inheritor of that generation suddenly seemed to have an epiphany. He led a group of Eldians away from that continent and settled on a small island next to it.
To prevent the Marleyans from attacking with the Titan power, the 145th King used his Founding Titan power to control a large number of 30-to-40-meter-tall Titans, making them stand in a row. He then ordered those Titans to use their secondary hardening ability to form a circular wall. This was the Maria Wall, which was breached at the beginning of the story.
After that, the 145th King used the same method to build two more circular walls inside the Maria Wall: the Rose Wall and the Sina Wall.
The 145th King became the First King inside the walls. He conspired with the Marleyans to murder the only Titan family that was still resisting. The First King had his subordinates obtain that family's Titan power. This family's Titan power could alter and erase human memories.
Under the First King's command, the memories of the people inside the walls were altered, making them forget the nearby continent and the knowledge and culture of Eldia.
After that, the First King signed a non-aggression treaty with the reborn 'Marley Empire.'
But one day, the First King discovered that many Mindless Titans had appeared outside the walls. It turned out that the 'Marley Empire' had initially cracked the secret of the Titans. The Mindless Titans outside the walls were all Marleyan experiments.
After realizing that the Founding Titan power could control these Mindless Titans, the First King ignored them. This would prevent the people inside the walls from going out, which suited his intentions.
And so, the world inside the walls was created. The people inside the walls enjoyed a hundred years of peace.
But the First King didn't know that the nearby continent had long since suffered severe resource depletion due to years of war. So the Marley Empire set its sights on this vast island.
The Marley Empire did not declare war directly. They were somewhat wary of the First King's Titan power. So the Marley Empire sent four spies who possessed the Titan power to infiltrate the walls and wait for an opportunity to cause destruction. They were:
Annie Leonhart (Female Titan power), infiltrated the walled world at age 13.
Reiner Braun (Armored Titan power), infiltrated the walled world at age 18.
Bertholdt Hoover (Colossal Titan power), infiltrated the walled world at age 17.
Berik (Jaw Titan power), deceased, devoured by a Mindless Titan on the way.
When the three-person team arrived outside the wall, 'Bertholdt (Colossal)' kicked in the outer gate, and Reiner Braun (Armored) broke through the inner gate. Only then did the story of the Giant World truly begin.
After that, the three joined the Training Corps, becoming contemporaries of the protagonist Eren.
Now that the Rose Wall had been breached, this was the second time the three had attacked the humans inside the walls.
(PS: The monthly ticket ranking is within sight, tears of joy. Continue to beg for monthly tickets.)