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So, this is what the end of the world feels like. Miles and miles of gravestones, all arranged in straight lines.
Ceremonies. No one’s really mourning. It’s as if nobody has time for it—moving from one casualty to the next. Some are even nameless—new recruits nobody will remember. Except of one commander everyone can’t stop mentioning.
“How could you make that decision?” they kept asking him. “How could you give up the commander for that nameless child?” A commander—that’s all he was to them. Nothing more.
Overhearing Eren trying to explain why it was right to save Armin, Levi Ackerman leaned silently against a wall in the ceremony hall. His familiar, cold expression remained. His eyes fixed on the floor.
Everyone seemed to have an opinion on his decision, whether it was praise or criticism. When Historia gave him the necklace, one thought echoed in his head: You’re undeserving of this. Erwin had asked him for one thing, just one thing, and he couldn’t achieve it.
Levi didn’t let sorrow linger for too long. For him it was all about looking forward, planning the next move.
But his guilt was a stubborn emotion—one he couldn’t shake off. It threatened to tear apart whatever was left of him. Sometimes he felt as if he was standing on a mountain of those he’d lost. And it was all because of his mistakes. His decisions.
“So choose for yourself whichever decision you’ll regret least” he’d told Eren. That thought kept him going.
But it seemed Levi Ackerman had made a series of wrong choices. There was no point in convincing Erwin otherwise, no point in threatening to break both of his legs, no point in sitting in his room after he lost his hand. Erwin Smith was meant to be gone. And so was Levi, as he told himself often.
If you asked him, he wouldn’t know how to explain why he was still alive when everyone around him seemed to perish. He was valuable—that was true. The most feared soldier, with no special powers, yet able to take down anyone despite that. Except when it came to saving someone else.
The Survey Corps were nearly wiped out. The green flag held almost no meaning in this new world. But his vow to Erwin remained—as a last source of breath. A vow deeper than the sea, a vow most important than anything they’d ever discover.
“The Beast Titan. I want you to kill him.”