CHAPTER 34: THE BATTLE OF WALL ROSE
The ground shook.
Thousands of Titans emerged from the walls. Their bodies steamed. Their eyes glowed.
Sukuna stood at the edge of Wall Rose, his hand still raised.
Behind him, the soldiers stared in silence.
"What have you done?" Shadis whispered.
"What I had to."
The Marleyan ships reached the shore.
Soldiers poured out. Cannons were aimed. Titans were unleashed.
But they weren't expecting this.
Thousands of Titans. Waiting. Watching.
"Fire!" a Marleyan commander shouted.
Cannons roared.
Sukuna didn't flinch.
He raised his other hand.
"March."
The Titans moved.
Like a wave. Like a flood. Like death itself.
They crashed into the Marleyan forces. Cannons were crushed. Soldiers were trampled. Ships were torn apart.
"This is madness," Armin whispered.
"This is war," Sukuna replied.
Mikasa stood beside him.
"Are you controlling them all?"
"Yes."
"How does it feel?"
"Like holding the sky."
She looked at his face. Calm. Focused. But something else was there.
Pain.
"You're hurting."
"I'm fine."
"Liar."
He didn't answer.
From the chaos, a roar.
A massive Titan. Brown fur. Long arms. Ape-like.
The Beast Titan.
Zeke.
He stood in the middle of the battlefield, watching his army crumble.
"EREN!" he shouted.
Sukuna jumped from the wall.
He landed on a Titan's shoulder. Then another. Then another.
Moving like a ghost.
They stood face to face.
Zeke's Beast Titan towered over Sukuna. But Sukuna didn't look up.
"You're destroying everything," Zeke said.
"I'm building something new."
"This isn't building. This is slaughter."
"You started this. Not me."
Zeke's eyes narrowed.
"I wanted to save our people."
"You wanted to end them."
Zeke roared.
He swung his massive arm.
Sukuna jumped.
The arm crushed the Titan beneath him.
Sukuna landed on Zeke's shoulder.
"You're fast," Zeke said.
"I'm just getting started."
Sukuna's hand glowed.
Cursed energy. Mixed with Titan power.
He touched Zeke's neck.
Zeke screamed.
His Titan body began to crack. Steam exploded.
"What... what are you doing?!"
"Freeing you."
"This isn't freedom! This is death!"
"Same thing."
Zeke's Titan crumbled.
From the rubble, a man emerged.
Naked. Bleeding.
Zeke Yeager.
Human again.
Sukuna stood over him.
"The cure," Zeke whispered. "You used it on me."
"I told you it worked."
"Why?"
"Because killing you would be too easy. I want you to watch."
"Watch what?"
"Watch me save the world you tried to end."
The battle continued.
Sukuna returned to the wall.
Mikasa was waiting.
"Is it over?"
"The battle is. The war isn't."
She looked at the horizon.
The Marleyan fleet was destroyed. The Titans were retreating.
But in the distance, more ships.
"They'll come back," she said.
"Let them."
That night, Sukuna sat alone.
The Founding Titan's power still pulsed inside him.
He could feel every Titan. Every wall. Every memory.
Eren's voice whispered in his mind.
"You did well."
"I didn't do it for you."
"I know. You did it for them."
Sukuna looked at the stars.
"Maybe."
Mikasa found him.
"Zeke is in chains. Hange is studying him."
"Good."
"What now?"
"Now we wait. They'll come again. With more soldiers. More Titans. More hate."
"And when they do?"
Sukuna stood up.
"We'll be ready."
END OF CHAPTER 34