The Color of Suffering | AOT

●Crimson Forest● part 2

What happened next was chaos. dozens of titans came crashing through the forest, their enormous bodies tearing through trees like they were nothing. The sound of their heavy footsteps reverberated through the air, growing louder as they closed in from every direction.

Erwin's signal to defend the Female Titan had sent everyone into motion. ODM gear fired off in all directions, soldiers moving swiftly to intercept the advancing Titans. Blades flashed as Titans fell one after another, their bodies hitting the ground with loud, earth-shaking thuds. But no matter how many were killed, more kept coming.

At first, we managed to hold them back, the soldiers working together in near-perfect coordination. Levi and Mike were relentless, cutting through Titans like they were nothing more than obstacles. Their precision and speed were unmatched, and for a moment, it almost felt like we could win this. But then the Titans reached her.

They latched onto her legs, pulling her down, their teeth sinking into her flesh as though nothing could satisfy them. piece by piece, they tore her apart.

And then, it was clear-it was over.

erwin gave the order to withdraw, and everyone fell back. I shot upward with my ODM gear, landing on a branch beside erwin, levi joined us then. But I didn't look at him or at Erwin. My gaze stayed fixed below.

As I stood there, confusion clawed at my mind. It was clear now-the female Titan had deliberately called the others. She'd summoned them not for help, but to devour her. And they did.

The traitor was dead. All of my comrades' sacrifices- all the lives lost-were for nothing. The plan, the fight, the desperation to capture her... it was all meaningless now. My thoughts spiraled, racing too fast for me to catch. I could see Erwin and Levi beside me, their mouths moving as they discussed something, but their voices didn't reach me. I couldn't hear them over the noise in my own head.

My eyes drifted back to the scene below. The Titans hadn't stopped. They were still there, tearing into what little remained of her. Steam filled the air, thick and suffocating, rising in waves from the mutilated body of the female Titan. It was hard to see through it, the haze distorting everything.

They'd need to be dealt with. The Titans still down there posed a problem, and taking them out would be difficult with all that steam obscuring the view. The thought lingered, gnawing at the edges of my mind, but then something clicked.

The steam.

My breath caught. The steam wasn't just a hindrance-it was cover. The perfect cover.

She wasn't dead.

The realization hit me like a thunderclap. She had called the Titans deliberately. She knew they would devour her body, creating enough steam to shroud her escape. It was a calculated move, a desperate yet brilliant plan to slip away unseen.

My heart pounded, each beat louder than the last as I stared harder into the mist, but I couldn't see her. That only made me more certain. She was alive. She had escaped.

And then, I felt it. that same gut feeling i had this morning. That unshakable sense of dread, like a whisper at the edge of my mind.

My squad. I needed to get back to them. My chest tightened as I thought of them-of him. The traitor wasn't running blind. She wasn't just escaping for herself. She was still going after eren.

I broke away from my racing thoughts, snapping my gaze to Erwin. "Commander," I started, my voice uneven. "The steam, it's a-"

He cut me off.

"Yes," he said simply, his calm voice slicing through the haze of urgency. He already knew. Of course, he did.

From my left, Levi spoke, his tone sharp and controlled. "I'll gather up my squad."