Future
patreon
With Mangekyo, I Escaped Konoha To Other Worlds: 27 Emin Ridge Monastery, Seiji Meets The Main Cast
🕑 Added 2025-05-26 22:18:08 +0000 UTCThe sound of Horses fell into my ears as we galloped on the open roads. Trees flanking us from both sides. My horse rode alongside them, la
The sound of Horses fell into my ears as we galloped on the open roads. Trees flanking us from both sides.
My horse rode alongside them, lagging at the tail end, the road ahead illuminated by burning lanterns.
'Eleven of us.' I thought, keeping a straight face as I began planning my options. The atmosphere was solemn, the other cadets I had spent four years with carrying faces just as serious as the one I painted on.
The news and subsequent deployment was unexpected. Well ... For them maybe.
The implications it carried however, held equal weight for all of us. Perhaps ... no, For me, it held even greater implications than they knew of.
For them, it was just another possible Titan.
A terrifying creature that had kept humanity cowering behind these walls for decades. If only they knew, how much their ignorance of the unknown shielded them. Shielded their sanity, allowing the belief that Titans were the true enemy, while In actuality, the enemy was in their midst
Ignorance truly is bliss.
I understood that better than anyone at this point. I however, didn't have that luxury. Because they didn't know, but I was the enemy. The threat they were so oblivious to.
The one who had already inflicted more pain and suffering on them than they could comprehend. The worst part? I couldn't stop. Despite how I despised it, despised myself, I would continue to do so. I couldn't stop, not until I completed my mission.
I looked up at the darkens sky. Save for the pale crescent moon, the heavens were empty.
No stars twinkled up above, no soothing sounds of nature broke the tension I felt. The very air seemed to carry trace of uneasiness, as if the world itself sensed that something fundamental was about to change.
My name is Reiner Braun. I'm a warrior candidate from Marley sent to infiltrate the Eldian devils within the walls, and retrieve the Coordinate. Alongside me had been three others. Marcel Galliard, Bertholdt Hoover, and Annie Leonhart. Each of us was bestowed with the power of the Titans to complete our sacred mission.
That was four years ago. Now four years later, only two of us remained. Marcel died saving my worthless life, Bertholdt was devoured during the Fall of Wall Maria. Not according to plan but in the chaos that followed our initial assault.
And after all this time, we are still nowhere near close to accomplishing our objective. Worst yet, we'd lost two of our Titans.
Returning to Marley empty-handed wasn't an option, that would be a death sentence. And without the Colossal Titan, our primary means of breaching the walls and flushing out the Coordinate was gone.
Neither my Armored Titan, nor Annie's Female Titan possessed the raw, destructive power needed to bring down Wall Rose or Wall Sina. Even if we attempted a direct assault, we would be overwhelmed and killed by the Survey Corps.
For years, we felt directionless, hopeless. Our mission couldn't be completed without Bertholdt's power.
Until Today.
During a Mandatory training session earlier, a report had arrived about a possible Titan sighting within Wall Rose the previous night.
Villagers from a remote settlement has reported a flash of lightning illuminating the darkness, followed by the explosion of a nearby storage warehouse. The locals claimed to have heard a Titan's roar and witnessed a massive creature flee into the dark forests.
No one has seen clearly what it was, but after the fall of wall Maria Four years ago, even such a vague report had been enough to trigger an immediate response.
Eight Cadets - Myself included, alongside Three instructors were deployed to investigate this possibility. Our mission parameters were simple.
Confirm whether there truly was a Titan in the area, report back immediately if confirmed, and if possible, determine how such a breach occured.
We'd departed the affected village half an hour ago, heading east alongside wall Rose towards the closest human settlement in the direction the creature had allegedly fled: the Emin Ridge Monastery.
The estimated height matched perfectly. Five meters, agile movement through forest terrain. I knew immediately I read the report.
It had to be The Jaw. The specs matched. The same one that had killed Marcel. My chest tightened at the memory, guilt and determination warring within me.
Earlier, when Shadis had dismissed us to prepare for the mission, I'd managed to catch Annie alone.
"You heard the description," I'd said quietly, ensuring no one could overhear our conversation. "Five meters, agile movement through forest terrain. Sound familiar?"
Annie's crystalline blue eyes had met mine with their usual cold calculation. Her expression hadn't changed, but I'd caught the slight tightening around her eyes. "The Jaw."
"Has to be. Marcel's killer is somewhere in Wall Rose." I'd clenched my fists, feeling the familiar surge of conflicted emotions. "This is our chance."
"I wasn't selected for this mission," she'd pointed out matter-of-factly.
"Then you'll have to get there another way," I'd replied. "We can't let the military find it first. If they capture the Jaw Titan and discover the truth about shifters, about the outside world ..."
I didn't need to say more. Annie had nodded once, understanding passing between us. I would follow the team, and she would find a way to reach the monastery ahead of us. She had to.
Now, as we rode through the gathering darkness, I remained silent while listening to the discussions of my fellow cadets—my targets, my enemies, my friends. The contradiction tore at me as it always did.
"I still can't believe we're actually doing this," Jean muttered, adjusting his grip on the reins. His voice carried that familiar mixture of skepticism and barely concealed fear that I'd come to know so well over our years of training together.
"It has to be some kind of mistake," Marco agreed, though his usually optimistic tone wavered. "If the wall was breached, we'd know about it by now. Titans would have overrun everything."
Eren rode slightly ahead of our main group, his jaw set in that familiar expression of grim determination. "If there really is a Titan in there, then we need to find it and eliminate it."
"Easy there, hero," Jean scoffed. "We're supposed to investigate, not play soldier."
"Jean's right," Armin interjected thoughtfully, his analytical mind already working through possibilities in that way that never failed to impress me. "But if there really was a sighting, we need to consider how it's possible."
"Yeah? What possible explanation do you have?"
In response, Armin paused, his blue eyes distant with concentration. "Maybe it dug underground? There are abnormal Titans with strange behavior patterns. Perhaps this one found a way to burrow beneath Wall Rose's foundation."
Sasha shifted nervously in her saddle. "But wouldn't we have noticed something like that? A hole that big?"
"Not necessarily," Armin continued, warming to his theory. "If it came up from deep underground, far from any settlements, and then covered its tracks somehow..."
"You're giving these monsters too much credit," Connie interrupted with a nervous laugh. "They're not that smart."
If only they knew, I thought grimly. If only they understood that the "monsters" they feared were sitting right beside them, had been living among them for four years.
"What do you think, Reiner?" Marco's voice cut through my brooding thoughts. "You're awfully quiet back there."
I blinked, refocusing on the present moment and the expectant faces turned toward me. "I, uh..." I cleared my throat, feeling the weight of their gazes. "I think we should be ready for anything. Marco's right that it seems impossible, but so did the fall of Wall Maria."
Several of them nodded soberly at that reminder. Even now, four years later, the memory of that day cast a shadow over all of their lives.
Ahead of our group, the four instructors led our expedition with their own subdued discussions. Their earlier confidence had gradually eroded as they'd received additional details about the incident during our brief stop in the village.
"I'm telling you, it's probably just spooked villagers," Instructor Harris was saying, though his voice lacked conviction. He was a stocky man in his thirties with graying temples and worry lines that seemed deeper in the lamplight. "People see shadows in the dark and imagine monsters."
"Maybe," replied Instructor Chen, the lone woman in their group. Her short brown hair was tied back practically, and her eyes never stopped scanning the darkening treeline with professional wariness. "But the damage to that storage house... something big definitely went through there."
"That's even easier." The man scoffed. "There was a rainstorm last night. The people said they saw a flash of lightning. Most likely scenario, lightning struck the building, and they confused the roar for a Titan."
He finished, giving his most reasonable deduction. Neither could argue with it.
"Could've been bandits," suggested Instructor Mills nervously. He was a lanky man whose anxiety seemed to increase with every mile we traveled. "Explosives, maybe? Some kind of coordinated attack?"
"What kind of bandits carry military-grade explosives?" Instructor Davies countered. He was the oldest of the group, a grizzled veteran whose weathered features spoke of years of hard service. "And why would they waste them on a storage warehouse in the middle of nowhere? No, whatever happened there was... different."
In the midst of their discussion, our advance suddenly halted when Davies raised his hand, bringing the entire column to a stop with military precision.
"What is it?" Chen asked immediately, her hand instinctively moving to the blades at her hip.
Davies pointed ahead through the gathering gloom, his experienced eyes picking out details that the rest of us were only beginning to notice. "Look at the trees."
Everyone's gaze followed his direction, and a collective silence fell over our group like a suffocating blanket. The forest ahead looked like a battlefield. Massive trees—some easily three or four feet in diameter—lay scattered and broken across the landscape. Their trunks had been snapped cleanly in half, as if some tremendous force had simply pushed through them without pause. Branches and debris littered the ground, creating an almost impassable maze of destruction that stretched as far as we could see into the darkness.
"By The Walls," Connie whispered, his usual humor completely absent. "It looks like something just... rampaged its way through."
"Yeah," Sasha agreed, her voice barely audible above our horses' nervous snorting. "Something really, really big."
The instructors exchanged grim looks, their professional facades cracking slightly. Whatever had caused this level of destruction was far beyond the capabilities of any normal wild animal, bandit group, or natural disaster they could imagine.
"Stay close," Davies ordered, his voice carrying new authority born of genuine concern. "Eyes open, weapons ready. We proceed slowly."
We continued forward at a much more cautious pace, picking our way carefully through the devastation. The silence was oppressive, broken only by the creaking of damaged wood settling and the soft snorts of our increasingly agitated horses. Every shadow seemed to hold potential threats, every sound made us flinch instinctively.
My mind raced as we navigated the destruction. This level of damage... it was consistent with what I knew a Titan could do, but there was something almost methodical about it. As if whatever had passed through here hadn't been mindlessly rampaging, but moving with purpose toward a specific destination.
This couldn't be the Jaw. It was too .. well, small. Was this Annie's doing?
As we crested a small hill, the Emin Ridge Monastery finally came into view.
Or rather, what remained of it.
My blood ran cold at the sight. The once-peaceful religious sanctuary was now nothing more than a field of rubble and twisted metal. Stone walls that had stood for decades lay scattered like a child's discarded toys. What little remained of the main building leaned precariously to one side, looking as though a stiff breeze might topple it completely. Wooden beams jutted out at impossible angles, and the entire structure appeared as though some giant fist had simply punched through it without ceremony.
"Is this the...?" Connie's voice trailed off, the words dying in his throat as he stared at the devastation.
"From the looks of it, yeah," Eren said grimly, his face darkening as he took in the scene. His hands tightened on his reins until his knuckles went white with tension.
"It's completely destroyed," Armin observed, his analytical mind struggling to process the scope of destruction before us. "But what could have done this? What happened here?"
The instructors were equally stunned, their earlier skepticism evaporating entirely in the face of undeniable evidence. Davies' weathered face had gone pale, while Chen unconsciously reached for her blades as if expecting an attack at any moment.
"It can't be," Mills stammered, his nervous energy reaching new heights. "It just can't be."
But deep in my gut, I knew it could be. The weight of possibility pressed down on all of us, but for me, it carried additional implications that made my chest tight with a mixture of hope and dread.
"Dismount," Davies ordered. "Have your harnesses at the ready at all times. We investigate on foot. Watch where you step."
We climbed down from our horses, tying them to the few trees that remained intact at the edge of the destruction zone. The closer we got to the monastery's remains, the more surreal the scene became. It wasn't just destroyed—it was obliterated. As if some tremendous force had simply erased it from existence.
"Look at this," Jean called out, kneeling beside what had once been a stone pillar. "These breaks... they're not from explosives or fire. Something just... smashed right through."
"The force required..." Armin's voice trailed off as his mind worked through calculations. "It would have to be enormous. Like a—"
"Like a Titan," Eren finished grimly.
The words hung in the air like a death sentence. No one wanted to voice what we were all thinking, but the evidence was impossible to ignore.
I moved through the rubble carefully, my eyes scanning for any sign of what had happened here. Bodies were scattered throughout the debris—monks and visitors who had been caught in whatever catastrophe had befallen this place. Blood splattered across the grounds, bones and body parts were everywhere to get found. The sight should have made me sick, should have filled me with horror and sympathy.
Instead, all I could think about was Annie. Had she been here? Had she found what we'd been searching for?
"Reiner," Marco called out, noticing my expression. "You okay? You look... pale."
I forced myself to look appropriately disturbed by the carnage around us. "Just... my stomach's not handling this very well," I said, which wasn't entirely a lie. The sight of so much death, knowing that Annie might have been responsible, did make me feel sick—just not in the way Marco assumed.
"Yeah, I know what you mean," he said sympathetically. "This is pretty brutal."
Others were having similar reactions. Sasha had actually stepped away to be sick behind a collapsed wall, while Connie stood frozen, staring at a particular gruesome scene with wide eyes.
I used their distraction to continue my search, looking for any sign, any clue that might tell me what had happened here. That's when I noticed something odd beneath my feet. Lines in the ground, too regular to be natural, too large to be immediately comprehensible.
"Hey," I called out to the others, masking my growing excitement with apparent confusion. "There's something here. These marks in the ground... they're too big to make sense of from down here."
Armin, ever the problem-solver, looked around until his eyes settled on a partially collapsed section of the monastery that formed a crude elevated platform. "I'll climb up and get a better view," he said.
We watched as he carefully made his way up the unstable debris, using his agility and small frame to navigate where the rest of us couldn't safely follow. When he reached a point high enough to see the pattern clearly, his entire body went rigid.
"Everyone," he called down, his voice tight with shock. "You need to see this. Now."
One by one, we found ways to climb up or position ourselves to get a better view of what Armin had discovered. What we saw defied immediate comprehension.
Carved deep into the earth around the monastery's ruins, in letters large enough to be visible from our elevated position, was a message:
*I HAVE THE COORDINATES*
Silence fell over our group like a physical weight. The other cadets stared at the massive text in confusion and growing unease.
"What does that mean?" Jean asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Coordinates to what?" Mikasa added, speaking for the first time since we'd arrived.
"Who could have written something this big?" Connie wondered aloud. "And how?"
"Could it have been... a Titan?" Sasha asked hesitantly.
"Don't be ridiculous," Jean scoffed, but there was no conviction in his voice. "Titans don't have that kind of intelligence. They can't write."
"Then who?" Eren demanded, his frustration evident. "Who else could move that much earth?"
As my friends debated and theorized around me, I felt my world shift on its axis. My heart hammered against my ribs as the implications crashed over me like a tidal wave.
The Coordinates. Not coordinates—the Coordinates. The term we used for the Founding Titan, the ultimate goal of our mission. Annie had found it. Somehow, impossibly, she had located the Founding Titan.
Our mission was complete.
The message was meant for me, I realized. Annie was telling me that she had succeeded where we'd failed for four years. She had the Coordinates—which meant she also had whoever possessed the Founding Titan's power. She was telling me to abandon this charade, abandon these people I'd grown to care about despite myself, and meet her at our predetermined extraction point.
"Reiner?" Marco's voice seemed to come from very far away. "You look like you've seen a ghost. What do you think this means?"
I struggled to maintain my composure, to keep the mask of confusion and concern in place. "I... I don't know," I managed. "It's just... all of this .. ."
I paused, not knowing what to come up with.
"Maybe you should sit down for a minute," Jean suggested, his earlier antagonism replaced by genuine concern.
"No, I'm... I think I just need some air. Away from all this," I said, gesturing vaguely at the carnage around us.
As the others continued to debate the meaning of the message and speculate about what kind of creature could have caused such destruction, I slowly began to edge away from the group. My heart was racing, my mind spinning with the implications of what I'd discovered.
Annie had done it. After four years of failure, of watching our friends die and our mission seem increasingly impossible, she had actually found the Coordinates. We could go home. We could finally end this nightmare.
But first, I had to get away from here without arousing suspicion. I had to reach our extraction point and—
I froze mid-step as the sound of footsteps reached my ears. Someone was approaching through the darkness beyond the monastery ruins. The footfalls were steady, confident, completely at odds with the destruction surrounding us.
My hand instinctively moved toward my weapon as a figure emerged from the shadows. A young man with dark hair and clothing, moving with an ease that seemed entirely inappropriate given the circumstances. Over his shoulder, he carried what appeared to be an unconscious woman.
The stranger paused as he noticed our group, blinking once in what seemed like mild surprise at finding us there.
"Oh." He said simply. His voice carrying an almost casual tone that for some reason, sent chills down my spine. "Hello."
