Below, Eren's battered Titan form slumped against the broken stone — half-melted, missing an arm, one leg twisted awkwardly from Annie's brutal counterattack.
But the core instinct inside Eren still burned — feral and desperate.
And Meeyn's slow approach — casual, lazy, effortless — felt like a threat.
To Eren.
Across the rooftop, Mikasa's sharp eyes snapped to Meeyn's floating figure.
Her blood ran cold — that dangerous stranger from Trost — now gliding toward Eren.
Her body moved without thinking.
ODM gear fired with a sharp hiss.
Her figure cut through the smoke, closing the gap at breakneck speed.
Blades out.
Focused.
Silent.
But as she closed the distance, blades flashing toward Meeyn's exposed side —
Just a slight shift of his hand — and a slick-black tendril of the Living Abyss shot out from under his cloak.
It wrapped around her wrist midair — catching her blade mid-swing with casual precision — and gently redirected her flight path, spinning Mikasa away like a leaf caught in a breeze.
CRASH.
She landed hard against a ruined chimney, rolling once but immediately springing back to her feet, teeth gritted, blades ready again.
Her eyes widened.
He hadn't even looked at her.
Hadn't even cared.
And then —
Below him, Eren's Titan stirred.
A guttural, broken roar ripped from the Attack Titan's torn throat.
Muscles flexed, steaming flesh crackling and twitching as Eren forced his battered body to move.
The ruined Titan lunged clumsily upward — half-standing, half-crawling — reaching for Meeyn with a twisted, clawed hand.
No longer after Annie.
Desperation.
Hatred.
Instinct.
"Tch," he muttered under his breath, his smirk deepening.
Without fanfare, he extended both hands.
The Living Abyss pulsed once — dark tendrils surging from the shadows around him —snaring the Titan's broken limbs midair.
Eren's Titan roared again, struggling, steam pouring from its shredded body.
The ruined flesh strained against the black restraints — snapping and tearing anew.
And then, like peeling apart soggy paper—Meeyn pulled.
CRRRRRRAACK.
The Attack Titan split apart at the torso, steam and blood geysering into the sky.
Titan meat tore like wet cloth.
The body collapsed in two steaming, twitching halves at Meeyn's feet.
The battlefield went dead silent.
Above the broken ruin, Meeyn floated lazily.
He twirled one finger idly through the drifting mist.
As if tearing apart a Titan was nothing more than swatting a particularly annoying bug.
Mikasa froze — blades trembling in her hands.
Jean and Armin could only stare — faces pale, hearts hammering.
Hange and Levi, watching from another rooftop, exchanged a sharp glance — both reading the same thing:
Monster.
Not Titan.
Not human.
Something else entirely.
Something worse.
Meeyn tilted his head lazily, his voice carrying easily through the dead, smoky air:
"Still weak," he muttered, gazing down at the half-torn Titan.
Then his red-glowing eyes shifted toward the Annie pepping out of her female titan nape.
Meeyn hovered lazily over the broken battlefield, the black mist of the Living Abyss writhing around his ankles like a living thing.
Below him, Annie's real body twitched weakly at the edge of her ruined Titan form.
Her broken hand trembled — the crystal beginning to form around her, sealing her away.
A desperate, automatic response.
Survive.
Hide.
Escape.
But just as the hardened shell began creeping up her arms, a low, almost lazy voice brushed against her mind —
"Don't worry."
Smooth.
Calm.
Unbothered.
"You're safe."
The words weren't shouted.
They wrapped around her battered mind like a soft chain — heavy, certain, impossible to resist.
Annie's terrified eyes opened slightly.
Her heart thundered once — then slowed.
The crystal shell around her faltered, freezing mid-formation, cracks spider-webbing along its surface.
Her body sagged slightly — consciousness slipping — as Meeyn's overwhelming presence drowned out everything else.
Without a sound, Meeyn extended one hand downward.
The Living Abyss slithered gently from his palm, wrapping around Annie's limp body pulling her out of her titan form.
The battlefield watched in stunned horror as the cloaked figure, with no ODM gear, no squad, no orders, casually plucked Annie's vulnerable form from the wreckage.
He lifted her into the air like a god stealing something back from mortals.
Higher.
Higher.
Floating upward, into the smoke-choked sky, the broken city shrinking beneath him.
The last thing the soldiers saw —the last thing Jean, Armin, Mikasa, Hange, Levi, all of them —was a dark figure disappearing into the mist with the most dangerous girl in the world clutched in one lazy hand.
And then —
He was gone.
Swallowed by the clouds.
As if he had never been there at all.
The battlefield remained frozen, the ruins silent.
Jean staggered forward half a step, breathless.
"W-What... what the hell was that?" he croaked.
Armin stared upward blankly, heart hammering against his ribs.
Mikasa tightened her grip on her broken blade until her knuckles turned white.
Levi exhaled slowly through his nose, jaw clenched so hard it creaked.
No one had an answer.
No one even knew where to start.
Somewhere high above, drifting lazily among the clouds, Meeyn chuckled softly to himself.
A low, satisfied sound.
Cradling Annie's limp form in one arm, he whispered lazily:
"Told you, didn't I? You're safe."
The clouds drifted by, slow and heavy, painting the sky in deep shades of purple and black.
Meeyn floated effortlessly between them, the Living Abyss coiling around him like mist.
In his arms, Annie Leonhart lay unconscious — her body battered, blood drying along the side of her face, breath shallow but steady.
The last shreds of her Titan power were still leaking off her skin in faint wisps of steam.
Below them, the ruined sprawl of Stohess shrank into a speck, swallowed by distance.
Meeyn turned slightly in the air, aiming his slow, drifting path toward the distant, darkened treeline.
Toward the forest near Karanes, nestled safely inside the battered remains of Wall Maria.
Minutes stretched like hours as they flew in silence.