Ymir's Legacy

Ch. 22; Anointment and Union

With a flash and boom, Aila transformed into her titan, she used her body to cover everyone else, hardening her back and parts that would be hit by falling rubble and debris. But it wasn't enough, she was on the brink of collapse, her nape had been hit repeatedly, the hardening wouldn't be enough to protect her and the others. She looked down at her friends, she stared at Annie, crying and screaming for Aila to stop and come back. "I.. WILL.... NOT... YIELD!", she said within her titan, with a roar, she turned around and slammed her fists to the ground, suddenly, everything around them became crystalized, a cocoon. Aila unlocked a new ability, she can now create barriers of crystal by touching the ground if she will it to be so. The rumbling and crashing came to a stop, the crystal barrier stood without a scratch, she had done it. Her titan collapsed, she emerged, her vision was blurry from exhaustion, her head pounded with ache from the amount of power she had just used. Annie shoved Jean off her, "AILA!", she ran to her lover, using her ODM gear to fly up atop her titan, Mikasa soon followed with Sasha, they all pulled her out of her titan, she was visibly exhausted. Annie held her in her arms, she caressed her face with her hand, "Ail... please say something", Aila opened her eyes, she looked around at her surroundings, then she looked into Annie's ocean eyes, she smiled and reached up, placing her hand on her cheek. "I did it", she said with a weak and tired smile, Annie's tears fled from her eyes, she smiled and kissed her lover, she placed her forehead onto Aila's. Trying to compose herself, she held onto Aila, "Y-You idiot, that was so dumb", Mikasa smiled at the sight of the two lovers, realizing their love was truly deep. 

Once they were sure Eren and Historia were alright, Levi and the others slid down to the steaming titan carcass below them. Sasha and Mikasa helped carry Aila down from her titan, resting her on the floor to recollect herself before leaving. Levi bent down to Aila, "Hey, kid, you alright?", he asked, Aila rubbed her head and looked at the captain, "Y-Yeah, just a headache now". Levi pointed to the cocoon they were encased in, "Mind telling me how you even did all of this? I mean, did you even KNOW you could do this?", he asked. Aila stared down at her hands for a moment, "N-No, I had no clue until I well.. did it", Levi saw she was being sincere, no lies were said. He stood back up and looked around him, he saw a small opening through the cocoon that they could leave from. "Alright, let's head back up to the surface, we have a titan to stop". Everyone gained determined looks, Aila stood, now regaining most of her strength, she put her ODM gear back on, ready to head out and stop Rod Reiss from wreaking havoc on the people within the walls. As they exited the cocoon, they were shocked by the amount of damage his titan had done, the entire cave had collapsed, not a soul besides them was left alive. They used their gear and flew up to the surface, Armin helped Eren up, he embraced him and kissed him, happy to see his love once again. Hange was now conscious, she was going to be alright, her injuries were minor, Moblit helped her into the cart they had arrived in, laying her down. Eren and Historia sat in it, resting before their mission. Just as they were about to leave, the scouts had arrived, commander Erwin was battered and bruised, Aila felt guilt at not preventing his injuries. They all got aboard a horse, they looked at the land around them, the trail of Reiss was huge, it was on fire from the immense heat of his titan. He could be seen in the distance, his titan was crawling on the ground, dragging his head and stomach on the ground. His legs weren't big enough to support him standing, it's size was one to behold, it was bigger than the colossal, meaning it could destroy nearly everything in its path, including the walls.

Erwin approached them, "Anyone hurt?", he asked, Levi rode up next to him, "Yeah, Hange took a hit". Hange lifted her hand off her wound in her shoulder, showing she wasn't fatally injured, "Doesn't look like anything to serious, you've done excellent work all of you", Levi sighed, "I've got a whole slough of things to report but, first-" "Anything on that titan?", Erwin cut in. Levi looked at it, "It's Rod Reiss, look forward to hearing your thoughts on this, commander", Erwin gained a shocked look on his face, he looked over at Historia and Eren, checking on them. He turned around to face the scouts behind him, "Time's short, we don't have time to stand here and chat, head back to the wall", he told Levi and his squad. Levi scowled, "You gonna let that thing drag it's fat ass all the way to sina?", Erwin looked at him with a smile at his comment. "Well more specifically, I'm letting it continue towards Orvud district", he said to Levi, the crawling titan continued on, burning nearly everything in its path. They continued onto Oruvd district, Hange spoke up, "Alright, time to think. First off, lord Reiss was after the founding titan's power, and that power currently resides withing Eren, thing is, the founding titan can only be used at full potential with someone of royal blood, but then, when a royal does obtain the founding titan's power, they suddenly take on the first king's ideology, which means they'll refuse to do anything about the titans. Well, this certainly is a conundrum", everyone stared at her as she evaluated everything, they weren't sure how they were going to deal with the titan problem. As Aila rode, she suddenly felt a warm liquid leak from her nose, she reached up and touched it with her fingers, it was blood. Annie, who rode next to her, noticed and immediately became worried, "Ail, you're bleeding, are you ok?", Aila blink rapidly and wiped her nose of the sudden nosebleed, her healing would stop it from becoming a problem at the moment. She looked at Annie with a smile, "Yeah, just tired is all, let's get this over with so we can rest", Annie stared unconvincing for a moment, but caved in the end, "Y-Yeah".