Streams of light flowed as everything before their eyes blurred into a chaotic kaleidoscope. The bizarre space shattered into countless fragments that swept past Yago, and a powerful sense of weightlessness overwhelmed his body, leaving him dizzy and disoriented.
No one knew how long it lasted, but when his feet finally touched solid ground again, Yago almost cried from relief. The feeling of standing firmly on the ground… was truly wonderful.
The surroundings were no longer a starlit path, but rows of towering buildings. The streets bustled with noise and activity, countless horse-drawn carriages transporting all kinds of goods. Vendors on both sides loudly promoted their wares to passing pedestrians. It was a lively, thriving scene—and most eye-catching of all was the endless, towering fifty-meter-high wall stretching into the distance.
Yet this scene felt strangely familiar to Yago. Where was this place?
"Shiganshina! This is Shiganshina!" Eren shouted. Having spent his entire childhood there, he recognized the streets instantly. Seeing Shiganshina in such prosperity stirred deep memories within him.
Even though the Titans on Paradis Island had now been cleared out, Shiganshina—once ravaged by Titans—could never return to its former glory.
"Wait! Why are we in Shiganshina?" Eren suddenly noticed something odd. At this moment, they were standing right in the middle of the street alongside their Great Ancestor. As he spoke, a massive carriage loaded with goods came barreling straight toward them. Instinctively, they tried to dodge.
But their Great Ancestor didn't move—and neither could Yago and the others. Their legs felt rooted in place, unable to budge even slightly. When the carriage rushed toward them, they shut their eyes in fear… yet no impact came.
Opening their eyes in confusion, they saw the carriage pass straight through their bodies like an illusion.
"F-fake?" Eren muttered.
At that moment, Yago's pupils shrank. In the crowd ahead, he saw a mother and son—a gentle, smiling Lucia, holding a basket of vegetables in her left hand, and with her right, holding the hand of a black-haired little boy.
"Aunt Lucia, let me carry the basket for you!"
The little boy snatched the basket from Lucia and ran ahead happily.
Lucia watched his back helplessly yet fondly and called out,
"Yago, slow down. Be careful not to fall."
Yago stood frozen, watching his younger self and his mother Lucia pass right through him.
Eren clearly recognized the younger Yago as well, and the look in his eyes became strange.
Why are we seeing ourselves as children? Have we gone back to the past?
Yago quickly realized that their Great Ancestor had likely brought them into the past. That scene just now existed in his memory. Wait… if he remembered correctly, then today was—
Yago and Eren raised their heads simultaneously. Today! The day the Colossal Titan appeared, shattering a century of human peace with a single kick that destroyed the wall protecting humanity.
Amid a deafening golden pillar of lightning, the massive head of the Colossal Titan slowly rose above the wall. It resembled a flayed muscular skull, steam billowing from it as two enormous, muscle-exposed hands grabbed onto the wall of Shiganshina.
Year 845. The Colossal Titan attacked the wall. Shiganshina fell.
Seeing the familiar head of the Colossal Titan, Zeke recognized it immediately and said with a smile,
"Bertholdt, huh? Didn't expect you to look this cool back then."
What followed unfolded exactly as in Eren and Yago's memories—the Titans broke into Shiganshina District, countless humans were slaughtered, and in just a few hours, the once-thriving town turned into hell.
"Founder Ymir, why did you bring us here?" Eren demanded, his expression grim. This was not a pleasant memory.
The Great Ancestor gently shook her head, then waved her hand. In an instant, their surroundings shifted, and they appeared somewhere else.
The house before them was one Eren knew all too well. This was his home.
At a glance, Eren saw his mother Carla buried beneath the rubble. Even if everything before him was just an illusion, it didn't stop him from worrying about her. If he could move, he would have rushed over long ago.
But now, he could only watch helplessly as his younger self and Mikasa were carried away by the terrified Hannes.
Soon, a blonde Titan with a grotesque smile stretching to its ears staggered into view. When Zeke saw it, his calm expression froze—he felt an intense sense of familiarity with this Titan.
The Smiling Titan swayed closer to Carla, then reached out and grabbed her immobile body.
At that moment, Eren panicked.
"What's going on!? Why is that Titan grabbing my mother!? No—let her go!"
Seeing the Smiling Titan clutch Carla in both hands, Eren's face twisted in fury. He had never known this—never known that his mother had been caught by a Titan.
In his panic, Eren forgot this was the past. His mind was filled only with concern for his mother. Just as he was on the verge of losing control, a bolt of golden lightning struck nearby.
Crack!
Amid a surge of steam, a half-body Titan emerged. Its form was crude—white bones exposed to the air, tattered crimson flesh hanging from its skeletal frame. Its head was even more horrifying, with an eyeball slipping directly out of its bony socket.
Despite its broken appearance, the half-body Titan easily knocked aside the long-nosed Titan before it and swiftly rescued the unconscious Carla from the Smiling Titan's grasp.
When the young Yago emerged from the skeletal Titan's body, carrying the unconscious Lucia on his back as he ran toward Carla, Eren was stunned.
He never imagined that it was Yago who saved his mother. Yago had never mentioned this before—and even more shocking, Yago already possessed Titan power back then.
Eren looked at Yago with deep gratitude.
But Yago had no time to acknowledge it. His gaze was fixed seriously on a direction not far away—just now, he had seen a figure flash past there.
When the Smiling Titan grabbed Carla and was about to stuff her into its mouth, its massive body had stiffened for a brief moment. It was precisely that moment that allowed the young Yago to rescue her.
Was it a coincidence? Yago didn't think so. At the instant the Titan froze, he had clearly sensed a figure flicker among the ruins in the distance.
After witnessing several Garrison soldiers rescue the young Yago, Lucia, and Carla, Eren finally let out a sigh of relief.
But in the next instant, the scene shifted again.
They found themselves in a completely new place—everywhere gleamed with dazzling hardened crystal. It felt as though they had entered a world made entirely of crystal.