"Phew…"
Lock took two slow breaths, forcing down the nausea left behind by the Omni-Directional Mobility Gear.
He had sworn never to use it again.
And yet—minutes later—there he was, flying through the air.
Perhaps it was that memory from the fall of Trost: the image of a cadet calmly putting a rifle in his mouth.
So Lock stopped him.
Played hero.
Gave them something to believe in.
It wasn't altruism.
It just made him sick.
"Hard part's over."
He dragged the long black bundle back toward the lift shaft.
One by one, he untied the cords.
The cloth slid away.
A spear emerged.
Four meters long.
Pitch black.
The spearhead alone measured nearly one meter.
Total weight: close to eighty kilograms.
Lock wrapped both hands around the shaft and rolled it through a slow circle.
The weight settled naturally into his palms.
Three years ago, he had asked his father to commission it.
Not made from the same ultrahard steel used by the blades of the Survey Corps.
Those were sharp—but brittle.
They dulled after a few cuts.
This spear was different.
Its core contained rare meteoric iron scavenged within the Walls over two painstaking years—only twenty kilograms found. The rest was reinforced with high-density steel.
The result exceeded expectations.
A weapon worthy of his hands.
He lifted the eighty-kilogram spear with one arm.
Every muscle in his body sang.
This—
This was what he wanted.
Not aerial tricks.
Not spinning through the sky.
Grounded combat.
Direct.
Brutal.
Honest.
A Titan's roar echoed faintly from above.
Eren had arrived.
Lock removed his ODM gear and dropped it to the floor.
Then stepped onto the lift.
Pulled the lever.
The platform descended.
Darkness swallowed him.
Underground Supply Station
The lift hit bottom with a heavy thud.
Seven Titans—three to four meters tall—turned toward the sound.
Their malformed bodies shambled closer.
[Adrenaline levels rising. System evaluation in progress.]
Lock stepped off the lift.
His expression sharpened.
[Threshold met. System initiating.]
Host: Lock Leon
Age: 17
Stamina: 30
Strength: 20
Agility: 15
Talents: Martial Arts Prodigy, Bloodline of Ymir
Skills:
Eight Extremes Fist (5)
Form-Intention Fist (3)
Great Spear Technique (3)
Grand Ultimate Fist (1)
[Energy acquisition beginning.]
[Fight to your heart's content.]Lock moved.
No hesitation.
The spear swept in a horizontal arc—
Boom.
The first Titan's skull exploded inward from sheer impact force before the blade even pierced the nape.
He pivoted.
A reverse thrust.
The second Titan was impaled clean through the throat, lifted bodily, and hurled into two others like broken dolls.
Steam erupted.
White vapor swallowed the room.
Lock's boots slammed into the concrete as he drove forward like a charging beast.
A downward cleave.
Two bodies split.
A thrust.
A pull.
A spin.
The spear described black circles in the smoke, each motion deliberate, efficient—nothing wasted.
Unlike ODM combat, there was no fragility here.
No aerial imbalance.
Only momentum.
Only violence.
Within minutes—
Silence.
Seven corpses dissolved into steam.
Lock stood alone in the white haze.
Breathing heavily.
Grinning.
Meanwhile — Headquarters Office
Jean burst through a window with the surviving cadets.
"Are we the only ones who made it?"
He dragged a supply soldier from beneath a desk and slammed him down.
"Are you blind?! Look at our uniforms!"
"It's because of you that people died!"
The ponytailed soldier sobbed.
"The supply station was invaded—we couldn't do anything!"
Annie's eyes moved past them.
Two massive skeletons outside were still evaporating.
Two 15-meter Titans.
Someone whispered:
"Mikasa?"
"No."
The trembling soldier choked out the truth.
"It was Lock."
Annie's heartbeat skipped.
"Where is he?"
"He went to the underground station. Said he'd retrieve gas canisters."
"How long?"
"…Over an hour."
Lift Shaft
They found his discarded ODM gear.
Armin calculated the descent.
"Lower it—but stop above four-meter reach height."
Steam drifted upward from below.
How many Titans had died?
The lift stopped midway.
The smoke thickened.
Then—
A voice from below.
"There are no more Titans."
"Come down."
The platform lowered fully.
Before the guardrail even dropped—
Annie jumped.
She moved through the steam toward the wall.
There he was.
Lock slumped against the stone.
Only his left arm could move.
He lifted it slightly.
Still smiling.
"Yo, Annie."
"Long time no see."
---
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