An intensely blinding blue light burst from between the Colossal Titan's fingers. Chen Si, who had worn his shoes to pieces running all the way there, appeared in front of Mikasa, unimaginably violent energy gathering in his palm.
"Erwin... we've failed..." Hange murmured, dumbstruck.
"No, I believe in them, and in Levi." Erwin clenched his fists, his nails digging into his flesh until he bled. A glimmer of hope flashed in his eyes. This was the cruelest gamble he had ever made.
"Die!" Chen Si's brain was almost shutting down. The last tenth of his electric energy surged out in an instant, every ounce of strength in his body drained and concentrated into a single point on his fist. He threw the punch on instinct.
Before the disbelieving eyes of the Survey Corps, it was like a tiny ant throwing a punch at a towering Titan, without the usual dazzling blaze of light.
"Ding. Warning, host: electric energy depleted. Further use will drain the host's life force. Life force cannot recover while electric energy remains depleted."
"Older Brother..." Sensing a violent yet familiar power descend beside her, Mikasa opened her eyes, then suddenly felt a wrenching pain in her heart.
Chen Si forcibly drained his own life force to generate more electric energy within his body. His heart pounded wildly, and the blood around it slowly turned into arcs of electricity that flowed toward his palm.
"Older Brother... stop!" Tears streamed uncontrollably down Mikasa's face. The wrenching pain in her heart made her realize that Chen Si was facing death. She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.
"Older Brother, did you know? Captain Hange once studied the broken blade you had used on the front lines. I always thought your blades couldn't break. Only later did I