"Not bad," Meeyn muttered. It was only 1.9%, but it felt like a leap.
Meeyn took a deep breath, feeling the dark energy swirl around him. He stretched his hands out, palms facing the sky. The power coursed through him, a silent hum beneath his skin. It felt like he could do anything now—control the abyss, bend the darkness to his will at just like 2%.
He focused, pushing the darkness inward, feeling it wrap around his body. Slowly, his feet lifted off the ground.
At first, it was shaky. A small tremor in the air, a slight sway. He hovered just above the ground.
"Easy... easy..." he muttered to himself.
He tested it, pulling himself in one direction, then another. It wasn't smooth or fast like Superman, but it was control. It was movement. He felt the darkness obey, carrying him through the air as his feet left the earth.
Not bad for a first try, he thought.
But he wasn't done yet.
His gaze shifted to the nearby Titans. With a flick of his wrist, black tendrils shot out, forming into a jagged, dark blade. The weapon materialized out of thin air, forged from the abyss itself. Meeyn swung it around, testing its weight, the sharpness of its edge.
He grinned.
"Let's see how this works."
With a quick motion, Meeyn hurled the dark blade forward. It cut through the air, slicing cleanly as it buried its tip into the ground with a resounding thud. It was a weapon forged from nothing, but it carried the weight and force of a true blade. No resistance, no friction—just pure impact.
He clenched his fist, and the blade shattered into shards of darkness, disintegrating back into the abyss. The void consumed it, leaving no trace.
"Yeah, that'll do," he muttered, a smirk spreading across his face.
He flicked his wrist, and more blades began to materialize around him, each one a jagged shard of darkness, floating weightlessly in the air. They spun, waiting for his command.
"AHAHAHHA! This is good!" he laughed, the sound echoing into the empty landscape. His laughter was free, a release of all the tension he'd been holding.
"So much running, brain wasn't for nothing," he thought, a twisted grin curling on his lips.
The blades vanished into the shadows, blending seamlessly with the darkness around him. Meeyn felt the air shift as the first hints of dawn began to creep over the horizon. The night was fading, and with it, his testing was coming to an end.
The Titans around him shifted, the first stirrings of their waking movements echoing through the land.
Meeyn stood still for a moment, the hum of power within him slowly subsiding as the first light of dawn began to break. The Titans around him stirred, but he didn't pay them any mind. They were tools for now, nothing more. The real question was, what came next?
The world of Eldians and Marleyans. Both sides held little appeal to him. He wasn't interested in their conflicts, their ideologies, or their endless struggle. Neither group had anything he needed.
"Time to go inside the walls," he muttered
For now, his main objective was clear: create a proper symbiote. Living among humans, gathering information, finding resources—it all made more sense than staying stuck out here in the wild.
Plus, he had a feeling that using his powers actively was the key to increasing synchronization. The system rewarded action, not patience.
Meeyn took a step forward, then stopped, frowning slightly.
"...Which way are the walls, again?"
He turned in a slow circle, scanning the endless expanse of trees stretching in every direction. Everything looked the same — tall, ancient, and silent. No obvious path. No distant city skyline. Nothing.
He clicked his tongue in irritation.
"Should've asked for a damn map when I reincarnated," he muttered under his breath.
He needed high ground. Somewhere he could see further. His eyes locked onto a cluster of jagged cliffs in the far distance, peeking just above the trees.
"That'll work."
Using the Living Abyss during the day was tricky — the sunlight dulled it, made it sluggish.
But his body? His body was something else.
Even at just 1.9% synchronization, he was absurdly strong. The Titans running from him was proof enough.
Meeyn crouched low, coiling strength into his legs like a spring.
"Let's hope the ground doesn't explode under me," he muttered.
Then he pushed off.
The earth cracked under the force of his jump, dirt and small rocks spraying outward. Meeyn shot into the air like a cannonball, soaring high above the treetops. The wind howled in his ears, the forest shrinking beneath him.
At the peak of his jump, he twisted slightly, scanning the horizon.
There — the cliffs.
He aimed his body midair, adjusting as best he could, and came crashing down into the forest again, landing with a heavy thud that rattled the ground. Leaves and dust exploded around him.
"Holy hell..." Meeyn grinned breathlessly, feeling the adrenaline pump through his veins. "That was awesome."
Without wasting time, he crouched again and launched himself upward once more.
Jump after jump, he crossed the forest. Crater after crater marked his path — like a trail of tiny meteors had slammed into the earth.
It wasn't clean, it wasn't efficient, but it worked.
Finally, panting slightly from exertion, he made one last leap and landed atop the cliffs.
The stone cracked beneath his boots, dust swirling in the breeze.
Standing at the edge, Meeyn looked out over the world.
And there, in the distance — just visible in the thin morning mist — he saw it.
The Walls.
Massive. Monolithic. Stretching endlessly across the land like a giant fortress.
A slow grin tugged at his lips.
"There you are," he murmured.
It would still be a long trek to reach them, but at least now he had a direction.
Meeyn shook out his arms, feeling the stiffness in his muscles fade quickly. His body was adapting fast.
—
The journey took hours.
Even with his strength, covering the distance to the Walls wasn't easy.
As he finally neared the Wall's base, Meeyn noticed something odd.
A giant crack tore through part of the outer structure, jagged and crude, as if something massive had ripped it apart.
He crouched behind the ruins of an abandoned house, studying the breach carefully.
The destruction was old — months, maybe years.
Weeds sprouted through shattered stone. The scent of decay hung faintly in the air, though fainter than it should have been if it were fresh.
No guards. No patrols.
"Perfect," he muttered.
Keeping low, Meeyn slipped through the wreckage, crossing over broken chunks of wall and twisted beams.
On the other side, he found himself standing in the ruins of a once-bustling district.
Buildings half-collapsed. Streets empty and overgrown. Bloodstains long since faded by rain and time.
The silence was thick.
Meeyn walked slowly through the ruined streets, taking it all in.
"This place..." he muttered. "Shiganshina District?"
He stopped, frowning.
If this was Shiganshina — and if the breach was still here, with no military presence reclaiming the area — then...
Meeyn's mind raced, putting the clues together.
Timeline: somewhere between 845 and 850.
Right after the fall of Wall Maria. Before Eren and the others took it back.