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~Chapter One: A Will~
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A seventeen year old boy fixed his black hair a little, standing on top of a hill overlooking the plains. Luckily, he had cleared a few Titans before setting up camp. Levi petted his horse's head, the only living thing that had kept him company these past weeks. His blades and 3dm gear were already lain against the tree, cooling after jettisoning about for hours, slaying monsters that towered above him.
He had fury, but when standing atop the hill, the teenager said nothing, felt nothing, and thought nothing.
Looking back over his shoulder, the sun went down behind him, darkening the horizon. Levi blinked, his cold blue eyes opening and closing before seeing the entire sky turn a pale orange hue, sunset kissing the eye's breadth. Levi blinked again his horse chewing the emerald colored grass atop the hill as he continued to look outwards over the seemingly infinite plains.
The tree was large, and didn't block the boys view as all Levi had to do was stare out over the plains and blink, seeing the sunset from his little hill.
Levi kept thinking, knowing that supplies had already been a problem. Abandoned villages did exist, and gas for his gear was rare but still obtainable out in the wilds. He knew that if food or gas ran short once, that would be it. He understood that he was possibly the last man alive, in the entire world.
At only seventeen, facing impossible odds while not crying or getting angry seemed like madness, but to young Levi Ackerman, effort was will. And will meant strength and victory.
The boy kept standing there, before feeling a pull in his stomach rumble. Levi walked to the pack on his horse, the friendly beast still chewing grass, and withdrew a shining red apple. He returned to his spot against the tree, and laid against it.
Digging his teeth into the white flesh of the fruit, the boy ate. It was like slaying Titans to him, simple, effective, instinctual. He didn't will himself to the horse and eat the fruit, his body willed itself. As if there was a single string pulling him along, into the air, into the fray against his tall enemy, against anything. He had not spoken to anybody, or anything for quite some time, the boy wondered if his voice was even still functional after not using it for some time.
After finishing it, he tore out the seeds from its core, and returned to his horse's saddle. He opened a flap on it, and deposited the seeds, one day hoping to grow an apple tree, if it could be possible.
In the wilds beyond the outermost wall, many humans considered life impossible for anything that was not a Titan.
But strangely enough, Titans moved in clusters, leaving the boys will empty at times, like the glimmering seas of grass that expanded outwards.
As night fell, words and thoughts poured into his mind, making the black haired young man think.
His long blade, a modified and stronger version of his maneuvering gear, rested on his body as he sat in front of the tree.
I need to find a stable source of food. If I could just establish a farm in a safe place, and then stockpile enough supplies to last the winter, I think I should be all right. I just spent the last couple of weeks wandering about aimlessly, I need to find...A purpose...
The stars glimmered above him, and the boy kept thinking.
Behind me, miles and miles away, is the burning husk of humanity. Three large concentric rings broken, and flames risen like forests of red. But here, where there is an ocean of grass, what can I do? What is there? To survive seems to be the only option. I must find another person, or fighting would've been for nothing.
But what if it was not for nothing, but rather...what if it was to simply fight. To fight for myself, to fight because I can? Because I...have to.
Levi nodded, descending further in thought.
If humanity is completely gone, and there is no other person to find in the wilds, than all that I have, my sword, should be what I fight for. My sword, my will, my life. These are the things that which are everything. I don't only fight because I can, I fight simply because I don't wish to die. For there is no other way.
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