A few months had passed, and I spent that time productively.

Basically one third of the whole City, from the districts to the villages scattered behind the walls, joined CORE. Their basic training lasted between one to three days real time for adjustment, while the units training for those who choose to enter the military took another day or three depending on talent.

As the amount of titans started to diminish to mere individuals roaming the countryside I also told the City officials that it was safe to exit the walls if they so choose. It was with great trepidation and hope that the scouting legion went outside the walls for a long while, and the first time they did so without any casualties incurred.

The human settlements formed from Titanshifters and their descendants joined for the most part, except one nearby that decided to attack my diplomatic avatar. I came back with the full force of my army and made then kneel so hard they tasted the ground from their knees. They wouldn't be joining CORE, but I let them live so long as they didn't get any funny ideas.

The expansion on our forces reached all continents, and as I feared the number of walled cities were a literal handful, and their situation was pretty similar to this one: being besieged by titans and titanshifters alike. One such place was overran when an earthquake came and splinted the walls into two, only empty buildings and wild titans roaming around the land.

It was a bleak view when the Research Labs finally upgraded the orbital infrastructure with Late War era improvements. Overall it was more expensive than the structures I had beforehand, roughly on par with Advanced factories while still being in their base forms, but that was something that would be improved with time. With full satellite coverage it was only a matter of time until I managed to kill every single titan on the face of the planet, and with the new information gathered by the titanshifters who joined CORE I had full information of their body composition and now could detect them with my radar tower. They used solar power for most of their needs, and the insights on it managed to boost a bit the standard solar generators in our database.

For CORE itself we choose the birthplace of civilization to start our own city, near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers valley. The makeup of the city was composed of several Server Hubs, dedicated Android Plants for those who wanted to live in real space and several utility buildings for several purposes, a couple of Kbots, Vehicle Plants and Aircraft Plants for precaution since nobody wanted to live among defensive turrets. Some questioned the need for this degree of defense, but as we were still on Total War footing what the Commander said went.

The CORE government was going to be shaped like a republic with each 'city' voting for their representatives who would later decide policies and laws on the 'congress' with a president elected indirectly from the multiple parties. This method was preferable than an all out e-democracy to me since I'm fairly sure that many people didn't give two fucks to what the government did so long as it didn't impacted their lives, and wanted nothing to do with politics. This way those that wanted to lead the empire could apply for the position, and since a lot of the methods to cheat and lie your way into power became pretty much irrelevant only those who genuinely wanted to better the empire would apply. Hopefully.

I was part of the military, reaching the rank of Supreme Commander for a couple of reasons. First because I had the only Commander chassis under my direct, irrefutable control, and because on the several war games to determine skill and ability on Commander based warfare I came out on top, only my brothers and sisters coming close to reach my degree of proficiency. All those hours on the simulator, playing through every single recorded battle CORE undertook during the war was worth it.

Of course the title of Supreme Commander would be only used in case of Total War, otherwise our military was structured in a more traditional method. My actual job however was exploration and expansion of the Empire, since I was the only one that could start a military base as fast as possible. The fabricator units could eventually outpace me, but nothing beat a Commander on the first stages of deployment.

~~O~~

"The day had finally came!" I said both to the CORE Consciousness, the congress official name, and the walled cities around the world. "The last of the titan has fallen today. Not only that but all traces of the infection that created the titan menace in the first pace has been purged from the world, all facilities holding the remnants of the infection were destroyed and all titanshifters are accounted for. Finally Humanity can rebuild, expand and reclaim their world."

Cheers could be heard from both baseline humans and CORE citizens, and after they calmed down I continued. "The CORE Consciousness has voted and decided the course of our civilization. Some will still live with the baseline humans, but it was decided that our cities would in it's majority be located underwater with a few colonies scattered around the globe. We decided to let the vast majority of the dry land to humanity and an uplifting package will be supplied to all human settlements with the accompanying fabricators allowing you to get started on your feet. Hopefully a lasting era of peace and prosperity will came on the following years."

They cheered once more, and I went back to my room on the simulation to plan my next move. There was still things to do.

~~O~~

"Are you sure you three want to come with me?" I asked the three in front of me as we sipped our drinks. "I don't plan to return anytime soon after all. After getting a taste of being a Commander a peaceful life just isn't for me anymore."

"We want to", said Armin, "when we were kids we wanted to find out what was beyond the walls, and now that we are outside the walls we want to see more of the outside world. The archives told us about of the worlds beyond this one, of different stars, of different skies and seas. Now that the world became smaller once more due to our fast transportation method I want to explore more and more."

"There's that", continued Eren, "I wanted to avenge my mother by going after the titans, and while it was what I desired from the bottom of my heart I knew it was a long shot, even to simply kill all titans inside the wall. Now you come in delivers my dream to me in a silver platter, only asking for us to follow you as you explore the cosmos. How I couldn't go?"

"I'm going to follow Eren whenever he goes", said Mikasa tightening the grip on Eren's hand making the boy blush, "and you helped us all in the end. Even if you did so with ulterior motives".

She's talking of course of the explanation I gave them about how I knew so much of them. I let the pages stored in my memory do the talking before clarifying a few things.

No Eren, the author most likely didn't actually kill your mother.

No, I didn't read it to conclusion.

Yes, I wanted to help you guys because I liked you all as the main cast.

I ship it (to Mikasa).

"And other than each other, we have no one else left." Finally Mikasa said in a sad tone.

They had their comrades, but while they were somewhat close due to training together, they all had plans of their own for the future, some who also joined CORE while others remained as humans, but in the end the group had splintered and only memories would remain of their time together, made even more bitter sweet by the increased memory we now had.

"I see, if that's the case, then welcome aboard." I said with a smile before we toasted.

"Where are we going now?" Asked Eren after we finished our drinks and the simulated waitress came to refill our cups.

"Once the quantum gate is completed it will take some time to calculate the position of the celestial body in order not to shunt us into a random patch of the void or inside a star. As for the location itself I'm not sure, I'm aiming for Alpha Centauri if only because it's the closest star but we could go anywhere to be honest".

They were somber at that remark. I had after all talked about the entity that brought me here, who could still be watching me and could interfere in our next destination. That's why I told them I would most likely not come back, it was both because I wanted to explore new places, and there was the possibility that returning would be physically impossible.

"How about we enjoy the Three Sister City one last time before then?" Said Armin, "us three and Commander Ryuan, to say good bye one last time."

"Yeah", whispered Eren, "to say goodbye one last time."

As the trio were remembering their own family graves they would likely never visit again, I remembered my previous life.

At some point in recent events, things were starting to look up for me and I had started to regain hope and confidence in myself. I had so many plans, but they were all dashed when I became a Commander. I wonder what my family would think of my disappearance, they would probably flip out once they realize I had gone off the radar. I had come to terms with myself that it wasn't my fault this time that I disappeared, but still I felt horrible for several weeks.

It was fortunate then that I didn't had the necessary hormonal imbalance to get clinically depressed, and helping save this world certainly improved my mood. That and being a CORE Commander, I can't forget that.

Soon my group would depart to new frontiers, and I wonder what my next destination will look like.