Rainer transforms into the Armoured titan and picks up a titan sized bag filled with explosives. They will use the same technique that was successful against Rod Reiss only this time on an even larger scale. Pieck and Porco transform too carrying behind them the biggest cannon there is while Annie carries the ammunition.
"What do we do if this isn't enough to bring that thing down?" Levi asks Erwin before the final battle.
"Can you fight for twenty-four hours until I can transform again?"
In front of them stood the enormous founding titan body fused with the tree of life. It was a giant spine covered with ribs and muscles which stood upright towering over the whole island. Its ribs acted like tree branches and at the very top there was Zeke.
"You always liked to look from up high didn't you Zeke?" Magath says looking with awe at the enormous structure. "How can something like this exist?"
"Imagine if the walls were made out of that kind of titans. You wouldn't be able to invade even with blimps!" Sasha says trying to lighten the mood.
"You won't stay upright for long, you testament to my failures. I fought my whole life to avoid this and now you're trying to force your will on me and others. Zeke, life, Ymir or whoever else is controlling that thing. You will leave humanity alone after today!" Leo says preparing himself for the last battle. He stopped spitting blood but whatever happened to him when he bit off a part of Zeke's body didn't stopped yet.
"Scouts! This is it, this is the moment we're fought for. This is when humanity will rid itself from the plague of titans once and for all. I will not ask any of you to follow me into battle against an enemy even I wouldn't face but I will still give you one last order as the commander of the scout regiment before disbanding it right now. Sacrifice your hearts!" Without those words the titan shifter charged and with them came the scouts and the Marleyan soldiers.
Everyone there was a volunteer, nobody was forcing them to fight. Let those who will come after judge the actions of those who came before.
"Create a corridor for the Armoured passage to reach the base!" First they started bombarding the wall titans then the scouts came in attacking their weak spots. One after the other they were slowly cutting down the titans and Rainer was nearly at the base of the founding titan's body. One more step and suddenly arrows hit Rainer through the chest and arms. The Armoured titan roars as it falls on its knees struggling to push forward under the constant hail of arrows.
"Other Warhammer titans. There are titan shifters coming out of the founder's body!"
"That is mine! That is my power, give it back!" Leo shouts running towards the Warhammer titans. When he is about to transform however he bits his hand and nothing happens. No lightning from the sky, no sparks, nothing besides blood and an acute pain in his abdomen and legs. It is as if his body is trying to split itself in half.
"Leo!" Pieck shouts as he is about to be squashed by a Warhammer titan but Porco arrives in time and bites off the Warhammer's neck before jumping onto the other.
"Annie! Grab the explosives and head to the base of the tree. Rainer would have withstand the explosion but you won't so we will use cannons to make it blow up. Get in and out as quickly as possible."
The female titan starts running grabbing the explosives and running towards the base of the titan. With every step however she felt something underneath her feet and she knew what that was although she didn't wanted to think about it. Scouts who burned alive in order to open up a path for her to reach the founding titan were littering the ground.
The explosives is placed and all Annie had to do was to run back but when she turned around a crystallised punch hit her straight in the face. Eren's attack titan was being puppeted like a doll by the founding titan. In an instant two wall titans reach down and grab the explosives before they can be activated making it impossible to destroy the founding titan with them.
"Two brains, there are two brains! Of course, in the past there were animals so large their brain wasn't enough to control the back end of their bodies so they used a secondary brain in their hips to move. If we remove Eren from the founding titan the whole structure will be unable to stand up and it will fall on its back! Everyone, extract Eren out of his Attack titan!"
It was easier said than done as Eren's Attack titan was strengthened with the power of the founder giving him armour and his back as well as the metallic skin of the Warhammer titan. Eren with a single punch throws Annie into the air and he is just about to retreat back into the spine when Armin and Mikasa arrive and land on his back.
"Eren, come back to your senses, the rumbling will destroy Paradise, it will destroy the island we fought to defend for so long."
"You're stronger than this, you've got to resist Zeke's control!"
"Like this... I've been in a situation like this before... I remember, back then I hurt Mikasa while trying to control my Attack titan. I'll come out right now... I just need... a second to... clear my head!" Having a moment of lucidity Eren takes control over his titan and smashes his own head against the base breaking through the armour and metallic skin. The musculature strings which were puppeting his try to pull his body back into the giant founding titan body but Mikasa cuts the strings before they can do that. Armin pulls out his swords and cuts through the neck musculature until he manges to reach Eren's human body.
The two pull Eren out of his Attack titan and suddenly the whole structure starts wobbling back and forth. Armin and Mikasa didn't manage to pull Eren away in time as new, blueish tentacles grab onto his body and start moving up the falling spine.
"That thing! That worm looking thing is the source of the titan powers. Do not let it bring Eren to Zeke!"
The Cart titan was the furthest away from the fight and would have never gotten there in time to catch it. Porco was fighting the Warhammer titans, Annie was recovering from her wounds and Rainer was being squashed under a pile of regular pure titans. The only one who was close enough to intervene was Leo, Armin and Mikasa.
"Come on, we're getting Eren out of this."
"Leo, you're still bleeding from the mouth!"
"If it's only from the mouth then I'm plenty healthy. Let's go." The three start climbing up the bone tree as it slowly bends to the side.
"We will never catch up with it in time. We're gonna run out of gas at this rate."
"Damn it all to hell, why won't you work?" Leo shouts biting off pieces of flesh from his body.
"If I let you use it, you'll go away won't you? You'll never come by my side ever again."
"I told you you're a fool. When you feel lonely and afraid, just call out to me, call out to all of us and we'll come. I won't hold you responsible if I fail today, so let me struggle and fight to the very end, or don't. I'm still letting you chose."
A beast with claws capable of climbing and fighting and teeth to render flesh. Ymir gave him a lion beast titan.
With this new form Leo uses his massive claws to grab onto the falling tree and run upwards grabbing Mikasa and Eren into his mane. Up the titan tree more Warhammer titans appear shooting arrows down at Leo hitting him in the face and shoulders.
"I told you before, that power is mine!" From the back of the lion beast titan surges a hand and then the upper torso of Leo's Warhammer titan who then materialises a bow and arrows to strike back at their foes.
Titans keep on appearing and then Armoured titans start falling from the sky to push them off the founder's spine. Leo creates a Warhammer and strikes at the first Armoured titan while biting off the neck of the second one. More arrows and spears fall from the sky and more and even more titans pile up on Leo. Realising he was being overwhelmed Leo's Warhammer body creates an arrow on top of which he places Armin and Mikasa before shooting them towards the source of all life.
The arrow is shot and the two scouts fly upwards into the foreign creature which was impaled to the side of the titan tree. As they look behind they see Leo who is falling with five or six titans jumping off to fight him.
"This is our chance, we have to take Eren back from this thing!" The blue tentacle monster squirms and tries to free itself but it cannot as the arrow pierced through the centre of its body. From the top of the falling tree the ribcage pushes downwards and the body of the Beast titan comes down to meet it.
The tentacles stop Mikasa and Armin from reaching Eren in time and Zeke grabs a hold of it as he shouts once again turning the pure titans first into steam which transforms every single fighter at the base of the titan tree into pure titans, then into Colossal titans and sending them off to destroy Paradise.
As they take their first step however all the titans start falling to the ground one by one resting motionless while turning into a cloud of steam.
"You failed Zeke. I am now in control of the founding titan and I refuse to obey your will. While under the control of this thing, I've seen it take a hold of Ymir's body and turning her into the first titan. Now I know what I must do." Eren was in control and he took down all the wall titans in one single move. He wasn't done though, he had one last use for the founding titan before its powers will be gone forever.
"Now, call us by your side."
And so it happened that these words travelled with the powers of the Attack titan back at the previous owners all the way until they reached a small stronghold on the edge of a forest.
"Who was that allowed the pigs out of their pen?" A rough voice asks angrily. All the fingers point towards one little girl.
"It was her, she did it!" The voiceless gazes were saying. However their eyes had no power over actual voices.
"It was me who freed them!"
"No, it was me!"
"It was all of us, we freed the pigs." More and more voices were coming out of the forest as the guards of the stronghold were getting weary.
"Who are these people? Where did they come from?" King Fritz asks pulling out his sword thinking the tribe he attacked had allies who came to avenge them. His mere human sword however could not match the sight of eight monstrous giants appearing out of the forest.
That was the only answer, the only way to satisfy all three wills of the founding titan. The power of titans would never be born, Eldia will have a place where it will be safe and Ymir will finally have people by her side. Using the power of the founding titan Eren sent his memories back in time right before Ymir got in contact with the source of titan powers. He recreated the memory of every single Eldian and Marleyan who was transformed into a titan by Zeke's spinal fluids and had Ymir recreate them back in her world from sand then turn them into flesh and blood giving them back their memories using the realm of the Paths.
As out of nowhere as they appeared, the subjects of Ymir picked up the girl and left, first going to chop down the tree of life then on Paradise where they will create their own nation.
By the power of the founding titan the titan shifters will lose their powers and another chosen individual will gain it for thirteen years and this will continue for seven generations until Eldia will become a nation capable of holding its own in the world.
Since they all travelled back in time all the knowledge of future technology shall never leave the island until the world will be ready to face it on the same level.
The Warhammer and the Female titan were pulling on one side while the Attack and Armoured titan were pulling on the other. Leo created a saw big enough to cut down the tree of life who's body was so large and tall it fell all the way into the sea. It was then pulled by the currents and the Eldians followed on crystallised boats until the tree stopped and that's where Paradise was created.
That's how legends go at least while in reality the tree of life was barely one hundred metres tall. They killed off the monster under the tree with crystal arrows and burnt its body before leaving for Paradise island.
"Look at us now world! We destroyed the tree of life and the source of all titan powers. With the threat of titans will forever disappear from this world and never be seen again!" Leo shouted from the top of the fallen tree of life happy that it was finally over.
"Where did they found alcohol?" People were asking as they watched Leo get drunk dancing on top of the tree. Those who fought against the founding titan were summoned into this new world with their weapons and uniforms while the civilians were summoned with more or less all their possessions. Horses, carts, tools, food, materials, clothes even furniture was summoned into the new world.
People were ready to found a nation as out of the blue as everything that happened was.
"We did it, now we just have to reach Paradise and built our nation there. No more titans, no more wars for Eldians. We are finally free..."
"We lived to see the day when humanity is no longer under attack. There are no more enemies over the horizon!" Armin says jumping with enthusiasm.
"No, there is still much to be done and we have to make sure nobody unworthy will inherit the power of the titans. We've changed history and I can see the future in front of us." Eren looks over and watches Ymir who was being pampered by Historia.
"Without the curse of Ymir titan shifters won't die after thirteen years of holding the titan shifter powers. That would make titan shifters too strong though, they have to keep a sense of mortality inside of them. The power will be inherited through a blood ritual or be lost to someone random. The founding titan is forever lost, people will be under my command to never wage wars with the power of titans or advanced technology as not to repeat the cycle. I wanted to be free and everyone else to be free as well but have I made the correct choice in doing this?"
"Ah, you're thinking way to much on this. You know what you need to do?" Leo barges in noticing how Eren was still sad.
"You go right now out there. Grab her by the collar and kiss her!" Leo says giving a demonstration on Pieck who promptly slaps him.
"You'll have more luck then me." He say being dragged away from the centre of the attention.
Eren takes a deep breath and:
"Mikasa!"