Eret and his squad quickly followed Grimmel's squad but found that their path was blocked by some steel netting. To make matters worse, Fishlegs and Mason were forced to carry Valka, who was unconscious due to her injury.

"Did anyone see where Hiccup went?" Eret asked.

"I think he managed to get ahead of us," said Astrid.

"Good, but we're not going anywhere fast."

I looked around, hoping to find another way through, and found an opening directly above them, but it was blocked by thick wooden planks.

'Might be a way through, but it's blocked,' Eret frowned. 'Shit, if only we had some more gunpowder. We have to hope that Hiccup can get the before the rituals.'

Shard and her squad took up defensive positions just in case Eret and his squad managed to break through their defences.

"Keep your guns trained on that entrance!" she ordered. "If we hold here, we win."

Then suddenly, they saw a flash of light behind them followed by a bolt of lightning; it was so bright that Eret and his squad could see it.

"That light," said Snotlout shielding his eyes.

"Damnit, no," Eret grimaced.

"Ragnar," said Heather.

Unbeknownst to them, it was actually Johann transforming, and he appeared to be growing at an alarming pace. Hiccup and Historia when the midst of undoing the shackles on Ragnar, the sudden wind pressure was emerging from Johann wasn't making life easy. Grimmel himself was finding it hard to stay put as he would have been blown away that it wasn't for his anchor, but it was still powerful enough to damage the pillars supporting the ceiling.

"Everyone brace yourselves!" Shard yelled and immediately anchored themselves to the floor.

"Guys, I think this place is about to collapse," said Ruffnut.

Fortunately, the shockwave demolished the wooden planks blocking the opening above them.

"Captain!" Fishlegs yelled. "It opened up!"

"Okay, Fishlegs… Mason… you two take Valka and find a way out of here!" he ordered.

Grimmel was holding on with everything he had as Johann's transformation didn't seem to be stopping.

"Stupid bastard!" Grimmel roared. "What the hell are you doing?"

"You guy should save yourselves; leave me behind!" Ragnar yelled. "At the rate he's growing, he's going to demolish the entire cavern in the next few minutes. Just get out of here!"

"Not a chance," said Historia as she tried to release the shackles around his right foot.

"We're not going to leave you!" said Hiccup. "I mean, you know what we have to go through to get here?"

"You don't have to do this," said Ragnar.

"I might be an enemy of humanity now, but I'm still your ally," said Historia. "I can't be selfless, and I don't want to be a god, but when I see someone crying, saying that no one needs them. I have to go and show them that it isn't true. You're feeling like I felt for my entire life; that's why I need you to be okay."

Ragnar just stared at her as Historia freed his leg, but suddenly the updraught from Johann sent her flying.

"Historia!" Ragnar yelled.

Before she hit the wall, Astrid came out of nowhere and caught her.

"Hey," she said.

"Astrid?" Historia stared.

Eret and the rest of the squad then appeared.

Eret then quickly turned to Historia. "Give me the keys!"

"Captain? All of you?" Ragnar stared.

"We need to hurry!" Hiccup yelled as he bent down towards Ragnar's feet as Snotlout and Eret grasped his arms.

Eret fumble with the keys but was able to release Ragnar's left arm.

"Hiccup, hurry," he said, handing the keys to Hiccup.

"You don't need to tell me," he said as he began unlocking the shackles around Ragnar's left foot.

"You guy should leave me behind, save yourselves," said Ragnar.

"After all the trouble we've been through to get to you, not bloody likely," said Snotlout. "We got gunmen and a Titan bearing down on us, so pipe down."

"Feet are loose," said Hiccup handing the keys to Snotlout.

Johann's Titan was just getting bigger; its back was only pressed against the cavern wall, causing huge cracks.

"Whoa, it's even bigger than the Colossal Titan," said Heather.

"This would be so awesome it wasn't so scary," said Tuffnut.

"No, it's still pretty awesome," said Ruffnut.

Astrid then noticed the ceiling above Ragnar and the others were beginning to crumble. "The ceiling! Look out!"

Snotlout had just unlocked the last of the shackles, just in time.

"Get back!" Eret ordered the three of them to quickly dragged Ragnar back towards the wall just before the ceiling destroyed the platform.

"Damn it all, Johann!" Grimmel yelled as he fell back. "You really screwed the pooch! Here I thought you were the only man who understood Titans, but you didn't know enough, you dumbass!"

Shard and the rest of the squad and immediately appeared.

"Captain Huntsman!" Shard yelled.

Grimmel looked back at them and horror. "No, get back!"

Johann's Titan was now pressed against the ceiling, and there was no sign that it was going to stop growing.

"Damnit, we'll be buried alive," said Snotlout as he and the rest of the squad face themselves as far back against the wall as possible.

'What is he doing?' Ragnar frowned. 'Should he be trying to eat me? I could transform; my Titan would get crushed if I do so.'

He tried thinking of a way out, nothing came to mind. If only he had the ability to harden, and then he would be able to shield everyone else.

"There's nothing I can do," he said, furious at himself. "And I'm supposed to be humanity's hope? I can't even save us."

His eyes then turned towards a vile laying on the ground, which must have fallen out of Johann's briefcase when Historia was sent flying.

'Armour?' he frowned.

"Pull yourself together," Snotlout snorted. "I got you can't accomplish anything alone, but no one expects you to."

"Yeah, you've got us," said Tuffnut.

"We been through a whole lot worse than this," said Ruffnut.

"Luck that I really want to get used to it," said Heather looking at the ceiling. "No matter which way you put it, flying for that mess is going to be next to impossible."

"We don't have any choice," said Hiccup. "I'll take Ragnar."

"Then you can leave Historia to me," said Astrid and then looked at her. "It's going to take everything we have to not get hit. So, hold on tight."

"Right," she nodded.

"It's suicide; there's no way we can make it through that," said Ragnar.

"So we should do nothing?" said Historia. "Want to sit and hold hands while we get crushed or until we burned to death? You've never been one to give up, so why are you starting now?"

"Listen," said Eret. "I really hate that I do this to you all the time, but you've got to make a choice here."

Ragnar knew what he was referencing; it was when they were being chased by Eir. If he had acted back then, then perhaps Eret's squad would have been decimated. Then out of pure instinct immediately grabbed the file on the floor and ran towards Johann.

"Ragnar!" Hiccup yelled.

'If this is the end, at least give me the strength to say my friends,' he said and bit down on the vile, smashing it and ate the liquid.

He then immediately transformed into his Titan form, and then crystal began to emerge from his feet. It began to surround the cavern and rose up towards the ceiling, supporting it like large tree trunks.

"Whoa, what the?" Tuffnut stared.

"Come on, get under Ragnar!" Eret ordered.

Without hesitation, they immediately rushed over towards Ragnar and hid beneath his Titan just before the columns collapsed.

Grimmel's squad wasn't as fortunate at the following ceiling landed on top of their heads. Johann then rose to his feet, smashing through the ceiling. Ragnar had used the crystal to form a net around them and began catching the rocks, shielding both him and the others.

Fishlegs and Mason had just carried Valka out of the chapel, and they filled the earth shake.

"What's going on?" said Mason.

It was then that the ground behind and began to cave in, the forest and chapel behind them began sinking into the ground.

"Look out!" Mason yelled as the ground beneath them began to crumble.

"We just have to keep moving!" said Fishlegs.

They quickly moved as quickly as they could across the field just in time to see the chapel crumbling into the ground. The three of them then collapsed on stable ground.

"Section Commander, but you okay?" Mason asked.

"Yeah, but what happened?" said Valka breathing heavily.

Fishlegs sat up and turned towards the chapel, and his eyes widened because emerging from the ground was again almost Titan. It was crawling on all fours and was dragging its face across the ground, heading towards the south.

Stoick and the Scout had arrived just in time to witness the Titan emerging from the ground. They were just utterly astonished by its sheer size; it had to be twice as large as the Colossal at the very least.

"What the hell is that? It's that big from a distance…"

"That thing must be at least twice the size of the Colossal Titans. It will break through the Wall in an instant. What now?"

Stoick grimaced; they had very little information because they had no idea what became of Eret's Squad.

"We advance," he said and began to ride out towards it.

Ragnar was barely conscious, but he could hear frantic voices calling out to him.

"Ragnar!" Hiccup's voice yelled.

"Can you hear us?" Astrid's voice asked.

"Wake up!"

Hiccup was chipping away at some sort of crystal, and Astrid immediately dragged him out into the open. It only took a few moments to realise they had chipped in out of his Titan, which had now crystallised.

"Ragnar," said Hiccup looking relieved to see that he was conscious.

Ragnar was still very confused about what was going on, but apparently, he had managed to harden his Titan and, at the same time, created small pillars of crystal to absorb the following ceiling.

"Not too shabby, Ragnar," said Eret looking at his harden Titan, which hadn't disintegrated. "Even after we cut you from it, that Titan hasn't disappeared. This could be a game-changer."

Ragnar was still unsure how this was possible, but he suspected it had something to do with the vile he drank. "Before I transformed, I drank from a bottle which said 'Armour'."

"Gotcha," said Eret. "Guess that all you needed to pull it off because this time he did it easily. You saved all of our lives. You came up and built everything we see here in the blink of an eye. It's not exactly pretty, but I can see its potential. I bet this is how the Walls were made too. Guess what? This means we finally have a real shot at plugging the hole in Wall Maria. We had a hell of a time getting here, took long detours and watched friends die. But exactly as it's been, look at the position we're in now."

'If we can pull it off and retake Wall Maria, I could finally go to the seller, knowing what my mum did,' Ragnar frowned at the memory.

"Captain!" said Heather as she lowered herself down the rope.

Apparently, Heather and the rest of the squad have tried to find a way out and succeeded.

"We've secured an exit, sir," said Heather.

"Valka's fine, Fishface and Mason too," said Snotlout as he slid down the rope shortly after Heather. "The twins stayed behind to help us when we get out of this mess."

"I'm glad to hear it," said Eret.

Heather then immediately rushed over to Ragnar. "Ragnar…"

"You okay?" Snotlout asked.

"You saved us all," said Heather hugging him and then immediately pulled away and glared at him. "But never do anything like that again."

"Let's go," said Eret. "We've got a big ass, Titan, to catch."

They began climbing out of the hole, and Fishlegs and the twins were helping them out.

"Here," said Fishlegs offering his hand to Ragnar and pulled him out.

When they got out, they saw the destruction caused by Johann's Titan; they could even see it moving in the distance.

The Scouts were already trying to divert its attention, but it wasn't interested them in the slightest. In fact, any nearby trees and about a 200-yard radius were immediately set ablaze by the heat was producing.

"Damnit, it's too hot! We can't get close!"

"Commander, we can't seem to distract it. It's an abnormal; it doesn't care about us."

Stoick thought that might be the case. "That's all right. Fallback, we know which direction it's going. That tells us enough to make a plan."

"We found Eret Squad! They're nearby! They succeeded, sir! They have Ragnar and Historia!"

Eret and the rest of the squad began following the Titan when they met up with Stoick and the rest of the Scouts. They have to rest Valka on the wagon as she was still too injured to ride a horse.

"Stoick," said Eret as he approached the wagon.

"Anyone hurt?" he asked.

"Yeah, Valka took a hit."

Stoick looked down at his wife, and she merely smiled at him. "Doesn't look like anything too serious, but we need to get that one bandaged just to be on the safe side." He then turned and looked at everyone else. "You did an excellent job, all of you."

"I've got a whole slew of things to report, but first…" said Eret turning to the Titan.

"Anything on that Titan?" Stoick asked.

"It's Johann Trademan."

Stoick's eyes widened.

"Look forward to hearing your thoughts on this, Commander," said Eret.

Stoick looked briefly at Historia and then back towards the Titan. "Time is short; we can't afford to stand here and chat. Head back to the Wall."

"You're going to let that thing drag its fat ass all the way to Sina?"

"Well, more specifically, I'm letting it continue to Hunter District."

The Scouts immediately made a beeline for Hunter District, trying to get ahead of the Titan, though that wasn't easy. Along the way, both Hiccup, Ragnar and Historia told them everything they had learned from Johann.

"All right, time to think," said Valka. "First off, Lord Johann was after the Founding Titan's power, and that power currently resides within Ragnar. The thing is, the Founding Titan can only be used at full potential by someone of royal blood, but then when a royal does obtain the Founding Titan's power, they suddenly take on the first king's ideology. Which means they refuse to do anything about the Titans. Well, this is certainly a conundrum. So the first king thinks that this is true peace, huh? I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with him there."

"He certainly does have a funny definition of the word paradise," said Hiccup. "However, I think my priorities should ship towards the giant all this Titan that's charging towards Wall Sina."

"About that, we do have an option to stop that thing," said Ragnar. "If we allow that thing to eat me, then Johann will become human again. Then we can have our true Founding Titan.

"You can't be serious," said Astrid.

"It is worth considering," said Eret. "Once Johann turns back into a human, we could capture him, and I do the first king's brainwashing. Assuming that it can be done, it very well may open a path to save humanity."

He then turned his eyes to Ragnar. "Tell me, Ragnar, that turned out to be our only best bet. Are you willing to do it?"

Ragnar looked at him. "You mean saving everyone, then I will."

Everyone looked at one another; clearly, they weren't filled with this option.

"I would prefer if we have a better option," said Hiccup.

"Hiccup's right, this plan you're discussing is full of flaws," said Historia. "For one thing, it may not be possible to free my father from the first king's will, and no matter how much you restrain him, if he alters everyone's memories, we're finished. And consider how much there is that we still don't know about the Founding Titan; this isn't worth the risk.

"She's right, you know," said Fishlegs. "It's not even guaranteed that Johann will turn back to normal if he did eat Ragnar. That's just a hypothesis; no one has actually seen it happen before."

Historia nodded. "So far, we've only been led by destructive pacifists, and if they kept the Founding Titan's powers, that is how it will stay. This is humanity's first chance to escape from them." She then looked at Ragnar. "Ragnar, your mother wasn't evil. She was trying to save humanity from the first king. She stole the Founding Titan for my sister, and then she murdered my father's wife and children because she had no other choice."

Ragnar then looked through one of his memories and saw his mother filling a syringe with a strange clear liquid.

'Ragnar, everyone who lives will live right upon you controlling this power,' she said with tears in her eyes.

Ragnar's eyes widened. "You mean?"

"Yeah, that's right, the Doctor Freida I knew would have only done something like that if she felt like she had to," said Fishlegs.

"She was probably giving Historia's sister a chance to destroy the Titans, and when she refused, she had no choice but to take the power," said Hiccup.

"I agree; she must have known another way," said Astrid. "The way to save humanity without Johann's blood and that mustard and why she gave you a key to the cellar."

With everything that had been happening over the past few months, Ragnar had completely forgotten about the cellar.

"What? You're cellar?" Ruffnut blinked. "I forgot all about that."

"You mean it actually important?" said Tuffnut.

"Apparently it is," said Heather.

"I'm dubious about this cellar, but the thing that matters most to me is that we have a way of plugging Wall Maria," said Snotlout. "The way I see it, that makes our choice splitting clear."

"You know that is actually a very convincing argument," said Eret.

"For whatever it's worth, I think we should stick with Ragnar too," said Valka and then turned her eyes to Historia. "But listen, are you sure about this Historia? Back Titan is a major threat; it's not like we can just let it wander around freely inside the Walls. Capturing it isn't an option; it's way too. Which means that… our only way forward is to kill your father."

Historia looked at her father, and everyone remained silent.

She then looked at Ragnar. "Ragnar, I should apologise."

"What?" Ragnar frowned.

"Under the Tradesman chapel, I really considered turning into a Titan and killing you. And honestly, it wasn't to save humanity; I just wanted to believe that my father was right. Even more than that, I wanted him to like me, but it's time for me and him to partway now."

They have finally managed to reach Hunter District and immediately made their way to the command centre. The Garrison troops stationed there were already aware of the Titan approaching the Wall immediately began preparing a strategy meeting between them and the Scouts.

"Please have your squad stand by in the hall now," said the Garrison soldier to Eret. "They're almost ready to begin."

"We'll be right there," said Eret. He then immediately approached Historia as she jumped off the wagon. "Historia, I forgot to tell you. There's something that we need you to do."

"What's that?" she asked.

"This is an order from Stoick," he said. "Once we finish off the Titan, seeing as you're the true successor to the throne, you will become Queen."

Everyone's eyes widened upon hearing this. No one was more shocked than Historia.

"Wait, Queen Historia?" Ruffnut stared. "You're kidding, right?"

"The coup d'état was successful, but the people won't follow military rule forever," said Eret. "We need to give them a heartwarming story. One where the rightful heir retakes her crown from the pretender."

"Oh, I see," said Historia looking at the ground.

"Hey, you heard what Historia was saying earlier, didn't you, captain?" said Fishlegs awkwardly. "Because it sounded to me like maybe inciting against her dad, she finally broke apart from that part of her life, you know. It's just like…"

"Like what?" Eret asked. "You have something to say, then say it."

"Um, I—"

Hiccup then stepped up. "Hey, Captain. What Fishlegs is trying to say is that Historia has finally broke free from the Tradesman family and decided that she's more than just a bloodline. So for us to force her into another role for that reason, I-I just don't think it's fair."

"It's fine," said Historia, and everyone looked at her. "If my next duty is to become a Queen, then that's what I'll do."

"But Historia—"

She smiled at them all. "I do appreciate your concern, but whether this is forced on me is really up for me to the side, and I've decided."

She then turned and looked at Eret. "But Captain, before that, I have one condition for you."

"And that is?" Eret asked.

"While my fate is still my own, I would put everything I have on the line."

Everyone soon gathered in the conference room, including Historia, now in a change of clothes and wearing ODM gear. She joined the rest of the squad, standing next to both Astrid and Ragnar.

"Once you're Queen, you can punch that jerk right in the face," Astrid smiled, much to Historia's embarrassment.

"Sirs, we have determined the Johann Titan's location," said a Garrison soldier. "It's Southwest approaching Hunter. It's fast; at this rate, it will reach the Walls before dawn."

"Right, understood," said the Garrison captain of the district. "Commander Stoick, I'm sure everyone here would like to hear your plan. How can we evacuate the people in such a short time?"

Stoick looked at him. "That's not part of the plan."

"What's that?"

"The people Hunter District will need to stay exactly where they are."

Garrison soldiers looked at one another, shocked.