Mission Objectives

Watched by the entire expedition, Eren transforms at the gap in Wall Maria and hardens his Titan into a permanent plug. Soldiers on both faces of the Wall confirm the seal holds, and Mikasa lends Eren her cloak after his burned away. The apparent ease unsettles him, and Levi supplies the correction: so long as Reiner and Bertolt breathe, they can simply smash the Wall again, so the operation ends only with their deaths.

Near the inner gate, Armin brings Erwin abandoned camping gear found at the Wall's base, including a still-warm kettle and three used cups. Erwin works the math; given the Corps' approach speed, the enemy had at least five minutes of warning, meaning scouts were posted and their numbers may be far larger than assumed. Hunting the hidden enemy becomes the top priority, and Erwin hands Armin a squad and command of the search.

Armin's soldiers comb the district and find nothing. Racing against Eren's approaching group, Armin reconstructs the enemy's logic: they need a hiding place with a constant view of the operation, close enough to strike when Eren exhausts himself. Then the memory of the Titan face once uncovered within Wall Sheena strikes him, and he sends up a flare.

Armin orders his skeptical squad to search inside the Wall itself, arguing that enemies who weaponize the impossible will never be caught by common sense. Erwin backs the chain of command, and the second sweep pays off: a soldier uncovers Reiner sheltering in a hollow cavity within the Wall. Reiner kills the man on the spot, then advances on a frozen Armin until Levi intercepts, slashing his nape and driving a blade through his chest. Astonishingly, Reiner survives the wounds, and Levi kicks him off the Wall as he transforms into the Armored Titan.

Before Erwin can organize a response, a roar of transformation erupts behind the Corps. Dozens of Titans stand assembled with the Beast Titan at their head. It hurls a boulder that slams into the northern gate, and what looks like a miss reveals itself as strategy: the shot has walled off the Corps' sole exit from Shiganshina and cut them off from their horses.

Trapped, Erwin names the situation for what it is, the decisive battle both sides have waited for. Humanity or the Titans, one survives and one dies, and the Corps braces itself while the Armored Titan climbs to its feet and the horde closes in.

The chapter concludes volume 18, published October 9, 2015 in Japan and a day earlier via English simulpub. It belongs to the Return to Shiganshina arc, sits between The Town Where Everything Began and War on Two Fronts, and its events reached the screen inside the episode titled The Town Where Everything Began.

Erwin drops a heavy aside during the search: concealment on this battlefield is not limited to Reiner and Bertolt, a nod to the plan he has yet to reveal to his own soldiers.

The chapter quote is Erwin's declaration before the assembled Titans that the long-awaited battle has arrived and only one side will walk away.