Night of The End

Jean daydreams of a life the war never let him have, a home, a wife, a child, before Hange's knock pulls him back. With the island's command structure in ruins, Hange no longer claims any authority over him or Mikasa, yet asks for their help anyway: without them, the little coalition formed with Magath and Pieck stands no chance of stopping Eren.

Mikasa agrees at once, hoping to reach Eren before anyone else attacks him. Jean pushes back with cold arithmetic. Halting the Rumbling will not erase the world's hatred, and the Curse of Ymir leaves Eren only four more years regardless. Hange erupts, refusing to let genocide stand as anyone's answer, then apologizes and owns a share of the blame. As the fourteenth commander of the Survey Corps, Hange invokes the dead who never learned humanity survived beyond the Walls, asking whether even one of them would have accepted freedom for the island alone. The window to act is now. Jean relents; he is still Survey Corps.

The next night, soldiers who spent years killing each other sit around one fire. Magath cannot fathom why islanders would help him, and his sparring with Jean over decades of grievances forces Hange to cut in: nobody present witnessed events from two thousand years ago.

Annie presses the question no one wants: can Eren's friends actually kill him if talk fails? Mikasa and Armin have no answer. Annie moves to force the issue against Mikasa, barb bared on her ring, then stands down, admitting her only goal is reaching her father, and agreeing to hold off unless persuasion collapses.

Over stew, the plan emerges: reach the harbor and use Kiyomi Azumabito's flying boat to close on the Founding Titan. Pieck and Magath also expose Yelena's myth; she is no Marleyan-hating outsider but a disillusioned Marleyan who invented her own legend around Zeke. Yelena retaliates by cataloging everyone's crimes, Reiner and Annie's slaughter on Paradis, Armin annihilating the naval fleet with the Colossus Titan's stolen power, the Liberio raid, Jean nearly killing Falco, Gabi shooting Sasha.

Then comes Marco. Annie removed his gear, but on Reiner's orders, after Marco overheard too much; he was left for the Titans. His last words, that they had not even tried talking it out, hang over the fire. Jean thanks Reiner for the honesty, endures his unwanted apology, then snaps and beats him, accidentally kicking Gabi when she shields her cousin. Gabi's tearful plea for help stopping the Rumbling follows him into the woods. By morning he is back in the wagons, apologizing to her while pointedly offering Reiner nothing, a snub Reiner takes without complaint. Pieck returns from scouting with the worst news: the Yeagerists hold the harbor, armed with anti-Titan gear, and inside, Floch keeps a pistol trained on a captive Kiyomi.

The chapter launched volume 32 within the War for Paradis arc, between Pride and Traitor. Japan received it March 9, 2020, a day after the English simulpub, which carried the alternate title End's Eve; the anime adapted it as Night of the End.

Jean's opening fantasy features a parade of the Survey Corps' dead, from Marco and Petra to Erwin and Moblit, framing his choice to fight on as a farewell to the peaceful life those sacrifices might have bought.

The chapter quote is Hange's argument that the fallen never fought for one island's freedom alone, and that this is the sole remaining chance to stop the slaughter.