Above and Below

Held at gunpoint, Eren calls Pieck's bluff: her orders demand the Founding Titan be captured, not destroyed, and killing him without eating him would doom her whole family. Pieck lowers the pistol and admits to a second motive, that a Founder in Eren's hands might genuinely bring Marley down, an outcome she wants for her father's sake and for the Eldians penned in the internment zones. She lectures a shaken Gabi that honorary Marleyan status is a costume; both of them are Subjects of Ymir, and once Titan power turns militarily obsolete, Marley will have no further use for people who can transform and will move to wipe them out. Eldians must secure their own right to survive. As proof of good faith, she offers to point out every infiltrator hidden in the town, if Eren will escort her to the roof.

In the cells, Yelena visits the captured Scouts, greeting them as the heroes of Shiganshina. Jean traces how neatly events have followed Zeke's design: the raid, the Eldian public's support, the spinal-fluid wine now leashing the military's officers. When the officer Griez sneers at the islanders and slanders Sasha as a harlot descended from devils, Yelena shoots him through the head mid-rant, bows in apology, and lays out the euthanasia plan as a peaceful close to Eldian history. Jean picks at its flaws, an aging nation with no defenders, and Yelena answers that the Rumbling will remain as a deterrent while the royal line, already secured by Historia's coming child, keeps the Founder alive. Armin weeps at what he calls its nobility.

On the rooftop the trap closes. Pieck clasps Gabi's trembling hand, turns, and points at Eren. Galliard's Jaw Titan bursts up through the stone, but its bite claims only Eren's legs before he transforms. Above, a fleet of airships led by Magath reads the smoke signal confirming the Founder's location. Liberio's revenge has arrived.

Pieck declines to shoot Eren and professes a willingness to help him defeat Marley.

Yelena executes Griez for insulting Sasha, then explains Zeke's euthanasia plan to the imprisoned Scouts.

Pieck tells Gabi that Eldians will never earn freedom through loyalty to Marley and must protect themselves.

The rooftop offer proves to be a ruse; Porco Galliard's Jaw Titan severs Eren's legs before he transforms into the Attack Titan.

Magath's airship fleet arrives over the town, opening Marley's retaliatory assault on Paradis.

Volume 29's second chapter and the 116th overall, released April 9, 2019 in Japan and April 8 in English, later animated as the episode of the same name. The simulpub edition initially ran under the title All Creation, and the kanji reads literally as heaven and earth.

The chapter's defining line belongs to Pieck, who tells Gabi she trusts neither Marley nor prayers for Eldian freedom, only the comrades who have fought at her side.