Chapter 5: The Light in the Dark

I left.

I should have killed her. I knew that.

Sophia was a Titan, and all Titans deserved to die. That was my law. That was the only thing that had kept me going all these years. But when I had the chance—when I stood before her, blade in hand—I walked away.

And that should have been the end of it.

But it wasn't.

Because Sophia wasn't just another Titan.

She was the first to follow me.

Days passed. Then weeks.

I moved from battlefield to battlefield, cutting down anyone strong enough to challenge me. Governments still whispered my name. Mercenary groups still sent their best men to die by my hands. Titans still fell like insects before me.

Nothing had changed.

Except for her.

She was always there—just out of reach, just beyond my blade.

Wherever I left death, she left life.

Where I slaughtered, she healed.

Where I tore down, she rebuilt.

Where I erased, she restored.

I would leave a battlefield in ruins, bodies strewn across the ground. Hours later, they would be gone—either healed or buried, their suffering erased by her golden touch.

It was infuriating.

I wasn't used to being followed. I wasn't used to someone trying to undo what I had done.

She wasn't fighting me.

She wasn't stopping me.

But she wasn't letting me win, either.

And that made her a problem.

---

I found her again in the ruins of what used to be a city.

Another war had reduced it to nothing—bodies buried beneath rubble, their screams already forgotten by the world.

I had come to end the last Titan here—a weakling who thought hiding in a crumbling church would save him. His body still bled at my feet, his final gasp of breath nothing more than an afterthought.

And that's when I heard her voice.

"You don't have to do this."

I turned.

Sophia stood at the entrance of the shattered cathedral, her silver hair flowing in the wind, her golden eyes locked onto mine. Calm. Unshaken. Unafraid.

I scowled. "Still following me?"

She stepped forward, slowly, as if approaching a wounded animal. "Someone has to."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why?"

She stopped a few paces away, her gaze flickering to the corpse at my feet.

Then she looked at me. "Because you're lost."

I felt something ugly rise in my chest. Laughter. A dark, bitter sound that echoed through the empty church.

"Lost?" I echoed. "I know exactly where I'm going."

She shook her head. "No, you don't. You've been walking this path for so long, you don't even know why anymore."

I hated that she said that.

Because deep down, I knew she was right.

My blade was still slick with Titan blood. My fists were still stained with the lives I had taken. I had spent years cutting down every monster in my way, every so-called god who thought they were untouchable.

And yet—nothing had changed.

I was still here.

Still killing.

Still empty.

Sophia took another step forward. "Let me help you."

I reacted before I even thought.

One moment, she was standing there. The next, my sword was at her throat.

She didn't flinch.

Didn't breathe.

Didn't blink.

She just looked at me, her golden eyes filled with something I didn't understand.

Pity?

Hope?

Something else?

"You should have run," I murmured.

"I'm not afraid of you, Ethan."

Her voice was steady. Certain. Like she had already decided something I hadn't.

I pressed the blade against her skin. Just a little pressure, enough to draw the tiniest bead of blood. A Titan like her would heal instantly.

But still, she didn't move.

Didn't fight.

Didn't beg.

She was daring me to kill her.

And I couldn't.

My fingers tightened around the hilt of my blade, every instinct screaming for me to end this now. To kill her before she became a real problem.

But my body wouldn't move.

Sophia's voice softened.

"You don't have to be this."

I gritted my teeth. "This is all I am."

She shook her head. "No. It's all you've let yourself be."

I wanted to cut her down.

I wanted to silence her words.

But for the first time in years, I couldn't.

And I hated it.

I pulled my sword away and turned my back on her.

"This is your only warning," I said coldly. "Stay out of my way."

I walked away, disappearing into the ruins before she could say another word.

But something in me knew the truth.

This wasn't over.

And for the first time—

I wasn't sure I wanted it to be.

I should have left her behind.

I tried.

Again and again, I told myself she was nothing. A foolish Titan who didn't understand this world. Someone who would get herself killed if she kept following me.

And yet, every time I turned around, she was there.

She never begged me to change.

She never tried to stop me.

She just… stayed.

And somehow, that was worse.

Because no one had ever stayed before.

---

A Titan and a Monster

It started with silence.

She didn't ask for my past.

She didn't question my scars.

She simply walked beside me, matching my pace, healing those who survived my destruction.

At first, I told myself I didn't care.

But I did.

Because when the nights were cold, she would light a fire.

Because when the wounds were deep, she would heal them without a word.

Because when I closed my eyes and let my demons consume me, she was still there in the morning.

I didn't understand it.

But I let it happen.

---

The first time she touched me, I nearly killed her.

It was instinct.

A reflex born from years of war, from too many betrayals, from a lifetime of knowing that anyone who got close wanted to stab me in the back.

Her fingers barely brushed my arm before I grabbed her wrist, twisting it hard enough to break—

And then I stopped.

Because she wasn't fighting back.

Because she wasn't afraid.

She just looked at me, her golden eyes calm, unshaken.

"You're hurt," she said simply.

Her voice was softer than it should have been.

I realized then that blood was running down my side, another wound I had ignored, another scar that would have healed eventually.

She didn't ask.

She didn't beg.

She just healed me.

And for the first time in years, I let her.

---

It was a slow thing.

Like the ocean carving stone, relentless and patient.

One day, I found myself waiting for her before moving to the next battlefield.

Another day, I caught myself listening when she spoke about the world, about the people she had saved, about the things she still believed in.

And then, one night—when the sky was dark and the world was silent—I found myself reaching for her.

I stopped before my fingers brushed her hair.

Because I didn't know what I was doing.

Because I didn't know what this meant.

And because for the first time in years, I was afraid.

Afraid of her.

Afraid of what she made me feel.

Afraid that if I let this happen, I wouldn't know who I was anymore.

But then—she turned around.

And she smiled.

"Ethan," she whispered.

Like my name wasn't a curse.

Like I wasn't a monster.

Like I was still human.

And before I could stop myself—before I could remind myself of who I was supposed to be—I kissed her.

I had never loved before.

Not like this.

I had known lust.

I had known possession.

I had known what it was like to claim and to take.

But this was different.

Because when I kissed her, I wasn't taking anything.

I was giving.

Something small. Something fragile.

Something that I didn't even realize I still had.

She didn't pull away.

She didn't hesitate.

She held me, fingers curling in my hair, pulling me closer like I wasn't the most dangerous thing in the world.

And in that moment, I wasn't.

Not to her.

Not to me.

Not to anyone.

For the first time, I wasn't a weapon.

I wasn't a Titan.

I wasn't the monster that the world had made me.

I was just Ethan.

And she was Sophia.

And for once, that was enough.

---

It couldn't last.

I knew that.

She knew that.

But we didn't care.

For months, we walked through the war-torn world together.

She tried to save people.

I tried not to kill too many.

She laughed when I scowled at her optimism.

I smirked when she cursed under her breath after nearly tripping over rubble.

We were a contradiction.

A healer and a destroyer.

A light and a shadow.

But somehow, it worked.

Somehow, she became mine.

And I became hers.

And for the first time since my family was ripped away from me—I wasn't alone anymore.

I didn't think about the future.

I didn't think about what would come next.

Because in that moment—

With her by my side—

It didn't matter.

And for the first time in my life…

I felt alive.

---