...
The wind howled softly through the broken forest, carrying with it the scent of damp earth. He sat alone on a thick, gnarled branch high above the land, the dying orange light of the sunset casting long shadows.
His hands dangled loosely at his sides, eyes blank as he stared at the distant horizon.
"This really... isn't a dream," he muttered to himself, voice hoarse, barely above a whisper.
Attack on Titan...
Somehow, impossibly, he'd been thrown into it. No waking up. No "it was all a dream." No "game mechanics" flashing before his eyes.
He tapped his fingers absently against his knee, staring at nothing.
Then a soft chime, almost inaudible over the whispering wind.
[System Synchronization Complete.]
Name: Meeyn
Title: Primordial God of Darkness
Template: Knull (1%)
World: Attack on Titan
— Living Abyss [Passive]: Your darkness is alive. Shape it with will.
— Symbiote Creation [Active]: Birth primitive life from the void.
— Abyssal Armament [Active]: Mold the abyss into crude weapons or armor.
Suddenly, a screen appeared in front of him, hovering in his vision.
He stared at the words written on it, slowly reading through the information.
"...So I really have the powers of Knull, the Primordial God?" he muttered.
He also noticed the progress listed at only 1%. If he was already this strong at just 1%, he couldn't imagine how powerful the real Knull must have been.
"...And if this is Attack on Titan... what timeline is it?"
Receiving no response, he fell silent as the sun finally dipped below the horizon, and the world around him was swallowed by the darkness of night.
He jumped down from the branch he had been sitting on, landing softly on the forest floor.
"Titans should be immobile during the night," he muttered, glancing around cautiously.
"Should I go inside the walls?" he thought, then shook his head. "Too many complications."
For now, staying outside was safer.
He moved carefully through the trees, each step quiet, the forest eerily silent except for the soft rustling of leaves.
After a while, he stumbled into a clearing — and stopped.
All around him were Titans.
Frozen like statues, their massive bodies twisted and hunched in unnatural positions. Some stood upright, heads drooping. Others sat awkwardly against trees, arms limp at their sides. Their blank, grotesque faces stared into nothing, unmoving.
The moonlight was weak tonight, barely enough to outline their monstrous forms in the darkness.
He tightened his fists unconsciously.
"They're really... like corpses," he whispered.
Looking at the Titans, an idea suddenly popped into his head...
"Can I infect these Pure Titans with my symbiote?" he thought.
The idea sounded good. If he could control them somehow, he'd have an army.
But there was a problem — he didn't even know how to create a symbiote in the first place.
He frowned, opening the system screen again in his mind.
— Symbiote Creation [Active]: Birth primitive life from the void.
"Birth primitive life... how?" he muttered, frustration creeping into his voice.
He extended his hand, willing the darkness to gather. Black tendrils slithered around his arm, pulsing slightly with life. He focused, trying to shape it, to pull something living out of it.
Minutes passed.
The abyss twisted, twitched... then collapsed, falling limp.
Nothing.
Knull gritted his teeth, feeling the strain in his head.
"Not enough control," he realized. "Or maybe... not enough power yet."
At just 1% synchronization, it made sense. His connection to the abyss was still too weak to create independent lifeforms. Maybe he needed a stronger bond, more experience... or simply more raw power.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
The plan to infect the Titans would have to wait.
But the idea lingered. He stared at the frozen Titans again, his mind racing.
"If I can't infect them... maybe I can bind them another way," he thought.
"Hmm, Living Abyss... I can use that, maybe." He recalled the umbrakinesis from Marvel comics — the ability to manipulate eldritch darkness, which was called the "Living Abyss." by the knull
Using that knull was able to create symbiotes, weapons, and creatures from this darkness, control them remotely, and shapeshift.
And with his 1% synchronization, he might have enough control to manipulate these Titans, right?
He flexed his fingers slowly, feeling the Living Abyss pulse faintly inside him, like a sluggish heartbeat.
"If it's just manipulating existing things... not creating whole new life," he reasoned, "then maybe I can do it."
The Titans weren't dead — just dormant. Their bodies were still filled with that strange vitality unique to Titans.
He crouched low, stretching out his hand toward the nearest Titan slumped against a broken tree, jaw hanging open.
Closing his eyes, he focused.
The darkness responded. Black tendrils slithered from his arm, writhing eagerly. They slid across the ground like serpents, invisible in the dim moonlight, until they touched the Titan's leg.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, the darkness sank in — like ink spreading through a sponge.
Meeyn's brow furrowed in concentration. The process was slow, almost agonizing. His connection flickered, the control tenuous.
But then... the Titan twitched.
Its fingers curled slightly, an ugly, spasming movement.
"It's working..." he muttered under his breath.
The darkness inside him pulsed again, and he poured more of it into the Titan's body, weaving it through the creature's muscles like fine threads.
The Titan jerked its head weakly, then its arms, moving with broken, puppet-like motions.
Meeyn exhaled shakily, sweat beading on his forehead.
Controlling even one Titan was a huge strain at 1%. His mind felt like it was dragging a massive weight through mud.
But he had done it.
He let the puppet-Titan slump back down, the abyss threads withdrawing from its body like retreating vines.
"This... this can work," he said, almost in disbelief.
But it wasn't enough.
Meeyn wiped the sweat from his brow and forced himself to try again.