The Dawn of Humanity (Chapter)

"I... don't want to fight anymore. I don't want... to have to be prepared to kill you again. Not any of you... and not Eren, either..."

- Annie Leonhart, after asking if Mikasa Ackerman and the others are willing to kill Eren Yeager

Dawn for Humanity (人類の夜明け) is the 4th and final chapter of the 32nd volume and the 130th chapter overall of the Attack on Titan manga, written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama.

Overview
Eren Yeager recalls the events leading up to the present day; how he pretended to side with his brother Zeke and Yelena, how he shared his plan with Historia Reiss, and how he learned that Mikasa Ackerman's devotion to him has nothing to do with being part of the Ackerman clan.

While the Survey Corps and Warrior Unit continue onwards to Odiha, Eren and his army of Wall Titans break through an allied naval defense and march into Marley.

Summary
On board the ship, Hange Zoë tries to reason with a distraught Annie Leonhart, who is being held back by Mikasa Ackerman and Jean Kirstein. Hange explains that they have no time to save Liberio, which is why they are heading for Odiha. Annie sags to the floor, disheartened at the thought of losing her father. Without him, she no longer has a reason to fight. Hange tries to convince Annie to continue fighting, saying that Theo Magath understood that Liberio and Marley could not be saved, but he sacrificed himself anyway so that the rest of them could save as many people as possible.

Annie then circles back to a question she has asked before: whether the Survey Corps could kill Eren Yeager, or if they would be able to sit back and watch as she does it. She says she no longer wants to fight Mikasa, the rest of the Survey Corps, or Eren for that matter.

Eren tries to remember which event set him on his current path and decides it does not matter. He recalls his secret meeting with Yelena where she explained Zeke Yeager's plan to euthanize the Eldian race. Later, he told Floch Forster that he would pretend to follow Zeke's plan, and asked Floch to do the same. However, Eren told Floch that in practice his real plan was to destroy the rest of the world in order to put an end to the cycle of hatred.

Eren secretly visited Historia Reiss and warned her that the Military Police Brigade was moving forward with the plan to turn her into a Titan and feed Zeke to her once he arrived to Paradis Island, giving her the Beast Titan. Historia was aware but did not see a need to fight or run like Eren suggested. She would go with the most reliable plan to ensure the island's survival and that Eren defending her when the plan first came up was enough for her.

However, that was not enough for Eren. He confided his plan to her, and Historia vehemently objected on the basis that not everyone outside the island is their enemy. People would be killed without any idea why. Eren understood this but said it was the only way to end the cycle of hate; by removing all history of that hate. His plan would also end the cycle of children eating their parents to inherit the Power of the Titans, which was what the military would do with her.

Historia felt that she could not live with herself if she did not stop him. Eren then suggests using the Founding Titan's powers to manipulate her memories if enduring them would be too much for her, but believed she could stay quiet until his plan came to pass because she was the one who saved him back in the underground cavern; the self-described "worst girl in the world." Historia was shocked by this, and then asked Eren what he would think of her having a child.

Eren remembers talking with Zeke in Marley, asking about headaches in the Ackerman clan. Zeke had never heard of any sort of imprinting behavior that causes an Ackerman to protect a host and suspected that Mikasa's affection toward Eren is simply because she likes him. He asked Eren how he planned to respond, and Eren replied that there was no point as he would only live for another four years.

As Eren recalled the damage he did to his body, which included cutting off his foot with a blunt blade and forcing a bullet into his eye, to pretend to be a gravely wounded soldier. He then thought about his friends and the refugees he had met and said that he would want them to live long happy lives.

In the present, the Global Allied Fleet makes a stand against the approaching Wall Titans. However, their cannons are ineffective, and the Titans can scorch a ship's crew to death by swimming underneath it so that the heat of their bodies turns the water around the ship to steam.

On land, soldiers attempt a similarly futile artillery barrage from the harbor before retreating to higher ground. Some of them turn back in fear and see the gargantuan skeletal shape of Eren's modified Attack Titan approaching from behind the line of Wall Titans.

As Eren marches into Marley, he remembers the death of his mother and the vow he made that day to keep pushing forward until he destroys his enemies.

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