The Rumbling (Chapter)

Rumbling (地鳴らし) is the 1st chapter of the 33rd volume and the 131st chapter overall of the Attack on Titan manga, written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama.

Overview
The Wall Titans reach Marley and begin destroying the town of Liberio. As Ramzi and Halil, two children trying to retrieve some stolen money, are swept into a crowd of fleeing Eldians, Eren reflects back on his prior interaction with Ramzi and apologizing for the destruction to his homeland that will occur in the future. As Eren remembers his childhood vow of becoming the person with the most freedom in the world, Armin witnesses this; Armin finds himself back on the ship sailing to the coast of Odiha. He sits with Annie and mentions how he is a monster just like her and the Warriors, sadly reflecting how the outside world was nothing like what he envisioned as a child.

Summary
On the continent of Marley, Halil and Ramzi look over some money they stole hidden nearby in a tree. Ramzi, having lost a hand due to being caught stealing, is warned to stop otherwise he will lose his other hand. He mentions to his friend to give their money to his family if he does end up getting killed. Suddenly, a number of people run past them. As they ponder the reason, they notice the ground is starting to rumble around them. The two look over the hill they are on and see a massive flock of birds flying overhead with shapes moving in the distance.

As he orders the Wall Titans to continue forward, Eren thinks back on his stay in Marley and wonders what his mother would think of his actions. While he does acknowledge the claim made by the Reiss family and how the Titans would disappear if the Eldian race went extinct, he simply cannot accept that fate. While in his past memory, he notices Ramzi getting attacked and once again compares his situation similar to Reiner's. In a later memory, he breaks down and apologizes to the child for what is about to happen.

Back in the present, Ramzi and Halil join the crowd of people running from Liberio as the Wall Titans begin destroying the town. The crowd tries getting to higher ground to avoid the Titans, but a man notices a group of Titans lumbering up a nearby mountain range. They huddle around and many citizens begin to wail as they have been abandoned by the Marley troops. Ramzi refuses to accept and the crowd makes it to another city, where they lose the money collected earlier. As they flee, Halil is crushed by some falling debris and Eren witnesses it as he continues reliving his past memory. He bemoans how the outside world was not like how he imagined it when listening to Armin describe it when they were children. He expresses how he felt disappointed there were humans that lived outside the Walls. Eren finishes his memory by once again telling Ramzi how he is sorry as the child is crushed underfoot from one of the Titans along with the corpse of Halil.

As the Eldians try desperately to leave the city, Eren recounts again how he knew nothing beyond the Walls his entire childhood and anyone who could see the wonders described by Armin would be the person with the most freedom in the entire world. Regressing to a child, Eren declares that he has indeed achieved that freedom and the residents of Paradis have it at last; turning around, he notices an adult Armin staring at him blankly.

On the ship, Armin comes back and is too stunned to speak when Annie remarks how his wounds have healed already; Armin replies in the positive, commenting that he never imagined himself to be in this position. As Annie offers him a seat, she thanks him for visiting her all the years she was underground in stasis; she remarks that hearing Armin and Hitch talk to her was what kept her from losing her mind, asking why he went through the trouble. Armin slightly blushes and says he just wanted to see her; taken back by this, Annie buries her head and takes it in while staring ahead as the ship foghorn blares. Mentioning how she is still an enemy, Annie acknowledges that Armin's benevolent nature is why he wished to avoid conflict by wishing to have a dialogue with Eren; grabbing her hand as she gets up, Armin asks her to stay. He affirms how he hates being called a good person despite killing many innocents and his own fellow Eldians on Paradis. He refers to himself as a monster just like Annie, Eren and all the others.

Staring at a seagull perched near them, Armin recalls a promise he made to Eren how they would travel the unknown world as adults. Annie quips that the world must not have turned out like they hoped; Armin confirms this, but still hopes there is a world they do not know of that still lies out there.