By Reddit user athiktos:
“You can’t imagine, seeing it now. Seeing this wall around the city. You can’t imagine how scared we were. The Fallen had us running, terrified, helpless. We were dying, and we felt it. Humanity huddled together here under the shadow of our crippled god.”
“The sun was setting. They called it Humanity’s last day on Earth. And they called for volunteers. Anyone who could carry a weapon or fire a gun. They went out and joined the line. They carried ancient weapons and dug shallow graves to hide in while the sun painted the clouds blood red behind them. We could hear the Fallen screaming for our blood.”
“The night was starless. Flashes of gunfire and the burning corpse-light was out only illumination. The refugees hiding beneath the Traveler could hear their guardians crying in pain, screaming for ammunition, bandages, water. The Fallen were screaming, too. An endless war cry that echoed all throughout the night.”
“When the sun rose, we were still alive. There was an unbroken ring of corpses around the last city, Fallen and Guardians tangled together, ten feet tall. The surviving warriors, they carried us. They carried the city on their shoulders like they were mighty Titans, from the old stories. They have a saying now, “War on stone, it grows weaker. War on Man, it grows stronger.” That’s what the First Wall was built of. Not stone, not metal, but Man.”
“I remember seeing those Guardians, standing on the First Wall while the sun rose before them. Humanity was still on the verge of extinction. The Traveler was still crippled. But as we watched the sun rise over the scorched and lifeless battlefield, we knew. The Titans had given us a second chance.”