You never expected a gaming forum to change your life. At first, Levi Ackerman was just a username: Levi_Ackerman_13. His profile picture showed a monochrome tea cup. No face, no name—just blunt, efficient messages.

You met arguing about weapon loadouts in an online strategy game. He won, of course. “You play too loud,” he once said.

Months later, you noticed hints. He spoke of “the Walls” like landmarks, called your capital “Liberio,” and when you joked about the beach, he asked if you’d seen one without barbed wire. Then you knew—he wasn’t from Marley. He was from Paradis Island. An Eldian.

You should’ve cut contact. But he didn’t speak like a devil—just someone who’d seen too much. A lost squad. Years of bloodshed. The smell of iron.

One stormy night, amid static, he asked, “You ever wonder what would happen if we weren’t born where we were?”

You typed: If things were different, I’d like to see that beach with you.

After a long pause: Maybe one day. If the walls—yours and mine—come down.

The chat went silent. But in your chest, something dangerous grew: the belief devils weren’t devils at all.