How To Kill a Titan

It is so easy to kill a Titan.

In the night, approach him when he sleeps and rest on the ruins. You must go on quietly. Slowly. One move after another. Be so close that the Titan's breath burns you, you can feel beating the veins under the stone skin, that each of the sparks of life below you brushes and tightens you to the belly. Then look for the luminous trace, which indicates a fault, a mortal weakness. When you have found it, think only of that. Do not look at the immense arms that could crush you, the abyss of the mouth that swallows everything, the almost transparent eyelids behind which blaze eyes to which nothing escapes. Get closer. Leave only the space of one hand between you and your target.

When the Titan dies, do not stay. Spread yourself as much as possible. Run away. He will spit out fire and flames. He will swallow up all that has the misfortune of being too near. On the rubble beneath him, he will create others still greater. The immense mouth will utter abominable cries, which will chill your blood. The arms will sweep the air in search of the enemy to fight. The feet will crush all life. Nothing resists this giant who dies, and the spectacle he offers is pathetic and frightening. You will then, perhaps, in the depths of you, like a dull guilt, of that which embraces those who attack the strength, the power, the solemnity of the beings out of the common. But all this is of little importance, for there will be a Titan on this earth when you leave.

You will resume the road that led you there. Then will begin for you the hard times. For people do not want the Titans to be killed. They are as great as heaven, strong as the earth, as beautiful as life. They shine in passing in the distance, one sees only them, everywhere, always. Those who have not undergone the ravages of these almost gods, who are not aware of the misfortunes they owe them, who see in them only an ideal mirror, believe that the Titans are older, more worthy, more sacred than humans.

So, when you go to a city, hide, shut up. If the inhabitants learn who you are, what you do, they will ban you if you are lucky, they will want to destroy you if you are not. If they know that you have already accomplished your mission, they will kill you. For the hunters, death seldom comes from the Titans; it is first born of those who adore them. Stay away from dwellings, roads, and even paths.

You will go to other places, fleeing those you have just served, without them knowing it. This also has little importance. On your journey, you will meet other people. Vagabonds dying of cold, thrown on the roads, hated by those whose houses are beautiful and warm. Families seated in front of the last piece of bread, rancid, black, too small for only one of them. Men squatting, haggard, in front of the ruins of their house. Women with eyes of pain, who still carry in their tight arms the child who no longer lives. They really know who Titans are and what they bring to the world. Do not forget them.

Listening to them, hearing their tears, anger and fear, you will learn where the next Titan is going to kill you. Follow him, step by step. The clues are easy to find, their footprints are vast like houses, their silhouette stands out on the horizon and behind them, the earth is almost destroyed, deformed by innumerable hollows in which stagnates the rain water. The trees are overturned, the bridges are destroyed, the stones are raised from the ground.

Your journey will be a long and painful test. Sometimes the work of a whole life. You will learn to accept fatigue, discouragement, loneliness. You will remain anonymous, you will not seek glory or recognition: the world does not need Titans, but the world does not recognize the heroes.

If you are not ready, go home. If you leave only by anger, revenge, drunkenness to kill or destroy, it is not your place. If you accept to take a single human life, if you give yourself the right to decide what others should be, if you listen to those who will turn you away from the Titans to turn against your brethren, erect around you the walls of your prison, because you are then as dangerous as the Titans.

But if you know the meaning of each of your gestures and the value of each human life, if it is for another, for some others, for all the others that you want to give the slightest second of your existence, you see a Titan and you think of your duty, you do it without hatred, if you avoid violence as much as possible, so do not wait any more. Leave your home, leave your family, go on the paths. Whatever your reasons, recite them every morning and evening, that they never leave your mind.

You will kill your first Titan one night. You'll be scared. A thousand times, on the road, you wished to flee. But you will be so close, finally. Come closer, go to the end of what you do, at the end of what you are. You have made your choice, you have carried it in you forever. Do not be afraid. PULL. Being a Titan hunter is the sacrifice of a life. But it's so easy to kill a Titan.

Source: google.com