She worked quickly, as usual, and Levi's eyes lingered on the deformed titan all through its hideous death throes. There was a kind of ruthless logic to leaving just one of them alive, and it was the sort of thinking that typically earned his approval. Mikasa's apprehension seemed to have cleared, too, leaving Levi to wonder whether it was because she felt safer now, or if the act of killing itself had settled her down.

Venturing too deep would be unwise, yes, and Levi had no intention of going further than another couple hundred meters regardless of how many torches they had. He gave Mikasa a nod before leading them on.

They passed a few empty cages, but the stench — which Levi had only begun acclimating to — worsened with each step, and before Mikasa needed to light her last torch, they came to a dead end. A section of the passage had collapsed. Spread around the rubble were at least a dozen thin, faceless corpses, accounting for the smell. Still, like with the other body he'd seen, these had very little rotting left to do.

A rat skittered away from the torchlight. Levi put a hand to his face, as if to cover his mouth and nose, but instead he flexed his fingers and turned away for a second. When he looked back, his arm was at his side, his expression even and recognizably drab.

"We should look for anything that could identify them," he said. "Check the bodies."

And so, indicating to Mikasa that he wouldn't leave the grim duty to her alone, Levi approached the nearest corpse, stooping to get a better look.