Zeke Yeager. Grisha's eldest son, Eren's older brother, and the inheritor of the Beast Titan's power.
Lately, a voice in his head had been constantly urging him: *You should set off for Paradis Island immediately.*
*A hallucination? Or is this my own inner desire?*
Zeke found it increasingly difficult to tell the difference. It wasn't until his dreams began playing a continuous loop of him traveling to Paradis that he finally couldn't hold back anymore.
The Marley Empire controlled eight of the Nine Titans' powers: the Colossal Titan, the Armored Titan, the War Hammer Titan, the Cart Titan, the Beast Titan, the Female Titan, and the Attack Titan.
The Attack Titan had been brought within the walls of Paradis by Grisha, while most of the other inheritors had been dispatched to wait for an opportunity to seize the Founding Titan.
Zeke was originally assigned to guard the Marleyan mainland, but given his intense, repeated requests, the higher-ups couldn't simply ignore him.
Accompanying him on this journey was Marley's biochemical unit.
The Beast Titan that Zeke transformed into possessed a unique ability. He could inject his own spinal fluid into Eldians, and then, using his roar as a signal, transform them into Pure Titans.
Intravenous injection, subcutaneous injection, or even oral ingestion—all of them worked.
Because of the royal blood Zeke inherited, he could even exert a basic level of control over these Pure Titans.
As for any concerns that Zeke might slaughter his teammates and never return, that was impossible.
These inheritors had been thoroughly brainwashed since childhood; ordinary people couldn't possibly break their conditioning. Take Zeke, for example—he had even reported his own biological father.
Not everyone possessed Zenith's absolute power to completely crush someone on every level and forcefully correct their personality.
"Is it my own will that brought me here, or the guidance of fate?" Zeke murmured.
He marched toward the walls in his Titan form. The further he advanced, the more he could feel the call of his bloodline.
*Father... Grisha Yeager!*
"Anyway, let's gather intelligence first. It's been so long, and Reiner and the others haven't sent back a single report... Don't tell me they're dead."
The biochemical unit spread out around Zeke. They were equipped with experimental firearms designed to rapidly disperse his spinal fluid.
This wasn't just a lethal weapon; it was an almost unsolvable method of crowd control.
Due to the nature of Titans, most of them instinctively gathered wherever humans were present. Therefore, the number of Titans roaming near the walls was far greater than those in the surrounding forests.
Standing at seventeen meters tall, Zeke was a massive, glaring target from afar. The Survey Corps, who were currently establishing an extra-mural base nearby, spotted him instantly.
"An Abnormal? No, it's the Beast Titan. Everyone, the target has finally appeared!"
Hannes waved his hand excitedly. The appearance of the Beast Titan meant that the eradication plan for the Titans outside the walls had officially begun.
This Beast Titan was the exact "monkey" Zenith had mentioned in his "Levi Chops the Monkey" master plan!
Levi peered through his binoculars at the ape-like Beast Titan in the distance, his dead-fish eyes thoroughly unimpressed. "Boring. Remember to leave that monkey alive; the deterrence plan still needs him. Wipe out all the Pure Titans around him!"
In the past, even the Survey Corps wouldn't have charged in so recklessly. After all, no matter how strong an individual's combat prowess was, fighting Titans always carried a risk of death.
But things were different now. Everyone here was equipped with the X-ODM gear and had successfully grasped the basics of the True Qi Meditation Method. This was the combined force of the Crimson Lotus Squad and the True Valor Squad.
"Consider this a rehearsal for the final great purge. Are you old-timers of the True Valor Squad ready?!"
"Yeah!!"
Hannes took the lead, and the dozen or so members of the True Valor Squad quickly spurred their horses, charging straight toward Zeke.
Levi followed right behind. He didn't waste breath on unnecessary words; with a simple hand signal, the members of the Crimson Lotus Squad firmly fell in line behind him.
The thunderous galloping of horses naturally caught Zeke's attention. The captain of the biochemical unit tilted his head. "Should we initiate an attack? We don't need this many people if we're just taking captives."
Turning Eldians into Pure Titans and throwing them into the battlefield was their classic tactic, and using that threat to break a captive's will was standard procedure.
Zeke thought about it and agreed with the captain. It was their first operation on the island, so it was better to be cautious. Keeping one or two captives alive would be enough.
*Actually, make it three,* he decided. *There has to be an interrogation, and we'll need to kill one to scare the others. We might end up wasting two.*
An individual's personal skills directly influenced their combat power in Titan form. Since childhood, Zeke had loved a sport similar to baseball, which gave him highly developed arm muscles and exceptional throwing ability.
Building on this foundation, among the current Nine Titans, the Beast Titan was the only one capable of launching devastating long-range attacks purely through personal skill.
Rock throwing!
He casually scooped up a massive boulder several meters in diameter. With a light squeeze, it shattered into uneven fragments in his palm. Then came a textbook pitching motion.
The rocks tore through the air with a howling screech, breaking the sound barrier with a deafening *boom*. Relying solely on wrist strength, the Beast Titan could hurl stones with the destructive force of supersonic artillery shells!
"So fast!" Hannes's pupils shrank. His mind hadn't even processed the attack, but his battle-hardened body moved on its own.
He drew his twin blades, the steel glowing with a seductive crimson light. After summarizing their experiences from multiple battles, the Survey Corps members had made it a habit to always save enough energy for one Armed Release.
No one knew when an accident might happen, and the Armed Release gave them a guaranteed safety net to resolve any unexpected crisis.
Hannes's Armed Release wasn't the Dragon Slaying Strike. Zenith had programmed more than just one skill into the X-ODM gear, allowing each person to choose the ability that best suited their combat style.
Zenith had even made the skills hot-swappable, which was incredibly convenient.
"Barrier—Deploy!"
Hannes's Armed Release was a physical defense magic. It wasn't the hexagonal anti-magic grid—there was no need for magic defense in the Titan world.
Instead, it was a hemispherical shield that rippled like water. Its perfect curvature naturally deflected physical impacts, and the shield itself possessed a high degree of elasticity.
"Terrifying. It feels like we just got bombarded by a battery of heavy artillery," Hannes clicked his tongue. Aside from the Colossal Titan, this was the strongest Titan he had ever faced.
The distance between them had closed significantly. They were now well within striking range, no longer needing their horses to launch an attack.
Levi vaulted high into the air from horseback, his X-ODM gear spewing two blinding streams of light.
He was a natural-born warrior. He didn't need flashy, offensive magic; all he needed was a way to close the gap instantly, and his twin blades would handle the rest.
Because of this, he had chosen a short-range aerial hyper-acceleration spell.
In the distance, Zeke stared blankly at the glowing shield that had materialized out of thin air, his mind stalling. *What is that thing? An energy shield? Doesn't that stuff only exist in sci-fi novels?*
But he wasn't given any time to space out. In that brief moment of hesitation, Captain Levi had already landed on his massive arm.
"An Eldian?"
Zeke reached over, trying to swat Levi to death like a mosquito. But the captain's eyes turned ice-cold. His twin blades danced in a blur, instantly carving the Beast Titan's flesh into ribbons.
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