"Why are they still moving?! The sun's been down for ages!"
"No idea…"
"Hey—look at that!"
Everyone at Utgard Castle had climbed to the top of the tower. From there, they saw dozens of Titans approaching from the distance—and even farther back, a massive Titan covered in beast-like fur, with long arms, was walking toward the Wall.
"So big… it looks like some kind of wild animal…"
Shing—!
The soldiers from the two elite squads drew their blades.
"All recruits without equipment, stay on the tower! Leave the rest to us!"
With a glance exchanged between them, the veterans leapt down together.
Both squad leaders were absent. The remaining members—eight in total—were all extremely capable. Within seconds, working together, they took down three Titans.
"Using this tower as support, we can kill them all!" Nanaba said. Then she seemed to hear the sound of neighing horses and looked toward the west. Her eyes widened in shock. "What—?!"
Three fast horses were charging toward them!
"Who are they?!"
Drip. Drip.
Cold sweat poured down from his forehead, sliding along his cheeks and dripping to the ground. Marlo followed behind Lillian, already nearing the battlefield. He could even see the Titans clearly now.
And the moment he saw them, the fear inside him multiplied severalfold.
Out of everyone present, he was the only one seeing Titans for the first time. As an interior Military Police officer—not someone from Shiganshina—he'd never fought Titans before. In a situation like this, one moment of carelessness could mean death.
Why did I even come…
The thought surfaced uncontrollably.
He saw the soldiers on the tower—there were only… that few of them. But there were so many Titans. The main force of the Survey Corps hadn't arrived yet either. Would the three of them really make any difference? Would they all be wiped out here?
As these thoughts churned, Marlo instinctively looked at Lillian ahead of him. From his angle, he could only see Lillian's side profile.
There was no tension. No fear.
Instead, there was calm—and even a hint of excitement. An expression Marlo had rarely, if ever, seen on him.
As expected of Lillian… he thought. To still look like that at a time like this.
"Prepare for battle."
Lillian spoke. The three of them were now less than two hundred meters from the tower. That distance would vanish in moments. Several Titans at the edge had already turned their heads, clearly noticing them.
"You two, get to the top of the tower first. Don't fight Titans down below."
"Then what about you, Lillian…?" Marlo glanced at Lillian's horse and suddenly spotted the vertical maneuvering gear hanging there. His heart jumped. "Aren't you equipping your maneuver gear?!"
"You can't fly with something like this."
Clop-clop-clop-clop!
Hoofbeats thundered as they closed in—less than a hundred meters from the tower now. Three or four nearby Titans had already turned and were lumbering toward them. Naturally, the people on top of the tower had seen them as well.
"Hey! That's… Lillian and Annie?!"
"Why are they here?!"
Shock rippled through the crowd at the sight of the two—but in the very next moment, they realized something far worse.
The newcomers were charging straight across open ground, with no cover at all.
That was incredibly dangerous.
"Damn it! This looks less like support and more like making things worse!" Petra shouted. "Everyone, move out—cover them!"
She hadn't even finished speaking when something unbelievable happened.
A seven-meter Titan at the front strode toward the trio. Lillian bent forward, slipped both feet free of the stirrups, and crouched low on the horse's back.
"Good girl," Lillian murmured, patting the horse. With a twist of both hands, the short war scythe extended back to their full length.
"Jump!"
"Neigh—!"
The warhorse let out a long whinny and leapt forward violently. At the same instant, Lillian kicked off with explosive force, using the momentum to launch himself skyward!
"Ah—!"
A cry rang out as everyone stared, dumbfounded. Under the moonlight, Lillian soared several meters into the air, swinging his war scythe mid-flight.
Like the scythe of death itself.
The seven-meter Titan's head spun away from its body, severed cleanly. Its entire neck was sliced straight through.
Scalding blood splashed across Lillian's body and face, but it evaporated almost instantly. He landed lightly on the Titan's shoulder and turned his head.
On the tower, the cadets of the 104th class and the elite soldiers alike stared at him in disbelief—as if they couldn't accept that what they'd just seen was real.
Boom!!
The Titan's massive body crashed to the ground. Lillian dropped with it—and the moment his feet hit the earth, he found himself surrounded.
Three Titans reached out for her at once.
"LILLIAN!!"
Seeing this, Marlo roared, fear finally crushed beneath desperation. He leapt from his horse, fired the grappling hook of his ODM gear, and embedded it into a Titan's back. Gas blasted, hurling his body forward.
"Die, you damn Titan!!"
His form was textbook perfect. If it had been only him and his target, he would've succeeded.
But there were other Titans nearby—and Marlo had never seen real combat before. His lack of experience was fatal.
A massive hand suddenly shot out from the side.
Before Marlo could reach his target, the hand caught his cable. With a casual tug, his balance vanished—and the next instant, he was clenched tightly in a Titan's fist.
"Ah…"
Staring blankly at the enormous mouth descending toward him, Marlo's mind went completely empty. Everything had happened in a flash—too fast for the elite squad to react.
So this is it… I'm going to die?
As the Titan's jaws opened wide, memories flickered through his mind like a spinning lantern.
His parents. His friends. His dreams.
And finally—Hitch's face.
…Why did I think of her?
Slash!
Blood burst into the air.
The Titan that was about to swallow Marlo suddenly toppled backward. Its grip loosened instinctively.
Snatched back from the brink of death, Marlo's survival instincts exploded into action. He fired gas immediately, rocketing away from the Titan.
While airborne, he looked down—and froze in shock.
At the Titan's feet stood Lillian.
Its right leg had been severed and was already evaporating.
It was obvious—Lillian had rushed in at the last second and cut off the Titan's leg, throwing it off balance and saving him.
But…he was just over there a moment ago.
Isn't that speed way too insane?!
As Marlo was still processing this, the crippled Titan finally collapsed. Its enormous body crashed down—
—and Lillian was right beneath it.
He was going to be crushed.
Boom!
The earth shook.
Yet two meters away from the falling Titan, Lillian stood perfectly fine.
His instantaneous sprint speed far exceeded the Titan's falling speed. Being crushed had never been a concern.
By now, the elite squad had fully recovered from the shock. They surged forward, cutting down the surrounding Titans and covering the three of them.
"Lillian!"
On the tower, everyone finally snapped back to reality. Krista rushed to the edge at once, gripping the ledge and shouting his name.
Lillian glanced up briefly—but this was no time for chatting. He turned to Marlo beside him and said sharply:
"I told you to go to the top of the tower. You don't have combat experience against Titans—don't act recklessly!"
"But—"
"Hey! Both of you, get up to the tower, now!"
Petra shouted at them mid-air. Her gaze lingered on the war scythe in Lillian's hand, her thoughts a tangled mess.
What kind of weapon is that?
I've never seen anyone use something like it.
Its power is absurd—cleanly severing a Titan's entire neck. Far stronger than standard blades. But it's clearly less flexible.
And he's not even using ODM gear…This kid—
Petra's thoughts spiraled into confusion. And she wasn't alone.
Everyone present was still haunted by the image of Lillian hanging in the moonlight, executing that impossible mid-air decapitation.
It was unsettling. Unreal.
Yet strangely beautiful.
If they had lived in a later era, they might have known the term for it:
The aesthetics of violence.
At its core, it was still brutality and killing—but expressed through an almost poetic form, creating a bizarre sense of beauty.
Stabbing someone to death at random isn't beautiful.
But wearing a tailored suit, calmly dining, then suddenly slitting a throat with a dinner knife—wiping the blood away with a handkerchief and placing a rose on the corpse—
That would feel beautiful.
The act is the same. The feeling is not.
And Lillian's beheading—far more shocking than the standard method of slicing the nape—hit the soul with overwhelming force.
At Petra's command, Marlo flew up to the tower immediately. Annie was even faster—she was already there.
Unlike Marlo, Annie trained with Lillian every day. She knew exactly what level Lillian was at.
Speed. Jumping power. Strength.
All of it far beyond normal human limits.
So she wasn't worried.
And after spending so much time together, Annie understood Lillian well. He wasn't someone who acted on impulse. If he chose to fight without ODM gear, it meant he had absolute confidence in himself.
"Damn it! The Titans are heading for the door!"
Several smaller Titans were moving toward the tower entrance.
If they broke inside and climbed up—
The unarmed cadets of the 104th class on top would become nothing more than food.
"Leave it to me!"
Lillian shouted as he ran. His footwork was extraordinarily nimble, his speed astonishing—nearly on par with a world-class sprinter. Several Titans tried to grab him, but none could catch him. Whenever there was no room to dodge, Lillian simply swung his war scythe, cleanly severing the hands reaching for him.
In the blink of an eye, he reached the tower gate.
A three-meter-class Titan had just smashed open the door and was trying to crawl inside. Its head had barely slipped through when Lillian cut straight through its body from behind, slicing it clean in two.
Slash—slash!
Lillian gave his scythe two sharp swings, then looked up at the elite soldiers clinging to the tower wall with their ODM gear.
"You don't need to worry about this area," he called out. "This weapon of mine is best at dealing with short Titans."
"..."