"Secure the perimeter! Look for survivors!"
"General, should we chase after the assailants?"
"I've seen the new Warhammer's body lying at the side of the forest too. It is just a decoy, whoever attacked the mansion must have had everything planned out from the start." The capital army was sweeping the area. It wasn't the sun that woke up Helos from his bronze encased sleep last night but the roars of titans. People watched breathless as lightning struck the ground four times and then silence before the most terrifying of screams was heard. It was a combination of male and female voices screaming at once. What a terrible sight the reinforcements discovered once they crossed the mountains. The forest has been set ablaze, the mansion was half crystal and half rubble. On top of all that blazing inferno was a giant crystal flag with the wings of freedom on it.
"A sign of conquest?" Soldiers shouted in disbelief from the top of the mountains. It was an altar, for on the ground there were the signs of two feet and a knee pressing on the ground. Whoever planted the flag wasn't standing upright victorious over the destruction but rather kneeling in penance.
"General!" Pieck shouts in titan form meeting with the leader of the capital army. "There are no more enemy soldiers in the area. The few that remained behind were very unusual."
"Unusual? You're a talking titan."
"They were flying! The enemy was using ropes and gas to fly through the air. I tried fighting back and you can go check the battlefield, they kept destroying my body as I transformed again and again. They used explosives that stuck to my body, the ground and trees. Don't make your men pursue them or they might..." Pieck was too late, explosions were still going off on the edge of the forest.
"We've lost." The general says sitting on a rock watching over the burning forest. "Keep looking for survivors. Cart titan, head to the mansion and help with the excavations, if we're lucky we might have some members of the Tybur family alive. Someone call Magath here. I can't deal with rogue titans." The general puts his hands on his face and looks at the ground. "How are we going to face the Warhammer titan in battle?"
For the rest of the night the army stopped the fire and searched for survivors. While looking through the ruins of the mansion, thanks to Pieck's help the soldiers managed to find the still intact point where Lara Tybur created a crystal wall around Willy and his family. Three members were still alive. Unfortunately, the room where Leo gathered all the children was trampled when he jumped on top of the Warhammer titan. The survivors were unconscious but otherwise unharmed.
Once the mansion was secured, Pieck used her Cart titan to carry water and douse the flames over the forest. It was a long and arduous journey and...
"We've found another body!" A man who's body was half blown to pieces with a gun next to him. A revolver with two bullets left.
"Wait! I recognise that gun! No...no! He must have gave chase and..."
"Is this a person you knew?" The soldiers around her respond to seeing the titan recoil at the sight of the body.
"Someone I thought I knew." Leo had his men leave that body behind on purpose. Since the operation was a complete success he didn't need the army to be concerned about his location or whereabouts.
A few days later Magath, the titan replacement army and Zeke arrive at the capital. They were to investigate the area and look for whatever clues they could find in order to look for the Warhammer titan.
"The situation is most dire indeed. Out of all the seven titans the Warhammer is possibly the second strongest behind the Colossal titan. In a one on one battle no titan shifter would be able to win in a direct fight."
"Then we should hurry and return the Warriors from Paradise, with their aid we might be able to recover the Warhammer and..."
"No! Now that the Warhammer is lost the Warriors need to succeed in their task more than ever. The news cannot be spread that Marley lost the Warhammer, we cannot change our course of action, all we can do is hold until the Warriors return or we find the Warhammer."
"Sir. Whoever fought the Warhammer didn't had a shifter's powers. There were three lightning bolts in the sky before the forth, when the first roar was heard. If we assume those to belong to the previous Warhammer user, then the assailant must have transformed only once to eat the previous owner of the Warhammer."
"What do you want to say by that?"
"We Warriors require little training to master our titan powers since we inherit most of our abilities from our predecessors as well as studying them beforehand and getting informations directly from the titan users themselves. If the assailant had to become a pure titan before learning how to use his or her powers then it is possible the new Warhammer won't be in control of its powers."
"By that logic it would mean, we have at least a few weeks, maybe even months before the Warhammer titan becomes a real danger."
"As expected of Pieck!"
"No, not as expected at all. I heard you were in the capital while the battle was taking place. What were you doing exactly?"
"General, you can't consider Pieck as a traitor!"
"I have to know."
"I was... recovering."
"We've heard. Zuege's body was discovered half blown up while chasing he enemy." Zeke says trying to add some weight to Pieck's story.
"Before he died?"
"No, I met with him before that. We fought... 'there are no Eldians in the capital' he said."
"That bastard. I was starting to consider him a nice person." Zeke replies.
"And you shall. It is the sign of any civil individual to hate Eldians, it is only the way of nature. That being said, it really is surprising he acted like that. Who knows, you never learn about a person's true colours while they live." Magath gets up and is about to leave. "Keep brainstorming over the situation while I'm gone. I have to meet with the surviving Tybur family members, I've heard their lost devastated them. Bloody animals who attacked the mansion, killed children. They slit their throats from what I've read in the reports." Magath leaves.
"Whoever did it put Marley in the biggest check in history. Now is time to see how the nation will respond to such an affront."
"Will we be able to face the Warhammer titan if we ever meet it on the battlefield?"
"I simply don't know. The Warhammer hasn't been used in centuries, since the fall of Eldia the Tyburs kept absolute control over the Warhammer and never used it for war."
When Magath finally reach the hospital where the Tybur family was recovering the halls were already filled with generals and statesmen. Some were calling for a direct assault on Paradise, others were asking for the extermination of all Eldians bar a few for the power of titans.
"It must have been none other than an island devil. Our Eldians have been made to behave properly, they know the evil of their ancestors and we've made sure to wipe out every single strand of Eldian restorationists we could find.
"It seems we haven't done a good enough job. Some of them slipped through the cracks, fed on hate, became a monster and bit us while we were sleeping."
"We must take into consideration the fact whoever stole the titan will be looking to reach the island devils as soon as possible. From our calculation, even for a titan, on foot it is impossible to reach even the outer walls in a single day. We must flood the island with titans, stop the Warhammer thief from reaching the devils and keep them separated for as long as possible!"
A dark cloud hangs over Marley as those words made the life of Eldians even harsher than before. Stricter curfews, stricter laws. If there were not enough criminals to be punished then people would be made criminals. The simple price of basic goods went to the sky in order to force Eldians to steal and be punished by being turned into titans. Life on the continent got harder and harder for them and Leo knew it all to well.
After the battle, Leo and those who survived the assault headed towards a hidden location, inside a valley not far from the capital. Human smugglers would use those valleys as a hideout and as a safe path while smuggling people in and out of the capital during the first Eldian persecution waves. Now the mid-eastern folk that travelled the land as nomads used those valleys to, not stick out in the eyes of the Marleyan authorities.
"Amazing, simply amazing. We finally have the power of titans by our side! We've done it, we've found a way to stand up against Marley and its monsters." A soldier was cheering as everyone was resting after the long night. Leo was the only one not happy, he was quite grim in fact.
"Long night? You've had a bad meal?" Another soldier comes handing Leo a cup of tea.
"I've had to do some really bad things to get here. I've killed the people that hosted me inside their house. I've stole some else's identity. I've killed people as well as I've let people get killed. I've drove friends away just for this moment. I feel like I've climbed a mountain and the peak wasn't worth it, no... it feels like, I've just passed the clouds and I can finally see the real mountain."
"We've all done bad things in our past but we're doing it for our country and our people, we're on the right path!"
"Indeed. I have to thank you, I have to thank you all." Leo stands up and raises his voice to get the attention of all the remaining soldiers that survived the night. "Without you I would have never been able to do all this. I've killed a lot of people, I'll kill a lot more... and I still have to kill." Leo cuts his finger and suddenly a lightning bolt strikes the camp killing a few soldiers on impact. Those who didn't died from the lightning got crushed under a malformed Warhammer titan's body.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry but you cannot know how to kill titans. Paradise island is the place where iceburst crystals can be found in huge amounts. Every single nation on earth wants those minerals for themselves. If the mid-eastern alliance learns how to fight and kill titans, there would be nothing stopping them from sending their own troops on the island, defeat the defenders and take control over the nation." Leo finally exits the titan's body and looks at it from afar. It was malformed and misshapen.
"People mustn't know I can't control my titan powers either, nor must they know who the Warhammer is." After the deed was done Leo picks up a bag with provisions he left behind in order to make sure it won't be damaged by his transformation. Money, canned food and what he could use for the journey ahead. He would have to travel from the centre of Marley all the way up to Liberio, steal a seafaring vessel and solve nothing...
"I can't go back now. They would be weak, much too weak, they would be useless. Without the forging fire of killing all the titans on the island the people of Paradise will never be strong enough to help me face Marley in battle. No, it's even worse. The reason Eren pointed at the sea and called it the last barrier between Paradise and their enemies was because there was no friendly face to wait them on the other side of the sea." Leo didn't knew what he had to do but he had one last vision before they all went away. His right eye stopped tearing up just after he used all his memories to fight the Warhammer titan. He might have used up all the Attack titan powers inside him, or perhaps the Warhammer's memories were clouding those of his fellow countrymen. The last vision Leo had was of Eren, looking at the scouts with the eyes of a child filled with wonder.
"There are no heroes on the battlefield for the eyes of a soldier, but there are people worth following. I'll become a a pioneer, the voice of Eldia on the continent. I will fight against Marley, I will force people to fight by my side, either with heroism or horror and one day I'll bring them all back to Paradise where I'll greet my kin with open arms.