Three days, three weeks, three months... three years. That's how long it passed since the Warhammer titan was last seen, both in Marley as well as the whole world. It was as if the devil of all earths has swallowed it whole to rid the world of its terror.
What terrible three years these were, the Eldian population in Marley dropped by nearly sixty percent, most of them sent to flood Paradise with pure titans.
Zeke and Pieck, the two remaining Warriors in Marley have been pushed beyond their limits as more and more revolts started happening along the border between Marley and the mid-eastern alliance. As much as the military tried to suppress the news, people learnt about their loss and as the persecution of Eldians got worse more and more started feeling their interment zones and joined rebels in the fight against Marley's imperialistic designs of the world.
"Hold the line! Man those cannons! If we don't stop the pure titans from advancing our lines are gonna be decimated!" A mid-eastern commander shouts as pure titans head his way. He was stationed in a forward based on top of a hill which has been surrounded by titans.
"They never learn do they?" The beast titan asks preparing to launch his bombardment over their position. "Bunkers no longer work against my new throwing technique." Instead of firing in an arch he fires horizontally hitting through the small gap the soldiers use to fire their guns. The ammunition Zeke uses as well is no longer explosive but fragmentary shattering into numerous pieces of shrapnel on impact turning bunkers into death boxes.
"Send more men to fire those cannons. We can afford more losses but we cannot afford to lose this position. If this dock falls Marley will have a direct and open path to the heart of the alliance. It will be impossible to defend against them without this fort so revive, get back on your feet and die again if necessary!" The commander was losing his voice calling more men to face the Beast's bombardment.
There was no time to warn the poor man as his shouting made him oblivious to the battlefield. The Cart titan got behind the lines and in one bite chopped him in half.
"Commander!" The soldiers cry together seeing their leader and their last forward base destroyed by the Cart titan. "It's all lost! We're all gonna die! Retreat, retreat!" The retreat order was given but amongst all the soldiers present a few of them were still sitting. Some were unable to run, their legs already gave in from the terror of the advancing titans. Some went insane and believed themselves living in a nightmare made to punish them fore their sins.
"What the hell are you doing? Run!"
"I'm finally getting rid of this stupid moustache and long hair." One soldier was sitting in front of a shard of glass shaving his moustache and cutting his long braided hair. A shell falls right next to the two soldiers and the one shaving cuts his lip with the razor. It was not blood that came out but steam.
"What in the world are you?" The soldier shouts before running away confused.
"General Magath, the lines have been broken. Should we have our men advance or..." The head of a pure titan flies pass them as lightning strikes the ground from the opposite side of the trenches.
"No, not here, not now!" The Warhammer titan appeared. Magath concentrated orders all cannons to fire on the emerging titan.
"I will send you straight to hell!" Zeke shouts picking up a whole truck worth of explosives and launching it at the base of the lightning. Powerful winds blow the smoke caused by the explosives away revealing the Warhammer's body growing out of the ground with a cracked shield over its head. The Warhammer emerges out of the ground as if stepping out of a pool one step at at time towering over the battlefield. Zeke prepares a second round to fire but as soon as he rises his hand and arrow pierces through the Beast's head making the titan fall on its back in seconds.
With what strength was left in the Beast's body before a new transformation Zeke commands the pure titans to swarm on the Warhammer and kill it.
Running between pure titans Pieck and her team shoot at the Warhammer hoping to damage it in its weak points.
"There is no link to the ground, the user must be inside the titan's body!" Pieck shouts calling for artillery fire to strike the Warhammer's location.
"Why didn't you conquered the world yet?" The Warhammer asks angrily at Marley. "I've given you three years and you've barely moved an inch. This titan's powers are enough to topple nations so why haven't you conquered the world yet?" The Tybur family held the Warhammer for more than a century. They didn't used it though, they held it hostage and hopped its powers are never going to be needed.
"I've been through deserts, I've wondered the scorching sands for years and I have been reforged. You cannot defeat me." In his three years of absence Leo headed south, first towards the mid-eastern alliance then the desert even further south, a desert so big and vast it reaches so far and wide than at one point the desert is covered in snow. Through that desert Leo wondered alone for two years learning the true power of titans. A titan shifter's body will always heal from any wound unless it separates the brain from the spine before the user can transfer their consciousness into their spine before being wounded. A human's body will deteriorate as it lives. The stomach will eat itself out in hunger, the body will drain itself of water as it thirsts and the body will eat out the muscles to produce more energy. In that state of absolute need, in the middle of the desert with nothing learnt how to sustain himself with the power of titans. Once you get used to the constant burning sensation of your stomach, once you accept the pain in your dry eyes, the impossibility the speak and the pain in your muscles from being eaten you achieve a state beyond that of humans, you become something akin to a plant that feeds on the power of titans. In that desert Leo learnt how to endure and push his body beyond what is possible achieving a state close to that of a pure titan, constantly healing and requiring no sustenance to live. So, he trained his stamina and unlocked the full capabilities of the Warhammer titan. For ten minutes he can use all the Warhammer's powers without stopping before its body gets too tired and needs to be changed. In total, for nearly half an hour and three transformations he can create whatever weapon in whatever quantities he want without tiring out.
After nearly two years of living like a plant in the desert he returned to civilisation and joined the mid-eastern army hopping he will get the chance to fight on the front lines and get a chance to face the Warriors in battle.
"As it stands now, you hold no chance against me." Leo summons a giant lance that impales the titans in front of him before raising it upwards and using to impale them on it. The lance turns into a flag and the wings of freedom once again witness the battlefield.
"Thirty minutes? Major league baseball games last three hours. I'll just have to throw until you are out of the battlefield." Zeke says getting up in a second titan body and throwing rocks against the Warhammer's shield.
"You underestimate us. The Warhammer might be strong but it still won't match up in mobility with the Cart titan!" Pieck says running around Leo while her weapon platform fires at the titan.
"You think you are fast quadruped titan? No, your stance is most proper on your hands and knees." In the two years he spent in the desert and with the knowledge of what each and every titan shifter can do he crated a strategy to fight all of them. Under the Warhammer's feat springs appear and the fifteen metres monstrosity is launched at great speeds towards the Cart titan impaling it with a trident destroy the weapon platform and impaling Pieck upside down into the ground.
"You of all titan shifters cannot hurt me." Leo says looking down at the squirming titan under his foot. Pure titans appear from the back and jump towards Leo but from his shoulders spikes appear and impales them through their necks, passing through their napes killing them. The spike then break and the titans fall to the ground. Leo was about to finish Pieck off with a sword he created but she leaves her titan's body and transforms again, grabbing onto the Warhammer's hand then trying to bite at it's neck. The Cart's teeth shatter and break as it hits hardened crystal.
"Can you transform faster than I can harden?" Pieck jumps out of the Cart titan's body again and is just about to transform but as she is falling crystal thorns impale her through her legs. From the wrist of the Warhammer titan thorns grew out and went through the Cart's decaying body. Because of the steam and the field of view Pieck couldn't see them and now she's impaled, hanging upside down in front of the Warhammer.
Content with his capture Leo rips open his covered mouth to devour Pieck but in that exact moment she twists in the air and turns into the Cart titan again biting the open mouth ripping the Warhammer's upper head off. From the damaged ruins of her weapon platform she picks up a broken weapon pod and shoves it down the Warhammer's throat before making it explode from the impact. After the explosion she jumps back only to see the Warhammer is still standing and recovering from the wound.
"The user is not inside the nape, it's in the stomach!" She shouts realising the titan came out half way from the ground before appearing on the battlefield.
"That is one strong Jaw the Cart titan has. I didn't expected it could go through my hardened skin armour that easily but I've left my guard down." "Still, they've manage to take me down only once and goal is already complete.
Leo never aimed to defeat the Cart and Beast titan during that fight. If Marley lost its last two active Warriors now the country would be invaded and someone else would take its place as the world hegemon. Changing Marley with the mid-eastern alliance serves nothing to Paradise and its people. What Leo wanted to do however was to give a fighting chance to the mid-eastern alliance so that they might be able to stall Marley for long enough so that Paradise could update their technology and increase their population.
Leo had to give hope to the enemies of Marley, not real means to fight them. As long as the meat grinder was being fed everything but Eldians his goal was achieved. Mid-eastern soldiers took back their positions and they started firing on the Cart and Beast titan forcing Marley for the first time in three ears to retreat.
Before Zeke heads out however Leo throws towards him one last arrow with a bow he created.
"A baseball game lasts only three hours? If I don't use the powers of the Warhammer I can sustain this form for twice as long." It was an exaggeration but also half true. Through his constant and intense stamina training, as long as Leo does basic tasks such as walking or running he can keep his titan form for close to four hours. If he fights however, without using his titan powers at all that decreases to at most an hour or so. As it stands now, there are only three titans that are dangerous to him. The Cart titan with its insane stamina and shifting abilities, being able to transform more than a hundred times in quick succession, the Jaws titan with its powerful attacks strong enough to break through the hardened armour and weapons the Warhammer can create and finally the Colossal titan and its explosion that can wipe out whole cities. That being said, none of those titans are a danger to him right now.
Marley is pushed back and the mid-eastern alliance retakes their position being able to reinforce them. Before everyone realised it though the Warhammer titan disappeared leaving only the wings of freedom behind. In the confusion Leo left the battlefield and headed out towards the Marley side hopping to find some informations about their future plans.
He changed his appearance so now the mid-eastern soldiers cannot recognise him any more but that is true for the Marleyans as well. He dyed his hair red with Henna and grew changing face structure and body size. For someone to realise he is a three years old soldier would be impossible unless he wears the exact same clothes and haircut he did on the day of his death. To change his very tanned skin however he has to do something a lot more painful. He has to skin himself alive and wait for new skin to heal and replace the old one. Since new skin doesn't grow immediately tanned it grows pale white making him less suspicious of being a mid-eastern spy. Hopefully though, Marley didn't increased their security in the last three years and one more soldier wouldn't be noticed.