For most people, that surname meant nothing—rare, unfamiliar at best. But to those beyond the Walls, especially to Marleyans, it rang like thunder.
All at once, the three Marleyans froze. They measured the woman in front of them, then traded looks.
"You mean…"
"The Tybur family of Marley—hereditary holders of the War Hammer Titan."
Penny—or rather, Lala—spoke the second sentence, and their doubts fell away.
"…An honor," Pieck recovered first and stepped in, offering a hand on behalf of the Warrior squad. "Please forgive the state we're in. As you can see, we're in no shape to receive you properly."
"Spare me the formalities," Lala said, shaking Pieck's hand. She glanced up at the Jaw Titan on the wall. "By my family's order, I'm here to help you carry out certain judgment on Roger Eikam. Time is short. We should move now."
"That's correct," Annie agreed. "We're out of time."
"Shameful as it is, our plan was to kill Roger with the Colossal's transformation—Bakuhatsu (Explosion)—to avoid a greater disaster," Pieck admitted.
Lala studied the lofty rampart and nodded. "It can work. The height is right."
"But… could it endanger the Titans inside the wall?" Bertholdt asked, voice tight.
"No," Lala said, certain. "The Wall Titans are bound by the Founding. Their bodies were altered. My father said that absent a special reason—an explicit command from the Founding—they will stand forever, unmoving."
"That's great!" The three brightened. "Then let's do it!"
They were about to act when Lala shook her head.
"Not like this. If we simply blast the Armored and Jaw to death and they're reborn inside the Walls, we still fail," she said. "Remove Roger Eikam, and someone else may replace him. Unless we take back the Founding, the Jaw, and the Armored, the people of the Walls will never have even a corner at peace."
"Then what should we do?"
"I'll fight him," Lala said.
The three stared.
"What do you mean?"
"I am the War Hammer Titan—Lala Tybur, bearer of my family's honor."
She drew a finely made dagger from her bodice and nicked the back of her hand.
A few drops of blood welled up from the cut, ran along her slender fingers, and fell from the tips.
They understood at once and dipped their heads.
"Don't worry. We won't let anyone interfere," Annie said.
Assured, Lala exhaled. "I'm counting on you." Then she called on the Titan's power.
White light flared over her entire body, flashing and swelling.
Everyone nearby turned to look, curious about the sudden, strange radiance.
As they watched closely, a white giant's skeletal frame rose from nothing. Flesh layered on, shaping into a human form, then swiftly wove a white hide—armor or skin.
"What is that—"
"Another Titan?!"
Amid the outcry, the fifteen-meter War Hammer Titan appeared within the capital, at the base of the fifty-meter wall.
Tall and well-proportioned, pure white from head to toe, it radiated the bearing of nobility—like a high god descending to earth.
It held out a hand, and a long crystalline staff formed in its palm—Kesshō-ka (Crystallization). It gripped the weapon and drove it into the ground.
The earth bucked, knocking people from their feet.
Then long spikes speared up from the soil—one after another, every few meters—racing outward and up the face of the wall.
Kak-kak-kak-kak-kak!
A dense ladder of spikes climbed the wall, straight to the top of the fifty-meter crown.
At that moment, Roger was about to slip from the Jaw Titan's body to resume talks with Erwin on the Scorpio Corps' standing.
Clutching the royal Rod Reiss in one massive hand, Roger took a long look over the city—and at the terror in the people's eyes.
Then a spike punched up from the ground, smashed through the masonry of the wall and the hundred-meter Titan's lingering bones, and shot straight for the Jaw Titan.
He hadn't expected an attack from that angle. Drained from the fight with the hundred-meter Titan, Roger failed to dodge. The spike rammed through his lower abdomen, broke through the Jaw Titan's hard belly plating, and burst out the back—hurling the body upward and pinning it in midair, immobile.
"ROAR!!"
The Titan's bellow shook the district. Roger dropped Rod Reiss and clamped both claws on the spike buried in his chest, trying to snap it, but he left only gouges.
So even the Jaw Titan's claws would take time to cut it through.
"Careless," Roger thought, cursing himself. He had underestimated the War Hammer.
It hadn't shown itself in years, and his guard had slipped.
One move, and he'd almost taken a fatal hit.
"Good thing it missed the nape."
He peered down from where the Jaw Titan hung, searching for the enemy, sawing at the spike that skewered him.
Below the wall, everyone who saw it could scarcely believe their eyes.
A miracle, they thought—that's what this was. The most terrifying power in the world, laid bare.
"So that's the new one's ability…"
"That little Titan looks finished."
"Are they… fighting among themselves?"
People huddled in corners, whispering. Spectacle on that scale had numbed them. At least the blows hadn't hit them yet; at least they could sit and talk.
"So this is the War Hammer's power?"
Bertholdt breathed, stunned. He'd heard the tales, but seeing it was something else.
Only Pieck and Annie frowned.
"She can't fight," Annie said, analyzing. The War Hammer Titan's output had already peaked; its rhythm was slipping.
She sighed. To make sure, she pricked the needle hidden in her ring.
BOOM!!
The Female Titan burst forth and charged the War Hammer.
All eyes tracked the white giant as it moved. The War Hammer sprinted for the wall, then climbed—using its spikes as pitons—scrambling up at speed.
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