Could it be that he'd regained his mind?!
That would be disastrous!
Zeke didn't dare delay; he sprinted toward the Abnormal.
If things were as he suspected—if that outlier had recovered his own intelligence—that would be a grave problem, and a threat to him.
On a battlefield, a commander can tolerate a soldier's personal moods or minor insubordination—so what if he won't obey; a bullet will put him down, like the bird that sticks its head up and gets shot.
Rulebreakers get culled sooner or later.
But if that soldier harbors enemy-aligned thoughts, then he's a mole—an infiltrator.
Even the most merciful commander can't tolerate that or allow him to remain in the ranks.
Left unchecked, he'd poison the unit and drag it into the gutter.
So Zeke couldn't sit by; he had to take care of this fast before it grew into calamity.
He closed on the Titan quickly, intending to sanction him before he became a greater threat—before he could become a force—so the Abnormal couldn't continue and harm the others.
He underestimated that Titan.
The instant Zeke ran up—before he could lift a stone to strike at the nape—the Titan suddenly turned, as if he'd seen Zeke coming from behind.
Zeke froze, staring in silence.
Honestly, he had no impression of this one. He didn't feel he'd made this Titan himself.
Like a mother who's birthed a child—no matter how fast the kid grows or how much he changes—she remembers her child's face.
Because he's hers.
Zeke was the same.
He had no memory of this Titan.
Yes, he'd "sired" ten thousand "children," but he remembered each Titan's look.
This one… he had no record of him. In his memories, this Titan did not exist. In other words—this was not his child.
"Who are you?!"
Zeke—the Beast Titan—spoke aloud, eyes narrowing at the Titan before him.
The Titan had no desire to answer; the moment he saw Zeke he roared, as if there were a hatred between them too deep to name.
Zeke didn't know the cause of that hatred, but from the roar and the jaw and mouth structure, he could tell: this Titan couldn't speak.
He ordered the surrounding Titans to hem the Abnormal in, to pin his movement.
Zeke looked more closely.
Then a thought struck him.
Inside the Walls—other than Roger—who else could have a Titan?
It had to be the Founding Titan.
"Could it be the Founding Titan?"
Zeke stared, and certainty settled in.
If so, then devouring this Titan would mean gaining the Founder's power.
He gave the order: the other Titans were to eat the Abnormal's limbs—everything but the nape.
That way, the succession would be secure.
But as they closed in, that Titan didn't sit and wait to die. He threw punches in return with movements no less fluid than Roger's, striking cleanly.
The swings were too sweeping, though—his stamina failed fast.
His wounds wouldn't heal; all he could do was roar, helpless to strike back.
He was on the verge of being eaten to the bone.
Zeke strode up and ordered the surrounding Titans to devour his limbs until he was a stump—no arms, no legs—no way to move.
A roar!
Only a whole head remained attached to a limbless body.
"Good. Now then—"
Zeke muttered, stepping up to the Titan.
He was about to close in, to devour him—
When!
Suddenly!
A figure streaked in from the edge of Zeke's vision.
"?"
Zeke turned—nothing there.
He moved forward again—and saw another flicker.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Two flashes—
Left and right!
Blisteringly fast!
"Am I seeing things?"
Zeke muttered. After a tense pause, sensing no threat, he pressed on.
But then—
"Where do you think you're going?"
A voice sounded right beside his ear.
"?!!"
Zeke jolted, lashing a palm at his own ear!
Boom!!
A concussive crack—his hand shredded, venting steam.
But the human still wasn't dead!
He was too fast; at the instant Zeke swatted, he vaulted to the other ear.
"Slapping yourself? How low can you get."
Drawing his blade, Levi drove it into the Beast Titan's temple.
With a savage slice, he gouged one eye clean out!
"Arghhh!!"
"Open those mutt eyes and look closely!" Levi burst into motion, reeling in his cables to jet away, then fired new grapnels midair—spearing for the Beast Titan's nape!
Krak!!
The hooks bit, and Levi spun in, hacking for the nape!!
Crack!!
The blade snapped; Zeke had hardened his nape in emergency.
"Tch. That again…"
Levi ditched the broken blade and slipped away.
Zeke finally sucked in a breath.
"How did you get here…" he wondered aloud—then the next sight stunned him.
Around the suspected Founding Titan, every surrounding Titan had had its nape destroyed at some point without him noticing; they lay as blackened corpses.
"What—what happened?!"
He went pale.
Looking closer, he saw a human standing atop the suspected Founder:
A woman with a red scarf.
"Hey—eyes on me."
Behind him, Levi barked—then slashed Zeke's remaining eye blind and cut his Achilles tendons.
If the nape wouldn't yield, Levi could strip the rest of the body to nothing—shave it down until only the nape remained.
"Bastard!!"
Zeke refused to accept losing to a human!
He swung for Levi while clutching his nape with his other hand.
But the situation had turned brutally against him!
And then—
In the sky.
Inside an airship.
"We'd better lend him a hand," said a Marleyan officer.
With a roar, an airship's bay door yawned open.
Pieck and Annie stood in the blast of wind, parachute packs on their backs, framed in the hatch.
"Back again, huh, Annie."
"Yeah. What a drag."
Annie's face twisted in disgust.
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