An unprecedented offensive and defensive battle erupted at Grayle Fortress. Since the war between Marley and the Middle Easterners began, this was the largest-scale engagement both sides had committed to so far.
A force composed of fifty thousand Eldians was forced to launch what was essentially a suicidal assault, while Marley had spared no expense this time, mobilizing all kinds of heavy artillery to relentlessly bombard the fortress.
Inside the fortress, the Middle Easterners were equally well-prepared. Their artillery roared even more fiercely than Marley's, making their uncompromising stance clear.
Continuous explosions and the wails of agony echoed across the battlefield. Bullets and flying shrapnel tore through the air—one moment of carelessness was enough to claim a living life.
Except for the southern side, where nothing major had yet occurred, brutal fighting had broken out on the other three fronts of Grayle Fortress.
A pair of eyes peered through a carved-out firing slit, observing the situation ahead. It was a massive boulder. Nature may have taken hundreds or even thousands of years to shape it, yet humans had used less than two weeks to transform it into a hardened stronghold capable of withstanding countless artillery strikes.
A Middle Eastern squad was stationed inside this fortress. Two menacing heavy machine guns protruded only their barrels through the firing slits.
The Middle Eastern Squad Leader frowned as he assessed the situation. Since the battle began, his men had been constantly on edge, yet they had been staring at nothing but silent stone. Complaints inevitably surfaced.
"Squad Leader, there's no need to be this tense. The Marleyans aren't idiots. We've got forty or fifty solid fortresses here. They'd have to be crazy to attack our position."
But the Squad Leader did not relax his guard. Listening to the unbroken roar of artillery from other directions, he knew just how savage the fighting elsewhere had become.
Although the south was protected by natural barriers, that didn't mean the Marleyans wouldn't try something unexpected. And more importantly, Marley's trump card still hadn't appeared on the battlefield—the Titans. Marley's greatest weapon: Titan Warriors. The thought alone sent a chill down the Squad Leader's spine. The rear fortress was equipped with anti-Titan cannons specifically designed to counter Marley's Titan Warriors, but those weapons existed only as data on paper. Whether they could truly stand against Titans remained an unknown.
The Squad Leader ordered his men to stay on full alert, bullets chambered. As if influenced by the tension within this fortress, soldiers in the other strongholds also began preparing for defense.
...
On Yago's side, he led the Third Regiment of the Eldian forces forward at an unhurried pace, creeping into position. At the very front, dozens of Eldian soldiers each carried a military-green steel tube.
At the rear of the formation, Colt led the Warrior candidates, each clutching bundles of ammunition as they followed closely. Nervousness was written across every face—except for Gabi, whose expression showed only disappointment.
She asked Colt in confusion, "Colt, why aren't we allowed to join the fight? We're just being told to carry ammunition? Isn't that looking down on us?"
Colt replied helplessly, "Gabi, don't say things like that. We have to follow orders. And we don't have combat experience. If we go onto the battlefield, we'll only hinder the other soldiers. Now stay close to the group. Don't get separated."
But Colt's words did little to calm her. Instead, a different thought began to take root. She secretly lifted her head out of the trench and looked toward the soldiers ahead, who were quietly approaching the enemy fortress. A spark of fervor suddenly flashed in her eyes.
If she could earn merit on the battlefield, it would surely help her Warrior candidate career immensely! Ever since that incident with Officer Loya left a psychological scar on her, Gabi had wavered slightly in her pursuit of becoming a Warrior candidate. But she didn't know what other goal she could possibly have.
The environment she grew up in had shaped her personality. From childhood, her family had instilled one idea into her mind: become a Marleyan Warrior. Become a Marleyan Warrior. If you become an Honorary Marleyan, you'll live a good life. Become an Honorary Marleyan, and you can wash away the identity of being a "devil." Her cousin Reiner had always been held up as the model example.
From a young age, Gabi had watched her family point to Reiner's mother and the red armband on her arm, saying:
"See that, Gabi? That's the symbol of an Honorary Marleyan. With that, we can live a good life! Gabi, you must become a Marleyan Warrior!"
Growing up in such an environment, Gabi's personality naturally changed. While children her age were still innocent and clueless, she already knew she had to work hard to become a Marleyan Warrior.
Her excessive obsession with that identity made her stubborn and extreme. She even went so far as to belittle her own people, accepting the label of Eldians as "devils," desperately longing to become an Honorary Marleyan to cleanse that so-called devil's identity.
But Loya's actions that day shattered her illusion. No matter how hard you worked or how loyal you were, in the eyes of the Marleyans, Eldians would always be lowly Eldians. The label of "devil" would forever cling to them.
Her family might have seen the "respectable" life Reiner's mother gained after her son became a Warrior and became an Honorary Marleyan. But what they didn't see was Reiner's father—a regular Marleyan—whose eyes held not a trace of pride or recognition toward his son who became a Warrior, but endless disgust and hostility.
An Eldian was an Eldian. In the eyes of most Marleyans, no matter the color of the armband, as long as one wore it, the blood flowing in their veins was the blood of devils.
Gabi sensed this truth, but she didn't dare—or perhaps didn't want—to accept it. To her, accepting it meant that everything she had done since childhood was a farce. She didn't want to believe that all her efforts—demeaning her own people and desperately proving loyalty to the Marleyans—would lead to such a cruel reality.
If she didn't strive to become a Marleyan Warrior, then what goal would she have? She had no choice. Under the weight of that psychological compulsion, her obsession with becoming a Warrior grew even stronger than before, and the heat in her gaze toward the battlefield intensified.
...
"What if Marley really attacks?" a Middle Eastern soldier inside the fortress asked his companion.
His machine gunner companion grinned, fingers resting on the trigger.
"Then before they can rush at us like idiots with grenades and explosives, I'll turn them into sieves."
Their exchange made the others burst into laughter. Indeed, their fortress was impregnable. Aside from charging forward with explosives in their arms to die, what else could the Marleyans do? Set up cannons right in front of them and fire?
Another Middle Eastern machine gunner laughed so hard he nearly choked. As he turned around, he casually glanced outside the firing slit—and caught sight of a white steel helmet.
He froze, eyes wide in shock.
But the Eldian soldier staring back at him had already hoisted a green steel tube onto his shoulder and aimed straight at him.
"Enemy—!"
Before the machine gunner could finish his shout, a shell trailing flames from its tail roared straight toward him.