"Don't… please, I beg you! I don't want to become a devil!"
"Waaah…"
"Shoot me dead instead!"
"I curse you! You'll all die horribly!"
The Eldians kneeling on the ground, bound and helpless, either screamed and cried or hurled vicious curses. But no matter how they reacted, they were only venting the terror in their hearts.
"Heh heh, what are you still unhappy about? You're about to reunite with your own kind."
As he spoke, the captain picked up a syringe and a bottle of spinal fluid from the case, drew the liquid into the needle, injected it into the neck vein of one Eldian, then kicked him hard in the back, sending him flying off the high platform.
"Ah!"
The falling Eldian screamed, but before he even hit the ground, his body underwent a sudden, violent transformation. Thick steam hissed out in great clouds, and in an instant his body changed from human into a Titan!
Boom—!
The Titan's massive body crashed into the ground, throwing up clouds of dust. He — no, now it could only be called "it" — climbed to its feet, stared around in confusion, then seemed to catch the scent of the people on the platform and immediately began walking toward them.
But its height was far shorter than the platform, so it could only stretch out its arms, claw at the edge, and lift its head, gazing up at them with longing.
"So this is a devil…"
Several Marleyan soldiers who were seeing a "transformation" like this for the first time wore frightened expressions, but soon replaced them with contempt and disdain.
"A brainless monster."
At this moment, the other Eldians kneeling on the platform, having witnessed the entire process of a human turning into a Titan, were already on the verge of collapse. They screamed and struggled wildly. Some even tried to jump straight off the platform — even though there was sand below, they would rather try to die from the fall than become such a monster.
Seeing this, the captain frowned slightly and said to the other soldiers, "Hold them down. Don't let them fall."
"Yes!"
The soldiers pinned them down. But one new recruit asked in confusion, "Captain, wouldn't it be easier to just push them down and let the Titans eat them? We'd even save some spinal fluid. Isn't this stuff supposed to be expensive?"
"Idiot!"
The captain glared fiercely at him and scolded, "These Titans are meant to keep threatening the devils on the island! If all we wanted was to kill people, why not just shoot them dead in the internment camp? Why go to all this trouble bringing them all the way here?"
"Uh… yes!"
The soldier came to his senses and understood.
Indeed, turning these Eldians into Titans was not to kill them, but to make them slaughter the Eldians on the island — to maintain a never-ending crisis.
Otherwise, if they stopped creating Titans, and all the Titans on the island were eventually wiped out, and there was no longer any external threat, that would be troublesome. After all, this stretch of sea was something they would much rather never see crossed.
"All right, they're giving me a headache with all this noise." The captain waved impatiently. "Inject the rest and push them down. Then hurry back to the ship and get some sleep."
"Yes!"
The soldiers injected the remaining kneeling Eldians and kicked them down. One Titan after another appeared. Very quickly, more than twenty Eldians had all turned into Titans below, stretching out their arms and staring up at the platform.
"Let's go."
The captain led the soldiers back onto the ship. The moment they stepped through the hatch, a smell drifted into their noses.
"Do you smell that?"
"Seems like there's some kind of…"
"The smell of blood?"
The soldiers were speaking when, at that very moment, gunfire suddenly erupted.
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da!
Pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft!
The bullets came from behind. The soldiers had never expected anyone to open fire on them — it was simply too bizarre! Not only them, even the experienced crew had never encountered anything like this. But by the time they reacted, they were already riddled with holes.
Including the captain, all eight of them were caught in the dense torrent of flames at close range. None were spared. All were shot and collapsed to the ground. Some died on the spot, while others bled profusely — without immediate medical treatment, they would not escape the grasp of death.
"Uh… ugh…"
The soldiers who had not yet died groaned in agony, struggling to lift their heads and look toward the shooter. When they saw that it was a teenage boy hiding behind the hatch, their eyes widened in disbelief.
"Y-you…" One soldier vomited blood while pointing at Lillian, his face filled with a ghost-seeing expression. "You… you're that… didn't you… die…"
"Yeah. I did die once."
Lillian said. This soldier was none other than the man who had shot him earlier. He was one of the soldiers responsible for escorting the Eldians here, someone who had eagerly awaited the sight of people turning into devils. His wish had been fulfilled. But what was happening now — and what would happen next — was not what he had hoped for.
"Devil… you're a devil…"
"Yeah. A devil."
As Lillian spoke, he dragged the soldier's body out separately. Both of the man's arms and legs had been shot, and he could not move at all. The other soldiers were basically all dead by now. It was truly because they had treated this journey like a vacation and had absolutely no psychological guard up that they had been so easily wiped out.
Dragging the soldier's body, Lillian climbed onto the high platform outside. The Eldians who had been injected with spinal fluid and turned into Titans had not left yet. They were still below, looking up at the platform.
"D-devil! What are you going to do?!"
The soldier stared down in terror, realizing what was about to happen. He begged desperately, "N-no! Please, I beg you, please!"
"The causes you planted — now swallow the fruits yourselves."
After saying that, Lillian copied the way the Marleyan soldiers had kicked people earlier. He kicked the soldier hard in the back, sending him flying off the high platform.
Because the ground below was sand, he did not die from the fall. But in this situation, dying from the fall would have been the best possible ending.
"Ahhhhh! Don't come near me!"
The soldier screamed in terror as he watched the Titans approaching him. His face was streaked with tears and snot, but it did nothing to stop what was coming. Several enormous hands grabbed him, then with a gentle pull, his body was torn into pieces and stuffed into different mouths, where they began chewing.
"..."
Watching this scene, even Lillian felt intensely nauseated. Although there was a fleeting thrill of revenge in his heart, it vanished almost instantly, washed away by disgust.
From the moment these people turned into Titans, they had already lost the right to be human. Even though they were victims… from this moment on, they could only exist as enemies of humanity.
"Sigh." Lillian let out a soft sigh.
However, at that moment, he suddenly realized a huge problem.
"Wait… how am I supposed to cross a plain full of Titans… and get inside the walls?!"