Chapter 29

The garrison had soon arrived to assist with the efforts to ascertain the location of the breach in the walls.

No hole was found but they had found who they believed to be the culprit. Zeke's 'body' was dragged back to headquarters where Annie immediately identified it.

Annie, Liam, Levi, Hange, and Erwin now sat in a private room to discuss what had occurred.

"I'm sure of it. That is Zeke, the beast titan. He's the one who turned those villagers into titans. I don't know how he died but that's definitely him." Annie said confidently.

Erwin had a thoughtful look on his face. "You said that the life expectancy of one who inherits a titan is 13 years. What happens if the titan isn't transferred before then?"

That made the blonde titan shifter pause. "I don't know. Marley has never allowed it to happen as far as I'm aware."

"Then could it be that Zeke's time has been exhausted?" Hange asked, prompting a shake of the head from Annie.

"Zeke should still have around three more years before his tenure is over. There were no wounds on him so I can't guess how he died." Annie said.

Levi scoffed. "Well sitting in here isn't going to help us. Those shitheads managed to get on the island without us knowing. Who knows what they're going to try next?"

Erwin nodded in agreement. "We need to hasten our effort to reclaim Wall Maria and retake Shiganshina otherwise we'll be too late."

Levi turned to Liam who hadn't spoken since the meeting started. "Hey, brat. You've been silent for a while now. What's on your mind?"

Liam looked up, a solemn expression on his face. "A lot of things actually. For starters, the church of the walls."

"Huh? What does that have to do with anything?" Levi questioned.

"It has everything to do with it. Who built the walls? How did they build it? I doubt that Titans or Marley simply watched them do it. Isn't it strange how despite Reiner and Bertholdt breaching the walls, they only ever destroyed the gates? There is no damage to the wall around that area." Liam put forth his questions, letting his doubts sink into their minds.

"That is indeed strange but what are you getting at?" Hange asked.

"The church of the walls knows more about the walls than anyone. Weaponizing the walls only took so much time because they actively fought against it. If we can get one of them to talk, we'll have our answers." Liam said.

"I see. We'll have Hange and Moblit take care of getting those answers." Erwin proposed only for Liam to shake his head.

"I'll take care of it. The top brass of the survey corps is relatively known and recognized. You wouldn't be able to even pee without getting attention. If a scandal should occur, it'll push back the good reputation we've worked so hard to build. I'm an unknown. Should anything occur, it would be difficult to trace it back to the scouts." Liam offered.

"Your services are too valuable for us to take that kind of risk. If the royal family gets wind of what we're going and executes you, we'll have lost our advantage in this entire war." Erwin argued.

"And if we don't get this information, we leave ourselves open to sabotage from the inside." Liam shot back.

From the man's point of view, that was how it would seem. How could he know that Liam had a multitude of ways to get what he needed without leaving any clues?

For obvious reasons, knowledge about their movements like these is supposed to stay hidden. The newest lineup of scouts weren't up for the task, neither were the older ones.

The ones who might be able to pull off the task were not suited for these kinds of shadow works.

"Fine." Erwin said, finally resigned to allow Liam to handle it, not like he had much choice.

Hange then spoke up. "You had something else to bring up." She reminded.

"Ah yes. There might be a way we could close up the gates." He said.

If he didn't have their attention before, he surely did now.

"How?" Levi asked.

Liam only pointed at Annie who looked confused. "The female titan's hardening ability. Transportation of supplies is a major factor during expeditions. We could ride on top of the walls and have her plug up the breach. We'd only need a small group of soldiers rather than a full army." The eyes of the leaders at the table widened at his proposal.

"Ride on top of the walls?" Hange muttered.

Erwin turned to Annie. "Can you do it?" He asked firmly.

"It's possible." She said simply.

That opened up a way to speed up the plans to secure Paradis Island before focusing on firing back at Marley.

If only they knew that the Liam before them was only an ice clone.

•••

While the higher-ups of the survey corps were having a meeting, a disgruntled Ymir left the headquarters, taking her horse with her.

She seemed irritated as she flipped everyone off before taking off on her horse to Trost district. She was also unaware of Jean, Connie, and Sasha following behind her.

"She's been acting weird lately." Sasha muttered as they discreetly followed Ymir through the streets of Trost.

"What does that have to do with us?!" Jean screamed lowly.

"She and Krista have been arguing more and more and she's been more violent than usual." Sasha said.

"Again, how does that affect us?" Jean repeated.

"Uh…I don't know…" Sasha answered, causing a vein to visibly pulse on Jean's temple.

He and Connie were dragged by Sasha and now the girl herself was confused about why they were there. Connie was still quiet and in mourning after finding out that his mother had been turned into a titan.

Whether or not Sasha thought this would take his mind off of it, it wasn't working so far. "I'm telling you….what's happening?" Sasha trailed off as a man in a military police uniform ran into the streets, standing in front of Ymir.

"Long live King Fritz!" The man screamed as he leveled his gun at her.

The calmness was immediately disrupted but before anyone could do anything, the man fired.

*Bang!*

Ymir froze as the bullet shot into her skull, killing her instantly. Connie, Jean, and Sasha watched with shocked eyes as the brown haired girl fell face down to the ground, blood pooling from the death wound.

Everyone began scurrying away from the man at his act of violence and savagery.

The man raised the gun in the air victoriously. "For the king!"

He then ran off, people fearfully parting to avoid sharing the same fate. Fear and panic spread throughout the streets as a member of the military police, the king's direct subordinates, killed an innocent girl, all while screaming for the king's glory.

-[Underground Chapel]-

Ymir lay unconscious, surrounded in ice, and sedated with a lethargy potion to keep her from transforming.

Numerous ice clones surrounded her to make sure no incident occurred. Liam had finally begun his plan.

While everyone was distracted by the incident of titans appearing within Wall Rose, he abducted Ymir. Using her hair to create a permanent polyjuice potion, he fed it to Djel Sannes, the man he kidnapped earlier.

He then used [Astral Projection] to possess the transformed man/woman and had his clone teleport him back to the scouts' headquarters while a clone took his place.

As 'Ymir' he then left the headquarters to Trost, followed by Connie, Jean and Sasha. After making sure he was in a crowded area, an ice clone taking the appearance of Djel Sannes appeared to publicly 'kill Ymir in the name of the king'.

After the body's death, he was launched back to his own body in the chapel and his clone would run away. After making sure it was alone, it would then disperse, leaving people having doubts about a king that killed innocents.

Sannes would never be found so his name would never be cleared. The witnesses there would also make sure of that.

Now that Ymir was secured, he moved to the next phase of his plan, using [Apparition] to teleport to Marley.

The aftermath of his earlier bombing could be seen as that sector was entirely deserted. He immediately moved to a more populated area in the center of Marley.

Making a decent number of ice clones, he set them loose. He sat on a roof, watching as every few seconds, a clone would return with one or two frightened civilians.

This continued until he had gathered enough people to number at least a hundred. The frightened civilians screamed in fear and confusion at what was happening.

They would have run away had it not been for the ice clones standing around them with their guns aimed.

"What is going on?!"

"Who are you?!"

"Demons!!!"

Their cries were ignored but they attracted attention. Their gathered number attracted the attention of the Marleyan police force but Liam only smiled.

"Hello, people of Marley!" Liam said, facing his hostages. "Today you'll have the honor of being my tools."

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"Do you know who I am?!"

The Marleyan police behind him aimed their guns at him. "Stop what you're doing!" They ordered but it fell on deaf ears.

Liam smirked as he pulled out a few gas canisters from his inventory, not minding the gasps of shock.

"Your sacrifice would be most helpful." He said, throwing the canisters into the crowd as the gas inside was released, quickly spreading among them.

A cruel grin emerged on his face as he teleported away from the area. He appeared high in the sky, quickly equipping [Mastema] as he hovered above the city.

Not even a moment later, numerous explosions of energy occurred below as the citizens were transformed into large titans.

Like an artist appreciating his work, he watched as about a hundred titans were released into the center of Marley.

'This is only the first wave. Will you survive long enough for the second wave?'