Beast Brought Low

Michael's plan was coming to fruition. In only a couple of days he'd managed to contaminate almost every water source with Zeke's spinal fluid. Be they water wells, aqueducts, pipelines, water treatment plants, everything you could name he'd doused with huge amounts of spinal fluid.

He'd been very liberal with it, as he wasn't quite sure how much fluid was required to actually turn someone into a pure titan. He had wanted to try to poison the higher-ups of Marley as well, but none of them was Eldian, leaving him with the middle-wage and lesser well-off families left as candidates.

Just to make sure everything went off without a hitch, he'd found and executed every titan shifter Marley had, barring Zeke who still had his uses. The Warhammer Titan and Cart Titan were easy to find after investigating two or three Marley general's offices for top secret plans and titan placements. Since the Titan Shifters were considered military assets similar to artillery, or large tanks, it was easy to locate and eliminate them, leaving Marley with no real defences once all the Eldians turn.

To make their odds worse, Michael had hidden a large number of comatose Eldians around strategic points like the ammunition and vehicle depots, inside fortresses, or even the walls of noble families. He didn't do this for the Tybur family of course, as they were not-so-secretly Eldian, already dooming them from Zeke's spinal fluid.

Zeke, of course, was horrified. Michael made it a point to give him an update on his progress whenever he came around to collect the next batch of spinal fluid, leaving the man screaming and raving by the time everything was finished.

"Well, that's everything. Almost every Eldian in the Marley Empire has been infected with your help." Michael states as he sits on a rock next to a despairing Zeke.

"P-Please... Anything but this! Even if you're doing this to protect those in Paradise Island, destroying Marley on your own would be a mercy! Turning people into titans is a worse fate than death!"

"Don't worry about that, I'll be killing them soon after they turn. I'll wake until they destroy Marley first of course." Michael adds. "Let's not forget your role though. You still need activate the serum..."

Michael releases him from his bonds and gestures for him to start, "Turn into your titan and scream as loud as possible."

Zeke slowly gets to his feet, his body covered in dried blood from the horrific spinal extraction process. "D-do you think I'll just-, do as you say!? No!"

Michael shrugs, "You either do what I want willingly, or by force."

Zeke grits his teeth, rolling his shoulders in anticipation, "I'll show you force!"

With that, his bites down on his hand, summoning his huge Beast Titan body with a crack of lightning. His body instantly forms and towers over Michael, its leg rearing back and sending a furious defiant kick at the Daedric Lord.

"Wrong choice!" Michael shouts, freezing his fist in a miniature version of [Cold Embrace] and punching towards one of the many 'Break Points' on the giant ape's foot, courtesy of his [Wynningbaldr] runes. He does of course aim at a less apparent break point, not willing to kill Zeke until he'd served his purpose.

*CRAAAASH!*

*SPLATTER!*

The tiny fist and gigantic foot meet, the latter instantly exploding into chunks of crimson meat and red particulates when they finally collide. Everything below the Beast Titan's knee had been destroyed and now covered the forest around them in a thin layer of mulched meat, blood, and bone.

Zeke ignores the sudden loss of his leg, having expected it due to Michael's already shown capabilities. He raises both hands up and brings them down at Michael with a hammer fist, using his lost leg as momentum to fall on the relatively small figure.

Michael Blinks away and lands on Zeke's shoulder before almost tearing the titan's head off with an ungodly-, or to be more accurate, godly bitch slap.

The giant monkey falls onto its side but continues to struggle as its leg slowly regenerates, it reaches over and tries to claw Michael off of it, accidentally gauging large bloody lines into its flesh in its haste.

Michael casually Blinks away again however, leaving a frustrated Zeke with little ability to actually hit him... "Just give up Zeke, I'll get my way no matter what."

"I-.... REEFUUUUUSSSSEEE!" Zeke roars, steam bursting from his leg as it rapidly regenerates. He throws himself to his feet and starts madly clawing at Michael, tearing huge holes into the ground and felling uncountable trees in the process.

Michael dodges all of this of course, hopping between the Beast Titan's fingers and hands, moving too quickly for it to see him, let alone anticipate his movement.

"This is boring! Is this all you have!? I've tortured you for days yet you can't even touch me!"

"FAAAALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!"

*CRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSHHHH!!!*

Zeke pants as his Titan Form straightens his back, stepping to the side of the massive dustcloud that'd formed from the huge crater he'd just punched into the ground.

"I kind of feel bad, bullying someone like you..." Michael remarks from atop Zeke's head. There wasn't a single person in this world who stood a chance against him, so he felt like he was punting toddlers or something.

Shaking his head as Zeke tries to crush him once more, he leans down and casually taps a break point in its head, causing the Beast Titan to instantly collapse...

Michael hops onto its back as he claps the dust from his hands, approaching the nape of the Beast Titan. He'd probably need to use Tsukuyomi to force Zeke to activate his spinal fluid, that or torture him until he relents... He was missing a mind control method, come to think of it. Unless Zeke made a deal with him, there wasn't any real way to force him to do something...