Three days later.
Lillian and his group rode hard across the plains of Wall Rose, their horses galloping at full speed. Their goal was the reclamation of Wall Maria—the final thing Lillian wanted to accomplish before leaving.
Judging by how frequently those twisted distortions of light and shadow had been appearing, and assuming the intervals continued to shorten, he likely had no more than a week left. He certainly didn't believe that saying "give me a little more time" would work again.
So no matter what, Wall Maria had to be retaken before he left.
Doing so would relieve the population and food pressure on Walls Rose and Sina, accelerate development inside the Walls, and incidentally make the Stohess District even more stable.
As for the cooperation with the Survey Corps—after the previous incident, that relationship had already fallen apart. Lillian had long known that Erwin didn't trust him, and he understood why. But he hadn't yet become someone who cared only about himself. Now that distrust existed, there was no reason to act together anymore.
So for the operation to reclaim Wall Maria, Lillian mobilized his people in advance.
Eren, unable to harden, couldn't seal the wall. Erwin's plan was probably to have Eren do what he had done before—haul massive objects to block the gate.
That would work, but the efficiency would be terrible. And during transport, they'd face constant Titan attacks. Unlike the situation at Wall Rose, Wall Maria had fallen far too long ago, meaning the interior was already swarming with Titans—at least several hundred.
That number was terrifying—for the Survey Corps.
For Lillian's group of three, it was just average.
Especially now that Lillian had roughly mastered his power, cutting down Titans felt no different from slicing vegetables.
Only three people participated in this operation: Lillian, Annie, and Ymir.
No one else was needed. The Military Police weren't specialized for fighting Titans anyway; following along would only make them rations. Three people were enough.
"They're coming," someone said.
The trio had just passed beyond the outer wall of Rose when Titans began appearing along the road.
Lillian glanced at Annie. She transformed without hesitation.
The Female Titan erupted onto the plain. Lillian and Ymir used their ODM gear to land on her body, and Annie began to run—one hand gripping the reins, dragging the horses along.
The Female Titan was incredibly fast. Ordinary Titans couldn't keep up at all. Her stamina was also exceptional; even sustained running didn't drain her excessively.
"Hey, shorty," Ymir said, sitting on the Female Titan's shoulder as she looked at Lillian. "Are you sure the three of us can really retake Wall Maria? Feels like we're a bit short-handed."
"We can," Lillian replied.
He had already given Annie the hardening spinal fluid, and the two of them had deliberately tested it on the plains the day before. The results were excellent.
Because Annie had inherited Titan power earlier, her understanding of it was deeper than Eren's, and she mastered new abilities much faster.
At this point, Annie was an extremely well-rounded Titan: outstanding combat ability and endurance, partial crystallized hardening, rapid localized regeneration—and now full hardening as well.
As for why Ymir didn't use the spinal fluid, it was a matter of size. While hardening could exceed one's body surface area, the larger the excess, the greater the stamina consumption. With a body not even ten meters tall, Ymir was far less suited than the fourteen-meter Female Titan.
Boom—boom—boom—boom!
The running Female Titan easily left the others behind. By the time the sky darkened, the trio arrived at their midway rest point—the Forest of Giant Trees.
Running straight to Wall Maria in one go wasn't realistic. Annie could do it, but the stamina cost would be too high. Resting midway was the better option.
The three sat together on a massive tree branch. Lillian took bread and water from his pack.
"We moved so early—if we seal the wall first, the Survey Corps won't even have anything to do when they arrive," Ymir said while chewing her bread. "That's pretty relaxing."
"It's fine," Lillian replied.
What he was actually thinking about wasn't the wall—but the Survey Corps' future secret weapon in the original timeline: the Thunder Spear.
That high-damage weapon had originally been developed specifically to deal with Reiner's Armored Titan. Aside from Eren, no one else had any effective way to handle it.
Used properly, Thunder Spears could even kill a shifter by detonating through the flesh at the nape. Of course, they had many drawbacks: poor accuracy requirements, short range, and the need for close proximity—which made getting slapped to death very likely.
But now, without pressure from the Armored Titan, would Thunder Spears even be developed?
That was questionable.
Lillian believed someone was definitely researching secret weapons—just not against Titans.
Against him.
Just as Carly had said, his merciless slaughter of the military officers who had moved against him had already planted seeds of hatred. The military's silence now was only because they had no way to deal with him. Privately, people were certainly thinking about how to counter him.
Many also knew that he had "returned from the dead."
Until that mystery was resolved, no one would dare act lightly—because it was an enormous deterrent.
After all, imagine spending immense effort to assassinate or openly kill Lillian, only for him to come back to life shortly afterward. The retaliation that followed would be unbearable.
So until they understood how he resurrected, no one would make a move.
That was exactly the effect Lillian wanted.
Raw strength alone wasn't enough. Transparent strength would eventually be studied and countered. But mysterious strength was different—because no one knew what cards you still held, they wouldn't dare act rashly.
"Seal the wall, clear out the Titans inside, then move a large number of civilians over…" Ymir sighed. "After that, it's the outside world, right? Feels like things will never truly settle down."
"Yeah," Lillian agreed.
Enemies seemed endless—internal conflict, Titans, hostile nations, even hostile worlds. For a small society inside the Walls, it was far too much.
"Lillian, do you really have a good solution?" Annie asked.
"For Marley, for now we can only rely on deterrence through the Coordinate," Lillian said. "Then develop technology inside the Walls and try to gain allies abroad… though that will be very difficult."
Eldians' reputation in the world was abysmal. Seventeen hundred years of imperial rule aside, even now—after Eldia's fall—Marley's constant use of Titans in warfare had only deepened global hatred toward Eldians.
Under those circumstances, the island Eldians were trapped in a diplomatic black hole. No one wanted to risk universal condemnation to establish relations with them. And if someone did, they would demand enormous resources—then potentially cut ties the very next day.
Lillian didn't claim deep expertise in diplomacy, but he had learned enough to understand the truths of "the weak are beaten" and "there is no diplomacy for weak nations."
If classified, he was firmly a hardliner.
But—
Right now, the Walls couldn't afford to be hardline.
That was why the original timeline chose to "endure"—sacrificing part of the population to maintain the Founding Titan's deterrence while slowly developing technology.
That might have been best for the Walls as a whole.
For Lillian, it was absolutely unacceptable.
As he had said before, if things became impossible, he would leave the island with those he cared about and live under false identities elsewhere—rather than sacrifice the people important to him and cry about "having no other choice."
But now…
Time was running out.
As he was thinking, Lillian suddenly turned his head.
For an instant, a strange black shadow flashed past—and vanished deep into the forest.
"What's wrong?"
"…Nothing. Just rest for another half hour, and then we'll be ready to depart."
---
On the other side, at Wall Maria.
Zeke and Reiner sat around a campfire. Zeke held a can of beer, while Reiner's face was etched with bitterness and frustration, which made Zeke equally irritated.
"Reiner, we've already arrived on the island. You don't need to be so anxious."
"Warrior Chief, I think we should head straight to Wall Rose and find a way to sneak inside to gather intel," Reiner said urgently. "We still don't know how Bertholdt is doing—we need to find him as soon as possible."
Though he said this, in his mind he was thinking of locating Annie first. She should be at the Military Police Headquarters in Stohess District. If he could find her secretly and talk to her, maybe he could help her regain clarity and join forces to rescue Bertholdt.
"Don't rush, Reiner. Let Pieck scout ahead and return first… oh, isn't that her now?"
Reiner lowered his head and saw a quadrupedal Titan rapidly climbing the wall, carrying a military backpack on its back.
"How's it going?"
Zeke asked. At that moment, the Titan began to emit steam, and the next instant, a long-haired woman separated from the nape and crawled toward them on all fours.
"Pieck, can you not walk like that?" Reiner groaned, rubbing his forehead.
"Sorry, sorry," the woman called Pieck chuckled. "I can't help it—it's a habit." She grew serious and addressed Zeke: "There are three people in the Forest of Giant Trees. Their target should be here." She paused, then added, "One of them is… Annie."