At the Warrior Training Grounds, Erwin fired a blue flare into the sky with a signal launcher, signaling a retreat.
The surrounding soldiers had been cleared out; support from the Marleyan army had not yet arrived.
Levi used his ODM Gear to carry the girl onto the rooftop.
The Jaw Titan remained there. Through the armor, Levi said, "Hey! Hange, hurry up and open this can! The inheritor of the War Hammer Titan has been captured!"
"Wait!" Hange spoke through the microphone.
Inside the armor, she unfastened her safety belt and, together with Mikasa, unscrewed the hatch and pushed it open.
Mike ran over to help, and together they pulled the girl into the armor.
At the same time, the Cart Titan burst out of the restricted zone. A soldier carried a sleeping middle-aged man onto the rooftop.
Pieck crawled out from the nape of the Cart Titan and shouted from beneath the eaves, "Use that armor to carry my father! I know a shortcut to the harbor; I can guide you through the back roads!"
Mike looked at her, then carried her father into Ymir's armor and stayed inside himself.
Three more people joined the armor: Mike, the War Hammer Titan inheritor, and Pieck's father.
Hange gave up her seat, allowing Pieck's father to sit where she had originally been.
As for the girl, Mike and Mikasa tied her to a special restraint frame, immobilizing her limbs with bindings.
"We can head back now, Ymir!" Hange shouted excitedly.
"Alright, hold on tight!"
Having received the order, Ymir retraced her path and quickly disappeared from sight.
"Soldiers, retreat!" Commander Erwin shouted in front of all his troops.
Since the Jaw Titan had been able to reach this place unharmed, it could naturally return unharmed as well.
Back at the harbor, they would immediately board an aircraft and escape the danger.
The operation had been a tremendous success so far; the only thing left was the withdrawal of their unit.
Unlike when they had broken in, the Marleyan army had now surrounded the area, making it nearly impenetrable.
"Follow me!" Pieck climbed back inside the Cart Titan.
To her, the Cart Titan was like a strangely shaped vehicle.
She could leave or reenter the "cockpit" at the back of its neck at any time, as long as the lower half of her body had not completely detached.
Even if it did detach, it would not matter; she could transform again at any time.
"Everyone, follow the Cart Titan!" Erwin ordered with a commanding shout.
At this point, how many of them made it back was irrelevant.
Even if they could not return, it did not matter.
When Erwin formulated the battle plan, he had never considered the possibility of zero casualties.
Bringing the power of the War Hammer Titan back to Paradis Island was the sole objective of his plan, and for that purpose, he was willing to sacrifice himself.
Pieck ran through the intricate streets of Marley.
She knew this city perfectly; as the inheritor of the Cart Titan, she possessed her own unique navigation system.
The Cart Titan's primary role on the battlefield was reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. She was a first-rate intelligence operative; once she traveled a route, she never forgot it.
She knew the city like the back of her hand, guiding Erwin's troops through narrow alleys and searching for routes where they were less likely to be surrounded or encounter large numbers of enemies.
She entered another dark and narrow alley. Climbing out of the Cart Titan's body with her own hands, she ran into the passage.
She slipped and fell, stepping on slick moss and filthy mud.
Of course, she was not going to cry over something so trivial; she was not that weak. But when she looked up and saw the islanders from Paradis soaring overhead with their ODM Gear, she could not help but sigh.
"I wish I could use ODM Gear."
Pieck sighed again, ran out of the alley, transformed into the Cart Titan on the broad road, and crushed any Marleyan soldiers blocking her path.
The Special Forces Unit equipped with ODM Gear cleared the way for her, using only small-caliber silenced pistols to minimize noise, moving through the slums of Liberio like bats in the darkness.
Fortunately, Marley was a densely built city; even the local army could not move freely through it.
From the Marleyan army's perspective, this extremely well-concealed mobile force was almost impossible to detect.
Even if some soldiers were unlucky enough to encounter them in the alleys, Erwin and his men, invincible in urban warfare, would eliminate them quickly.
That was more or less the impression Marleyan officers had of these ghost-like special forces.
They arrived like the wind and vanished like shadows; despite causing immense losses and carving their way into the heart of the capital, there was no trace of them.
The Colossal Titan could now be seen clearly, a visible target for everyone.
He stood guard at the harbor, protecting the ship carrying his comrades behind him while allowing the vessels leaving Marley to retreat alongside the merchant ships.
Hannes remained there on watch without leaving his side, ensuring the aircraft's safe takeoff.
He defended the harbor alone, enduring the long-range artillery fire from Marleyan fortresses.
On the merchant ship, preparations for the aircraft's takeoff had already been completed.
The crewed aircraft was secured to a special device: a massive catapult.
Two rails stretched along the deck of the merchant ship, their ends pointing toward the blue sea.
The aircraft's wheels were locked onto the rails, forming its runway.
The Jaw Titan's armor opened, and workers helped the people inside climb out.
Eren, Dina, Hange, Mikasa, Mike, along with Pieck's unconscious father and Lara, the holder of the War Hammer Titan, arrived on the deck.
Dina looked anxiously toward Marley; her son had still not returned.
The aircraft door opened, and Mikasa and Mike helped carry Lara and Pieck's father into the cabin.
The pilot, Hange, was making the final adjustments, starting the engine to warm it up.
The engine roared, and the steel fuselage and propeller vibrated.
Meanwhile, Mike jumped into the sea beside the merchant ship and transformed into the Armored Titan for the second time.
Standing in the water, he used Titan power to turn the launcher's crank, compressing the spring to its limit with a heavy creak, providing the energy needed to accelerate the aircraft.
This took some time.
Pieck, Erwin, and the others followed the Jaw Titan to the harbor.
They cleared out some of the harbor soldiers, killed the men operating the cannons, and then quickly returned to the merchant ship.
"Grab me, Pieck!" Petra shouted down to Pieck below.
Pieck emerged from the Cart Titan's body, and Petra, with a wild swinging motion, grabbed Pieck's hand and lifted her into the air.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!" Pieck screamed as she spun through the dizzying arc.
Petra lowered her onto the merchant ship's deck; she was unsteady, her legs weak.
Dina saw Erwin and hurried down from the aircraft.
"Commander Erwin, where is Zeke?!"
Erwin turned toward Pieck, who had left with Zeke, but only Pieck had returned; Zeke was nowhere to be seen.
Dina's gaze followed Erwin's.
"Dina, it's time to board, hurry!" Hange shouted urgently.
Dina bit her lower lip, looking at Pieck pleadingly.
Pieck realized that although it was her first time seeing Dina, judging by her blonde hair and attitude, she was probably Zeke's mother.
"Mr. Zeke... ran away."
Pieck remembered what Zeke had told her.
"He asked me to tell his mother that he was sorry, that he wouldn't be coming home for dinner."
"Really?" Erwin asked the soldiers who had accompanied Pieck.
The soldiers nodded, recounting to Erwin and Dina what they had witnessed.
"How can this be?"
Dina felt weak upon hearing the news.
She collapsed onto the deck, feeling as though she could not breathe.
He was her son, the last member of her family remaining in this world.
She had finally been reunited with him, and she could not imagine what would happen to Zeke if he stayed behind in Marley.
"Miss Dina, please board the aircraft."
Erwin helped Dina to her feet.
"Only by surviving will you and your son have a chance to meet again."
Dina was weakly escorted onto the aircraft by Erwin and Petra, her face pale.
At last, everyone who needed to board had done so.
Hange and the Armored Titan exchanged their final signals.
The workers removed the blocks holding the aircraft's wheels in place.
The Armored Titan slowly released the cranks, the catapult activated, and the aircraft shot forward along the rails!
Amid the deafening roar of the propellers, the aircraft took off!
Hange pulled the control lever, and the aircraft rapidly gained speed and climbed into the sky, flying toward Paradis Island.
The merchant ship's engines also roared back to life; this was the final evacuation.
"Hannes! We're leaving!" Levi roared to the Colossal Titan.
The Colossal Titan walked toward the shore, his body emitting scorching steam.
Hannes, controlling the Colossal Titan, ignited all of its frontal muscles, releasing a devastating heat wave before emerging from the nape and leaping into the sea.
Using the grappling hook of his ODM Gear, he climbed aboard the deck.
Armored warships surrounded them, and Ymir, with artillery crews aboard, ran back and forth across the deck, using the cannons mounted on the armor to return fire.
All of the merchant ship's artillery pieces were brought into action, and the Armored Titan protected the ship's side, using his body to block incoming shells.
The merchant ship accelerated; its internal combustion engines had fully warmed up.
Mike calculated the maximum distance, emerged from the Armored Titan's neck, and flew toward the deck.
Marley's armored warships used outdated steam engines whose power was far inferior to internal combustion engines, resulting in a speed difference of nearly double.
After evading the first wave of pursuit and engaging in a naval chase, they successfully escaped Liberio and reached the open, deserted sea.
In the end, the only casualty was the Beast Titan, Zeke.
Six men were wounded during the naval battle, struck by stray bullets from the Marleyan army, but none were in critical condition.
Thus, the Marley Operation concluded successfully.
The capital of Marley had suffered a massive attack that would affect the fate of the entire nation in just half an hour.
It shocked and terrified Marley, and indeed, the entire world.