Astapor

After waking the next day, Eren immediately ordered the army to march for Astapor. For now, it was enough that Flock could retain his reason after transforming into a Titan. As for fighting, he could slowly familiarize himself with it once they reached Astapor. There would be plenty of battles there to help him master his abilities after transforming.

Half a month later, Eren arrived at Astapor with his army of over a hundred thousand and the more than three hundred thousand slaves swept along from Meereen and Yunkai. There had originally been even more slaves, but during the long trek, some of the old, weak, sick, and disabled had died of exhaustion or been abandoned. Those remaining were young and strong, and the empire would need them for all kinds of construction in the future.

Astapor stood at the mouth of a winding river that its people called the Worm River, which flowed into Slaver's Bay from the east. South of Astapor lay the Ghiscar Mountains, with the Old Ghis Ruins hidden among them. On Cedar Island west of Astapor, the declining Ghazza and Varys faced each other across the sea.

Astapor was the southernmost slave city in Slaver's Bay, and the last city still standing there. A traveler with a good horse could follow the ancient Ghiscar Coastal Road from Astapor to Yunkai in six days. Eren moved more slowly because he had his army and captives with him.

Astapor was famous for producing a particular kind of slave-the Unsullied. Eren had already encountered them in Yunkai, but there had been too few of them there. Had there been more, they could have held out a while longer and given the slave masters a chance to escape.

The Unsullied's most famous battle was the Battle of Qohor, where just three thousand Unsullied had held off an assault by more than fifty thousand elite troops led by a Dothraki Khalasar.

To be honest, Eren really wanted to have the Dothraki cavalry fight the Unsullied again, but he had no choice. It would waste too much time. These Unsullied were far too good at defending with their shield formations, and he had no idea how many were in Astapor now. If there happened to be a batch that had just finished training and had not yet been sold, wouldn't they wear him down to death?

Astapor was currently ruled by the Good Masters. Astapor's slave masters were called Good Masters, while those in Yunkai and Meereen were called Great Masters and Wise Masters. To Eren, though, they were all slave masters. Their titles did not matter; they all had to be killed anyway.

Astapor had also received word of Meereen and Yunkai's destruction. After all, a great deal of time had passed. When Meereen was first destroyed, Yunkai had yet to receive the news, but after Yunkai's destruction, Eren's progress had been slowed by his many captives. Those who sailed to Yunkai or Meereen to trade or buy and sell slaves could only head to Astapor after seeing the ruined cities, and so Astapor had received news of their destruction.

Of course, although Astapor knew that Meereen and Yunkai had been destroyed, it did not know how. After all, Eren had flattened both cities with nuclear blasts. All those who went to Meereen and Yunkai saw was scorched earth.

It left them thinking the two cities had been struck by meteors. Scorched earth lay everywhere, as though dragons had ravaged them. But they all knew dragons were extinct, so they did not consider that possibility. Unfortunately, although the world now had no dragons, Titans had appeared, and when there were enough Titans, the destruction they caused was no less than that of dragons.

Eren reached a place near Astapor by the Worm River and began setting up camp. Once this battle was over, all of Slaver's Bay would be utterly destroyed. Even if people came here to settle and build cities in the future, they would have to start from scratch. After all, all three cities would be reduced to scorched earth.

Eren left fifty thousand troops to guard the camp. As the number of captives grew, he needed to leave more and more men behind to watch them.

Then he took a hundred thousand troops to attack Astapor, accompanied by nearly two hundred Pure Titans. These Pure Titans had all been transformed from men gravely wounded after the battles in Meereen and Yunkai.

These men had been so badly wounded by the end of the fighting that, once brought back, they were found unlikely to survive until the next day. Eren would turn all such men directly into Pure Titans.

Turning the gravely wounded into Titans also involved constantly brainwashing them through the Church of the Giants over the past six months,

letting them know how wonderful Valhalla was, and that only warriors who fought bloody battles and died in combat were qualified to enter. Those who did not die in battle, such as men who suffered grave wounds or died of poison, could not go to Valhalla. Through brainwashing, Eren made them understand that after they became Titans and served for a few years, he would send them to Valhalla in recognition of their achievements.

Eren brought his army to Astapor. When those in Astapor saw the Dothraki cavalry approaching to attack, they immediately sounded the horns warning of an enemy assault.

While the slave masters were worrying over what exactly had caused Meereen and Yunkai's destruction, they heard the horns echoing throughout the city. Sensing trouble, they hurried to the walls and discovered the Dothraki army and some Titans below.

When these slave masters saw the Dothraki cavalry and Titans, they were not sure whether they were responsible for the destruction of Meereen and Yunkai.

After all, in their eyes, both the Dothraki and the Titans were flesh and blood. There was no way flesh and blood could reduce two cities to scorched earth, or even make entire cities disappear. What they feared was the unknown, just like Valyria's sudden destruction back then. They thought perhaps the apocalyptic catastrophe had returned, only this time Slaver's Bay had suffered.

As for the Dothraki and the Titans, they saw nothing to fear. After all, anything made of flesh and blood could bleed and be killed. Those Titans were not even wearing clothes or armor. Wasn't that the same as exposing their vital points? Sending their invincible Unsullied legions against them would make it a piece of cake. After all, it was not as though the Unsullied had never fought Dothraki before.

So these slave masters stubbornly sent the Unsullied legions out of the city to fight. As it happened, the city held both newly trained Unsullied and those still undergoing training. Together, they could form an army a full twenty thousand strong.

Only when the Unsullied formed up and worked together did the entire legion become truly terrifying. And only on open plains or in alleys could they make the most of their coordinated formations. During the attack on Yunkai, for example, three hundred Unsullied had blocked the city gate outright. Without Titans, even repeated cavalry charges would not have broken their defensive line. The slave masters had also sent the Unsullied out to make use of their strengths.

Three thousand Unsullied had once defeated fifty thousand cavalry. Now they had twenty thousand Unsullied. Although quite a few were still undergoing training, they were confident that the army below the walls was no match for them. As for the Titans, weren't they just living targets? Since they were not wearing clothes or armor, they could simply be killed with thrown spears.

Many of the slave masters thought to themselves, Twenty thousand against a hundred thousand. The advantage is mine.