Two tightly bound men were pushed into the tent. The moment they entered, the guards behind them kicked them to their knees. Rags had been stuffed into their mouths, leaving them able to make only muffled whimpers.
As soon as the two Bloodriders entered, they saw Eren sitting in their Khal Labo's chair, holding their Khal Labo's woman in his lap and running his hands all over her. Although the sight of a twelve-year-old brat holding a woman older than himself looked rather incongruous, to them, it was nothing short of a killing blow to the heart.
Eren watched the two men before him without stopping his hands, but he had some ideas in mind. Rather than killing them, he had ordered them brought into the tent because he wanted to conduct some experiments on them. He wanted to inject his spinal fluid into their bodies and see whether it could turn them into Pure Titans.
Once he mastered the technique for creating Pure Titans, he would have an army that feared neither death nor pain and did not even need food. Compared with that army, even the Night's King's army of Wights would be utterly worthless. No matter how impossible you were to kill, once he stomped you flat as a pancake, he would like to see you move.
"All of you, get out. Stay at least ten meters away from this tent and keep the whole tent under guard."
Eren stopped what he was doing and sent Sally, the other two women, Flock, and the rest outside.
Once Sally and the others had left, Eren used Hardening to form a small knife and a bowl. When he had undone his transformation earlier, he had discovered that he could use Hardening without transforming. Of course, it was nowhere near as powerful as after he transformed, but he could still create hardened implements two to three meters long, or even make himself a suit of armor.
First, Eren held the knife in a reverse grip in his left hand and aimed it at his right wrist. Then he placed the bowl beneath his wrist and slashed hard, controlling his power to keep the wound from healing until his blood filled the bowl. Only then did he use his power to heal the wound.
Eren rubbed his freshly healed wrist and marveled inwardly.
If Ymir hadn't wanted to die, I don't think anyone could have killed him. With regeneration like this, he could probably recover even if he lost his head. Of course, nobody would chop off their own head for no reason just to test their regeneration!
Eren first found a gourd-shaped utensil on a nearby rack and cut two-thirds of it straight off with the knife. With the remaining neck and half of the gourd, he made a funnel. Holding the funnel in his right hand and lifting the bowl full of his blood in his left, he walked toward the two Bloodriders.
The two Bloodriders saw Eren approaching with a bowl of blood but thought little of it. After all, drinking blood and eating raw meat were hardly uncommon among the Dothraki. They were merely curious about what he could do by bringing over a bowl of blood. Surely it could not be poisoned and kill them.
Eren walked up to one of the Bloodriders, removed the rag from his mouth, then shoved the funnel straight into it, forcing whatever trash talk he had back down his throat. Then he lifted the bowl of blood and poured it directly into his mouth. Since the funnel had been shoved in deep, the Bloodrider could do nothing but swallow it.
Before long, the entire bowl of blood had been poured down his throat. After all, this was the first experiment. Whether he could become a Pure Titan was another matter; first, Eren would make sure the dose was sufficient.
Once he finished pouring the blood into the Bloodrider, Eren immediately stuffed the rag back into his mouth and took him outside.
"Flock, take some men and clear an open space. Gather everyone in the Khalasar and bring them over there while you're at it."
Eren gave Flock his orders.
Flock nodded and led some men to clear a fifty-meter open space, gathering everyone in the Khalasar to watch as well. Flock might have thought that Eren intended to execute the Bloodrider publicly, making an example of him before the entire Khalasar. Eren brought the Bloodrider over and placed him in the center of the clearing.
Eren walked to the edge of the clearing, then cleared his throat.
"Ahem, ahem, ahem. Mm."
"Ah..."
Eren shouted ahead with all his might.
In an instant, a bolt of lightning struck the unlucky fellow in front of him, and Eren's consciousness was carried into a space as well.
Within that space, a pillar of green light shot into the sky. In the distance, the unlucky fellow lay motionless on the sand.
Looking at the unlucky fellow lying in the distance, Eren could not help thinking,
Am I supposed to build him a Titan body in this space? Then why didn't I need to do that when I transformed before?
Eren was puzzled that he did not need to sculpt a body for his own transformation, yet needed to sculpt one to transform someone else.
Puzzled though he was, he still walked toward the unlucky fellow. After all, if the man was going to transform, he would have to sculpt him a body. He immediately got to work, using the surrounding sand to sculpt it around the unlucky fellow's body. As for where the unlucky fellow belonged inside the Titan, that was naturally the nape of its neck.
But as he sculpted, he discovered that his skills were lacking. He could not shape the Titan's facial features well enough, leaving them looking decidedly abstract.
"Uh, could this be the legendary Abnormal Titan?"
Eren's lips twitched as he looked at his completed artwork. Huge eyes, thick lips, oversized ears-it was an abstract work of art through and through.
The Titan before him was not tall, standing only five meters. After all, this was merely an experiment, so there was no need to make it so tall. Besides, sculpting a figure all by himself took a great deal of time. Although time had no meaning in this space, and he would leave at the same moment he entered, sculpting Titans undoubtedly took far too long. It was already like this with just one transformation. If he wanted something on the scale of the Rumbling, how long would he have to spend sculpting?
It seemed his next experiment would have to be whether he could directly manipulate these people's memories within this space, turning them into emotionless Titan-sculpting machines.
Now he had confirmed that he could turn other people into Pure Titans, but was this limited to the Dothraki, or did it work on every race? Especially the descendants of the Valyrians, whose bodies carried the blood of true dragons. The outstanding individuals among them could hatch dragons and remain unburned by fire, such as the Mother of Dragons.
Next, he still needed to capture people of more races to test. Also, since his shout could transform people who had drunk his blood, his next step should be to have everyone in the Khalasar drink it and test whether he could develop a way to control who transformed into a Titan and who did not, rather than transforming them indiscriminately.
After all, Eren wanted to rule people with feelings and awareness, not Pure Titans that knew nothing but eating and drinking all day. Moreover, having everyone in the Khalasar drink his blood would allow him to make everyone around him transform indiscriminately whenever he faced a life-or-death crisis, then seize a chance to escape. And if anyone in the Khalasar rebelled, he could turn them straight into Titans. Those who submitted to him could remain human; those unwilling to submit would become Titans and serve him.
Besides, there were several abilities among the Nine Giants that Eren had no use for, such as the Female Titan and the Jaw Titan. After all, Eren had no taste for eating people. He could try splitting them off to see whether he could create intelligent Titans. The Beast Titan required a high degree of compatibility, so he could keep it and see whether he could turn into a bird later. As for the Attack Titan's ability to see the memories of future inheritors, it was of little use to Eren because he had no future inheritor. But splitting it off could very well cause trouble for him.
Whatever the case, the ability to foresee the future poses too great a threat to me. I can't split it off. The other Titan abilities complement one another, too, so I can't separate them: the Cart Titan's endurance, the Armored Titan's defense, the Colossal Titan's explosions and steam, the War Hammer Titan's hardened constructs, and the most essential one, the Founding Titan. These can't be split off, or my fighting strength will suffer.
Eren thought this over. Looks like the only ones I can split off in the future are the Female Titan and the Jaw Titan. As for the Beast Titan, I can decide depending on the circumstances.
Once he finished thinking, Eren looked at the Titan he had sculpted before him and walked toward the pillar of light at the center.
Before you continue