By Zephyria Fragments of rock rolled down from the cracked cliff, and smoke from the friction was thick everywhere. Hugo, breathing slightly more roughly, used the greatsword stuck in the wall as a foothold and quickly climbed up.
He immediately tried to check on Leonardo, who would be hanging there, but the stream of water stretched out long, precariously hanging on the rock edge protruding below the greatsword, making the situation difficult.
Fearing that the stream of water wrapped around the sword handle might break, Hugo carefully grabbed it. At that moment, a cracking sound came from above, and a huge shadow rapidly approached, swallowing all the light in the narrow valley.
As Hugo raised his head to the suddenly darkened sky, he saw that a part of the ice support he had created to block the falling rocks had been partially destroyed and was looming right in front of him.
Regaining his breath, he stared coldly at the huge ice mass mixed with rocks without any particular movement. As his frosty gaze reached the center of the ice mass, the surface of the ice rapidly expanded, and fragments scattered like snowflakes with a sharp sound as if glass was breaking.
Slightly squinting his eyes and averting his gaze, Hugo wearily wrapped the stream of water around his hand again. The snowflakes scattering in the air melted incredibly quickly and turned into rain, and he spread barriers in all directions to protect those below from the falling rocks and rain.
But suddenly, a strange sense of unease brushed against his fingertips holding the stream of water.
Even considering that the stream of water was resting on a protruding rock, distributing the weight, the weight felt at his fingertips now was strangely light.
Sensing the ominousness, Hugo immediately stepped on the edge of the rock slightly below the greatsword. Then, he held the stream of water so that it wouldn’t touch the sharp surface and used the recoil to pull it up in one go.
The face of the man who caught the person who was pulled up at the end in his arms was terribly dark.
There was only one person who came up.
Only the unconscious Squad Leader 8 was tied to the end of the stream of water.
Hugo’s expression froze rapidly, and he looked straight down the cliff while holding her. In the dark abyss, only falling rocks brushed past him and moved away, and no human figure was visible.
“Ha—.”
A murderous aura gradually overflowed from his face as he sighed in confusion. As he tightly closed his lips, blue veins clearly rose on his chin and neck.
‘When the hell?’
Hugo, staring down for a moment with a grim gaze, rested the head of Squad Leader 8, who was limply hanging in his arms, on his shoulder so that her neck wouldn’t be bent, and readjusted her in one arm.
Then, he turned his gaze back to the endless cliff below, drew the greatsword he had driven into the wall with one hand, and was about to jump into the darkness, lowering his posture.
“Commander!”
Hugo’s body, which was about to glide, stopped in mid-air. It was not of his own volition.
As Hugo turned to the side at the sensation of his arm being strongly grabbed, Rainer, the 9th Battalion Commander of the Southern Branch, and Deputy Commander Charlotte were holding him. They had followed the suddenly disappeared Commander-in-Chief at full speed without knowing the exact location.
The moment they grabbed and stopped Hugo’s arms, a part of the cliff that the greatsword had split earlier was vertically split and tilted, collapsing towards the opposite cliff.
As Rainer and Charlotte felt the urgency and raised their heads, members of the 1st Battalion, who they didn’t know where they came from, appeared in the sky and launched attacks on the collapsing rock, barely preventing the collision.
They had been searching for their scattered comrades and retreating after seeing the Dermokas suddenly stop attacking and all run away. But suddenly, they sensed the Commander’s powerful mana nearby, recognized the unusual situation, and immediately flew over.
Thanks to you, we temporarily prevented a collision, but as the situation turned out to be much worse than expected, Rainer grabbed Hugo’s injured right arm and said sternly.
“You must evacuate.”
However, Hugo seemed impatient with the passage of time, looking down the cliff and saying,
“There are still two people down there.”
“You used a large amount of magic from the plains to the ice wall above several hours ago. If you go down any further, even the Supreme Commander could be in danger.”
Rainer’s judgment was perfectly reasonable. However, Hugo concealed his frustration and tried to answer calmly.
“I’m fine, let go of my arm.”
Despite the soft tone, Rainer narrowed his brow and responded firmly to Hugo’s words, which were as resolute as his own.
“I cannot.”
As Rainer made it clear that he would not comply, Hugo’s gaze turned quite cold. He warned Rainer with a frozen gaze, as if he were an obstruction.
“That’s an order.”
Rainer and Charlotte flinched at his suddenly chilling voice. Hugo then shifted his gaze to Charlotte, who was holding his left arm, handed her Squad Leader 8, whom he had been holding with one arm, and said,
“Take care of Squad Leader Russell.”
“Yes?”
Charlotte, who had inadvertently received Squad Leader 8, looked quite bewildered. Hugo took advantage of the gap to lightly shake off the two and tried to glide down again. However, Rainer, who had been slightly pushed back, quickly moved to the front of Hugo and blocked his path.
Hugo frowned as if annoyed, but Rainer, undeterred by such a reaction, opened his mouth to persuade him.
“Supreme Commander, no magical power or presence is felt in this vicinity except for us. You should retreat first and conduct a search later—”
“That’s why we need to find them right now. It means the situation is so dire that they can’t even use magic!”
His raised voice echoed through the canyon.
His fierce eyes and voice clearly contained anger.
Rainer, quite taken aback by seeing the Supreme Commander in such a state for the first time, involuntarily held his breath. But in the midst of it, he saw his own image reflected in his superior, the image of himself overwhelmed with anger after facing the disappearance and death of his subordinates a little while ago.
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand. Rather, he could understand the Supreme Commander’s feelings more deeply than anyone else.
However, just as the rational Supreme Commander had ordered him to rest instead of acting emotionally, he felt that someone needed to remind him that what he was about to do was by no means a desirable action as a Supreme Commander.
Hugo tried to maintain his composure, exhaling a small, angry breath, and tried to pass by Rainer. However, Rainer, having made up his mind, blocked his path once again. Then, knowing that it was somewhat disrespectful, he grabbed both of his shoulders and shouted strongly with a distorted face.
“Supreme Commander!”
The roar caused by the collapsing ice supports and the shattering rocks filled the canyon. It could have been buried in the deafening noise, but Rainer’s shout-like appeal was strong enough to grab and shake Hugo’s mind.
“You must judge rationally. If you put yourself in danger trying to save them, everyone here could be in danger!”
When Rainer arrived, those whom the Supreme Commander was trying to save were already nowhere to be seen. In that situation, his attempt to jump down the collapsing cliff seemed like an uncharacteristic recklessness. No, with a severe injury to his right arm and being exhausted, it was not just reckless but foolish.
Hugo paused at Rainer’s words that everyone could be in danger. Noticing that reaction, Rainer calmly continued to speak to stimulate his sense of responsibility.
“I lost two subordinates just a few hours ago. Therefore, I know better than anyone else what the sorrow of not being able to protect is. But we still have people to protect, responsibilities to bear, and so much left for you and me, isn’t that so?”
“…….”
“If something were to happen to you, Supreme Commander, our entire Council would be in great turmoil. So for our sake, please make a wise decision.”
Rainer’s deep amber eyes shone fiercely.
“You must come up with us.”
His low voice was excessively clear.
Meeting Rainer’s sincere eyes, Hugo, who had been thinking of only one thing, suddenly felt his mind become complicated.
For Hugo, who was filled with thoughts of the two people who had fallen below, the numerous thoughts that came to him in an instant made him look back at his position once again.
Thanks to that, his narrowed vision widened and his blocked ears opened, but his body did not move easily.
“The mountain is collapsing soon!”
“You must evacuate!”
The sound of the 1st Battalion members struggling from afar was faintly heard. Every element of the situation was blocking the path ahead, and everyone was clamoring from all directions that he was the most urgent, so Hugo couldn’t properly decide what decision to make.
But despairingly, the self he looked back on was in a position where he couldn’t afford to ignore any of them.
Rainer, blocking Hugo’s path with an unwavering stance, saw his confused expression and gestured for him to look to the side.
Hugo, who had been silently staring at Rainer, turned his head following that gaze. Then he saw Deputy Commander Hastings, who had approached nearby, and Squad Leader 8, whom she was holding.
The squad leader, who was unconscious and had her eyes closed, had a torn and bleeding forehead, as if it had been injured by the aftermath of the earlier explosion.
Hugo’s eyes twitched as he saw it. He had been with her until just now, but he had been so out of it that he hadn’t even noticed the injury. He reached out with his aching hand in dismay and stroked the injured area. Then the flowing blood gradually stopped, and the wound healed in an instant.
But the scar didn’t disappear.
Soon after, the cliffs on both sides came over as if closing the sky. As the two walls collided, everything began to collapse at a frighteningly fast pace. The collapse site, where rocks collided with the large barrier spread out in the sky, debris scattered, and explosions spread, resembled the middle of a battlefield.
Hugo, who had faced the situation surrounding him, lowered the hand that had been stroking the squad leader’s forehead. Further contemplation was meaningless.
He shifted his gaze to Rainer, who was holding his shoulder.
Hugo felt truly amazed that the battalion commander, who had even personally confirmed and sent off the bodies of his subordinates a little while ago, could maintain such composure.
To Rainer, who had blocked his path with his whole body and given him advice, Hugo said with sincere respect,
“Thank you for reminding me, Battalion Commander Molton.”
Hearing the calm and low voice, Rainer examined the Supreme Commander’s demeanor.
His eyes seemed to have returned to those of a rational Supreme Commander, the swirling confusion subsided, and he looked much calmer. Seeing that his blue eyes seemed to have regained their temperature, Rainer let out a sigh of relief. Then, as if responding to that respect, he lightly bowed and lowered the hand that had been holding his superior’s shoulder.
Hugo, who had been looking at that hand, closed his eyes tightly and then looked at Rainer again and said.
“But, they might be waiting for me.”
Rainer reflexively asked at his incomprehensible words.
“…Yes?”
Hugo, who had been silent for a moment, gave the person in front of him a strange smile mixed with pity.
“I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
Before Rainer could grasp the situation, Hugo quickly brushed past him and jumped into the darkness.
Those who watched him rapidly descend and disappear, to the point where they could no longer hold him back, could not say anything.
Like a dam that had burst, earth and sand poured out madly between the cracked rock walls.
All the rocks that had been supporting the wall collapsed, creating a vast amount of dust, and all the large and small peaks in the area, centered on the huge mountain that was the center, collapsed.
Only the corpses of demon beast occasionally tangled in the red-exposed soil, and no trace of what had fallen under the cliff could be found.
Charlotte and the members nearby, including Squad Leader 8, safely escaped from the collapsing canyon.
Hugo and Rainer were not among them.