By Zephyria Meanwhile, Rainer, on the opposite side, stared at the radio that had suddenly lost communication, wearing an extremely annoyed expression. He slapped it a few times with his palm, grumbling that it had finally stopped working after being so unreliable.
Charlotte quietly watched the scene before letting out a soft sigh. Soon, she stopped her superior’s rough hand and opened her mouth.
“Will that fix it? Just wait a bit.”
Rainer retorted in a bothersome tone.
“Where do we have time to wait? The Supreme Commander will be waiting.”
“These devices break down faster when subjected to impact. Besides, we don’t have many spare radios. Will you take responsibility if it breaks?”
“What are you talking about? I saw about three more in the Artifact, and these things usually work better when you hit them.”
“Those aren’t fully charged yet―.”
Rainer, spouting strange logic, continued to strike the area around the radio’s sensor despite Charlotte’s dissuasion. After hitting it about four times, the light on the sensor, which had been faintly lit, flickered and went out.
“…….”
Instinctively pausing, he silently looked down at the radio. Then, withdrawing his hand, he turned his head with a sheepish expression, only to be met with eyes that looked at him with utter disdain.
“What did I tell you?”
Rainer remained silent in the face of the chillingly cold voice. His embarrassed hand fiddled with the radio’s antenna for no reason.
As the two engaged in a silent argument amidst the silence, a voice suddenly echoed from the narrow cave behind them.
“Legion Commander, Deputy Commander!”
Hearing the sound of someone calling them with rough breaths, Rainer and Charlotte turned around. A member of the 9th Battalion of the Southern Branch, to which they belonged, was running towards them with a hurried look.
Sensing an ominous atmosphere, Rainer immediately handed the broken radio to Charlotte and took two steps forward. At the same time, his eyes quickly scanned the soldier’s appearance.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
The approaching soldier did not appear to be injured, but he was panting excessively. Moreover, his steps were slow for someone in such a hurry, indicating that his body was quite heavy.
“Haa, haa― Th-there’s a problem.”
The two were puzzled by the word ‘problem’ for a moment, but Charlotte quickly raised a Light Ball to illuminate the inside of the cave. Only then did something of unknown origin that the soldier was struggling to drag come into their sight.
Lying limp on the ground and being dragged along, it faintly smelled of musty blood. Moreover, it was soaked in a suspicious liquid, leaving a trail of wet footprints along the path it had taken. Its size seemed similar to that of a person.
Rainer’s face visibly stiffened as he stared at the dark shape. It was because the corpse of a subordinate, which he had covered with a white cloth and sent away a few days ago, suddenly overlapped in his mind.
Instantly filled with pale tension, Rainer unconsciously swallowed and covered his mouth with the back of his hand. For some reason, he felt nauseous, and the gruesome scene and the tattered combat uniform flickered before his eyes.
Charlotte, glancing at him, grabbed Rainer’s arm and pushed him aside. Then, she went to the entrance of the cave and greeted the soldier who was coming out first.
Soon, as he completely emerged from the narrow passage, the true nature of what he was holding became clearly visible.
What the soldier had brought was a Dermokas’s leg with its skin tattered, barely maintaining its shape with severed ropes and sealing stones wrapped around it.
Charlotte looked back and forth between the almost meaty mass and the soldier’s sweat-soaked face. Soon, she furrowed her brow and asked the soldier.
“Isn’t that the one our group was in charge of? Why is it in this state?”
Rainer’s 4th Group was also responsible for transporting one of the three Dermokas that the subjugation force had captured. Since there was a risk of unexpected situations if they were all gathered in one place, the commanders had agreed to each take one.
But the fact that the creature to be used in the operation was in this state was a serious problem that led to the responsibility of the group representative. Knowing this well, the soldier, who had lowered his gas mask, answered the question with a slightly embarrassed look.
“Th-that… I’m sorry. I moved around to explore the surroundings after tying him to a pillar, but when I came back after leaving for a moment, only one leg was left like this.”
Rainer breathed a sigh of relief that the blood-soaked thing was not a person. It seemed that the incident had turned into a trauma without him realizing it, as the image of his subordinate, whose form was difficult to recognize, was still vivid in his mind.
After wiping his face with his hand for a while, he smoothed out his expression, but upon thinking about it, it was not something to be relieved about.
Rainer immediately sent a signal to the Supreme Commander on the other side to inform him of the problem. Then, he immediately turned around, looked down at the severed leg, and asked the soldier.
“You’re saying it was like this when you came back?”
“…Yes.”
“What was the guard doing? Does anyone know why this happened?”
The soldier hesitated at the continuous questioning before opening his mouth.
“Our search team itself is currently… quite short-handed because there were quite a few people who dropped out due to breathing difficulties. Because of that, we couldn’t specifically designate guards or sentries, so there were… no witnesses at the time of the incident. I’m sorry.”
The soldier lowered his head while explaining the situation. Seeing this, Rainer let out a short sigh, “Hmph―.”
Currently, the 9th Battalion of the Southern Branch was also searching the intricate and narrow caves inside this No. 118 bunker under Rainer’s command. It was to find the demon beasts and the core that might be hiding somewhere.
But the fact that the Dermokas had become like this while they had taken their eyes off it for a moment made him think about the possibility that they were being watched by humans in unseen places. If so, it was possible that the few remaining members had been ambushed, so it might have been fortunate that no one was there at the time.
Looking at the soldier who looked apologetic, Rainer relaxed his hardened expression. Soon, he patted his back a little roughly, meaning not to blame himself.
“Well, it’s not like you did a good job, but it’s good that you weren’t hurt. There are two more in other groups besides this one, so it won’t be a big problem.”
The soldier carefully raised his head at the unexpected encouragement. At that moment, Charlotte, who had been watching the two people’s conversation, opened her mouth.
“When did the situation occur? What’s the approximate location?”
“Ah, the time of occurrence is about 20 minutes ago. The location is similar to here… but probably a little further down.”
The soldier immediately approached the railing and reached out to point below.
The two commanders shifted their gaze following the soldier’s fingertip. Then, Rainer, whose eyes widened, suddenly asked him.
“Wait, so does that mean you were already here 20 minutes ago?”
“Yes, that’s right. I kept following the sound of the Illaptor’s cry and arrived here.”
The soldier briefly conveyed the situation at the time.
The members of the 27th and 28th squads of the 4th Group, who were moving while dragging the fainted Dermokas, encountered a mysterious being while wandering through the dark cave, just like Hugo and Leonardo.
The Illaptor’s cry that followed lured them somewhere, and they said that they had set foot in this strange and mysterious space while chasing after the creature that repeatedly hid and revealed itself.
The place where the soldiers arrived was located about 30m below where Rainer was currently, but it was now obscured by the yellow fog that had risen in level and was no longer visible. The soldier explained that he had tied the Dermokas to a pillar that looked exactly like the one next to him.
“At first, I laid the body on the floor and tied it to the pillar with a short rope. But when I found it, the rope was hanging down below, and the leg was hanging at the end. There were traces of dragging on the floor, as if it had been dragged away.”
The soldier, who was briefing the scene in detail, rested his hand on the railing and added that this part was broken and the front was wide open, and that he could not report it immediately because the radio signal was not working.
Charlotte, who had been listening quietly, asked back with a serious expression.
“The leg was hanging from the rope down below?”
“Yes. It seems that another entity pulled it, and when it didn’t work, it cut off the leg and took the rest.”
Charlotte, following the explanation, took two steps forward and turned her gaze to the bottom filled with yellow fog. She couldn’t understand why the rope was hanging towards the cliff, not another path.
Meanwhile, Rainer approached the Dermokas’s leg, bent his knees, and sat down. There was no time to be doing this with the radio cut off, but there was something he had to check.
Rainer, holding the creature’s long claws in his hand, lifted the huge leg and rummaged through it. Since the skin was so thick and tough, there were no particular clues on the surface, but the shape of the cut surface was quite noteworthy.
It was definitely not a trace of being cut with a knife, nor was it torn off by tension. However, it was difficult to be sure that another entity had bitten it off because there were no small teeth marks on the cutting surface. Rather, the expression that it had been cut off by hitting the leg with a sharp and large rock was more appropriate.
Rainer, narrowing his eyes, habitually tried to bring his hand to the cut surface, but stopped. It was because the creature’s bodily fluids, mixed with blood, had flowed down and caught his eye.
The liquid pooled on the floor was acidic, melting the rock and digging into the ground. At that moment, Rainer’s eyes shone sharply.
“Hey, Deputy Commander.”
Charlotte, who had been looking over the railing, raised her head half a beat late.
“Yes?”
“Can an Illaptor eat a Dermokas?”
Charlotte blinked for a moment at the sudden question. Fortunately, she was one of the few commanders who understood all of the investigator’s briefing, so she quickly came up with an answer.
“It can’t eat it. I heard that the Illaptor’s stomach wall isn’t strong enough to withstand the acidity in the Dermokas’s bodily fluids. That’s why the Dermokas is the top predator on the peninsula.”
“Is that so?”
Rainer looked down at the creature’s leg and tapped it with his combat boot. Then, he raised his head again and asked for confirmation.
“Then what about the core?”
“…….”
“Can the core eat a Dermokas?”
Charlotte remained silent at the more specific question that followed.
Soon, her gaze shifted to the other side of the railing again as if she was thinking about something.
The core was the progenitor of all demon beasts on this peninsula, so its genetic trait would definitely include the acidic component, which is the Dermokas’s unique trait. If so, its stomach must also have resistance to withstand that acidic component.
“It’s possible. No, it’s possible.”
Rainer nodded lightly as if he had expected it when her confident answer immediately returned. After that, his amber eyes turned to the cut surface of the leg again.
Traces of dragging, the leg that was hanging, traces of being cut off.
As he retraced the situation one by one and shifted his gaze along the flowing bodily fluids, the traces of the floor melting down led to the cliff next to the pillar. Rainer’s eyes gradually narrowed.
The holes in the wall were so narrow that only one or two demon beasts could pass through at most. But the core written in the records was said to be as big as a mountain, with some exaggeration from the old people. There was no way it could go back and forth through such narrow paths.
So, if he were to guess where it could be hiding in this place, there was only one place he could think of right now.
Rainer said to Charlotte while fixing his gaze.
“First of all, it would be good to report the Dermokas-related information to the Supreme Commander and tell him that it is necessary to search this area below. Seeing that there is the same space below, it seems that this interior is much deeper than we expected.”
Charlotte nodded and replied.
“Then should we withdraw the soldiers below for now?”
“We should. It’s too easy to get ambushed when you can’t see anything.”
Saying that, Rainer glanced out over the railing.
He endured the hot heat, stretched his neck, and estimated the density of the yellow gas undulating below. In such a thick fog, even if there was light, it would be as dark as pitch even an inch ahead.
‘…But, was it originally that high?’
Rainer’s forehead twitched slightly. The surging gas had already risen to the vicinity, and it was clear that the level was significantly different from when he first saw it.
Finding it strange, he immediately turned to look at the two people behind him to confirm the facts.
And at that moment, a subtle fishy smell brushed past the tip of his nose.
It didn’t take long for him to realize that it was the smell of blood.
Aaaaaaack―!
A scream filled the huge space, bringing a chilling sense of tension.
It was definitely a human voice, but it was also something that was hard to believe came from a human’s mouth.
The sharp sound, as if the vocal cords were being torn, collided with all sides, making it impossible to know the exact source. But instinctively, Rainer sensed that it was the sound coming from where the soldiers were.
His pupils contracted greatly, and before he had time to grasp the situation, he forcefully stuck his fingers into the cracked gap in the pillar. The pillar, which had opened without resistance, cracked and was torn out miserably by his grip.
The long rock fragment, with a sharp tip like a thick spear, became even harder as his Magic Power flowed into it, emitting a bright light. It was reborn as a powerful weapon that could never be broken by any ordinary impact.
“Legion Commander!”
Charlotte tried to stop him from rushing in without looking back. But Rainer couldn’t hear her voice anymore. The coldness that had pierced his skin and the violently beating heart were strangling his breath.
Before his brain could recognize it, his body, dominated by trauma, moved first.