By Zephyria 
Nero, who was supporting Leonardo, added a comment as she watched the flood sweep through the area with refreshing force.
“Senior, your style has become quite modest.”
She didn’t intend to pick a fight, but in the past, she was someone who would add flashy effects even if it meant consuming more Magic Power. The current method of grinding limbs beneath the water was relatively subdued.
Taylor, who had been looking proud while watching the demon beasts be torn apart without any fight, suddenly glared at Nero.
“The Captain is struggling. What if he throws up seeing things that aren’t even pretty? Besides, I compete with high-level precision, don’t I? It’s better than fire, which is just noisy. Right, Captain?”
“Why is the arrow suddenly pointing that way… Don’t you know the Captain is also fire?”
“The Captain also has that zapping flavor.”
Unlike the urgent situation on the ground, the conversation was jarringly childish. Perhaps that was why Leonardo was looking elsewhere, his expression devoid of a sense of reality.
‘The shadow….’
In this place that had become a complete living hell, the current was calm within a five-meter radius of where the four of them stood. Whether it was the result of the precision Taylor mentioned, the water merely rippled as if a wall had been erected. Thanks to that, Leonardo could look at his own reflection on the water’s surface, using the Light Ball as moonlight.
However, the problem was that beneath the mirror-like reflection of the scenery, only his own shadow was visible.
Not Taylor, nor Finder. Even Nero, whose arm and shoulder were touching his, was not reflected on the water.
He stood alone in this vast space. Like a phantom without substance.
“I wonder what on earth you’re talking about… Captain?”
Nero, who had been responding to Taylor’s nonsense, paused for a moment and looked beside her. It was because Leonardo had instinctively pushed away Nero’s arm that was supporting him. He hadn’t pushed hard, but a faint intent of rejection was conveyed clearly through his entire body.
Showing a look of bewilderment, Nero stared at him for a moment before withdrawing her hand awkwardly and asking.
“What’s wrong? Was something uncomfortable?”
“You guys….”
Just then, a sound that scratched at the eardrums was heard once again. Frowning sharply, Leonardo covered both ears.
Screeeech—!
The screams sounded twice as loud as before. Whether it was several people or creatures, they shrieked grotesquely in a swarm. At the maddening noise pollution, Leonardo gripped his head as if he were about to tear his hair out. Taylor and Nero also sensed the severity of the situation and immediately entered a defensive stance.
Finder also entrusted his back to his comrades and stood in a covering formation. After separating the upper and lower parts of his firearm and swapping in an auto-sear for rapid fire and a selector switch, he looked up.
“They’re coming from above.”
He was exceptional at capturing the presence and direction of targets. The others followed his gaze upward. Leonardo, drenched in sweat and wearing a distorted expression, was no exception.
Caw, caw. Like a prologue of an ominous omen, winged entities covered the sky, which was already devoid of light. Judging by their extraordinary size, they were certainly not ordinary birds, but ancient birds or demon beasts. Appearing in a swarm all at once, they began to circle above the four of them.
“Where did those things come from?”
Taylor rolled her sharpened eyes while rolling up her sleeves. Setting aside the vast number, she wondered where so many of them had been hiding until now. Thinking similarly, Finder narrowed his eyes.
“They don’t look like that….”
“Hyung, are you okay?”
Meanwhile, Nero barely managed to keep Leonardo upright as his waist threatened to collapse. The Captain’s reaction was stranger than usual. He was hyperventilating as if having a panic attack, and his body trembled violently as if he were cold.
Having rolled around on the battlefield, Nero had occasionally seen her comrades’ PTSD symptoms, but it was rare for a situation to progress so suddenly and rapidly. It seemed that the grotesque cries had triggered the Captain. Above all else, he had always been vulnerable to the screams of the powerless as they died.
With a worried face, Nero draped Leonardo’s arm around her neck and asked the two seniors.
“The Captain seems to be struggling a lot, what should we do? Does anyone have medicine?”
“Open the small buckle on the right and look for the Artifact.”
Finder detached a small pouch attached to his chest rig with one hand and tossed it back. Nero caught it immediately, opened the buckle with her teeth, and began rummaging through it. In the meantime, Taylor pulled out a cross-shaped part dangling from her wrist and spoke.
“What do you mean ‘what should we do’? I told you not to say such moronic things on the field, didn’t I? If the Captain is struggling, we have to remove the cause.”
A sharp blade was attached to the end of the small ornament. Just as Taylor was about to slash her palm with it to let drops of blood fall, the panting Leonardo suddenly snapped his head up. He then reached out and snatched her wrist in one motion.
“Don’t.”
“Huh?”
“You can’t… get hurt.”
Just as Leonardo, his face pale, muttered haltingly,
Clack, bang, bang—!
Gunshots tearing through the air were heard in succession. The cartridges flew toward the pitch-black sky, leaving only whitish tails, and sliced through the writhing afterimages. Once they penetrated the center, they exploded magnificently, spreading a blindingly brilliant flash.
KABOOM—!
The wind pressure generated at an altitude of at least 300 meters descended to the ground, shaking the earth and acting as a fake sun, momentarily lighting up the world. If their feet hadn’t been stuck in the swamp, they would have been pushed backward by the pressure. Taylor wanted to demand what on earth he had done to the cartridges to produce such power, and why he had made her do useless things while talking about aimed fire, but she couldn’t afford such trivial complaints.
“…What is that now.”
It was because a bizarre shape was seen among those flying insects that were perishing with shrieks. Her purple-tinged lips trembled slightly.
Finder, who was reloading cartridges, and Nero, who was just about to take out the medicine, both held their breath at that moment.
From among the swarm flying in a circle, something was crawling out through a rift in space-time.
It was then that Leonardo, who had closed his eyes against the harsh wind, lifted his chin at a strange sense of déjà vu.
「I’m hungry」
His eyes, startled for a moment, slowly dilated. The demon beasts falling from the blood-red sky while on fire were clearly reflected in his Gold Eyes. Without hesitation, they threw their own bodies to draw a sophisticated circular array that resembled a Magic Circle.
And from that gap, they summoned a horrific demon.
「I’m hungry」
Dark red skin, cracked like a scorched old tree, reminiscent of lava. Legs with joints bent, exposing bright red muscle fibers.
A lower jaw that didn’t just protrude deformatively but was embedded with thorns. Five black eyes on the side of a head that stretched out like a streamlined shape. And…
「Die」
If he had to pick the one creature he least wanted to see again among the monsters he had faced in his life, there was always one that took the final spot after a difficult choice. A muddy voice, sounding like a mix of female and male, echoed in his mind like telepathy. Having become an even more overwhelming size than in his memory, it reigned over the four of them, emitting a desperate sense of pressure like a disaster descending upon a ruined land.
「You never will.」
“Hyung, that thing….”
Nero, barely managing to speak, looked back at Leonardo. Leonardo swallowed hard and muttered like a sigh with a vacant face.
“Millie.”
As if glad to hear its name, the creature’s red pupils curved horizontally. Using words it had never even spoken as hostages, it recited a curse in a desperate tone, just like the vengeful spirits.
「You shall not die a natural death.」
He had been anxious already, but at that moment, Leonardo experienced a chill that sent shivers up to his scalp. His fingertips trembled and convulsed uncharacteristically. He was certain that he had sent that thing back to the world of nothingness with these two hands.
Yet, why was it now before his eyes, and why was the creature’s bloodlust—which felt as if it wanted to chew and swallow his skin—truly real? Leonardo had no time to distinguish. It seemed everyone standing there was seeing the same thing.
“Millie? Elder Millie? The thing the Captain and… Nero killed? Why is that here?”
Breath he couldn’t exhale rose to the tip of his throat. Did the great Leonardo Blaine fear the King of demon beasts? Yes, he did.
Perhaps not then, but he did now.
Because he now knew how many lives had been sacrificed just to execute that one creature.
And now, he had things by his side that he needed to protect more desperately than back then, and he no longer had the Amplifier that had pushed him to the brink of rampage in exchange for power. He was overcome by a sense of helplessness at that fact. But because of that, there was no need to cling to pride. It wouldn’t matter anymore even if the creature crossed the border and devastated the inland.
Saving these people was more important.
“11th Unit, listen carefully to me from now on.”
Leonardo grabbed the collars of Taylor and Nero with both hands. Magic Power, lamenting that he didn’t have one more arm, instinctively surged out and wrapped around Finder’s shoulder.
“Even if I release the Leash, I’m not sure if I can even beat that thing. So….”
At the Captain’s solemn voice, the eyes of the three converged. Their stiff gazes waited only for his command.
His lower lip moved with difficulty.
“Run away, somehow.”