By Zephyria Squad Leader 8 sifted through the piles of dirt and let the wind flow underneath. Once the wind flowed, it didn’t return. That added credibility to the 6th Battalion Commander’s statement that there was some space underneath.
Of course, the space wouldn’t be intact because it had collapsed, but if the space wasn’t blocked and was connected to another place, the phenomenon of the wind not returning was understandable enough.
But even so, no movement or sign of people was felt at all.
Squad Leader 8, who was under the dirt, slipped out through the gaps and squeezed her body back into another gap. The same was true for the other members, including her. They were currently digging into the lifted piles of dirt, searching one by one to see if there were any people.
Dellua said that the radius in which she could lift the dirt wasn’t that wide, but the amount of dirt and rocks currently floating in the air was truly enormous.
She was standing in the middle of the magic circle on the dirt with both arms on the ground. This task had been repeated several times already, darkness had fallen in the sky, and there was still no progress.
She was out of breath, and sweat was dripping down her face and pooling at her chin. Dellua wiped away the salty substance flowing from her philtrum to her mouth with her sleeve. Then, the dark blue sleeve was stained darkly, which was thick for sweat. As she stared blankly at it, a red nosebleed dripped onto the back of her hand.
Dellua couldn’t help but laugh.
“Ah, where the hell is the Commander! Why isn’t Meterion here either―!”
Her irritated voice spread through the air. Because of that, the 3rd Battalion members who were searching nearby flinched.
The Legion Commander was missing, but the 3rd Battalion Commander Meterion Kleinder said, “The Legion Commander won’t die that easily,” and only sent some members to cooperate with the search, while the main force was still advancing.
Meanwhile, Flynn was checking the reactions of over a hundred magic detectors installed nearby one by one. Sweat poured down like rain, but he had no time to pay attention to such things.
He was one of the most anxious and uneasy people, and he was so focused on the search that it was pitiful to see. However, unfortunately, not a single one of the magic detectors showed a proper reaction.
“…Strange.”
He frowned and muttered to himself.
Except for Kenneth Weaver, the other three missing people were all magic power holders of battalion commander level or higher, but it was strange no matter how he thought about it that their magic power wasn’t felt this much.
Flynn had heard about Dellua’s story about ‘a certain space where magic power was suppressed and the aura of demon beasts disappeared.’ But even if there was such a thing, he couldn’t imagine that there would be no reaction at all even if he installed magic detectors in such a vast area.
Occasionally, the detector would ring and he would run over, but it was the detector of the members who were searching, not detecting the magic power of the people under the ground. In the end, he concluded that there was a high possibility that something was really blocking their magic power.
‘If not, in the worst case, they’re already….’
Flynn tore at his hair when he had a bad feeling. Then he shook his head and calmed himself down. They were some of the strongest people in the Empire. The scale of the collapse was beyond imagination, but surely they would still be alive somewhere.
“Ugh… Flynn Levernill, please think. What would the Commander do?”
Flynn sat down in the middle of the wasteland, messed up his hair, and hung his head.
The reason why even the members who knew how to handle dirt were having difficulty with the current search was that it was impossible to manipulate the dirt beyond a certain depth, and it was difficult to distinguish only humans accurately because rocks and demon beast corpses were mixed in the dirt.
In addition, if they rashly moved the dirt in the current situation, a landslide could recur, so the command of the 6th Battalion Commander Dellua was necessary. And the reason why she called Squad Leader 8 was not simply because she could manipulate the wind, but because she needed someone who could feel the wind itself even when magic power was nullified.
Then, assuming that there was a certain boundary line that blocked magic power when it deepened beyond a certain standard from the ground. Even if they couldn’t find the buried people with magic power, wouldn’t they be able to find them with their own characteristics?
According to the 6th Battalion Commander, the scale of magic power that could be used in that space underground was reduced by nearly half, but it wasn’t impossible to use magic power at all.
When he thought that far, Flynn opened the artifact and looked for a heat detector. He thought that Leonardo Blaine would emit heat no matter what magic he used, so he would be able to find his location by detecting hot spots.
However, that thought was shattered as soon as Flynn took out the detector.
“Ah.”
This was the Eldermilli Peninsula. There was no way he could find him by detecting heat in this hot volcanic zone where the light turned on as soon as he took out the detector.
Just as he was about to fall into despair, Flynn thought of the opposite case.
‘Cold.’
He immediately jumped up from his seat, took the detector, and crawled under the pile of dirt that Dellua had lifted. Then, he began to hold the detector here and there.
If the light on the detector went out, the Commander might be there.
Flynn had been hoping that the light would turn on in that place, but now he was desperately hoping that the light would turn off, to this detector that he had been with since Frost Territory.
But contrary to his wishes, the light on the detector never went out even after quite a long time had passed.
* * *
“Huh…?”
Just as everyone was getting tired, Flynn doubted his eyes.
It had been two hours since he threw away the magic detector and only carried the heat detector, and then, for the first time, the light on the heat detector went out.
Flynn took a deep breath and shook the detector a few times. The light turned back on when he moved beyond a certain radius, and the light turned off when he returned to this area.
And near Flynn, Squad Leader 8 had her palm against the pile of dirt with an expression of concentration. He didn’t know when she had come to this place where he had been alone until just now, but Flynn instinctively knew that the reason she came here was the same as his.
“Squad Leader, do you feel anything?”
When Flynn asked, Squad Leader 8, who had been concentrating quietly, raised her head.
“The flow is strange in this part.”
Flynn’s eyes were filled with conviction when he heard those words. He immediately handed the squad leader the heat detector that had gone out.
“The heat detector, which had been on all the time, only turned off near here.”
Squad Leader 8 paused when she saw it, but soon she seemed to be convinced as well, and she took a few steps back and said.
“Come behind me and put up a barrier. I’m going to dig up the ground.”
At her words, Flynn immediately went behind her and put up a barrier in front of her and himself. Then, Squad Leader 8 stretched out her arm towards the place where she had felt a strange flow just now. The rotation of the air intensified in a spiral from her fingertips, and a gray-white magic circle unfolded in front of her.
“Air Blast.”
As a strong shockwave was fired at the pile of dirt, explosions rang out several times and stones and dirt flew in all directions, attracting the attention of the members who were searching.
Dellua, who was on the pile of dirt due to the sudden loud noise, wanted to know the situation below, but she couldn’t let go of the tension because the people below could be crushed if her concentration was disturbed. Instead, she shouted as loudly as she could.
“What! What’s going on!”
Regardless of Dellua’s scattered voice, Squad Leader 8 continued to fire attacks diagonally at the ground without rest. As the shock was continuously applied to the same place, the ground was gradually dug up, creating a very large and deep pit that could fit about six people.
But as the hole deepened to a certain extent, the attacks fired from the outside no longer worked properly and felt like they were spinning in vain. So, Squad Leader 8 stopped attacking and jumped into the hole at once. Flynn also followed her.
If Dellua had dug up the dirt from the ground to a depth of about 30m vertically and floated it in the air, Squad Leader 8 and Flynn had dug more than 10m further down from there. As soon as they landed in the innermost part, they felt a cold chill from the soil, which was clearly damp and warm.
Squad Leader 8 lowered her body again to feel the flow of air.
And at that moment, a strange vibration echoed several times from beneath the soil.