By Zephyria Hugo’s mind grew increasingly complex as he estimated the location.
According to the investigators, the peninsula’s ruins were ancient, built over 700 years ago. This meant that the core, which was the purpose of building the ruins, had also existed for at least 700 years and had been producing Deformed species until relatively recently.
Could it simply be called a demon beast?
Hugo couldn’t decide how to define the identity of the core, which had not exhausted its lifespan for such a long time.
Moreover, he couldn’t fathom when, who, and how someone had thought of building such a massive Magic Circle covering the entire peninsula, stone by stone, to seal it, and how that was possible in the old days, and why there had never been a single story about it until now.
From beginning to end, it was impossible to guess based on common sense.
As Hugo struggled with the endless stream of questions, Meterion, who had been quietly staring at the map and the Magic Circle, suddenly raised his head towards the sky beyond the structures. At the same time, Bruno also looked there and said, spotting someone.
“It seems Legion Commander Molton has arrived.”
In the far distance where Bruno’s gaze reached, other commanders were flying in. The speed of the one at the very front was extraordinary.
He seemed to be using Teleport continuously, changing his location every second, and then, in an instant, a flash of light appeared in the sky above the base camp.
As Hugo’s gaze, which had been directed towards the mountain range, also reached him, he immediately descended to the ground and roughly dropped the person he had been carrying like luggage on his arm. Then, he saluted Hugo and Bruno and said.
“Loyalty, Rainer Molton, Commander of the 9th Battalion of the Council’s Southern Branch. I apologize for being late.”
“Rainer, welcome.”
Bruno greeted him as if he had been waiting. Rainer bowed lightly to the welcome, dragged the chief investigator, who was suffering from severe motion sickness due to being carried roughly, and placed him in front of the commanders. Bruno looked at him and asked.
“Did you bring what you told me about in advance?”
“Yes, I’ve brought only a part of it for now.”
Rainer answered and turned his head to the chief investigator, but the investigator was still disoriented and couldn’t come to his senses. Rainer, looking displeased, took the records he was holding and handed them to Bruno instead.
Bruno, who had been looking worriedly at the investigator, took the records and quickly scanned the contents on the spot. After a moment, he nodded and handed them back to Hugo, saying.
“Supreme Commander, you must see this.”
Hugo, showing a puzzled expression at the somewhat forceful words, ‘you must see,’ rather than ‘please see,’ took the unfolded records. Rainer opened his mouth, looking at Hugo as his gaze turned to the densely written text.
“As you commanded, Supreme Commander, the 9th Battalion and I moved south for three days, chasing Dermokas to find the missing people. Then, we happened to discover ancient characters engraved on a wide, flat stele in the ruins located southeast of here.”
Hugo listened to Rainer’s words and began to examine the written content. The upper line was in ancient characters, and the lower line was translated into the language of Laina Rogia. It seemed that the 9th Battalion exploration team had done the work separately.
The first thing that caught his eye was the era ‘Laina Era 938.’ His brow furrowed slightly. That period was just before the founding of Laina Rogia, going back about a thousand years from now.
Rainer added, looking at where his gaze was directed.
“Perhaps our ultimate goal of subjugation is the same as theirs.”
Hugo briefly raised his head to meet Rainer’s eyes. Then, he looked back at what he was holding and began to read quickly.
…July 17th. We relentlessly cut down the bastards and went south along the foothills of Aindel. Reaching old Perman, which we thought had disappeared, we met the annihilated Third Defense Force and joined the outpost.
The bastards, noticing the strength of our forces, ambushed the rear, but a dozen quick-witted men lured them bleeding into the Odil Gorge. Knocking down rocks to block their retreat and shooting fire arrows, the grotesque demons screamed and disappeared into the ground.
July 22nd. Recovering Perman and Olga, we entered Santrea and found demons three times the size of the Allied Forces crushing bones and setting up camp. The mountains were rugged and lava flowed, so dozens died after falling off the cliff while crossing it in a hurry.
As the bastards rushed in to exploit the gap, the enraged Sun King personally advanced and swung the Holy Sword greatly. He annihilated hundreds with one strike and blew away half of the mountain, raising the morale of our forces beyond words and frightening the enemies so they dared not attack.
July 29th. The cunning leader, sensing the crisis, crawled out of the ground, slaughtering and devouring the soldiers. It was as big as a mountain and had a hideous appearance, and it had been eating human flesh since ancient times and knew how to speak human language.
……
The eerie power controlled the minions, plunging our forces into a swamp and destroying the base. Without retreating, we surrounded it with a grand circular formation, so even the leader could not move easily.
The dazzling sun displayed its spirit, stabbing the bastard’s neck and sealing it in a deep abyss, and thunderous shouts spread, and there was no one under the sky who was not delighted…….
The Sun King commanded that if we wanted to live in this land, we should build a huge, indestructible circular formation on this land to prepare for the bastard’s awakening.
Following that command, we rebuilt Laina’s ――life and ――together for five hundred days. We earnestly begged to serve him as our lord, and he promised ――that if he established a new country, he would make us his people and appoint us as the gatekeepers of this land.
“We remember that promise and honor our benefactor, so we erected steles in the four directions, east, west, south, and north, where the evil sleeps, and engraved the …salvation of the past.”
Leonardo’s gaze, interpreting the characters on the stele, was already past the middle and moving towards the bottom. His hand stroked the surface of the stele, engraving each character on his fingertips.
Alec, who had taken out his camera, stood behind and scanned the characters that filled the upper part of the stele from top to bottom. Occasionally, he looked with interest at Leonardo, who was reading the entire text without difficulty.
Unlike the two people who were completely focused on the stele, Kenneth couldn’t let his guard down because of the smell of demon beasts mixed in the blowing wind and the secret cries.
Clearly, the bastards were aware of this place and lurking nearby, but they kept circling around and didn’t show themselves, which was very strange.
Meanwhile, due to the sense of duty as a Council member to protect the two people by identifying any suspicious signs, Kenneth hardly listened to the contents of the stele.
As Alec adjusted the aperture of the camera and lowered the lens, golden hair came into view. He reflexively tried to press the shutter, but stopped his finger and hesitated for a moment before putting down the camera he had been looking through.
Alec, watching Leonardo’s back as he was more engrossed than he was, as if he had been truly captivated, suddenly noticed Leonardo’s voice reaching a certain phrase at the bottom that had not yet been reached. He quietly called Kenneth, who was very nervous next to him.
“Kid.”
Kenneth reflexively turned his head to him and flinched for a moment. It wasn’t a welcome title, so he didn’t answer, but he had already naturally reacted. Alec smiled at him and asked.
“You know that fairy tale I told you about earlier. Do you remember the name of the witch in that fairy tale?”
“…Excuse me?”
Kenneth tilted his head at the sudden question.
His expression also frowned a little, but Alec didn’t care and added.
“I remembered it because it was such an unfitting name, but I’ve forgotten it.”
He was smiling and speaking suspiciously as if he had some intention, but Kenneth scratched his head and slowly blinked, rummaging through the contents of the fairy tale he had seen as a child.
It was something he had seen more than 10 years ago, so even the contents were vague, but Alec’s words that he remembered it because it was such an unfitting name lingered in his mind, and a piece of memory flashed by.
His clear eyes, which had rolled upwards, met Alec’s eyes again. Kenneth looked at the other person’s eyes, half-hidden by his narrow eyes, and slowly opened his mouth.
“Millie.”
“……”
The wind blowing from the forest shook their clothes and hair again. The corners of Alec’s mouth rose meaningfully after hearing the answer. Kenneth, who didn’t know what was going on, just found that appearance unsettling.
At that moment, Leonardo’s voice, which had been heard like a faint background sound in Kenneth’s ears, gradually became clearer. For some reason, his gaze reflexively turned to him.
“The King said that they communicate in their own language and move like an army under the control of the leader, and they commit slaughter, but that is also for their survival. They seem cruel on the outside, but if you look inside, they are sacrificial.”
Leonardo was still interpreting the characters on the stele, and judging from the location his hand was touching, he was almost at the end, and he was completely immersed as if he was being sucked into that time.
“The one who lays the eggs is worshiped like a king, but if they fail to fulfill their duty, they are abandoned, so they are similar to humans, but they are not human. Therefore, the King said that the movements of that evil group are like bees.”
The eroded parts gradually decreased and the characters became clearer, perhaps because they were covered by volcanic ash and grass as they went down. Thanks to this, his voice continued more smoothly.
“Thus, taking the name from Melissa, which means honeybee, the leader of the group was called Millie.”
Kenneth was startled for a moment and turned his head back to Alec. Alec was just smiling, looking at the stele.
Leonardo, kneeling on one knee in front of the stele, felt a sensation flowing down his spine, spreading to his arms and legs, making his whole body tingle. He didn’t know if it was joy or shock, but the feeling became more and more intense, giving him the illusion that blood was rushing to his head and he was short of breath.
Nevertheless, his eyes were relentlessly running towards the end.
“That being lives alone for a long time and is like absolute darkness, and when it awakens again, it will be enraged and try to devour everything, so the King commanded that future generations be careful and not forget, and named this land to pass on our work forever.”
Because it is attached to the end of the continent and protrudes, three sides meet the sea, so it is almost like an island.
What sleeps inside is the mother of evil spirits that bring destruction, and another ruler that has existed since ancient times. The emptiness and fear it creates are scars of history that must never be forgotten, so from that day on, we named this land….
Leonardo’s pupils gradually dilated as he swept the part covered by his hand. As he took a shallow breath, the wind blowing from the mountains flowed into his lungs, and he instinctively raised his head.
Meanwhile, Hugo, who was feeling the same wind from the other side of the mountain range, was also stopped at the last phrase that Leonardo had not yet connected. His eyes, which had been narrowed, gradually widened, and then he slowly raised his head and looked up at the magnificent mountain covered in clouds.
Coincidentally, the two people who were separated were looking at the same place at the same time and said at the same time.
“It was called the Elder Millie Peninsula.”