By Zephyria Elder Millie Peninsula.
The name, which had been heard so often, made it impossible to doubt or deny the existence of the Queen any longer. Moreover, since he had directly confirmed the contents with his own eyes, there was no reason not to believe it now.
Leonardo, who had raised his head and looked up at the widely spread mountain range, felt a faint energy mixed in the wind and looked back at the last phrase of the stele that his hand was touching.
‘What is this feeling?’
His Gold Eyes slowly went back up from the bottom, repeating each character one by one.
‘Elder Millie. Another ruler. Mother of evil spirits.’
From the very beginning, the name itself was referring to the existence of the Queen sleeping in the peninsula, but it was both funny and surprising that most people, including himself, didn’t know what that meant.
It was just passed down by word of mouth. Like an old story hidden in a children’s fairy tale.
Leonardo’s gaze, recalling the characters one by one, suddenly went out of the edge of the stele and was drawn to the stone statue standing next to it beyond the pillar.
That strange thing that was distributed throughout the ruins of the peninsula and seen in the tunnels. The empty gaze of the woman standing on the high platform and looking down didn’t give a good feeling and stimulated a strange discomfort. Because of that feeling, his eyes always went to the face first when looking at the stone statue, but this time, perhaps because the platform was particularly high, his gaze also reached his feet.
Leonardo’s eyes widened slightly as he slid along the silhouette and looked at the hem of the carved dress.
Because below that, he could see the ankles of the stone statue with shackles on them.
Putting his gaze there, he suddenly remembered what Alec had said.
‘Especially in founding myths, they often personify things that are not people.’
Leonardo slowly straightened his bent knees and stood up, looking around. Then, the curved walls and structures surrounding him gradually began to come into view.
They were all curved in an arc based on one direction, as if they were wrapping something in layers.
When his thoughts reached that point, he was able to instinctively realize that the things that were here now were not just simple ruins, but contained some meaning.
‘A huge, indestructible circular formation.’
He turned his head to look at Alec Siles, breathing irregularly. He still couldn’t figure out what he was thinking with his smiling face, but now what he had heard from him last night seemed more important.
The story that he, who was a scholar belonging to the Imperial Palace, was kicked out for studying something that the Imperial family didn’t like.
He had entered the Elder Millie Peninsula for that research, and the contents written on the stele he was looking for were clear evidence that this peninsula was a product of the first Emperor’s achievements.
He didn’t know exactly why… If the successive Emperors needed to hide the records related to the first Emperor because of their authority and the legitimacy of the Imperial succession, and if what Alec was studying was such a hidden history, and if one of the fragments of that history was this Elder Millie Peninsula.
Alec Siles had almost risked his life to enter this peninsula for another reason. And he and Kenneth had become involved in that life-threatening move.
“…Sir.”
The moment he was arrested by the Council, he would be subject to a background check. If it was revealed that a scholar who had been kicked out for doing forbidden research had secretly entered a restricted area to do such research again, the aftermath would never be smooth.
Bound by a contract with such a fellow, his own position wasn’t much different. Therefore, he couldn’t relax until this guy was completely out of the peninsula.
“…Lord Rain―.”
He felt things had become even more complicated, but Alex Siles seemed strangely relaxed for someone in that situation.
Besides, his words about taking care of the return trip himself made Leonardo wonder what he was hiding behind that smile, and whether he really needed his help to get here in the first place.
“Lord Blaine!”
Suddenly, a loud voice calling him made Leonardo flinch and turn to the source.
Kenneth stood there, a bundle in his left arm and a sword in his right hand. But he looked utterly terrified.
For a moment, Leonardo thought, ‘Has that guy been holding his sword the whole time?’ Then, Kenneth said in a trembling voice.
“It’s… close.”
Before he could even ponder the meaning of Kenneth’s incomplete sentence, he saw black shadows swiftly passing through the depths of the forest. Leonardo instinctively lowered his stance, held his breath, and peered through the bushes.
He only caught a glimpse, but there were at least six or seven of them, and that definitely wasn’t all.
The suspicious presences circled around, forming a large ring centered on their location in a counter-clockwise direction. Then, they slowly approached, tightening the noose as if trying to suffocate them from within the forest. Their movements were bold, as if they weren’t trying to remain hidden, but rather to make their presence known and instill fear.
Having entered their territory, this forest, he had expected to be surrounded, but he had been too lax in his vigilance while briefly distracted by the inscription. The creatures had approached silently, and there were quite a few of them, making it a rather threatening situation as they surrounded them.
He wanted to examine the inscription a bit more, but he felt that getting out of here quietly was the top priority.
Of course, the contract was as good as fulfilled the moment they arrived at the monument, but there were still many things he wanted to ask Alex Siles, and he hadn’t secured a hiding place for him yet, so he couldn’t afford to make a scene.
Leonardo gestured for Alex Siles and Kenneth to come closer. He deliberately moved even his fingertips slowly, as any hasty or rash action could trigger the creatures.
Kenneth, trembling with fear, cautiously took a step forward, and Leonardo turned his attention to him first. But then, Kenneth suddenly turned his head towards Alex Siles and shouted.
“Scholar! Behind you!”
Startled by his urgent tone, Leonardo whipped his head around as well, and saw an Illaptor with smooth skin stretching its long neck out from a gap in the large structure behind Alex Siles.
The creature’s wrinkled, thin membrane forming its jaw joint was wide open, revealing the red, jagged gums inside its maw. The glistening flesh twitched, and venom dripped from the tips of its curved teeth.
As the venom dripped onto the ground from the hideous teeth that looked like hundreds of iron skewers, Alex Siles’s head was positioned between the closing jaws. He was about to become a honeycomb.
Before Leonardo could even shout, he Teleported in front of Alex Siles in an instant and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck. He pulled him out of the Illaptor’s mouth while simultaneously drawing the dagger from his waist and slashing at the creature’s neck.
Kieeeek―!
Because the dagger wasn’t very long, the creature shrieked and twisted its body, its neck only half severed. Leonardo jumped back, lightly dodging its dangling neck and wildly swinging tail, when he heard Kenneth’s voice again.
“Ugh, ughaaack!”
Hearing that sound, Leonardo turned around, only to see another creature’s body erupt from the ground, lunging at him threateningly with its jaws open before he could even blink.
He was taken aback because Illaptors weren’t creatures that dug underground, but then it occurred to him that the creatures that had been running through the forest were just a distraction, and these were the real ones.
He barely managed to lean back to dodge and knocked one of them away with a punch to the head, but then a whole bunch of them surged up from the ground, widening the hole and starting to crawl out.
Creatures twice the size of the Illaptors he knew surrounded him and charged. His vision was obscured, and he couldn’t see where Kenneth was.
While Leonardo, with Alex Siles in tow, was caught in the encirclement, Kenneth was leaning against the wall, trembling as he held the end of his sword hilt against his sternum with both hands.
In front of him, he saw a foolish and hideous head, its sword tip piercing its throat, yet still trying to tear at the flesh in front of it. Red eyes darted back and forth in the sunken, hollow yellow face. As if trying to reach the prey in front of it at all costs, the creature roared, revealing its torn throat.
At the same time, the venom that had been pooling in the Illaptor’s mouth splattered onto Kenneth’s cheek and trickled down.
Realizing that what was on his face was venom, Kenneth bit his lip tightly, his scream rising to his throat, afraid of attracting attention.
To make matters worse, he felt something sticky and heavy drop onto his shoulder, and when he looked up, he saw the same creature as the one in front of him dripping an opaque liquid as it looked down at him from the top of the wall.
“Heeuh….”
Kenneth’s jaw trembled as he clenched his teeth and swallowed his fearful groan. Then, when the sticky substance brushed against his cheek once more, he immediately lowered his head and squeezed his eyes shut, afraid that it might get into his eyes.
Soon, he heard the chilling sound of sharp claws scraping as they gripped the wall and crawled down, and as the sound grew closer, the creature with the sword stuck in its neck gnawed at the blade near the hilt that his hands were holding, baring its maw.
Half out of his mind, unable to even shed tears, Leonardo’s voice echoed in his ears.
“Get down―!”
The moment he heard those words, Kenneth dropped everything, the sword he had been holding onto and all, and flattened himself to the ground, clutching only the bundle containing the relics.
He felt a searing heat behind him as a crackling, sharp sound and a vivid blue light flickered, bright enough to see even with his eyes closed.
Kwaaaang―!
An ultra-fast blue lightning bolt passed over Kenneth’s head before he could even register it.
The lightning bolt, which flew towards its target in what felt like only 0.1 seconds, directly hit the creatures that had been targeting Kenneth, obliterating them without a trace, and creating a blazing trail as it pierced through the wall, the structure, and the statue behind them.
As a result, part of the ruins in that direction crumbled, and the hot steam and dust mixed together, blurring the vision like a smokescreen. Kenneth couldn’t dare to lift his head as the deafening thunder roared all around.
While the creatures surrounding them momentarily hesitated at the terrifying power, Leonardo condensed the air into a sphere in his right hand and detonated it in quick succession, blowing away all the dust.
Soon, the view ahead cleared, and he saw Kenneth crouching under the wall of the ruins, where stone fragments were crumbling.
Leonardo moved to his side in an instant, forcibly pulled him up by the arm, and Teleported the two of them away, disappearing from the scene immediately.
The Illaptors that had charged just before they disappeared couldn’t slow down and collided with each other, tumbling around and howling fiercely. Some had their heads buried in the ground, writhing their smooth bodies and tails, and became entangled with each other, forming a grotesque mass.
Kuoong―!
At that moment, a loud sound and vibration that shook the entire area reverberated. It was similar in scale to the vibration that had spread throughout the peninsula before, causing many to feel uneasy.
Perhaps due to the unusual reverberation, the Illaptors that had been clawing at each other all stopped moving and raised their heads to look in one direction.
Kiaaaack―! Kaack―!
Soon, they seemed to be communicating with each other, and one by one, they separated from the tangled mass and scattered, quickly disappearing into the forest.
And the large creatures that remained at the scene until the end picked up the corpses of their kin that Leonardo had knocked down and dragged them away somewhere.