By Zephyria After confirming the member’s face, Squad Leader 8 immediately looked behind him in the direction he had come from. However, she didn’t feel the presence of anyone else there.
When conducting search operations in such a dangerous place, they usually moved in groups, so if other members of the group were approaching from the opposite side, the range of movement detected in the air would be wide. However, the movement felt from this member in the darkness was very static and quiet.
In fact, there was almost no sign of human presence, so unless someone could manipulate the wind or read the flow like herself, they wouldn’t even be able to recognize him. In other words, this person was either alone or moving very carefully. That was what Squad Leader 8 found strange.
However, it didn’t seem likely that a mere member, not even a commander, would be wandering alone inside an unknown cave where anything could pop out, so Squad Leader 8 asked him for confirmation.
“Where are the other members of your group?”
“I’m alone.”
At the clear answer, the Squad Leader momentarily lost her words and blinked.
“…Alone? There should have been an order to always move in groups of three.”
When she pointedly asked, the member’s eyes flicked upward and then back down.
“Two of my colleagues who were in the same group as me had severe symptoms of heatstroke, so they had to go outside first. But the standby group said there were no personnel to replenish… so I was just wandering around alone for the time being.”
The members behind him stirred with puzzled expressions. This was because, usually, if one member of a group was left alone, they would be attached to another group or excluded altogether, and they would never be allowed to wander alone.
The Squad Leader, thinking the same thing, checked the badge and embroidery on his combat uniform and asked.
“Affiliation?”
“Ah, loyalty. I’m Felix Montero, affiliated with the 11th Squad of the 6th Company of the 3rd Battalion of the Central Branch of the Council.”
He belatedly gave a salute and stated his rank and name as if he had just remembered. Then, his empty waist, which was missing his sword, was revealed under his arm.
‘…He was wandering around alone without even carrying a sword?’
As if noticing the thoughts contained in the suspicious gaze, the member looked down at his waist while still saluting. Then, he gave that awkward smile again from a moment ago.
“I was too flustered and forgot…. I’m sorry.”
The Squad Leader, who had been looking at him disapprovingly, suddenly caught one more strange thing.
When she had met the members of the 1st Group in front of the rift, this member had clearly been wearing protective gear to block the heat. But now, he was only wearing his combat uniform. Moreover, surprisingly, he wasn’t sweating at all. Just like that powerful fire Mage who was moving with the Commander.
For a moment, she wondered if this person was also a fire Mage, but she didn’t feel any fire energy from the member. In the first place, judging from the fact that she could barely feel any Magic Power and his agile movements from earlier, it seemed that he was someone who had trained his body mainly in martial arts.
This time, her gaze reached his saluting hand. Then, the member, as if conscious of it, subtly moved his hand. Originally, the back of his hand was a little more visible, but after adjusting the angle, his arm and the edge of his hand became perfectly aligned.
In response, Squad Leader 8 returned a light salute, allowing him to lower his arm. Then, after checking the path the member had come from once more, she opened her mouth.
“If you lose consciousness and become isolated in a place like this, there’s no way to find out your location. It’s dangerous to be alone, so it would be better to move with us for now.”
“…Yes?”
A hint of embarrassment was revealed in the half-beat late question. Noticing this, Squad Leader 8 asked.
“Why? Is there a problem?”
“Well… I’m really grateful for the offer, but I belong to a different battalion, so is it okay for me to join you? Just in case, I’ll go back to the standby group and ask them to reorganize the groups.”
“I’ll convey that to the 11th Squad Leader separately later, so you don’t have to worry about that. Stand at the very back and follow me.”
She said, pointing to the back of the Squad members. The member remained silent for a few seconds with a reluctant expression.
However, since there wasn’t much time to spare, Squad Leader 8 turned around to hasten her steps, whether an answer came or not. Then, she paused briefly and turned back to the member to continue speaking.
“Oh, and our group prioritizes locating the Legion Commander over the core. Therefore, we’re going to move quickly, so make sure you keep up without falling behind.”
“Yes? Did you say Legion Commander?”
The member’s eyes changed in an instant. The tone of his question was also slightly different.
At first, she thought he was just embarrassed because they were going to look for a superior he wanted to avoid, but upon closer inspection, that wasn’t the case.
The eyes that had been like dried fish a moment ago were gone, and the member’s face was full of life as if it was the most welcome sound he had heard. The eyes of Squad Leader 8 and the Squad members became subtle at his suddenly changed appearance. As the gazes full of doubt focused on him, the member seemed to grasp the atmosphere and quickly controlled his expression, adding.
“Ah, well… now that I think about it, it seems much safer to go together. I was worried about running into demon beasts while I was alone…. Thank you for suggesting it first. I’ll do my best to keep up without falling behind!”
The member bowed deeply, his voice full of energy.
The way he clenched his fists tightly by his legs and bowed his waist rather than his neck was a habit often seen among members who had transferred from the Imperial Army to the Council. The saluting posture, where the back of his hand was slightly more visible than the edge of his hand, was the same.
In fact, after seeing the Commander seem to care about this person, Squad Leader 8 had been keeping an eye on him all along.
It wasn’t that she suspected anything, but since he was definitely not an ordinary person, she had intended to keep him close and observe him when she suggested moving together.
However, contrary to her intentions, the newly joined member stood right next to her as if it was his rightful place. The face that met her eyes and smiled was completely different from the one who had been reluctant to follow her instructions a moment ago.
Squad Leader 8 looked at him with a bewildered expression and took a step back.
‘What is it? Why suddenly….’
His attitude had changed so quickly that she felt uneasy somewhere.
But since they were going to look for the Legion Commander, she didn’t think he would do anything strange, so Squad Leader 8, keeping a reasonable distance, nodded once without raising any particular questions.
“Let’s continue moving.”
Then, she moved in the direction she had been going, accompanied by the members.
The sound of several footsteps echoed in the cave, and it was then that they had just taken their fifth step.
Thud—
Suddenly, a heavy impact sound was heard from somewhere. The sound was small compared to the weight, so the source itself seemed to be quite far away, but it was enough to draw out the vigilance of the entire Squad, including Squad Leader 8.
They immediately stopped walking and looked up at the cave ceiling with increasingly wary eyes. Pieces of rock fell to the floor with a rustling sound, heightening their anxiety. Subsequently, whether it was the aftermath of the impact, a subtle wind blew from both sides of the path, piercing through the entire cave.
One of the Squad members, looking around with a nervous face, stuttered and opened his mouth.
“W-What was that sound just now? Could it be the core―.”
“It’s the Commander.”
Squad Leader 8, who cut him off at once, widened her eyes and turned her head sharply in the direction they had come from. This was because the terrible heat that had blown from there was mixed with a coldness that had not yet been swallowed up.
“It’s this way, hurry!”
Immediately giving directions, she rushed forward without delay. The Squad members, who had been flustered, also quickly followed her command.
However, their energetic sprint soon had to come to a halt. This was because a loud roar, so loud that their hearts sank, was heard right behind them.
Kwaaaang―!
The startled members all stopped as if they were about to fall and turned around. The first thing that greeted them was a cloud of acrid dust mixed with a strong gust of wind.
“Everyone, Aura―!”
Squad Leader 8, who reflexively closed her eyes and shouted, quickly covered her face with her forearm at the stuffiness pouring into her mouth. Then, taking advantage of the gap where the Squad members deployed their Auras to surround her, she advanced two steps forward.
The swirling wind gathered at her fingertips as if drawn by a magnet. Adding Magic Power to it, she transformed it into an even more powerful energy and fired a gust of wind forward, blowing away all the chaotically scattered dust.
Afterward, she barely managed to open her eyes, but a dark shadow flickered between the strands of hair sticking to her face. Slowly looking up, Squad Leader 8 unknowingly wore a blank expression.
The blurry vision gradually became clearer, revealing a miserable and sharp outline.
It was an unbelievably huge hole that had formed in the left wall of the cave. The destructive trace, as if a demon beast had broken through the wall, stretched out in all directions, drawing cracks on the ceiling and the floor.
“What… is that.”
The Squad Leader, moving her lips, immediately took a step back and drew her sword. The hesitant Squad members also gathered around her and drew their swords in turn.
However, since the existence that had created the hole could not be found, everyone was nervous.
Then, a presence was felt beyond the broken wall.
The one who stepped on the debris scattered on the floor and suddenly showed his face was that member who had joined them a little while ago.
“This way is faster!”
He gestured as if telling them to follow him, and then disappeared back into the darkness beyond the wall, leaving only those words behind.
The 1st Battalion members, whose brains had momentarily stopped, followed his retreating figure with wide eyes. Then, they looked at each other with bewildered faces.
A moment later, Squad Leader 8, not wanting to miss the member who had gone ahead, jumped into the hole first. Then, the remaining members followed suit one by one.
Kwaang! Thud!
Leonardo, holding the Flame Sword, panted and looked around. The sounds of destruction were bouncing off the walls, making it difficult to tell where they were coming from.
At that moment, Hugo’s cold air, which had been left behind, brushed past his skin as if to indicate the direction, with good timing. Reflexively turning his head, he swallowed the breath that had reached his chin and ran toward it. The wailing sound and the collapsed rock fragments that followed served as landmarks.
A few minutes ago, when Leonardo was clutching his head in the face of the surging pain, the sound of a dull impact and the Illaptor’s wailing suddenly pierced his ears.
Leonardo, who immediately opened his eyes wide, regained his senses and jumped into the cave, but he could no longer see the figure of the monster and Hugo chasing after it.
As a matter of urgency, he relied solely on his senses to wander through the cave and track them down, but he had not been able to find them even after quite some time. However, since strange noises had been ringing out in this vicinity all along, he could only guess that the existence in the darkness that Agrizendro was chasing was the Illaptor.
The Illaptor was as intelligent as the Dermokas, so it was quite suspicious that a creature that had not appeared all along had revealed itself in such a suspicious manner. The possibility of it being a trap could not be ruled out, but it was the first demon beast to be discovered since entering this Beacon 118. Therefore, no matter what its intention was, it could not be missed.
However, contrary to his wishes, Leonardo was barely following the traces left by Hugo and was far behind. His actions of often misstepping while walking were related to this situation.
「Hungry.」
Since entering the rift, Leonardo had often felt that he was half out of his mind, even to himself. There were two main reasons for this, one of which was the member he had made eye contact with earlier.
He had no idea how that guy was pretending to be a Council member, or why he was still here in the first place. However, what was certain was that that member was definitely the guy he had been looking for for the past few days, and he had become a complete idiot who couldn’t tell right from wrong in the meantime.
And the other was this damn hallucination.
「Hungry.」
“Damn it, seriously.”
Leonardo clenched his teeth, scowled, and tugged at his hair.
This hallucination, first recognized before the crack and occasionally heard since, had been ringing incessantly from all directions since he heard the Illaptor’s cry.
As a result, he lost his sense of direction, his head continued to ache as if pierced by an awl, and his concentration and judgment were all messed up. It felt like something gnawing at his brain would be less of a pain in the ass than this.
But the bigger problem was that this sound was only audible to him.
「Hungry.」
Earlier, he had secretly observed the reactions of others, just in case. However, they only occasionally mentioned the sound of the wind, and no one was saying anything special.
Later, when he was alone with Agrizendro, he cautiously asked if he heard any strange sounds. Agrizendro took it quite seriously and advised him to rest.
Eventually, he became convinced that he was the only one hearing this sound, and he stopped mentioning the hallucination.
「Hungry.」
The sound, which became clearer and louder as he went deeper, seemed to whisper in his ear and then spread through the air, echoing in his head.
If he had to specify the gender, it was closer to female than male, but strictly speaking, it was bizarre, as if the two were mixed.
It was too distinct to be an animal’s cry, and there was an uncanny valley feeling to it as a human voice.
If so, there was only one being in his mind who would be muttering about being so hungry with such resentment within this Seal 118.
“Leonardo.”
Thud―
Leonardo, who had been wandering through the winding cave, stopped abruptly at the sound of his name. Enduring a headache that felt like his eyeballs would pop out, he leaned against the wall and lifted his head sharply, and Hugo, whom he had been searching for so long, was standing at the end of the narrow path.
His chest and shoulders were rising and falling rapidly, and his breathing seemed very labored. Moreover, his expression was difficult to discern because it was hidden in the darkness, but he felt a strange sense of urgency in the voice that called him.
Because of that, Leonardo squeezed his eyes shut once and then opened them, hurrying toward Hugo.
But he saw something strange behind him.
‘Pillar?’
An artificial structure he had seen when he first opened his eyes after being caught in the collapse. It looked exactly like that if you took a pillar from that temple-like building.
Moreover, a faint light was swirling behind it as if a halo was shining, but he wondered if it was because of the Light Balls floating around, but it wasn’t.
Agrizendro’s face, which became clearer as he approached, seemed a little surprised, unlike him. Seeing him gesturing this way, Leonardo sped up and ran to his side in an instant.
Soon after, as soon as he completely escaped from the cave, his vision suddenly brightened, and he couldn’t see well for a moment. As he frowned at the glare, a large hand wrapped around his shoulder and naturally led him forward.
“Look there.”
The other hand stretched out toward the far distance, pointing somewhere.
Following his voice and fingertips, Leonardo slowly raised his head.
Soon, his eyelashes fluttered, and his eyes gradually widened.