Bermuda

In the moment he was about to be swallowed by the huge shadow approaching before his eyes, his helplessly dragged body was half-thrown away by a strong force. At about the same time, a violent impact sound echoed all around.

Kwaaang-!

Leonardo, who had flown as if to destroy the railing again and slammed his back hard against the rock wall, swallowed a sharp pain as if his ribs had cracked and fell weakly to the ground.

Fortunately, he avoided falling by barely keeping his body on the floor that hadn't collapsed, but as he lay face down, he kept coughing as dust entered his nose with every breath.

His eyelids trembled violently with extreme irritation, as if something had gotten into his eyes. The pale dust that had risen around him obscured his vision, blurring even his judgment.

However, the scream-like shout that followed immediately pulled his fading consciousness back in an instant.

"Commander!"

The shrill voice of Isabella, the 12th Battalion Commander, echoed throughout the vast space.

Leonardo, who had reflexively lifted his chin and blearily looked toward the direction he had flown from, held his breath at the figure revealed before his eyes as the swirling smoke gradually cleared. His pupils contracted fully and his lips moved. With a pale face from enduring the pain, he unknowingly called his name.

"Hugo-!"

Leonardo's anguished voice once again echoed through the wide space. Although he could clearly hear voices calling him from quite nearby, Hugo couldn't respond to them immediately.

From within the crevice of the rock wall that was not only cracked all over but also deeply hollowed out, Hugo felt a sensation as if his whole body were being crushed and his internal organs were rupturing. The impact he had received after pushing Leonardo away was so intense that he couldn't make a sound even with his eyes wide open.

Around Hugo, ice had spread widely and frozen as if mana had exploded. Sharp tips that had shot out in all directions had pierced through the hide of the monster's foot that was gripping him and savagely protruded.

It had been a critical moment where his body might truly have been crushed if he hadn't emitted mana the instant he was grabbed by the creature.

"... ...a ...e"

The ice, covered in the mother body's blood and acidic liquid, was boiling on the surface and vaporizing at a rapid rate. Although he had covered his body with ice to prevent the liquid from directly touching his skin, judging by the amount of smoke rising, it seemed only a matter of time before the ice melted and was penetrated.

However, more than the sense of crisis this gave, the ominous gleam shining through the thick, acrid smoke made his Adam's apple involuntarily bob.

"t...a... ..."

Ten dark red eyeballs slowly approached and looked down at the front paw that had become like a beehive. Then they rolled back to Hugo and, as if venting its anger, the creature gripped his body even more tightly and pressed him firmly against the wall.

A heavy groan burst from Hugo's mouth at the gradually increasing pressure. His pale complexion turned red, blood vessels stood out in his eyes, and thick veins bulged on his straight forehead.

At the same time, an unknown warm heat pooled inside his body, then instantly climbed up his windpipe and gushed out between his lips.

"... ... s"

Looking down at the not insignificant amount of blood he was spitting out, Hugo had a thousand thoughts in that moment. However, the most prominent among them was that the unpleasant noise that had been circling in his head for a while suddenly became clearly audible.

"Annoying one."

As if his blocked ears had suddenly cleared, a strange voice dug into his ears and made his head ring. Hugo, whose head he couldn't control was half-bent, reflexively raised his eyes to look at the huge mother body in front of him.

"You let it escape"

Although he had no ability to read the expressions of monsters, he could tell that the source of this very angry-sounding voice was the creature staring at him with its mouth torn wide open.

In this surreal situation, facing the monster, the image of Leonardo asking him if he sometimes heard strange sounds flashed through his mind. Scenes of him misstepping or rubbing his temples as if enduring a headache came to mind one by one.

Had he been hearing this sound all along?

Unable to move his body, Hugo painfully rolled only his eyeballs to look in the direction Leonardo's voice had come from. It was to check on his condition.

However, there was no human figure visible where he had expected him to be. Even when he quickly scanned up and down between the crevices of the rocks, it was the same.

At first, he thought he might not be recognizing it properly because his focus was blurred due to increased intraocular pressure from his body being pressed, but even so, there was no way his eyes would have missed the bright colors emitted by Leonardo's hair and clothes.

Hugo's gaze, which had wandered in the empty space for a moment, moved back to its original position. Since the creature seemed to have been aiming for Leonardo from the start, he hoped that he was hiding somewhere out of its sight.

However, as always contrary to his wishes, as soon as he turned his eyes to the mother body, a clear golden color entered his field of vision again.

Leonardo, who had appeared in an instant without even his presence being felt, rushed towards the creature with a murderous aura, grasping crackling black sparks in his hand.

The tip was aimed at the queen's eyeball.

The dark red eye, belatedly sensing the air current, stared at the concentration of high voltage that seemed about to dig into its pupil at any moment. However, unlike before, the creature didn't take any particular action even though the tip was only about 1 meter away.

Leonardo, who had heard the squishy sound of eyeballs and eyelids rubbing when he had made eye contact with the queen inside the ice pillar, had been waiting for this timing all along.

Unlike other parts covered with rough and dry hide, he had guessed that the moist eyeball wouldn't be easily hardened. And now, as he had expected, the queen was nakedly exposing its shiny black eyeball as if it had forgotten about the hardening technique.

As confidence followed his action, his speed increased further. Leonardo mercilessly brought down the killing intent grasped in both hands towards the large eyeball. However, just before the sharp tip was about to pierce into the red pupil, another strange voice echoed in his head.

"If you attack me, this one will die."

In that moment, Leonardo's eyes widened and he couldn't help but pause in mid-air.

Exactly 5 cm. When the distance between the intense mana about to burst out in all directions and the creature was not even the length of a finger, Leonardo barely stopped his accelerating body by stepping on the area around the mother body's eye. The pupil of the creature, which would have been pierced with just one more thrust of his hand, drew a horizontal line at that sight.

Leonardo, faced with the parabola that looked like a bloody smile, clenched his teeth while remaining motionless.

It's making threats?

He couldn't have imagined that a mere monster would take a human hostage and make threats.

And Hugo, who had been hearing the mother body's voice as well, was convinced that Leonardo had been suffering from this sound all along when he saw him instantly stop his movement.

At the same time, there were countless questions arising, starting with why he could suddenly hear this, but something suspiciously flickering beyond the massive body caught in his vision and suddenly drew his attention. Hugo's consciousness and gaze naturally led to the wall located far away.

Light?

The narrow caves that had been sparsely visible when they first reached this space. Something was glittering in those dark gaps. Moreover, not just one, but faint lights flickering in dozens of caves within immediate sight became very clear and then faded again repeatedly.

...Short three times, pause and short twice. Long once.

The irregular length and tempo of the blinking was reminiscent of Morse code. Hugo's eyes gradually narrowed as he stared at it. When communication was impossible or when conveying a situation to someone far away, they would sometimes send signals like this by adjusting the brightness of light balls.

S, U... R. RO... Encirclement complete?

He had wondered why they hadn't been seen for so long. It seemed that while they were engaged in fierce battle here with all their might, someone had been diligently moving to form a formation for carrying out the operation.

As far as Hugo knew, there was only one heartless commander in the Council who would use one side as bait and move behind the scenes himself, but he couldn't entirely blame the actions of the one who hadn't been seen since the barrier was lifted, as it was hope that appeared exquisitely when needed.

While he was {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} interpreting the rest of the light's meaning while holding his breath, tiny debris fell from the rock wall above with a thud, flowing down onto Hugo's shoulder as if to make its presence known. Just as his gaze was about to reflexively look up, the mother body's eyeball, which had been in a standoff with Leonardo, suddenly rolled in that direction as if it had sensed a strange air current.

Seeing that, Hugo instinctively sensed it. That this was the only chance to escape.