Bermuda

‘In exchange for helping, there’s a condition.’

That was what Nero had suddenly said after being briefed on the mother body’s main characteristics and jointly formulating a strategy.

‘...A condition? What condition?’

‘I’ll go over there first and join them, so you absolutely must not move until the medicine takes effect. Ab-so-lute-ly. Your complexion looks terrible right now. You can barely feel your left arm, right?’

‘...Well, how long do you think it’ll take for the medicine to work?’

‘I don’t know either. The detoxification time varies depending on the degree of poisoning. But it should take effect within three to four hours. As long as there are no other problems.’

‘Three to four hours? Hey, are you telling me to just watch for hours in this situation?’

‘Were you planning to fight in that condition?’

The face of Nero asking back as if dumbfounded flickered before his eyes. But Leonardo, recalling the conversation as he flew through the rain, shook his head, deliberately scattering that face.

‘I’m not asking for hours. Just hide somewhere and please rest, even if it’s for a moment. Even for a few minutes.’

"... "

‘To kill it for sure, you need to rest first, Captain. If you keep trying to intervene, I’ll drag you out of the peninsula, subjugation or whatever be damned.’

‘Come on, do you have the strength to drag me out?’

‘Oh? Want to try? Want me to show you?’

Despite the gesture saying it was fine, Nero had taken out every medicine he had from his artifact and stuffed them into Leonardo’s mouth. Only after covering his face with a gas mask and using mana to put on someone else’s face did he turn as if ready to go. But he turned back again, grasping Leonardo’s numb hand several times, and earnestly pleaded.

‘Listen to me. Don’t come close until the paralysis symptoms disappear. You’ll only be in the way.’

The last words, deliberately emphasized, were extremely irritating, but Leonardo knew well that if he lingered on the battlefield with reduced combat ability, he would likely become a target without even being able to launch a proper attack. Knowing this, he could only sneer with sullen eyes, unable to add any particular objection.

‘Alright.’

But that didn’t mean he was the type to stay still obediently.

“I’m sorry, Nero.”

Leonardo glanced in the direction where Nero had disappeared and muttered with a dry laugh. At the same time, his body swiftly charged toward the huge peak visible in front of him.

The place he was heading was near Peak 118, where the battle had been raging earlier, a bit away from where the mother body’s roars could be heard. However, it could not be called a safe place by any means, as the aftermath of the fierce battle was spreading in all directions. Occasionally, destructive beams that flew in would collapse the rock walls, causing piles of stones to pour down the slopes terrifyingly.

Upon arriving at this dangerous location, Leonardo immediately began searching for the entrance path buried under the mounds of earth as soon as he landed on the ground.

It was about three hours after entering the interior when Agrizendro first discovered Degalianif at Peak 118. Though it couldn’t be called the very entrance of the cave, it was a location that could be reached within thirty minutes if one followed the marked traces on the entry path and went straight.

While he knew Nero’s strength better than anyone, he also knew that this very strength made him appear suspicious in others’ eyes. That was why Leonardo couldn’t just sit back and do nothing. Honestly, it wouldn’t be strange if some sharp-eyed individuals, including Agrizendro, had already harbored doubts about Nero’s identity.

Moreover, it was foolish to wait alone for the effects of an antidote herb that might never appear, while others were risking their lives in battle. For this reason, Leonardo, who had returned to Peak 118 to search for Degalianif one last time, busily wandered around the area presumed to be the entrance, feeling along the surface of the rock wall.

However, the terrain, twisted by landslides, was in such a mess that even gauging direction properly was impossible. Moreover, with collapsed rocks and earth piled up nearby, finding a path wouldn’t make entry easy.

Leonardo, who had been meticulously examining the topography along the circumference of the peak, gauged a suitable location to open a path with magic. It needed to be a place where the wall was made of solid rock, with relatively low risk of landslides, and where the entrance was less likely to be blocked again by sliding earth.

After searching the area tirelessly for about ten minutes, piercing through the heavy downpour, a location suitable for entry finally came into Leonardo’s view. However, the miserable scene that unfolded before his eyes made his steps, tinged with pale daylight, come to an abrupt halt.

Kkadeuk- Kkadeudeudeuk-

“Uh... uh, uuuh, uh...”

The grotesque sound of flesh being chewed along with bone came through the rain. At the same time, a faint human groan flowed weakly—unable to even form words from the pain, just whimpering as the vocal cords were stimulated. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Amid the sticky, humid air, the pungent smell of blood permeated everything. The red of it was too vivid against the terrible grayscale.

‘...This is.’

This was clearly the northern entrance to Peak 118, where the Council had set up a forward base for carrying out the operation. As Leonardo, who was included in the first group, had also entered through this path, he was not unfamiliar with the location despite the altered terrain.

However, the base half-destroyed by collapsed rocks, the cold corpses that hadn’t managed to escape from the gaps, and the swarming monsters cruelly violating the souls that had not yet lost their warmth—it was a very different scene from what Leonardo remembered from a few hours ago.

Blood flowing from the mutilated bodies mixed with the rain and trickled down from the hill of corpses. As that red liquid and the stench that assaulted his nose slowly soaked his feet, Leonardo’s pupils, which had been shaking violently, contracted uncontrollably.

From his expression filled with killing intent, an intense energy wafted off in waves, and each time raindrops fell on his head, they instantly evaporated into the air. As an ominous current gradually enveloped the surroundings, one Ilaptor that had its head buried in the entrails of a corpse sensed something strange and raised its head.

In its maw were tender flesh and pulsating organs that hadn’t even undergone rigor mortis yet. With sticky blood numbing its sense of smell, it seemed to have only belatedly realized the presence of a living human.

The dozens of other Ilaptors writhing in a mass on top of the corpses had not yet grasped the situation. The only one that had raised its head howled immediately upon seeing the golden fire demon, but it was already far too late.

By the time the others raised their heads at that sound, the lightning of judgment descending from the sky was already shattering their bodies into pieces.

Kwaaang-!

The hideous monsters, unable to even utter their death throes, vanished in the blink of an eye, along with the corpses they had been devouring.

In that brief gap, Leonardo found two bodies with relatively intact limbs and slung them over his right shoulder. He tried to lift another with his left arm, but no strength came; he bit the collar with his teeth and swiftly flew to another location.

The limp bodies, the cold temperature, the inaudible heartbeats indicated these were no longer people of this world. But Leonardo, unable to just watch human dignity being torn apart before his eyes, quickly moved the three corpses to a place he deemed safe, carrying them in his arms.

As he reached a wide, flat area after crossing terrifyingly steep, bizarre rocks, the corpse held in Leonardo’s mouth fell with a thud and rolled on the ground.

"... "

There lay an incomparable number of bodies to the horrific scene he had just witnessed. Moreover, monsters that had gathered at the queen’s call were concentrated in that area, tearing apart chunks of flesh as if they had been starving for months.

The crushed and torn pieces of flesh no longer looked as though they had been human. In the middle of it all, Leonardo, growing cold in the falling rain, opened and closed his mouth with a blank expression.

Soon, a long flame sword was grasped in his hand, which was trembling—along with his eyelids and lower jaw. Gripping the boiling anger in both hands, he lost his reason and charged at the creatures.

Kwang! Bang!

“You bastards, get lost!”

With veins bulging savagely on his neck and forehead, hot flames dyed the earth red. His golden eyes, tinged with madness, heated up and blurred his vision as they filled with rainwater.

“You monster bastards, I said get lost—!!”

Wherever Leonardo thrust his sword, the ground split, flesh fragments flew, and everything sizzled. In the explosively rising steam, the chilling screams of monsters never ceased. Amidst it, as he madly cut down even the last remaining one, he hurled every curse he had at the sky, pouring out the anger pressing on his chest and the fiercely surging mana. Golden flashes of light blinked several times.

Soon after, the sword that had been swinging as if possessed stuck into the ground, and his body, overwhelmed by dizziness, staggered and leaned on it. When he finally fell to his knees, gasping roughly, not even a footprint of monsters could be found within a three-kilometer radius.

Stumbling, Leonardo returned to the place where he had laid down the corpses earlier. His mage robe, soaked in blood, had long since lost its original color, and there was no place untainted by the monsters’ dark blood—from his pale skin to his golden hair that had once been emitting a brilliant light.

Returning to his original position, Leonardo looked down at the strewn corpses with a fierce gaze and sat beside the last fruits of his protection, laying them down neatly. Then, after closing their eyes he hadn’t noticed were open, he offered a silent prayer in front of them, hoping they would rest in peace.

But the silence that should have been solemn didn’t last long. Beneath his {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} heaving shoulders, sobs fell in drops.

His hands, which had protected nothing, twitched as if in pain. Then finally, they frantically tore at his face and hair.

“Uwaaaaah!”

Leonardo, clenching his right hand into a fist, screamed as if he would lose his breath from the piercing self-loathing. His fist, pounding down to relieve the frustration, not only dented the ground but split it with a crack.

The terrible sense of powerlessness he had felt on the battlefield three years ago—the memory of that time crawled up his entire body again. The cursed voices rising from the ground pulled at his skin, and hallucinated pleas for help echoed from all around.

Leonardo cried out so desperately that he tasted iron in his throat.

“Damn it, why, why has nothing changed yet? Why am I still so weak—! Why!!”

Countless people falling asleep with their eyes open on the wasteland. They were all people he could have protected if he had been just a little wiser, just a little stronger.

But why was he still seeing the same scene as back then? Why was he still struggling with helplessness? Would he ever be able to escape it?

Frustration washed over him like a flood, making it hard even to breathe. Unaware that hyperventilation had risen to his chin, he just kept banging his head on the ground again and again.

The sound of holding back tears—“ugh, ugh”—caught in his throat. His smooth forehead was hideously torn, blood dripping steadily. With his face a mess and his whole body trembling violently, Leonardo called out to a god he didn’t even believe in, as he always found himself doing in these situations.

Just once, please. Just once, give me the strength to protect these people.

I don’t care what happens to me, please save the people.

Don’t abandon the young creatures you created like this.

Praying so desperately, he pounded his fist until the back of his hand was raw. His blood-soaked skin struck protruding rock fragments several times as if trying to self-harm.

Yet the pain in his hand wasn’t that great. It was because the pain of his heart being torn into a thousand pieces and rotting black was greater.

His body, twisting in despair, clawed at the ground as if trying to burrow into it. And at that moment, a small glass bottle rolled out from the inner pocket of Leonardo’s mage robe.

Tok-

A small glass bottle not even half the size of a palm. Three or four red-and-white oval solids inside it.

It fell to the ground and didn’t roll away, lying right in front of Leonardo’s gaze.

Like a revelation, its sudden appearance instantly erased the fear of what side effects it might cause.

Instead, it whispered softly to Leonardo’s tear-stained face like an evil demon.

If you want to gain strength, bear it, it said.

‘Pretty one, I wish you luck,’ it said.