Bermuda

Nero's closed eyelids twitched, then flew open. The red eyes revealed between them lost focus and remained still for a few seconds.

The sky directly visible was strangely bright yellow. At the same time, a familiar mana flowed down his limbs with a tingling sensation.

His dormant senses responded to this and awakened one by one. Nero vaguely moved his fingertips and gradually came to his senses. As a mysterious throbbing pain spread throughout his body, he belatedly realized that he had been unconscious until just now.

"Gasp-"

Nero, drawing in a hurried breath, sat up abruptly as if about to spring. Bending his upright upper body, he pressed his hands to the ground and hastily looked around.

His dazed expression was full of confusion, and at that moment, a bright light came down over his head with a strong vibration. Feeling puzzled, Nero reflexively raised his head.

'...?'

The sky he saw again through eyes squinted against the glare was somehow strange. The sky, clear without a single cloud, was shining golden.

Not only that, but the captain's mana was undulating everywhere like air, and though he had just woken up, Nero sensed that something was happening.

There was no time to calmly assess the situation. Feeling successive vibrations, he tried to stand up immediately from where he was sitting. However, as soon as he pressed his hands on the damp ground and put weight on his legs, an indescribable pain rushed in, making him grimace involuntarily.

"Ugh-"

Nero, who had staggered for a moment, slipped on the thin mud and sat down with a thud. Lowering his head to look at his legs that wouldn’t take any strength, he saw that his ankles were swollen beneath his soaked pants.

He had clearly injured the same place before and had it neatly healed by someone unwelcome. Wondering why it had happened again, he thought back carefully and realized he must have unconsciously kicked away an ice block that had broken through the barrier and flown at him during the explosion.

The reason the ground around him was wet also seemed to be because the ice had melted and soaked into the soil.

Massaging his bluish ankle that looked like it had doubled in size, Nero recalled the heavy ice that had half-shattered his leg and grumbled.

"Damn, it's hard as hell."

Meanwhile, the tall ice wall that had risen high had disappeared by more than 90%, leaving only a small part of its base stuck in the ground. The barrier stones that the members had tried so hard to protect were also shattered, fragments scattered everywhere.

If so, that monstrous creature must have escaped long ago and flown off somewhere. As this thought occurred to him, Nero quickly got up, putting strength into his other leg. The captain's mana being felt while the monster had escaped was the worst situation, no matter how long he had been down.

Having barely managed to stand with both feet on the ground, he was about to leap into the air. But at that moment, he sensed someone's presence not far away. As he turned his head, his eyes met squarely with someone staring in his direction.

The other person was an ordinary member wearing the Council's battle uniform, and although there were a few scratches on his face, he looked relatively fine for someone who had been caught in an explosion. Rather, judging by the fact that he was holding someone under the armpits—either a corpse or an unconscious person—he seemed to be in the process of moving fallen individuals to a suitable place.

It was a commendable scene of taking care of comrades, but Nero stopped all movement as soon as he faced him. He couldn't even breathe. The reason was simple. That face was quite familiar.

Probably the owner of the face he was currently wearing. Felix Montero was there.

"..."

"..."

As the silence stretched long, Nero first felt his own face with his hand before anything else. It was to check if he was currently wearing a gas mask.

But contrary to his expectations, what he touched was bare skin. No wonder breathing felt easier; his mask had come off.

As he grasped the situation, only one thought circled in Nero's mind.

'I'm fucked.'

What were the chances that a human who had directly seen a doppelganger would keep it a secret? Even he had made a fuss as if his eyes would pop out when the captain first disguised himself with his face.

Let alone an ordinary member who might not even know such magic existed in the world; if they encountered someone who looked exactly like themselves, they might think the situation was a dream.

'A dream?'

Nero, thinking his sudden idea was plausible, decided to slightly shift his despairing mindset. And this time, he began to consider how to deal with this guy. If he knocked him out now, he might really think it was a dream after waking up from a deep sleep.

While suspicion was one thing, if word spread about encountering a human who looked exactly like oneself, those in the know could easily guess that the subject belonged to Armsilver. If that happened, as the captain had worried, they might really be traced by the military command.

He had done all sorts of pretending to be cool—saying to trust only him, to speak honestly, to give him justification. He couldn't leave any lingering doubts and become a burden to him. He had to resolve this situation somehow.

Nero swallowed dry saliva and prepared to teleport behind Felix. He thought it would be clean if he moved in the blink of an eye and struck the back of his neck right away.

But suddenly, Felix put down the person he was moving and rushed toward him with an urgent look.

Nero, momentarily hesitating, took a step back and tried hard to hide his bewildered expression.

'What's this? A surprise attack?'

At the other's unexpectedly bold action, Nero put his hand on the jackknife in his back pocket. Just as he was about to half-draw the knife to threaten him if he came any closer, Felix suddenly stopped in front of him when the distance had narrowed somewhat. Then, looking Nero up and down with wide eyes, he asked:

"Hey, are you okay?"

"...?"

As the other suddenly asked about his well-being, Nero hesitated for a different reason than before. But soon, seeing Felix's eyes that showed no intention to fight, he folded the knife he was ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ about to draw and put it back in his pocket.

"It looked like you hurt your leg badly, so I moved you over here first... How did you stand up?" 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

"..."

"Ah, before that, I'm glad you seem to be safe. I thought almost everyone had been wiped out since there were so few people who woke up."

The 'real' Felix Montero spoke as if he was truly relieved and let out a sigh. His face was extremely pale, looking as if he didn't want to believe the current situation.

Nero was dumbfounded by his behavior. While it was certainly surprising that this area was a field of corpses and that he was standing on two feet, why wasn't he surprised to see someone who looked exactly like himself, when he surely wasn't blind?

Afraid of arousing any suspicion by acting strangely toward him, Nero just silently watched the other, unable to grasp how the situation was unfolding.

But suddenly, as Nero blinked, a chilling thought flashed through his mind. With a feeling of dread, he slowly turned his head, creaking, to look at the melted ice wall that came up to about a person's height.

"You seem to be from the same 3rd Battalion as me—what happened here? I barely survived at Peak 118, and then suddenly we were ordered to move here, so I came and..."

Felix, seeming to have a lot to say about this crazy situation, started rambling to Nero, who had just woken up, without even waiting for a response. But the moment Nero saw the color of his own hair reflected in the opaque ice wall, he felt like he wanted to complain to Felix instead.

While this guy's hair color in front of him was clearly somewhere between brown and dark green, his own hair reflected in the wall was a very familiar, vivid red. During the time he was unconscious and unable to control his mana, the illusion magic had worn off without him realizing it.

In that brief moment when he hadn't heard a word, only one thought circled in Nero's mind again.

'I'm really fucked.'

Someone on the peninsula had seen his real appearance. This was absolutely not supposed to happen. While red hair and red eyes weren't that rare, even the slightest possibility that someone suspected to be him had been here was not good.

If the captain found out about this, he might never want to see him again, so Nero's legs began to tremble with all sorts of worries tangled up. Meanwhile, whether he was perceptive or not, Felix saw this and asked with concern:

"Hey, hey, are you really okay? Your legs are shaking a lot... Come over here first. That side is in chaos due to bombardment sounds for some reason, but this area is a bit better. I'll take you to dry ground so you can sit and rest."

Saying this, Felix grabbed Nero's arm and slowly led him somewhere. Looking at him with a dazed expression, Nero was helplessly dragged along like a paper doll.

Even so, he kept watching the other's profile and the back of his head, constantly looking for an opportunity. Looking for anyone conscious in this area, it seemed that so far it was just himself and this guy.

If he took action even now, he might be able to handle this quietly somehow.