After the day's brief respite.
The Jaeger Combat Unit was deployed once more on a sweep operation.
Squelch, squelch.
I led the headquarters company forward.
The sewage-filled tunnels were a dark, labyrinthine maze without a single ray of light. A place where an ordinary army would have shed countless blood, ambushed in the terror of not being able to see an inch ahead.
A place that a commander should not have set foot in to begin with.
But I, with my [Minimap], was different. Only by leading the unit myself could I maximize the efficiency of the sweep operation.
"...There's a mana reaction ahead. Five people. Their breathing is very rough and irregular."
"Ahead at the fork. Five behind the wall, 15 meters into the right passage."
A proven combination. With Hanna's [Mana Detection] and my [Minimap] together, the sewers held no particular fear, aside from being a bit dirty.
"Klaus."
"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel."
Corporal Klaus, who had been following behind, adjusted his grip on his suppressed rifle and stepped closer.
"No need to turn the corner. The right concrete wall, one meter up from the floor. Fire straight through."
"Understood."
Click. Klaus aimed the muzzle at the wall. He had loaded a special mana round with a modified armor-piercing bullet.
Thwump!
Along with the muffled sound, a cloud of thick dust rose from the concrete wall. The mana-coated armor-piercing round pierced the hard wall like it was tofu.
"Gyaaagh-!"
"Enemy! From beyond the wall, argh!"
I checked the [Minimap]. Beyond the wall, three of the five red dots vanished in an instant.
"Mop up the remnants."
At my jut of the chin, Sergeant Gunter pulled the pin from a grenade and rolled it around the corner.
Boom-!
This time there wasn't even a scream. The red dots were completely wiped out.
"Advance."
Squelch, squelch.
There wasn't a trace of hesitation in the steps of the Jaeger Combat Unit's headquarters company.
'Analyze Status.'
[Target: Improvised Explosive Device]
"10 meters ahead, a tripwire beneath the water surface. The detonator is connected to the left pipe."
"Combat engineer, will dismantle immediately!"
"At the fork, ceiling vent. Two in ambush. Fire."
Bang-! Thud!
That familiar taste.
The same tactics I had used in the Ashen Forest, in Rosenheim.
With the overwhelming information advantage from Hanna's [Mana Detection] and my cheat skills, I dissected the enemy thoroughly.
"Next."
This time Hanna answered.
"Lieutenant Colonel. 30 meters ahead, a T-junction. Beyond the right corner, seven mana reactions. Their breathing is rough and murderous intent is heavy. It's an ambush."
I smoothly rotated the viewpoint of the [Minimap].
'A crossfire formation.'
"Walter."
"Yes, Lieutenant Colonel."
"Your squad takes the top of the drain pipe. And Franz."
"Yep!"
"When their formation collapses, sweep them with shotguns and grenades."
"As the Lieutenant Colonel wills! We'll smash them to bits!"
"Execute!"
The moment I shouted, Walter dashed out.
Bang-! Bang! Bang!
"Gyaagh! Above! The drain pipe's been breached...!"
Splash-!
The enemies who had been lying in ambush atop the drain pipe fell onto the sewage with their heads blown open.
Simultaneously, the platoon led by Franz rounded the corner and sprayed buckshot at the enemy.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Gyaaagh!"
It was a one-sided slaughter.
"Lieutenant Colonel."
As the battle concluded, Hanna reported.
"The reactions of the fleeing enemies are gathering in one place. Up ahead, the wastewater treatment area. The number is roughly... forty, no, close to fifty."
The same information appeared on my [Minimap]. The final destination of those who had fled even after burning down the Elancia Grand Cathedral.
"Put on your gas masks."
I racked the slide of my pistol.
"Time to make them pay the price."
*
Elancia Underground Wastewater Treatment Plant, Sector 4.
Inside the absolute darkness where not a single ray of light entered, chaos reigned.
"Help me! My leg! My leg...!"
"Shut up! If you make noise, they'll chase us, dammit!"
Around fifty remnants of the revolutionary army, smeared in mud and filth, were trapped in this vast underground maze, milling about in confusion.
Some were dry-heaving from terror, while others grabbed each other by the collars and spat curses.
At the center, Valery was trembling, clutching a radio in blood-soaked hands.
Crackle, hiss-!
"[He, here is the rear defense team! Corridor 2 has been breached! They came through the smoke... Gyaaagh!]"
"[Main force, respond! This is the left drain pipe sector! How did they know to throw grenades precisely at our ambush positions... Gak-!]"
What came through the radio was not reports but death cries.
Muffled screams and gunshots rang out a few times before cutting off, over and over. Each time the comms fell silent, the bone-chilling reality that the Imperial Army's pursuit was right at their throats set in.
"Comrade Chairman! They're coming! No footsteps, no lantern light, they just appear out of the darkness and shoot us dead!"
"We... we're all going to die... Burning the cathedral was useless. They're demons!"
"Surrender... we should surrender now! If we come out with our hands up, won't they spare us?!"
Terror spread like a plague. A few soldiers who had lost their reason threw down their weapons and tried to kneel.
Bang-!
Valery fired his pistol into the air.
"Shut up!! Surrender? You think the Imperial bastards will let us live after we burned down the cathedral?! We step out, it's the gallows for all of us!"
He shouted at the soldiers, veins bulging.
"Everyone listen up!"
They were now positioned at the end of a narrow straight corridor just over three meters wide.
"If those Imperial sons of bitches crawl into this corridor? The moment they touch a tripwire, everything will blow sky high."
Improvised explosives were laid thick across the floor to go off the instant someone stepped wrong, and at waist and ankle height, tripwires were crisscrossed like spider webs.
"Even if by some luck they dodge, the moment we hear footsteps, we pull the triggers."
And at the far end facing the corridor, two heavy machine guns were set up.
"No light means the same for them. In this narrow corridor, even blind bullets have no place to run. Got it?"
"...We'll keep it in mind."
At Valery's browbeating, even the terrified soldiers hardened their expressions with grim determination.
"Now... there really is nowhere to run."
"It's either death or passing out."
Vowing that even if they died, they would take those Imperial bastards with them as companions to the grave.
The revolutionary soldiers roughly cocked the charging handles of the machine guns and fixed their rifle sights beyond the dark corridor.
10 minutes, 20 minutes...
After a while of time passing endlessly in that suffocating silence.
Click.
A very faint metallic sound was heard.
'...Huh?'
Valery's breath caught in his throat. The soldiers also stiffened.
'A... cutting sound.'
Impossible. No way. How many tripwires did we hide in the corridor? And they found them all at once in this darkness?
Cold sweat trickled down Valery's spine.
Surely a coincidence.
Click.
Chrrt.
It wasn't a coincidence. The sound was drawing closer, little by little, at very regular intervals. The last traps laid in the darkness were being dismantled one by one by an unseen enemy.
"Wh-who goes there...! Light! Turn on the light and shoot!!"
One soldier unable to bear the terror screamed and struck a match.
Thwump-!
And his head burst.
His torso still holding the un-struck match toppled forward.
Splash!
"Fire! Fire! Open fire!!"
Rat-tat-tat-tat-!!
The two heavy machine guns spewed fire into the corridor in unison. Red tracer rounds tore through the darkness, flying in a straight line. Hundreds of bullets ricocheted off the walls, scattering fragments everywhere. The momentary muzzle flash lit up the scenery of the corridor.
And in the corridor illuminated by the fire.
There was no one. Not even a single ant stood there.
"...Wha, what? No one..."
Thwump-! Thwump-!
As soon as the gunfire ceased, the muffled sound of a suppressed shot came again.
This time, two gunners behind Valery who were manning the machine guns had holes drilled simultaneously through their necks and foreheads.
"The wall...!"
Someone screamed in a tearing voice.
"It's from beyond the wall!! They're shooting through the wall!!"
Only then did Valery realize. It hadn't come from the corridor. The thick concrete walls they were leaning their backs and sides against—tiny holes were drilled through that hard surface.
"Run!! Back! Further inside!"
While the remaining soldiers were blindly firing into the air, Valery scrambled backward, crawling along the floor. It was the main control room located in the deepest part of the wastewater plant. With five soldiers who had crawled in with him, he slammed shut a steel door over ten centimeters thick and engaged the double lock.
Clang!
A perfect sealed room. A cramped space blocked on all sides by steel and thick concrete.
The sounds of gunfire and screams outside now seemed distant. Valery and the five soldiers huddled together in the center of the room, aiming their muzzles at the door, panting.
"...We blocked it. It's a steel door. Unless they bring an anti-tank gun, they can't get through here..."
Valery muttered through chattering teeth.
Yes, here we're safe. To break through, they'd have to set explosives, and when we hear that, we just shoot at the door.
However.
Five minutes after the screams outside ceased and heavy silence descended.
Sssseet-!!
A chilling vibration. The steel door bulged suddenly in the center. Then, squeezing through the gap, a bluish-white trajectory pierced the soldier standing before it.
"Gyaagh!"
The man collapsed, vomiting blood.
Before the scream even ended.
Sssst! Sssseet!
Blue-white mana bullets flew through the door one after another. This time, the torsos of the two crouched in the corner were pierced.
"Ah... Aaaaagh!!"
The remaining two fired their rifles madly at the door, but to no avail. Only hollow echoes rang out.
Feeling warm comrades' blood soaking his ankles, Valery silently crawled along the floor.
Even this room wasn't safe. He had to get away from the door. Can't see? Those bastards see inside this room like it's broad daylight.
Valery groped his way to a rusty steel cabinet under a desk in the furthest corner of the control room. A narrow steel cabinet that might have held cleaning supplies.
He squeezed his body into that cramped compartment and carefully closed the metal door from the inside.
'I have to hide. I have to erase my very existence.'
Inside the cabinet, Valery curled into a ball, burying his face in his knees. Then he covered his mouth and nose with both hands, determined not to make even a breath.
Bang-!
The final gunshot rang out from outside. Then the thud of someone collapsing.
They were all dead. Now only Valery remained alone inside the control room.
Silence flowed. Valery gritted his teeth and endured.
'I am not here. I made no sound. I blended in among the corpses and happened to crawl into this cabinet. I didn't open the door, I didn't make footsteps. They'll never know. Not even God can know I'm here.'
Desperate self-suggestion.
Creeeeeeeak-.
At that moment, the thick steel door of the control room was forced open from outside, wrenched out of shape.
Valery's heart pounded like it would burst.
Squelch. Squelch.
The sound of damp combat boots stepping on the pool of blood on the control room floor.
There wasn't a shred of hesitation in those footsteps. Not a pause to search the room or check the fallen bodies.
The footsteps drew a perfectly straight line from the opened door, step, step.
Getting closer.
Past the center of the room, past the desk.
And finally.
Right in front of the steel cabinet where Valery was hiding, the footsteps stopped dead.
......!!
Goosebumps erupted all over Valery's body. Tears burst forth.
With only the thin steel plate of the cabinet between them, something was looking down at him. Only a hissing, rasping breath—something not human—stabbed into Valery's eardrums.
'It will pass. It stopped by chance. It doesn't know I'm here.'
As Valery, frozen in terror, squeezed his eyes shut and prayed fervently that it would turn away.
Tap, tap.
On the thin steel plate of the cabinet.
Exactly at the spot where Valery's forehead was pressed, a leather-gloved finger lightly knocked.
And.
"[The desperate wish for the darkness to hide you completely.]"
The steel plate opened and Valery's body was instantly dragged out of the cabinet.
Thud! Screech-