The area before the gate near the imperial palace, where the expedition had entered, was packed with troops prepared for emergencies.
A variety of personnel were stationed there both to control the entry and exit of others and to respond to requests for support from the expedition or any sudden developments.
In particular, the gate they had entered this time was within the capital, not far from the imperial palace, so even more troops than usual were on standby.
Thanks to that, the response was smooth.
Even when the expedition returned less than a day after entering.
“Huh! How have you already come out so— Don’t tell me they’re all injured?”
Even when it was confirmed that more than half of them had suffered injuries great and small, they were able to respond quickly.
“Confirm the casualty list! Everyone else, stand by!”
“Move the wounded first! Hurry!”
Just because the expedition had escaped the floor through the gate did not mean they had time to simply rest.
They had to identify the dead, transport the wounded, and wait for Vitalianus and Hio Pavlenko, who had yet to come out.
“But where are the Commander and the Guardian Knight…?”
“…They will be out soon.”
Gail’s expression as he answered the defense knight captain’s question was not good.
There was no way it could be.
After all, it was as if they had fled first, leaving only those two behind.
No, that was exactly what had happened.
“Clear out the command post. Once they come out, they will hold a meeting immediately.”
“Will they not return to the palace?”
“They likely will not. Prepare accordingly.”
“Yes. Then what should we relay in the report…?”
After pondering for a moment, Gail spoke again.
“A variable occurred just before the clear, and we decided to withdraw for the time being. Relay only that for now, and the details can wait until after the meeting.”
“Understood.”
The defense captain withdrew, and this time Kales, the vice-captain of the knight order, approached.
His expression was no less stiff than Gail’s, but Gail had no leisure to pay attention to his face.
“What is the state of the Saintess and the priests?”
“They are greatly exhausted, but none are seriously injured.”
“The dead?”
“We are confirming that now. More importantly… Captain.”
Kales reported to Gail in a tone as rigid as his expression.
“There is not a single member of the Guild.”
The Guild.
In other words, the group of possessed individuals led by Antiphus.
“It appears… they have all been wiped out.”
Kales thought they had all died.
Because after the mage’s barrier collapsed and the entire floor was plunged into darkness, they had not been seen again.
It was a thought he could have because he did not know their true identity.
Even the expedition did not know what the Guild really was.
Even Kales, who was directly beneath Gail, did not know the Guild’s true nature.
To begin with, he did not even know the exact principle behind the advance party.
That truth was known only to an extremely small number within the expedition.
And Gail Einsidel was one of those who knew it.
“Do not concern yourself with them.”
“…Pardon?”
He spoke with his face twisted as far as it could go.
No, more than that, killing intent seeped into every word he spat out.
“Cowards and pieces of filth, every last one of them.”
“…”
“I said, don’t concern yourself with those vermin of the Guild. They fled long ago.”
The situation he had feared and foreseen had finally come to pass.
This was what he had feared from the moment those men, who knew neither loyalty nor honor nor even spirit, had joined them relying only on their paltry power.
When a true crisis came, would they really be able to stake their lives?
They had given their answer.
They could not stake their lives.
At the most crucial moment, they threw away the knights of the Empire, a precious fighting force, like worn-out shoes.
How could they possibly work together with such people now?
If he ever met them again, he would surely make them answer for today’s sin with his own sword.
“But how could only the Guild members have all escaped in that situation…?”
Kales’s question was reasonable, but unfortunately, it could not be answered.
Because the black gate rippled, and Vitalianus emerged from the floor.
The moment Gail and Kales confirmed it, they immediately ran toward Vitalianus.
“Gail.”
“…I have no excuse for fleeing first.”
“It does not matter. The casualties?”
“We are still confirming the fallen, and the wounded are being transported.”
“Tell them to have every injury treated, no matter how small.”
“Yes. I will do so.”
“We must hold an emergency strategy meeting at once, so prepare a location, and have everyone above vice-captain assemble. Exclude those with serious injuries.”
“I will inform the priests of Hibernia as well.”
“Given the gravity of the matter, inform the Saintess too. We will need to devise a method.”
“I will do so.”
Receiving Gail’s glance, Kales left to convey the orders, leaving only Vitalianus and Gail directly before the gate.
Vitalianus stood still, his gaze never leaving the black, wavering gate.
Amid those moving about in frantic haste, the two of them were the only ones standing still.
It was not that they had nothing to do.
In truth, the busiest people there were likely Gail and Vitalianus.
“As expected… not a single Guild member remains.”
“…So that is how it is.”
“Yes.”
“When the mage comes out, we will have to discuss this as well.”
Even so, Gail and Vitalianus merely stood before the gate, staring at it.
All else—forming countermeasures, gathering information—was something to be done only after Hio Pavlenko emerged.
Only once the mage, who would be closest to the truth of this situation, came out could things proceed.
Vitalianus was trying, if only for a moment, to organize his thoughts.
The monstrosities that kept moving without dying no matter how many times they were cut down.
Even crushing them with aura, even cleaving their bodies apart with intent, had made little difference.
They were certainly different from other Abyss Monsters.
The previous monsters had been cursed things left with nothing but instinct, but had they not still felt like living creatures?
Yet the monstrosities he had encountered this time were like soulless dolls or empty shells.
That was why they had not died even after being cut apart and destroyed.
‘Putting that aside…’
There was an abundance of things to think about.
Why had such a variable occurred?
What were the conditions for clearing the floor?
In the end, the most important thing was to close the floor.
To do that, discovering the conditions for a successful clear was the first priority.
And why had those things pursued only the mage so viciously?
The moment his thoughts reached that point.
“…How long has it been?”
He asked Gail, who was standing beside him.
At the answer that returned, Vitalianus’s expression could only stiffen.
“At the very least, more than ten minutes.”
Gail said ten minutes, but it had already been close to twenty.
That meant that much time had passed since Vitalianus had exited the floor.
Under normal circumstances, it was something that could never happen.
No matter how late, Hio should have followed him out within ten minutes.
As far as he had confirmed, the mage had more than enough strength left for that.
Vitalianus moved, his expression still rigid.
“Something has happened to the mage.”
At the same time as he spoke, he attempted to reenter through the gate at an unbelievable speed, but there was no chance he could enter.
One who had returned from a floor could not reenter for twenty-four hours.
Then what was to be done?
Having judged quickly, Vitalianus issued an order to Gail.
“Deploy the reserve forces.”
The troops who assisted the expedition in emergencies.
Their numbers were somewhat small, but each and every member was a force comparable to the expedition, making them the best force that could be sent into the Demonic Realm immediately.
“But that side lacks top-tier forces capable of resisting the energy…”
“The priests. Not the main order—there are priests affiliated with Verden still remaining, are there not? Gather every one you can.”
“Yes!”
Gail rushed off quickly, even circulating aura.
Without even confirming his retreating figure, Vitalianus stared once more at the black, wavering gate.
There had clearly been no variable.
Before he had exited last, had he not spread his senses wide and confirmed it before coming out first?
And yet what on earth was this…
No, right now he had to think only of how to rescue him.
Whatever the reason, the fact that the mage who had been following behind him had not come out even after twenty minutes meant that something had certainly happened.
If he had simply found some other clue and was taking a brief look around, there could be no greater relief, but that was far too optimistic.
“To the front of the gate! Move quickly!”
He could hear the reserve knight order on standby approaching.
Their leader was a knight who had entered the Demonic Realm several times as part of the expedition.
However, they too would be experiencing that dreadful abyss and those monstrosities for the first time.
Priests would be needed to protect their minds until they grasped the situation…
“Over there! Please move quickly to the gate entrance!”
Just then, Gail was running over with the priests.
They were not from Hibernia, but high-ranking priests who served the Church within the Empire.
When the reserve knights and reserve priests had drawn close to a certain distance, Vitalianus turned his back on the gate and quickly told them the plan.
“First, do not stray far from the exit, and search for traces of the mage. He is not someone who would die easily, so his traces should be easy to find.”
Perhaps having sensed the seriousness of the situation from Vitalianus’s tone, they focused on his words even as they ran.
The plan he had come up with was simple, if one called it simple.
They would buy time near the entrance while searching for the mage’s traces.
In any case, all the monstrosities would be chasing only Hio Pavlenko, so if they could block the abyssal energy well, it should not be too difficult.
In that way, they would confirm Hio’s location and determine whether something had happened to him, or whether he was late in coming out for some other reason.
If the mage had another reason, they would return immediately.
If something had happened, they would aid his escape.
If the situation was so dire that the mage himself could not escape, what help could they possibly be? Still, if things came to it, could they not at least buy him time to escape?
Even if it meant offering their lives.
“What you must determine quickly is the Guardian Knight’s intent. If he remains of his own will, then immediately…”
He was explaining that when he noticed the focus of those approaching was strange.
Naturally, they should have been looking at him as he explained the operation, yet did it not seem as though they were looking behind him?
Behind him, there should be only the black, wavering gate.
He did not know how it had stolen their attention so thoroughly, but every reserve soldier was looking behind him, to the point that even their running steps slowed.
Suddenly feeling a strong sense of incongruity, Vitalianus also turned and looked behind him.
“…”
Even though he was the Sword Saint, a man who had gone through every kind of hardship and battle, this time he had no choice but to freeze where he stood.
The words he had been about to say, the actions he had been about to take, even the improvised plan he had just formed—all were erased.
It was enough to turn every thought that had surfaced in his mind into a blank sheet.
The Abyss Gate that had surely been wavering black just behind him.
“C-Commander, this is…”
It had vanished as though washed clean away.
The entrance to that place where all manner of monstrosities and the abyss had lurked had disappeared, as if erased in an instant.
That meant only one thing.
“Clear successful…”
The successful clear of Abyss Floor -58, whose conditions they had not even discovered.
A result no one had expected.
But the reason Vitalianus was shocked,
the reason Gail could not continue his words,
was not simply because the clear had succeeded.
Had the last person remaining on the floor not yet come out?
If the clear had succeeded, it was only natural that he should appear here, at the entrance through which they had entered, and yet he had not.
As though… he had perished together with the gate.
As though he had thrown his whole body into it and sunk down together with the abyss.
It seemed Vitalianus was not the only one to have thought such a thing, for everyone who had been bustling about stopped in place.
As if time had stopped in that vast space, all of them stood rooted, staring at the place where the gate had been.
And yet not a single person opened their mouth.
The gate that had vanished after a successful clear.
And yet the one person who did not come out.
Because an assumption that should never be, and could never happen, had surfaced in everyone’s minds.
The Guardian Knight of the Empire and the last mage remaining in this world.
The great hero who would succeed the Sword Saint.
Hio Pavlenko.
“…”
Hio Pavlenko had died.
Until the very moment before his death, he had held back the abyss alone.
There, in the darkness where no one was.
He had died a tragic death.