After passing over Antipus and the possessed, no further people were chosen.
In the end, the final group numbered fewer than ten.
Five from the original expedition, including Hio and Irights, excluding Antipus.
And with them, Gale, Claire, and Melissa.
They had tried to select a few more, but no matter how they looked at it, it would only be a meaningless sacrifice.
Their final objective was Kreutzwald, after all, and in a fight against him, they would die without being able to offer the slightest resistance.
In that case, it was better for them to remain with the allied forces and prepare for any unforeseen emergency.
“Let’s depart.”
Even so, until just before the Ashen Zone, their movement was large enough to be called a legion.
There was a march filled with tension through the bizarre terrain, but no battle broke out.
“It seems this is the ‘day’ you spoke of.”
“So it seems. Thankfully.”
They had arrived during the day, when the Aberrations did not appear.
In many ways, they were fortunate.
If it had been “night” the moment they descended into the passage, and they had been discovered by the Watchers’ eyes, Kreutzwald would have noticed at once.
“What about spending one night here and moving during the next day?”
At Regarda’s suggestion, Hio shook his head.
“Then another variable will arise. There’s no way the Aberrations and Watchers won’t notice a legion gathered in this number, and when their attention is drawn to it, we’ll get as close to Kreutzwald as possible.”
That was the plan.
It was the second reason they had needed the allied forces.
“Then leaving Antipus with the allied forces was also… for that reason?”
“More or less. We needed at least one card that could reliably hold back the Aberrations.”
There was that reason, and also the thought that Antipus’s abilities were insufficient to face Kreutzwald.
Antipus possessed a variety of skills, and in particular held as many top-tier skills as Hio did, but he did not possess anything that surpassed them.
Had they not experienced it enough already?
Simply pouring out top-tier skills would not deal any real damage to Kreutzwald.
“I understand.”
Hio turned his gaze and looked ahead.
A place where one could not see an inch ahead, and where a terribly ominous aura surged.
Leaving the allied forces behind, the final expedition entered the Ashen Zone.
*
Only after they entered the Ashen Zone did the scenery of the Abyss that Hio knew finally unfold before them.
Ash scattered endlessly through the air.
With every breath, an unpleasant energy filled their lungs.
“This really is a vile region.”
It seemed Hio was not the only one who thought so, as everyone was frowning.
Still, because they were all at this level, it ended with no more than a frown. If they had been ordinary knights, they would have been struggling desperately just to hold on to their sanity.
To avoid being consumed by the Abyss.
“Claire, are you all right?”
“…Yes, I’m fine.”
Claire covered her nose and mouth with her sleeve, her face faintly drawn.
And beside her, Melissa worried over her.
If one had to pick the people most worrying in this final expedition, it would be these two.
Both of them seemed to be gradually getting a feel for intent, but they had yet to fully awaken to it or handle it properly.
Physically, they were bound to fall behind the others.
They possessed strong mental fortitude befitting their elevated realm, but if their stamina ran out, there was no telling what might happen.
Hio withdrew his gaze from the two and murmured quietly.
“We’ll have to move as quickly as possible.”
“Well, you’ve said that so many times my ears are about to grow calluses, so of course, but…”
Vitalianus asked in a rather cheerful tone that did not suit the situation.
“You’re sure we just have to follow that?”
What he indicated with his eyes was the artifact in Hio’s hand.
It was the artifact he had received from Kreutzwald, the one that showed the way to Tetradia.
“Realistically, it’s the method with the highest chance of success. We have no choice but to trust it.”
There were broadly three ways to meet Kreutzwald.
First, find the safe zone where Kreutzwald was said to have lived.
Of course, they had no idea where it was, and Hio suspected it had been a place fabricated to deceive him in the first place, so that method had to be rejected.
Second, when “night” came, deliberately show themselves before a Watcher.
The Watchers’ eyes were shared by all the Aberrations of the Abyss, allowing them to perceive together.
That meant Kreutzwald might also confirm Hio’s location and come looking for him.
However, it was a method that required more consideration, as it would hand the initiative over to Kreutzwald.
And so they had arrived at the third.
Go directly to Tetradia, the city submerged in the Abyss.
The place presumed to be the center of the end of the world.
Kreutzwald would be there.
Hio remembered how Kreutzwald had been strangely obsessed with Tetradia.
“Understood. Then let us move as quickly as possible before night falls.”
The expedition began moving at full speed.
To head for Tetradia, just as Hio had said.
To give Kreutzwald as little time as possible to respond, and if possible, to seize the right to attack first.
But there was one thing Hio had not told them.
‘Will Kreutzwald really be unaware of this?’
Kreutzwald’s eyes and ears were not limited to the Watchers’ eyes.
He was the master of the Abyss.
The Abyss, thickly spread in every direction, was all his eyes and ears—and could be called his very self.
And yet he was taking no action at all.
That made Hio deeply uneasy, but there was no other way, so he had deliberately left it unsaid.
*
Night arrived quickly.
There was no need for Hio to step forward and announce that night had fallen.
There was no one here who could fail to sense it.
The atmosphere changed distinctly.
An ominous energy spread outward.
Aberrations began appearing without warning.
All Hio did was offer a few pieces of advice.
“They’re creatures that surpass common sense. Be careful.”
They used the Abyss that filled the surroundings to twist the laws themselves—true Aberrations.
They could not think of them as the ones they had seen at the Abyss Gate or on the continent.
That was why he warned them, but it seemed there had been no real need.
Each of them knew far too well what they had to do.
And despite the name Aberrations, they swiftly forced a path forward.
However.
Kwaaaang—!
Considering the opponent, it was impossible to move with complete stealth.
“A Watcher! Dodge!”
Hio blocked the Aberrations that caused abnormal phenomena as much as possible with his inverse connection, and they moved while avoiding the Watchers’ eyes.
Even so, the creatures were close to infinite.
Unlike last time, Hio was not alone, nor was he using only magic, but the night was still long.
So they had to make as much use of this night as possible.
“Claire!”
“…Yes!”
Melissa’s ice and Claire’s flames sealed off the rear.
Vitalianus and Regarda’s aura broke through the front.
And Hio and Gale supported them from behind.
Naturally, they were slower than they had been during the empty day, but even against the endless rush of Aberrations, they steadily advanced.
Thus passed the first night in the Abyss.
*
He closed his eyes for a moment and let out a deep sigh.
—You remain here.
Hio Pavlenko’s final words were still vivid in his mind.
Even the rise and fall of his voice, and the look in his eyes as he gazed at him, came back with painful clarity.
“In the end…”
In the end, it had come to this.
Whom could he blame?
“It’s only natural.”
Antipus Praman wore a self-mocking smile, one filled with emptiness and regret.
The Supreme Heavenly Demon had excluded him from the list for the final battle.
What reason could there be?
Because he cared about him? Because it would be dangerous?
Did that even make sense?
“…He doesn’t trust me.”
Words he had heard countless times before from Gale and the other people of this continent.
You cannot be trusted.
You will not risk your lives.
You people know nothing of true honor and care only for your own lives.
At the most important moment, you will flee, just as you always have.
Whenever he heard such words, anger had surged within him, but he had never had anything to say in rebuttal.
Because they were true.
Antipus and the other possessed had always logged out at the most dangerous moments, and the burden had fallen entirely on those left behind.
At the time, he had thought that was the best choice, but looking back now, had it truly been?
A better outcome had always existed, and he had always chosen only the second-best option.
“Maybe that’s why I could never become the best.”
Perhaps that was it.
“At this point, well, I’ve given up trying to understand.”
Sirbert approached Antipus, who had been lost in thought alone.
He placed a hand on Antipus’s shoulder and looked toward the Ashen Zone in the distance.
“How did he even find this place? The master of the Abyss, something that never appeared in the game? And what even is that? If we kill it, does everything really end…? I don’t know anything.”
“…Same here.”
Honestly, the situation on Earth alone was already a bit overwhelming.
Over there, the existing systems and order had completely collapsed and were in the process of being rebuilt.
Amid that, people like Antipus and Sirbert had no choice but to be even busier.
“Still, I’m trying not to think too deeply about it.”
“…”
“At least it makes things easier on the mind.”
In the past, Antipus would have despised Sirbert for saying that.
But now he could not.
Because he, too, had acknowledged it.
At some point, his desire to defeat the Supreme Heavenly Demon had vanished without a trace, leaving only complete acceptance behind.
Though what remained at the end of that would be nothing but the downfall of a failure.
“So let’s not get too emotional, all right?”
Antipus had wondered why Sirbert had come to his side and acted friendly despite it not suiting him. So this was why.
It seemed he thought Antipus might be harboring resentment because Hio had left the rankers behind.
Well, in the past, perhaps he might have.
But not now, at least.
He understood fully.
He had tried to kill him on the 58th floor.
And Hio, knowing that, had still understood him, had he not?
The mere fact that he had kept that truth hidden and remained as he was made Antipus endlessly guilty.
“…I understand. We just have to do our own job properly.”
Without being distracted by other thoughts, they would do their utmost to defend this place.
That, too, was important.
“Right. And soon…”
The conversation that had continued on like that suddenly cut off.
The inside of the area filled with divine power was still intact, but outside it, a change was certainly taking place.
The space grew distinctly darker.
A strangely twisted energy brushed against his senses.
He had been told in advance what would happen, so he understood immediately.
“…It’s night.”
Night had come here as well.
His body began to tense.
Strength entered the hand gripping his sword.
“It’s night! Everyone, form ranks!”
The allied forces moved busily.
Each gripped their weapon tightly and focused on taking up the designated formation.
And from the distant place they were all staring at, shapes began to rise.
Some large, some small—beings said to twist the laws of the world and surpass common sense.
Aberrations.
—Kkiieeeek!
—Kiaaaak!
The Aberrations began to swarm in.
The allied forces, too, had met their first night.