Several days had passed since the expedition entered the ash-powder zone.
There was no way to check the time, but night and day had traded places several times, so they could only assume that days had gone by.
As Hio had expected, their pace was fast.
Even if the nights were long, all eight members of the expedition carried out their roles sufficiently, so there was no issue in terms of stamina.
“How much farther must we go?”
“……Hard to say.”
At Vitalianus’s question, Hio took his eyes off the artifact and looked straight ahead.
All he could see was gray ash-powder and pitch-black darkness, but even so, there was something he could sense.
“It won’t take long. Four days at the latest.”
If day turned to night and night back to day three or four more times, they should be able to reach Tetradia.
That was how Hio felt.
“Good.”
It was just the right amount of time.
Each member of the expedition was a superhuman who had surpassed the limits of mankind, but if it took more than four days, it could start to place a burden on their stamina.
To face Kreutzwald in their best condition, that amount of time was just right.
As he thought that and continued moving, Freya suddenly poked her head in this time.
Though it was daytime, she was hiding her presence as much as possible, so she had the familiar appearance of a small girl.
“But, you know. Does that person Kreutzwald really have no weaknesses?”
“At least as far as I know, he didn’t.”
“How can that be? Just as even a dragon has a reverse scale, every being has a weakness.”
“Hard to say. Perhaps……”
“Perhaps?”
“……Never mind.”
Perhaps Kreutzwald’s weakness lay in the very fact that he had obtained divine rank.
After all, Kreutzwald had been unusually obsessed with it.
That thought crossed his mind for a moment, but he did not bother saying it.
Because this, too, was nothing more than a feeling with no basis.
“A weakness, huh……”
Their clash had not lasted very long, but Hio had felt it clearly.
It felt as though he were fighting the Abyss itself.
His will did not work, and Kreutzwald’s will devoured everything it touched.
What were they supposed to use to fight someone like that?
“We have no choice but to find it while fighting.”
Hio had told them everything he knew about Kreutzwald’s abilities.
Kreutzwald’s pitch-black will that devoured everything, the attacks he had mainly used, and even every spell he had ever used even once—Hio had left nothing out.
So all that remained was to prolong the battle and search.
“Well, many things are different from before.”
There was plenty of room to view the situation positively.
By obtaining divine rank, the level of his soul and body had risen to a degree incomparable to before.
At a glance, the difference might not seem significant, but it was a greater difference than one might think, and the higher the level of battle, the more likely it was that such fundamentals would decide the outcome.
On top of that, did he not also possess two Authorities that he had not had before?
One Unique Authority and one Magician’s Authority.
He was certain that these, at least, would be able to inflict effective damage on Kreutzwald.
If he had been alone, he might have felt uneasy.
But he was not alone.
Beside Hio was another god, Airaitz.
The power she possessed would threaten Kreutzwald second only to Hio—no, perhaps no less than Hio himself.
“Come to think of it, did you tell me what Authority you obtained?”
When that sudden question rose in his mind and he turned his gaze toward Airaitz, she smiled as always and met Hio’s eyes.
“Yeah. Of course I told you.”
“You did?”
“I guess it was when everything was hectic. It’s not especially complicated, so once we enter battle, you’ll understand it right away too, Hio. You can see it then.”
As Airaitz said, things had indeed been hectic for a while.
It must have been worse than he realized.
After gaining enlightenment and awakening his will, there had been almost nothing he had forgotten or missed.
“Got it.”
In any case, the situation was not simply bad.
Not only Airaitz, but reliable support troops who would help him and back him up were also with him.
They advanced for about two more hours after that.
It was daytime now, and there were no variables.
“……Wait.”
Until just now, that was.
“Stop for a moment.”
At Hio’s words, every member of the expedition, who had been moving quickly, came to a halt.
“What is it?”
Tension naturally rose.
As far as they knew, there was only one possible variable that could occur during the day.
Kreutzwald had appeared.
Or they had found his traces.
That was why they sharpened their senses and looked around, but they felt nothing.
“I don’t feel anything……”
It was only as gloomy and sinister as usual.
But Hio paid that no mind and quietly closed his eyes.
He was focusing.
To find a single trace he had felt, faint as a thread.
And soon, his eyes flew open.
“There.”
Pointing in one direction, he immediately began to move.
It was an aura he had felt before.
It was so faint that if he had let his guard down even slightly, he would never have found it.
Freya had missed it, and Airaitz had missed it.
Only Hio had sensed the anomaly.
It was only possible because he had experienced the phenomenon before.
And when they hurriedly arrived at the scene, just as expected—
Familiar words were written there.
Letters made by finely clumping together ash-powder.
The remaining faint traces of mana.
—Pursue Kreutzwald.
It was a trace of the Suicide Corps.
* * *
The Allied Forces’ encampment, guarded by Antiphus.
In truth, saying that he guarded it was not quite accurate.
There was no doubt that Antiphus was strong, but the Allied Forces numbered in the tens of thousands, and each and every one of them was no easy opponent either.
Even so, Antiphus was strong.
Even among that army of tens of thousands, his skill truly shone.
“Stop them! Do not let them inside the domain under any circumstances!”
The dreadful beings that came every night.
Grotesque beings for whom even the word aberration somehow felt insufficient.
These things were the worst of the worst, incomparable to the Abyss monsters or lower aberrations they had seen outside.
“U-uaaaagh!”
“Th-the sky!”
At night, things that defied common sense happened frequently.
To name only a few shocking examples, just now the sky had abruptly collapsed downward.
The ground did not merely shake; spikes suddenly shot up from beneath their feet.
At times, their bodies had even been flipped upside down.
It would not have been strange for them to waver in such a situation, but the Allied Forces, gathered only from the elite of the elite, did not get pushed back significantly.
And so they had managed to endure for several days.
“I really hate to say this…… but every day is something new.”
It was understandable that Silbert grumbled like that.
The number of aberrations pouring in each night could easily be compared to a wave.
Then another day passed, and the next night, aberrations they had never seen before would pour in again.
“If it’s this bad here, then farther inside……”
How much worse must it be?
Compared to the ash-powder zone visible far in the distance, this place felt like paradise.
Aside from the strangely twisted trees, there were no particular obstacles.
The surroundings were full of divinity, so the Abyss did not dare enter.
And tens of thousands of elite troops were tightly gathered together.
A hand of salvation immediately reached anyone in danger, and those who had to leave the battle could fall back without worry to receive treatment from priests.
The battlefield was wide open, and even the slightest darkness that might obstruct their vision had been driven back by divinity.
“Several days have already passed, but it doesn’t look like anything has happened yet.”
That was why they could afford to have short conversations like this whenever there was an opening.
“True. There doesn’t seem to be any immediate problem…… but who knows what will happen if this situation continues for too long.”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. Well, the problem is that doesn’t mean we have any solution right now.”
He had become fairly close with Silbert.
Originally, they had hardly ever had private conversations, but as they spent time together in the Allied Forces, many opportunities to talk had arisen.
To begin with, there were very few possessed ones.
And there were practically none he was acquainted with, so perhaps it was only natural.
“Anyway, tonight should pass without much trouble too.”
“Yeah. That’s what matters.”
No matter how much one emphasized that this was a good environment, this place was still the Abyss.
It was only better than the ash-powder zone; it was never a place where humans could remain for months on end in the first place.
Getting through one day safely meant they were doing rather well.
“When daytime comes today, I’m thinking of suggesting that we pull back the troops that advanced near the ash-powder zone a little.”
“The troops?”
“Yeah. In my opinion, it seems……”
It was while the two of them were speaking.
Kuuuuung—
Suddenly, from far away, there came a sound like something exploding.
No, was it an explosion?
Rather than an explosion, it was closer to a tremor through the earth.
A heavy rumble, as if something enormous had fallen from high in the sky.
If something that significant had happened, they should have been able to see it within their field of vision, but at least in the sight of the two of them, there was nothing.
Only the same dreadful wave of aberrations filled their eyes.
Kuuuuung—
As if to prove that what they had heard just now had not been an illusion, the sound came again.
This time, it was clearer than the first.
Kuuuuung—
When it came a third time, the vibration was enough to make the ground beneath their feet tremble faintly.
Kuuuuung—
Only when it came a fourth time did the two of them finally become certain.
This was the sound of some monster simply walking.
The interval at which the sound came, and its nature as well, were the sound of footsteps.
Kuung—
And by the fifth time, the impact was enough to make their bodies jolt.
They could now identify the direction of the sound.
Kuuuuung—
On the sixth, when they turned their gazes in that direction, they began to see it.
A massive form emerging as it broke through the ash-powder.
“Wh-what is that……”
Even the Allied Forces, unlike the seasoned knights they were, stared at it in a daze.
“A-aberration!”
“It’s a colossal aberration!”
A calamity had truly arrived.
* * *
“The Suicide Corps? If you say the Suicide Corps……?”
Hio told Vitalianus and the others about the Suicide Corps.
A thousand years ago, they were magicians who had been deceived by Kreutzwald and gone to the Abyss with him.
They had remained in the Abyss and had opposed Kreutzwald all this time.
He had not seen them in detail, but their numbers were roughly six or seven.
All of them were presumed to be magicians, and their circles were at least the 7th Circle. Since so much time had passed, perhaps some among them had reached the 8th Circle.
They would have needed to be at that level to still exist while standing against Kreutzwald.
“If that is true, is it not extremely welcome news?”
“If we can meet them, our fighting strength will rise in an instant, won’t it?”
“But Hio said he’s never met the Suicide Corps in person. I’m a little suspicious.”
Opinions within the expedition were divided as well.
There was the thought that if the Suicide Corps joined them, they would become a powerful force and provide great help, and there was also the thought that they could not be trusted.
“Whatever the case, we have to meet that Suicide Corps first before we can reach a conclusion, don’t we?”
“That’s true.”
There was no meaning in debating a hundred times when they had not even met them.
It would not be too late to judge after meeting them.
“For now, the fact that they left a trace here means they’re aware of us…… Magicians, the Suicide Corps—were there any other distinctive traits?”
“Other traits…… only that they had an incredibly faint presence.”
When Hio escaped from the end of the world last time, it seemed that not only Hio, but even Kreutzwald had failed to notice the presence of the Suicide Corps until the very last moment.
Only after it suddenly brightened due to the aftermath of the Transcendent Skill had he been able to discover them.
“A presence so faint it’s strange, is it. Is that how they’ve survived in a place like this all this time?”
“Then finding them will be even harder.”
“It won’t be easy.”
Just as everyone was nodding—
“Huh?”
Freya tilted her head and pointed behind Hio.
“Isn’t that one of them?”
Everyone’s head snapped around at the same time.
Then they saw the figure of a stranger.
It was not Kreutzwald.
Then there was only one answer.
“The Suicide Corps?”
It was the Suicide Corps.