After confidently setting out from the city—
“This place is a bust too.”
“Seems that way.”
They had spent the entire morning combing through the marked areas on the map, yet their efforts bore little fruit.
All they found were abandoned houses devoid of life or caves still occupied by wild animals.
On top of that, the paths were littered with traps, and they were occasionally ambushed by farmers.
No wonder the mercenaries ran away.
“Let’s take a break here.”
“Phew… Understood.”
After an unproductive morning, they decided to stop around noon for a rest.
Everyone had been walking around since early morning, so they settled in a clearing to have a meal.
Even knights needed to eat.
“Finally, I feel alive. Who’s on duty today?”
Deline, the squad leader, sat on a nearby rock and removed his helmet as he spoke.
The heat in the forest was quite intense, and his red hair was damp with sweat.
Naturally, the same went for the rest of the knights, including Rain.
“It’s Miss Sienna’s turn.”
“Oh, I’m looking forward to this.”
Due to the mobility required of the Black Wing Knights, they couldn’t afford to bring attendants along.
Instead, they took turns handling cooking duties.
Today, it was Sienna’s turn.
“Are you okay?”
“…Yeah.”
But would she really be fine?
She had seemed sluggish earlier, likely due to the heat.
Though the weather wasn’t unbearably hot, trekking through the forest in full armor while maintaining vigilance was a different story altogether.
Sienna’s blonde hair, damp with sweat, clung to her face as she removed her helmet.
“It’s way too hot…”
Perhaps because she was from the cold northern regions, she didn’t seem to handle heat well.
“I’ll help.”
“That would be a big help….”
Though it was her turn, Rain decided to lend a hand.
She had helped him on the way here—returning the favor seemed fair.
“Just help me prep the ingredients….”
“Understood.”
Sienna had already prepared the ingredients in advance.
She pulled out bundled meat and vegetables from her bag and sat down, pouring water into a pot.
“You’re making stew?”
“Yep, that’s right.”
It was a stew Rain had eaten a few times before.
Back when he first traveled from the capital to the Boyd territory, it was often served for lunch.
“Just cut the vegetables for me.”
While Sienna sliced the meat and mixed it with her special sauce in the pot,
Rain busied himself cutting the vegetables into bite-sized pieces.
“You two recruits are doing pretty well.”
“I bet it’ll taste good.”
The other knights, resting nearby, watched them with amusement.
It almost felt like seasoned veterans observing fresh recruits.
…Well, it wasn’t entirely wrong.
Compared to them, I was still a fledgling.
Most of them had fought in wars when I was just a child—before I was even thrown into the Colosseum.
They were older than they looked.
Then again, they probably saw me in a similar light.
At least they didn’t treat me like some greenhorn kid who hadn’t even turned twenty yet.
Anyway, after some time, Sienna’s special stew was finally ready.
“This is amazing.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, best meal I’ve had while camping on a mission.”
Sienna’s stew received high praise from the knights.
Especially Gareth, who ate it with great enthusiasm.
“What do you mean, Gareth? I was on cooking duty the day before yesterday.”
“It means today’s meal is much better than the slop you made.”
“Oh, so you’re asking to die today.”
Well, Brienne, the only woman in Squad Two, did get riled up at that.
But even as she spoke like that, she still finished her meal with satisfaction.
“Thank you for the meal.”
“I ate well too.”
“Ah, thank you.”
With that, they quickly finished eating.
“Alright, let’s move out. It’s nearby.”
After cleaning up the area, they headed to the next point.
*
“Is this the place?”
“Yes, it seems to be.”
The designated location was a ruin deep in the forest.
Judging by the abandoned houses and buildings, it seemed to have once been a village.
“A place like this is a target point? Even devil worshippers sure live in miserable places.”
Bang!
One of the knights kicked open a half-rotten wooden barricade and stepped inside.
“Be careful. They might be hiding in the houses.”
“Understood.”
Even though it was a small ruin in the middle of the forest,
they stayed vigilant as they moved toward its center.
And then…
“Stop. There’s someone here.”
At the heart of the ruins.
A woman was crouched down in an obviously unnatural position.
She wore a tattered white dress, her long black hair draping over her face.
She looked just like a ghost.
“This is too suspicious.”
“Yeah, doesn’t it scream ‘trap’?”
The knights murmured among themselves at the sight.
I, too, instinctively reached for the hand axe at my waist.
I felt like I should throw the axe first to confirm… but I had to wait for the squad leader’s approval.
Deline, however, seemed to find the woman intriguing.
“Hey, you there!”
He observed her for a while before boldly stepping forward, waving his hand.
“What are you doing here?”
With a sly grin, Deline slowly began to unsheath his sword.
Then—
Snap—
The woman twisted her neck at an unnatural angle and lifted her head.
And then—
“KYAAAAAAAH—!!”
A scream, like nails scratching against a chalkboard.
A sound so inhuman it was hard to believe it came from a person’s throat.
And immediately after—
Crunch!!
“Aaaaagh…!”
Only after I threw my axe did the woman finally fall silent.
Sssssssss—!!
“Everyone, prepare for battle.”
Deline spoke as he watched the dark red blood seep from her face where the axe had struck, sizzling as it touched the air.
BANG!!!
Then, people started pouring out from the old, dilapidated houses scattered around.
“Finally, we hit the jackpot.”
“Good thing we had a solid meal before coming.”
It seemed…
This was indeed a base of devil worshippers.
After all, the ones breaking out of the ruins were anything but ordinary.
“Kill them all!!”
“A woman! A woman!!”
Unlike the ragtag farmers we had encountered before,
this time, they looked like soldiers or mercenaries.
And their eyes—
Completely bloodshot, with sclera so red they barely had any whites left.
“Their numbers aren’t small.”
“They just keep coming.”
More than anything, the sheer number of them was overwhelming.
There were quite a few ruined houses, but for that many people to be hiding inside?
…Or maybe there was more space inside.
A pit, perhaps, or underground tunnels.
Either way, they had been crammed in there, waiting for that woman’s scream to signal their release.
“Well, be careful. Take them down.”
But still—
At the end of the day, weren’t they just mercenaries and soldiers?
No matter how many there were, the knights charged forward without hesitation.
Slash—
“Guh!”
I also stepped in and swiftly beheaded the nearest soldier.
Judging by their poorly maintained weapons and armor, they must have been here for a while.
Were they soldiers from a noble’s territory?
Considering the mercenaries mixed among them, maybe they had been kidnapped during a territorial conflict.
Whirl—
After cutting down the soldier, I flicked my sword to shake off the acid.
Sizzle— Ssssss!!
“Argh!!”
The acid splattered around, burning those who weren’t wearing full armor like me.
That meant their overwhelming numbers weren’t necessarily an advantage.
It just meant their casualties kept piling up.
If I wanted to maximize the effect of that…
Clench—
I adjusted my grip on my sword.
Lowering my stance, I targeted the biggest mercenary among those charging at me.
‘Rush.’
I poured as much Aura into my sword as it could hold—
Then swung it like a baseball bat, detonating Rush on impact.
BOOM—!!!
Sssssssss!!
An explosion erupted, scattering acid far and wide,
coating the mercenaries and soldiers rushing toward us.
“GYAAAAH!”
“AAARGH! AAAAAGH!!”
Even I grimaced at the sight.
These damn devil worshippers—why the hell did they turn their own blood into acid?
Their own men were suffering because of it.
Anyway—
I let the stray splashes hit my armor,
taking care to keep it from getting inside my helmet as I quickly cut down the surrounding enemies.
Slash, dodge, throw—
“Gahhhk!!”
Some of them coughed up blood as I stabbed their guts.
Clench.
“Huh?”
“Come here.”
When that happened, I simply grabbed the nearest enemy by the collar and used him as a shield.
Sssssssss!!!
“KYAAAAGH!!”
At first, I wondered how long it would take to cut through so many of them,
but now that we were deep into the fight, it actually seemed doable.
After all, I wasn’t fighting alone.
The knights around me were also swiftly cutting through their ranks.
As more mercenaries and soldiers fell, smoke began to rise from the acidic blood covering the ground,
and the air grew thick with a pungent stench.
BOOOM!!
A massive explosion echoed from the center of the ruins.
“Hmm?”
“Squad Leader!”
What was that sound?
It was like something had detonated.
Slashing down the two mercenaries lunging at me, I rushed toward the center—
Only to find—
“Oh… Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
“What in the…”
A massive crater.
And at its center—an utterly shattered corpse.
“…A knight?”
“Yeah. Turns out they had one hiding here.”
He was so completely destroyed that, if not for the scattered pieces of armor, I wouldn’t have even recognized him.
A knight had been hiding among them?
What the hell was going on here?
“Did you do this, Squad Leader?”
“He suddenly Fleeted toward me, so I got a bit startled and went all out.”
My eyes drifted toward the ground, now completely gouged out.
…Can exerting that much force really do this?
It looked as if an explosion had gone off.
I glanced at Deline for a moment.
Just like before, he seemed uninterested in dealing with minor skirmishes himself, calmly sheathing his sword.
Well, whatever.
He wasn’t my enemy, so it didn’t matter.
In this world, monstrous people weren’t exactly rare.
I’d figure out the details later and rejoined the battle.
After that, we cleared out all the enemies in the ruins.
“Is it over?”
“Yes, it’s done.”
“Alright. Now that we’ve dealt with the interference, let’s start searching.”
Deline then pointed toward a particular building in the ruins.
“Let’s start with that one. The knight came out from there.”
“Understood.”
Aura users were valuable assets, even among devil worshippers.
For them to have stationed a knight in that building meant it was important.
Following Deline, we entered the structure, and sure enough—there was a staircase leading underground.
“This is…”
“Let’s check it out.”
The passage was just wide enough for a couple of people to move through at once.
We carefully descended the stairs, revealing a short corridor ahead.
And at the end of that corridor—
A heavy iron door stood in place.
“Open it.”
“Yes, sir.”
At Deline’s order, a knight stepped forward.
“I’ll break it down.”
CLANG!!
Rather than using a key or tools, he simply slammed his gauntlet-covered fist into the door handle.
Creak—
With a single strike, the handle and locking mechanism shattered, and the door swung open.
And what we saw inside—
“…What the hell is this…?”
“Damn it…”
As soon as the door opened, a foul stench hit us like a wall,
and even the hardened knights were left speechless by the sight before us.
“Why are children here…?”
“These insane devil-worshipping bastards…”
A massive iron cage stood inside the underground chamber.
And within it—
Small children sat huddled together, their eyes empty of life.
“Ah… ah…”
“P-Please… food….”
Their voices were hoarse and weak,
but upon seeing us, the children clung desperately to the bars of the cage.
Each and every one of them was skin and bones, having clearly suffered from prolonged starvation.
“Are all the missing kids here?”
“Looks like the devil worshippers were the buyers.”
So they weren’t selling the children.
They were taking them for themselves.
They had drugged the villagers into submission and stolen the children away.
A truly heinous act.
“We need to call the Baron’s soldiers.”
“Agreed.”
“Let’s step out first.”
As pitiful as the children were, we left them in the cage for now and exited the chamber.
After all, considering that every villager had been driven mad, we couldn’t assume these children were entirely normal either.
There might also be more devil worshippers lurking nearby.
For now, we had to secure the area and let the Baron’s forces handle their retrieval.
Passing through the musty corridor, we returned outside.
“Gareth, Brienne, head to the Baron’s territory and bring back soldiers.”
“Understood.”
“The rest of you, hold position.”
Deline gave the order to two of the senior knights.
At least this mission wasn’t without its merits—we had discovered one of the devil worshippers’ strongholds.
Now, we just had to hold our position until reinforcements arrived, then continue searching the next locations.
“We’ll return as soon as possible.”
“Good. Bring plenty of soldiers—there may be more children at other sites.”
“Got it.”
With that, Gareth and Brienne set off into the forest.
“Alright, let’s take a short break.”
“Understood.”
“But stay alert. Don’t relax too much.”
The remaining knights started sitting down, trying to catch their breath.
And then—
Crunch. Crackle.
“Hm?”
“Did you hear that…?”
The ground trembled, ever so slightly.
And then—
From up ahead—
“Get out of the way!!”
CRACK—!!
Massive spikes shot up from the ground at terrifying speed,
barreling straight toward Gareth and Brienne as they made their way into the forest.
