Resolve
Meanwhile, Flint's expedition was thrown into a state of emergency as they searched for a way to rescue Ferda.
There was no longer any time to leisurely search rooms for magical artifacts.
As the expedition leader, Erika returned to the entrance hall they had established as their base and began directing the other adventurers.
"Has anyone found anything?"
The adventurers answered one after another.
"The rooms on the left appear to have been used as living quarters. We didn't find anything noteworthy."
"We found quite a few magical artifacts on the right, but they all seem unrelated."
Both the left and right wings had turned up nothing.
That left only the group Erika herself had led through the front.
"Damn it... Of all things, why did he have to trigger a trap like that?"
"What can you do..."
It wasn't something they could criticize him for.
Incidents like this were common in an adventurer's life, and even veteran adventurers sometimes had to retreat first.
They desperately searched for clues using the Eastern characters they had only recently learned, but everything they found proved useless.
The only thing they had managed to decipher was that the library Ferda had entered was called the Hall of Nourishment, while the chamber beneath it was known as the Hall of Yin and Yang.
"Judging by the names alone, they sound like training rooms..."
The real question, however, was why a training room would seal itself shut.
Would Ferda really place restrictions on himself in a place as dangerous as this just for the sake of training?
"...Actually..."
"Would he?"
Considering how unpredictable he was...
It wasn't entirely impossible.
Regardless, Erika simply prayed that he would make it out alive.
"Captain Erika!"
A group of adventurers came running toward her from the front.
"I think we've found something!"
Her heart skipped a beat.
Suppressing her expectations, she calmly examined what they brought.
The very first page revealed a blueprint.
It was a blueprint of Gyeonghuigung itself.
"Where did you find this?!"
"We think it was the Palace Master's quarters! We started opening every book we could find there, and this one turned up!"
"Well... it makes sense. The Palace Master would naturally keep something like this."
Maps were an adventurer's eyes.
This one was practically clairvoyance itself.
Erika hurriedly flipped through the book, searching for the sections about the Hall of Nourishment and the Hall of Yin and Yang.
"Here it is. It says that Gyeonghuigung has long drawn upon the power of love, and that cultivating one's emotions in the Hall of Nourishment was considered essential to strengthening that power."
"They used love to perform magic?"
"What is this, some children's hero story? That's impossible."
"Why? Aren't people with Red Circles supposed to power them through emotions?"
"It's always the people who only know half the story..."
"Quiet. Let me finish translating."
Silencing the brewing argument, Erika continued.
"It says... Sometimes, even when a man and a woman harbor feelings for one another... blah blah... behavior contrary to the ideals of Gyeonghuigung's first Palace Master... establishment of the Hall of Yin and Yang..."
"Oh... I think I found it."
"What does it say?"
"It says the room automatically opens again after twelve hours."
"Twelve hours?"
"Wouldn't that be cutting it pretty close, considering our return trip?"
"It would. Let's keep reading... Ah, there's more."
"It also mentions a faster way to get out..."
"...Huh?"
Erika frowned.
"Wait... am I translating this correctly?"
"What's wrong?"
"I mean... it says exactly this..."
Pressing her fingers against her brow, she reread the passage several times.
The meaning remained unmistakable.
"...It says they can't leave unless they share their affection."
"...What?"
An awkward silence settled over the room.
"'Share their affection'..."
"I... think that's what it says..."
If it meant the kind of affection shared between two adults...
Everyone knew exactly what it implied.
No one wanted to be the one to say it aloud.
"Wait a second..."
The embarrassment lasted only a moment.
"So if they're supposed to get out of that room safely..."
"Doesn't that mean..."
"...the armored knight and Regent Ferda have to..."
"...consummate their love?"
A two-meter-tall suit of armor.
And Ferda, comparatively slender and delicate.
No one could picture it.
"So... to 'share their love' means—"
"Ahem!"
"Quiet!"
Whenever anyone tried to imagine it, only horrifying and deeply disturbing images came to mind.
But an even greater problem remained.
Someone had to tell them.
Now that the expedition had grown close through shared hardship...
An excruciating contest of avoiding eye contact began.
In the midst of it all, Erika calmly pointed at someone.
"...Lize."
"Y-Yes, Captain?"
"How about you go tell them?"
"M-Me?!"
"Just... tell them they should, um..."
"...quickly... share their affection... and then they can come out..."
"I-I... M-Me?!"
Erika explained the task with complete composure.
Meanwhile, Lize could only clasp both hands together and repeat the question in disbelief.
Ferda already had a fiancée.
The idea of telling him something like that made Lize deeply uncomfortable.
And judging from everyone's faces...
No one else wanted the job either.
"Huh?"
Virgil, who had been looking around, suddenly shouted.
"L-Look! That's... the armored knight!"
"...What?"
"No way."
No one believed him.
If the knight had forced the door open, the entire building should have shaken.
They were deep enough underground that a collapse could have buried them alive.
Even in a desperate situation, Ferda would never have allowed something so reckless.
Then who, exactly, was that armored knight?
A moment later, everyone saw what the archer had seen.
Sure enough...
The armored knight was walking toward them.
Ferda, completely exhausted, was slung across the knight's back.
The books he had gathered were wrapped neatly inside a cloth bundle.
When the knight spotted them, they awkwardly raised a hand in greeting.
The pair's return did not bring relief.
It brought stunned disbelief.
"...Mm..."
Ferda slowly opened his eyes atop the armored knight's back.
The armor beneath him was uncomfortable, but he wasn't in any condition to ask to be put down.
'My body won't move properly.'
The exhaustion coursing through every part of him left him with no choice.
What a rotten body...
Carefully, Ferda examined his condition.
Within his core, he could clearly sense a heavy new presence that hadn't existed before.
'The Shadow Circle... has reached its second stage.'
It was never something he had created through his own will.
It had been forced upon him.
It had tried to consume him.
He should have died without any possibility of escape.
Yet somehow...
He hadn't.
'I've reached the Fifth Circle.'
The realm of a Master Mage.
A level that ordinary mages could never attain, no matter how desperately they struggled.
'I completed two circles... in a single day...'
No one would believe it.
Even if he told his former self—the Ferda who had once reached the Eighth Circle—that version of himself would probably ask how such a thing was even possible.
Of course...
Ferda already knew his answer.
'Eleanor.'
Even if she had been nothing more than an illusion...
It was because of her that he had been able to suppress the Shadow Circle.
Still lying across the knight's back, Ferda quietly opened his eyes.
Walking beside them, Erika glanced over at him.
Then her eyes widened.
"Oh?"
"You're awake."
"Yes."
She wore an extremely troubled expression.
"Captain Erika, did you rescue us?"
"…"
"Captain Erika?"
"Yes?"
"I asked whether you rescued us."
At those words, Erika cautiously glanced around before asking,
"Do you have no idea what happened?"
"I don't. I was barely conscious."
"We were trying to rescue you, but… it seems the armored knight found some way out."
"Surely he didn't break through a wall or anything—"
"No, it wasn't anything like that."
"I see."
"Well, something was broken…"
"Never mind."
Erika closed her mouth.
Her expression was as heavy as that of someone who had been attacked by Trauma.
'Why is everyone acting like this?'
Ferda could not understand it at all.
When he turned his head and met the others' eyes, they reacted much the same way.
Some looked at him with pity.
Some looked as though they had witnessed something terrifying.
And some seemed to be thinking that, whatever had happened, at least he was safe.
Seeing those gazes, Ferda became certain of one thing.
'They must have gone through quite an ordeal while I was unconscious.'
Deciding to leave it at that, Ferda changed the subject.
"How much longer until we arrive?"
"We should reach it in another hour. The expedition might end after only… twenty-two hours…"
Erika's voice trailed off.
The armored knight stopped walking, and everyone else halted with him.
Ferda turned toward Erika.
She was signaling for them to stop.
"What is it?"
Her eyes were fixed on a single point.
She was a woman who never relaxed her guard in the Demonic Lands, but this was different.
She looked as though she had encountered a truly formidable enemy.
"Put me down for a moment."
Nod.
The armored knight lowered him, and Ferda carefully tried standing on both feet.
He had little strength left, but he could just barely remain upright.
Then he saw what Erika was looking at.
And he understood why she wore that expression.
"You…"
A black robe that blended into the black-and-gray wasteland.
Skin so pale that it seemed to shine all the brighter against it.
That stark contrast created an eerie sense of incongruity, and that incongruity naturally inspired vigilance.
'Gokma.'
One of Godwin's Seven Ascendants.
And the last remaining Noblesse-class demon.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, members of the expedition. And Captain Erika—we have met before, have we not?"
"…We have."
Erika had not forgotten the humiliation she had suffered at his hands.
The fact that he deliberately addressed her that way despite knowing she was an Iorga spawn irritated her even more.
Agitation was poison to a mage.
She forced herself to remain calm and asked,
"Why are you here?"
"Why am I here? What is so strange about a demon being in the Demonic Lands?"
He let out an unpleasant chuckle and stepped forward.
"Who the hell are you? Get lost before I make you."
The belligerent Jonathan Sina raised his axe and tried to move ahead, but Erika blocked his path.
Her eyes conveyed a clear warning.
Not now.
Gokma applauded her decision.
"An excellent choice. I have no particular desire to spill blood either. I would rather applaud you for making it this far in your exhausted state than become yet another trial for you."
"Then leave quietly."
"I would like to. But first, I want to hear your thoughts."
He smiled.
"What did you think of my creation?"
His creation.
Everyone knew what he meant.
"Was Trauma your doing?"
"Trauma…"
"That is a rather good name. Naming things has never been my strength, so you have done me a favor. I shall call it Trauma from now on."
Erika frowned.
"It was nothing but a crude little trick. Did you really think you could accomplish anything with it?"
"I will."
"You possess the kind of 'excellent' mental fortitude that allows you to overcome any trial."
"But what do you think would happen to ordinary humans?"
"Other humans…"
Erika knew what kind of illusions Trauma produced.
It forced people to suffer through the thing they regretted most.
And if they remained exposed long enough, that suffering eventually transformed into salvation.
Its purpose was not merely to inflict pain.
'There is another intention behind it.'
He had known they were going to Gyeonghuigung.
He had placed Trauma along a route they were likely to take.
If he had intended to fight them, he could simply have waited inside Gyeonghuigung itself.
'But he didn't.'
Why?
The Demonic Lands were the demons' final homeland.
Dragon spawns instinctively could not tolerate anyone defiling their territory.
Although demons were unusual beings, Gokma was still one of the dragon spawns, so that instinct should have remained within him.
For him to ignore the desecration of his homeland, he had to possess a purpose clear enough to outweigh it.
"Judging by your expressions, Trauma appears to have become quite an excellent creation."
"Though it still requires some refinement."
Gokma sneered while the adventurers readied themselves for battle.
"I shall see you again."
He stepped back and drew a vertical line through the air.
Space split open along the path of his finger, revealing a chaotic haze of swirling colors.
Gokma began to step through it.
"Ah, yes."
Just as he was about to leave, he turned back as though he had forgotten something.
"This is a small gift."
With a broad sweep of his finger, he tore open space once more.
The rift was on an entirely different scale from the one he had created for himself.
It looked to be more than eight meters long.
Rrrrrumble—
Yet even that enormous opening seemed too small.
Something struggled violently inside it, tearing the space wider as it forced its way through.
And no wonder.
It was a colossal monster standing nearly ten meters tall.
GROOOOOOAR!
Its cry spread outward like a shock wave.
The sound etched despair into every cell of their bodies.
"C-Captain Erika…!"
"What are we supposed to do?!"
They had marched through the night in hopes of finishing the expedition within a single day.
Their bodies and minds were exhausted.
In this hopeless moment, they needed her judgment.
'Just when I thought everything would end smoothly…'
Erika had to make a decision.
If she revealed her true identity and fought, she would undoubtedly be able to defeat the monster.
Her double life would be over.
But everyone would survive.
Just as she was about to decide, someone stepped forward.
"Sir Knight?"
A huge man in ordinary-looking armor.
While everyone else, including Erika, was unable to take even a single step, he strode forward without hesitation.
The person inside that armor had seen monsters like this more times than anyone else.
So she was not afraid.
The only thing she feared was losing those precious to her.
'I cannot hesitate here.'
It was something no one else could handle.
Therefore, she had to bear it herself.
Valdrova made her decision.
She slowly clenched her fist.
Creeeak.
The gauntlet, which nothing had ever pierced, screamed as though it might shatter at any moment.
'Without hesitation…'
She would annihilate it in a single blow.
Just as her fist turned toward the colossal monster—
Rrrrrrumble—
The sudden roar of thunder shattered Valdrova's concentration.
The Demonic Lands were a place where everything was dead.
Thunder should have been impossible.
An overwhelming flood of information forced itself into Erika's mind.
Before she could make sense of any of it, her instincts screamed.
"Everyone, get down!"
At Erika's command, everyone threw themselves to the ground.
At that exact moment, something enormous descended before the colossal monster.
KRA-KRA-KRAK!
A tremendous bolt of lightning turned the entire world white.
BOOOOOOM!
Then came the massive shock wave created by an immense weight crashing down.
The bodies of those lying flat on the ground were lifted nearly two meters into the air.
"Cough, cough…"
"Is everyone all right?"
The impact had been tremendous, but no one had died.
"What was that lightning?"
"Could the armored knight have that kind of power…?"
But Valdrova herself stood there looking just as confused as everyone else.
Her strength came from her fists.
It did not fall from the sky.
'This lightning…'
Valdrova felt a strong sense of familiarity.
Having lived as long as she had, she knew it well.
There was only one being capable of wiping out everything with lightning of this magnitude.
They raised their heads and looked toward the place where the colossal monster had stood.
Within the cloud of gray-brown dust, another silhouette of similar size had taken its place.
It revealed itself with a booming laugh.
—KWAHAHAHAHA! What is a little minnow like you doing crawling around here?!
It was Storeus, the Lightning Dragon.
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