“The Voidnir invasion had been predicted?”
Bella asked with a serious expression. Eugene nodded.
“Yes, though it didn’t mean much because no one believed him.”
“How is that possible?”
“It isn’t impossible. It’s not as if those bastards were ghosts. Did they fall from the sky? Did they spring up from the ground? They must have been growing their forces somewhere. Somewhere Count Echo Helstein noticed, but others did not.”
“How do you know Count Echo Helstein? I have never heard that name before.”
Eugene clicked his tongue.
“That’s because you don’t care about anything except fighting. He became quietly famous after records were found saying he had predicted the Voidnir invasion. There were even rumors that the Imperial Family dispatched a special force to find the materials he left behind.”
“Materials he left behind?”
“He died one year before the invasion happened. Back then, I didn’t think much about why he died, but thinking about it now, I understand.”
Eugene smiled. It was not his usual mischievous smile, but an icy, chilling one.
“He was assassinated. By a human-mimicking Voidnir.”
“…….”
Having heard Nidbolg’s warning, the two already knew that Voidnir existed among humans, walking around while pretending to be people.
What would the bastards lurking in society do if they discovered a scholar who had predicted their invasion?
There was no need to weigh it.
“Was it ever revealed how he predicted that invasion…… No, there’s no way. If there had been evidence like that, the bastards would have cleaned it all up and erased it.”
Eugene nodded.
“Yes. No one knew how he found out.”
It was not hard to understand why Bella did not know Count Echo Helstein.
There had only been rumors that he had predicted the invasion. Since there were no materials proving how he had actually discovered it, the information had not been treated as that important.
Eugene crossed his arms with a hum.
“He was one of the people I had to look for anyway, so this works out well. Let’s meet him this time and make ourselves known. We may not know anything right now, but he’s someone who will definitely bring us important information someday.”
Their discussion ended.
The two called back the Mercenary Guild request courier who had been waiting outside and showed him the request form.
“We will take this one.”
***
The Ascalon Mountains at the northern edge of the Dragon Empire. A small village halfway up them.
Count Echo Helstein, as seen there, was a person for whom the title scholar suited him better than count.
“To think I would meet the famed Twinstella Dragon Knights! My, you are not people I should be asking to serve as escorts.”
A middle-aged man with curly hair and glasses. Laughing heartily like that, he welcomed Eugene and Bella.
“Augh! Cold! I’m going to freeze to death!”
Eugene exaggerated while his teeth chattered. It was not winter yet, but since they were near the northern snowy field, the temperature had reached minus ten degrees.
“Do not exaggerate. You are bundled up so tightly. You feel colder because you keep thinking it is cold.”
Unlike Eugene, who had wrapped his entire body in winter clothes, Bella was dressed as simply as usual.
No, it was more than simple. Her martial uniform, which had invested every function into mobility, had holes open at the shoulders and around the stomach.
Dumbfounded, Eugene asked,
“Aren’t you cold?”
“Resistance to cold and heat is one of the basic abilities of the Adamantine Refinement Great Art.”
Bella lifted the shackle on her wrist.
“Wasn’t that just a technique that made you strong and tough?”
“The ideal of the Adamantine Refinement Great Art is Adamantine Invulnerability, a perfect and flawless body. Do you think a body that receives blades and spears directly would collapse from heat or cold?”
“You’re not human.”
“……No matter how dull I may be, is that not too harsh a thing to say to a beautiful maiden?”
“It’s an exclamation. An exclamation. You really are amazing.”
“…….”
Seeing that she did not flare up in anger as usual, it seemed she really had been bothered by it.
In order to soothe the disheartened Bella, Eugene had to spend quite some time beside her praising and pampering her.
Watching the two of them, Echo smiled warmly.
“As expected of Twinstella. You seem close.”
Hearing that, Eugene came back to his senses.
‘This isn’t the time for this.’
Echo Helstein was an important person. He had to build even a little more friendship and gather information.
Stopping himself from indulging his partner’s sulking, Eugene quickly stuck close to Echo Helstein’s side.
Echo was loading luggage. Food, ropes, camping supplies, and various magic tools that appeared to be used for different kinds of tests.
But the being carrying that luggage caught his eye.
It was a gigantic spider.
To be precise, should he call it a spider model made by connecting pieces of wood?
“What is this?”
“Ah, this is a Wood Golem I bring along as a porter and guard. I named it Nibiru.”
“A Wood Golem…… Because of the weight?”
“That is correct. When going in and out of subterranean monster habitats, one must cross terrain like cliffs countless times. Stone Golems and Iron Golems are too heavy for that kind of terrain.”
“That’s true, but…… if its body is made of wood, isn’t it a little unreliable as a guard?”
“It is fine. I reinforced it with a special trick.”
Echo pointed to the spider’s legs. Something like an insect carapace firmly wrapped around the legs.
Tap, tap. When Eugene struck it with his fist, he felt the sensation of hitting steel.
Indeed, he understood what method had been used.
Eugene nodded.
“You reinforced it with subterranean monster carapace.”
“That is correct. Their skin is as hard as steel and yet extremely flexible. It is difficult to process, but as a material, it is the finest.”
After that, Echo Helstein passionately spoke for quite a while about how remarkable subterranean monsters were. Just listening to him, it felt as though he had devoted his entire life solely to researching them.
How on earth had Echo Helstein discovered the Voidnir invasion, which no one else had known about?
The simplest hypothesis was this.
The Voidnir had hidden a base underground, in other words, within the habitats of subterranean monsters, and were raising their forces there.
Since he had no one to talk to normally, Echo was talkative. No matter what Eugene asked, explanations flowed out smoothly.
Eugene decided to use this opportunity to resolve the questions he had.
“What do subterranean monsters eat to live?”
“I do not know whether it can be described as ‘eating to live,’ but they grow by using geothermal heat as their power. If I had to express it, I would say the magma of volcanoes and the gases that fill them.”
What the Voidnir devoured was basically organic matter.
It was easy to think of them as carnivorous plants. They put roots into the ground, absorb nutrients and moisture, and devour every living creature around them.
‘I thought they lived by eating moss or some unusual plants that grew underground…….’
It was not just one or two that had to survive. They had to raise a great army numbering at least tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands. Unless there were special nutrients that existed only underground, it would be impossible.
The hypothesis Eugene had formed shattered as soon as he began asking questions. But he did not give up and asked,
“Can the meat of subterranean monsters be eaten?”
“No…… They are different from ordinary living creatures. They do have things like muscles and flesh, but for us, eating them is no different from eating pieces of iron or blocks of wood.”
He had considered the possibility that the Voidnir survived by eating subterranean monsters, but it seemed that was not the case either.
‘Then how on earth did he discover the bastards’ invasion?’
He turned it over in his head, but nothing came to mind immediately.
Bella, who had been standing beside him and listening to the conversation, only looked this way as if staring at a distant mountain.
Eugene shook his head.
‘Let’s think slowly. If it were something that could be solved easily, the world wouldn’t have ended in the first place.’
He had only learned it after returning to the past, but these were bastards who planted spies before the full-scale invasion and even laid groundwork.
They must have made meticulous plans two and three layers deep. Even if, as he suspected now, the bastards had hidden something underground, there was a high chance that was not the entirety of the plan.
Bella, who had been watching him closely, said,
“Thinking about it will only add to the confusion. Let us focus on the present for now.”
She was right. Eugene decided to focus on the immediate mission.
The first target Echo Helstein chose after leaving the village was the farthest peak of the Ascalon Mountains.
It was Chaldea Crater, where lava was said to have surged up in the distant past.
“Ascalon was a volcano in the past, but now it has almost stopped activity. So if we follow the old path where lava once rose, we can reach the subterranean depths where magma still lives and breathes.”
“If there is magma…… how far underground must we descend?”
“About three thousand meters.”
Three thousand meters. Hearing it only in words did not give a clear sense, but what was certain was that they had to descend to an incredible depth.
For now, Eugene and Bella followed Echo’s directions and headed to Chaldea Crater.
Originally, it was a high mountain one would have to sweat all day climbing, but they had Bella.
After bringing out her true body, Bella put Eugene and Echo on her back, picked up Nibiru, the Wood Golem Echo brought around, and took off all at once.
It took less than ten minutes for the three of them to arrive at Chaldea Crater, which stood two thousand meters above sea level.
Perhaps startled by the intense flight, Echo sat down with a pale face as soon as he got off Bella’s back.
“A-as expected of Dragon Knights! Being able to fly truly is convenient. I did well to entrust this request to you.”
He raised his glasses while his hands and feet trembled. But only for a moment. Once he pulled himself together, he immediately began explaining the method to descend through the crater into the subterranean depths.
“There is a vent over here that we can ride down. It is a place I barely found after searching this area for years.”
After discovering the hole, he had descended all the way underground and succeeded in approaching the habitat of the subterranean monsters.
However, he had nearly died after being attacked by monsters who discovered the intruder, and so he had hired mercenaries to escort him, as now, in order to challenge the exploration once more.
The vent Echo pointed out was a large hole that seemed to be about two meters in diameter.
Originally, water had apparently been flowing down through it, but now the weather was cold, and all the water was frozen solid.
When Eugene looked down into the open black pit, he could indeed see the floor far below.
It was not immediately opened vertically down thousands of meters underground, but even at a rough glance, it was a depth of several dozen meters. Eugene asked,
“How do we get down here?”
Echo pointed to the pile of luggage on Nibiru’s back.
“I went down riding Nibiru, but…… it will be difficult for Nibiru to carry you as well. Instead, I have ropes and anchors prepared here, so the two of you can use these to descend……”
“There is no need for that.”
Bella said so, and without another word, grabbed Eugene by the nape and slung him over her shoulder like a piece of luggage.
Then she threw herself into the hole without the slightest hesitation.
“What the hell are you doing…… Kyaaaaaah!”
“Mr. Eugene!”
When Eugene screamed, the startled Echo shouted his name.
But Bella was calm.
Tatatatat!
With Eugene slung over her shoulder, she repeatedly kicked from side to side along the wall of the wide hole and descended to the floor several dozen meters below in an instant.
It was agile movement that even a cat could not imitate.
She set down the dazed Eugene and lifted her head toward Echo, who was staring blankly down.
“There is nothing dangerous. Come down.”
“Ha ha, well now…….”
A brazen face, as though nothing had happened at all.
Seeing that, Echo had no choice but to laugh hollowly.
He controlled Nibiru, supporting it against the wall of the hole with the spider’s eight legs, and descended after the two.
In that way, the three continued descending through the twisting hole that led underground.
There was no need to install ropes, so their progress was fast. Bella carried Eugene on her back, held only a glowing nightstone in her other hand, and ran down the cliff-like hole using only her two feet.
“At this speed…… I believe we may reach the subterranean depths far sooner than I expected. Once we get out of here, I will have to prepare a generous bonus for the two of you.”
Echo spoke with a brightened expression. Eugene, whose expression had been dark from being treated like luggage, also smiled faintly when he heard talk of money.
That was when they had descended three hundred meters underground.
Something strange occurred.
HMMMM-
“Hm?”
“Hm?”
Bella and Eugene both reacted at the same time.
Bella, who had been dragging her feet along the cliff wall, found a space where she could stand and landed.
As Eugene got off her back, he quickly searched the front of his clothes, thrust a hand inside his collar, and pulled on a cord.
It was the necklace Nidbolg had previously given him, the one said to detect nearby Voidnir.
HMMMM-
Once again, the necklaces hummed softly.
“……!”
“……!”
Eugene and Bella’s faces turned serious in an instant. Echo, who had descended after the two of them, asked,
“What is it? Has something happened?”
Eugene raised a hand to him.
“Just a moment. There is something we need to check.”
Eugene looked around.
But the nearby area was a cave itself, filled entirely with stone walls.
Never mind the twenty-meter detection range of the necklaces; it was a narrow passage whose left and right radius barely reached three meters.
If something existed, it was somewhere beyond the wall.
Eugene looked at Bella.
“Can you find roughly which direction it is?”
“Wait a moment.”
Bella launched herself upward and climbed the cliff again.
She moved to a position where the necklace did not react, then slowly descended and checked the first position where the necklace’s detection range touched.
Then she stopped at that position, shook the necklace, and tilted her head.
Assuming the necklace’s detection range was a twenty-meter radius, she was moving it little by little to find the direction in which it reacted.
It was a search method that could not be used by anyone except Bella, whose senses were extremely sharp.
After shaking the necklace for a while, Bella landed beside Eugene again.
She put the necklace back on and pointed at one wall with her finger.
“This way. Something is hiding here.”
Eugene nodded and approached the direction Bella indicated. He knocked his fist against the rock-covered wall.
Thunk- thunk-
When a hollow sound rang out, Echo said with an expression that showed he had no idea what was going on,
“It is probably a cavity created by flowing groundwater. Or it may be a gap formed when the crust moved.”
No, it was not that.
The necklace had given the warning, but what Eugene felt beyond this wall was the threat sensed by the instinct he had honed across battlefields for the past ten years.
Eugene shook his head.
“We need to check it once. Bella, protect Count Echo. I will break the wall.”
“Understood.”
Bella blocked the front of Echo, who was blinking as if he did not understand.
Eugene prepared himself to deploy defensive magic at any time, then wove magic that would break the solid stone wall.
What could be created with his specialty, arcane magic, was not only physical bodies with a fixed form.
How could mages fire bullets made of mana at high speed?
It was because arcane magic could create kinetic energy to move objects, or a specific waveform using it.
A force people defined as arcane waves.
He overlapped it in several layers and amplified it. Eugene placed the magic created that way against the wall.
<>
HMMMM!
In that instant, wave-like ripples spread across the wall where Eugene’s hand touched as if it were a lie. From the center of the waveform, hairline cracks like a spiderweb spread out with a CRRRAAACK…….
BOOM!
With an explosion, the wall crumbled in a circle.
Using arcane waves once again to burst it in midair and blow away the rising dust, Eugene shone the nightstone inside.
And what was revealed within.
The moment Echo discovered it, his complexion turned white.
“What…… is this?”
SQUELCH-
The slimy cellular tissue filling the cavity dripped sticky bodily fluids.
Purple masses of muscle writhed, filling the inside.
All around, eggs made of round membranes packed the space, and through their cloudy interiors, bizarrely shaped creatures were wriggling little by little.
HMMM- HMMM-
The necklaces of both Bella and Eugene rang warning sounds without pause.
“They’re making a real fucking mess of things.”
Eugene muttered.
Bella clenched her teeth.
A strange nest of living creatures that had appeared inside an underground cavity.
It was something the two of them knew well.
A Voidnir production factory.