'Where... is this?'
Julius opened his eyes that had been closed. His head was dizzy as if he was about to vomit, and his stomach was churning.
As he lifted his head that had been buried, the mud stuck to his cheek fell off with a thud.
Through his muffled ears, artillery fire echoed repeatedly. And intermittently, gunshots and people's screams could be heard.
Belatedly, he realized that this place was a battlefield, and that he had fainted. The last thing he saw before fainting was a shower of artillery shells falling toward them.
Seeing that, he used the maximum defensive magic he could deploy. And amid the resulting roar and flash, his memory was cut off.
'What about the squad members?'
Julius hurriedly looked around. The hastily constructed defensive magic was not perfect. That's why Julius had lost consciousness. Then what had happened to the other squad members?
Julius was left speechless at the horrific scene spread around him. On the muddy earth overturned by explosions, corpses were scattered.
Seeing his corpse that had died without even being able to close his eyes, a chill ran through him.
It was the same for the other squad members. The power of the explosion must have been tremendous, as most of the corpses couldn't maintain their proper form.
'Phillis? Where's Phillis!'
Julius frantically searched for Phillis. It wasn't that the deaths of the other squad members weren't sad, but still, Phillis was the most important to him right now.
Could it be that Phillis was also dead?
'No. That can't be. When I last used magic, I was in front of him to protect Phillis. The fact that I'm alive means Phillis is alive too.'
Then where on earth had Phillis gone? Julius slowly stood up with staggering steps. His head throbbed with a sharp headache.
"Urgh."
When he ran his hand over his forehead, red blood came off. He hadn't died, but having been caught in the explosion, his physical condition was terrible. His sense of balance hadn't returned due to his brain being severely shaken.
Nevertheless, Julius moved to find Phillis. While clearing away the corpses piled with dirt mounds, he was able to discover furrow-like tracks extending long in one direction.
Not just one or two, but several extending long.
'What's this?'
Could they have dragged away the wounded? Were they allies? Then why did they leave me behind? If not, then enemies?
Questions swirled endlessly, but finding Phillis was the priority right now. Julius moved while limping, following the traces.
Artillery fire burst here and there but gunshots no longer echoed because there were hardly any survivors left in this place.
"Huff. Huff. P-please save me!"
Someone grabbed Julius' ankle. When Julius looked down in surprise, one allied soldier was crawling on the ground asking for help.
"P-please save me..."
Julius examined his physical condition. His limbs were intact and there were no gunshot wounds. There were no fatal wounds, yet he thought he was going to die and was terrified with fear.
Panic states due to extreme stress during war were commonplace. But Julius belatedly felt an ominous sensation flowing through the man's body.
"What... is this?"
An unknown sinister energy was lingering in the seemingly intact soldier's body.
"Hey. Get a hold of yourself! What happened?"
"S-strange guys. Suddenly attacked us..."
"What's their affiliation? What happened to your squad members?"
"O-over there."
The soldier raised his trembling hand and pointed in one direction. It was where the traces Julius was following led.
"They dragged people over there... I barely escaped, but those guys..."
The soldier's skin was turning red in real time as he spoke. It was as if the cells inside his body were necrotic and capillaries were bursting. Julius' expression became serious. This was a curse he had never seen before. Could it be a similar power handled by black magicians?
If it had been treated immediately upon infection, it might have been different, but the fact that it had reached his face meant the curse had already invaded his entire body.
Unless one was at least a mana user, there was no surviving once it reached this point.
"Please, save me."
The soldier began bleeding from his eyes, nose, and mouth. He pleaded pitifully that he didn't want to die.
"Mom..."
He finally took something out of his inner pocket. It was a black and white photograph worn from being handled so much. After looking at the photo taken with a smile alongside someone presumed to be his mother, he soon dropped his head low.
Due to the dust, he hadn't noticed, but Julius belatedly realized that he was a teenager younger than himself. If they had met elsewhere, he might have become Phillis' friend.
"...Rest in peace."
Julius' expression became quite serious as he collected the dog tags. An unidentified group of unknown affiliation was kidnapping soldiers by taking advantage of the war.
'Could it be human experimentation?'
The most likely culprits were black magicians. Although black magicians were now recognized as a legitimate profession, not all black magicians were like that. Naturally, conversely, not all magicians were upright either.
There were always those who continued ominous experiments while operating in the shadows like this. And to such people, battlefields where countless corpses were generated were surely good material supply sites.
'Damn it! How did they keep watch! To be breached like this!'
A third force had appeared on the battlefield, yet Julius, who was an officer, hadn't even heard such rumors. But this couldn't be blamed on the higher-ups either. In the hellish trench warfare where the front lines changed every moment, even the presence of comrades standing beside you was dim, so there was no way to distinguish such things.
Still, they should have done their best. They should have at least noticed the slightest signs.
Julius, swallowing his anger, pondered. Should he return to the main force like this and report this fact as is? If he made a rational judgment, returning and reporting would be correct.
'But what about Phillis?'
From the circumstances, it was clear that Phillis had been kidnapped by them. But going in this physical condition would likely result in unnecessary trouble.
'Right. If I go alone, it'll just be a dog's death. These are guys who secretly kidnap people on this battlefield. They must surely be composed of considerable experts.'
Fighting such people with a messed-up body was close to suicide.
'Let's go back. Go to the main force and call for reinforcements.'
Julius, who was about to return, stopped his steps.
Beyond the battlefield where the smoke hadn't completely settled, he could see Plimene’s back. She was crying weakly.
"..."
Phillis forcibly stopped his steps that were heading toward the main force.
-Splash.
He turned his body and began walking toward where the soldiers had been kidnapped.
‘Plimene, a crying appearance doesn't suit you.'
If only he could restore her smile again. Even if that place were hell, he would gladly advance.
Going to where the furrows led, he saw an abandoned trench. It gave off an eerie atmosphere as if it hadn't been used for a long time.
'No, this isn't a trench.'
It was merely imitating a trench, but in reality was a slaughterhouse for storing kidnapped people and using them for experiments.
'There's no magic related to alarms.'
Rather, because they hadn't installed such magic, people didn't suspect it much. Thanks to this, Julius could enter the trench somewhat more easily.
After walking for some time through the passage that extended endlessly toward darkness, he smelled blood. It was different from the smell of blood on the battlefield. It wasn't mixed with gunpowder and wasn't hot either. Rather, it was so cold and disgusting that he wanted to turn back immediately. Julius was soon able to discover light from beyond. The softly flickering red color looked ominous just by seeing it.
Julius carefully examined the inside while suppressing his presence.
Inside the camouflaged trench was a considerable-scale laboratory. No, should it be called a ritual site?
'What is this? It's quite different from ordinary workshops?'
Julius frowned. As he had expected, indescribable inhumane experiments were being conducted here.
Corpses that appeared to be kidnapped people were hanging at regular intervals like butcher shop meat throughout the place. Some were skewered on spits, some were tied to hook chains. Some had their limbs separated, and some were hanging in a cross formation with both arms spread.
It looked closer to a mad killer displaying his results proudly rather than simple experiments.
'This isn't something that people simply mad about killing would do. That's not experimentation or human research. Rather, it's closer to some kind of ritual.'
Julius hardened his face at a situation much more serious than he had thought. It really would have been the right judgment to bring reinforcements. But having come this far, he could no longer retreat.
'Where's Phillis? Where is he?'
That's when it happened. Along with murmuring sounds, a man wearing a red robe was dragging someone along.
'Phillis!'
The man being led by the red robe's hand was indeed Phillis. Julius examined Phillis' condition. Contrary to his worries, there were no wounds of any kind on his body.
He wasn't dead, nor had he suffered fatal injuries. While feeling relieved, he was simultaneously puzzled. Why had they left only Phillis so intact?
"Stand in the center."
The red robe made Phillis stand in the center of the laboratory. Phillis staggered and did as instructed. His eyes weren't visible due to his disheveled hair, making it difficult to determine what state he was in now.
'Could he be under mind control?'
Even if not, there was no way the sickly Phillis could offer proper resistance to those dangerous people.
Meanwhile, the robed man prepared something. Several more people wearing red robes appeared around him. The number exceeded five. Moreover, they all exuded a dangerous atmosphere. They chanted some incantation. It was an ominous incantation Julius had never heard before.
'Ancient language? No. It's a language I've never heard. What are they trying to do?'
The ominous language soon manifested as a phenomenon. Red mist began to rise eerily around those wearing red robes and spread to the surroundings.
The red mist headed toward the corpses hung around. The corpses touched by the mist stirred and caused strange reactions.
The corpse of a person thought to be dead opened its eyes wide, then shook its head frantically with eyes showing only whites.
-Grrrrrrrr. Keeek!
The corpse skewered on a spit let out a shriek, and the corpse hanging on a hook staggered and convulsed. What was more surprising was that even a corpse with only arms left began to flutter when touched by the red mist. Like a lizard's tail that wriggles even when cut off.
It seemed like necromancy but was somehow different.
Meanwhile, the strange ritual was already passing the midpoint ridge. Everything was dyed red, and the shrieks the corpses emitted began to form harmony and follow a certain rhythm.
Phillis, at the center of the ritual, stood calmly in place as if he had resigned himself to something.
This couldn't continue. He had an intuition that if the ritual ended like this, something terrible would happen. Julius aimed for the moment when they were off guard and rushed into the laboratory. The magic he had secretly prepared activated.
-Crash!
Along with a flashing light, purple electric current drew a long tail and shot out, directly hitting one of the red robes. With a whoosh sound, the person wearing the red robe burned black and collapsed.
"Enemy!"
The red robes belatedly noticed the intruder, but the one who seemed to be the leader shouted.
"Concentrate on the ritual! There's not much left! If we stop here, everything will turn to nothing!"
Rather, they continued the ritual with even more resolute will. Julius, who thought they would scatter in fear on their own, had to break out in cold sweat at their obsession close to madness. It was fortunate that no counterattack came, but they seemed determined to complete the ritual they had started no matter what.
"You bastards!"
He deliberately shouted loudly as if to draw attention and fired magic indiscriminately. But compared to when he was at full power, those attacks weren't that threatening.
Due to not taking care of his body to save Phillis, his injuries had worsened further. But Julius gritted his teeth and pressed the red robes.
"Phillis!"
When Julius called out that name, Phillis, who had been standing dumbly in place, looked back at Julius.
"What are you doing! Hurry and run away! I'll buy time, so quickly!"
Even after hearing those words, Phillis didn't try to leave his position. Could he be frozen with fear? Meanwhile, the flames Julius had unleashed consumed another red robe.
-Wooooooooo.
The harmony of the corpses that had been forming regular frequencies finally continued long without stopping, as if converging to one point. At the same time, Julius felt the sensation of his heart sinking.
A red whirlwind swirled around and swallowed Phillis at the center of the altar.
"Phillis!"
Julius shouted, but his voice couldn't reach Phillis. Phillis' figure, swallowed by the red whirlwind, was vaguely visible.
Soon Phillis' body shook greatly, and his skin began to be torn away by the red whirlwind.
-Rip!
It didn't take even a second for Phillis to become red powder on the spot without leaving even bones behind. It was such an unrealistic death.
"Ah."
Julius, who witnessed Phillis dying before his eyes, felt something snap in his brain.
His bloodshot, rage-filled gaze turned toward the red robes who had led the ritual.
"I'll kill you all!"
But they were laughing with joy. Their gazes under deeply pressed hoods were directed toward the ceiling of the underground cavity.
"Ah. He has come. That person has come."
That person has come? More than that, what exactly are they looking at?
Following their gaze and lifting his head, Julius found himself unconsciously swallowing.
At the center of the red airflow that swirled around the cavity, a giant eyeball was looking down at them.