The Mark of the Beast Legion
We passed through several villages and finally began to see familiar place names.
“Wasn’t it over there that we fought Denatel and Zeka’s soldiers?”
“Yeah. We came looking for the Musilfe Stone.”
We looked toward the small mountain range visible beyond the hill and reminisced about that time. Numerous troops had surrounded us, and Zeka’s elite soldiers, composed of outstanding demons, had attacked us. Not only Zeka’s elite soldiers, who excelled in both magic and swordsmanship, but also Denatel’s magical soldiers with their grotesque appearances had been truly difficult opponents.
Those soldiers, who felt no pain and regenerated quickly from slashes, weren’t enough to handle us directly but were sufficient to hold us back, and Zeka’s soldiers were particularly outstanding even within the Demon King’s army, making it a tough battle.
“Without Geropus’s help, we would have been in big trouble.”
Geropus was the dwarf who had followed us at the time to help find the Musilfe Stone. He was an introverted character for a dwarf, but thanks to him hiding and causing a landslide at the critical moment, we were able to easily annihilate the magical soldiers.
“Come to think of it, I wonder how Geropus is doing?”
“He’s probably doing fine. When I asked other dwarves during the Battle of Kirok, they said he was in charge of fortress construction and maintenance in Bulokeruk.”
Bulokeruk was one of the important cities of the dwarves, but it was quite far from the front lines. If he had stayed there, he wouldn’t have experienced any more real battles.
Although the dwarves were all outstanding warriors, they hadn’t made particularly significant contributions in the last great war for some reason. Even though they weren’t bound by ancient pacts like the elves or dragons, they had responded lukewarmly to the crisis on the surface, and even when the Tower of Destruction, which manifested the goddess Nyx through Thanatos’s magic and people’s despair, rose up, they had only provided minimal assistance, and no great leader had emerged directly from their kingdom located beneath the mountains.
We still didn’t know the reason, but in any case, the war was over, and even now, the dwarves were keeping their kingdom locked away, only appearing outside when absolutely necessary.
“Heil Granton.”
The name Bagloros suddenly mentioned was also familiar to us.
“Ah, right. Heil Granton. The guy who wouldn’t stop making unfunny jokes.”
He was one of the heirs to an ancient shaman group and our enemy. He had cooperated with the Demon King’s army just to survive and had led us and his comrades into a trap.
Using the crystal skulls Denatel had given him, he had summoned giant bat monsters from the demon realm, but the monsters that were summoned had instead torn apart Granton’s face, who had been smiling confidently.
“But what on earth was he trying to say?”
The last joke he made was about a frog and a button, but since he died before finishing it, even Lord Medrup couldn’t guess the end of the joke. Well, it was probably a trivial and unfunny joke like the ones before, but it was inevitable that it would bother me whenever I thought of it from time to time.
“Well. But that unfinished joke must have been his most successful one. There wouldn’t be any joke from that clown that would linger in our minds for so long.”
Looking at the distant walls, we took out our robes from our bags and put them on again. Soon we would arrive at the village with the teleportation circle. Since the direction we were heading with the letters was different, and we had traveled quickly, rumors about us probably hadn’t spread here yet, but there would be plenty of people who could recognize Rowell and Aegina.
“Wait a minute, what’s that?”
However, as we approached the walls, we felt that something was wrong. The strange black insignia carved on the upper part of the walls and the things hanging on the railings like laundry were by no means good omens.
“Bagloros, that’s……”
“Corpses.”
At his confirmation, we quickened our pace. Bagloros tried to run ahead first, but Rowell and Aegina stopped him. There was no sound of battle going on, and although it was crude and hard to make out, a large enough insignia to be seen from afar was carved on the wall.
No matter who did it or why, it meant that the deed was long over and they had no intention of hiding it.
“Can you make out the insignia?”
I asked Rowell. Although we had gotten a bit closer, it was still a little difficult for me to confirm with my own eyes. But seeing Rowell and Aegina’s expressions hardening rapidly, it was definitely not a light matter.
“……”
Rowell couldn’t answer for a moment with an incredulous face. However, before I could ask again, he answered in a stiff voice, and I couldn’t believe my ears.
“…It’s the insignia of the Demon Beast Legion, Lyburn.”
The insignia of the Demon King’s army. Moreover, it wasn’t something left over from the last great war; from the looks of it, it had clearly been carved recently.
“Aegina, Anak. I’ll go ahead first. Bagloros, let’s go.”
Rowell said that and jumped off his horse, launching his body toward the walls, and Bagloros followed behind him.
“You don’t have to worry about me and can go ahead.”
I connected my mind with Rowell’s words and said that to Aegina, who was still leading her horse beside me. I knew why Rowell had said that to Aegina. She could also run much faster directly, but he had deliberately left her behind to protect me.
And although Aegina didn’t show it, she hadn’t followed Rowell because she was worried about me. The sudden reappearance of the Demon King’s army’s mark had greeted us with a tension as if we had returned to the time of the great war.
“No. Rowell and Bagloros going is enough.”
Although she said that, her eyes looking toward Rowell and the walls held a faint anxiety. The Demon King’s army appearing now wasn’t a situation that could be easily calmed.
We could see Rowell and Bagloros breaking through the firmly closed walls. But that was all; they stood in front of the broken gate and stopped right there.
“……!”
A moment later, as the distance closed, Aegina and I also realized the reason. The village inside the walls was completely destroyed. The buildings had collapsed as if a great storm had swept through, and the ground was soaked with bloodstains that hadn’t yet lost their color.
However, except for a few corpses that were deliberately hung on the walls, no bodies were visible at all, and that was precisely why we couldn’t help but feel even greater confusion.
“Surely not, right……?”
I uttered that meaningless question. These scenes were ones we had often encountered in cities or fortresses that had been captured by the Demon Beast Legion in the past.
The victims all became prey for the beasts, and the act of displaying a few corpses on the walls as if mocking them was exactly the same as what the Demon Beast Legion Commander Lyburn had done in the conquered lands.
Moreover, the faint remaining stench. The scents of beasts and predators gave even the feeling of having returned to the past.
“Lyburn was definitely dead!”
We had all seen Lyburn die. In the final battle at the Demon King’s castle, Rowell’s sword had precisely split Lyburn’s heart, which changed his body into various beasts and monsters, and his final scream had echoed throughout the castle.
He was dead. Hadn’t we clearly seen with our own eyes the Demon Beast Legion scattering and disappearing after hearing his scream?
“…Anak. Is the barrier still intact?”
While I was momentarily shocked by this unbelievable situation, Rowell suddenly asked that. Although calm, it wasn’t just a worried confirmation but felt very urgent.
Only then did I notice that some strange presence was watching us from afar. Although it was far away and very faint, I couldn’t be sure that was all there was.
“Yeah. It’s sufficient, so don’t worry.”
When I had returned the artifacts to the study last time, I had reorganized them just in case. Of course, they would have weakened a bit over the past few days and wouldn’t be able to exert their original effect, but we couldn’t retreat here, and I didn’t want to cause them worry either.
I got off the horse. And by lightly setting up a barrier around us, I made sure they couldn’t come out from there. Although I wasn’t sure who the enemy was yet, if we were really facing the Demon Beast Legion, riding a horse wouldn’t be of any help.
“I’ll summon some summons.”
At my words, my companions nodded. Originally, with the three of them there, there was no need to summon summons, but now we had to be as thorough as possible.
At my gesture, black insignia rose from the ground and dark elementals revealed themselves. There were no other summons that came to mind that wouldn’t interfere with others’ actions or vision right now.
We slowly moved our steps in the direction where the gaze was felt. The owner of the gaze was clearly aware of our movement, but for some reason, no movement was felt at all. It was just staying still as if waiting for us.
We passed through the broken ruins and moved our steps further inside the village. The inside of the village was much more miserable than the entrance with the gate. Although no corpses were visible, bloodstains were everywhere, and the red-stained pieces of cloth scattered on the ground clearly seemed to belong to women or children.
We moved inward, further inward, and finally could face the owner of the gaze we had felt. From the broken ruins and the color of the bricks, it was clear that this place had originally been a temple. And he was standing on those ruins.
A giant wolf with a mane and horns on its head. Although its color had changed to jet black unlike in our memories, we knew him well. And he also knew us well.
—Come, hero. You’re later than I thought.
“…Lyburn.”
He was none other than the Demon Beast Legion Commander Lyburn. No, to be precise, it was one of the various forms he usually took, but it was definitely him. Although his voice and presence, and the strange pressure we had felt in the past had somewhat diminished, it was exactly the same form that had blocked our path before.
“What happened? You were definitely dead, weren’t you? And what’s with that mismatched color?”
Instead of Rowell and the others who were silently glaring at him, I asked that. I had to ask. I had to buy time to escape this bewilderment somehow. If he was really Lyburn, and if the Demon Beast Legion was hiding around here, even if we gave it our all, we couldn’t be sure of victory.
—Yes. He was definitely dead.
As he smiled, his pure white teeth were revealed. It was a sneer and contempt, but for some reason, it didn’t feel like it was reaching us.
—And that death was natural. Because that guy was too stupid and foolish.