The Terrifying Descent (2)
Damn it….
So that’s what “how’s it going” really meant. That bastard must have had wings. Nathan had already lost count of how many people had been subtly fishing for information. When he let out a groan, Nili giggled with knowing mischief.
“Everyone’s too scared of Benny to say it out loud, but they just can’t keep their mouths shut. The director who’s famous for building a wall around her love life suddenly set her youth on fire. And with a surface-dweller she’s only known for a few days! How could that not spark interest?”
Nili cackled like a drunk. The mana she had gulped down had her tongue tripping over itself.
“Tuzetey saw it with his own eyes yesterday, and I pieced it together from the atmosphere. That honest reaction tells me everything. It’s true, isn’t it?”
Nathan could feel it on his own face—the panic laid bare for anyone to see.
“…I—”
“Oh my god, every Eleim in the neighborhood! Come look at this seventeen-year-old brat! He’s lost his mind! What kind of insane courage does it take to get involved with someone two hundred years old!”
Nathan felt the world tilt. He had been doing his best not to dwell on the age gap. It was a subject that could drive a man insane if he thought about it too deeply.
“…When a battle could break out at any moment—”
“Is this love blooming on the battlefield? A cat that suddenly jumped onto the stove? The terrifying name of Venessa—practically a god inside the hospital where no one dares defy her—suddenly conquered in a single day! Nathan, is he a god?”
Was this what a princess was supposed to be? Just what was the identity of the creature teasing him right in front of his eyes? The royal descendant of an ancient race with a tragic tale, or simply a gossip-obsessed teenager? They said she ignored status and mingled freely, but it seemed the patients had infected her with their mania.
“Stop it. I don’t know how things are in the Heavens, but on the ground that’s extremely rude.”
Nathan wore an expression of pure disgust.
“And think about the situation we’re in. All kinds of demons could come bursting out from right beneath our feet. This isn’t the time to worry about trivial nonsense like this.”
“Ah, why not? It’s better than running away in fear. At least talking about something else helps.”
Nathan suddenly studied Nili’s face. She was forcing a smile, but the hand gripping the mana transfusion pack trembled faintly. There had to be a reason she wanted to get drunk. There was nothing worth celebrating, so fear was the only explanation. The abyss sorcerer had mentioned Nili among the sacrifices last night. ‘The princess’s frozen blood.’ Kada Sakano, named alongside her, was now a parasitic wraith suffering inside Ulukabo’s flesh. What would they do to her? She hadn’t come merely to tease him. The romance talk was nothing but an excuse.
Nathan glimpsed raw desperation in her eyes—the same look he had seen countless times on the ground. The eyes of people begging to be saved. Nili, whose life he had saved twice, had come—whether she meant to or not—to the one place that felt safe.
Nathan let out a small sigh. The morning air was still cold enough that his breath fogged.
“What’s that tucked under your arm?”
When Nathan changed the subject, Nili brightened and opened the bag slung over her shoulder.
“A snack. No matter how urgent things get, you still have to eat breakfast before work.”
Early dawn. An uncertain tomorrow. Hardly ideal conditions for digestion. So to force the food down, you needed good side dishes—like someone else’s love life. That was Nili’s claim. While you’re eating, go ahead and unpack that bundle inside your head. No need to act so expensive.
“If it’s no, then it’s no.”
But Nathan shook his head firmly. It wasn’t only his private life at stake.
“Instead, I’ll tell you a different story. Something that happened while I served as a Lion Wing Knight. One day, in a territory famous for its fine wool, a strange incident occurred. All the shepherd dogs vanished.”
A tale from the human world—one not often heard. Nili, expecting something exotic, soon looked like she wanted to plug her ears. The dog died. The sheep died. The flock’s owner died. The culprit, an abyss monster, was slain by the Lion Wing Knights. A blood-soaked scenario that reminded her far too much of recent events. Nili, stomach churning, quietly set down the fork that had been dancing over the fried chicken.
“So in the end, we found the lord’s mother’s corpse in the backyard….”
Tuzetey’s eyes darted back and forth between them. Realizing his mistake, Nathan licked his lips. On the battlefield such war stories might inspire courage, but not here. Not now.
“…What do you want to know about me and Benny? I’ll answer what I can.”
Nili cheered. Nathan braced himself for every kind of demon he could imagine. Those who had never faced the abyss tried to follow orders and bury their fear. And the moment he had predicted finally arrived. The abyss sorcerer counterattacked exactly as Nathan foresaw. Yet its form was something no one inside the hospital could have anticipated.
“What’s filling the streets?”
The skeleton Ramkaf yanked the arrow out of the back of his skull and slapped it onto the table. Anyone else on street patrol would have died instantly. The princess of the frozen lands recognized the arrow at once. A snowman-bone shaft forged from permafrost. Nili’s body began to shake uncontrollably. The enemies who had come were neither demons, nor ghosts, nor the abyss sorcerer himself.
“I told you—they’re crazy white-haired lunatics wearing yeti skins! Damn it, the northern Eleim are pouring into every single alley of Graveyard Valley!”
The berserkers of the northern kingdom’s eternal tundra had appeared in the eastern slums. Without warning. Without declaration of war.
Benny whispered, almost too softly to hear.
“Grendel… Grendel Ingri. That insane old bastard.”
Everyone in Graveyard Valley was fleeing in blind panic. The poor, the gang members, even the Ba-eleim butchers who supplied raw meat to the shady slaughterhouses. There was no other choice. Real madmen had arrived—madmen who could not be reasoned with.
The miserable slum nestled in the sewers had been flipped upside down by the sudden invasion. The ragged warriors who had ridden the river into the east immediately charged down into the slums and began their slaughter. They tore apart everything visible. It didn’t matter whether it was a gang hideout or a shack. Ba-eleim or Eleim, they made no distinction. The tattoos on their pale faces quickly vanished beneath layers of ash and blood. As they burned, smashed, and killed everything within reach, the warriors had only one demand.
“Come out, Sapiens! Our king summons you!”
“Nathan Maiaaa! Where are youuuu!”
Has the Winter King Grendel truly gone mad?
The proud patrol officer Empato, hiding in the shadows, listened to those roars with pure horror.
Ignoring the ancient pact that divides the districts and sending this much force across the border? All for one runaway Sapiens?
There was no point wondering. The kings would settle the consequences among themselves. For those who ranked lower than ants in their eyes, the immediate reality mattered more. And that reality was a shack roof hurtling straight toward his bowed head.
“Officer! Watch out!”
“You watch out!”
Empato shoved his subordinate’s head down. The slate roofing panel whistled past them by a hair. Every other member of the Celestial Guard had already scattered and hidden deep inside Graveyard Valley. Their assignment today was pest control—searching for Sapiens—not combat, they had insisted. Empato had not hidden. In the east, where no king ruled, the Celestial Guard was the only force resembling a standing army. If they lacked the power to fight an invading foreign force, they at least had the duty to observe.
Yet watching the simultaneous demolition and massacre was almost impossible. The poor who failed to flee were butchered the instant their makeshift shelters collapsed. Blood sprayed in vicious arcs from behind walls he could not see. Empato felt his entire body trembling. The one stroke of luck was that the tablet channel had been restored since morning. Clutching his head, he shouted desperately.
“Damn it, requesting immediate backup near the sewer at 26A 300 block! Repeat, backup requested! Multiple Celestial Guard officers are in danger!”
The reply was hopeless. Empato froze at the next transmission.
An impossible order. Empato stood stunned. Retreat? Where? There were few paths connecting Graveyard Valley to the sunlit districts above. The only entrance the Celestial Guard had mapped was the large sewer treatment plant. They could not head there. The madmen were already pouring down that very route.
They were coming down. The North was coming down. The insane ones were descending half-naked, laughing and roaring. Bloodstained axes in one hand. Massive shields wrapped in yeti hide that could deflect a wizard’s staff in the other. Because of those shields the mage-heavy Celestial Guard could do nothing.
One of the northern warriors had already closed in on their hiding spot. Tall, but still carrying the lean muscle of youth. He had only recently shed the label of Ba-eleim. The northern boy, face drunk on violence, locked eyes with the subordinate.
“…I am Iwite, lieutenant of the Celestial Guard protecting the east. Do not approach. If you approach, I will open fire—”
The subordinate stood, stumbling backward while fumbling for her badge. But the berserker grabbed her by the hair the instant he saw her.
“I don’t give a damn about that, you bitch. I only received permission to kill and take whatever I want. You look a little underripe, but you’ll do. Are you still a Ba-eleim?”
She screamed, belatedly reaching for her staff. The berserker was faster. The moment he drew his dagger with a growl, despair flooded Iwite’s face—
No. The fastest was Empato.
“Filthy bastard.”
Bang.
The berserker’s brains flash-fried inside his skull. He collapsed, steam curling from his eye sockets.
“Show your badge first, then fire. That’s what the manual says. But sometimes you have to raise the staff first.”
Empato, shouldering the long staff, let out a sigh. To think they were ordered to avoid combat with creatures like this. Both sides showed an astonishing lack of field sense.
“Skallum! One of the young ones is missing!”
“Where are you, kid?! Did you find yourself a good woman to cling to?”
They were looking for their dead comrade. Empato quickly shoved his subordinate.
“Go, Lieutenant.”
“What?”
“Run. Hide anywhere until the situation clears. The Celestial Guard will eventually find the strength to send reinforcements. If you run into gang members, never reveal you’re with the Guard.”
Whose blood was it pooling beneath his boots? Iwite, still shaking, shook her head.
“But, Officer… I can’t abandon you—”
“I’m old. Your future is still bright. Run as far as you can. If you can’t find an exit, crawl into a sewer pipe and hide.”
“No, we can’t. Let’s go together. In those complicated alleys we can hide anywhere—”
I have to buy you time to escape.
Empato didn’t say it aloud, but Iwite heard it anyway.
“Protecting the scene is an officer’s duty.”
“Dad—!”
An axe flew toward his head. Empato ducked, breathing hard as he loaded the staff and returned fire.
“Go!”
Centuries of denied promotions. A family fortune that had slowly crumbled. The mockery and contempt of his colleagues. All of it had made her look down on her father without realizing it. Yet today those words carried a strange authority. As if bewitched by that power, Iwite stumbled backward. Then she ran deeper into the twisting alleys of Graveyard Valley.
Empato did not look back. He simply leveled his staff toward the white wave surging in from the distance.
[How many times do I have to say we can’t send support?]
“Requesting backup near 26A 300 block. Requesting backup near 26A 300 block—”
[If there’s nothing else, I’m cutting the transmission, Lieutenant Iwite.]
Her father was fighting somewhere in the sunless sewers. How long could he possibly last? Iwite stared at the corpses the berserkers had impaled on poles. Her father might already be among them. She had never imagined she would run away. Even when facing the monster that escaped the arena or dealing with gangsters, she had never retreated. Yet against enemies her staff’s magic could not touch, her courage melted like ice under sunlight.
“Requesting backup near 26A 300 block. Please, I’m begging you. My father—Officer Empato—is engaged in combat with them—”
[Transmission ended.]
Regret flooded her. She should have stayed beside him. Coward. Pathetic coward.
“Requesting backup… near the 26A 300 block sewer…”
The transmission had been cut, yet Iwite continued sobbing into the tablet.
“26A 300 block… sewer… support… hic… ugh…”
“Where.”
The tear-streaked lieutenant jerked her head up at the strangely familiar voice. She quickly realized she must have imagined it. She swore she had never seen anyone like him in her life.
The armor bathed in dawn light shone like a star dragged down to earth. The longsword, seemingly forged from a guillotine blade, rested lightly across his shoulder. The beast he rode was equally extraordinary. Its black body, the size of a small vehicle, spasmed continuously with sparks like embers. It looked as if it had just burst out of somewhere. Like a scene from myth, or from someone’s nightmare.
Yet he spoke the language of this world.
“Direction?”
The voice echoed inside the ancient-looking steel helm, somehow carrying warmth. The meaning was clear. The rider was asking for the location of the battlefield.
“There…”
The lieutenant barely managed to raise a finger and pointed toward the far end of the alley. The sewer at 26A 300 block. The place she had left her father.
“Understood.”
That was all. He asked for nothing more. The next instant a gust of wind slammed into her; the lieutenant screamed and ducked her head. The rider charged forward with a sound like thunder. Like the legendary lion that grew wings to devour dragons—fierce beyond compare.
He rode toward the place everyone else had fled from.
As he always did.