Graveyard Preservation Record - The 34th (1)
Graveyard Preservation Record - The 34th (1). Day 54 since Lutus Edan went missing during the operation.
“Leah! Are you in here!?”
Bang! The moment she opened her eyes, a silver-haired woman in combat uniform burst into the room. It was Brigadier General Arhen Orca. After Fortress Commander Lieutenant General Lutus Edan disappeared, she had taken over as acting commander, managing the fortress and directing the front lines.
“Arhen, sis?”
“We’ve confirmed his location!! Before we launch the rescue operation, we’re doing a quick headcount! Get up!”
The moment she heard those words, the fog of sleep vanished from her mind. Leah sprang out of bed and scrambled to gather her combat gear. She donned her helmet bearing the rank insignia of a major, grabbed the rifle propped in the corner, and dashed outside.
Nearly two months had passed since Commander Lutus Edan had vanished along with his reconnaissance unit during a front-line inspection. When news arrived that the reconnaissance regiment had been ambushed by hidden Titan forces, she had believed Lutus would return triumphant, as he always did. He had a habit of slaughtering every Titan in sight and coming back, no matter how impossible the mission seemed. It was only natural. After all, Lutus was a regressor—a solitary warrior who rose again and again from countless deaths. The Empire’s sentinel, the Lion of Defense, he bore the fate of his comrades at Graveyard Fortress and, beyond them, the destiny of the entire Empire.
But when a week passed with no word from the front, Arhen and Leah gathered the senior officers scattered across the theater. The spearhead and shield of humanity guarding the Graveyard region. Colonel Charlotte Evergreen, Chief of Staff for Logistics at Headquarters. Brigadier General Drake Brown, Commander of the 1st Assault Brigade. Brigadier General Heinz Bismarck, Commander of the 8th Armored Brigade. Brigadier General Lidiya Glenova, Commander of the 3rd Aviation Brigade. They were all officers who fought under Lutus Edan—and they all knew he was a regressor.
—This time, there’s no choice but to assume another regression.
—Damn it, how the hell did that many troops appear in occupied territory!?
—Heinz, calm down. The Lieutenant General didn’t know either.
—The Titans are getting more cunning by the day. Sometimes it feels like… they might be regressing too…
—Enough with the ominous talk, Charlotte.
—I know it’s ominous. But shit, it’s driving me insane!
—Could the operation plan have been leaked? I heard the Titans can analyze electronic signals now.
—That’s why the communications unit is jamming with random signals. There’s no way the plan leaked. This was just plain bad luck…
—Lidiya, how’s the aerial search going?
—We’re doing everything we can, but… no results. If anything, the aviation brigade’s losses are mounting because we’re pushing the recon flights too hard. Two helicopters were shot down just yesterday.
—The troops’ morale is in the gutter…
—I don’t care if I get relieved. But sacrificing innocent soldiers is another matter entirely. You know what it’s like—watching comrades who fought beside us die while losing all hope!
—I’m sorry, Lidiya. I didn’t mean…
—I never thought the Commander’s absence would weigh this heavily.
Objectively speaking, none of them lacked ability. If they had, Lutus Edan would never have restored their memories and kept them by his side. Yet none could compare to the “superhuman” Lutus Edan, who smashed through every hardship and adversity like a bulldozer. They had merely been entrusted with a portion of his authority. They were ordinary people who could never reach his level. The role of the “shepherd” who led others through countless deaths was too heavy for anyone to bear alone. Even those who fought beside Lutus Edan could do nothing more than serve as his support—carrying out orders no matter what, sharing in the Commander’s sorrow.
In the end, the decision reached at that meeting was to hold on until the entire timeline could be rewound. The final order Lutus Edan had left them before departing was to maintain the front lines. To offer their lives for humanity’s victory. They knew the Lutus Edan they served would turn back time even if it cost him his life. It would be best if he returned with that familiar bold laugh, but they were prepared to accept even the worst possible future. That was why they were called the ghosts bound to Graveyard.
Yet a month passed, then a month and a half, and the world did not rewind. Everyone fell into confusion. Supreme Headquarters arbitrarily concluded that Lutus Edan had died in action and attempted to transfer control of Graveyard Fortress and the entire theater to someone else. If Arhen Orca had not stormed into headquarters and raised hell, that was exactly what would have happened. Akasha. Akasha’s control could not be handed over to just anyone. It was the formula for victory that Lutus Edan had left behind through thirty-four deaths. If a new commander were appointed to the fortress, control of Akasha would pass with it. Because they could not predict what butterfly effect that might trigger, they resisted Supreme Headquarters in what amounted to near-mutiny. In the end, even Arthur Philias had no choice but to yield. Perhaps they had simply appeared as pitiful fanatics who refused to accept the death of a capable commander and chose to die with him. But in the process, the situation across the Graveyard theater grew worse by the day.
Two outposts fell overnight. One of them had been a fire support base bristling with missile batteries. The eastern front had been completely overrun by a massive offensive; an entire military district was said to have been wiped out. The western front fared no better. Daily casualties, which had averaged over a hundred, had jumped to over a thousand and were now approaching two thousand. The front was collapsing. Not only the central front under Graveyard’s responsibility—humanity itself was falling apart. Faced with the palpable sense of defeat, officers and soldiers alike were dropping out one after another.
And then came the news that Lutus Edan was alive.
“Where? How did you find him!?”
“Lidiya threw every drone she had at it. All forty were shot down, but they confirmed the Commander’s identification signal at the forward fortress line.”
“Aah…!!”
Leah Gilliard was overjoyed to the point of tears. As long as he was alive, that was enough. He could rise again. Even if his legs or arms were severed, he would replace them with prosthetics and stand once more. Nothing was over until every spark of life had been wrung dry. Just as he always had, Lutus Edan would embrace her and greet her with that hearty laugh.
Major Leah Gilliard finished arming herself and headed straight for the parade ground at Graveyard. The others wore equally determined expressions. Leah exchanged a brief word with her supply troops and took her place on the field. On the platform above, Arhen Orca—also fully prepared—looked down at the fortress troops. Leah glanced at Arhen, then turned to the assault brigade commander standing beside her, Brigadier General Drake.
“Charlotte isn’t here?”
“She rushed off to the Ordnance Bureau. She finally got approval to use that prototype weapon she mentioned.”
“That girl really is… something else.”
“You mean it.”
The dinosaur-sized Drake shrugged his massive shoulders. Just as Arhen Orca was about to grab the microphone and outline the rescue operation—
Whyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeng—!!!!
With a siren that tore at the ears, the fortress defense systems activated. It did not take long for everyone at Graveyard to realize what was happening. Countless missiles were raining down from the sky. The fire support base. Missiles launched from the base that had been captured the night before.
“Air raid! It’s an air raid!!! Everyone take cover!!”
Arhen’s scream-like cry was the last thing Leah heard before the fortress anti-air batteries opened up in unison. But it was not enough. Several missiles struck the fortress directly.
Kwaaaang!!
A massive explosion erupted, and the sturdy fortress walls crumbled. The blast from a nearby missile sent Leah sprawling to the ground. Wait. That was where her supply troops had been standing…
Before her eyes lay the scattered remains of someone reduced to chunks of flesh. In the raging flames, blackened human figures writhed and screamed.
“Ah?”
“Get up, Leah!! Snap out of it!!”
Drake hauled her to her feet. With the sound of fortress walls collapsing all around them—bang, kwaang!—Leah and Drake ran and ran. Missiles had been launched? How? Had the Titans learned humanity’s weapon systems? Even as she was dragged along by Drake, countless questions flooded Leah’s mind. But she would never get the answers.
“Wait, Leah, stop!! Something’s coming out of the ground…!? Graaah!?”
Grgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrk—.
A colossal Titan, Ouroboros, revealed itself in the middle of the parade ground. The heaving earth swallowed everything on it—including Brigadier General Drake—into the monster’s enormous maw. If Drake had not desperately shoved Leah away, she would have been caught as well.
“Drake!!!!”
Faced with the loss of her comrade right before her eyes, Leah Gilliard let out a piercing roar and pulled the trigger toward the massive steel serpent.
Tudududududada!!
But rifle rounds that could barely scratch even small Titans had no chance against a colossal one. Click, click! The magazine emptied in an instant, and Leah sank to the ground in despair.
“Lutus.”
The last thing she saw was the horde of Titans pouring out from Ouroboros’s body. That day, Graveyard was thoroughly ravaged by the Titans and finally fell.
And at that same moment—
“Commander… sir, this is as far as I go…”
“…You did well. Durand Sterling. Leave the rest to me.”
“As always, I leave it in your hands.”
Lutus Edan closed the eyes of Durand, the reconnaissance regiment commander who had somehow dragged him out of the forward trench line—known as the “Infinite Labyrinth”—now occupied by Titans. Now he had to return to headquarters. To the place where everyone was waiting for him.