It was a bizarre sensation.
A feeling of floating, of my body rising up into the air.
No, it wasn’t that my body was rising. The ground was sinking.
The ground sank, and the walls grew distant.
The entire world was black, as if I had arrived in outer space, but no stars were visible.
Instead, what I saw was a single, enormous magic circle glowing with a black light.
If you asked how black could glow, I’d be at a loss for an answer.
But the magic circle was truly shining with a black radiance.
Looking around, everyone was in the same state.
Some were flailing beneath our feet, which had become impossibly far away, while others were looking around as if fascinated by the situation.
This continued for a while.
Then, an immense wave of magical power began to swirl from the center.
It was an overwhelming energy wave centered on Freya, who had manifested as the dragon’s true body, and Hio Pavlenko, who had raised his staff beside her.
No one present was so weak as to not feel that level of energy.
Starting from that point, everyone’s bodies began to be sucked in rapidly.
The Continental Alliance Army was sucked rapidly into a narrow, long, and pitch-black passage, as if being pulled into a giant vacuum cleaner.
This was the path to the Abyss.
Truly, this was an army gathered from the finest elites of the continent.
They were quick to regain their composure.
We had been told we would directly invade the Magyeong through a passage, but it was called a passage, wasn’t it?
Common sense dictated that we would walk there on our own two feet.
But that was not the case at all.
The passage was forced, and neither body nor soul obeyed our will. We were simply swept along for a long time, like leaves caught in a wave.
It was a time that felt so long and distant that I thought my soul would be ripped away.
If it were an ordinary human or even one who had trained insufficiently, they would have lost their minds and passed out, not even realizing the passage had ended.
But not a single member of the allied army gathered here was weak.
“Ugh……”
“Open your eyes! Snap out of it!”
Even though they had been tumbled through the passage until their souls were nearly ripped out against their will, the moment their feet touched the ground, they shook their heads to regain their balance and their wits.
Truly, they were worthy of being called members of the allied army, chosen as representatives of the continent.
But.
“Th-this is……”
***
After regaining their senses and looking around, they instead let out foolish exclamations.
The place they were standing on was the Magyeong. The Abyss.
What some called the End of the World.
It was a scene that left no room for doubt.
The land was parched, as if it had lost all life, yet strange-shaped plants sprouted everywhere, indifferent to the desolation.
Trees twisted into spirals as if screaming, reaching their hands toward the sky.
Hanging from every branch were small, eyeball-like fruits that glowed faintly.
Through the cracks in the fractured earth, the Abyss leaked out like mist.
In the sky, where it was impossible to distinguish night from day, a mix of purple and black swirled, and a massive crack floated in the center. Looking closely, it seemed to writhe.
With such a sight and scenery before them, even the most hardened allied army was bound to lose their minds.
“Form ranks!”
“Remember! This is the Magyeong!”
But even amidst this, there were those with exceptionally strong mental fortitude, and these individuals were typically commanders leading their own units.
Thanks to their sharp shouts, the allied army began to come to their senses and reorganize their ranks.
But the Abyss’s true welcome had yet to begin.
An eerie silence fell over everything.
The shouts of the unit commanders, their voices straining at the limit, could no longer be heard.
No, not even the clatter of armor or the signs of movement could be heard.
Even my own footsteps were silent, and a question, truly, a question began to overwhelm me.
Am I really here?
And just as that thought surged up…
–Kyaaaak!
-Help! Please, save me!
Screams erupted.
“Erupted” is the right word.
The screams, both distant and near, burst forth so abruptly from the overwhelming silence.
The flustered knight quickly turned his head, but there was no one asking for help, no one screaming.
In fact, not a single one of the many knights who had been standing in formation was visible.
It was confusing and bewildering.
But I couldn’t even process the confusion and bewilderment.
Because there was no time to think about it.
The moment they set foot in the Magyeong, at the End of the World.
They were already the Abyss.
And so they sink endlessly.
They had been tainted the moment they arrived.
It was a space where even maintaining consciousness was a luxury for knights who were merely moderately strong.
From the center of such a space, a pure white light radiated.
“Open your eyes, everyone.”
It was a miracle.
A holy power.
The sacred light radiating from the Holy Maiden, no, the Apostle Irina, enveloped the vast space entirely.
It was a declaration that the entire area was her domain.
Those who had been consumed by the Abyss barely managed to open their eyes.
They thought they had their eyes open, but at some point, their minds had been seized by the Abyss and they had collapsed.
“Be careful.”
Irina’s elegant voice spread far and wide, riding on the divine power.
The Holy Maiden’s voice cleared away the muddy remnants of the Abyss and fully awakened the minds of the allied army.
“The place we stand is the End of the World.”
This was the End of the World. The Abyss.
If there was a silver lining, I suppose this was it.
We had avoided the worst-case scenario we had imagined.
The biggest concern was Kreutzvalt noticing the existence of the passage and tampering with it, but there seemed to be no sign of that.
The fact that most of the knights lost consciousness upon arrival was due to the sheer purity of the Abyss’s energy, which was incomparable to that of the continent, and not because of any trick by Kreutzvalt.
“Shouldn’t securing an escape route be our top priority?”
At Vitalianus’s words, Hio nodded and looked up at Freya.
“Freya and I will check the magic circle, so I’ll leave the base construction to you.”
“Of course.”
The highest priority was securing the escape route.
In other words, making sure there was a way back.
It had a huge impact on the army’s morale, and there was no need to elaborate on the difference between having a fallback point and not having one.
We needed to quickly set up a base, coordinate well with Irina and the priests of Hibernia, and create the optimal defensive line.
“We’ll go check on the passage.”
Everyone began to move busily, finding their own roles.
For reference, Furnel couldn’t come along.
He insisted on coming right up to the end, but what can’t be done can’t be done.
For no other reason, but because of the divine power, Furnel couldn’t survive here for even a moment.
After all, he was technically a Specter’s body.
Any being that twists death in any way is inherently vulnerable to divine power, and there’s no way Furnel, a former Necromancer, didn’t know that.
Yet he still insisted on coming.
Well, in the end, he had to stay behind at the Dragon’s Temple, thoroughly sulking.
Anyway, we had arrived safely in the Abyss, and there was a mountain of work to do.
We checked the passage, engraved new magic circles, and with Irina, we determined a territory and spread divine power within it.
To ensure that no matter how dense the Abyss’s energy, it could never intrude.
This was to be an absolute mental shield and the allied army’s final line of defense.
“The base is constructed as well.”
Meanwhile, the legion’s base was also completed.
For a base where tens of thousands of troops might have to hold out for days, weeks, or even months, it was completed remarkably quickly.
Since it was the top priority and most important task, it was finished swiftly.
Now, it was time to move forward.
“Are we going to expand the territory?”
At Vitalianus’s question, Hio shook his head.
There was a method of expanding the territory step by step.
It was a way to pioneer the Abyss with the most safety, even if it meant some sacrifice from the allied army.
It was a way to make the most use of the large force.
“But it’s a race against time.”
The question was whether we could defeat Kreutzvalt or not. We weren’t here for a land war in this terrible environment.
“I figured you’d say that. The troops are divided, so you just need to figure out how you’re going to get to Kreutzvalt.”
“Right.”
Hio’s gaze turned to a distant place.
This wasn’t the End of the World that Hio knew.
It was the same landmass, that was true.
The environment that drove a normal human mad the moment they set foot here was similar, and the landscape warped and twisted into grotesque forms was similar as well.
But the place Hio had been, where Kreutzvalt resided, wasn’t a place with such an open view like this.
It was a place where ash flew year-round, and the energy of the Abyss was several times denser, making it impossible to see an inch ahead.
For example.
“……It’s over there.”
A place like an ash-covered zone visible in the distance.
At Hio’s muttering, the eyes of everyone nearby turned to the same place he was looking.
Even in this environment where trees, ground, and sky were all abnormal, it was a particularly strange place.
A place so dark and shrouded by something billowing that you couldn’t even see what it was.
“Over there, you say.”
“Kreutzvalt is there……”
Kreutzvalt is over there.
“Are you just going to stand there and gawk? Didn’t you say it was a race against time?”
“……You’re right. We need to move quickly.”
We need to get as close as possible while Kreutzvalt hasn’t noticed.
We can’t be sure if he really hasn’t noticed or not, but he’s not making any moves for now.
We need to select the optimal number of people to break through that ash-covered zone together.
Too many people would just get in the way.
But moving with too few could lead to stamina issues in the face of the endless Night of Aberrations.
This was an expedition that could take days or even months, and there was no way of knowing.
“So……”
Hio scanned the faces of those gathered nearby.
They were the true powerhouses of the continent, the kind who would find it difficult to gather in one place under normal circumstances.
Of course, most of them were faces Hio knew.
“The personnel who will advance into the ash-covered zone with me are……”
This could practically be called the final expeditionary force, a suicide squad.
Risking their lives was a given, and it would be dozens of times more dangerous than being here at the passage guarded by tens of thousands of troops.
Nevertheless, the eyes of those looking at Hio flickered with ambition.
Because all of them were strong.
They wanted to fight that so-called ‘Master of the Abyss’ monster themselves.
Perhaps they also wanted to see the incredible feats that had spread after Hio’s battle in Hibernia firsthand.
“Vitalianus, Airlights, Freya. And Regarda.”
These four were naturally coming along.
They were the only ones who could help Hio, let alone hold him back.
The problem was after this.
It was highly likely that anyone else coming along would not be helpful in the battle against Kreutzvalt.
But they still needed people to help them get there.
“Gale and Melissa.”
The first to be called were Gale, the captain of the 1st Knight Order, and Melissa of the Royal Knights.
Gale was a knight considered to be just below Vitalianus, and Melissa was an Enlightened One who had barely awakened her Ideation.
They would be of great help in the battle against the Strange Entities.
Next, Hio’s gaze turned to…
“Claire.”
The red-haired girl who was with him at the beginning of this unfamiliar continent.
She had now grown into a proper woman and had become someone who was by his side even at this final decisive battle.
Claire stepped forward with a slightly flushed expression and stood behind Hio.
After that, Hio called a few more people and ordered them to join.
All were famous for being strong and cool-headed.
And so…
***
After passing by person after person, he arrived at a unit that was noticeably smaller in number compared to the others.
This specially formed unit was made up of powerhouses from another world.
In other words, it was the unit of the Possessed.
Leading them was, of course, Antipus.
Behind him, the faces of Sirbert and Daphne could also be seen.
Hio’s steady footsteps soon reached them.
Naturally, Antipus and Hio’s eyes met, and Hio’s mouth slowly opened.
But…
“Antipus.”
Hio’s footsteps did not stop.
“You stay here.”
Leaving only those words, he passed right by them.