Several days had passed since the Expeditionary Force entered the Ash Zone.
There was no way to check the time, but since night and day had swapped a few times, Hio guessed that several days had gone by.
As Hio had predicted, their forward progress was fast.
Even though the nights were long, all eight members of the expedition were fulfilling their roles perfectly, so there were no issues with stamina either.
“How much further must we go?”
“……I’m not sure.”
In response to Vitalianus’s question, Hio tore his gaze away from the Artifact and stared straight ahead.
All that was visible was the gray ash and pitch-black darkness, but even so, he could feel something.
“It won’t take much longer. Three days at the latest.”
If day turned to night and night turned to day just three or four more times, they would be able to reach Tetradia.
At least, that’s what Hio felt.
“Good.”
That was just the right amount of time.
Although each member of the expedition was a superhuman who transcended human limits, going beyond four days could put a strain on their stamina.
To face Kreutzvalt in the best possible condition, that amount of time was perfect.
As he was moving with that thought, Freya suddenly stuck her head in.
Even though it was daytime, she was hiding her presence as much as possible, so it was the usual form of the small girl.
“But, sir. Does that person, Kreutzvalt, really have no weakness?”
“Not that I know of, at least.”
“How is that possible? Even a dragon has a weak spot, the ‘reverse scale.’ Every being has a weakness.”
“Well. Maybe……!”
“Maybe?”
“……Never mind.”
“Huh?”
Perhaps the very act of obtaining the Divine Status itself held Kreutzvalt’s weakness.
Because Kreutzvalt was so obsessed with it.
He entertained the thought for a moment, but he didn’t voice it.
After all, it was just a baseless feeling.
“Speaking of weaknesses……”
His fight with him hadn’t been long, but he had certainly felt it.
A feeling as if he were fighting the Abyss itself.
His Ideation didn’t work, and Kreutzvalt’s Ideation devoured everything it touched.
What could he possibly use to fight someone like that?
“I’ll just have to find it while we fight.”
Hio had told them all of Kreutzvalt’s abilities that he knew.
Kreutzvalt’s pitch-black Ideation that devoured everything, the main attacks he used, and every single magic spell he had ever used—he passed it all on without missing a single one.
So the only thing left to do was to prolong the battle and look for an opening.
“Well, there are a lot of things that have changed compared to before.”
There were plenty of reasons to see the situation positively.
By obtaining the Divine Status, the level of his soul and body had risen to an incomparable degree.
At a glance, one might not feel a huge difference, but it was a much larger difference than one might think, and the higher the dimension of the battle, the more likely it was that this kind of fundamental gap would decide the outcome.
Not to mention, he now possessed two Divine Authorities that he hadn’t had before.
One inherent Authority and one from the Magician’s domain.
He was certain that these alone could deal effective damage to Kreutzvalt.
If he were alone, he might have been uneasy.
But he wasn’t alone, was he?
By Hio’s side was another God, the Airlights.
Her power was next to Hio’s—no, it was comparable to his, and she would be a threat to Kreutzvalt.
“Come to think of it, did I ever tell you what Authority I got?”
At the sudden question that popped into his head, Hio looked at the Airlights. As always, she smiled softly and met his gaze.
“Yeah. Of course I did.”
“Did I?”
“You must have been out of it when I told you. It’s nothing too complicated, so when the battle starts, Hio will understand it right away. Just see for yourself then.”
As the Airlights said, he had been insanely busy for a while.
It must have been a bit more intense than he thought.
Ever since he had achieved enlightenment and awakened his Ideation, he had almost never forgotten or missed anything.
“Okay.”
Anyway, the situation wasn’t all that bad.
Not only the Airlights, but also a solid force of supporters to back him up and help him were with him.
They advanced for another two hours.
It was daytime now, and there were no variables.
……That was, until just now.
“……Hold on.”
“Wait a moment.”
The entire expedition, which had been moving quickly, stopped at Hio’s words.
“What’s the matter?”
Tension naturally rose.
The only variable they knew of that could occur during the day was one.
Kreutzvalt had appeared.
Or they had found a trace of him.
They sharpened their senses and scanned their surroundings, but they felt nothing.
“I don’t feel anything……”
It was just the usual dreary and eerie atmosphere.
But Hio, unconcerned, quietly closed his eyes.
It was to focus.
To find that one single, faint thread of a trace he had barely sensed.
And soon, his eyes shot open.
“There.”
Pointing to a spot, he immediately started moving.
It was an energy he had felt before.
It was so faint that if he had let his guard down, he would never have been able to find it.
Freya had missed it, and even the Airlights had missed it.
Only Hio had sensed the anomaly.
It was possible because he had felt this phenomenon before.
At the scene he rushed to, it was just as he had expected.
Familiar letters were written there.
Characters made by tightly clumping together the ash.
Remnants of fine magical energy.
– Chase Kreutzvalt.
It was a trace of the Suicide Squad.
The Allied Forces camp, guarded by Antipus.
Actually, the phrase ‘guarded by him’ wasn’t quite accurate either.
There was no doubt that Antipus was a strong individual, but the Allied Forces numbered in the tens of thousands, and each and every one of them was formidable.
Still, Antipus was strong.
His skill was truly outstanding even within that legion of tens of thousands.
“Block them! Do not let them inside the sacred domain!”
The terrible beings that came every night.
The grotesque entities for which the word ‘Strange Entity’ felt somehow inadequate.
These were the worst of the worst, incomparable to the Abyss Monsters or low-level Strange Entities they had seen outside.
“Ugh, aaah!”
“The, the sky!”
Every night, things that defied common sense happened without fail.
To name a few shocking ones: the sky would suddenly collapse like just now.
The ground would shake, and spikes would spring up from beneath their feet.
At the very least, their bodies would even be flipped upside down.
Given the situation, they should have been wavering, but the Allied Forces, composed of only the finest elites, managed not to get pushed back too much.
And so, they were able to endure for several days.
“I really hate to say this…… but every day is a new kind of hell.”
Sirbert’s grumbling was understandable.
The number of Strange Entities pouring in each night was like a tidal wave.
And when the next night came, a new Strange Entity they had never seen before would pour in.
“If it’s this bad here, what must it be like further inside……”
‘How much worse must it be?’
Compared to the Ash Zone visible in the distance, this place felt like paradise.
Except for the grotesquely twisted trees, there were no significant obstacles.
The surroundings were filled with the divine energy of the Holy Kingdom, preventing the Abyss from daring to enter.
And tens of thousands of elite troops were tightly gathered.
For those in danger, a hand of rescue was immediately extended, and those who needed to disengage from combat could easily fall back and receive treatment from a priest.
The battlefield was wide open, and the small darkness that obstructed their vision was also repelled by the divine power.
“It’s been a few days already, and it seems like nothing’s happened yet.”
With a small margin of leisure, they could even exchange conversations like this from time to time.
“You said it. It doesn’t seem like there’s an immediate problem…… but who knows what will happen if this situation continues.”
“That’s exactly what I mean. The problem is that there’s nothing we can do about it right now anyway.”
He had become quite close with Sirbert.
They had rarely had private conversations before, but being together with the Allied Forces created many opportunities to talk.
“Anyway, tonight should pass without any major problems, right?”
“Yeah. That’s what’s important.”
No matter how much they emphasized that it was a good environment, this was still the Abyss.
It was better than the Ash Zone, but this was never a place where humans could stay for months.
Making it through a single day safely was already doing pretty well.
“When it’s daytime today, I’m thinking of telling the troops that advanced near the Ash Zone to pull back a bit.”
“The troops?”
“Yeah. In my opinion, it seems like……”
The two were having that conversation when it happened.
Kuuuuuuuung
Suddenly, a sound like something exploding came from far away.
‘No, was it an explosion?’
It was closer to an earth-shaking rumble.
A heavy rumble, like a giant object falling from a great height in the sky.
If something of that magnitude had happened, the sight should have been visible within their field of vision, but at least nothing was visible to the two of them.
Only the relentless wave of Strange Entities was stamped in their eyes.
Kuuuuuung—
As if the previous sound wasn’t a mistake, the noise came again.
This time, it was clearer than the first.
Kuuuuuuuung
By the third time, the vibration was enough to make the ground tremble faintly beneath their feet.
Kuuuuuuuung
It wasn’t until the fourth time that the two were certain.
This was the sound of some monster simply taking a step.
The interval at which the sound came, and its very nature, was the sound of footsteps.
Kuuuung
By the fifth time, it was strong enough to jolt their bodies.
And they could pinpoint the direction of the sound.
Kuuuuuung
On the sixth step, they turned their gaze towards the direction and began to see it.
A gigantic form piercing through the ash and revealing itself.
“W-what is that……”
Even the veteran knights of the Allied Forces were dumbfounded, staring at it with their mouths agape.
“It’s a, a Strange Entity!”
“It’s a Colossal Abnormality!”
It was truly the arrival of a calamity.
“The Suicide Squad? The Suicide Squad is……?”
He had told everyone, including Vitalianus, about the Suicide Squad. The magicians who were tricked by Kreutzvalt a thousand years ago and went into the Abyss with him.
They had remained in the Abyss, resisting Kreutzvalt all this time.
He hadn’t seen them in detail, but there were about six or seven of them.
They were presumed to be magicians, and their realm was at least 7th Circle. Since a great deal of time had passed, perhaps some of them had even risen to the 8th Circle.
They would have needed to be at least that strong to still exist and stand against Kreutzvalt.
“If that’s true, isn’t that excellent news?”
“If we can meet them, our combat power will skyrocket instantly!”
“But Hio said he never met the Suicide Squad in person either. I’m a bit suspicious.”
Opinions were divided within the expedition.
The thought that the Suicide Squad would be a formidable force if they joined, and the thought that it was hard to believe.
“Whatever the case, the conclusion will only come once we actually meet this Suicide Squad, won’t it?”
“That’s true.”
Debating it a hundred times without even meeting them was meaningless.
It wouldn’t be too late to judge after we meet them.
“For them to have left a trace here means they are aware of us…… Magician, was there any other distinguishing feature of the Suicide Squad?”
“Another distinguishing feature…… The fact that they were incredibly lacking in presence.”
When they escaped from the World’s End last time, it seemed that not only Hio but also Kreutzvalt failed to notice the Suicide Squad’s presence until the very end.
They were only discovered when the area suddenly brightened from the aftermath of a Transcendent Skill.
“A lack of presence so peculiar that they could survive in a place like this.”
“Then that will make them even harder to find.”
“This won’t be easy.”
Everyone was nodding in agreement.
“Huh?”
Freya tilted her head and pointed behind Hio.
“Isn’t that that person?”
Everyone’s heads snapped around simultaneously.
There, they saw the figure of a stranger.
It wasn’t Kreutzvalt.
Then, there was only one answer.
“The Suicide Squad?”
It was the Suicide Squad.