Chapter 80: Invasion and Erosion (9)
“Ugh… Haah!”
In the dim underground laboratory’s narrow storage room, a person was struggling, covered in sweat.
With a steel-like will and rage, Reina was furiously rubbing her face against her bound arms. Having been imprisoned until now, she finally managed to remove the gag that was stuffed in her mouth.
“Roses… Orne!”
She spat the names of the vice president of the academy and the head of the research facility, who had committed unspeakable atrocities and even attacked her.
She had no idea what had happened to her.
Breathing heavily, she struggled like a piece of meat hanging in the air. Her hands were still shackled above her head, tied to the wall.
There was only one way to free herself.
Finally getting her body upright, she grabbed the chain, flipped over like climbing a rope, planted her feet on the ceiling, and wedged the chain against her knees.
In that precarious situation, her trembling arms strained as she began to bite and twist the bolt connecting the shackles.
Soon, the poorly maintained, rusty bolt of the shackles rattled.
“Ugh!”
As the shackles came loose, she lost strength and crashed to the stone floor with a loud thud.
Reina, who had been writhing, barely managed to raise her aching body. The flow of magic that had been blocked by the magic-sealing shackles began to surge once again.
She extended her hand, firing a fireball that shattered the locked storage door, allowing her to escape outside.
‘What on earth is going on?’
Her eyes darted around. There was no sign of anyone.
She knew something had happened.
Right after waking from the electric shock, she had clearly heard the horrific screams and loud shouts faintly coming from above ground.
But she couldn’t grasp the situation at all.
Who would dare to attack the head of the academy’s mansion? Thieves? Or perhaps some kind of faction rebelling against the academy?
“Haha…”
However, as Reina staggered up to the surface, she rejected all those possibilities.
Thieves and rebel groups could not possibly create the scene laid out before her eyes.
She collapsed, exhausted.
The bright sunlight illuminated the chaotic interior of the mansion’s first floor.
Considering that this mansion was a three-story house, the destruction that had turned it into a miserable wreck could only have been done by limited individuals.
“This is…!”
At that moment, a powerful wave of magic gently caressed her body on the breeze.
Startled, she stood up quickly and began to look around.
She crawled up the debris of the collapsed roof.
‘The Mage’s Eye..! And such a large one!’
In the distance, something caught her eye in the sky.
A green, glowing magical eye rolled in its socket, scanning its surroundings. In fact, there were four of them.
She recognized that magic. To cast something at that scale, it would require, quite literally, an ‘army’ to be mobilized.
‘What on earth is happening?’
Her face paled as she hurriedly descended to the ground and gulped down some rainwater that had collected.
Unaware that the world had flipped upside down during the two days she had been knocked out and imprisoned.
“Let’s go.”
Slapping her own cheek, she soon began to move. She had already decided where to go.
With the head of the research facility’s mansion being attacked, it was impossible for the nearby city of Rihelrm to remain unscathed.
Though she didn’t know what had happened, she instinctively felt that heading towards the location marked by the eye would be the right course of action.
“The communication orb..!”
As she tried to leave the mansion, she picked up a cracked crystal orb.
However, she quickly hung her head in disappointment. She had tried to contact everyone using the identification numbers she knew, but no one answered.
Reina trudged on.
*
“Those bastards are now…”
“A new group has appeared in the northeast!”
“Keep watching. Can’t we open our eyes wider?!”
This was the heart of the encampment, where Reina was hastening towards after spotting the Mage’s Eye.
Here, a hastily assembled force of 10,000 soldiers were gathered, yet they couldn’t decisively stomp on the enemy’s base.
“There are too many. We should split the army and handle the regional defenses first!”
The reason was the enemies, who seemed to know their weaknesses and were moving deeper inland all around.
Most of the assembled 10,000 troops had ties to the region. It was hard to follow orders from the central command to push forward into enemy territory while leaving the attackers to ravage their homes and villages.
“Damn it. But we don’t know their objective, their exact numbers, or their identity. If we drag this out, who knows what will happen!”
The person dispatched as the Supreme Commander was garbed in a robe decorated with gold thread, a mage from the Continental Council.
Though they sent mages under the agreement to dispatch during emergencies, the academy mages, who were steadily gaining power, were not simply going to obey commands from the council-appointed commander.
“What are you worrying about? We already know all of their movements and numbers. Communication is possible in real-time. If we coordinate our actions, it can work out. In the meantime, the main force will attack their nest!”
“Then, I will lead that separate squad!”
Roses, the vice president of the Clawclaw Academy, eagerly raised his hand to volunteer. Those who didn’t know his true intentions were all impressed, thinking that moving separately from the main force was far more dangerous.
“Then, Roses Revlan of Clawclaw, go to the locations where you give orders and stop the enemies while saving the citizens.”
The Supreme Commander provided him with a crystal orb connected directly to him and 2,000 troops.
A dangerous gamble of potentially capturing two hares with one move. The humans made their bold play.
Their basis was their overwhelming information-gathering and communication system that they believed would prove to be superior.
They could observe the enemies’ movements in real time and respond accordingly.
[How unfortunate. As intended, they have split, but the size of the chunks separating isn’t that significant at 2,000 and 8,000.]
“It doesn’t matter.”
However, they were missing one crucial fact entirely.
Eve sat on the throne established in the nest, her eyes sparkling.
At that moment, the legion was fully aware of their every movement. The birds flying leisurely and the insects crawling on the ground, all the scouts distributed by the legion were equal to the Mage’s Eyes.
And even if they saw each other’s movements, no communication device in this world could rival the Collective Consciousness of the legion.
“Whoa… What the hell.”
“W-Why suddenly, Thompson?!”
“Wh-What am I seeing right now?”
The main force, unaware that the enemy was also observing them, continued their advance.
Naturally, the Mage’s Eye, which acted somewhat as a surveillance tower, continued to turn.
However, one of the mages maintaining that Mage’s Eye, Thompson, was horrified by what he saw through the eye linked to his optic nerve.
“A horrific… horrific nest.”
“That has already been reported! It appears to be an odd and grotesque nest that serves as the enemy’s base…”
“That’s not the level of it at all!”
“Argh!”
“What is that?!”
With Thompson’s scream, the other mages maintaining the Mage’s Eye also screamed in horror.
What appeared before them, after advancing somewhat, was no longer merely a stronghold-sized nest.
A massive and expansive nest was swallowing all the lush greenery and staining it black.
From the viscous puddles where the legion’s all-purpose cells were being cultivated infinitely to the decayed trees growing to a size befitting the World Tree, all were rendered speechless.
