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Bermuda Chapter 112
🕑 Added 2024-05-21 11:32:08 +0000 UTCChapter 112
Seeing her always strong superior blaming himself, the 8th Platoon Leader clenched her fists with excessive force, not even noticing the nail marks digging into her palms. It was because it was difficult for her to continue watching the Commander, whom she respected, in such a state, let alone herself.
The 8th Platoon Leader hurriedly sorted out her emotions and spoke again in a voice that had returned to being cold.
"I will go and find them right away. Other battalion members are still searching, so maybe we'll find them soon."
She lightly bowed her head toward Hugo, then urgently turned her body and moved her steps toward the outside of the tent. At that, some platoon members who had been hesitating also bowed their waists to the Commander and followed the platoon leader.
However, at the voice that came from behind, the platoon leader, who was about to go out, had no choice but to stop abruptly in her place.
"No, we're ending the search operation that mobilized other battalions."
As she stopped, the platoon members following her also stopped in a group.
As the sound of military boots crossing the dirt floor ceased, the 8th Platoon Leader turned to look at him with an expression as if she had misheard and asked,
"Why... are you saying you're ending the search?"
As her confused gaze reached him, Hugo slowly rose from his seat, wiping his face with one hand as if washing it without water. Then, after handing the used handkerchief to Flynn, he put on the protective gear and gloves next to him and stared at her.
Although there was no strength in his eyes at all, that gaze was sharp and fierce, and the precarious appearance from a little while ago was nowhere to be found. And as if pointing out something wrong, he clearly spoke to the platoon leader once again.
"I didn't say we're ending the search, but that we're ending the search that mobilized other battalions."
The 8th Platoon Leader stared into his eyes for a long time to grasp Hugo's intentions.
*
It was late at night when darkness had fallen all around, but the base camp where they were was still brightly lit. In the center of the camp, Hugo, the Commander of the 9th Battalion of the Southern Branch, the Commander of the 6th Battalion of the Central Branch, and some of the other battalions that had come to support were gathered.
As light balls floated around to illuminate the darkness, insects gathered nearby, then fell weakly after touching the hot spheres. Delua, with her nose covered in gauze, looked at the scene with a disgusted expression, then shook her arm moderately and moved her gaze back to the temporary table.
A large map was spread out on the table, and Liner drew lines on it with a pen.
The map showed the topography of the area and the altitudes of the peaks, and the lines Liner drew formed an intertwined circular structure wandering near those peaks. Looking at it, Flynn thought the lines he drew looked like an anthill.
Eventually, Liner closed the pen cap, put it down on the table, and said,
"This is the space that was underground. I can't say I drew it exactly, but the approximate locations and directions should be correct."
Delua widened her eyes and stepped forward. Then, looking at the lines Liner had marked, she asked him,
"Oh, so there really was a space?"
At her question, Liner nodded and replied,
"Yes, not only was there a space, but at the time when the Commander and I first reached it, the spaces were connected like tunnels. Of course, now it will have completely collapsed and been blocked."
At Delua's words that seemed to know about the existence of the space, Hugo turned his head and asked,
"Battalion Commander Rivera, did you know there was a space underground?"
"Ah, yes. I didn't know from the beginning, but I discovered it while chasing the Dermocas in the plains."
Delua blinked her eyes and examined the map, then raised her head and asked the two again,
"But that space, wasn't it a bit strange? If such a place existed in the first place, I would have noticed it even if it was above ground, but I couldn't feel the air currents at all. And when I went inside, it felt like my mana was being suppressed."
Hugo nodded in agreement and said,
"Yes, that's exactly why Battalion Commander Molten and I couldn't escape with just the two of us."
Hugo briefly conveyed the situation of being buried underground with Liner.
At the time when the two of them jumped into the crevice between the cliffs and reached the very bottom, the area had not yet completely collapsed, so the unknown space underground remained intact in its original form.
They wandered through the collapsing tunnels in search of the two missing people, and the first time they realized they couldn't properly use mana was when their flight speed noticeably slowed down.
Afterward, as the peaks began to settle in earnest, they used large-scale magic to block the pouring earth and rocks, but the casting speed and scale fell far short of the original, so the timing was late, and in the end, they were swept away by the pile of earth and completely buried.
However, even while trapped underground, they continued the search for a while, digging through the blocked paths. They wandered for quite a long time in search of traces of the missing people, and only when they realized the lack of oxygen did they move to find a low-lying area with a low risk of landslide recurrence in order to go up to the surface.
But since they couldn't exert their mana as much as their original abilities, it was difficult to gauge the amount of earth piled up, and the psychological pressure of gradually running out of oxygen, exhausted stamina, and the adverse conditions of mana suppression made their escape even more difficult.
Liner shuddered slightly as he recalled the valuable experience of almost freezing to death in the hot underground. Delua, who had been listening to Hugo's words, pondered for a moment, then clapped her hands together as if she had realized something and said,
"The Dermocas I was chasing also escaped into that very tunnel. Then, it's certain that the tunnel-like space you and Battalion Commander Molten saw has the function of blocking some energy and suppressing mana."
"It seems so."
"In that case, that tunnel would have been a passage through which the monsters could pass without being noticed by humans, and if we follow that path, we might discover the nest of the creatures we haven't found yet?"
As Delua's words ended, the 8th Platoon Leader, who had been listening to the story, hurriedly stepped forward and said,
"Then shouldn't we find the missing persons as soon as possible? If those two were attacked by monsters while unconscious..."
"I don't think we need to worry about that."
It was Liner who interrupted the 8th Platoon Leader's words.
"In the path where the Commander and I were searching until the end, there were traces of rocks not only being scorched by fire but also melted."
As she stopped talking and looked at him, Liner pointed to a certain part on the map with his finger and continued. The place he pointed to had two peaks close to each other, looking like a connected passage.
"The place we reached after following those traces would have been around here, but only this passage leading to the other peak was uniquely filled with piles of rocks and blocked. It wasn't just blocked, but quite unnatural as if it had been intentionally blocked."
He repeatedly drew lines on the map with his fingertips.
"We were also buried by the inflowing earth while trying to break through this place, so we couldn't go all the way to the end, but I think the missing persons probably intentionally collapsed the ceiling to block the inflow of earth and sand."
After hearing Liner's words, the 8th Platoon Leader carefully examined the map again. Liner looked at her and shrugged as if to say there was no need to worry too much.
"If it's an S-grade mage who has the presence of mind to do that in such an urgent situation, at least they wouldn't die from being attacked by monsters, right?"
Although there was no significant change in her expression, her dark complexion gradually became tinged with hope. The other platoon members and Flynn were the same. As the possibility that the two missing persons might be alive appeared, the gloomy faces began to brighten.
The 8th Platoon Leader could finally understand the reason why the Commander had said he was ending the search that mobilized other battalions.
If, as Battalion Commander Molten said, they had the mental and physical leeway to intentionally collapse the ceiling to block the path, there was a high possibility that they had safely escaped the collapse site.
And to quickly find them, it would be more efficient to move with a small number of people with good mobility rather than mobilizing a large number of personnel.
She looked back at Hugo with a face that had brightened up as if she finally understood his intention.
However, the moment she saw his expression, she couldn't help but falter.
It was because his face didn't look bright at all, even though it was clearly good news.
Come to think of it, if it was the Commander, he would have been with Battalion Commander Molten the whole time, so he would have seen those traces with his own eyes. Nevertheless, he had been deeply self-blaming and filled with heavy concern earlier.
She, who had barely felt relieved, grasped the string of tension again. Judging from his expression, it didn't seem like such a simple problem. The 8th Platoon Leader stared at the Commander with slightly anxious eyes.
Comments
Jesse Gibson
He had already exhausted his mana and yet he was still able to stop their fall, collapse a tunnel and burn rocks until they melted? Leo is.. amazing. Those conditions don’t mean shit to Leo since he is used to having his mana suppressed- which is another reason that the author is so confusing. Like he can’t be so good that he can do all this shit with mana and then ‘all of sudden’ be unable to control his mana. It just really doesn’t make sense. Either he’s so great that he can use his mana so intricately that other mages can’t even sense it when they are near him and have magic tools or basically escape from a specially made prison car wearing suppression cuffs and then fighting people in a city but still able to control his power and protect the citizens-ALL WHILE BEING SUPPRESSED BY THE CHOKER ON HIS NECK- or he’s just a mage with a lot of mana and has shit control because he wore suppression cuffs so he’s unstable and doesn’t actually have impressive control. It can’t be both, dear author, please choose. Haha end of rant
