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Bermuda Chapter 109
🕑 Added 2024-05-19 11:33:44 +0000 UTCChapter 109
The 8th Platoon Leader pushed through the piles of earth and sent wind flowing underneath. The wind that flowed once like that did not return. It added credibility to the 6th Battalion Commander's words that there was some space below here.
Of course, that space wouldn't be intact after collapsing, but if the space wasn't blocked and was connected to somewhere else, the phenomenon of the wind not returning was sufficiently understandable.
However, even so, there was no sense of people's movements or presence at all.
The 8th Platoon Leader, who had been under the earth, escaped through the gaps and squeezed her body into other gaps again. The other members, including her, were the same. They were currently digging into the lifted piles of earth and searching one by one to see if there were people.
Delua had said that the radius in which she could lift the earth was not that wide, but the amount of earth and rocks currently floating in the air was truly enormous.
She was in that state, with both arms pressed against the ground and enduring at the very center of the magic circle on the earth. This operation had already been repeated several times, darkness had fallen in the sky, and there was still no progress.
Breath was short, sweat flowed profusely and gathered at the tip of the chin. Delua suddenly wiped away the sticky feeling flowing from the philtrum to the corner of her mouth with her sleeve. Then, the navy blue sleeve was darkly stained, and it was thick for sweat. As she blankly stared at it, red nosebleed dripped onto the back of her hand.
Delua let out a hollow laugh.
"Ah, Commander, where on earth are you! Why isn't this jerk Meterion coming again!"
Her irritated voice spread through the air. Because of that, the 3rd Battalion members who were searching nearby flinched.
It was because while the Commander was missing, Meterion Clinder, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, had sent only some members to cooperate in the search, saying, "The Commander won't die from that extent," and the main force was still advancing.
In the midst of that, Flynn was checking the reactions of about a hundred mana detectors installed nearby one by one. Sweat poured like rain, but there was no time to pay attention to such things.
He was one of the most anxious and worried people, and he was so devoted to the search operation that it made those who saw him feel sorry for him. However, annoyingly, not a single one of the mana detectors showed a proper reaction.
"...Strange."
He muttered as if talking to himself, frowning.
Excluding Kenis Weber, the remaining three of the missing people were all mana holders of battalion commander level or higher, so it was strange no matter how he thought about it that their mana couldn't be felt to this extent.
Flynn had also heard about the story of "a certain space where mana is suppressed and the energy of monsters disappears" that Delua had mentioned. However, even if such a thing existed, he had never imagined that there would be no reaction at all even after installing mana detectors over such a vast range.
Occasionally, when the detector rang and he ran to it, it was from the members who were searching, not detecting the mana of people underground. In the end, he concluded that there was a high possibility that something was really blocking their mana.
'If it's not that, then in the worst case, they're already...'
As an unpleasant thought came to mind, Flynn pulled at his hair. Then, he lowered his head and pulled himself together. They were among the strongest in the empire when it came to power. Although the scale of the collapse was beyond imagination, they would surely still be alive somewhere if it was them.
"Ugh... Flynn Levernil, please think of something. What would the Commander do?"
Flynn plopped down in the middle of the wasteland, ruffled his hair, and hung his head low.
The reason why even the members who could manipulate earth were currently having difficulties in the search was that it was impossible to control the earth beyond a certain depth, and rocks and corpses of monsters were mixed in the soil, making it difficult to accurately distinguish only humans.
Moreover, in a situation like now, if the earth was moved carelessly, a landslide could recur, so the command of Battalion Commander Delua was needed. And the reason she had called the 8th Platoon Leader was not simply to manipulate the wind, but because someone who could feel the wind itself was needed even when mana was nullified.
Then, assuming that there was some boundary that blocked mana when it went beyond a certain depth from the ground surface, couldn't they find them not with mana but with their own characteristics even if they couldn't find them buried with mana?
According to the 6th Battalion Commander, in that underground space, the scale of mana that could be used was reduced by nearly half, but it wasn't completely impossible to use mana.
Flynn, whose thoughts had reached that point, opened his artifact and looked for a heat detector. It was because he thought that if it was Leonardo Blaine, he would emit heat no matter what magic he used, so if he detected hot spots, he could find his location.
However, that thought shattered as soon as Flynn took out the detector.
"Ah."
This place was the Elder Millie Peninsula. As soon as he took out the detector, there was no way he could find him with heat detection in this scorching volcanic zone where the light immediately came on.
Just as he was about to fall into a sense of futility, Flynn thought of the opposite case.
'Cold.'
He immediately jumped up from his spot, took the detector, and crawled under the pile of earth that Delua had lifted. Then, he began to stick the detector here and there.
If the light of the detector went out, it could mean that the Commander was there.
Flynn earnestly hoped that the light would go out now for this detector, which he had been with all the way from Frost, where he had hoped the light would come on.
However, contrary to his wish, even after a fairly long time had passed, the light of the detector did not go out even once.
*
"Huh...?"
When everyone was getting tired, Flynn doubted his eyes.
At that moment, two hours after he had thrown away the mana detector and only carried the heat detector, the light of the heat detector went out for the first time.
Flynn inhaled roughly and shook the detector a few times. When he moved beyond a certain radius, the light came on again, and when he returned to this vicinity, the light went out.
And near Flynn, the 8th Platoon Leader was placing her palm in front of a pile of earth with a focused expression. He didn't know when she had come to this place where he had been alone until just now, but Flynn could intuitively know that the reason she had come here was the same as his own.
"Platoon Leader, do you feel something?"
When Flynn asked, the 8th Platoon Leader, who had been quietly concentrating, raised her head.
"This part, the flow is strange."
Hearing those words, Flynn's eyes were filled with conviction. He immediately held out the heat detector with the light off to the platoon leader.
"The heat detector, which had been on the whole time, only turned off near here."
Seeing that, the 8th Platoon Leader flinched, then stepped back a few steps as if she was likewise convinced and said,
"Come behind me and put up a barrier. I'm going to dig up the ground."
At her words, Flynn immediately went to the back and put up a barrier in front of her and himself. Eventually, the 8th Platoon Leader stretched out her arm toward the place where she had felt the strange flow earlier. The rotation of the air spiraled from her fingertips, and a grayish-white magic circle unfolded in front.
"Air Blast."
As strong shock waves were fired toward the pile of earth, explosive sounds rang out several times, and rocks and soil flew in all directions, drawing the attention of the members who were searching.
At the sudden loud noise, Delua, who was on top of the pile of earth, wanted to know the situation below, but she couldn't let go of the tension because if her concentration was disturbed, those below could be buried. Instead, she shouted at the top of her lungs.
"What! What's going on!"
Regardless of Delua's dispersing voice, the 8th Platoon Leader relentlessly fired attacks diagonally toward the ground. As the impact was continuously applied to the same spot, the ground gradually dug up, creating a very large and deep pit that could fit six or seven people.
However, when the hole deepened to a certain extent, the attacks launched from the outside no longer hit properly and felt like they were missing. At that, the 8th Platoon Leader stopped the attack and jumped into the pit in one breath. Flynn also followed behind her.
If Delua had dug out the earth vertically from the ground surface to a depth of roughly 30 meters and lifted it into the air, the 8th Platoon Leader and Flynn had dug more than 10 meters further down from there. As soon as they landed at the innermost part, a cold chill was felt from the earth that had clearly been damp and warm.
The 8th Platoon Leader lowered her body once again to feel the flow of air.
And at that moment, strange vibrations rang out several times from under the ground.
