Chapter 33
Alice. Fatima. They came out of the camp with the Associate Knights and Knights. They were safe for now.
Teresa dragged Mikhail out, threw the boy outside the camp, and went back inside to help others.
Vice-Captain Baron was rummaging through the tents near the Node, checking if anyone was left. Baraha followed Baron, helping him.
And Ian Pelletro was seen nearby.
The distance was far. Eki headed towards them, against the people rushing out of the camp. Someone tried to grab her to stop her, but she avoided the hand like flowing water. She couldn't pick up speed because of the cadets pouring out. It would be easy to use Mana to run, but that would be too noticeable.
At the edge of the Node, the distorted glass marble-like thing grew little by little. Baron had almost finished checking the nearby tents and was getting out. Baraha followed Baron. Ian stopped him.
Even though the distance was quite far, their conversation was clearly audible to Eki's senses.
"Why, Cadet Representative?"
"I thought I checked all the cadet barracks, but there's one freshman barrack I haven't checked."
"Freshman? Who?"
"Ekinesia Roaz, her barrack is separate..."
Why was her name coming up here? Eki was dumbfounded. She raised her voice and called out to Baraha. But her voice was drowned out by the loud emergency bell and the cadets' voices.
'Should I just use Mana, or no, I can't...'
Conflict swirled. Yuriene would be testing whether she was a Demon Sword's demon or just the eccentric genius Ekinesia Roaz, so she couldn't show herself using Mana. It was too abnormal.
While she was hesitating, Baraha turned and headed towards Eki's barrack. Ian followed him.
Her heart raced. Eki pushed through the obstructing cadets. She threw away the annoying umbrella. Her cloak was pulled, perhaps caught on another cadet's scabbard, so she threw away the cloak as well.
Pouring rain, a damp smell, clothes and hair getting wet, occasional lightning strikes, the sound of thunder that seemed to crush the sky, the ear-splitting emergency bell, anxious shouts, uneasy expressions.
Beyond that, Baraha was seen reaching Eki's barrack and lifting the entrance cloth.
Her barrack was near the center. There was a refracted space right above, widening its range. If he took just one more step to the right, he would be swallowed by that Node.
Ian approached behind Baraha. Eki pushed past one of the Associate Knights in front of her, almost knocking him over, and ran towards them.
"Senior Baraha!"
Finally, her voice reached him. Baraha took his head out of the barrack and looked back at her. The man's expression relaxed slightly as if relieved to see her.
At the same time, his body staggered. It wasn't enough to fall over. Just a small imbalance that could be corrected with one step back. But that step touched the Node.
Baraha's body was swallowed and disappeared beyond the refracted space.
Eki, who arrived late, looked at the spot with a pale face. Ian stood where Baraha had disappeared. He skillfully hid his hand and groaned as if shocked.
"Oh my god, Baraha..."
Eki stood there, soaked in the rain, and looked at him. She couldn't see everything because she was blocked by Baraha's bulk, but she didn't miss even a fleeting glimpse. Especially since she was in a state of extreme concentration.
Ian Pelletro had just concealed a dagger in his sleeve. A crude, small, razor-like dagger. The tip of the dagger was stained with red blood. He stabbed Baraha in the back and pushed him, causing him to touch the Node. The wound itself wouldn't have been much, but the loss of balance it caused was fatal.
Ian looked at the Node that had swallowed Baraha with a bewildered expression, then rushed to Eki. He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her, saying.
"Cadet Ekinesia, what are you doing here! It's dangerous here. Let's get out."
Eki looked back at him. Ian was painting an expression mixed with worry and fear. His face looked so gentle and kind that she was speechless. She muttered quietly.
"You should have gone to a theater troupe instead of the Military Academy, Senior."
"Huh? What are you talking about? Let's get out first. We'll talk outside."
Eki glanced outside. Almost all the cadets had left. Vice-Captain Baron belatedly realized that Baraha, who had been following him, had disappeared and was coming back. He was a muscular man even bigger than Baraha. His sturdy face showed bewilderment as he discovered them right in front of the Node.
"What are you doing! Get out!"
Beyond Baron's massive shoulders, beyond the gathered cadets, a white man was seen running towards the camp. Yuriene. The distance was too far to see his face. Eki looked back at the approaching Baron.
〈Don't go outside, stay here, and die with me.〉
In the erased past, Baron, covered in blood among other dead knights, had said that. Behind him was the firmly closed castle gate. The knights and Associate Knights, and cadets that Baron sent out evacuated the citizens. Screams were heard over the walls, even reaching her.
Ekinesia approached him with a smiling face. Baron raised his sword. The Mad Sword Salik Giosa. Made from human rage and madness, the sword was jagged and huge, like the teeth of a beast. It was a greatsword that suited his massive frame.
She entrusted herself to madness and subdued him, who was rampaging like a beast. She cut off his neck and opened the castle gate. In the end, Baron couldn't stop her, but the time he bought probably saved quite a few lives.
"I'll go out now. Vice-Captain, but Cadet Baraha..."
Ian moved forward and said in a trembling voice. Now, to that Baron, he was going to say that his Squire had been swallowed by the Node? After doing such a thing with his own hands? Eki laughed. Laughter came out on its own.
'The human who should die lives, and the human who should live dies. I don't like this.'
Her hand touched Ian's back as he moved forward. Great strength was not needed. The Node was close behind his back. She took the strength out of her legs and fell backward. At the same time, she grabbed Ian's clothes as if she didn't want to fall.
The Node swallowed them softly like a bubble. The sight of the Vice-Captain widening his eyes and reaching out his hand faded into the distorted view.
"This...!"
Baron's hand cut through the air. What he saw was Ekinesia falling over and Ian staggering, both being sucked into the Node.
Baron stared at the Node with a pale face. The swollen Node shook irregularly. It's going to burst. That was going to burst soon. With an intense premonition, Baron instinctively used Mana to back away.
His premonition was correct. The Node swelled up. It grew like a balloon filled with air, then swallowed almost the entire camp before disappearing without a trace. All the barracks in the camp disappeared. All that remained in its place was dug-up land.
He froze blankly. Behind him, there was a presence approaching with rough breaths.
"Lord Baron."
"Commander."
"What... what happened just now?"
Baron turned his creaking neck and looked back. He opened his mouth to report, but he involuntarily closed his mouth the moment he saw Yuriene's face.
Baron was over forty years old. He was the longest-serving Giosa Owner, having been a Giosa Owner since the previous Commander's time. And Yuriene was the first Squire he had ever taken.
Baron had taken Yuriene as his Squire when he was a sophomore at the Military Academy, nineteen years old. The relationship naturally ended when Yuriene became a Master and a formal Knight at the age of twenty-three, and the hierarchical relationship was reversed when he became the youngest Commander.
He was serving the one who had been his Squire as his superior, but Baron had never been dissatisfied with that fact. He had expected that he would surpass him not long after he first took him as his Squire.
So Baron had been watching Yuriene for almost nine years, from when he was a Military Cadet to when he became the Commander. Although the relationship had changed from Squire and Lord to Vice-Captain and Commander.
Yuriene was making an expression that even Baron had never seen before.
"...Ekinesia Roaz? What happened to her?"
He asked as if squeezing it out. Baron almost stepped back without realizing it. The Yuriene he knew was always on the right path, a calm and cool man as if he had no human greed. When he looked at him, he wondered if his boiling point was so high that it didn't exist at all.
But now he was showing a murderous intent that seemed to tear someone apart, and at the same time, a precariousness that seemed to crumble at any moment. It seemed to be vaporizing rather than boiling. It was terribly unfamiliar.
Baron answered with a slight stutter.
"She seems to have been swallowed by the Node."
"Where did the Node go? Has it already been separated?"
"Yes, it was separated just now."
Once the Rakia Giosa completely cut off the space and the Node was separated from this world, there was no way to find it or enter it. Until time flowed and the remnants poured out on their own.
Yuriene stared at the place where nothing remained. His pale face looked like it would shatter.
* * *
The inside of the Node was the same space as the outside. To be exact, it was the same but a different space. The same barracks, the same camp, but governed by different laws.
Instead of a rainy night, it was an evening with an ominous twilight. The floor was muddy. A liquid so red that it looked black filled the floor like a swamp. Shadows in soldier's uniforms wandered through it, stabbing each other. But because they were shadows, none of them fell.
Monsters gushed out of the liquid flowing on the floor and flowed down from the blood-like twilight. They licked up the soldier's shadows and grew in size. The shadows stabbed each other without caring that the soldier next to them was being eaten by a Monster. The scene was as surreal as a newly born hell.
Ekinesia regained her balance the moment she felt a bubble-like sensation as she fell backward. Her high-heeled ankle boots splashed into the swamp. The shoes were ruined beyond repair. She stood up straight and let go of Ian's clothes that she was holding.
"This is..."
Ian hadn't grasped the situation yet. Eki left him alone and first looked around. Finding Baraha was the most urgent thing.
[Wow, what is this place? It makes me feel so good?]
Bardelgiosa chattered in an excited voice.
'It seems to be a space overflowing with murderous intent. It's a battlefield, so it's only natural.'
Eki checked the fighting shadow soldiers and Monsters, then quickly hid inside the barrack next to her. It happened to be her own barrack that was swallowed by the Node together.
Ian, who was standing awkwardly, followed her in. Eki left him alone and looked outside the barrack. Finding Baraha was the most urgent thing.
"...You."
A calm voice was heard from behind. Eki answered without turning around.
