[381] : Suffocating Burden—Elemental Warning, Demonia!

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"Ivan, Aley! You two compare and correct the left and right halves of this map with our existing charts. I'll copy the strategic and territorial data," Riku commanded, his voice as calm and steady as ever despite the monumental discovery.

"Aschente!" Ivan and Aley replied in unison, their voices filled with barely contained excitement. It was the oath they made to the fallen, a promise to carry on their will.

The three of them quickly took out paper, ink, and measuring tools from their packs and began their work. Time was short; they had to copy the map quickly and accurately.

Just then, Aley seemed to think of a solution to their time crunch.

"Hey, Riku, can't we just take this map projector back with us?" Seeing Riku slowly look up, Aley pressed on. "It would be more accurate, right? It's not too big to carry, and we wouldn't have to waste paper and time."

"No. We can't take back anything that runs on Elementals. Get back to copying," Riku cut him off before he could finish.

"But if it's just this much—"

"Aley."

Riku's voice became as sharp as a razor's edge as he coldly spoke Aley's name.

"If you want to die, just say so. I'll grant your wish." His expression vanished, his dark eyes radiating a chilling, murderous intent.

"After all," Riku's voice dropped to a low growl, "Your death is a better price to pay than leading monsters that can sense Elementals back to our settlement and getting everyone killed."

"I-I get it! I'm sorry, I was wrong!" Terrified by Riku's words and expression, Aley quickly shook his head.

"Still, you didn't have to get that angry..." Aley muttered under his breath.

"Aley, Riku is right. Have you forgotten our creed?" Ivan interjected, his voice firm, his own expression just as serious.

Seeing the looks on both Riku's and Ivan's faces, Aley swallowed hard.

"'We do not exist. We cannot exist. For only in non-existence can we remain unseen.'"

"So you do remember," Ivan said, his expression softening slightly. "Dying for a stupid reason like 'copying the map is too much trouble' would be meaningless, wouldn't it?"

'We do not exist. We cannot exist. For only in non-existence can we remain unseen.'

This was the rule Riku had established after becoming the leader of their settlement. Thanks to their strict adherence to this rule, since the day the thirteen-year-old Riku took command of their thousand-strong tribe after it was nearly wiped out again, only forty-seven people had died in five years.

Five years, only forty-seven deaths.

And all of them had died on 'expeditions' like this one. For a settlement living in such a desperate environment, this was nothing short of a miracle. Before Riku took charge, when their tribe had numbered two thousand, the number of people 'culled' just to solve food shortages was many times that number. And if they encountered another race, the death toll could easily reach the hundreds, even thousands.

This was why everyone in the settlement trusted Riku.

They had all entrusted their lives to his shoulders.

Although every time Ivan met Riku's dark, chaotic eyes, he felt a pang of guilt. After all, he was only eighteen. The burden he carried was suffocating.

But they had no choice. In this world, only Riku could do what he did. They could only rely on him. Therefore, he would not allow anyone to question Riku's orders. If Aley had truly forgotten their creed, Ivan would not have forgiven him, even if they were brothers in arms.

"Sorry," Aley whispered. He shared Ivan's feelings.

Everyone in their settlement understood Riku's importance. They would all follow his steps to the death. He had only been trying to save some resources for the settlement and had gotten carried away by a bit of wishful thinking. But Riku and Ivan's rebuke had brought him back to reality. He focused his mind and returned to his work.

Though they had argued, none of them had ever stopped moving their hands. Even Aley, who had suggested taking the device, knew what was most important.

Years of survival in this world had taught him that. Even when facing death.

Just as the three were about to finish their work, the ground beneath them began to tremble with heavy, rhythmic vibrations.

"!"

In that instant, as if by a prearranged signal, the three of them simultaneously dropped into a low crouch and darted into the shadows to hide.

Crouched in a dark corner, they did their best to conceal their presence, silencing their breathing, their heartbeats, any sound that might give them away.

Riku, as their leader, slipped off his glove, took out a knife, and without hesitation, sliced the tip of his index finger. He pressed the exposed nerve against the floor, gathering information from the vibrations, while his other hand was cupped behind his ear, listening intently.

In a situation like this, Riku never considered visual confirmation; peeking out was suicide. Lying on the ground with his ear to the floor was also out of the question, as he needed to listen for sounds from above ground as well.

This was Riku's brutally rational method for analyzing any information his enemies inadvertently leaked. Even from just vibrations and sounds, he could infer a surprising amount of detail based on their intensity and rhythm.

As he analyzed, he used hand signals to convey the information to his companions.

"Fifty meters away. Bipedal. One of them. Movement is heavy and slow. Based on the stride, its height is roughly six meters."

Based on the intelligence from Riku, Ivan's mind raced, and he came to a bitter conclusion.

It's a Demonia!

Aley, reaching the same conclusion, had a look of terror on his face. Demonia were ranked eleventh among the fifteen races. They were beings that humans could not hope to resist. If they were discovered, the best-case scenario was a quick death.

The worst-case scenario? The creature would follow their tracks back to the settlement, resulting in the annihilation of every last human.

Having identified the enemy, Riku instantly turned to meet Ivan's eyes. In that moment, Ivan knew what Riku was about to say.

"Ivan, this is an order."

"I'm ordering you to die here."

As his comrade, Ivan knew Riku would say these words. Only by creating a diversion, by drawing the Demonia's attention, could he give Riku and Aley a chance to escape.

It was the only way to protect their hard-won prize with the smallest possible sacrifice. The forty-seven who had died before him had all died in this way.

Ivan had already made his peace with it.

Just as he steeled himself, waiting for Riku to give the final command, a clear, loud voice suddenly echoed through the silent ruins.

"So, you're the Demonia, huh?"

————

Mika tilted his head up, curiously observing the six-meter-tall creature looming over him. He knew of the Demonia by name, but this was his first time seeing one up close.

As he watched, a stream of information from the starry expanse flooded his mind, filling in the gaps in his knowledge of this world. He now understood. The Demonia, ranked eleventh among the fifteen races of this era, were not creations of the Old Deus like the others.

They were demonic beasts spawned by the 'Devil,' a unique mutation from the second-ranked Phantasma race. This explained their inherent flaws; most were little more than monsters with low intelligence, beasts with just enough cunning to lose the pure predatory instincts that would have made them truly dangerous.

A creature that would openly walk around in a place like this, allowing prey like Riku's group to spot it, was undoubtedly one of the lowest of its kind.

'It kind of looks like a troll,' Mika mused, stroking his chin as he compared the beast to creatures from other worlds.

But only a little.

The differences are still vast.

"ROOOAR!"

The Demonia, feeling disrespected by this tiny morsel of prey who wasn't fleeing in terror but was instead muttering to itself, let out a deafening roar and lunged forward.

"Silence."

Mika casually put a hand up, shielding himself from the spray of saliva that accompanied the roar. A beast of this size could probably drench him with a single shout, a truly horrifying thought. While he hadn't cared about such things during his dungeon-crawling days, who would willingly choose to experience it?

"Ugh, when was the last time you brushed your teeth? That breath is foul."

Though the Demonia couldn't understand his words, the sheer contempt in his tone was unmistakable. Enraged, it attacked, its gaping, bloody maw snapping shut as it tried to bite Mika's head off.

It wanted to devour him in a single bite.

But before it could even get close, while it was still mid-air, its consciousness simply winked out of existence.

From Mika's perspective, its body had been atomized, disintegrated into fundamental particles that scattered on the wind.

It was the most basic ability of a Saint.

Ignoring the dissipating remains, Mika slowly turned his head, his gaze settling on the hiding spot of Riku's group.

Then, in a language they would understand, he called out, "It's a pleasure to meet you three."

"I know you're there. Please, don't be alarmed. We mean you no harm. We just have a few questions."

The sudden turn of events had thrown all of Riku's plans into disarray. The moment he had identified the Demonia, he was already preparing to give Ivan the order, just as Ivan had expected. He was going to command him to die, to become a lure so he and Aley could escape with the map.

It was a decision that tore him apart every time he had to make it. To sacrifice the few for the many, to ensure the survival of their settlement. He hated it.

He had never felt a shred of glory in the forty-seven lives lost under his command. He remembered every single name, and even if they had died on other missions, he blamed himself for every last one.

They had all died at his hand.

Riku despised himself.

How long must I keep doing this? Sacrificing the few to save the many?

He was in agony. If he could, he would have been the one to act as the lure, to let Ivan and Aley escape.

But he couldn't.

Not only would they refuse, but if he died, what would happen to the two thousand souls in their settlement?

The memory of their faces, the look in their eyes as they entrusted their lives to him, stopped him from making such a selfish choice.

Yes, in a world like this, death was a release. It was living that was true despair.

Ordering his comrades to their deaths again and again, Riku's heart was already a scarred and broken mess.

All he could do was seal away his emotions, relying on cold, hard calculation to make the decisions that went against every fiber of his being. Like ordering his brother-in-arms, the man who was like an older brother to him, to walk willingly to his death.

But just as he was about to give the heart-wrenching command, a new voice had shattered his plans. He hadn't sensed their presence at all, a fact that terrified a man who relied so heavily on information.

But he suppressed his fear, focusing all his attention on the owner of the voice. He couldn't understand the language, but the tone was one of complete and utter confidence, as if the Demonia was nothing to be feared.

The newcomer was alone.

Riku deduced he must be from one of the higher-ranked races, a being of immense power and intellect.

The decoy plan was useless.

An entity that looked down on the Demonia wouldn't be distracted by Ivan's sacrifice.

It might even find it amusing and, upon discovering the deception, become enraged. Either outcome would be a death sentence.

In front of a being who could wield Elementals, they couldn't possibly escape.

Their only choice was to hide, to pray to a non-existent god that they wouldn't be noticed.

But Mika's words, spoken in their own tongue, had plunged Riku's heart into the abyss.

They had been discovered from the very beginning.

————

After a brief, tense silence, Riku led Ivan and Aley out from the shadows, appearing before Mika and Athena.

As Riku saw them, his pupils contracted, his mind thrown into turmoil. He hadn't anticipated another person. And more importantly, her appearance… It wasn't that he was captivated by Athena's beauty, but that no ordinary race could possess such looks.

A Flügel? A Phantasma? Or even… an Old Deus?

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