Eastern Adme of Aquilonia,
A place where not even the gloomy hooting of owls could be heard.
The wasteland, where no one had set foot since the ominous star fell, was quiet as if holding its breath.
The soil was dry and crumbly, and the uneven earth was imbued with an ill-omened atmosphere.
A single steed ran across the place where anyone would hesitate to set foot.
With a coat color as if chosen from only the blackest parts of night,
The horse with eyes redder than the bright red lava bubbling underground tore through the sinister air, boasting thunderous hoofbeats.
The large black horse wearing no tack looked like an otherworldly being that could never be handled except by a demon buried at the bottom of hell.
"Why is this guy running so fast?! I told you to go slower!"
"It's excited because hyung is shouting like that."
"Would Sleipnir bat an eye just because I shouted a bit? Does he look like that kind of build? Does he look like that kind of horse?"
"Why don't you stop giving personality to a beast whose origins you don't even know."
One young man who had barely shed his boyish appearance.
And behind him, an elegant beauty with platinum-colored hair riding together.
The young man clearly had an unhealthy appearance, and in his arms was cradled a thick red book.
The man with eyes more vivid red than the horse's sighed as if exasperated while looking at the whining young man.
"If you know you're prone to motion sickness, you should have asked for countermeasures in advance."
"Originally, ugh, I didn't get sick, I tell you."
"Sure, the person who threw up from teleportation magic aftereffects would say that."
"We're almost there, so if I endure just a little... Uuuuugh."
The young man began to dry heave.
The horse snorted and enjoyed its rare freedom regardless.
Eventually, the man had to forcibly stop the horse before the young man crossed the point of no return.
The horse, stopped from its joyful run, stamped its feet in place discontentedly.
The young man practically tumbled down and took deep breaths while touching the ground to calm his stomach.
"Shall we rest for a bit?"
"No, there's no need for that. Just wait a moment. I'll feel better soon."
"There was a reason hyung had been walking around all this time. Even though you said you could ride a horse, I was wondering why you never asked for one."
"I told you that's not it!"
The man who was still mounted on the horse ignored the protest and turned his gaze forward.
In the darkness where even the risen crescent moon barely provided visibility,
The man could see a faint outline rising like a blemish on the flat land far away.
He grabbed the hand of the young man who was barely getting up and pulled him up.
"Just a little further."
"Uuuuugh."
He looked just like a corpse... That was the man's honest impression watching the young man struggle to find his seat.
When they finally arrived at the place where the ominous star had crashed, it was deep in the middle of the night.
This time, having truly reached their destination, the young man with disheveled red hair muttered with a pale face.
"I should have suggested coming here from the start, I unnecessarily suggested starting from far out in case there were people spying."
"There's nothing wrong with being careful. I think it was a good choice."
The man looked up at the enormous trace the external star had left on this land.
The inside of the impact crater formed by the meteor collision was carved much deeper than the outside.
Below the hole that could easily swallow a small village, the meteor with ice still clinging to it was embedded.
The two people who had climbed to the edge of the impact crater, to a slightly raised area, looked down.
A cold wind swept past their bodies.
The young man crouched down on the spot and spread the red book on his knees.
The book, which had spent a similar time as the young man and the man, or perhaps even longer, was intact except for being slightly worn from handling.
The young man, who had been flipping through pages and memorizing several items, suddenly asked as if remembering something.
"Can you determine the number and types of demons that can come out when opening the door to the Leng Plateau?"
"It's not much different from doors humans use. Think about Aquilonia's city gates, Yesung. The larger the gate, the more people can move bigger loads faster. Conversely, the smaller the door, the fewer people will pass through slowly."
"That makes sense."
"The smaller the door, the more so. If it's a door so small that not even a mule can enter, surely only things of little use will come out."
"I understand. There must be suitable ones."
The young man seemed to be very concerned about the size of the 'passage' for some reason.
After rummaging through the book pages for quite a long time, he finally raised his head.
The man asked first.
"Have you decided? How big should it be?"
"It would be good if things half the size of that meteor could come out."
"Are they highly aggressive?"
"They won't attack first. Probably."
The man wanted to advise that the word 'probably' was uncertain and shouldn't be used when guaranteeing something,
But knowing that wasn't the point of the current situation, he silently jumped into the pit.
The man who slid down the steep slope that was uneven and pulled people inward stopped in front of the meteor with a cloud of dust.
To think he would use the technique devised during the ancient Acheron era again.
He drew the sword he was wearing and scratched the surface of the meteor with its sharp tip.
Setting a large framework with straight and diagonal lines, then engraving formulas to capture and channel magical power within it.
Thus establishing the medium that would connect this place with another dimension and securing a passage for coming and going.
After securing the passage, finding the coordinates of where the passage would lead.
Though they called it a dimension outside this world, it wasn't clear.
To specify a space that could only exist in delusion or genius concepts, one had to calculate the movement and speed of celestial bodies including this planet.
It was a bothersome process that took considerable time, but the man somehow obtained coordinate values that didn't exist in this world.
After driving wedges into the passage like that, preparations were complete.
Finally, he scratched his white palm with the blade.
The skin was thinly peeled away. A faint red color showed across the wide area.
Looking up, the young man was looking down at him.
Realizing the young man's gaze was on his palm, the man felt a bit better.
While he readily handed over control of his body to that thing called a god,
He watched others get hurt like that.
The man clenched and unclenched his hand several times waiting for blood to flow, and finally when he placed the wound on the meteor,
The formula that had contacted the precious magical power source pulled a place that didn't exist in this world to the surface.
The first thing to change was the ominous atmosphere.
From beyond the damp, humid air, something unknown was peering this way.
The boundary membrane separating spaces grew thin.
Just as this side could sense that side, that side could also notice this side.
Whispers. Scratching sounds. Whooshing wind sounds. Screams resembling those of humans and giggling laughter.
As the man stepped back from the meteor, black mud slowly began to pool and bubble up from beneath it.
Shadows bubbled. Filthy and dirty essence contaminated the soil.
There were things constantly circling around. Beings too large to pass through the limited 'door.'
Nightmares that could be seen but not felt.
A sound resembling a conch shell as huge as a mountain range resonated deep and heavy.
Instinctive alertness arose. At that moment,
-Bang!
Masses of tentacles that burst out explosively from the 'passage' writhed, unable to catch Yurik.
In each of those disgusting movements was malice forcing its way through the narrow door.
Liquid, smoke, mist, fish, rotten boils or decayed wasp nests, having similarity with all of those yet absolutely resembling nothing from this planet.
It had been starving for a long time and was dancing above the man's head in warning.
Just as the man unconsciously tightened his grip on the dangling sword,
Another person slid down the slope into the pit.
"Yesung."
"Thanks. Now only what I have to do remains."
The young man called Yesung brushed off the dust on his clothes and walked calmly into the filth.
With splashing sounds, the young man's white clothes floated on the black mud.
Seeing that contrast, the man felt uncomfortable as memories from very long ago surfaced.
Regardless of how the man felt, the young man approached and looked up at the 'demon' that wrapped around the meteor and constantly struggled to advance outward.
Half the size of the huge meteor. A size that could crush either the young man or the man in one go.
However, the young man spoke calmly as if unaware of this.
"How about coming out in order from the smaller parts?"
It wasn't directed at the man.
It was directed at the indescribable thing stuck between the narrow 'gap.'
The things that understood his words, tentacles with glowing lures like deep-sea fish, or infinite fingernails that looked like finely vibrating black jellyfish, felt around the young man's body then wrapped around and pulled him.
Without resisting as he was pulled, he leaned against the meteor being covered in black mud and whispered.
"I can't enter inside because I'm not like you all. Unfortunately."
So listen to me. Come here. Come out this way.
With the young man's low invitation, parts of 'it' gradually revealed themselves.
A low laughing sound came from the young man buried in the increasingly large shadow.
The man watched such a young man's appearance while mulling over his own feelings in the dark shadow.
He admired, was anxious about, and found it unpleasant.
Admiring, anxious, unpleasant,
Admiring, anxious, unpleasant,
Admiration, anxiety, displeasure,
Anxious, anxious, unpleasant, unfamiliar, hostile...
...Was that really the person he knew?
* * *
The royal castle's investigation team that had been dispatched to the location conveyed by the mage who called himself 'Eibon's teacher' had returned.
The investigation team consisting of seven members had been very confident when they departed.
Though rumors about Aquilonia's ominous star were widespread,
Conversely, they knew nothing about the cause of the ominous star's fall.
Therefore, they departed with an oath to do their best to conduct an honest investigation.
However, when parts of the investigation report submitted by the returning investigation team were made public, the royal castle fell into shock.
[...Too horrific to be considered something that happened in a small village of only ten to fifteen households...]
[...The village residents appear to have been forcibly relocated based on circumstances, and it is presumed there was strong resistance in the process...]
[...Most of the residents' bodies were discovered in the village's communal barn...]
[...The degree of damage to the bodies was extremely severe...]
[Some had fur and hooves like those of animals in deformed shapes...]
[Mutations and abnormalities in eyes, teeth, skeletal structure, body size...]
[...There was only one survivor who suffered mental shock but maintained physical health except for starvation, so we handed them over to a nearby village for rest...]
[...They kept talking about a red-haired man.]
With this development, those who had argued against being played by a con artist's tricks when dispatching the investigation team were silenced.
Did 'gods' truly exist?
That incomprehensible tragedy couldn't be explained without the existence of 'gods.'
The abstract concept of 'god' conveyed by the red-haired mage,
Was somehow becoming firmly fixed based on fear.
Bizarre, cruel, violent, terrible, vicious, hostile, governing chaos and evil.
While the royal castle was in uproar like this, one secret rumor was circulating in the palace's underground.
-The place where the Leng Plateau opens is the wasteland where the ominous star crashed.
-The demons imprisoned by the founding Acheron Emperor are children of the evil 'god.'
The rumors continued one after another,
And the stories amplified by curiosity, fear, and terror soon became an open secret.
When will the Leng Plateau open?
When is the time the mage prophesied?
While everyone was paying attention to the mage who wouldn't come out of the 3rd Prince's palace,
The royal castle announced temporary troop movements under the pretext of irregular military training and knight cultivation within the kingdom.
Among them, 2 banners headed east,
And their destination was the border of the area turned into wasteland by the ominous star.
When the soldiers and knights organized in Aquilonia's royal army were making a commotion about forming processions for training and bringing in new squire knights,
The last person that Yurik and his subordinates had been desperately waiting for,
Valter, finally opened his eyes.
With this, all the pieces were on the table.
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