Chapter 86 – The Great Crossing (1)

After equipping white camouflage suits to prepare for any unexpected situations, we descended below while hiding our bodies in the blowing snowstorm.

Once we reached the bottom, we moved immediately.

Except for Natasha and me, the rest scattered to both sides, with Jeremy and Harley serving as team leaders respectively.

Since we did not know what was happening inside, we had decided to disperse.

“I will take the lead.”

“Yes, Lord Aylen.”

We also headed straight for the center.

Our mission was to draw attention even a little so that the strike team could move easily.

Although it was dangerous, the plunderers basically aimed for extortion and exploitation, and were not bastards who committed indiscriminate murder.

Of course, even so, since they were bastards who had given up on being human, the danger was all the same.

‘They won’t be able to move rashly. Winning without fighting is the best option.’

Beside me was Natasha, who had changed into the bright red garments symbolizing the Immortal Embers.

Even the plunderers roaming the snowfields could not fail to know the Flame of the Sacred Fire engraved on those garments.

Furthermore, even if they were plunderers living in lawless zones, they would not be able to act rashly in the territory reached by the hands of the Immortal Embers.

Because even if it was only a single delicate woman, they would have no way to guess what lay in her background.

‘Somehow, it feels ominous.’

With our hands shoved in our coats and our heads buried in the high collars rising to our necks, Natasha and I walked the path amidst a tension blooming in a strange silence.

Then, it was when we reached the entrance of the village, which could be called the outermost area of the ember’s residential district.

There were two men guarding that place. Perhaps because they had not discovered us yet, they were crouching by a bonfire to warm their bodies.

On their backs, they carried old-model mana guns of a long-barreled bolt-action type.

Outdated equipment, dark stubble, filthy clothing, and scars filling their faces even in the tiny parts revealed… all of those things said they were plunderers.

“…”

“…”

Nodding while making eye contact with Natasha, we slowly approached them.

As discussed beforehand, we were not holding mana guns in our hands.

Since we did not know the enemy’s numbers and level of armament, if we could drive them away without fighting, we had to do so.

And we had to actively utilize the powerful backing of the First Ember.

Since it was said that at least in these parts, there was nothing that could not be resolved by that name, we needed to show a confident attitude.

The one who stood at the front was me.

“Are you residents of this ember?”

I approached, naturally speaking informally.

Natasha said that outside of embers, it was common to behave authoritatively.

Looking back, when I encountered Heimdall on the snowfield, setting aside his high position, he too had spoken informally to me.

“W-Who is it!”

As we approached like that, they grew extremely tense, aiming their mana guns and keeping guard.

They were frightened out of their wits by the sudden appearance of outsiders during their relaxed rest.

Even though the muzzles were pointed at my heart, I pushed them aside with my index finger as if not caring in the least.

It was a thought that if it were a prideful official belonging to the Immortal Embers, they would be steeped in this level of authority and confidence.

Afterward, I naturally let out the words I had prepared.

“I am Aylen Vale, a dispatcher sent from the Immortal Embers. I have come to inspect this ember in preparation for the snowstorm.”

At the flawless acting, the guards of the plunderer group began to inspect my and Natasha’s appearances.

They were assessing whether my words were truth or falsehood.

Then, perhaps having finished their assessment with a wordless exchange of glances, they finally opened their mouths.

“Where is the proof that you came from the Immortal Embers?”

“Can you not see my gold badge and the clothing of my attendant secretary?”

“Things like that are too easy to forge. Do you know how many swindlers roam around impersonating officials belonging to the Immortal Embers these days? To my eyes, you two also look like one of those guys.”

“…”

The guards of the plunderer group smirked, pointing the muzzles back in this direction.

To them, it did not seem important whether we truly belonged to the Immortal Embers.

Living as plunderers anyway, they were bottom-dwellers who truly lived recklessly without thinking of the consequences.

At that, I asked.

“Just a dog guarding the entrance—are you confident in handling the aftermath?”

“Hey, do you know how long it takes for a corpse thrown onto the snowfield to be buried in the snow? It’s just half a day, half a day. If we kill you bastards and bury you somewhere, would anyone even be able to find out who did it? No, before that, do you think they could even recover the corpses?”

Making the plan to resolve it through dialogue meaningless, the bastard did not shrink even before the name of the Immortal Embers.

This was because, as he said, the characteristic of this ice age where white snow covered the entire world left no traces, making a perfect crime possible.

“To kill and dispose of us… If we do not return, another dispatcher will visit along with an army anyway, so what will you do about that? Even if you can erase traces, you cannot perfectly block people’s mouths. Ultimately, you will be hunted down and killed.”

Before drawing my mana gun, I gave a final warning.

Warning them that we could ask the citizens of this ember for their descriptions and hunt them down.

The bastard’s response to that was truly shocking.

“Ah, as for that, we can just kill them all.”

“What?”

“Isn’t this just a tiny ember anyway? If we kill them all, who is going to testify? Dead men tell no tales, you greenhorn.”

A statement saying they would kill everyone to keep them quiet.

Whether those words were a bluff or not, the atrocities this group of bastards must have committed for a long time drew themselves in my mind automatically.

At that moment, I made eye contact with Natasha.

Plunderers who did not spare a glance for even the name of the ember—this was the worst-case scenario we had feared.

And in such a situation, we had set a single code of conduct.

Annihilation. To kill and wipe out every single one of the bastards who were worse than beasts and had strayed from the path of humanity.

As we silently waited for an opportunity to draw the mana guns worn at our waists, the bastards scanned Natasha with sticky gazes and began to smirk.

“It’s a waste to just kill this bitch with a face like that. Shall we have some fun after a long time?”

“Gavin, since I yielded my turn last time, I am first this time. You know that, right?”

“Hey, is that ugly bitch the same as this pretty one? If you have a conscience, you shouldn’t calculate that way. Let’s play rock-paper-scissors fairly.”

The guard bastard who was licking his lips while harassing Natasha eventually scanned between her legs with his mana gun and gradually moved upward.

It was when the muzzle finally scanned her thigh.

The event happened in an instant.

Slash—

With a chilling cutting sound, a thin line was drawn on his neck.

Without even knowing how he had been hit, the bastard clutched his neck and collapsed half a beat slower.

“This bitch…!”

Since it had happened so quickly, the plunderer bastard who had been aiming at me also perceived the situation late.

I tried to immediately draw the mana gun from my waist to finish him, but

“Die!”

Bang!

The hand of the bastard pulling the trigger was faster.

‘I should have moved together, but I was slow.’

Realizing that her deep blink before moving had been a kind of signal, I closed my eyes tightly at the pain that would follow due to my mistake.

However.

“Huh…?”

“…!”

The mana bullet he fired was embedded at my feet, not my heart.

Opening my eyes to see what had happened, I found his muzzle caught in Natasha’s grip and pointing toward the ground.

At the same time she sliced the neck of the other bastard, she had grabbed the muzzle that was aiming at my heart with her remaining hand and pushed it away.

Thud.

Simultaneously, that bastard also headed to the afterlife along with his comrade who had collapsed first.

This time too, her blade had swept past, slicing his neck like lightning without any sign.

It was truly a formidable quick-witted adaptability trained through numerous battle experiences.

“Lord Aylen, are you alright?”

Natasha, who wiped the blood on the blade with the snow, asked me.

“…Yes, I am fine. Are you alright, Lady Natasha?”

“Small fry like these pose no threat to me at all. It’s not something to boast about, but this girl has rolled around in the rough Ember of Progress. Their stance for aiming and their distance are both a mess, these guys.”

Natasha brushed off the snow piled on her shoulders, looking truly indifferent.

Looking at her, I knew that the fact that I possessed mana sense and senses exceeding humans did not mean that I had become strong.

While my hardware was outstanding, my software was not escaping the level of an extremely ordinary 21st-century modern person.

‘Dealing with humans is on a different dimension from dealing with mutants.’

I had fallen into the illusion that I had become strong after the mutant attack.

Although I could not say I coped perfectly, I had still dealt with three of them at once.

Yet, even against what Natasha called small fry, hadn’t I almost been helplessly hit?

A strengthened body was merely the minimum condition; that which stemmed from training and experience was what could be called true skill.

‘Once I return to our ember, I should ask either Jeremy or Natasha to train me.’

I thought, looking at the plunderer bastards who were cooling coldly while staining the white snow with bright red blood.

That although this world could not be called a complete world of barbarism, it was also not a complete world of civilization.

Above the snowfields lay a lawless zone where nothing was known even if it happened, and nothing was strange even if it occurred.

I had to equip not just my influence and power, but also my own physical strength so that I would not lose my life in vain.

Because those who lived without a tomorrow would not care about my background and would rush in just like the bastards just now.

And besides those who lived such bottom-dwelling lives, there were others who would rush in without looking back.

That was the mutants, one of the abnormal phenomena caused by the runaway of Eternal Magic.

Just as thoughts chased thoughts and continued in that manner, gunshots fired in rapid succession rang out from afar.

“Lord Aylen!”

“Yes, let’s move!”

We ran toward the center, the source of the sound, equipping ourselves for a full-scale battle.

Because from the behavior of the dead bastards, we knew that the remaining ones were also not people with whom dialogue would work.

Perhaps an unspeakable massacre was taking place.

If so, there was only one thing to do, as agreed beforehand.

Annihilation—putting a bullet into their heads without leaving a single bastard behind was exactly that.

However.

“What on earth…”

“…!”

Upon arrival, all we had to do was watch.

Watching the mana bullets flying through the thoroughly obscured visibility shatter the heads of those who appeared to be plunderers.

However, it was not difficult to guess who the protagonist creating this absurd scene was.

It was Jeremy Scott.

“Is everyone alright? We have dealt with all the plunderer bastards, so you do not need to be afraid.”

Thus, what I did was slice the neck of the last remaining plunderer bastard he had intentionally left behind, and rescue the captured citizens.

In any case, just like during the mutant attack, Jeremy possessed a grand ability to make someone the protagonist.

To the point where I wondered if it would be more fitting to use him as a campaign strategist rather than a soldier.

At any rate, we passed two gateways through this event.

One was dealing with the uninvited guests, and the other was…

“Thank you. Thank you so much!”

Winning the favor of the citizens of this ember.

And looking at the people’s reactions, that seemed to be quite successful.

However, this was not the end.

Because the reason we had to win the people’s favor was due to the most difficult task of making them abandon this ember and depart.

From now on, the real fight was beginning.