Chapter 104. The Tomb of Insects (3)

The faint light of night scattered across the desolate wilderness. There was no smell, no sound. Not a single blade of grass or a rock to serve as a marker was visible.

With every step I took, the faint sound of dust rising became the only background noise in this place. The further I walked, the eerier the surroundings became. It felt like even Elwin and I were engulfed by this unfamiliar stillness.

Was there ever a place like this?

I called it a place, but that wasn't the correct term. After all, there weren't many places I truly knew.

At most...

I spent a year in the Ice Valley and three years in the cave with mazes, The Ossuary of Wraiths, and the mountains near Erast. The narrow geography around Erast was all I really knew.

After that, I joined a Demon King's army and was dragged around as one among a massive horde. I traveled a lot, but all I saw were the backs of other skulls like mine. Within that, I lived as a mere number, swaying as part of a mass for seven thoughtless years. That time was so unbearable that it required the absence of thought to endure.

Looking back now, a question popped up in my mind.

Why didn't I run away?

The control of the one managing me wasn't that strong. Although the Demon King was a necromancer, he was no match for Gith-Za-Rai. It was like comparing the sun to a firefly. I could have slipped away and moved freely if I wanted to escape.

But I had no alternative.

What would I do if I left the Demon King's army?

I imagined myself dying, shattered like a toy by wild beasts in the mountains, or becoming practice for some lowly adventurer. So, I stayed buried in it all.

Was it the right choice?

Now, things were changing. With every cycle of death, the world I encountered expanded rapidly. In a short span, I learned about the Necron Society, T&T, the followers of Purson, the Four Swordmasters, Gith-Za-Rai, and the Red Flake.

Yes. The information I'm gaining now... it'll be closer to the truth.

New, qualitatively different information was pouring into my mind compared to the aimless years of wandering.

Focus.

I was heading to a new place. I needed to learn as much as possible. Every detail could be a clue. I couldn't let time slip by thoughtlessly like before.

This life was special in many ways. A legendary necromancer had granted me incredible power. I had experienced the assassination of an emperor and had been kidnapped by a marquis, one of the Empire's Four Swordmasters.

Yet, miraculously, I was rescued by an assassin of the Red Flake. The experiences I was having were qualitatively different. I needed to be more cautious and focused.

Clatter, clatter.

I thought about it as I pushed the beetle along. I was convinced that making this life last as long as possible would tremendously help my future endeavors. Even now, I was passing through a new place. If so...

Detection.

I wanted to observe my surroundings and gather as much information as possible.

[Detection Lv. 2

Switching to active mode.

Skill efficiency increased by 400%

Health consumption at 0.0014% per second, based on current health.]

I could feel the barren ground. It was silent. The night that descended on the wilderness was endless and empty.

At that moment, the sister with the fox mask glanced at me and spoke. "Impressive! Are you a ranger? Even Clean Eyes would weep. Activating Detection from this distance, amazing!"

Clatter.

I slightly flinched.

Clean Eyes, the elite ranger unit of the Free Confederation, gained fame for resisting the Empire to the very end and, after escaping, even fighting the Demon King's army.

Of course, I wasn't surprised by being compared to such people.

She figured out I was using a skill?

First, she immediately noticed that I had activated Detection. Second, I wondered what exactly was so impressive. I continued to focus, trying to detect something, anything, ahead.

Nothing.

There was absolutely nothing. Just an eerily empty plain in all directions. Elwin seemed to be teasing me.

While I maintained my focus, her voice drifted from beside me. "Have you ever been to Ember?"

If I were to be honest about Embermere, she wouldn't believe me, but I didn't want to lie either. After all, she was the one who saved me.

I stiffened and vaguely said, "I haven't been there since Year 1157."

In 1157, the year after I had been forced to invade Embermere as a legionnaire, the Embermere I saw then was nothing but ashes and corpses.

The fox-masked sister chuckled lightly and replied, "It's Year 1147 now, friend. What nonsense are you talking about?"

I repeated the same words. "Up until Year 1157, Ember was..."

"

Ahaha...

My skeletal friend, are you trying to charm me with such fanciful tales?"

"..."

Elwin laughed as she stroked my polished skull. "Is that why Gith liked you? Your skull is quite shiny and nice, too."

Gith? Could that be an affectionate term for Gith-Za-Rai?

However, I didn't probe further and asked a different question instead. "Starlight... Blue Fox, do you plan to stay in Ember?"

"Well..."

If history unfolded as it once had, the fox-masked sister would die within a few months. In the first year of the war, Embermere couldn't withstand the Empire's invasion for long.

I decided to give her a solemn warning. After all, she had saved me.

"Let me be clear. You should be elsewhere this year."

"

Pfft!

Why? Just now, you looked so serious, my skeletal friend!"

"..."

Then it happened. The darkness in the distance seemed to grow denser, and I began to sense the vibrations.

Bzzzzt!

Insects?

I heard the faint buzzing sound just at the edge of my detection range.

Hundreds... thousands... tens of thousands...

No, it was far more than that. An immeasurable number of tiny wingbeats and frequencies registered from afar.

Bzzzzzzt! Bzzzzt!

The dense darkness ahead seemed to draw closer, sending a shiver down my spine. Reflexively, I focused even harder on my Detection skill. Every thread of the pitch-black darkness became distinct, and the countless metallic noises echoed clearly.

One thousand, two thousand, five thousand...

I could tell only that the number I detected was but a fraction. I turned to look at the nun.

Before I could move my jawbone, Elwin said, "They're insects."

"Could this be what you mentioned earlier?" I asked.

She nodded. "I can't even count their numbers. How far did you get? A hundred million? Two hundred million? It's a bit more than that."

Her words startled me so much that I froze, forgetting to push the beetle. If what she said was true, we were walking straight into a swarm of hundreds of millions of insects.

"Hundreds of millions..."

"There are probably hundreds of such colonies in this area," Elwin added.

I remained frozen, unable to comprehend the scale. We still had a few minutes before they reached us, but it would be impossible to escape at the speed I was pushing the beetle.

"Did you... know about this?" I asked.

Elwin smirked. "Area B-14. It looks like a barren plain, but the others and I call it the Red Swamp. Those are mechanical debris that drift around here."

"Mechanical?"

"Yeah, like the beetles we saw earlier. But these are a bit different. They're much smaller... and instead of exploding, they devour everything, regardless of whether it's rock or bone. It'll be tough if we run into them."

Clatter.

I unconsciously took a step back. I had died in many ways before, but the thought of being devoured by a swarm of insects had never crossed my mind.

"Hundreds of millions of insects... why are we even here?"

"

Hahahaha...

"

Elwin's laughter was deep and rich, rising from the depths of her belly. She grabbed my arm and looked at me with her red fox-mask eyes.

"I brought you here to dump you. Jealousy, you know? You're the soldier who abandoned my Gith and survived alone. You were showered with favor, weren't you? I'm going to turn every last one of your bones into dust."

For a moment, it felt as if even the groundwater beneath us had frozen solid.

"..."

"

Eh?

Did you really fall for that? I'm just kidding. Codename Starlight Blue Fox, fulfilling my duty to the Confederation!

Hehe.

"

Elwin had a twisted sense of humor. Or maybe it wasn't a joke at all. It took me several seconds to respond, still frozen in place.

I said, "Then let's escape. Let's climb onto this beetle and..."

She waved her hand dismissively. "No need. We need to save its fuel for later."

"No need? We're about to die. What on earth are those things, and where did they come from?!"

At that moment, Elwin pulled a small device from her cloak. It fit snugly in her hand.

Tap, tap, tap.

She tapped the device a few times. The beetle's eyes lit up with a blue glow. Unlike before, the strange buzzing vibration didn't resound.

Instead, a smooth voice echoed in the air. "S.G.I.S. Starting in sleep mode. Initializing terrain information service. Current location recognized. Loading saved API scale. MapType object..."

Elwin quipped briefly, "Just some relics♪."

"Implementing custom projection."

The blue light in the beetle's eyes coalesced, and a translucent screen appeared in midair.

Who... is she talking to?

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

However, I had no time to ask questions.

Elwin pointed to a blue mark on the translucent screen with her finger. "Look. this blue dot here is us."

With her other hand, she lightly tapped the beetle's rear.

I asked, "Is this a map?"

Elwin answered, "Yeah. This shows a sixteen-kilometer radius."

There was nothing visible around the blue dot.

"We don't show up?"

"It's in sleep mode. The map is set to show only relics. Besides, there aren't any living things here anyway.

Oh

, and here."

Elwin's explanation made no sense to me, but I followed her gestures. She pointed at a massive red circle to the north. Looking closer, I realized it wasn't a circle—it was a vortex growing redder toward its center, swirling slowly.

Even just looking at the translucent image sent a chill down my spine.

I pointed at the red vortex and asked, "Is that... the insect swarm?"

Elwin shook her head. "No, they don't even appear on here. Only relics show up."

After a brief pause, she added, "The red color signifies an unregistered wavelength, meaning undiscovered relics. We're calling this vortex, ten thousandfold."

"Ten thousand... fold?"

"Its output is ten thousand times stronger than the most powerful relic discovered so far."

"..."

I tapped the beetle I had been pushing. "This beetle is a relic too, isn't it?"

"It's thirty-thousand times stronger than that."

Elwin's words left me speechless. Bit by bit, I began to grasp the gravity of what the fox-masked sister was saying. This beetle alone possessed extraordinary abilities. It was faster than any mount and could glide through the sky with its wings. Its defense appeared impenetrable at a glance. The possibilities of its utility were staggering to imagine. And yet, she claimed something existed that was thirty thousand times more powerful.

I finally said, "That's absurd."

Thirty-thousand times more powerful?

The number was unbelievable, no matter the criteria.

Elwin shrugged casually. "That's why this entire fifty-kilometer area is filled with mechanical debris. They're drawn to the relic's wavelength. Honestly, even we can't imagine what might be here."

I asked, "Does the Empire just... leave this area untouched? Are they unable to utilize such a vast expanse of land?"

Suddenly, the sound came again.

Bzzzzt!