The Place Where He Was Reincarnated Was Hell - The 300-Year-Old Frontier Defense Line of the Margrave Family - Episode 35

Fifty days had already passed since Victor regained consciousness at Middle Line Fort.

During this time, the hellish battle that had never ended had remained silent as if it were a lie – Eclipse had not been seen even once.

In the three-hundred-year history of Vanguard warfare, there had never been such a long period of complete silence.

The knights of Vanguard and the soldiers who had fought Eclipse all instinctively knew that something was wrong, even if they didn’t say it aloud.

This is not “relief.”

It’s not just “peace”.

This is merely the stirrings of the next disaster.

“This is the calm before the storm.”

Those words had been whispered many times among the knights, soldiers, and in strategy meetings.

On the other hand, the magicians who had just been dispatched from the royal capital and the newly recruited soldiers who had no experience in direct combat with Eclipse seemed taken aback by the strange silence.

“I had heard that Vanguard was a place where death was always close by, but it seems quite peaceful.” “Eclipse is probably an exaggeration. It probably doesn’t appear anymore.”

Such optimistic words would sometimes slip out of their mouths innocently.

–But that is the privilege of the “ignorant,” a fantasy that the “survivors” never broach.

There is no such thing as “silence” in this place.

It was only natural that such a sweet, dream-like understanding would be completely forgotten in Vanguard, which was on the front lines of the struggle for survival.

Such things always happen in an instant.

It is destined to be overturned.

–yes.

That day, the deceptive silence that had enveloped Middle Line Fort was suddenly shattered.

◆

One of the reporters dispatched from the Kingdom of Adriana to the Vanguard territory, a young magician named Garcia, had been using farsighted magic to continue his mission of searching for the location of Eclipse’s appearance and any traces of it, even after Victor had returned to Middle Line Fort.

The maximum distance he could see with farsightedness magic was about fifty kilometers.

It was about two hundred kilometers from Middle Line Fort to the site of the former Front Line Fort, and another ten kilometers from that site to the border of the Southern Great Forest.

To cover this vast surveillance area, Garcia had requested to accompany the elite patrol unit of the Vanguard Knights and had volunteered to stay at this surveillance point, perhaps the most dangerous in the world, near the almost completely ruined Frontline Fort, where the presence of Eclipse remained strongest.

His mission is to grasp all movements within Eclipse and report them to the Middle Line and the Royal Capital as quickly as possible.

To do so, he had mastered advanced magic transmission techniques, one of the few in the kingdom.

While Victor was fighting alone on the front lines, and even after Eclipse had fallen into an eerie silence, the “eyes” and “ears” of the kingdom like him continued to tirelessly gather information from a distance in this land where death was always close by.

–And then, the fateful morning came when that silence was broken.

　　　That time finally came.

In the twilight when the sun was just beginning to rise and the eastern sky was just beginning to turn milky white, Garcia was overcome by an intense chill he had never experienced before.

It was a pressure of a different quality to the piercing cold of the north; it froze one’s soul to the very core, and was an extremely foreign pressure that seemed to deny one’s very existence.

He instantly activated his farsighted magic and focused his attention on the deepest part of the Southern Forest. There, he saw something slowly but surely begin to appear, shaking the earth, from far beyond the dark trees.

“What is this…?! There is nothing that matches the data observed so far…”

Garcia tightly gripped the small magical tool hanging from his waist – an emergency short-distance magical transmission catalyst – in his trembling hands.

The scene burned into his mind was so horrifying, so far beyond his knowledge and understanding.

Appearing, mowing down the trees of the Great Forest as if they were trampling down a clump of reeds, was a grove of strange creatures, unlike any Eclipse that had been observed until now.

Each one was a giant, about three meters tall and two meters wide. Compared to a human, they were large enough freaks to be gigantic. However, rather than the overwhelming sense of intimidation that came from their size, it was their hideous shape, the incredible number that made them up, and above all, their strange “presence” that took Garcia’s mind off things.

“Leonard! This is Garcia! An emergency has occurred! Head towards the Southern Great Forest! An unidentified Eclipse has appeared on a large scale, 50km from the direction of the old Frontline Fort!”

The magic tool was transmitting magical thought waves towards Leonard, the senior reporter at Middle Line Fort. Garcia’s voice was rising with fear and impatience.

“There are approximately 10,000 in number… no, that’s wrong, 20,000 or more! Their form… can only be described as a mass of flesh! Their movements are extremely sluggish! However, the magical reaction they contain… is abnormally high! Please receive my visual information immediately! And provide the details to Lord Darius!”

It looked as if the rotting flesh of many different creatures had been carelessly kneaded and fused like a malicious child playing with clay.

Countless distorted tentacles constantly wriggled from the slimy, reddish-black or earth-colored surface, dragging themselves along the ground as they moved forward.

Its huge body occasionally expanded and contracted eerily as if something was bursting from within, spreading a thick stench around it and a miasma that felt like it would burn the lungs just by inhaling it.

They numbered as many as 20,000, and were writhing about, ravaging the forest and filling the earth with their swarms. Garcia could only describe the scene as a nightmare.

◆

In a room in the command center of Middle Line Fort, in the chilly air before dawn, even though it was still early in the morning, Reporter Leonard was busy sorting out the regular reports from all over the country.

Because he was an extremely skilled reporter, in addition to his original duties of communicating information, he was currently acting as something like a middle manager within the Vanguard Knights, and because he was so intelligent, he was also forced to act as a player, albeit to a limited extent, in the form of information analysis.

Although Eclipse’s activities had calmed down, the reorganization of forces and strengthening of the defense system at Middle Line Fort were proceeding at a rapid pace, day and night, and the task of collecting and distributing the vast amount of information that came with it was a heavy burden on his shoulders.

To begin with, a “reporter” in the Kingdom of Adriana holds a special position that distinguishes them from a simple messenger.

The minimum requirement for being appointed as a reporter is to have mastered the magic of. Distant vision Toomi

However, this magic of farsightedness is different from general magical aptitude; only those with extremely rare qualities can use it.

It is not a matter of the amount of magical power or the skill to manipulate it, but rather, by its very nature, it requires a unique constitution that could be called a kind of “magic eye,” in which the caster’s eyes capture information through magical power and project scenes from distant places directly into the brain.

Its rarity was clear from the fact that even among the people of Vangarde territory, who were blessed by the god Elysion and were said to have a high aptitude for magic, there was currently not a single person who could use farsighted magic.

The probability of being born with this natural “magic eye” is said to be around one in 500,000.

Fortunately, as far as the Kingdom of Adriana could be confirmed, there were currently twelve people with mystic eyes, and half of them, six of them, had been dispatched to the Vangarde territory, the country’s most important line of defense, to gather information.

–That was when it happened.

A shockwave hit him like a hot iron stake had been driven directly into his brain, and a magical transmission of urgent importance from Garcia was hammered into his brain.

Fragmentary information consisting of only keywords: “large-scale emergence,” “new type,” “flesh mass,” “sluggish,” “high magical reaction.”

–Each one of these was enough to send a chill down Leonard’s spine.

However, the strain on him wasn’t too great, and he only felt a little dizzy, probably because Garcia had compressed the information to the maximum extent possible.

The problem was the subsequent, more urgent notification, “We ask that you receive visual information,” which placed a huge burden on the recipient.

“Lord Garcia…! Is the situation that bad…?”

Leonard’s face turned pale, and he immediately put his hands on his head to receive the signal. He closed his eyes tightly and concentrated all his energy. The horrifying scene that Garcia had seen through his farsighted magic in the depths of the Great Forest came vividly and violently into his mind.

A flock of hideous Eclipses. Each one had a hideous form that could not be compared to any of the previous ones. It was no longer a living thing, but rather like malice itself had taken shape.

A scene of despair, an onslaught that seemed to fill the earth. Anyone with a weak mind would go mad just by catching a glimpse of this scene, and their whole soul would be torn to pieces—

“Guh… uh… ahhh!”

Lines of crimson bl00d trickled from Leonard’s nostrils and eye sockets.

I felt a sharp pain as if my temples were being squeezed with a vice, my vision flickered violently, and the strain on my brain was so intense that it was difficult to even stand.

Still, he gritted his teeth and continued to desperately process the information Garcia was sending him and what it meant.

The detailed number of Eclipses, their features, their extremely clumsy movements, and above all, the abnormally dense magical reaction contained within each mass of flesh–

“…Lord Darius!!”

A few minutes later, Leonard, his face pale, kicked open the door to the headquarters and stormed into the office of the newly awakened Darius von Vangard.

His expression was that of a messenger who had come to announce the end of the world, and tears of bl00d were still streaming unabated from both his eyes.

「Emergency report! A new type of flesh-lump, Eclipse, has appeared in the great forest located 40 kilometers south of the old Frontline Fort, with a scale of over 20,000! We have been informed that they are currently heading towards Middle Line Fort!」

Leonard’s shocking report and his incredibly exhausted appearance made Darius instantly realize the desperate seriousness of the situation.

His face was filled with shock, and also a deep look of anguish, a sort of resignation, as if to say, “It has finally come.”

“…I understand. It’s a new type, huh… I will convene an emergency strategy meeting immediately! Notify Royce, Raven, each unit commander, and the contingent from the royal capital immediately! With all the forces of the Middle Line, prepare to intercept this unknown threat!”

Darius’ thunderous command echoed throughout Middle Line Fort before dawn.

It was the beginning of a new “game” set up by the Abyss, and the moment when the brief and fragile peace that Victor had gained through his bl00d and soul came to a merciless end.