The mountain range sprawled across the vast northern plain like some enormous beast lying prone.

The sun was rising in the east and steadily climbing toward the middle of the sky, its radiance slicing the entire range horizontally into two halves.

One half was light. The other was darkness. Light and darkness leaned against one another, yet remained so sharply divided.

"Notasia Fortress... you’re still standing after all..."

Muen looked up. At the moment, he stood on the dark side. The deep shadows before him were like spilled ink from the Goddess’s hand, yet even wrapped in shade, that pass still looked so grand and imposing.

The walls were already battered beyond recognition, but they still towered high. Even from a distance, breaches blasted open all across them were plainly visible, and the watchtowers atop the battlements were still burning. The billowing black smoke merged into ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the mountain’s shadow until the two became indistinguishable.

The fortress called Notasia looked as though it could collapse at any moment, yet after enduring such a catastrophe, it still had not fallen. Like an immortal giant, it had refused to bend its knees even in death.

"We need to get closer."

After observing for a while, Muen spoke softly.

Notasia Fortress already looked clear enough, but in truth Muen was still some distance away. And between him and the pass stood several low walls, obviously thrown up in haste to resist the enemy, making it hard to determine the full situation inside with the naked eye alone.

He had to go in himself.

"This... won’t it be too dangerous?"

Jason, the Royal Knight driving the carriage, hesitated. "What if the Kingdom’s forces are still occupying the pass right now? Wouldn’t we just be walking into a trap?"

"That’s exactly why we need to take a look. We have to understand the situation here in detail, don’t we?"

"But..."

"Relax. Anyone strong enough to pose a real threat to me is no longer here."

Muen’s voice was quiet.

He did not know whether those several hundred thousand troops transformed into monsters were the full force the Kingdom had used to assault Notasia Fortress. But if they turned back now, they would still be able to glimpse a corner of the golden curtain at the far end of the plain.

Notasia and the golden curtain stood a hundred miles apart, but for the Church’s top powerhouses, that was hardly a great distance. The Witch of Repentance had once stretched a hand into Belrand from a thousand miles away. Muen had no doubt the Church possessed more than one such method.

Which meant that even if an obvious culprit lay hidden behind all this—someone with the terrifying strength to threaten Muen easily—that person could not possibly still be here.

Unless that person had already reached a level where even the Church could be ignored.

And clearly, no such person existed anywhere on this continent.

"Let’s go. Overcautious hesitation isn’t my style."

"Yes, sir."

The carriage jolted forward, rolling over the ground that had been blasted full of craters in the recent battle, and continued onward.

Before long, they had crossed the first low wall.

"This is..."

The dragonblood horse pulling the carriage suddenly became restless. These fierce horses were even more savage by nature than ordinary magical beasts, yet now they were showing unmistakable terror, trying to bolt. Jason yanked hard on the reins and only barely managed to calm the mount.

But in the next instant, even he stared ahead in a daze, eyes wide.

"Urk—"

The iron will and rigorous discipline drilled into him since childhood were useless here. Driven by pure bodily instinct, the Royal Knight bent over and began retching.

"What... what is this...?"

Only after a long while did Jason manage to speak again, and by then his face had already gone pale with horror.

"..."

Muen did not blame the Royal Knight for losing his composure. He patted Jason on the shoulder, then stepped down from the carriage in silence.

A dense stench hit him instantly.

Before reaching this place, Muen had imagined many scenes. He had seen the brutal misery of the Empire’s Abyss front line. He had personally witnessed the slaughter and bloodshed of armies numbering in the millions. The images he had constructed in his mind had already come as close as possible to the reality of a savage battle.

But what lay before him still exceeded his imagination.

Once they crossed the low wall, the carriage could no longer proceed. But that was not because the road was difficult.

It was because countless skeletons were piled layer upon layer, completely blocking the way.

These remains were not like some mass grave, nor simply heaps of dry bones, because Muen could tell at a glance that these skeletons were still... fresh.

Yes. Fresh.

They looked as though they had only just been stripped out of a slaughterhouse. Bright red flesh still clung to the white bones. Tendons and blood vessels were clearly visible. That flesh was mangled beyond recognition, torn apart without any pattern, as though some beast had gnawed through it.

In the gaps between the bones, Muen could clearly see scattered organs. Together with the skeletal remains, they formed a crude puzzle that allowed him to identify exactly what all these bones had belonged to.

They were human.

This was a field of human bones.

And those human remains had simply been discarded here, like the wreckage left behind after some frenzied feast.

"I see. Perhaps the Church wasn’t wrong to call them 'beasts.'"

Muen closed his eyes.

At that moment, an image seemed to take shape inside his mind. Several hundred thousand Kingdom soldiers, warped by some grotesque force and completely turned into those "undying" monsters, falling upon another group of normal Kingdom troops who had been caught entirely unprepared.

They had bitten, torn, devoured. They had turned this place into a banquet hall for blood and flesh, leaving behind only this vision more ghastly than hell.

The ground was covered in bloody remains and bones, yet not a single crow circled overhead. It seemed the slaughter here had been so horrific that even scavengers had not dared come near.

"Young... Young Master Muen, what do we do now?"

Royal Knight Jason’s voice had started to shake. He instinctively drew the sword at his waist, yet did not know where he was supposed to point it.

The fortress was empty now. Not a single living person remained. And the one responsible had already departed in perfect ease, not even leaving behind a scrap of cloth.

Muen felt that suffocating pressure in his chest again, as though sparks were smoldering beneath deeply buried ashes, burning low and painfully.

"You should go back first," Muen said expressionlessly.

"Huh?"

Jason froze. "Go back? Then... then what about you, Young Master?"

"I have something else to do."

"Then I’ll also—"

"I’m not sending you back to rest. I’m sending you back to carry a message to the people behind us. Tell them to come here."

Muen swept his gaze over the surroundings and let out a soundless sigh.

"No matter what happened, and no matter what happens next, Notasia Fortress is important. Since the enemy has abandoned it, we need to take control of it again. Otherwise, the entire northern plain will still remain under threat from the enemy’s blade."

"I see... yes, understood."

Jason quickly grasped the importance of it as well. After giving a military salute, he turned the carriage to leave.

"Oh, right."

Muen suddenly called him to a stop.

"Do not spread word of what happened here. Understood?"

"But..."

"Only the two of us know what happened here. The rest... I’ll deal with."

Muen stared straight into Jason’s eyes.

"Understood?"

"U-understood!"

Jason drew a deep breath. He had no idea why Young Master Muen was giving such an order, or how he intended to conceal the horror of this place, but as an excellent Royal Knight, his greatest duty was absolute obedience.

"Good. Go. Tell them the Kingdom’s flames of war will not reach this place again. All they need to do is rebuild it... nothing more."