“……How, how could this happen?”
It was said that everyone stationed in the Control Room was from the Neinhart family.
That meant that all the dead were at least relatives of Dwight.
Moreover, the corpse he was holding appeared to be his father.
“……Dwight.”
“Dwight-kun…”
What would it feel like to witness the horrific murder of your father and loved ones?
In that moment, no words could provide comfort for him.
Though both Sylvia and I were shocked by the situation, it was clear that our shock couldn’t even compare to the one Dwight was experiencing.
Honestly, if I were in his shoes, it wouldn’t be surprising if I lost my mind, so I could only watch in sorrow as Dwight sat down, dazed, and began to sob.
At that moment, Dwight, who had been crying, wiped his eyes with his sleeve and got up abruptly.
“……I can’t just keep being sad. This is an emergency.”
He muttered quietly.
I wanted to ask if he was okay, worried he might be pushing himself too hard, but looking into his eyes made me swallow that question.
Of course, he wasn’t okay. It was only natural that he wouldn’t be.
But it seemed Dwight chose to momentarily set aside his grief instead of floundering in it at this moment.
“……First, I need to find out who did this and why.”
As Neinhart, as a hero who must protect the city.
He deemed it a priority to understand the circumstances of the incident.
In his eyes, where sadness once resided, a cold fury began to fill the void as he focused on the perpetrators of this heinous act.
It was truly admirable that he could gather his wits and take action in such a dire situation.
Agreeing with his determination, Sylvia and I nodded in response, prompting Dwight to point at the corpses at his feet and speak.
“……As you can see, the level of decay is severe. This wasn’t something that happened overnight or in a day.”
“What’s clear is that these people weren’t murdered at least today…”
Sylvia murmured while examining the state of the bodies.
The sight of the severely decomposed corpses must have made her stomach churn slightly, as she furrowed her brow.
In fact, even if Dwight hadn’t pointed it out, everyone would have realized the bodies were old from the moment we arrived here.
The smell that hit us immediately after reaching the Control Room was the stench of rotting flesh.
In any case, what became certain from the fact that these people were not killed today was that the reason for the failure of the barrier was that all those responsible for countering it had been dead long ago.
Letting out a heavy sigh, Dwight’s expression hardened as he muttered.
“……More importantly, I can’t figure out who invaded here and how they did it. The Control Room is structured in such a way that unless we entered as we did, there’s no other way to breach it.”
“……Could it be that the culprit is the Witch of Lust? She might have controlled those inside just like she did with Dolos.”
Sylvia suggested to Dwight, who was mumbling.
Since there were no records of entries and exits, she meant that one of the people inside might be the one who committed this act, which was also the thought that crossed my mind first.
After all, it seemed that the witch’s ability to manipulate people had left a strong impression in my mind.
However, Dwight shook his head, suggesting that might not be the case.
“……It’s not impossible, but the likelihood seems low. You’ve seen the corpses — the holes in them are uniform.”
Looking down again at the bodies he mentioned, I noticed that, despite decaying, there were common visible wounds.
There was a hole in each of the corpses.
And the dark red blood staining the floor seemed to have flowed from these holes, likely the cause of their deaths.
As I considered that, Dwight added to his thoughts.
“There aren’t any other notable marks. If someone was controlled, you’d expect at least one person to have left signs of resistance. If that’s not the case, then it’s right to assume they were all taken down unilaterally. The problem is how the attacker breached this place.”
“……If there’s only that one entrance, the lack of records implies they must have invaded via teleportation?”
I asked Dwight, who seemed to be completely at a loss for how the intrusion could have occurred.
It was a scene akin to a locked room murder, with no signs of entry or exit, yet people were dead; but teleportation existed in this world, allowing people to move without leaving traces.
In response to my question, Dwight shook his head, insisting it couldn’t be.
“Don’t you know? Teleportation is impossible inside the barrier. The barrier also includes functions to obstruct teleportation. So unless the barrier was out of commission, teleportation wouldn’t be—”
As Dwight was explaining why teleportation was impossible, his expression suddenly stiffened as he murmured.
“Impossible, but maybe not…”
“What do you mean?”
“If the barrier stopped operating, then the magic circle that hinders teleportation wouldn’t work either…”
“Then did they invade during that time? When the barrier was momentarily down because of the demonic beast…”
If the invasion happened when the barrier had a malfunction due to the demonic beast, then it would fit with how long the corpses had been decomposing.
It was a sufficiently credible story, but Dwight still shook his head in disbelief.
“……But even so, the chances are low. Teleportation isn’t as simple as it sounds. Do you know what happens if you misplace the coordinates while teleporting?”
When I shook my head, Dwight demonstrated by slowly pressing his palms together.
“If it ends up underground by mistake, you get stuck and die. That’s why we made it so that the Control Room’s location couldn’t be specified when you entered. But to teleport precisely to this Control Room in this vast underground space? That’s just impossible…”
Dwight continued expressing reasons why teleportation was impossible.
Yet, contrary to him, I began to think about how it could have been possible.
As I strained my mind and scanned the surroundings again, something caught my eye.
Without thinking, I called out to Dwight and Sylvia.
“……Hey, wait a second. Doesn’t that part look strange?”
“……Which part are you talking about? The corpses?”
“No, the bloodstain underneath the corpse. It feels like it was blocked by something while spreading out.”
What I was pointing to was a large bloodstain underneath the corpse.
The blood that spilled from the hole in the chest of the corpse seemed natural at first glance, but I felt something unnatural about it.
The blood had spread quite a distance underneath the corpse, but hardly at all above the head.
There was no slant on the floor, so why did the blood leave such an unnatural mark instead of spreading evenly?
Right, it looked as if it had been blocked by something.
Blocked? By what?
“……The barrier.”
A power utilized by the Beasts of Greed to confine living beings inside for a certain period.
As I realized, I murmured the word that formed in my mind.
Along with that, the assumptions that began to take shape in my head blurted out.
“Barrier, it was blocked by the barrier! Everyone remember that witch who attacked when we went on a field trip to the frontline? That witch could teleport at will! And she also commanded the Beasts of Greed.”
“……Indeed, if a barrier was deployed here, it makes sense why no one was able to escape in such a dire situation. If it were my father, he would have surely risked his life to buy time for someone else to escape to report.”
Dwight nodded, as if he realized something, but then he immediately voiced a lingering doubt.
“But even so, how did they determine the location of this Control Room?”
“I can tell you how.”
I quickly answered his question.
Since I’m a witch, I knew how a witch could invade, and it was because the invader was also a witch.
“A witch can sense the presence of another witch.”
“……The presence of a witch? How could that help pinpoint this Control Room’s location…”
Dwight’s expression hardened as he was questioning.
He immediately understood what the implications were.
That the source powering the barrier was none other than the remains of a witch.
The witch who invaded this place sensed that and pinpointed the location of the Control Room.
A flaw that arose because he wouldn’t have known that witches have such abilities.
Dwight sighed heavily as he murmured.
“……So that’s how the security was breached. Then Scarlet, you can also pinpoint this Control Room’s location.”
Shaking my head in response to his comment, I replied.
“No, that’s impossible for me. The witch who invaded probably possessed a greater sense of detection. Perhaps because I’m sealed, I can’t sense anything at all.”
Right after I said that, an awkward silence fell.
Then, three seconds later, I looked at Dwight with a flustered expression and asked.
“Wait…… Isn’t it strange if I can’t feel anything at all?”
As soon as I finished my sentence, Dwight’s expression went stiff, and he rushed towards somewhere.
Sensing where he was going, Sylvia and I hurried after him, catching snippets of what he was mumbling.
“……It’s not here.”
“……What’s not here?”
I asked him, suppressing my anxiety.
Dwight, hitting a glass container that had a large hole in it, murmured in despair.
“The remains of the witch that were used as the primary power source, and the magical stones kept for auxiliary power… The barrier disappeared today simply because the auxiliary power stones ran out.”
“……Then where’s the barrier?”
Sylvia asked in a dazed tone.
Dwight shook his head adamantly, saying it was incorrect.
“……What appeared to be the barrier functioning normally was just the witch putting in auxiliary power before escaping. All this time we’ve been under the illusion that we were fine. The moment the demonic beasts invaded, we were completely compromised…”
“Ah…”
With a sigh, Sylvia exhaled.
The very foundation of this city was the barrier.
In truth, from the time the demonic beasts invaded, the city had been on a countdown to destruction, and that countdown had just ended.
How could she not lament?
But unlike the two of them, who despaired at the loss of the barrier, I despaired at another reality.
Staring at the vacant glass container with a hole in it.
Recalling the existence that was sealed inside and a question I once received.
“Could you save them?”
I had thought about that question back then.
No, it’s impossible.
The protagonist, Yoon Si-woo, had been laid low without a chance.
So I despaired.
Not from the barrier’s demise.
But from the fact that the existence which would bring ruin, not just to this city but to the entire world, had been released from its seal.
The Witch of Gluttony emerged from her imprisonment.
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