"What would you do if it were you, Leonardo?"
Leonardo was curious about Hugo’s intent in asking that question.
He probably wasn’t asking because he didn’t know what to do himself—was he offering a choice or asking for his input? Either way, Leonardo had no intention of turning back the way they came.
Without answering, he walked a few steps away from the dead-end wall. Hugo silently watched.
The 8th Platoon Leader glanced up at him from the side, her expression skeptical. She couldn’t comprehend why the Commander—who had personally apprehended Leonardo after he stirred up so much chaos in the capital—was now letting him act however he pleased. But after a moment’s thought, she decided there must be a reason and kept watching, curious what Leonardo would do next.
Once he judged the presence of water had distanced itself enough, Leonardo stopped. Then, without hesitation, he raised his hand toward the ceiling.
"Wait! If you do that—!"
Just as the 8th Platoon Leader tried to stop him, a crimson beam shot from his hand and pierced the ceiling. A sharp roar erupted as rock shattered, dust billowing into the air.
Flynn, already worried the cave might collapse, watched with wide eyes. But Leonardo calmly spread a barrier to shield them from falling debris, and—fortunately—the cave held firm.
As the dust gradually settled, Leonardo leapt and slipped through the hole in the ceiling.
The hole was relatively cleanly pierced, a circular gap shaped by the beam’s trajectory. Faint light from above filtered down, illuminating the dim cave interior.
Flynn and the 8th Platoon members stood blinking in awe. But Hugo was thinking something entirely different as he examined the edges of the new opening.
“Much better than yesterday... but still not there.”
If Leonardo's mana control had been as sharp and refined as it once was, the circle would have been perfect—no residual cracks. But this one had small fractures at the rim, vulnerable to another impact.
Just then, Leonardo popped his head back down through the hole—upside down—and casually called out,
"Aren’t you coming?"
Hugo stepped forward without hesitation.
"Let’s go."
He led the others upward, following Leonardo through the opening.
As they emerged—through a hole wide enough for five people to pass side by side—they were met with a refreshing openness that sharply contrasted with the cave's oppressive dampness. Overhead stretched a clear night sky, stars and moon already visible, and below it, a vast, silent lake.
The others followed, each one stopping in place as the awe-inspiring view stole the breath from their lungs. Flynn, who was the last to climb up, scanned the area with wide eyes and muttered as if in realization:
"It’s a crater."
The lake was nestled in a massive crater—formed at the summit of a dormant volcano. Because of the altitude, the water temperature was ice-cold, lending a crispness to the air. A cloudless sky loomed overhead, likely the result of high pressure.
Had Leonardo fired his beam forward instead of upward, the lake water would’ve poured straight into the cave. But the hole he’d opened was far enough from the lake’s edge to avoid triggering that.
It seemed Leonardo had roughly gauged the lake's depth and position from within the cave.
Hugo looked up at the darkening sky, checking the time on his wristwatch. He had thought they were underground only briefly—but more time had passed than he expected.
He quickly scanned the group. No one looked exhausted, but after encountering an unusually high number of monsters—and enduring long, high-speed flight—fatigue must be building up. It would be best to camp here.
Soon, his gaze landed on a nearby cave entrance, broad and open. It looked large enough to provide shelter from wind or rain.
"It’s a bit early, but we’ll spend the night there."
"Yes, understood!"
****
Around the massive lake, enclosed by jagged ridgelines like a basin, tough dry grasses grew sparsely.
The members gathered dried grass and branches to start a fire and pitched tents inside the cave. Since the 1st Battalion had split and the number of personnel had significantly decreased, it was decided that Hugo and Leonardo would each sleep in individual tents rather than a shared command tent.
Once everyone had eaten and was busy arranging the area, Leonardo—who had barely touched his food and got up first—wandered over to the lake with a high-calorie energy bar Hugo had handed him earlier.
The lake’s surface was utterly still—not a single ripple disturbed it. But the sheer stillness gave off a strange, eerie vibe.
Moonlight shimmered on the water, but the spots it didn’t reach were pure black, absorbing the light rather than reflecting it. Even by rough estimation, the water looked terrifyingly deep, impossible to guess where the bottom was.
The immediate shore was lined with fine sand and scattered gravel—worn down over long years of shattering rock and erosion. Perhaps due to this, there wasn’t a single blade of grass near the waterline.
Leonardo inhaled deeply. The cold air felt like it froze his insides. Absently, he bit into the energy bar, then crouched to touch the splashing lake water with his fingertips. A biting cold surged into his skin.
"Leonardo."
He turned to the voice behind him—Hugo was approaching slowly.
Noticing the energy bar in his hand and the chocolate smudged at the corner of his mouth, Hugo raised a brow slightly.
He’d already been concerned after hearing from Flynn that Leonardo hadn’t eaten much in the morning either, and now he felt a bit of regret for having given him that bar. Still, it didn’t seem like something worth commenting on—at least not now.
That wasn’t why he’d come over.
Standing beside him, Hugo calmly offered a warning.
"Don’t go too deep into the lake—just in case."
Leonardo blinked up at him. He didn’t ask why. Instead, he shook the water off his hand, stood up, and asked something else.
"Can you also analyze water quality?"
Hugo followed his gaze back to the lake, then turned again to answer.
"Yes, I can sense it. This lake is first-class water. To be exact, it’s even purer than that."
"...Can living creatures even survive in something like that?"
"It’s rare—but not impossible."
Leonardo furrowed his brows and took another bite of the energy bar, chewing slowly as he mulled over the answer and the chocolate sticking to the roof of his mouth.
Hugo knew what he was really asking, so he continued.
"I sent two people on patrol earlier to scout the area. Do you know what they found?"
Leonardo didn’t answer—he glanced over as if prompting him to continue.
"They found traces of a campsite and abandoned belongings near the entrance of another cave. But the traces were quite old. So... where did the people who left them go?"
Leonardo’s jaw slowed. His eyes drifted back to the lake he'd been fixated on earlier. After a moment, he turned again to meet Hugo’s gaze.
And Hugo, reading that look, simply nodded.
