Chapter 460
Episode 131: Those with Good Instincts, Those Without (4)
They moored their boat at a rocky outcrop and climbed onto the island.
“It looks like there were sentries standing here not long ago. Hmm… judging by the stride length, I’d say these tracks belong to the special forces,” Lata observed, examining the footprints nearby.
“Special forces? You can tell just from footprints?”
“It’s a kind of intuition and experience, my lord. Given my line of work, I’ve tangled with those guys more than once. There’s a subtle pattern that’s hard to explain.”
“If my brother says so, then it’s definitely the special forces.”
“Humans aren’t beasts, but you sure can tell a lot just from footprints, huh, kid?”
I found it fascinating how the Prochi siblings could be so certain just by looking at footprints—something I lacked entirely. Though, this was after the special forces’ existence had been confirmed.
Looking closer, the fighting wasn’t confined to the island’s center. Smoke and flames rose from various large and small islands scattered in a chain.
In other words, localized battles were erupting everywhere.
The islands were close enough that swimming or leaping between them was feasible. We decided to move around the archipelago to assess the situation.
A piercing scream echoed from somewhere with every step we took.
Bright skies, pristine nature, beautiful islands, and warm breezes—yet more and more elements clashed with this peaceful scene.
The group couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of dissonance.
“Hey, kid.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t those screams sound… off to you?”
Jin nodded.
“They sound like terrified civilians who haven’t been trained.”
“That’s what it sounds like to me, too, my lord.”
The screams were too intense to be from ordinary islanders or civilians. They carried the unique vitality of martial artists ranked six stars or higher.
Just because someone is well-trained and battle-hardened doesn’t mean their screams would sound heroic or composed.
But those who had come to the Gaipa Archipelago were troops from the four major factions—brought here fully aware that clashes could break out between them.
At the very least, they should all be elite soldiers.
So it was hard to understand why such seasoned fighters would scream in such terror.
The next island we reached was shaped like a low hill. From its relatively high vantage point, the island ahead came into full view.
And what we saw was a scene so shocking, none of us had ever imagined it.
“Eek! Aah!”
“Ugh!”
A group of people ran wildly, screaming like frightened animals.
“What the hell is going on here?”
“Those are the royal troops, Lord Murakan.”
The ones running were the royal elite soldiers.
Tattered flags bearing the emblem of the Bimant royal family lay scattered on the ground, trampled underfoot by the fleeing soldiers.
What could have possibly broken the royal elite troops like this? At first glance, nothing was clear.
But within seconds, we understood what was driving them mad.
“My lord, this… it doesn’t look like they’re fighting an enemy.”
“Indeed. They’re fighting among themselves.”
The royal elite soldiers we were watching were attacking each other with clumsy, uncoordinated moves unbefitting their elite status.
It was as if they were possessed or completely blind. They screamed nonstop while wildly swinging their weapons.
Thud! Scratch! Ugh…!
For a while, we hid behind a rock, observing their behavior in silence.
And we pondered what on earth was happening in this archipelago.
“There’s no scent of hallucinogens. If it were a strong enough drug to cause this kind of madness, there’d be a strong odor.”
“Nor is it any kind of narcotic.”
The Prochi siblings spoke.
While they analyzed the scent, Jin searched for traces of magical energy, suspecting it might be the result of some dark or mental magic unknown to him—after all, there were Ziphl here.
But the small island where the royal elite soldiers were wreaking havoc showed no signs of magical energy.
It wasn’t drugs, nor magic. If not those, then what kind of trickery could have driven the royal elite troops to this state?
Turning his gaze to other islands, Jin saw explosions, flames, and thick black smoke.
‘The footprints Lata mentioned belong not to the royal elite but to the special forces. And unlike the others, their footprints show a steady stride. So the special forces were standing guard, noticed something wrong with the royal troops, and started moving.’
A hypothesis quickly formed.
Whatever was driving people mad, it didn’t affect those above a certain level.
“Let’s move on.”
It wasn’t hard to test this theory—just compare the battles on other islands.
On the very next island, Ziphl mages were fighting among themselves.
“Ugh!”
“Caw!”
Like the royal elite, they were crazed and attacking each other, but their situation was even worse.
“Tch, this is pretty nasty.”
Murakan grimaced.
The Ziphl mages were fighting with staffs and bare hands, not magic.
Even if the royal elite soldiers were mentally broken, their martial strength meant they could kill each other with a single blow. But the mages, without magic, had to go through a gruesome process to kill one another.
“This confirms it’s not the Ziphl’s doing. Let’s check the next island. Kinzello’s forces should be here too.”
Finding the island where Kinzello was stationed was easy.
From the nearby island came sounds like beasts howling—Kinzello’s beastmen.
The fighting there was between the Red Claw tribe.
We even saw beastmen with bloodshot eyes, clawing and biting each other. So Kinzello wasn’t the cause of this chaos either.
“When was it… about fifteen hundred years ago? Or earlier? When Helluram spread that strange plague, it felt like this too. Everyone had completely lost their minds.”
“Could that witch be involved?”
“I don’t think so. Helluram’s plague started as a curse, so if that were the case, these snake-eyed folks would be affected too. If Helluram were here, only you and I would be completely immune, kid.”
We checked a few more islands where fighting was breaking out. All showed similar scenes.
The only difference was that on some islands, multiple factions were tangled up in the fighting.
There were places where the royal elite and Red Claw fought together in madness, and others where the Red Claw, Ziphl, or even all three clashed.
The crazed attacked anything they saw.
The fact that on the first three islands we saw, only allies fought each other was simply because those were their garrisons.
The hypothesis was correct.
Jin was now almost certain.
“Looks like it’s a seven-star level phenomenon. This is probably Amela’s doing.”
At Jin’s words, the group’s attention sharpened.
“Kid, what do you mean?”
“I don’t know exactly what’s driving people mad, but the threshold is seven stars. From seven stars up, people are either unaffected or can resist it.”
The royal elite soldiers weren’t knights but the best soldiers selected from the ranks. So except for commanders, all were six stars or below.
The mages fighting each other were the same—none were first-tier mages from Baekya, the Phantom Corps, or the main towers, but six stars or below.
The Red Claw tribe members were also all six stars or below, with no commanders in sight.
“There were no corpses of commanders above six stars on any of the islands where the three factions fought. That means the commanders fled after the problem started. The special forces Lata mentioned moved in the same way.”
The reason for concluding it was seven stars was partly because all affected were six stars or below.
But the biggest reason was this:
“And the mad Runcandel isn’t here.”
Runcandel never sends six-star guardian knights on external missions outside Huepester. So all guardian knights here should be at least seven stars.
Since all three factions had set up nearby, Runcandel would have camped close by too. The fact that not a single one was visible meant they had all safely evacuated.
First, we needed to find the island where Runcandel was and locate the other factions’ commanders.
“Murakan.”
[“Yes.”]
“I think it’s better to fly from here on.”
The reason we had used the inconvenient boat to get this far was simple.
The Gaipa Archipelago was Amela’s domain, and we had come to recruit her. Flying abruptly over someone else’s territory would be an enormous breach of etiquette.
Besides, the major factions had brought troops to show their power, so it made sense to differentiate ourselves.
Whoosh…!
Murakan transformed into his true form, flapping his wings. Riding on his back, we soared into the sky, taking in the entire Gaipa Archipelago at a glance.
Straight ahead, the largest island in the center of the archipelago stood out. It was covered in a dark, mold-like hue.
At first glance, it resembled spiritual energy but felt much heavier and murkier.
Anyone could sense that this massive black energy was the source driving people mad.
And surrounding that enormous dark aura were the ‘sane’ members of each faction, holding their ground.
They were drenched in sweat, struggling to suppress the spreading black energy. Then, the group noticed the shape of the energy shifting, as if it were being molded like clay.
Squirm, squirming—
“What the hell is that? A human?”
The black energy covering the island had taken the form of a person.
Smaller than Zephyrin, yet far larger than Murakan.
And strangely enough, the figure bore a striking resemblance to someone Jin deeply despised.
“Bubar… Gaston!?”
The moment Jin recalled the name, the freshly formed black figure opened its mouth.
“You’ve been such a nuisance to me.”
Immediately after, the dark figure inhaled deeply, as if preparing to unleash a dragon’s breath.