As his gaze swept across the crater, Zousi Ayler pondered the implications of that figure's appearance.
He did not know what the "demon horse" that had destroyed Moran truly was.
News of the incident had not spread at all; it was as though Moran's destruction had been covered up by the authorities, leaving only fragments of information about the truth behind the comet and the demon horse that had devastated the city.
Speculation about the mysterious figure wandering through Moran had yet to reach the public.
Zousi knew that news like that would only deepen the anxiety of ordinary people and the orphans scattered across the land.
Living in fear of the supernatural and the criminal underworld was already like walking barefoot across a bed of stones, a slow and painful torment.
He had no desire to add to their burden, or his own.
The strangeness only deepened; the air around the crater felt far thinner than before.
"Phew..."
Tracking the figure roaming Moran was extremely difficult. It was as elusive as a shadow.
He had considered two possible solutions before coming here, but Zousi Ayler quickly dismissed both of them.
One option involved hundreds of horses that were tied down and guarded by at least three officers, stationed one mile northeast of Minehold.
Although he was supposed to ride a horse to Moran, Zousi Ayler chose to travel on foot to avoid any unforeseen complications.
Second, he wanted to avoid using his abilities, or even his spiritual energy, so that he would not endanger his comrades.
The dead city of Moran, located near the sea, had become a nest for supernatural entities. Their numbers had swelled, trapping other supernatural beings within the city's boundaries.
Any supernatural entity that entered could no longer leave, or more accurately, it became an inseparable part of the place itself.
This phenomenon intensified after Moran became a dead city, effectively imprisoning supernatural entities ranging from the weakest to those of intermediate strength.
He did not want to act recklessly; the director had allotted time for the investigation, beginning on Friday the 6th and lasting until the night of Tuesday the 10th.
Their director had also left them with one warning:
Avoid looking back while walking, because doing so was considered taboo in Moran.
Beware of evil spirits capable of shapeshifting, for Moran was the ideal habitat for "those entities."
Zousi Ayler had engraved that warning into his mind.
"Phew... the investigation isn't going smoothly, but... who's that child over there?"
Muttering in confusion as reality settled back into place, Zousi Ayler turned around before stepping onto the hard, uneven road beneath him.
The air around him was silent; there was no sound except his own breathing and the beating of his heart.
To an ordinary person, such an atmosphere would have been terrifying, capable of slowly eroding one's sanity. But having already experienced the influence of the supernatural, Zousi Ayler paid it little mind.
For now, he chose to explore the Niki District alone before heading to the rendezvous point at sunrise.
The city square.
Chapena District, where Queen and her subordinates were conducting their investigation.
The sergeants led small squads, spreading out through different streets while staying within close range of one another.
Queen Seon Arzen's assignment was simple: she and her subordinates were to patrol Cosdever Street No. 1, an area crowded with people and buildings.
After several hours of investigation, their efforts were deemed unsuccessful.
...
Meanwhile, in Krensen District, Vice Commander Kusen Zacuesia and his personnel patrolled the surrounding streets.
Their efforts also failed to produce any meaningful results until one of them discovered something truly astonishing.
Faselens, the lieutenant leading the squad, hurried to inform Kusen, who was stationed on the main road.
What had begun with seven people making the discovery quickly grew into a group of eight, including the Vice Commander, all gathered at the site.
Kusen Zacuesia seemed to forget how to breathe as he sank into thought.
'Lava... frozen? No wonder the roads here are destroyed.'
At first, he had assumed their movement was restricted by the shattered roads and collapsed, or completely destroyed, buildings, attributing the devastation to the comet's impact. Now, after seeing the frozen lava, Kusen Zacuesia bit his lip as understanding dawned on him.
'Damn... so 'they' were here?'
A shiver ran through his body as he slowly forced himself to look behind him.
Using his spiritual senses, he opened his ever-closed eyes and stared deep into the landscape of cracked, upheaved pavement.
Kusen instinctively took a step back, his lips trembling violently while his hand gripped the hilt of the sword hanging at his left hip.
Seeing the Vice Commander's strange behavior, the other officers whispered among themselves, questioning his condition.
"What's wrong with him?"
"Who knows? We'd better stay quiet."
The officer beside him nodded.
"He's far more skilled than we are. He must be doing something."
Another man adjusted the brim of his dark blue military cap. "The Vice Commander is looking at something," he said firmly and clearly.
The three men's pupils widened.
"Looking at something?"
"Is it the hardened lava?"
"No, there has to be something strange over there," he replied, genuinely confused and unsure how to answer.
He tried to understand what the Vice Commander was seeing, but all he could see were collapsed structures and buildings reduced to rubble, leaving behind nothing but a layer of dust.
Confused by the situation, they simply waited for the Vice Commander's orders.
...
In Hava District, Suwwer Kurs Street No. 6.
The personnel, together with another captain brought by Commander Zousi Ayler, discovered something rather extraordinary.
Yes, it was a footprint encased in hardened lava.
"Captain... look at this," a man shouted loudly.
The others reacted immediately; the captain, along with the soldiers following him, moved closer.
It was the footprint of a demon horse, encased in hardened lava as though it had been deliberately preserved.
'How could that happen?'
Naturally, Captain Neiter Tasrian found the discovery difficult to believe.
After thinking for a moment, he nodded, as though realizing what needed to be done.
"...Can you carry this hardened lava?"
Seeing their hesitant expressions, he quickly added:
"You can't? That's alright. I won't force you."
Although his rank gave him the authority to issue orders, Neiter Tasrian was a man who could not bring himself to treat his comrades and subordinates harshly except under certain circumstances.
For some reason, he had been promoted from lieutenant to captain several months after Queen Seon Arzen appointed her new vice captain, Vaetan Gevano.
Unsure how to respond to his kindness, the officers and the two lieutenants stared at him for several seconds.
One of them, a blue-eyed man, set down his backpack and walked toward the hardened lava.
"...If it's the Captain's order, then we'll do it," he said seriously.
Moved by his actions, the others joined in; enthusiastic voices soon filled the street.
"Come on... let's carry the hardened lava."
"Yeah, this might be the clue that gets us home and ensures this investigation succeeds."
"Less talking!"
"Right. Focus on moving this hardened lava."
"It's a crazy idea, but why not."
Watching them work so hard, the captain broke into a broad smile, the warm, cheerful smile that always defined him.
One of the lieutenants, a dark brown-eyed man with a scar running across his cheek, approached him and asked firmly, "Captain, are you sure we're taking this with us?"
Another lieutenant, a brown-eyed man, stepped closer and commented, "This is really strange. It makes me wonder if a horse passed through here."
The captain listened to their conversation before sinking into thought.
'You're wrong. That wasn't an ordinary horse. Calling it a horse is already inaccurate, and it's understandable if people forget that fact as though their memories have been erased. But do they truly not know, or are they merely pretending?'
Although the mid- to high-ranking members of the Cevenose Security Department were Receivers, they had to keep that fact hidden from their subordinates and personnel.
Revealing something that was meant to remain secret from ordinary people would be unbearably painful.
He knew the matter would only become more complicated, and that the world always concealed a different truth within each person's memories.
It was strange, but that was the reality.
Neiter did not know it, but before conducting the investigation in the dead city of Moran, he had searched through old reports in Minehold, which claimed that the demon horse, a creature from the underworld that could be called "Hell," had appeared on the lowlands of Moran.
With black and orange flames, the horse had nearly burned the entire city to ashes. However, according to the reports, it had failed because another group had interfered with its plans.
From that point onward, everything became even more complicated and intertwined, with each mystery connected to another.
'I'm not completely sure, but... could a Prisoner Receiver be controlling those notoriously ferocious demon horses?'
As for the figure who had summoned the demon horses, or the Receiver of The Coffin, Neiter knew absolutely nothing.
Yes, this world needed to be investigated far more deeply. Even though Neiter was a Receiver himself, his knowledge of Receivers with other abilities was extremely limited.
The Cevenose Security Department possessed only two abilities, the ritual methods, and the three essential conditions required to master each Sequence before performing the advancement ritual to become a Receiver.
Disturber and Scatter. Those two abilities were unique enough to become a serious nuisance if they fell into the hands of outsiders.
Because of that, anyone ranked above vice captain could choose which ability they wished to become a Receiver of, but obtaining that ability was far from as simple as eating a piece of bread.
Failure did not end in death. Instead, failure cast a person into a dimension where no human was ever meant to exist.
Yes, that was the consequence of coming close to failure. Everything depended on the resolve and determination one held before the ritual.
Amid uncertainty, an indescribable darkness tormented the soul of the ritual participant, who, upon surviving, found themselves face-to-face with an entity beyond human comprehension.
If that person surrendered, they were deemed to have failed. But if they endured what, in their own minds, felt like an endless stretch of time, they would return to their original world two months after the ritual began, transformed into a "Receiver."
Lost in thought, Neiter briefly watched the two lieutenants chatting and felt as though he were watching two little boys arguing over something.
"Idiot! What kind of horse could survive the impact of a comet?"
"But they could've survived afterward, couldn't they?"
"I know that. But how did those hoofprints end up encased in lava?"
After thinking for a moment, the dark brown-eyed lieutenant replied, "Maybe the horse was running when it saw the flash in the sky, and the explosion created hoofprints that became encased in hardened lava?"
The lieutenant who had asked the question fell silent for several seconds, searching for a response.
Although the comet had struck the northern part of Niki District four months earlier, the atmosphere around the city was no longer as severe as it had been immediately after the impact, when the collision released an immense shockwave and unbearable heat.
Even so, the lingering pungent odor that could still make people sneeze remained in the air around them.
Joining the conversation, the captain finally spoke with a serious expression, though his tone remained calm.
"Move quickly. We don't have much time to linger here."
The two lieutenants gave brief salutes before following their captain.
"Report. My personnel have found hardened lava," said Kusen Zacuesia, wearing his usual smile with his eyes closed.
He did not want to remember it and was clearly hiding something unpleasant from all of them.
Captain Queen Seon Arzen approached, standing upright beside Kusen. After giving a brief salute, she said firmly, "We only found these remnants of shimmering material."
She held out a smooth, spotless emerald-green stone that radiated a brilliant glow, rivaling the afternoon sunlight.
Commander Zousi Ayler accepted the orange-sized stone and examined it carefully.
At first, he intended to keep the beautiful stone, but ultimately decided against it and returned it to its discoverer.
"Keep it," he said flatly. "Maybe it can serve as a souvenir from this expedition."
'Calling it an expedition rather than an investigation is more accurate.'
Zousi nodded silently.
Seeing Queen Seon Arzen's indifferent expression, Zousi turned and walked away, saying, "We'll be staying here overnight."
He lifted his head as the evening light bathed his body. Zousi stood atop the ruins in the middle of the square while his blue eyes trembled for a brief moment, as though swallowed by the warmth of the setting sun.
Neiter saluted the commander before calmly saying, "We found something quite astonishing."
Zousi Ayler immediately turned around, his composed expression fading as his pupils widened.
"Something astonishing? What is it?"
He chose not to ask further, preferring to wait for the explanation.
After all, he had been suspicious from the very beginning when he noticed the officers and the two lieutenants carrying something covered by a tarp.
"Where did that tarp come from?"
Zousi could not help but frown as he glanced to his right, toward the road leading to Forgenate District.
Neiter fell silent for two seconds, then glanced at the lieutenant and the smiling officers in the distance before speaking in a somewhat indifferent tone, "We found footprints encased in frozen lava."
The commander's expression remained calm, but it changed as the memory resurfaced in his mind.
"Footprints in frozen lava?" Zousi Ayler said, feigning surprise.
He fell silent for several seconds, lost in thought.
'What the hell is this information? I never expected Moran wasn't destroyed solely because of the comet's impact.'
It was incredibly strange, yet it completely captured Commander Zousi Ayler's attention.
Neiter saluted. "Yes, Commander. Footprints in lava."
Hearing that, the others were stunned and immediately began questioning the footprints in the lava.
Queen Seon Arzen's personnel murmured among themselves.
"Footprints in lava?"
"I suppose that's possible."
"Look at that wrinkled blue tarp."
"They really did bring back something worthwhile for our unit."
Those who heard the man's muttering nodded in agreement.
Queen Seon Arzen maintained a calm expression, but she remained skeptical that this discovery was connected to the factions operating out there.
Queen Seon Arzen felt the same thing Kusen had sensed.
'The demon horse that attacked Moran? So that conspiracy might actually be true?'
Only then did several of them recall the incident that should have served as a reminder that danger was always present and death was never written on a calendar.
After witnessing the discovery as one of the officers pulled away the tarp, they stood frozen in shock, overcome by the very same sensation.
The demon horse had left hoofprints distinguishable by the additional pointed markings on the left, right, and center.
Only after that strange feeling subsided did they truly understand the situation.
Although the memory of the demon horse remained engraved in the minds of those who had survived Moran's destruction, the news of it, whether obtained legally or illegally from people outside Moran, seemed to vanish from memory as though a sheet of paper had fallen into a pool of lava and been completely consumed without a trace.
It was strange, yet they had experienced that strangeness firsthand.
But in a world like this, such things were perfectly normal.
As night fell, a fire was lit directly beneath the pile of rubble where their former commander had once stood.
The night air was not cold, even though Moran lay near the Kasnia Sea. Yet one thing weighed heavily on their hearts and minds: something was restraining their memories.
But what was it?
"Don't you think those memories are strange?" Neiter asked skeptically.
Kusen raised an eyebrow.
"It is true that a demon horse once appeared in this place."
Queen nodded, expressing her personal opinion.
"As for the demon horse, it seems 'they' were the masterminds behind Moran's destruction."
The three lieutenants approached and nodded, having only overheard their conversation.
The atmosphere suddenly grew awkward as the night air turned colder, while the great fire before them seemed to lose its vitality once again.
Neiter let out a short sigh.
"I'm not sure, but Captain Kusen, do you know anything about the appearance of that demon horse?" he asked earnestly.
Instead of answering immediately, Kusen opened his eyes slightly before saying in a flat, sharp voice, "That figure was definitely human and was doing the same thing we are."
"The same thing as us? An investigation."
Queen spoke without thinking.
The four people who heard her immediately turned toward her, their brows slightly furrowed.
'She asked? That's the first time.'
Kusen was the first to think so. He had often wanted to approach her, not for romantic reasons, but to study the technique behind her lightning-fast swordsmanship and movements.
'Oh? Is she curious?'
Neiter nodded, his thoughts drifting to another female captain who was currently on duty elsewhere.
The three lieutenants showed no particular reaction, mostly because they did not know her well and rarely worked alongside her.
Queen, suddenly realizing what she had just said, quickly interrupted herself. "No. Forget what I just said."
From that moment on, an awkward silence settled over them once again before a puppet nearly as tall as a human silently stood behind them.