Different zones have different concentrations of Twilight. The further east you go, generally, the more concentrated it becomes. “Dangerous zones” are those where the concentration has exceeded a certain amount and the monsters exceed B rank. Only Rank 2 Exorcists and up are allowed in dangerous zones.
Furthermore, if the monsters in these dangerous zones aren’t regularly thinned out, they may end up wandering into the safe zones. And so we, the Twilight Mobile Task Force, spend almost every day in the dangerous zones, thinning out monsters. Death isn’t at all uncommon, but someone has to do it. There are plenty of people who travel around in the safe zones, after all. We have to take care of the monsters to protect them and to work towards our goal of eliminating the Twilight.
These dangerous zones are divided into 10 levels. The further east you go, the higher the level, generally. The very eastern end of the continent is considered level 10. The Ogre village I visited was also in a level 10 area.
The Twilight’s concentration also varies based on latitude – the further north or south you go, the more concentrated the Twilight becomes. For that reason, the Seventh and First Barriered Cities, located at the northern and southern ends of human territory, are quite dangerous places.
“Are we heading to a level 1 zone?”
“That’s the plan for today. We might head up to level 2 later.”
“Have you ever been to level 3 or higher?”
“We’ve only gone as far as level 4. I’m looking forward to seeing your skills, considering you made it all the way to level 10 and back.”
“Yes, sir,” I replied to the Colonel, nodding. But I wasn’t exactly an expert on the Twilight. Sure, I fought a lot of monsters, but I spent the vast majority of my time running away. And in the level 10 zone, all the way out east? The monsters out there were so powerful that all I did was run away.
But, I suppose the knowledge and battle skills that I gained out there are considered useful here, I thought. Guess I’ve gotta do my best.
“Alright. Yuria, Scott, you’ll serve as our vanguard. Karl and I will take the centre. Eira, Luna, you provide support from the rear line.”
“Roger,” we replied in unison. Then, we headed out.
◇
We left the Seventh Barriered City, travelling through the safe area, killing monsters as we went. After a while, we reached the edge of the dangerous zone. I paused.
“What’s wrong? Feeling nostalgic?”
“…Yes, actually. I’m surprised you noticed, Lieutenant Bates.”
“Haha, well, yeah. Feel free to compliment me while you still can, Major, sir.”
“What…?”
I got the feeling he was a little resentful of me. Not much I could do about that, though. He was more than 10 years older than me, after all. However, beneath the resentment in his words, I could sense something else, almost like kindness or concern.
In any case, Bates and I were the vanguard, so we headed forwards into the danger zone. Pretty quickly, we came upon some familiar monsters.
“White Wolves… A pack, and a big one at that.”
“Yeah…”
The two of us prepared our blades.
Lieutenant Bates looked at me, his mouth open in surprise. “I’d heard the rumours, but… You really do use a knife, huh?”
”
”
“Well, sort of. It’s not just a knife, though.”
I didn’t get a chance to explain.
The Colonel’s voice came from behind, “Yuria, Scott, take care of them! We’ll provide support and take care of any that get past you.”
“Yes sir!” we shouted in unison, but just as we were about to head into battle…
“Well, that should be good enough, right?” said Eira. The White Wolves’ feet were completely frozen, rendering them immobile. In an instant, her magic had frozen every single one of them. After that, all we had to do was walk around, cutting off their heads one after another. I held my knife in both hands, using Invisible Blade to cut off head after head.
When we were done, I noticed Bates staring at me. “Hey, Major, what is that knife?”
“Oh, this is a type of Illusion Magic. It’s an original spell of mine: Invisible Blade.”
“Woah…”
“I see, it’s an invisible blade… It seems quite effective. Having an invisible weapon is quite the advantage. I’ve heard you can deploy several of them concurrently; is that right?”
“Yes, that’s correct. You seem to know a lot, Captain Hunt.”
“I did some digging into you before you joined the unit. A lot of information about the S-Ranks is made public, so it was fairly easy.”
“Hehe, my Yuria is pretty amazing, isn’t he?” Eira said, joining the conversation.
”
”
Why is she the one getting all proud here? I thought.
“Your Ice Magic earlier was impressive, too. S-Ranks really are on a different level, huh. You know, we might be able to head into a level 2 zone today. What do you think, Colonel?”
“Hmm… I suppose there’s no reason we can’t… Let me contact headquarters,” the Colonel said, activating a small, spinning magic item. He put it on his ear and started talking, like he was having a conversation with someone.
“Wait, what’s that thing?” I asked.
“It’s a magic item, developed by R&D, that can be used to communicate at a distance, Major. It’s still fairly early in development, but it can handle conversation.”
“You’re… Lieutenant Gray, right?”
“Yes. The device still has a lot of issues that need to be resolved, but it’s capable of communicating like this, even at fairly large distances. Supposedly it works by tracing mana particles to transmit sound.”
“I see,” I said. It was an impressive use of magic, for sure.
The Colonel finished his conversation and turned to us. “We’ve got permission. However, we’ve only been authorised to go up to level 2, and no further. Understood?”
“Yes sir,” we said in unison. Then we proceeded deeper into the Twilight.