Chapter 176: Under the Dark |
The bottom of the abyss was far darker than anyone could have imagined. Even the piercing glare of the searchlights above could not penetrate the shroud. Looking around, Levi could only discern faint, hazy silhouettes shifting like ghosts in the dark.
Fortunately, Levi had come prepared. He reached down and turned on the gas lamp at his waist. A warm, yellow glow flared to life, driving back the surrounding shadows. Whether it was just his imagination or reality, the moment the light appeared, the darkness seemed to retreat, rippling backward like a wave.
"..."
An illusion? Forget it, he would treat it as one. What else could he do? Draw his gun and shoot at the dark?
Levi composed himself and carefully examined his surroundings. Compared to the upper levels where corpses littered the ground, this area was remarkably clean. Aside from the zombies that had plummeted from above, there were no bodies. It made sense, given that this was the original source of the infection; anyone who had fallen ill here would have returned to the quarters to rest long ago. The only things left were piles of excavated earth and various pieces of digging and transport equipment.
It looked entirely ordinary.
Standing at the very bottom, looking at the mounds of dirt, the shovels and tools scattered about, and the mechanical equipment nearby, it felt exactly like a regular, run-of-the-mill construction site. But when he remembered that this three-kilometer-deep pit had been dug by tens of thousands of people over several decades...
It was a modern-day manifestation of the Foolish Old Man Who Moved Mountains. Though Levi was not a native of the Empire, he had to admit that the Empire was truly impressive.
A three-kilometer pit! If this had been a mountain, they would have completely leveled it.
Of course, understanding their perspective did not mean Levi sympathized with them. In his original world, Levi had been a citizen of a powerful nation, surrounded by small, petty neighboring countries that constantly acted like clowns, wishing for nothing more than his homeland to dissolve and explode into oblivion, believing it was their only way to survive. Should his nation really lower itself to please them just to keep them happy? How could that ever happen? The only proper response was to beat them into submission, ensuring they remembered who was master. Small nations with petty minds were hardly worth mentioning.
In that regard, Levi felt the Empire suited his temperament quite well. Furthermore, he was living a comfortable life here now. He had wealth, fame, and status. Aside from occasionally doing grueling work for MI7 that felt like a never-ending cycle of long hours, his life was quite pleasant. With the Empire currently undergoing a grand revival and Her Majesty the Queen proving to be a wise ruler, staying here was far better than trying his luck elsewhere.
The immediate issue, however, was finding the root of the problem.
Musing over the current state of the Empire, Levi began to pace around the area. He could feel something in the surrounding shadows, constantly watching his every move. If this were a horror film, it would be the monster's perspective—hiding behind an obstacle, staring intently at the protagonist. But as long as the entity didn't show itself, Levi paid it no mind. He knew the creature would eventually lose its patience and rush out. With his eyes scanning the perimeter, Levi began a slow search for clues.
The supplies used for the work wouldn't be kept too far away. Since these items were meant for daily use at the site, it made no sense to lock them in a distant warehouse where retrieving them would be a hassle. Levi walked toward the edge of the construction area and soon spotted several wooden crates stacked along one side of a passage. A few of them had already been pried open, with crowbars left lying nearby.
If he wasn't mistaken, this had to be it. Levi walked over to the wooden crates, inspected them thoroughly, and pulled out his notebook to cross-reference the serial numbers. Yes, these were the ones. Judging by their placement, these crates had been opened and put to use immediately after being transported to the bottom.
The question was... what exactly was inside them?
Levi peered into a crate. Inside were large, oval containers that resembled some kind of gas cylinder. Some were open, while others remained sealed. Levi didn't work in engineering, so he had no idea what these items were used for, and there was currently no way to contact Sister Elizabeth.
While cameras existed in this era, they weren't compact; they were heavy, bulky, and massive apparatuses that Levi refused to haul around. Yet these containers were so large that hauling one back would be a nightmare. His physical strength was currently only at the level of an ordinary human, and the elevator was broken. The objects were larger than standard gas cylinders; dragging one back up would exhaust him completely. More importantly, if this item truly was the source of the evil, wouldn't dragging it along just spread the plague the entire way?
Ultimately, Levi made a decision: he would draw it. He couldn't risk bringing anything physical back up, since there was no telling what kind of contamination might be on the surface. Levi might be immune, but others would likely collapse the moment they came near. The best course of action was to sketch the scene, bring the drawings to Sister Elizabeth, and let her evaluate them to see if any useful information could be gleaned.
Levi possessed decent skill in Art. Though he wasn't a grandmaster, his realistic style was more than adequate for an accurate depiction. Setting the gas lamp down beside him, he opened his notebook to a blank page and began sketching the canister before him.
As he drew, Levi began to notice that something was amiss with the container. Sketching from life always worked this way. Normally, when you looked at an apple, it just seemed like an ordinary apple. But when you sat down to draw it, you suddenly noticed a blemish here or a patch of uneven color there. That was exactly what Levi experienced as he sketched the canister. Initially, he thought the exterior was merely rough. But as the lines took shape under his pencil, he realized it wasn't a matter of simple roughness—there appeared to be some kind of pattern or emblem engraved upon the surface.
This was getting interesting. Levi set down his notebook and stared intently at the container once more, spotting the trick.
There was indeed a design on the canisters, but it was a composite image. To put it simply, a portion of the pattern was engraved on three separate canisters; unless they were lined up together, the full image could not be discerned. Levi hadn't noticed it at first, merely thinking the markings looked strange. But after scanning the trio together, he realized the pattern strongly resembled the All-Seeing Eye. Yes, it resembled it, but it wasn't an exact match.
It was common knowledge that the symbol of the All-Seeing Eye consisted of an eye enclosed within a triangle. This pattern followed that structure, but the eye itself was not human. It looked more like the eye of a beast—a wide, vertical slit pupil surrounded by distorted, radiating lines that resembled twisted solar flares.
What on earth was this?
Levi's expression turned grave. He knew exactly how sacred and serious the All-Seeing Eye was in this world. In the past, anyone who drew the All-Seeing Eye incorrectly would be branded a heretic and sent straight to the stake. While things weren't quite so extreme now, intentionally defacing or distorting the holy symbol was still an offense punishable by imprisonment.
Who would dare display such a blasphemous thing so openly? Could this be connected to the plague?
"Whoosh!"
Just as Levi's mind was racing with questions, the surrounding darkness suddenly began to churn. At the same moment, he felt the direction of the wind shift abruptly. It felt as though a massive whale was swimming nearby—even a slight flick of its tail was enough to kick up a violent wave in the ocean.
This was bad...
The flame of the gas lamp began to flicker and sway wildly. The darkness advanced toward Levi like a swelling tide, pressing closer and closer. In that split second, Levi made his choice. Run!
"Rumble!"
The entire Runes Mine gave a sudden, violent shudder. Seen from above, the dark shadows below resembled a roaring, colossal wave, churning, swirling, and howling through the abyss.
"Holy hell, good thing I was a step ahead..."
Standing at the edge of the upper cliff, Levi stared down into the churning black mist below, drawing a sharp breath. Although he had been using Soul Sight to monitor his surroundings, he truly hadn't seen anything just moments ago. He had relied entirely on the instincts he had forged through countless life-or-death experiences to sense that something was wrong, prompting him to decisively back away.
Fortunately, before descending, Levi had placed several spiritual markers along the path. The moment he sensed danger, he executed a Shadow Swap, instantly extracting himself from the dark pit floor. Looking down at the wildly shifting shadows, Levi felt a wave of relief. Thank goodness he had retreated quickly, or he might have been wiped out down there. Though he didn't know what kind of entity was hiding within those shadows, it certainly wasn't anything ordinary. Whatever the case, he had absolutely no intention of fighting such a thing in single combat. With no clear intelligence on the enemy and no understanding of what the entity even was, Levi wasn't foolish enough to commit such a blunder.
If all else failed... he would just blow the entire place to kingdom come.
Of course, that was a matter for later. His immediate priority was to return as quickly as possible, lest Sister Elizabeth report him as killed in action, which would be truly absurd.
Going up was much easier than coming down. Levi had left a trail of markers all along the route. After recalling his puppets, he used Shadow Swap repeatedly, returning to the top ten levels in no time. When the personnel there learned of his safe return, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and Levi was soon reunited with Sister Elizabeth.
"Thank goodness you are safe, Mr. Levi." Seeing Levi return completely unharmed, Sister Elizabeth let out a long breath of relief. "We lost communication midway, which worried me deeply... What happened down there?"
"I was ambushed, and the communication lines were severed, leaving me unable to report."
"And you came back immediately after that?"
"No, I still went down to the very bottom, and I actually found some clues." As he spoke, Levi pulled out his notebook and the sketches he had tucked away, explaining his deductions to Sister Elizabeth.
As she listened to his analysis, Sister Elizabeth's expression grew increasingly grim. "Are you saying someone deliberately spread the plague here?"
"Exactly. I found these items in the underground mining area..." Levi presented his sketch of the container to Sister Elizabeth, who took it and examined the drawing closely.
"This is a pressure cylinder, used to replenish the steam pressure for engineering machinery once it runs low..." However, as she spoke, Sister Elizabeth's gaze locked onto the pattern drawn on the side of the paper. "Where did you find this emblem?"
"Right on the body of the cylinders. It was hidden very cleverly; you couldn't see it on a single surface. It only becomes clear when three canisters are lined up together. Do you recognize it?"
"Of course." Facing Levi's question, Sister Elizabeth nodded heavily. "This is the mark of the God of Disaster," she stated firmly.