It was said to have originally been a failed creation of Rhine Lab, a biological weapon that should have been used for war. However, after its uncontrollable behavior caused multiple laboratory accidents, it was completely abandoned and sealed deep within an underground testing facility.
Until now, perhaps because they thought it could be put to some use, they moved the thing here and handed it over to the Sarcophagus research team.
The deputy director and the researchers under him did indeed possess ingenious ideas. They built a suit of armor designed to "restrain" this uncontrollable war machine.
Although it reduced its combat ability to some extent, a soldier who could obey orders was still better than a thorny misfit who refused to obey.
Besides, this restraint device also functioned as armor, so it could truly allow him to serve a purpose.
And the first enemy of this war machine, which had been named Apostle, was the Snow Demon.
This served everyone's interests.
Only...
"You think this thing can defeat the Snow Demon?"
"Of course. It must defeat the Snow Demon! This is the power of technology!"
P.S. Ciwai Mao's censorship dictionary really does protest too much. A combination of characters I hadn't even noticed somehow produced a bizarre effect, heh. Isn't that practically reminding people to make mistakes?
The final Evangelion movie is coming out soon! So I specially made a reference to the final boss of this volume. Heart hands.
By the way, so many people actually like my book. Ah, I'm so happy. Hehe.
Section 26: Chapter 26—The Impenetrable Fog
"Useless! Everyone in the army is useless!"
At the officers' residence of the Fifth Army Group, Ivanov Kim Yusupov, Duke of Ivanov Kim Yusupov and head of the currently powerful Yusupov family, was raging at a group of his subordinates. He was also the commander-in-chief of the Fifth Army Group and a powerful court official.
On the building's second floor, his low voice was filled with authority, frightening all his subordinates into lowering their heads and enduring his tirade.
"I told you to investigate! What exactly have you found?"
With a loud slap, several newspapers were thrown to the floor.
They contained reports from the past few days. Although the Ursus authorities had been controlling the voices coming from the media, something like this could not be concealed. Even a few words in some remote corner were still the truth.
Dozens of versions of the incident were now circulating among the people. After all, it was human nature to enjoy seeing a funeral become as grand as possible. The common people could gossip for over a year about nobles disgracing themselves, let alone the other officials.
Although the reports contained only a few words and used vague, biased phrasing, behind them lay a bloody defeat.
An entire organized force had been wiped out. Since the founding of Ursus, its army had stood supreme across the continent of Terra. No one had ever dared to openly challenge Ursus's military might.
Even less had anyone dared to wipe out an entire organized force. Although the empire's countless expansions had seen both victories and defeats, and its invasions of the ancient nations in the east had gained little, the two sides had always been evenly matched.
For every thousand enemies killed, eight hundred soldiers were lost. Even during a retreat, the troops withdrew in an orderly, organized fashion, and the victorious side still did not dare pursue them recklessly.
But now, an entire organized force had been wiped out—and it had happened in the space of a single night!!!
"Five thousand people! Five thousand! They vanished in one night! Even if they were five thousand pigs, the Yan Nation's army couldn't catch them all before they got away! Useless bunch!"
The duke cursed and ranted for the entire morning before finally sitting back down in his chair.
Of course, his anger could not simply disappear. Every time he thought about the matter, it gave the duke a splitting headache.
An Imperial Guard Infantry Division had an official strength of only twenty-five thousand soldiers. Moreover, the legions assigned to garrison duty were rarely at full strength, and usually had five thousand soldiers stationed around the surrounding regions to suppress threats and maintain a presence.
Five thousand people had vanished in one night, and no one even knew who had done it. Anyone would be uncomfortable if something like that happened on their watch.
It would take several more days for the incident to fully develop. By then, the emperor would probably summon him to answer for it.
Being held accountable was the least of it. Suffering such heavy losses during peacetime—where would that leave His Majesty's dignity?
Seeing the duke grow angrier the more he cursed, the people beneath him did not dare straighten their backs.
Indeed, every one of them had been selected from among thousands. Anyone capable of working directly under the duke was no fool. They were all elite cadres chosen from the military system, including staff officers as well as brigade and regimental commanders from the subordinate mechanized brigades.
Yet this group of highly capable elites, who had always achieved results with unmatched efficiency, had failed to uncover even the slightest useful clue in this matter!
"Useless! A bunch of utterly useless fools! Aren't you all so capable normally? Why have you gone soft now?!"
Duke Ivanov Kim Yusupov was advanced in age, yet he slammed the table and flew into a rage.
It was like fighting the air. They could not seize the culprit's true identity, much less understand the manner of its existence.
The only clues were the codename Snow Demon and several photographs.
What exactly was the Snow Demon? How many attackers had there actually been? After all, an assault on the army could not possibly have left no information behind.
But looking into it only made things more confusing.
Every "conclusion" was derived from "information" gathered during the process.
People analyzed "information," and ordinarily, supernatural information did not exist in reality.
Yet the strangest part was that among the surviving records of the Garrison Legion's destruction, there were recordings from vehicle-mounted terminals at the scene, as well as footage of lights observed from the surrounding urban districts and from extremely distant locations.
Based on the information from the scene, if someone told you that firepower projection of this level had come from "one person," would you believe it was the Snow Demon?
Who was taking whom for an idiot?!
The footage contained few clear images, but the sight of the sky had left the deepest impression.
It was filled with "meteors."
Of course, anyone could tell that these low-flying objects were actually something resembling spell attacks. But with the entire sky covered in them, firepower projection of this level would have required at least half a division of Arts Casters in the Ursus army.
So here was the question: within Ursus, on the land of the great bear, where could one obtain half a division of Arts Casters with real combat ability, bring them within striking range without the Imperial Guard Infantry Division noticing, and then make them vanish without a trace after an all-out bombardment—not even leaving a single footprint in the snow?
If you possessed an army of this caliber, would you need to launch a sneak attack within someone else's territory? Or rather, across all of Terra, which faction could produce such an army?
The princes and nobles of other countries did possess powerful and mysterious armed forces, but never in such numbers.
Even if they had that many, they could not sneak into the great bear's sphere of influence and cause trouble without a sound.
So here was the question.
If such a force could not be found anywhere on Terra, then just what kind of being was the so-called "Snow Demon"?
That was the truly unbelievable part.
Could it really have been the work of some deity wandering across the wilderness?
It was difficult to say, but much of the evidence did point in that direction.
Were the Staff Department's advisers simply incompetent, making it seem as though a miracle had occurred because they could not uncover the truth? Or was this truly the prank of some evil god?
It was hard to say.
"Continue the investigation. Otherwise, pack your belongings and go back home to farm."
"Yes!"
The subordinates filed out of the room one after another, until only the duke remained, sitting in his chair with his eyes closed and resting.
There was also the latest intelligence report from the Staff Department on the desk.
It was a warning, an assessment compiled from the subsequent analysis and an evaluation of the current situation.
Its overall conclusion was actually quite simple.
The army's deterrent effect had been weakened. News of the Infected resisting the army had spread. Although the military had done everything possible to suppress the dissemination of the truth, it had still failed to stop the incident from spreading.
No one could obtain the truth, but the Infected did not need the truth to resist.
All they needed was a spark.
And now, that spark existed. Although word of mouth had caused the story to branch into countless versions, the incident had already spread.
You could not cover up a fire with paper. The Infected might truly begin resisting the empire's rule.
The issue now was no longer how to extinguish the flames, but how to assess their value.
Then they had to consider how to make use of them and maximize the benefits.
That was the reason the Staff Department had issued this report.
Ursus was currently competing with Columbia over the issue of Line Two, requiring vast amounts of labor and increased ore shipments. Naturally, this meant exploiting even more ultra-cheap labor.
The Infected were perfectly suited to meet that demand.
But now that something like this had happened, what came next... was truly difficult to say...
P.S. By the way, it's Wednesday already. Why hasn't Orange Mom replied to my message? Don't scare me, aaahhhhh, sob sob.
Section 27: Chapter 27—A Great Transformation Unseen in a Century
Relying on those foolish mortals, who knew how many years it would take them to investigate this?
On the snowfield, a red-haired woman stood in the middle of the boundless wilderness.
Yaga Glazunov stood there, with Duke Koschei beside her.
"Foolish mortals. They still need to trouble me over something so trivial. Do they really think offering a few prayers to the gods will be enough to obtain all this?"
"Of course not. But the wretched people on this land possess nothing at all. They can only rely on us to grant them a little charity."
The duke spoke with his hands behind his back.
"Just like children who never grow up."
"Hmph, children? You're the only one who thinks of them that way. I hate children."
Yaga looked disdainful, but she still used a wooden comb to smooth her scarlet hair.
Of course, that was merely how things appeared to mortals. In Koschei's eyes, the moment the intricate patterns on the wooden comb rubbed against the strands containing immense quantities of magical power, they acted like gears and a spring, transmitting abstract will into reality.
It was an extremely ancient method, and also a legend of Augu passed down through the wilderness.
In the forest, the owner of the red hair would leave anyone who became lost within the woods there forever.
That legend was, of course, true.
However, the monster in the legend who liked weaving nets from red hair was named Granny Yaga.
Koschei glanced at the young and enchanting red-haired woman before him. In reality, Yaga was no granny—not in appearance, at least. She herself also denied the legend, and she was not in the woods either.
Even the Yaga witch who supposedly ate children in the legends actually hated children.
An ancient incantation caused her hair to rapidly lengthen at a speed visible to the naked eye, yet no additional red strands appeared.
The lengthening portion was colorless. Once it blended into the surroundings, it was difficult to detect.
It was just like the net made from her own long hair in the legends, waiting for prey to take the bait.
Of course, since this was ancient Originium Arts, there was no need to wait for prey to arrive. Hair that extended endlessly in every direction while possessing a certain degree of perception was practically the perfect creation for gathering intelligence.
An invisible net gradually spread outward from the woman as its center. In this way, finding the Snow Demon would no longer be difficult.
The intelligence they obtained would then be passed on to the military...
That should have been the case. But if some accident caused the new nobility to acquire such information through some channel as well, then things would become troublesome.
Koschei watched Yaga process the intelligence on the snowfield with a subtle smile...
"Your Majesty, this is the investigation progress compiled by the military."
The Winter Palace—the bedroom of the Ursus Emperor, and also the center of power of the vast Ursus Empire.
A close aide respectfully placed the dossier on Fyodor's desk.
However, the man seated upon the throne, the Ursus Emperor named Fyodor, merely glanced at the dossier before losing interest.
After all, this was the pinnacle of power. For many matters, information had already arrived here by the time they occurred. The so-called dossiers that followed merely reorganized and archived those events.
"Witt, I'll ask you this: my army, the army of Ursus, suffered a deliberate attack. Is that true?"
"Your Majesty, your army still stands guard along the empire's borders. Its might continues to deter petty criminals from causing trouble..." Islam Witt said respectfully.
Before you continue