Kryudera continued, her voice like a cold wind from the depths of an abyssal trench.
"Since you have embarked on this campaign, since you claim loyalty, then show the resolve that comes with it."
"Okhema's Chrysos Heir warriors can temporarily stave off hunger through sheer will and the Golden Blood in their veins."
"But you... 'allies' who deliberately sent only ordinary soldiers—if you do not wish to become part of the Black Tide, then learn to devour them."
She paused, looked at the ashen-faced commanders, and added one final sentence:
"Or you can try fighting your way back to your respective city-states on an empty stomach."
"See whether your luck is better, or whether the monsters of Styxia... are hungrier."
Kryudera's words echoed through the deathly silent ruins like a final judgment.
Then she did not linger. She turned and strode deeper into the darkness.
The Chrysos Heir guards silently surrounded her like a moving wall of metal, leaving despair and choice to the allied commanders standing there in stunned silence.
After a long while, the northern commander suddenly smashed his fist into a nearby stone pillar coated in slime. A dull thud rang out as viscous black-purple matter splattered down.
"Bastard! This Caesar is hardly even human!!" he growled, his voice trembling with fear and fury.
"Eat those monsters? Is that even something people can eat?! She never intended to let us return alive!"
Another commander stared at the path they had come from, now shrouded in dense darkness and filled with countless rustling, monstrous sounds. His face was utterly bloodless.
"But... but she is right. If we do not eat... are we really supposed to wait here to die? Or fight our way back?"
An atmosphere of despair weighed upon everyone like something tangible.
Just then, a middle-aged