Red eyes that inevitably brought Blood Demons to mind.
Standardized armaments.
In this era when the royal capital was ruled by Sarkaz, it was difficult not to associate them with the utterly depraved acts committed during the Sarkaz reign.
For example—
Massacres.
Giving blood to Blood Demons, brains to Banshees, flesh to Wendigos, bones to scavengers...
Using a massacre to awaken the most savage forms of their kin.
Then sending them to the battlefield.
"Are the Sarkaz going to massacre the royal capital?!!"
"Just like the history books said!!"
The once-proud Victorians now wished their parents had given them a dozen more legs as they wailed and fled toward other districts.
Yet after this group scattered in panic, they discovered in astonishment that these demon-like troops did not stop them at all. They merely coldly sealed off a certain area.
Only then did the fleeing Victorians realize.
This force did not seem to be here to carry out a prewar massacre.
It was here to seal off an area—or rather, to find someone.
"Vina, run!"
Gawain looked at the warriors continuously emerging from the shadows, his lion face filled with horror.
He swiftly leaped to the ground and, without hesitation, told Vina to stop saying goodbye to her subordinates.
Compared with the people around him, most of whom had barely managed to finish elementary school, Gawain's knowledge as a Beast Lord was overwhelmingly superior.
He could tell almost instantly that the force surrounding Vina was not Sarkaz mercenaries.
They displayed no emotions and had no heartbeats. All they possessed was an energy that made one's skin crawl.
These soldiers were not living beings at all.
They were some sort of aggregation of energy, perhaps even of emotions.
Gawain had seen a similar Originium Memory before.
The name of that Originium