Flying Dog Gorge.
An army of thirty thousand was trapped.
Looking at the half-collapsed passage, Mitsui felt a headache coming on.
As the Empire's strongest division, the Ninth Division had nearly one Awakened for every ten men.
Even in the Dragon Kingdom, that ratio was found only among elite troops.
That was precisely Mitsui's problem.
The three thousand Awakened could easily cross Flying Dog Gorge, but what about the remaining twenty-odd thousand men?
Without vehicles, they would become hypothermic after a few hours of running through the snow.
The Guerrilla Force had not blocked the Awakened; they had cut off the ordinary soldiers' means of survival.
Left with no choice, a frazzled Mitsui ordered the Awakened to keep moving the boulders that had slid down from both sides.
"At this rate... I'm afraid we won't clear the passage before the division commander arrives."
The deputy could already foresee his own end.
The Ninth Division was ruthless not only toward its enemies, but toward its own men as well.
If he failed to complete his superior's assignment, what awaited him was death by seppuku.
Perhaps affected by his deputy's mood, Mitsui roared furiously into the passage, "Damn Dragon Kingdom pigs!"
"Damn Kou Islanders!"
A clear echo came from inside the passage.
In the midst of his fury, Mitsui froze at the sound.
He dug at his ear in disbelief.
"Did you hear that just now?"
"I think I heard someone... insulting us. Could it be... wronged souls?"
The deputy's heart clenched. He looked into the passage, littered with boulders and wrecked vehicles, and swallowed.
Sinister gusts blew through the passage.
The burning vehicles cast someone's shadow onto the cliff face.
"Th-there's someone there."
The deputy pointed at the shadow in shock.
"Impossible!"
Mitsui immediately cut him off. "I've already sent men