Chapter 725: Just Two Unholy, Nothing Special

A cold wind was blowing across the grasslands beyond the golden curtain.

Two, the huge wolf, stopped on relatively flat ground after moving away from the border of the Land of the First Dawn.

Behind him, the golden curtain still stretched across the sky; although its light had become unstable compared to before.

Lian climbed down from the wolf’s back and looked around.

They had left through the nearest section of the curtain, not the same path they had taken when entering, and even so, several watchtowers, military caravans, and temporary buildings could be seen farther away.

’The Federation, huh?’

Apparently, the Federation’s forces were watching all the accessible sections of the curtain.

He turned his attention back to his companions.

Rindo, Alicia, and Noah were still unconscious, the unnatural whiteness in their eyes had not completely disappeared, although it was decreasing, and none of them showed a proper reaction to their surroundings.

He took all three down from the wolf’s back and placed them on the ground.

Then he gave the return order through Hive Dominion.

"Ah! What a shame! I was just thinking about a magnificent performance for our arrival!" The Bone Minstrel complained in a dramatic tone.

Lian glanced at him.

"You’ll have plenty of opportunities later, Five."

"In that case, I shall eagerly look forward to them!"

Summoning energy surrounded the musician and Two, and a moment later, both returned to the Colony Home.

Now only four humans remained beside the curtain.

He had not even had a chance to move toward the base when a shout came from a distance.

"Over there! Near the border!"

Several armed soldiers moved out from the watchtower.

When they got closer, they prepared their weapons at first, but after seeing three people lying motionless on the ground, they slowed down.

The officer leading them moved his gaze between Lian and the golden curtain.

"Did you come from inside the curtain?"

"Yeah."

The man looked at the border behind him for a moment.

"How? No one has been able to cross it for days! What happened inside? Where are the others?"

Lian pointed toward his companions.

"I’d be happy to answer all your questions, but I think you’d better take these three to a healer first."

The officer checked Rindo’s condition, and when he saw the unnatural whiteness in his eyes, he immediately took out his communication device.

"We have three injured people, possible soul damage, send the medical teams immediately."

One of the younger soldiers, who had been looking at Lian until that moment, took a step forward.

"Wait... are you Lian Vorhelm?"

Lian nodded.

"That’s me."

The soldier glanced at the officer.

The man’s expression changed, he examined Lian again, then spoke in a more careful tone.

"Mr. Vorhelm, you need to provide a report about what happened inside the curtain, the person in charge of this case has been waiting for reliable information from inside the area for several days."

"No problem, just make sure they receive treatment."

A few minutes later, the medical teams arrived and placed all three on stretchers.

Lian watched them until they were taken toward the medical section.

Then he followed the officer toward the command headquarters.

The command building was located in the center of the temporary base.

Federation staff were moving quickly through its hallways, wall-mounted screens showed images of the golden curtain, and on one of them, a map of the area with several warning symbols could be seen.

After passing through two checkpoints, he entered a relatively large room.

Two people were waiting for him.

The first was a middle-aged man with short gray hair, blue eyes, and a serious face, he was wearing an official Federation uniform, and a colonel’s insignia could be seen on his shoulder.

Beside him sat a woman with dark brown hair and a formal suit, her sharp gaze rested on Lian for a moment before returning to the file in front of her.

The middle-aged man stood up.

"Lian Vorhelm, I’m Colonel Nathaniel Hale, the Federation officer in charge of the Land of the First Dawn case."

Then he pointed toward the woman beside him.

"And this is Evelyn Mercer, the government’s special representative at the crisis headquarters."

Evelyn greeted him with a short nod.

"We’re glad you’ve returned, Mr. Vorhelm."

"Thank you."

Lian sat in the chair opposite them.

Nathaniel also sat down and opened a file.

"I know you’re probably tired, so we’ll try not to take too much of your time, but we need to understand what happened inside the curtain and whether there’s any danger to the outside."

"I understand."

"Good. Let’s start from the beginning."

Lian looked at an image of the golden curtain on the screen for a moment.

"Everything started when the sun woke up."

Hollow Sun’s huge eye had opened in the sky, and the First Judgment had been announced.

He explained how huge cracks had appeared across the land without warning and lava had risen from deep underground.

Then the Withered had appeared from different parts of the area; corrupted creatures that attacked anything in their path.

He had no intention of lying completely or hiding everything, it should not be forgotten that there were other witnesses besides him.

So it would be better to tell more or less the truth and leave out certain details if necessary.

Nathaniel stopped writing.

"Judgment?"

"That creature introduced itself as the judge of that land, it issued a new judgment every day, and the safe areas gradually became smaller."

"So the land was a prison from the beginning?"

"According to what that judge said, yeah."

Lian explained the judgments of Hollow Sun, the attacks of the Withered, and the survivors’ attempts to reach the safe areas.

Then he reached the emergency base; where a number of survivors had gathered to protect one another.

He explained the base’s defensive structure, the condition of the injured, and then how the base had eventually been destroyed during one of the Judgments.

Evelyn, who had mostly been listening until that moment, asked.

"So you weren’t dealing with an ordinary monster invasion."

"No, there was also an unknown creature behind everything."

"What kind of creature?"

Lian paused for a moment.

"What I saw didn’t look like an ordinary monster, it seemed to be the source of the Withered’s corruption and could affect the memories and will of living beings."

"How did you find that out?" Nathaniel asked.

"From the behavior of the Withered and the changes in their corruption, also, some of the attacks showed that they were being controlled by a common source."

The colonel leaned forward slightly.

"Did you see the creature itself?"

"What I saw didn’t have a clear or ordinary form." Lian did not take his eyes off the man.

There was silence for several seconds.

Nathaniel slowly placed his pen on the table.

From the way Lian answered, it was clear that he probably was not sharing everything he had seen.

But he still had no reason to question the reliability of the report.

Evelyn joined the conversation.

"Those three people who were with you still show signs of corruption, is it possible for this corruption to spread to other people?"

"As far as I know, what’s left is mostly soul damage, but I can’t say for certain that there’s no danger."

Evelyn immediately wrote a note in her file.

"Then unnecessary contact with the patients will be limited until the healers confirm their condition."

Then she looked at Nathaniel.

"The medical section needs to take this seriously."

The colonel nodded and gave a short order through his communication device.

After that, he looked back at Lian.

"Another important question, why was the golden curtain closed?"

Lian leaned back in his chair.

"I think the prison was separated from the outside when the Judgments began, the judge wanted to prevent creatures from entering or leaving."

"We tried to enter several times." Nathaniel pointed toward the map on the screen. "We even sent teams from different locations, but none of them succeeded."

"I’m not surprised."

"Then what caused the border to open again?"

Lian looked at the image of the curtain for a moment.

"I don’t know exactly what happened, I only know that after the Final Judgment, the situation changed."

Evelyn narrowed her eyes.

"You mean all these events might have been part of a planned process from the beginning?"

"Considering what I saw from that judge, it’s not unlikely at all."

Nathaniel wrote down a few more points, but when he reached the final part of the report, he paused again.

"Here, you mentioned that two Unholy creatures also appeared."

"That’s right."

"Both in the same location?"

"Yeah."

The colonel placed his pen on the table.

"And you fought both of them?"

Lian nodded.

"I had to."

For several seconds, neither of the two officials said anything, Evelyn was the first to break the silence.

"Do you mean you managed to hold out against two Unholy creatures at the same time?"

"More or less."

Nathaniel leaned forward slightly.

"Did those other three people help you?"

Lian remembered Rindo, Alicia, and Noah.

"I doubt they could have survived even a single strike from those two creatures."

The colonel’s expression became more serious.

"What were their levels?"

"One was Level 35, and the other was Level 28."

Evelyn instinctively looked at Nathaniel.

"A Level 35 Unholy?"

The colonel remained motionless for several seconds.

He had dealt with monster cases for years and knew very well that the difference in power between an Unholy creature and ordinary monsters was not limited to just a few levels.

Even a Level 28 Unholy could be a deadly threat to a group of experienced fighters.

And this nineteen-year-old young man had managed to fight two of them at the same time?

Was this some kind of joke?