"Our paths have led us to a highly peculiar place, Roxy. Do you know anything about this?" Gilgamesh's question brought Roxy out of her thoughts. She directed her gaze at the structures buried in the tree roots and moss. These were clearly human-made structures, but she couldn't provide a vague answer.
"These are remnants of a civilization, and judging by the architecture, they should be human. Only they had worked with this style of architecture, and due to the time that has passed since it was left completely alone, something very wrong must have happened for it to be left in a state of decay."
Eris observed Gilgamesh's expression, which seemed more serious than usual, even though he tried to hide it. She patted his back with a reassuring look, letting him know that she was there for him. She couldn't fully understand why he was so concerned, but she did know that she would be his strongest support.
Gilgamesh's gaze extended beyond the destroyed castles and fields buried among the bushes. Further ahead, there was a flat terrain where swords were still visible thrust into the ground, pieces of high-quality armor, and in front of those clear traces of battle were enormous whale-like bodies, other creatures with tentacled structures, all in a state of decomposition.
"Stay alert; we've arrived in a very dangerous place," Gilgamesh's expression turned serious when he saw this battlefield. So when he advanced to that location, he slowly flew, manipulating his Vimana to capture all the details of this place.
Eris was surprised. She didn't expect Gilgamesh to say these words after having fought together on a battlefield and faced powerful creatures that even Sword Kings couldn't handle. She was puzzled by why he mentioned it now. But if someone like him says it, it means that the direction they were heading was much more dangerous than she thought.
Immediately upon getting closer, Gilgamesh saw these creatures, and after observing them for a while, he couldn't see anything truly odd. What he could sense, though, was darkness in the corpses of these creatures, which piqued his curiosity.
What exactly happened in this place?
"I'll have to look into the past to find out what happened here..." Gilgamesh began to use his ability and started to rewind the years. While the ruins were reversing, just after more than a hundred years had passed, he saw something truly remarkable.
A war had taken place here. What had occurred was a brutal war that exterminated the human inhabitants of this domain. They had referred to these creatures on the surface as Night Beasts, ancient beings that sought this world for their own benefit and with the intention of stealing its light.
When Gilgamesh saw that massive portal, his head turned between the battlefield and then he spotted the huge structure where the opened gateway was, an arch made of wood crafted from the roots of an ancient tree. He wasn't mistaken; they were just a few meters away from that so-called portal connecting this dimension to another world.
After that, Gilgamesh's group swiftly moved to the south, where they encountered many more Night Beasts. Gilgamesh's Vimana subtly stopped in front of the door, where there were intense traces of dark energy, something stifling that Roxy noticed due to her sensitivity to magic, and Eris sensed due to her heightened senses.
Looking around, apart from this ancient wooden arch formed from the roots of the ancient tree, the entire terrain was unusually flat, with thousands of these Night Beasts.
At least two hundred years ago, these creatures brought devastation to this place, which should have originally been the site where the ancient tree was protected, still connected to dimensions that had long been abandoned by all races.
Eris observed this battlefield and said, "Compared to the stories of the human-demon war, this place is several times more significant. These humans weren't fighting for a piece of land but for the authority to control the world."
"It doesn't make sense. How did others not realize that a war was happening here? While all the races fought for trivial objectives, people here died to stop these creatures." Roxy felt a shiver run down her spine when she saw this place. She wasn't prepared to witness this brutal battlefield where possibly thousands of warriors had died without recognition for their feats.
"In this place, there was a portal. The humans here were tasked with protecting the seal and managed to expel the creatures you see on the ground from this dimension. I fear that where these creatures come from is not a friendly place. They are all here to eliminate humans, but they were stopped before they could do so."
Just at that moment, in the distance, several elven soldiers moved with the help of their mounts, enormous reindeer, and their speed was extremely fast. However, they all stopped when they saw Gilgamesh and decided to proceed slowly due to the unfamiliar situation they were in.
At that moment, Gilgamesh looked at these silver-haired elves and descended from his Vimana, taking a few steps forward while locking eyes with the eldest elf who was at the forefront.
"My old eyes, which have seen everything a god has experienced, are surprised to see two humans and a Migurd woman. May I know what you seek in this place?" The old elf posed this question as if it were natural for them to answer, but when his eyes fixed on Gilgamesh, he was taken aback by what lay behind that gaze.
Gilgamesh looked at these elves and said, "For an elder at the doorstep of the grave, you never learned to speak properly. I can tell that after all, elves remain nothing but simple beings with very long lives to level all their flaws."
"Insolent! How dare you speak to the old Cirdan in such a manner! I'll cut your mouth—"
However, at that moment, the elf who had been addressing Gilgamesh in a highly oppressive tone was sent flying at a terrifying speed, impaled by a sword that had emerged from a golden ripple.
"Sarion!" A female elf cried out and immediately ran to where her comrade had fallen.
"It seems I'm right. You should be superior in wisdom compared to humans, but it appears that we are not understanding each other correctly, isn't that so?" Gilgamesh asked as he looked at the elder elf who stood before him.