"*Tear* M-mother, I don't want to go…"
The muffled voice of a boy could be heard.
The little boy seemed to be the age of a middle school student. He wore clothing similar to that of humans in the Antiquity of Old Earth, but this outfit could not hide the potential of his face.
It was certain that he would become a womanizer once he reached adulthood.
"My child… this is your destiny. You were born for this moment," said a middle-aged woman.
She leaned gracefully toward the young boy to wipe away the tears flowing down his face, while the latter seemed to offer a semblance of resistance to her actions.
But he eventually let her do it.
After this act filled with gentleness, the mother formed a slight smile.
"Don't forget, the true hero never bends in the face of adversity—"
The woman could not finish her sentence.
— Slap.
The sharp sound of a slap echoed in the cave, before a young boy woke up in a start.
He fiercely grabbed his glaive, while his black eyes turned toward the origin of the "attack" he had just suffered.
"Wake up, you fell asleep during your watch!" roared a teenager with an imposing stature.
Loki relaxed upon noticing this familiar face.
It was his childhood friend.
Alexander, the son of the great conqueror Zack.
"Damn… I dreamed about mom again," Loki thought as he fully stood up from the cold ground of the cave.
Alexander did not really pay attention to his childhood friend. He set down his round shield and his spear before eating a meal from a prey he had captured that morning.
"Aren't you going to eat? We have a long walk ahead of us, you know?" he said before throwing him his water flask and a piece of meat.
Loki did not complain about the food offered by his friend.
As chosen ones, they were only allowed a very limited starting equipment for their journey toward the "Monastery Fortress."
Crunch.
The sound of chewing echoed in the cave, followed by that of swallowing.
The meat was tough.
Raw.
The taste of blood exploded in his mouth.
Yet the former noble did not refuse this precious source of energy.
He could not afford to be picky.
Alexander nodded with satisfaction while watching Loki eat his prey.
At the beginning of their journey, the boy had been reluctant to follow the survival instructions taught by their elders.
However, this aspect seemed to be slowly replaced by cold pragmatism.
The teenager liked this attitude more.
Childish innocence was useless in this forest, as they needed audacity and willpower instead.
"Too bad he didn't have this mindset from the beginning," Alexander thought, remembering the loss of some of Loki's supplies due to his negligence.
Just thinking about it made Alexander sigh.
If he had not received his father's order, he would have certainly distanced himself from Loki after he made such a stupid mistake.
Having him in their group reduced their chances of survival.
Alexander looked away from the young boy to shift his attention elsewhere.
He spotted his half-brother, Lycarus.
Like an inhabitant of Nopay, he was as ordinary as Loki. Something Alexander found pitiful.
After all, as a proud Macedonian,
he had benefited from a stature similar to that of a healthy adult at the age of 14.
His younger brother, Aurelien, was also blessed with this trait.
And yes, Alexander's father has a great number of "illegitimate" children in the region of Nopay.
Because of Zack's lustful personality, his son born from marriage had several half-brothers. Thus, Aurelien was his closest relative.
The groups had gathered to undertake the journey that the inhabitants of Limnos III called the Odyssey.
What is it?
The Odyssey was a journey during which boys aged 10 to 15, approved by the auxiliary army administration, attempted to reach the Monastery Fortress.
The selected children and teenagers could not exceed a group of four, and it was also customary for one member to have real military experience.
The Odyssey began from a starting point located in a "selection" city of the southern continent, where recruits approved by the auxiliary army could begin their march.
Most of the journey took place through wild and dangerous lands, because the inhabitants of the central continent knew very little about the Southern continent.
In addition, the astartes had decreed that no one could come to their aid; and of course, there was no one to turn to along this path.
After the war against the "abominations," the Southern continent was declared a forbidden domain for ordinary mortals.
Only veterans of the auxiliary army are stationed there.
The leader of the Angels had ordered the Dark Mechanicus to "improve" the biodiversity of the continent's tropical forest.
It was not uncommon to encounter carnivorous beasts measuring two to three meters in height.
The chosen ones participating in the Odyssey could not use any "modern" weapons or energy weapons, in accordance with the regulations.
They were only allowed to bring melee weapons at the start, along with "primitive" equipment.
Finding the entrance to the Monastery Fortress was also part of the trial.
Loki's group had already been traveling for an entire week, and their food supplies were nearly exhausted. More seriously, Loki had lost part of his supplies due to an incident involving mischievous primates.
Alexander knew they had to speed up; their overland journey had taken far too long.
They had brought a paper map, but it showed distances that did not match real travel times.
If they continued like this, they would never reach the Angels' sanctuary, and even if they did, the Angels would not accept late arrivals.
Alexander was now somewhat cornered by the situation.
The idea of getting rid of dead weight slowly became appealing to his pragmatic mind.
After all, he dreamed of becoming an angel.
As Alexander was lost in thought, a scream echoed from the direction where Lucaryus had gone at one point: "Something is there!"
Instinctively, he stood up and grabbed the spear next to him; his childhood friend also stood up.
The young boy gripped his glaive, while his still-immature face armed itself with courage.
"What's wrong?" Alexander asked urgently after arriving.
While questioning his half-brother, the latter tightened his grip on his spear and fixed his shield.
"I saw—" The teenager did not finish his words as the ground trembled from the landing of a beast.
"Grrrhaa!" the creature roared.
It was a Carachan devil.
(Image)
Introduced into the fauna at the request of Atreus to the Dark Mechanicus.
This creature has been part of the top of the food chain of the Southern continent for several years, after the end of the war.
Alexander was surprised by its appearance and by his bad luck, but he immediately supervised the members of his group.
"Formation C," he said, raising his shield.