Immediately after Gloria left the village, Heinz Rush spoke up to Lishia.
"Baronet Fahlheit, it is far too reckless to let Gloria-dono go alone. I believe we should send two or three men with her so they can serve as messengers. If possible, I would like to go as well."
Lishia started, momentarily caught off guard. "O-Of course!"
She selected two of the most skilled riders from the stationed soldiers to accompany Heinz.
"Heinz-san, please be careful."
Lishia handed over four portions of rations—dried meat and canteens filled with water.
"I am deeply grateful for your kindness."
Heinz Rush accepted them and passed the supplies to the two soldiers.
"We gallop until we catch up to Gloria-dono!"
No sooner had he spoken than he spurred his horse into a run. The two soldiers followed close behind. Lishia watched them with a worried expression until they disappeared from view.
"Hey!"
At the sound of a voice from behind, Gloria halted her horse and looked back. She saw Heinz and two soldiers approaching at a gallop. She waited for them to pull up beside her.
"...Orders from Fahlheit-dono," Heinz explained. "We're coming with you."
"Understood. Let us go together."
Gloria and Heinz rode side by side. Night had long since given way to morning, and white clouds drifted across a summer-blue sky. Heinz held out the dried meat and a canteen to Gloria.
"A kindness from Fahlheit-dono. You can't be expected to work when it counts on an empty stomach."
"Quite right."
Both were ritters; they had no trouble eating while mounted. They didn't loosen their reins as they chewed the dried meat and drank, and the soldiers following them followed their lead.
"...So, Rush-dono, could you tell me more about these monsters?" Gloria asked once they had finished.
"Yeah... I lost consciousness partway through, so I can't give you a full report, but it must have been fifty meters long. It had four eyes... I think. They were glowing red."
"Fifty meters... you say?"
"That's right. It spat a liquid from its mouth, and anything it hit—be it rock or tree—melted away in a cloud of white smoke..."
"T-That is terrifying."
"That's about the extent of what I know. After that, I was led by a golem sent by Maquina-dono to a silver-shining shelter, but I have no memory of what happened next. When I woke up, I was back in Toka Village."
"I see."
Gloria tried to imagine how such a monster could be defeated, but she couldn't even begin to conceive of a way.
The road began to slope upward, and the surrounding greenery thinned. After passing through a rocky wasteland, the path turned into a steep incline.
"I expect we'll reach the site in about an hour."
Gloria and Heinz slowed their horses slightly, proceeding with heightened caution.
"Should I keep my sword ready?" Gloria asked.
Heinz gave a bitter smile. "No, I don't think a sword would do much against that monster. Better to focus your attention on the surroundings instead."
Another thirty minutes passed. The party pulled their horses to a stop.
"The site should be just ahead. Let's be careful."
At Heinz’s warning, everyone braced themselves. They urged their horses forward at a slow walk.
"...There is a strange smell," Gloria muttered, raising a hand to her nose.
"The smell of the liquid the centipedes spit out," Heinz replied, also covering his face.
Moving with extreme caution and watching every direction, the four men rounded a curve in the road. Then, they froze. Their horses stopped as well, trembling in fear.
The scene before them was a vision of hell.
Countless carcasses of giant centipedes, each roughly ten meters long, lay scattered across the ground.
"Rush-dono! There are far more than five!"
"Y-Yeah... More of them must have crawled out after we escaped..."
Heinz felt a chill run down his spine as he looked over the remains of what looked to be over a hundred monsters.
Still mounted, they approached a particularly large carcass. Gloria’s eyes widened when she saw that the creature had been hacked into clean segments, as if by a colossal blade.
"Is it... is it truly possible to cut through a monster of this size...?"
As a test, Gloria drew the common steel sword at her waist and struck the shell. A hard, metallic clink rang out, and her blade chipped.
"...I do not believe this can be cut with a sword."
The blade she carried was a standard-issue weapon, not one of the masterpieces crafted by Jin. Against the centipede's hide, her steel was utterly useless. Gloria felt a renewed sense of awe—and a hint of fear—at the sheer power Maquina possessed.
Peering inside the shell, she saw a yellowish liquid pooled in the cavity. It appeared to be the creature's bodily fluid. Without thinking, Gloria dipped her chipped sword into the pool.
"Whoa!"
With a hiss of white smoke, the steel blade melted away in an instant.
"Gloria-dono! I told you! The liquid those centipedes spit melts everything. Apparently, only their own bodies are immune to it."
"..."
Gloria stared at the half-melted remains of her sword.
"...I wonder," she whispered, "if Jin-dono would make me a new one if I asked..."
"It looks like Gloria-san, Heinz, and the two soldiers have arrived at the scene," Laojun murmured.
He was monitoring the area near Inado Mine through the monitoring system, Koushin. He could see the shock on Gloria’s face quite clearly.
"It is probably for the best to let them witness the aftermath before we finish the cleanup."
Laojun intended to recover most of the carapaces, as the chitin would make excellent crafting material, but he had intentionally left the battlefield untouched—aside from the five fifty-meter specimens—to serve as a demonstration of the threat.
He watched as Gloria struck the shell with her sword, and then as she lost the blade entirely to the residual fluids.
"That fluid even damaged the Land units slightly. Ordinary steel doesn't stand a chance."
Laojun didn't have a face, but if he did, he likely would have worn a wry smile. Laozi, his mobile terminal, was capable of making such expressions, however.
"They were fortunate that the Gigant Peeder fluid is highly volatile."
If the entire area had been turned into a permanent sea of corrosive acid, it would have been deathly dangerous. Fortunately, within two hours, the majority of the fluid covering the ground had evaporated. Only small amounts remained trapped within the carcasses.
Those would be gone in a few more hours as well. Laojun preferred it that way; it prevented the substance from being misused by others. He had already secured a more than sufficient supply from the four massive specimens he'd recovered earlier.
"Hmm. It seems they intend to check the status of the mine as well."
He watched as Gloria’s group began to ascend the mountain toward the mine entrance.
"...It's a complete ruin."
Heinz looked up at the sky, devastated. The tunnels had collapsed so thoroughly that the entrance was unrecognizable, and the broken remains of general-purpose golems were scattered among the debris.
"Was it really worth sacrificing such expensive golems for this?" Gloria asked, her question directed at no one in particular.
"I wouldn't know," Heinz replied. "I was only carrying out my superior's orders."
As a ritter, disobeying an order was simply not an option.
"...Let us return."
Gloria spoke with a heavy heart and turned her horse around. Heinz and the two soldiers followed her back down the trail.