The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 57

Azadin said he would spare him, but it seemed he didn’t believe it. It was a natural reaction. There was no way he would spare a were rat. Letting them go would only lead to them eating more humans and continuing to breed, causing more trouble.

Since their souls had already been offered to Mezeri, they would continue to live as beasts unless their will was exceptionally strong.

“So… I only said I’d let you run away, not that I wouldn’t catch you, right?”

Azadin picked up the sword he was holding and threw it at Curven, who was running away.

-Thwack!

The sword Azadin threw spun as it flew, slicing through Curven’s calf.

“Kuh-ack!”

A chunk of flesh was torn off, and a massive amount of blood gushed out. Curven slipped on his own blood and fell.

“Y-you bastard! You said you’d spare me!”

“I said I’d let you run away, not that I’d spare you, right?”

“To tell me to run and then attack from behind, you should be ashamed as a herald! You’re cursed after all!”

“Sorry to hear that. But I didn’t lie, did I?”

Azadin approached him and picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground.

“Ah, I just told a lie… I’m not sorry at all.”

He stabbed Curven in the neck, ending his life.

*********

Originally, Azadin had planned to lure out the enemies and defeat them one by one. However, things got complicated because Curven, a traitor from the herald clan, was among the were rats. He had already stirred up the enemy, so he couldn’t just back out now.

If Azadin went back to the ambush area to call Midiam or Ishmael, the were rats might escape in the meantime. There were still many presences inside this underground warehouse. If he didn’t subdue them all, Mezeri’s apostles would multiply like a snowball.

“I have no choice. If I had the Emperor’s voice… I could ask him to call them.”

Since Azadin had been dismissed from the herald position, he could no longer contact the Emperor’s voice. He had tried to defeat the enemies one by one, but instead, he ended up unnecessarily dispersing his forces.

Azadin entered the wine storage. Inside, it was a gruesome slaughterhouse. Humans were being dismembered and eaten, and some were being turned into were rats, ‘Mezeri’s blessing’.

In a huge operating room, were rats holding surgical scalpels and saws were mutilating a person tied to an operating table when they noticed Azadin entering.

“Is everyone alright?”

As Azadin shouted, the were rats realized his identity.

“It’s an intruder!”

A sacrifice would only scream, never calmly ask about people’s conditions like Azadin.

“Kill him!”

A were rat holding a surgical bone saw rushed at Azadin.

“With that skill?”

Azadin lowered his body, placed his hand on the ground, and launched a kick.

-Thwack!

With a single blow, the were rat’s body was sent flying backward, crashing into an operating table.

“You bastard!”

Another were rat rushed at Azadin, holding surgical scalpels in both hands.

-Thwack!

Without looking, Azadin swung his sword, splitting the opponent’s jaw from bottom to top. But…

-Crack!

The sword broke in Azadin’s hand.

‘Damn it. I was swinging such a long weapon carelessly.’

The tip of the sword got caught on the operating tables scattered around, causing it to break.

“It’s a chance!”

A were rat saw this and jumped in, but Azadin blocked the attack with the head of a halberd in his hand.

-Crunch!

The were rat’s forearm disappeared below the elbow. Azadin had grabbed the halberd head and thrown a straight punch, severing the arm. He then slammed the were rat’s head, and the long, grotesque teeth of the were rat became the cause of its demise.

Azadin’s attack broke the were rat’s teeth, which curled inward, piercing the palate and penetrating the brain. The grotesque, broken were rat collapsed.

“Kuh!”

Because of the operating tables, Azadin couldn’t use his sword, but conversely, the were rats also had difficulty surrounding Azadin.

“Damn it, I thought the noise upstairs was just them fighting among themselves, but it was an intruder.”

“L-let’s jump up and surround him.”

“Who’s going to do that?”

“You first?”

One of the were rats hastily tried to jump over an operating table to attack, but Azadin delivered a swift roundhouse kick to the were rat on the table.

As soon as the were rat fell onto the operating table after being hit in the leg, Azadin’s halberd head fell vertically. Like a martial artist breaking bricks, he used his hand, or rather, the halberd head, to strike down on the were rat’s neck, cleanly beheading it.

“Kiek?!”

“Kuh…”

The were rats finally realized that Azadin was no ordinary opponent. They realized that they were not the hunters, but the hunted.

*********

It didn’t take long to clear out all the were rats in the operating room. However, Azadin leaned against the wall, gasping for breath.

“Huff… huff…”

He had used too much stamina.

Azadin was not completely invincible. The Hwajopungwol Kazas [a martial art technique] was about imitating magic with martial arts. He could unleash powerful attacks with the chaotic magic of the fragmented and incomplete grimoire and the power of his trained muscles, but the cost was immense stamina consumption.

He had pretended to be calm in front of the enemies, but now that they were all dead, there was no need to put on a facade. Azadin panted, struggling to recover his stamina.

“P-please save us!”

“Hee-ik!”

While Azadin was panting, the refugees tied to the operating tables begged for rescue.

“Ah, yes. I understand.”

Azadin cut the ropes on the operating tables, freeing them, and found the bone saws and scalpels that the were rats had been using and handed them to the refugees.

“Use these to protect yourselves for now. Have you seen a noblewoman in a red satin dress?”

“A w-woman, you say?”

“I don’t know for sure, but if there are women, they’re probably further inside…”

The rescued people trailed off. It seemed that even more terrible things were happening.

“Hmm. Wait a moment!”

Azadin twisted and tore off the wooden parts of the operating tables, pulling out wooden planks.

“Connect the scalpels or saws to these with rope and use them as long weapons. It will be difficult to fight were rats with short weapons. I’ve killed the ones around here, but they might come out from somewhere else.”

“Ah, yes…”

“Wait here! I’ll go inside.”

“P-please be careful. There are more terrible monsters inside!”

“B-but, excuse me, who are you?”

“I am a herald of the Emperor.”

“Huh?!”

“A, a herald?”

The people who had just been helped were bewildered when they learned that Azadin was a herald. The soulless blasphemer, the god-slayer who had stained his hands with the blood of the gods, was considered an ominous sign, no matter how much he helped them.

“It’s alright. I’m not going to harm you.”

Azadin ignored their cold reaction and walked inside.

*********

Further inside the basement, there was a meat storage area and giant rats. On the backs of the calf-sized rats were saddles, and deformed were rats were riding them. They were the vassals born deformed from birth by Mezeri’s blessing.

“Kiek!”

“Kill him.”

On the walls, women who seemed to have given birth to these vassals were nearly dead. Azadin made the sign of the cross as he looked at the gruesome scene.

“Oh, Archangels of the Trinity… guide these pitiful souls.”

He, who was called a soulless blasphemer, pitied their souls and walked forward. A vassal of Mezeri charged at Azadin on a giant rat.

The vassal, on a calf-sized rat, glared at Azadin with a large butcher’s hook, then leaped. Their small stature allowed for an unimaginable jumping power.

However…

-Swish!

Azadin threw something. It was a scalpel he had taken from the operating room. As the scalpel pierced the eyes and face of the vassal attacking in mid-air, Azadin grabbed the halberd head and ran forward, unleashing Hwajopungwol Kazas.

-Twilight!

Azadin’s body slipped through the charge of the vassals and rats.

-Autumn Wind!

A powerful horizontal axis. Azadin placed his hand on the ground, swung his entire body as if throwing it, and kicked the small vassals and rats, then retracted his swinging leg, reducing the angle of rotation and increasing the speed of rotation.

The vassals within Azadin’s attack radius were flung away, crashing into the walls. They were literally blown away like fallen leaves by the Autumn Wind that Azadin had unleashed.

“Kki…eek!”

The vassals got up again with surprising vitality, but at that moment, blood spurted out. The scalpel he had thrown at them had bounced off during the Autumn Wind and pierced them deeply when they were tumbling.

“Kwek!”

The vassals collapsed. The rats charged at Azadin, but they also had scalpels embedded in their bodies, and when Azadin lightly kicked those areas, the wounds became too deep for them to endure.

Azadin defeated the vassals in this way and approached the women tied to the wall.

“Are you alright?”

“Ugh…”

“Ah…”

About half of them had already died from exhaustion, and those who survived were not in good condition. There was no woman in a satin dress.

‘She was kidnapped last night, so she wouldn’t be here. My god. This is truly terrible.’

Azadin cut the ropes of the survivors, helping them to retreat, and called out to the people outside. The people who had been tied to the operating tables were making spears by tying surgical scalpels to wooden planks as Azadin had instructed, and they were startled when he called them.

“W-what is it, Herald?”

“Take the women who are still alive here and protect them.”

“W-what about you?”

“I’ll go further inside.”

“……”

The people were bewildered by Azadin’s actions.

‘The herald clan are said to be god-slayers, soulless blasphemers.’

‘He’s fighting the Kurt God clan’s monsters like this?’

‘And saving people?’

‘Is he trying to deceive us?’

However, they could all instinctively sense that Azadin was genuinely concerned about the people. There was no pretense in Azadin’s actions, only a consistent zeal to achieve his goal.

This was not something that could be imitated with acting.

And even if it was acting, so what?

They had been saved because of it.

*********

In the deepest part of the wine storage, there were still huge wine barrels. Underneath those barrels, countless rats were gnawing on corpses, and on top of the barrels, people were tied with ropes.

It was a dark storage, but there was a single light source in the center of the air. It was a piece of paper that emitted light on its own. A copy of the Divine King’s Scripture was emitting light in the air.

“Hmm.”

A knight wearing the plate armor of the Rescue Knights and the surcoat of the Rescue Knights was sweating profusely as he approached the copy of the Divine King’s Scripture, making complex hand seals.