Azadin had said he would spare them, but it seemed they didn't believe him. A natural reaction. Who would spare a wererat? Even if they were let go, they would only go elsewhere, continue to prey on humans, breed, and be nothing but a menace.
Their souls had already been offered to Mezeri, so unless they had an exceptionally strong will, they had no choice but to continue living as beasts.
"So… I only told you to run, I never said I wouldn't catch you."
Azadin picked up the sword he was holding and threw it at Kurven, who was trying to flee.
— Thud!
The spinning sword flew through the air and slashed Kurven's calf.
"Argh!"
A large chunk of flesh was severed, and an immense amount of blood gushed out. Kurven slipped on his own blood and collapsed.
"Y-You bastard! You said you'd spare me!"
"I told you to run, but I never said I'd spare you."
"Telling someone to run and then attacking them from behind, you should be ashamed as a herald! You really are cursed!"
"My apologies for that. But I didn't lie, did I?"
Azadin approached him and picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground.
"Ah, I did tell one lie just now… I'm not sorry at all."
He plunged his blade into Kurven's neck, ending his life.
***
Originally, Azadin had planned to lure the enemies out and defeat them one by one. However, things became complicated due to the presence of the traitorous Herald Clan member, Kurven, among the wererats. He had already stirred up the enemy, and it was too late to back out now.
If Azadin returned to the ambush point to summon Midiam or Ishmael, the wererats could use that time to escape. There were still many presences left in this underground warehouse. If he didn't subdue them all, Mezeri's apostles would continue multiplying like a snowball.
"No choice, if only I still had the Emperor's Voice… I could call for backup."
But Azadin had been dismissed as a herald, severing his connection to the Emperor's Voice. While he had intended to divide and conquer, he was now experiencing the downside of unnecessary division of forces.
Azadin stepped into the liquor storage area. Inside, it was nothing short of a gruesome slaughterhouse. Humans had been butchered and consumed, while others had been prepared for the so-called 'Blessing of Mezeri'—being transformed into wererats.
Inside the large surgical room, wererats wielding scalpels and bone saws were dissecting humans strapped to operating tables. Then, they noticed Azadin stepping into the entrance.
"Are you all alright?"
Azadin called out, and the wererats immediately realized who he was.
"An intruder!"
A victim would only scream in despair. No one would calmly check on others' conditions like Azadin just did.
"Kill him!"
A wererat wielding a bone saw charged at Azadin.
"With that level of skill?"
Azadin bent his body, placed his hand on the ground, and delivered a powerful kick.
— Thwack!
With a single strike, the wererat was sent flying backward, crashing into the operating table.
"You bastard!"
Another wererat, brandishing scalpels in both hands, lunged at Azadin.
— Slash!
Without even looking, Azadin swung his sword, splitting his opponent's jaw from below. But then…
— Crack!
The sword in Azadin's hand broke.
"Damn. I swung a weapon too long for this space too carelessly."
The tip of the blade had caught on one of the surrounding operating tables and snapped.
"It's a chance!"
Seeing this, a wererat lunged forward, but Azadin grabbed a halberd head lying nearby and intercepted the attack.
— Squelch!
The wererat's forearm was severed just below the elbow. Azadin had gripped the halberd head and thrown a straight punch, which cleanly amputated the limb. He then slammed the wererat's head down, and the creature's long, grotesque fangs turned out to be its downfall.
The force of Azadin's blow caused the wererat's own teeth to break and pierce inward, puncturing the roof of its mouth and driving into its brain. The disfigured beast collapsed, its hideous form now motionless.
"Ugh!"
Azadin found that the operating tables limited his ability to wield his sword, but at the same time, they also made it difficult for the wererats to surround him.
"Damn, I thought the noise upstairs was just them fooling around again, but there's an intruder?"
"Jump up and surround him!"
"You do it."
"You first?"
One of the wererats hastily tried to leap onto the operating tables to attack, but Azadin met it with a swift spinning kick.
As soon as the wererat sprawled across the table, Azadin brought down the halberd head in a vertical chop. Like a martial artist splitting bricks, except this time, it was a head—precisely severing it in one clean stroke.
"Kreeek?!"
"Grrr…."
At last, the wererats realized that Azadin was no ordinary opponent. They were not the hunters here. They were hunted.
***
It didn't take long to eliminate all the wererats in the surgical room. However, Azadin leaned against a wall, gasping for breath.
"Huff… huff…."
He had expended too much stamina.
Azadin wasn't invincible. Beauty of Nature, Kazas Haeseo was the art of mimicking magic through martial prowess. By combining the erratic mana of a fragmented and incomplete grimoire with the power of trained muscles, it exhibited immense strength, but at the cost of extreme physical exhaustion.
He had forced himself to appear composed in front of his enemies, but now that they were all dead, there was no need to keep up the act. He panted heavily, straining to recover his stamina.
"P-Please, save us!"
"Hiiik!"
While Azadin struggled to catch his breath, the refugees bound to the operating tables pleaded for salvation.
"Ah, yes. Understood."
Azadin cut the ropes on the operating tables, freeing the captives, and handed them the bone saws and scalpels that the wererats had just been using.
"For now, use these to defend yourselves. Have you seen a noblewoman in a red satin dress?"
"A w-woman, you say?"
"I don't know for sure, but if there were women, they were taken deeper inside…."
The rescued people trailed off. It seemed even more horrifying things were happening further in.
"Hmm. Wait a moment."
Azadin twisted and tore apart the wooden frames of the operating tables, pulling out wooden planks.
"Tie the scalpels or saws to these with rope and use them as polearms. It'll be difficult to fight a wererat with short weapons. I've killed the ones nearby, but more could show up from anywhere."
"Ah, y-yes…."
"Stay here and wait! I'm going further inside."
"P-please be careful. There are even more terrible monsters inside!"
"B-but, excuse me, who exactly are you?"
"I am a herald of the Emperor."
"Gasp?!"
"A h-herald?"
The very people he had just saved were now startled upon realizing that Azadin was of herald blood. A soulless heretics, a Divine King Slayer with the blood of gods on his hands—even if he had helped them, he was still considered an ominous presence.
"It's fine. I have no intention of harming you."
Ignoring their cold reactions, Azadin walked deeper inside.
***
Further inside the basement, alongside the meat storage, there were massive rats. These calf-sized rodents had saddles on their backs, with grotesque wererats riding them. They were born as familiars, twisted in the womb by Mezeri's blessing.
"Screeeech!"
"Kill him."
Against the walls, women who had seemingly birthed these familiars lay on the verge of death. Azadin, seeing the horrific sight, crossed himself.
"O Archangel of the Trinity… guide these poor souls."
The man known as a soulless blasphemer pitied these souls as he stepped forward. A Mezeri familiar, mounted on a giant rat, charged at Azadin.
The rat, as large as a calf, leaped forward, its rider brandishing a massive butcher's hook. Despite their small frames, they had terrifying jumping power.
However…
— Swish!
Azadin threw something. A scalpel from the operating room.
The scalpel pierced through the familiar's eye and face mid-air. Seizing the moment, Azadin grasped the halberd head and dashed forward, executing Beauty of Nature, Kazas Haeseo.
— Twilight!
Azadin slipped through the incoming charges of familiars and rats.
— Autumn Wind!
A powerful horizontal sweep. Azadin planted his hand on the ground, launching his entire body into a spinning kick that struck both the familiars and the rats. As he pulled his leg back, he reduced his rotation angle and increased his speed.
The familiars caught within Azadin's attack were flung away, crashing into the walls. They had literally been blown away like autumn leaves in the wind.
"Gkk—!"
The familiars, with their remarkable vitality, attempted to rise again—but in that instant, blood splattered.
The scalpels Azadin had thrown earlier had been sent flying by Autumn Wind and embedded deep into their bodies as they tumbled.
"Guhh!"
The familiars collapsed.
The rats lunged at Azadin, but they, too, had scalpels lodged in their bodies. When Azadin lightly kicked at those wounds, the injuries deepened, and they could no longer endure.
After eliminating the familiars, Azadin approached the women bound against the walls.
"Are you alright?"
"Ugh…."
"Aah…."
About half of them had already lost all strength and perished, while the survivors were barely hanging on. There was no woman in a satin dress among them.
'She was taken last night, so she wouldn't be here. Damn. This is truly horrific.'
Azadin cut the ropes of the survivors, helping them move away from the scene, and called out to the people outside. The ones who had been tied to the operating tables, following Azadin's advice, were in the middle of tying scalpels to wooden planks to make spears when they heard his call and flinched.
"W-what is it, herald?"
"Take the surviving women to safety and protect them."
"A-and what about you?"
"I'm going further in."
"..."
The people were bewildered by Azadin's actions.
'The herald clan members are Divine King Slayers, soulless heretics….'
'And yet he's fighting against the Kurt Divine Clan's monsters?'
'Saving people?'
'Is he trying to deceive us?'
But instinctively, they all knew the truth. Azadin was acting out of genuine concern for others. His actions had no pretense, only a relentless, unwavering determination to accomplish his goal.
This was something that could not be faked.
And even if it was an act—
They had still been saved because of it.
***
At the deepest part of the liquor storage, massive barrels still stood. Beneath them, swarms of rats gnawed on corpses, while people hung from ropes tied above the barrels.
Though the storage room was dim, a single light source shone in the center of the space.
It was a piece of paper, glowing with its own radiance.
A copy of the Book of the Divine King hovered in the air, emanating light.
"Hmmm."
A knight clad in the full plate armor of the Knights of Salvation, draped in their surcoat, was approaching the floating copy of the Book of the Divine King while sweating profusely, forming intricate hand signs as he advanced.