The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger

-crack!

Azadine crushed the hobgoblin’s shoulder with a single stomp and smashed its body into the ground.

“Kuaaak!”

“K-Kill!”

The goblins charged at Azadine, who had boldly landed among them. In their hands were stone axes and rusted knives. However, Azadine managed to dodge them or even grab the hands holding the weapons as they swung.

-Swish.

A tight grip around their hands crushed the fingers that held the weapons. Blood, flesh, and even broken pieces of bone hung from the wooden handles.

Azadine picked up a stone axe alongside the goblin holding it in that state and brandished them. The stone axe split the top of another goblin’s head with a single stroke while the goblin’s body was blown apart.

“Kuak!?”

Azadine swung the goblin’s battered body horizontally. Its shape was barely recognizable.

It was simply a piece of meat that had lost its shape. Azadine swung the piece of meat around, transforming anything within range into the same shape.

The bones throughout its body were shattered, yet its muscle fibers weren’t severed despite this rough treatment. The other goblins caught by the meat club merged into a single large club of goblin corpses covered with spikes made of bones. The other goblins were either blown away or joined the mass.

After Azadine cleared the goblins around him, he raised his hand into the sky.

Arrows started falling from the sky. At first, the arrows that fell were held in his hand. In his other hand was a bow.

Swish!

Every time he pulled an arrow from the quiver, the bow launched them forward. Each time Azadine drew the bow, the arrow would split the air with a terrifying sound and pierce the goblins.

In an instant, he had shot down the goblins and hobgoblins with the arrows before jumping on the gate as if it was a flat surface and climbing back up.

“Uh…”

“… Messenger Clan.”

The guards who watched this happen were shocked.

This was clearly a dark force that wished for their destruction. Yet a single person had defeated the ogre and its subordinate monsters in one go.

It only took a second for the people to understand.

“As expected of the Heavenly King Slayer…”

They were able to kill the Heavenly Kings because they had such abilities. Yet, despite all of the guards feeling such, Azadine wasn’t convinced.

A terrible feeling still lingered in the air.

“Everyone be alert. Something is coming.”

The goblin that had carried the bone staff had been struck by the obsidian axe wielded by the blinded ogre. It didn’t die but was seriously injured as the axe had torn away its skin and broken its bones.

It had rolled over, but the humans who jumped out of the meat box rushed towards the goblins.

“Yah! W-what do we do?”

“For now, take that bastard’s staff!”

“R-right!”

The crippled humans pounced on the wounded and winded goblins, attacking them using kicks and punches.

“No weapons? Weapons?”

“Just kill them!”

“Why did you let go of him!”

They were attacking the goblin while trying to snatch the bone staff from its hands. This was because the bone staff looked unusual even to their eyes.

These people, who had been disfigured by Azadine, had to somehow make time to escape.

But…

As they said that, the goblin scratched itself.

Crack!

An odd thing then happened.

“Uh?”

The bandits who had escaped from the ogre’s meat box could not trust their eyes. One of their comrades had been instantly dismembered right in front of them.

His wobbling limbs stood straight for a moment before falling limply on the ground. In front of them was a monster with its arm extended while baring its sharp teeth.

The goblin’s entire arm had become the mouth of a beast.

“What?”

“What is this?!”

“Ah!”

A chunk of flesh extended from the goblin’s body like a rope. Sharp teeth sprouted from it and began to tear the human bodies apart.

“Kuaak!”

“Ack!”

The bandits who had rushed in to seize the staff began to be eviscerated one by one. The goblin had become a being that could no longer be called a goblin.

Its arms and legs had become teeth-lined tentacles.

It used the meat it consumed to grow in size. It then absorbed the ogre’s meat box that had fallen to the ground. Eventually, even the blind ogre was consumed by its teeth.

“Kuaaaak! N-No! Do not. I don’t want to be eaten!”

The blind ogre struggled, but the teeth consumed it alive, devouring it whole instantly.

“Ack!”

“W-what is that thing?!”

The villagers were dumbstruck at what they saw happening in front of their eyes. Bright red flesh began to move around the ogre, tearing it apart with sharp teeth. When that wasn’t enough, it also consumed the goblin corpses around it.

Azadine clicked his tongue at this sight.

“Kurts, the King of Tooth.”

The Kurt race was a barbaric race whose gods ruled the land before the arrival of the Gods of Yaegas on the continent. Their servants were made up of many monsters.

As the Gods of Yaegas drove out the Gods of Kurt, their followers fled to remote places outside the reach of humans, but they still lived.

“This has become too much of a demerit to do without getting any gold coins!”

Azadine said in complaint as he began to observe the monster. The monster continued to devour the corpses as a goblin’s head emerged from within. The goblin held a staff that glowed with an amber flame.

“Now, servants of Yaegas! Deliver to me the Heavenly King’s Book of Truth. If you do that, I will give you a painless death.”

Puak!

Before it could say anything more, Azadine’s arrow pierced the goblin’s head. The first shot went through the head, and the second went through the monster’s forearm. Azadine then quickly jumped down the wall and picked up the staff that had been dropped.

‘These things were also looking for the book? Just what is going on in everyone’s minds?’

Azadine was surprised and rushed to seize the staff.

At that moment…

-Swish!

A mass of flesh moved like a whip at Azadine. A grotesque piece of flesh covered in teeth was aimed at Azadine. If it hit him, Azadine would bleed.

However, Azadine dodged the whip-like attack at such speed that his body seemed to blur. His movement allowed him to retreat in the same motion while baiting a whip attack.

The tentacle bounced off the ground and moved towards Azadine again, but he had already picked up a sword on the ground.

-Swish!

Azadine sliced away the gums that held the teeth to the tentacle with a slash.

“Your teeth are too big for your flesh. A tooth with a shallow root is weak.”

The teeth that sprouted from the tentacles were too large for the width and thickness of its base. Moreover, the tentacles had no bones, meaning the teeth had no solid foundation to tie themselves to.

Of course, that would still be enough to rip apart human flesh with enough force. Using a proper steel sword, however, the teeth wouldn’t last long either.

“You cheeky bastard! I am the King of Tooth!”

“No, you are just a worthless follower created by him.”

Azadine corrected the goblin.

“Kuaak!”

The whip-like tentacles wrapped around the fallen staff as the goblin struggled with the verbal attack. Amber flames once again erupted from its tip.

“Kuaak! You, people, have the New King…”

Puak!

At that moment, Azadine threw a dagger right through the goblin’s head in surprise. Did it realize that he had a page?

‘Just how did it realize this?’

Azadine calmly reviewed the situation.

‘I think that flame is moving towards me? Is that why? No??’

Azadine deduced that the staff had the power to find the book.

“KUAAK! KILL YOU!”

Now part of the King of Tooth, the goblin created explosive whips and swung them at Azadine. Countless attacks by sharp teeth whirled around to tear Azadine apart.

“You!”

“Be careful!”

Was it because of how fast those tentacles moved? The people of Hubris could not tolerate the Messenger Clan, yet all the village guards survived due to Azadine’s skills.

‘The attack seems swift and numerous, but…’

Azadine easily dodged all of the whip attacks that came flying at him.

‘If I don’t want to get tangled by these whips, it will need to be one-sided.’

Azadine’s physical abilities were in a realm beyond human imagination. He lightly dodged the attacks, and any that got close to him were cut down by the rusty iron sword in his hand.

At that moment, teeth were ripped out in clumps and fell to the ground. Azadine made it seem so simple, but this attack was incomparably faster than the previous ones that normal people could not even think about countering.

Even though the ogre was blind, the attack behind the whips had such power that it couldn’t resist being consumed. Azadine, on the other hand, dealt with it easily, pushing it away with a delicate motion as if he was herding a running bison using a feather.

-Chhik!

Meanwhile, smoke began to rise from Azadine’s sword. The metal could not withstand the tentacles for long due to the digestive juices it secreted.

“Tch.”

After looking around to spot other weapons, Azadine realized that there were none left and had no choice but to pull out a sword from a fallen soldier.

It was a weapon used by Lord Kozel’s soldiers, those who had worn armor and were armed as heavily as knights.

It was a smooth, straight, steel sword that looked of good quality at a glance. It was dense, but it would undoubtedly be spoiled if he used it to fight this acidic whip.

However, there was no time to spare in the face of the vicious attack.

‘It is a pity, but it would be better to use this here instead of wasting my body. Well, I do have some knives on me.’

Azadine dealt with the attack by slicing through the toothy tentacles with the sword. As expected, no matter how good a sword was, it would start to corrode.

“Uh…”

“T-that!”

“What?”

The villagers who were watching were shocked.

“Let’s shoot an arrow. First of all, let us help that Messenger Clan person somehow.”

The leader, the hunter, shouted this.

“B-But helping a messenger….”

Actually, if the fact that they helped a messenger was revealed to the King’s Church, then they would be treated as traitors. They could even die.

It was a serious crime, and yet the hunter snorted in derision.

It was a noble of the Heavenly King’s lineage, one held sacred by the King’s Church, that had plundered and abandoned the village.

On the other hand, the one they called soulless blasphemers, one of those, had come to help them for no apparent reason.

Was it not clear what they should do in this situation?