As Theron and his aide stepped into the dark cave, he drew an Auroral Tear from his pocket.
A sharp burst of light flared, illuminating their surroundings.
Countless Calami corpses lay scattered along the path they walked.
The cave was utterly devoid of any sign of life.
The sight caused Theron to lower his guard slightly, his steps growing more relaxed.
Yet the anger festering in his heart only intensified.
"That bastard…"
Theron muttered.
"To think he was capable of this. How infuriating."
When the two of them reached the bottom of the pit, the scene before them confirmed the soldiers' report.
The two Marauders lay motionless on the ground—
completely lifeless.
Theron clenched his teeth.
"Damn it…"
he cursed under his breath.
He then continued toward the Womb Chamber ahead.
The darkness within was so dense it nearly devoured the light of the Auroral Tear.
Theron and his aide stepped inside to carry out their own form of "purification."
Inside the Womb Chamber,
the bodies of female beasts—wolves, deer, and cattle—were strewn across the floor.
They were barely breathing, awaiting death after being used as vessels for the Calami.
Several human women had also been dragged here.
Some of them were even carrying the offspring of the Calami in their wombs.
Theron stared at the scene with undisguised disgust.
"I can't stand places like this,"
he complained to his aide.
"It's so repulsive I can barely tolerate it."
He raised his left hand, conjuring a massive sphere of fire in the air.
The flickering flames cast warped, trembling shadows across the chamber walls.
"But so be it,"
Theron continued coldly.
"At the very least, it always serves as an outlet for my frustration."
He turned to his aide.
"Watch closely. This is how the release is performed."
Those words were his way of passing down the ritual—
so that Divine, his subordinate, could use it in the future.
Just as Theron was about to unleash the massive fireball from his hand—
incinerating the countless living vessels before him into ash—
The shadow of something began to stir, slowly rising.
Theron noticed it.
When he focused his gaze, the sight before him made his heart seize.
Shock surged through his entire body.
The fire spell in his left hand extinguished instantly.
He and his aide stood frozen, trembling—
as though bound by the grip of death itself.
A power beyond comprehension, beyond resistance.
And in the split second before he could react,
Theron recalled Ryn's warning.
THUD!
The colossal demon's hammer came crashing down.
Theron's body was obliterated on the spot—
leaving him no chance to even scream.
The aide jolted in terror.
The moment his senses returned, he didn't dare look back.
He fled the cave in blind panic, desperate to escape with his life.
Outside the cave,
the soldiers and mages had gathered in cheerful clusters, chatting animatedly about how the mission had been cleared with barely any risk.
Most of them looked relaxed, smiling as though all danger had passed.
Only Ryn continued to stare into the dark mouth of the cave.
His expression was deeply uneasy.
In his heart, he prayed that the oppressive feeling gripping him was nothing more than his imagination—
and hoped with all his strength that his foreboding would not come true.
Divine, the warden, also stood in silence, gazing in the same direction as Ryn.
The five soldiers who had previously entered the cave all insisted firmly that no living Calami remained inside.
They recounted what they had seen in great detail to the gathered troops, leaving many both shocked and awed by the fact that a single man had destroyed an entire Calami nest.
Relief slowly spread throughout the army.
But then—
Chaos erupted from the cave entrance.
Divine, the aide who had entered the cave with Theron, came running out—
his face twisted in sheer terror.
"Help me! Someone, help me!"
he screamed at the top of his lungs.
BOOM!
A thunderous impact echoed through the air.
Divine's body was smashed to pieces, reduced to an unrecognizable heap—
no longer resembling a human in any way.
Silence fell instantly.
Then, a massive silhouette stepped out from the darkness of the cave.
A giant Calami revealed itself before everyone,
gripping an enormous war hammer still drenched in fresh blood.