Casting a vicious glance at the six ghouls who could neither move nor speak, Raize turned and walked toward the crowd imprisoned inside the massive iron cages.
As Raize approached, everyone instinctively retreated in fear, crowding together inside the cages, their expressions tense as they stared at him.
It wasn't strange for them to be afraid. The way Raize had effortlessly slaughtered the enemies moments ago was simply too terrifying. That figure radiating bone-chilling killing intent was something they would never forget in their lifetime.
It was obvious he was no ordinary person. The combat power he displayed completely shattered their worldview.
After being lured or kidnapped by ghouls and brought here, they had witnessed groups of ghouls devouring humans, as well as that spider swallowing countless people in a single gulp. The scene had truly terrified them.
Later, annoyed by their noise, the ghouls killed a few of the loudest ones as a warning, chewing on their corpses right in front of everyone.
The ghouls watched with mocking expressions as they gagged, trembled, or nearly screamed, declaring that whoever dared make a sound would be the next meal.
From then on, surrounded by blood and carnage, no one dared utter a sound. They had become completely numb and despairing.
Now, suddenly, Raize appeared and slaughtered the ghouls with overwhelming force. Even as they felt relieved, they were also terrified of the masked swordsman.
Because Raize could no longer be equated with the humans in their understanding. Someone who crushed monsters with such ease was undoubtedly an existence even more terrifying than monsters themselves.
And behind him floated six limbless ghouls—how could that not be horrifying?
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Standing before the ice wall he had created, Raize glanced at the ghouls frozen like specimens inside the massive block of ice radiating bone-chilling cold. With a thought, cracks instantly spread across the wall, and the entire ice structure—along with the ghouls inside—shattered into glittering ice crystals.
From the hostages' perspective, the scene looked beautiful and dazzling. But remembering that those disgusting, terrifying ghouls were now part of that glittering powder, any sense of beauty vanished instantly.
Crack!
Raize reached out and summoned the Heaven's sword from where it was embedded in the ground, then swung it.
Clang!
Sword light flared and spread outward, flashing across every steel cage.
Crack crack!
All the steel cages were destroyed in the next instant, violently sliced open to form doorways large enough for people to pass through.
"Rescue operations are already being organized above ground. The tunnels here are like a maze and easy to get lost in. Stay here and don't run around. Someone will come to rescue you soon."
A hoarse voice altered by energy came from beneath the mask. The calm, rough words reached the ears of every survivor.
After speaking, without waiting for their stunned or shocked reactions, Raize turned and prepared to leave.
W-we're… saved?
Everyone looked at one another, seeing the same confusion and numbness in each other's eyes. Kidnapped by ghouls and dragged to this hellish place, living every day in fear of being eaten—they had all experienced terror, despair, and eventually numbness.
Now, suddenly, someone had appeared and used thunderous force to kill the ghouls who imprisoned and tormented them. Most of them felt an overwhelming sense of unreality.
The miracle had come too fast—so fast they couldn't even react properly.
The crushing weight of despair in their hearts was gone. So… should they feel joy and relief?
Then… why were tears streaming down their faces?
"…S-saved? Are we saved?"
"Wuu… I'm still alive…"
"Dad… Mom…"
"…Satomi… Sachiko… wuuuaaah!"
"…."
The numb emotions they had suppressed finally found an outlet, and everyone broke down crying. Over the past few days, they had witnessed nightmares beyond imagination, not daring to release any emotion.
Watching fellow humans being eaten alive, hearing their desperate screams as they were bitten to death—those sounds clung to their ears like a curse they could never forget.
All they could do was watch helplessly, praying that they wouldn't be next, clamping their mouths shut in terror. Anyone who couldn't hold back—family members, close friends—had all ended up in the bellies of devils or ghouls.
The reason that stray devil hadn't devoured all the captured humans at once was because it needed to fill their hearts with despair and fear. Only then could it absorb their flesh and blood more effectively as power.
Beneath the mask, Raize's face showed no emotion. Long ago, he too had cried in grief. When his tears ran dry, he had become a twisted demon at heart, driven mad by vengeance.
Now that his great revenge was complete, did he feel pleasure?
A little—but far more than that was pain and emptiness.
What was lost could never return. What had been torn from his heart left behind only a bottomless void that could never be filled.
"…Th-that… um, sir, please wait!!!"
A voice filled with sobbing and despair suddenly rang out, stopping Raize as he was about to leave. When everyone saw Raize halt, their expressions stiffened, and they all turned their confused gazes toward the person who had spoken.
It was a beautiful black-haired, straight-haired girl kneeling on the ground. She had a devilishly hot, explosive figure and an angelically delicate, pretty face.
Her defining features were fair, pale skin, long flowing warm purple-black hair, and a pair of bright, captivating eyes.
Aside from her looks, the most eye-catching thing about her was her strikingly generous bust.
Tears streaked down Katsura Kotonoha's face as she held a small girl in her arms. The child's face was pale and bloodless, already unconscious. Judging from the young, slightly dirty face that resembled Kotonoha by seven or eight parts, she was clearly her younger sister.
The little girl's right arm was completely gone. Kotonoha had used her own clothes and stockings to perform extremely crude bleeding control and bandaging on the blood-soaked wound, but for Katsura Kokoro, who had already lost too much blood and completely passed out, this was nothing more than a drop in the bucket.
The shadow of death had already begun to fully engulf the little girl.
Before Raize arrived, Kokoro had seen an unbearably bloody and terrifying scene and couldn't help letting out a scream. Because of that, she was noticed by the ghouls.
It was hard to say whether this little girl was lucky or not. The ghouls outside had just eaten their fill, and when faced with Kotonoha desperately begging for her sister, the ghoul only glanced at them and didn't bother further.
It directly used its kagune to cruelly sever one of Kokoro's small arms, took the arm away, and ate it as a snack.
Children were the food most valued by that devil. They could be devoured, but absolutely not eaten too much.
Those ghouls had their own duties while feeding, and that was to make all the humans in the cages generate negative emotions.
That was also the reason the little girl hadn't died outright. In a sense, she was relatively lucky—at least compared to those who had spoken up before Kokoro, nearly all of whom were already dead.
Holding her unconscious sister, Kotonoha could already feel that Kokoro was at her limit. With no other options, she had no choice but to place her last shred of hope on Raize, the one who had just saved them.
If she waited for rescue while holding her sister, Kokoro would definitely not last. She was already breathing in more than she breathed out, her heartbeat steadily weakening, her body temperature rapidly dropping.
"Please… can you save my sister? Kokoro… she really can't hold on anymore."
The people who had been rescued and had initially looked at Kotonoha with reproach all fell silent.
They had been unhappy about her calling out to that terrifying man, but seeing her kneeling there, clutching her dying sister in despair, they could no longer say anything.
Her sister was clearly at death's door. Seeing the bloodless little girl in her arms, it was only natural that she would cling to the one with extraordinary abilities as her last hope.
After all, Raize had shown truly superhuman power. If he could deal with those monsters so easily, maybe he could also save a dying child.
Kotonoha was already desperate, treating a dead horse as if it were alive. She could only beg that 'miracle' who had saved them.
Hearing her voice, Raize stopped and turned around, looking first at her, then at the little girl in her arms. With his perception and eyesight, he could tell that the child was already on the brink of death, with very little time left.
There wasn't enough time—neither for rescue nor for getting her to a hospital.
Seeing Kotonoha's tear-streaked, helpless, and despairing expression, Raize inexplicably thought of his own deceased younger sister.
He could empathize with her deeply, and so—
Buzz.
Raize raised his right hand and extended his index finger, circulating the power of Kirby along with primordial sacred radiance within his body. A small pink-purple orb of light appeared at his fingertip, gentle and warm, radiating healing power as arcs of energy flickered around it.
Everyone widened their eyes at the sight. As they stared in shock, Raize pointed his finger toward Kokoro in Kotonoha's arms.
Crackle crackle…
Whoosh—
Sparks sizzled as the pink-purple orb transformed into a beam of pink light that shot straight into Kokoro, striking her in the blink of an eye.
Pink-purple healing energy instantly enveloped the small body of Kokoro.
"Kokoro?!"
Coming back to her senses, Kotonoha looked down in alarm. Raize's action had looked exactly like an attack. Panicking, she hurriedly looked at her sister, now wrapped in pink-purple energy.
Others who realized what was happening recoiled in fear of the unknown, faces full of panic as they backed away from the beam still pouring into Kokoro, not daring to get close.
Among the crowd stood a silver-haired girl with a youthful, adorable face. Her large, sparkling eyes shone as she watched the pink-purple beam, then looked at Kokoro's complexion visibly improving. From the severed wound, a tender, fair little arm began to grow back.
The sight made her high-IQ brain momentarily freeze.
The pink-purple healing beam carried no offensive power. It was purely for healing. Aside from once treating a minor wrist injury on Masuzu, this was the first time Raize had output such high-level healing energy to save someone.
The effect was astonishingly good. Even Kokoro's severed arm regenerated right before everyone's stunned eyes.
"Ko… Kokoro?!"
When the healing beam quickly faded, Kotonoha's face was filled with disbelief. She raised her hand hesitantly and touched her sister's newly grown arm.
Warmth of life, solid physical sensation. Kokoro's complexion had become rosy and full, no longer looking unconscious but as if she were merely sleeping peacefully.
The scene of limb regeneration unfolded before everyone's eyes. Ghouls having such regenerative ability was understandable, but this little girl was clearly human.
"Stay here and wait peacefully. If fate allows, we'll meet again."
Raize suddenly spoke, drawing everyone's attention. Some people holding their injured family members or friends looked over with excited expressions.
But when they turned their heads, they froze.
The place where Raize had just stood was already empty. There was no sign of him at all. Only the words that still echoed in the air remained, before he vanished completely.
Kotonoha looked over with gratitude, but she didn't see him again either. He had already left.
This left Kotonoha feeling a bit lost, unable to thank him properly. Others who were missing limbs or had injured loved ones showed regret, casting looks of envy and jealousy toward Kokoro, who had been saved.
This little girl was truly lucky. She had spoken up earlier without being eaten by the ghouls, and after her sister desperately begged that masked man, she had been dragged back from the gates of death, her severed arm miraculously restored.
If they had known this would happen, they too would have wanted to muster the courage to beg him to save them.
"Ah… I'm sorry…"
Kanade looked at the injured arm of her butler, Konoe, her face filled with guilt and sadness. She regretted not asking for help, which might have allowed his arm to be healed.
Konoe showed no regret at all. Facing her young lady's guilt and sorrow, she covered her injured arm and smiled sincerely.
"It's alright, my lady. Being saved at all is already a blessing in the midst of misfortune. It's just a minor injury…"
She was right. It was only a fractured arm. Compared to the little girl's previous severed limb, it was nothing. Seeing Kokoro's limb restored by Raize, she felt only a little envy, and more happiness for the child.
A little girl who had been on the verge of death was not only saved but also had her arm healed in such a miraculous way.
That masked swordsman might have looked terrifying, but he was absolutely not a bad person.