"Whew..." Corax adjusted his breathing and state, then began to concentrate on merging with the darkness.
As Corax began to wholeheartedly merge with the darkness, a wonderful, harmonious feeling enveloped the Crow King. At this moment, Corax could even feel the surrounding darkness beginning to rejoice, as if subjects who had long awaited the return of their king now felt his return. Not only that, but the darkness also seemed to continuously guide Corax to the locations of enemies hidden within it.
"Cheating?" This unfamiliar word automatically popped into Corax's mind.
Then, the combat knife in his hand silently sliced across the neck of an enemy criminal who was hidden in the mine shaft, preparing to shoot at the invaders.
In the pitch-black mine shaft, only the dull thud of bodies falling to the ground and the clatter of laser guns, knives, and other weapons dropping could be heard from time to time. In the silent mine shaft, the occasional sounds were like the screams of a soul-reaping demon. Corax, who was merging with the darkness for the first time, did not rush to kill, but instead continuously adapted to his abilities.
From initial X-ray vision, it evolved to also form something similar to a thermal imager, displaying the heat emitted by human bodies. Through the power of shadows, Corax successfully located the leader of this criminal organization, but he was not in a hurry to finish him off. Instead, he focused on the outermost enemies, killing his way inward.
The constant sounds and the scent of blood filled the criminals ambushing here with immense fear. Even the personal guards of the Cracked Skull Breakers' leader could not withstand the terrifying pressure of this pitch-black environment. The dull thud of bodies falling was all too familiar to them; every person here had more or less a few lives on their hands.
"The smell of blood, such a strong smell of blood..."
"The Grim Reaper, the Grim Reaper must be here..."
"Run, quick!"
The chaos began.
"Ah..."
As several shrill screams echoed, the panicked crowd became even more terrified. However, unlike the silent deaths before, these agonizing screams continued to reverberate throughout the cave. This time, Corax merely incapacitated them, rather than directly severing their heads.
"Is this Curze's fear tactic?" Swain realized.
"No, it can't be called Curze's fear tactic. Curze's methods are much more brutal; even Vulkan, a fellow Primarch, was tortured to the point of losing his sanity. Corax is merely using the environment to break their psychological defenses." Swain quickly analyzed the Crow King's intentions.
"Come out, come out! You spineless cowards!" Heuster continuously fired his laser gun wildly into the empty mine shaft. Bright laser beams constantly flew, illuminating the pitch-black mine, then vanishing instantly. However, no matter how much he and his subordinates fired, they could not find the demon that was continuously harvesting lives in the darkness.
That terrifying presence was like the Grim Reaper, completely merged with the darkness, wantonly reaping the lives of his enemies as he pleased, as if strolling through his own backyard, relaxed and at ease. Heuster could only watch as the beams of light in the darkness continuously diminished, until only the laser gun in his hand remained.
Only at this moment did Heuster realize that his position had long been exposed; the other party had merely left him for last, as a final dessert to savor.
"It's time to end this boring farce." Corax's ethereal voice suddenly echoed in Heuster's ear from the darkness.
Then, a sharp blade directly severed his head.
Until the very end, Heuster did not even catch a glimpse of his opponent.
"What a brilliant silent assasination. I thought you'd leave someone alive to interrogate for information." Swain clapped his hands as he emerged from the darkness. At the same time, the pitch-black mine shaft gradually began to light up with dim lights, as members of the Shadow Assassin had already reconnected the severed wires.
"There's nothing to interrogate. Just see for yourself." Corax flicked the blood from his combat knife, then cleanly sheathed it.
"Check around. We don't need prisoners. Go see if there are any miners from other camps who were abducted here." Swain instructed. As for the criminals who escaped, Swain did not believe they could evade the Shadow Assassin's pursuit. If the Shadow Assassin couldn't even handle a task of this level, Swain might as well disband them.
"Let's go. Let's see the suffering these rampant criminals have inflicted upon the people of this already unfortunate land," Swain said to Corax with a very grim expression. Even after such a long time since he transmigrated, he still couldn't accept the actions of these heinous thugs.
And these were just the obscure Lycaeus criminals; who knew how brutal the methods of the Night Lords, World Eaters, Dark Eldar, and the increasingly fanatical Imperial Cult and Inquisition ten thousand years in the future would be?
Swain's soul, from the ancient 3K era, simply couldn't accept these things. The first time he eradicated a criminal stronghold that dared to infringe upon The Saviour Camp, Swain went back and, despite the heavy workload, didn't eat a single bite of food for days.
But to make Corax understand what he would have to face in this world, or in the survival of the galaxy, Swain still suppressed his discomfort and led the Primarch deep into the mine shaft. That was where the miners abducted by the Cracked Skull Breakers were held, and it was a living hell.
"Swain, I'll take Corax in to see it." Nekser said. He knew very well what kind of scenes would be inside, but it seemed his boss couldn't handle such sights. For the development of the camp, he might as well help out.
"No need. I'll take Corax." Swain refused Nekser's suggestion. After all, he knew very well that the future held scenes ten, even a hundred times more brutal than what was about to emerge before them. Avoiding one problem now wouldn't mean avoiding all future ones.
The Xenos encountered during the Great Crusade would not harbor even a shred of goodwill towards human worlds that had once colonized their homeworlds and whose own species had suffered greatly. The slaughter of an entire planet's population, their flesh used as food, and their souls sacrificed to the Chaos powers in the Warp, were all very common occurrences.