40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 153 14. The First Battle (4)

The higher you go up, the thinner the air becomes. Khalil could detect subtle chills in the air. They were not caused by his power, nor could he control them.

There are no enemies on the fiftieth floor of the spire, only endless darkness.

The tenacious soldiers of Harkossus disappeared, but the corridor was filled with the smell of blood. The silver ground was covered with thick and sticky blood, but there were no broken limbs or any flesh and blood in it, only endless blood.

Khalil slowly narrowed his eyes, turned his head, and stared into the darkness beside him without saying a word.

A chuckle followed, and a man walked out of the darkness. His eyes were completely white, his skin was as pale as ashes, and the beating flames on his forehead exuded blue light with his breathing.

The man had a half-smiling look on his skinny cheeks. He lowered his head and bowed like a clown in the palace. His movements were very funny and ridiculous.

"You are indeed very perceptive. I hope you also like this meeting gift." He said politely. "I heard that you like blood."

Khalil did not answer, but slowly stretched out his right hand, and the shrill cold wind and howling sounded in the corridor at this moment. The man raised his hands calmly and allowed himself to be pressed against his neck by the blade without resisting.

He still maintained a disgusting ease, and even his voice could reveal how confident he was at the moment.

"Carlos said that your sex is like fire now. I didn't believe it at first, but this is actually true. Are you planning to kill me without even listening to my words?"

The skeleton stared at him calmly, still saying nothing.

The man sighed and took a step back with complaint: "You don't have to do this at all. We are not your enemies, at least not this time."

"Really?" Khalil finally spoke, his voice low and distorted, like the wail of the deceased floating in the wind.

"Yes, sir." The man nodded meekly, and his completely white eyes began to gradually change color.

A strange blue color that made it impossible to keep his attention began to color his eyes, and his body trembled and his flesh hissed.

"I'm just here to give you a warning, that's all."

"I don't need your so-called warning," Khalil said. "Now, there is only one reason that prevents me from destroying your stolen body, and that reason is not because I want to listen to you."

The smile on the man's face froze for a moment. He blinked and the strange blue color disappeared: "That's not necessary, sir. Why do you have to spend so much effort looking for a messenger like me in the vast ocean? Where are the traces?”

Khalil didn't answer. The blue color in the skull's empty eye sockets quietly changed. The terrifying black flames smudged out little by little, and the red base was looming inside.

The man took a deep breath and finally acted like he was no longer confident: "I finally know why Carlos announced that it would disappear for a while."

"I will find you." Khalil said calmly. "Then I'll kill you."

"Okay, okay, you can do whatever you want. After all, I'm just a messenger, and my master probably won't care about such a small change." The man shrugged pretending to be relaxed. "But can you please listen to what I have to say?"

"Why should I listen to your lies?"

"Ah—Sir." The man took a deep breath, and a pale smile gradually formed on his thin face.

His body began to tremble, and something was struggling inside.

Khalil noticed this - the thing occupying this body was trying to bypass the veil and send a message through the mortal body.

The man opened his mouth, and his teeth turned black, as if they were burned by fire. His skin melted and flowed down like a wax statue. The flame on his forehead was still intact, beating endlessly, and the blue light even started to get brighter and brighter.

And all of this was firmly bound within his body. Like he said, he was really just a messenger.

Apart from delivering messages, he does nothing else, even briefly tampering with reality.

"I am meeting a god who has not yet sat on the throne."

The melted thing fell to its knees, but its head was raised high, and a fanatical brilliance bloomed in its eyes.

"And I will personally speak nine true words to him. For this reason, I will endure all pain, all hunting, and all torture. I will personally become a wave in the ever-changing future, and I will incarnate into one of my Lord's achievements. annotation."

Its body began to melt, melt completely, turning into an amorphous mass of pulsating light. They instinctively tried to expand outwards, but they were restrained by the thing's own will and could not be let out at all.

It's here to deliver a message, that's all.

In the radiance, a voice began to sound - the blood in the corridor began to boil, and the sudden blue flame burned out all the blood at this moment.

The wall and the ground flipped, and the original silver metal suddenly turned into metal engraved with countless densely crawling words at this moment. Nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine corpses of Harcossians appeared in the corridor, or were lying on the ground. , or hung from the ceiling.

They were dead, but the beating flame marks on their foreheads were also so conspicuous. A chilling, hollow smile is blooming on the faces of these dead people.

"Swear by my name, by the name of my lord Tzeentch, I will never deceive or conceal anything from him again!"

The throbbing light screamed.

"Great revenge, great hatred, I beg you to listen to my nine words!"

The skeleton didn't answer, just smiled lowly.

——

The people of Harkossus were screaming and crying, they were being invaded, and their soldiers and protectors were completely helpless. Conrad Coates realized this, and he tasted the bitter emotion, but seemed indifferent.

"How is our progress?" He turned his head and asked Van Cleef in the temporary headquarters.

The First Captain handed over a dataslate again, knowing that his primarch preferred to do the work himself rather than have it relayed to him. The Lord of the Eighth Legion took the data pad and began to read it quickly.

The killing speed of his legion was simply astonishing. Within an hour and a half since the war started, they had paralyzed most of the transportation facilities and energy equipment in the only city of Harkossus One. Under the premeditated airborne attack, the local defense forces were unable to fight back.

Curze was not satisfied with this. He wanted to reduce the duration of the war with the fastest speed and the least bloodshed, so he acquiesced in the use of some fear tactics that had been circulated within the Eighth Legion for a long time.

After all, it would not be difficult to disable and then take over the Harkossians' broadcast system.

The Legion broadcast the enemy's cries of fear in the form of a radio broadcast. This was very effective. Forty minutes after the broadcast began, many Harkossians chose to surrender.

They did this even before the Eighth Legion reached their location.

They were terrified, and so were the civilians. The Eighth Legion did not harm the latter, but they could also hear the broadcast to the entire city.

However, for now, there is still a problem.

According to the information sent back by Enric Barbatos, the commander of the 8th company who attacked the spire with Khalil Lohars, the soldiers of Harkossus are not afraid of death and have a strong will to fight. They also have many combat robots up to six meters tall.

However, judging from the current situation, other soldiers of the Eighth Legion who are fighting have not encountered the soldiers and fighting machines they said they were. Perhaps this can be explained by saying that all the people in the minaret are elites, but

Aren't places like energy operation centers and arms depots important?

Curze didn't think the Harkossians were that short-sighted.

Moreover, there is something quite interesting in the information sent back by Enrik Barbatos - he mentioned the religious beliefs of the people of Harkossus, and many soldiers would chant the name of fire and launch death attacks on them. charge.

This kind of thing has never been encountered by other companies and teams fighting on the ground. Such a strong contradictory contrast makes people have to think about what is hidden behind it.

——But Konrad Coates was tired of these useless thoughts.

He handed the data pad back to Van Cleef, and was about to say something when he was interrupted by a voice coming from the communication channel. That voice belonged to Fel Zalost. The think tank's voice sounded hoarse in the channel, and small sounds of begging for mercy kept coming from his side.

"Primarch, I just noticed an obvious spiritual fluctuation."

"Psychic fluctuations?" Curze frowned. "Where did it come from?"

"Minaret." The captain of the third company replied simply, with certainty in his voice. "It's definitely coming from the Spire, Primarch. Also, I have one more thing to report."

"What's up?"

"My company and I raided an underground facility, but the experiments being conducted here are somewhat special."

"Just say it, Phil," Conrad Coates replied calmly. "We will punish them according to the laws of the Empire."

"."

Felzalost was silent for a moment before answering his primarch, as if searching for the right words.

"Sir, I'm afraid this is no longer a question of punishment. There is a strange alien species in this underground facility, and they are cooperating with the Harkossians. We tortured several Harkossians People, they say, these aliens are messengers of fire."

Conrad Coates turned his head and made a gesture to Van Cleef - the first company commander immediately understood and mobilized the brothers belonging to the first company through the communication channel within the company.

"What are they doing?" the leader of the Eighth Legion asked again.

".An experiment, or ritual, called drawing fire into the body." Fair said. "I'm sure this ritual will transform humans into those aliens bit by bit."

"Send me the coordinates," Konrad Curze said calmly. "First Company and I will be there soon."

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