40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 18 18. Ring of Fear (1)

The blades dragged along the wall, making a sharp and piercing noise. They hit the wall of the underground passage and soon became weird and distorted. In a dark and smelly environment, such a sound can undoubtedly inspire more fear in people.

Khalil walked slowly, keeping his pace slow and slow, so that he could better control the speed of the blade.

He is very knowledgeable about this, and he knows what angle and force to drag the blade on what kind of wall to create a sharper and weirder noise.

Of course, his purpose for doing this was not to make experimental music, or to use a knife to demolish the underground passage when he had nothing to do.

In fact, there was only one reason why Khalil did this.

Sow fear.

People will always be afraid of the unknown, and that is exactly his purpose.

Squinting, Khalil stopped in place. He could hear the low-pitched gasps of uncontrollable fear from the person in front of him, and the footsteps that she thought she had concealed well. Underpasses amplify all sounds.

He could kill her right now.

But, not yet.

In other words, it's not enough.

After standing there for five minutes, a huge black shadow jumped above his head. The ghost bent down and whispered in his ear: "Aren't we going to kill her?"

"Of course."

"But, she ran away."

"She can't run far. The end of this underground passage is Lynch Avenue. She will find the leader of the Blood Fang Gang there, and then she will be sheltered."

"Does anyone from the Bloody Fang Gang know her?"

"No, but they recognize the emblem of the Scolewock family, so they will shelter her with suspicion just like the previous gang. No gang can refuse the opportunity to establish a relationship with a noble."

".I still don't understand." Ghost said honestly. "Khalil, you said you gave them twelve hours to escape or hide, but the time is almost up now."

Khalil grinned slowly.

"That's exactly what I want. Twelve hours is just a cover, Ghost."

"From the moment I tell you this time limit, they will start counting. They will be nervous, trembling, and even collapsed, hoping that the twelve hours will pass quickly. Fear will make them forget many things."

"Oh, so you lied to them about twelve hours?"

"not completely."

Khalil chuckled. "They can hide, run away, or try to fight back for twelve hours. But once the twelve hours are up, they will die either way."

The ghost blinked. He still couldn't understand how terrifying Khalil's words were to their prey. However, he still had a few questions to answer.

Khalil had told him that if he had any questions, he could always ask.

"Why do you know where they are?" Ghost asked doubtfully. "We didn't even do a pre-work investigation this time."

"Because I have some special tricks."

"Oh. You said there are three of them?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't they stay together?"

"Because the Skolevok family needs a heir to inherit the title, the nobles always have strange obsessions in some strange places. One of them obviously thinks that spreading out and escaping can better increase the chance of survival."

Saying this, a face flashed in front of Khalil's eyes.

He decided to save her until the end.

The rain continued, and after seven hours of rest, Khalil had regained his energy. Although sleeping on the chair made his neck a little sore, overall, it was nothing.

"Let's go, Ghost, she should have already connected with the Blood Fang Gang."

Khalil said softly. "Remember, remember to be quiet later."

".Oh." Ghost replied confused.

How strange. he thinks. Didn't Khalil always want to work quietly? Why would he say it again?

Of course he didn't know why, and he didn't have to.

There are many ways to create fear.

——

Lena Skolywock was almost going crazy. She was covered in sewage, disheveled and huddled in the basement of the Blood Fang Gang's headquarters, not even daring to take a breath.

She is afraid. She was afraid that her breath would attract the monster lurking in the darkness.

That vengeful evil spirit.

Just as she gasped in fear, there was a knock on the basement door. Lena Skolywock immediately raised the automatic gun in her hand and stared at the door without saying a word.

Her eyes were as wide as they could be, her mouth was wide open, but she didn't dare to breathe. The scar across her entire face was now slightly red.

A kind of crazy brokenness bloomed in this once noble face, making her look completely different from Lena Skolywok.

"Uh Miss Lena Skolywock?"

A hesitant voice came from outside the basement door. "I'm Ralph from the Bloodtooth Gang. Do you need to change your clothes? Acid rain is corrosive, miss? Are you still there?"

From the Bloodfang Gang.

Lena breathed a sigh of relief, her cheeks twitching, but she still didn't relax completely. She stood up, walked slowly to the corner leading to the basement door, and asked in a low voice: "Is there anything moving outside?"

"Well?"

"Is there any movement outside?"

"Is this your first time coming to Quintus? It's raining outside, and some people are racing on the street. There is a venue at the end of Lynch Avenue that is very suitable for racing--"

Lena Skolywock took a deep breath and suppressed her urge to scream. In such a short time of asking and answering, the anxiety spreading from the bottom of her heart began to erode her remaining sanity.

Her hands started shaking again.

"—No, no, listen to me, Ralph of the Bloodtooth Gang."

Holding the gun, Lena tried her best to keep her voice calm.

"What you have to do is very simple. You must always pay attention to what is going on outside, especially the singing. Also, send someone to contact the Glory Overseer. Just say that Lena Skolywok asked you to come. "

"."

The person outside the basement door grunted inexplicably, and then he replied: "Okay, distinguished lady, we will do it. If you need anything, just call me, okay?"

Lena didn't answer, she just trembled.

Something similar has happened once.

At first, she was hopeful that she would escape.

Her confidence was also fueled by the attitude the gang displayed after seeing her clothes and the Skolywok insignia she produced.

After all, not all gangs have nobles behind them, and even nobles who are hostile to each other will not let their gangs murder each other's heirs in the lower nest when it is not a big purge.

Then the nightmare of the road loomed.

Lena still remembers that the first gang to help her was called the Blood Mist Gang. They owned an old building as their base, and their number was not small, with more than two hundred people.

At the time, Lena thought they could make it through the twelve hours, but she was wrong.

The twelve-hour countdown slowly passed and came to the last three hours. At this moment, at this moment when she thought she was safe.

The nightmare is coming.

The first thing that came was the singing.

Low, long, and obviously gloomy. The melody is soft, but it feels like a blade rubbing against the delicate skin of the neck.

Exactly the same as on the road.

It spread into the Blood Mist Gang's station and reached everyone's ears. Then, the ghostly killing came.

Starting from the ground floor of the old building, screams and howls began to erupt, mixed with gunfire and spread all the way to the top of the fourth floor where Lena was. It never stopped.

Then what? What happened then?

Lena shuddered and swallowed a mouthful of smelly saliva. The strange smell and taste buds made her realize one thing desperately.

She knew that her dignity at the moment probably did not have the temperament that a scion of the Skolywok family should have. She breathed the stench, her skin burned with acid rain, and most importantly

She was scared to death.

She was so scared that she didn't even want to recall how the monster broke into the last floor and killed everyone in front of her eyes.

Trembling, Lena took out a pocket watch from her arms. It is a twenty-four-hour clock, very beautiful, and has the crest of the Skelewerk family on the back. The people who left the nest didn't care about time, but the nobles did.

They knew that above the boiling purple-black clouds of Nostramo lurked a weak sun.

Lena Skolywock looked at her watch, gazing hopefully and tremblingly at the beating of the minute and second hands. On the silver-white dial of this pocket watch, they move slowly. The machine clicked in response to her heartbeat.

Almost there, almost there.

Twelve hours are almost up.

She sobbed, sobbing in the dingy basement of a despised gang.

Her clothes were dirty, her expression was broken, the insides of her fingernails were pitch black, and the soles of her exquisite leather boots were covered in mud from her panicked escape.

but--

Twelve hours are almost up.

There are still five minutes left.

As long as she spends these five minutes, she can return to the nest. She can be Lena Skolywok again, and she can rely on the strength of her family to strangle that monster during the great purge. It may be able to withstand forty private soldiers, but what if it is four hundred?

Yes, yes, it must be possible.

She sobbed and laughed, expressions of collapse and hope alternately flashing back and forth on her dirty face. She looked at her pocket watch, silently counting its beats, and secretly longing for time to go faster.

Then.

finally.

Five minutes. It's over. The second hand passes, then the minute hand, and finally the hour hand. They skipped over the quaint numbers and continued to beat on machines that only the nobles could understand.

Lena looked at it dully.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

Trembling, she stood up, still weeping, but weeping with ecstasy. A smile inevitably spread at the corners of her mouth, and she almost wanted to laugh out loud. There was no killing sound like before from outside the basement door, which meant that the monster had not found her.

It's lost!

She inched up the stairs, her boots making a muffled sound against the wood. Lena Skolywock opened the basement door hopefully, and then she saw——

corpse.

There is also a dark shadow.

Finally, there is a low singing voice.

Low, long, and obviously gloomy. The melody is soft, but it feels like a blade rubbing against the delicate skin of the neck.

"No, no, no"

At the end of her life, Lena Skolywock screamed in agony, her voice like a slaughtered beast.

First of all, I would like to thank you for your monthly votes and support.

Then I would like to say two things. The first is that the update is ahead of schedule. Although the midnight update is in line with Legion standards, it is indeed a bit underworld.

Second, some readers should actually be able to tell that I have adjusted the timeline of this book. For example, Coze is only one and a half years old, but the tattooed Earl is already an adult. I made this decision after making a lot of choices.

After all, this is a fanfic.

And, I really wanted him to die.

(He will die tomorrow anyway)