40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 185 10. Make an oath (2)

Something is burning.

And Sevatar could hear it clearly.

The surroundings around him were not silent, it could even be called noisy - the whispers spreading from all directions were as unbearable as the violent storm hitting the iron sheet, and just listening to it for a few seconds would make you upset. Confused.

The boy took a deep breath once, then a second time, a third time, and then another. He was like some kind of beast greedy for air, constantly thirsting for it, insatiable, and always greedy.

But this was not out of some desire, but out of his desperate hope that he could calm down.

- He must calm down.

Yago Severtalion does not understand his current situation. He does not know where the so-called City of the Dead is, nor does he understand what the Altar of the End is. At this moment, there was only one thing that he knew, understood, understood clearly.

He needs to calm down or he'll go crazy.

There was no other reason than that, for the first time in his life, those voices, those voices belonging to ghosts, were heard clearly by him, and he could hear them clearly.

Take the voice closest to him, for example. That voice undoubtedly belonged to a woman, and there was a strong breath in between the words. She was speaking to Sevita in a chatty tone, speaking very fast and hissingly.

"Why am I the one who died? Why don't those people who go around killing people die?"

How would I know?

Savita resisted the urge to curse back and began to force herself to continue taking deep breaths. But he couldn't do it, because there were more voices pressing in, like a storm. A storm that belongs only to the dead.

"I just want to go home. Why do they drag me around the city with a chain and drag me on a motorcycle? My back is worn out and it hurts so much."

"Why did that man stab me with a knife? I don't know him, why did he do that? Ah... I seem to be bleeding?"

"Stop skinning me, sir. Please, please, kill me."

"They're going to eat me!"

"I'm so hungry. Why hasn't mom come back yet?"

Sevatar trembled and closed his eyes and covered his ears, trying to block out the cruel and twisted words, but he failed to do so. The dead did not let him go like this, and more pictures came straight at him.

These images are more unbearable than mere babble before death.

He saw people who were hanged, people who were put to death on boards in butcher shops, orphans who starved to death at home, and workers who were beaten to death for no apparent reason on the streets.

Scream, wail, ask.

Why? They asked silently, why is this happening to us?

Sevatar opened his eyes suddenly, and blood spilled from between his lips and teeth.

He had just bitten the tip of his tongue, and his own flesh was swollen in his mouth, bleeding profusely, but Sevita was still grinding the torn apart flesh with his teeth.

The corners of his mouth twitched in pain, but that didn't stop him from moving forward. The dark ruins are deserted, and the only source of light is a few street lamps that flicker on and off. The pain still lingers, but Savita has maintained a certain level of sobriety and rationality.

do not ask me. he said to the darkness. I don't know the answer either.

He just kept going. The further they went, the more obvious the burning smell became, blowing in the howling wind and entering Sevatar's nostrils with pure violence.

The smell was unpleasant, bad enough for Sevatar to ignore the shadows looming in the darkness. Skinned corpses, children covered in blood, women who lost their limbs, and men with nothing in their eyes.

Seeing these things made Sevita feel double pain. This pain was different from the numbness that was spreading in his mouth at the moment, but another form of pain. It was teasing and was caressing his eyeballs gently, making the nerves twitch.

Savita kept blinking his eyes, trying to make the pain go away, but he could not succeed because he could no longer close his eyes.

In other words, even if he closes his eyes, he can see it all. He was in a place where sight was not needed.

He walked silently in the darkness, his limbs and bones felt numb, and the cold oppressed everything he owned.

The white robes could not withstand the cold, nor could his body temperature. At this moment, there was only one place on his body that still had warmth - his chest.

The chest where the parchment roll is located.

It became scalding hot, but it gave Sevatar what little comfort she had left. He stopped where he was, took out the parchment roll, and began to read the words on it again.

"Congratulations, Reserve Yago Sevitarion. You have successfully crossed the White Mountain and arrived at the City of the Dead. Next, you need to pass through the city and go to the Altar of the End. There, you will Witness everything.”

pale mountain

Amid the murmurs of the dead, Sevatar silently approached the next streetlight. He lowered his head, stepped into the faint light, and continued to read the parchment in his hand.

City of the Dead. So, this city is full of dead people? Sevatar gasped like an asthmatic. He raised his head and looked around. The shadowy black figures and the ruins made him feel a little funny, so he really laughed out - "City?"

His voice began to echo in the darkness.

"Is this a city?" He slurred, swallowing his own blood. "Stop buzzing, you dead people, go find those who killed you? Go find them!"

He gasped, clutching the roll of parchment in his hands. It continued to heat up, getting hotter and making his skin sizzle and white smoke billow out. But the boy was completely unmoved.

He acted as if he felt no pain at all, calm, indifferent—and insane.

In fact, madness is the main thing.

"Go find those who killed you!" he shouted vaguely. "You've all become ghosts, what are you afraid of? You can just hang those bastards up and eat them, just like they eat you!"

Sevatar smiled without a trace of laughter.

"Stop annoying me, you incompetent cowards, go find them and get revenge!"

His rage and madness seemed to briefly frighten the ghosts - in short, there was no sound in the darkness for a long time.

Savita fell to his knees, his heart and muscles beating at the same speed, every nerve tense, and he bit his ragged tongue, but he felt unprecedentedly calm in his heart.

Until a voice sounded.

"Because we are already dead," one man said softly. "A dead person cannot leave unless given permission."

"Permission? Damn it, are you telling me a joke?" Savita shouted at him, waving her fists. "You are dead, who are you going to listen to? You idiot, come over here!"

The dead man was very obedient and did as he was told, but Savita actually had no idea why he suddenly asked him to 'come over'. His reason seemed to have been disconnected, or madness had taken over.

In short, the boy now knows that his state is abnormal, but he needs this abnormality.

He had to let his senses go away for a while.

Sevatar began to observe the ghost coming out of the darkness, whose face was extremely ferocious.

He had no eyes, tongue or jaw, and the remaining half of his face looked like it had been thrown into some machine and stirred for a long time. He stood crookedly, some iron chains wrapped around his body, piercing deeply into his flesh.

"You said you were dead?" Savita glared at him. "What dead person can still bleed?"

"This is the city of the dead, child." The man replied hollowly. This sentence sounded like an explanation, but in fact it did not solve any problem at all.

Sevita stuck out her tongue, exposing the almost completely bitten front end to the air: "Don't call me child, do you know who I am?"

"I have no idea."

"I am Yago Savitarion." The boy raised his chin and smiled arrogantly and comically. "I am a reserve member of the Emperor's Eighth Legion, the Midnight Blades, one of the Astartes under Konrad Curze. You are in trouble, do you understand?"

"I don't understand." The ghost looked at him blankly, his figure erratic.

"That's right, you are dead after all." Saiweita shrugged pretending to be generous. "But I can forgive you. After all, I'm already a reservist. Why do I need to trouble you dead people? So stop talking to me all the time."

He stood up and pointed at his eyes: "Did you see it? I'm almost driven crazy by you. My eyes hurt like hell because I've been watching your death. And my ears are also what you are doing. So talkative? Do all dead people talk so much?"

The ghost nodded to him quietly, opened his mouth, and his rotten and dark teeth were looming: "Hate... drives us to do this."

"Then take revenge!" Sevita roared.

"No," said the ghost. "The grievances have been washed away, the hatred has been wiped out with blood, but we need more."

He stretched out a hand and firmly grasped Sevita's right hand. The feeling of being in contact with a ghost was almost the same as being cut into the body by a knife blade. Savita bared his teeth ferociously and felt that someone had stabbed a knife into his right forearm, and it was still stirring.

"We want more." The ghost whispered, and pulled Seva out of the light. "We are dead, they are also dead, but there are still many nobles and gangs in the world who are not dead."

"There are no nobles or gangs left in Nostramo!" Sevatar shouted at him.

"There are other places," said the ghost. He turned sideways and another deceased person came out. He has gray hair, a strong body, and black and white eyes. He has nothing in common with the Nostramos.

"Like where he came from." The ghost grabbed Savita and pulled him up from the ground. The pain coming from his right hand became more severe and obvious.

"The place he came from was full of slave masters, Yago Severtalion of the Midnight Blade. Those slave masters killed him and turned his children into monsters. Do you understand, Yago Savitalion? Talion? There are many worlds, many nobles, gangs, and slave owners."

"And they are not dead, unlike us, they are not dead. Why should they live and why should they not die?"

"How the hell do I know?" Sevita smiled numbly. "What's the use of telling me this?"

"Useful, Argo Severtarion from the Midnight Blade."

The ghost let go.

"You can avenge us."

"Revenge to whom?"

"Those people." The ghost answered with overwhelming hatred. His voice began to blur and change, becoming the voice of ten million people speaking together, like thunder, vibrating endlessly.

"Those who create more ghosts, those who torture and kill others for fun, those who force people to separate their wives and families. You can avenge us, Yago Savitarion."

"What good do I do?" Sevita took a breath of cold air with great effort, his voice was hollow, and there was nothing in his eyes. "Let's talk about this first. What's the benefit of me avenging you? You can't let me work in vain."

The boy finally felt a little relieved.

Are you kidding me - if people like that still exist, they shouldn't be alive in the first place. Even if these ghosts didn't ask for it, he would do it after joining the Legion. In fact, he decided to join the Legion after hearing that he could do this.

This decision was hasty and possibly bad, and even after asking himself, Savita couldn't find a single reason to explain it. He didn't know why he agreed to join, but he understood now.

Some things don't need a reason at all.

What the fuck is the reason? Those people just deserve to die.

They just deserve to die.

But he had to go to the Altar of the End. If he couldn't get there, he wouldn't be able to complete this truly hellish 'Twentieth Surgery', and he wouldn't be able to join the legion.

So, Yago Savitarion used his little street cunning as always.

However, the ghost promised him nothing.

"No reward," he said, his eyes empty. "We are dead and we can promise you nothing, Yago Savitarion. And you don't need any reward."

Sevatar was almost amused - "What bad joke are you talking about? Of course I need a reward or reward, I'm going to the Altar of the End!"

"You are already here." The ghost replied in a low voice.

The next second, the wind howled, and the thunder made the dark sky bright as day. The burning smell finally reached its peak, rushing towards my face, filling my lips, tongue, nose, and ears. Sevatar's eyes widened and he realized that everything was gradually disappearing.

Invisibly, the ruins and ghosts disappeared, replaced by a barren and muddy land. Savita raised his head and saw five rough and huge stone pillars. They built a palace. There was no light inside, but the burning smell came from inside.

He lowered his head and looked to his right hand. The parchment roll was unfolding by itself at this moment. It was as hot as lava, and black flames danced wildly on it.

"Be prepared, you will face the truth, Yago Severtarion."

Yes, code

I rewrote it three times and finally got it out.