40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 400 129. Terra (8)

Whether you admit it or not, murder is part of human nature.

Children will become curious about life. They will stare at bugs or frogs for a while, then they will crush bugs with their feet or throw frogs with their hands. They enjoy seeing other things die.

Curious why this is the case? No one knows. But as they mature, this curiosity will begin to develop into an impulse.

Some people hold it back, others don't.

Times change, years pass, and the cloak of morality and civilization turns this impulse into a potential desire for violence. It is not obvious on weekdays, but once a certain moment comes, it will explode, forcing the brain with anger, leading to Impulsive murder.

But if we move forward in time, and return civilization to the barbaric days, before the flames have been ignited, what does killing mean?

Nothing counts.

Primitive people have no so-called moral concepts. They kill to survive. They kill ferocious beasts and their own kind.

The warriors in the tribe will kill the warriors of another tribe out of hatred. When the chief gets old, he will have bad thoughts about his son who covets his position, and actually kill his own bloodline.

Mothers kill sons, fathers kill daughters, families fall apart, savagery runs rampant - and then, one day, there's fire, then iron, then houses.

People began to resist the beast, resist the darkness, resist everything. People can be fed, clothed, and live in a place where they don’t have to move.

Then morality began to be promoted.

People don't kill their relatives or the people they love. They know it's not good and they know it will bring disaster. This seems to be an established rule. No one proposed it, no one taught it, but everyone knew it.

Until one day comes.

That day, beside a village on a river somewhere at the junction of the Eurasian continent, a man carrying a flint spear killed his brother. He was filled with hatred, for reasons that are no longer known, but he did hate his brother.

He thrust the spear into his brother's body, and blood spattered on his face, so hot it almost stung his skin. He never stopped watching his brother die, no matter how much the victim struggled or screamed.

Therefore, after him, morality began to become a coat that could be thrown away at any time.

But why is he special? No. Why is this first murder special? Just because the murderer murdered his own brother?

To answer this question, you need to find a boy who was still relatively young at the time. The boy, who knew nothing about the future, helped his mother beat clothes by the river, unaware that his father was dying.

A few years later, he touched a hole in his father's skull. A kind of power was born in his heart, and an answer came from the void and reached his ears. So the boy went out of his house and found the murderer.

He killed him, not with much hatred or deep hostility, but he killed him.

He avenged his father and killed his uncle with his own hands.

This is the hatred of a close relative, and no one can blame him. The hatred of parricide is irreconcilable.

The boy didn't realize what he had done until tens of thousands of years later. Unfortunately, it was too late.

By the time he discovered this, he had been holding a torch and fighting monsters in the dark for countless years. During this period, he had been protecting them, even if they had no idea who he was.

He watched them go from wilderness to civilization, from village to city. He once stepped forward to turn the tide of a certain country when it was in crisis. He also ignored the destruction of the world and watched the radiation and destruction destroy the earth to achieve things that were unfamiliar even to him. appearance

And then there is now.

He is the Emperor.

He is the Lord of mankind.

Demons feared him, gods despised him, his deeds spread throughout the galaxy, countless people saw his appearance and heard his name - then some kind of change began to happen quietly, all of which were silenced by the power of chaos The ground saw it.

There is no concept of time in the subspace. The echo of the first murder disappeared for tens of thousands of years on the time scale of the physical universe, but it has only just entered the subspace.

The call of the creature made it see this man and the face of the 'Emperor'.

The child's face was immediately associated with the laurel-crowned giant. It was once the child's uncle. How could he not recognize his nephew's face? How could a victim not recognize the face of the murderer?

So everything fell into place, the echo was tempered, and the demon named Drachnion was born.

It was born from the hatred of the Lord of Mankind, from the extreme sin of murdering a blood relative.

Back in the past, at the junction of the Eurasian continent, the young boy caused his uncle to die of a sudden heart failure. He used his own power to murder his uncle, and everything was complete and became a closed loop.

Hate, spiral, vengeance - this is where the power of the Draconion comes from. Powered by the Four Gods, crowned by vengeance, it has become an avatar through the Emperor's past.

If someone could spread out the Warp and turn it into a huge dictionary, there would be an index under the nouns labeled Emperor.

Drakenion - six syllables, extremely difficult to pronounce. What is its meaning?

Enemies of the Emperor.

That's all.

It was the Emperor's first malice, his first hatred, his first killing. The stronger the Emperor, the greater the threat it poses to the Emperor.

No one can escape the darkness in his heart, even if he is the master of mankind.

Look at the Lord of Humanity at this moment, look at him lying on the ground. The blood continued to flow, creating a river underneath him. According to legend, he will not bleed. According to legend, he is a god that no one can stop. But now?

He lay quietly, his face extremely pale. There had never been a moment when he was so weak. The severe pain that he had long forgotten forced him to breathe deeply, his black hair was disheveled, and he lacked the majesty of a monarch.

But he is laughing.

Khalil Lohars stood in front of him, holding a long sword in his hand, a very gorgeous and very evil long sword. The dark metal and pale bones were entangled with each other, creating its twisted shape.

Countless screaming faces rolled over the sword, and the blood of the Lord of Mankind still remained on it, being greedily devoured by it.

Even if it is being held in the hand, it is still struggling fiercely. Hatred drives it, and the devil's nature makes it extremely hungry, thirsting for more blood from its only enemy.

But it couldn't go any further.

Khalil clenched his right hand slowly, firmly, and irresistibly. The crown above its head buzzed endlessly, and its pale claws rested on the hilt of the sword, forcing it to become quiet.

He held the sword, walked to the emperor, and helped him up from the ground little by little. Such a majestic giant seemed like a completely ordinary person at this moment. Apart from his huge stature, his breathing was extremely weak.

At the same time, a sound like breaking came from deeper in the webway.

"I remember that I did not agree to the plan at the time."

The bones spoke like this, and the sound was like thunder.

"Do you really understand what you are doing? Terra has been tainted by the power of Chaos because of my existence, and now you take the initiative to call me here. You have made this place a god's palace. altar."

"If not, how are you going to come back?"

The Emperor asked with a smile that was sure to win.

"Tzeentch's plan is linked one after another. Since he stole time and drew you away from Terra, it proves that Magnus is not important at all. What is his purpose? It is to lure you away from Terra. He Isn't it just for this moment to take you around the universe and delay time?"

He raised his hand and pointed at the sword.

"He wants to kill the Emperor," the weak and tired man said quietly. "And the Emperor cannot antagonize the Draconians, nor Malcador, nor the Custodes, nor anyone on Terra. Only you can, Khalil."

The god, whose eyes were burning with the fire of vengeance and hatred, remained silent, and the shattering sound from the depths of the Webway continued to spread, unstoppable. Terra had become an altar to a god, and the Webway could no longer exist.

It will break.

"Failed," the Emperor whispered. "In the end, I still have to destroy everything myself, but it doesn't matter. If I don't destroy it, I won't build it."

"If they want a war so much, then we will give them a war. If they want a god so much, then we will give them a god."

He raised his head and stared through the mask of the God of Vengeance and Hatred at the man beneath it. His gaze is so direct, so sharp, reaching people's hearts.

Then, he spoke slowly.

"Give them an order for me, god. Then, we can fight side by side."

——

Four hours and twenty-two minutes since the war began, a hoarse voice finally came from Rogal Dorn's communication headset.

He immediately ceased all movement, as did his brothers Ferrus Manus and Fulgrim. And if someone can look further and look at the entire Terra, they will see the same scene everywhere.

The anxious civilians stopped for the loudspeaker on the street, and the anxious nobles and high-ranking officials were ecstatically waiting for the next sentence in the communication. Countless people heard this voice.

Everyone heard the voice, even the warriors in the Webway.

La Endymion was also one of them, and his commander Constantine was also one of them. Looking behind them, even the servitor heard the voice. Even the servitor stopped moving forward.

So, what about the demons?

Of course, of course they can hear it. So they trembled, roared in fear and hatred, the killing was stopped, and the fear of meeting a natural enemy forced them to freeze.

But why? Why is this happening? Who is talking?

Later generations of scholars recorded that on this day, the day Terra was shattered, the Emperor gave a brief speech, only fifty-five words in total, but it inspired humanity for ten thousand years thereafter.

Countless people have died reciting it, and countless people have lived reciting it.

"Loyalists on Terra, warriors, subjects of the Empire."

"This is the moment."

"There is no point in escaping, no chance to retreat. There is only fighting, only fighting."

"Fight for humanity."

"Til death do us part."

I can’t write the last chapter, so I’ll return it tomorrow.

In addition, the explanations in this chapter about why Drachnion can kill and wound the Emperor are all my own forced explanations. I hope they are reasonable, but please do not regard this as an official setting.