40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 415 141. Terra (sixteen)

Sol Tarvitz swung his sword.

The muscles in his arms have become stiff and cannot recover, and there is no time to recover. This had a great impact on his fighting skills.

In the past, he could point the tip of the sword in any direction he wanted, spinning, cutting, stabbing, and slashing at will. But now, he looked like a clumsy lumberjack, wielding his sword as if he was chopping wood.

If you don’t believe it, just look at what he looks like now. The muscles were stiff, the wrists were locked, and the fingers tightly restrained the weapon, turning it into a kind of prison.

Bone, flesh and metal – one, two, three, four, five.

Five fingers.

They rested firmly on the hilt of the sword, becoming an acquired way of imprisoning the sword in his hand.

Only beginners make this mistake.

Beginners like to hold the sword with all their strength, regardless of the consequences of doing so. They try their best every time they swing their swords, regardless of whether they need to turn around or not. They like to open and close their swordsmanship, focusing on offense rather than defense, and focusing on power rather than the rotation of their feet.

Just like Saul Tarvitz now.

And he is no beginner. He has been in battle for a long time, but now he is so clumsy. Shame welled up in his heart, and he could do nothing but continue swinging his sword while sweating profusely.

His hair was wet with blood and sweat again and again, and he was covered in bruises. Good thing he's still fighting.

He brought down a humanoid demon, clumsily chopping it into pieces as if chopping wood, then used his legs to twist his waist, spinning his power sword in a circle.

The blue electric arc danced tenaciously on the sword. Something that tried to sneak up on him from behind was cut in half, and Tavitz also fell to the ground. He lost his balance and fell face down into the filthy sea of ​​blood.

For a brief moment, he didn't want to get up again. But he finally stood up again, his whole face covered in blood, and so was his armor.

The original appearance of the purple-gold paint is no longer visible. Blood is everywhere. Everything whether dried, fresh, or half-dried looks blood red.

He stumbled a few steps into the sea of ​​blood and looked around, but he didn't see anything that could be called a 'front'.

Things are no longer what they used to be.

A few hours ago, they could organize offensives, fronts, counterattacks, even dig trenches and lay traps. And they are just a bunch of beasts now, essentially, no different from them.

Maybe there are still some.

The Emperor's Son raised his sword once more—he didn't know if it was the last time.

Something broke through the darkness and rushed in front of him. No, perhaps the word rush cannot be used, but roll should be used. It rolled awkwardly past many corpses and finally stopped not far from Tavitz.

He stared at it, and it took him a moment to realize that he shouldn't have called it that. He lowered his hand, and the movement brought another wave of numbing pain. He ran over and pulled the man up.

"Thunder," he said.

"Yeah." The man dyed scarlet nodded. "Hello, Tavitz."

"Are you crazy?"

"not yet."

A piece of cold white appeared in the blood. Thunder grinned. His teeth were still white, and they were a bit too white. Tavitz saw him licking his teeth. Maybe this is why there was no blood. Dirty them.

"Me too," Tavitz said.

He lied.

"Oh, stop it, kid."

Thunder hugged him affectionately. They had only been slightly familiar with each other a few hours ago, but now they had a lifelong friendship.

"Do you think I don't know what you're hiding? Take a deep breath, this is nothing. Damn, damn, they want to kill us all so they can shit and pee in the Star Torch, but we Will drown them all in their own shit before then."

Shockingly vulgar. Tavitz thought. Maybe this is his true character?

"No, it's not." Thunder said. "It's just that I think it's a good time to talk a lot and curse a lot."

"That's true," Tavitz said. "damn it."

Lei Lei let go of his hand, bent down, and began to rummage through the pile of corpses. His sword was miraculously dragged out by him, the stump of the broken arm washed away, and his giant sword was born from it.

Thunder laughed again and roared into the misty darkness.

"Sigismund!"

A roar came from the darkness.

Thunder also roared, and he rushed in with his sword, followed closely by Tavitz, who just closed his mouth tightly and said nothing.

He was so tired that he felt like he was actually dead? He was startled by the idea.

I can't die yet. he told himself. At least not now, now I have to live.

They rushed into the darkness, and the first thing they saw was the Imperial Fist who was fighting bloody battles - perhaps the word "bloody fighting" cannot be used to describe him, because he looked like a monster born from blood.

He chopped one demon into pieces, then with a focused twist of his wrist, he killed another with still nimbleness. Tavitz actually felt envious: Why isn't he as tired as me?

This envy dissipated when he saw Sigismund's eyes.

"Sigismund!" Thunder shouted again.

Rough and wild, a group of demons saw him like this. Something shot straight down from the sky, but Thunder didn't even look at it. He just swung his sword casually and chopped them all into pieces.

The ground surged, and a group of long snake-like things straightened up, trying to seize the moment before Lei Lei could withdraw his sword and bite his throat. Tavitz saw this, so he took the lead and killed them again by chopping wood.

Thunder began to laugh and scoff.

The Emperor's Son growled at him, "Stop laughing!"

Sigismund was still roaring in the distance.

"Sorry, my bad." Thunder said as he started running.

He ran to the devil, as the demons ran to him.

Thunder is a good warrior. In fact, he may be the best 'warrior' Tavitz has ever seen. A pure warrior without any other impurities. He is the embodiment of pure rage and combat prowess, possessing an enviable focus.

Once the battle begins, all he has left is to disembowel and decapitate his enemies. Tarvitz would not admit that he was inspired by this attitude, he would never say so.

"Come on, Thunder!" he shouted.

"Shut up!" Thunder said.

They began to engage the enemy.

The first demon to die was a fat green thing. Tarvitz had no time or inclination to name them, but he did notice that they had color.

This is really a weird joke. The ghosts rushing out of the subspace have colors on their bodies. Could it be that they can still see what each other looks like in the dark?

But, anyway, it's dead. Thunder beheaded it.

The second demon that died was a thing with twelve eyes on top of a rat's head. It is indeed not much different from a mouse. It is hunched over and trying to sneak attack from behind.

Tarvitz chopped it up, wishing he had a stove now so he could actually throw the wood in and burn it.

They rushed and killed all the way, and finally succeeded in reaching Sigismund. However, the Imperial Fist had already completed his killing. Thunder and Tavitz attracted the attention of many demons, and Sigismund gained a breathing space and more energy.

He finished what he was supposed to do seventeen seconds before they arrived, and now he was holding his sword and breathing heavily.

"You've done all the work," Thunder complained.

Sigismund said nothing.

"But we won," Tavitz said. "At least this time."

"The front is broken and we need to gather our troops." Sigismund said.

He was calmly detached. Like them, he was waist-deep in a pool of blood and surrounded by corpses, yet he could calmly give advice and judgment.

"We must unite all living forces, even if it is a servitor." He continued. "That way when we charge, he can fire from behind."

"Then what?" Lei Lei asked.

"Then he can kill at least one demon."

Sigismund drew his sword from the blood and corpse.

"Then he can prove that he did not live up to the Emperor, and did not live up to all these victims. He will be recognized, even as a servitor. I have read the myths and legends of ancient Terra. It is said that there is a soul dedicated to the warriors. The place is called the Hall of Heroes. I want him to be recognized and become one of the Heroes."

Tavitz stared at him for more than ten seconds, and then he realized that Sigismund was also crazy.

Calmness was just a facade, Sigismund was mad, just like Thunder, just like him - they were all mad.

That's why they could stand in a waist-deep pool of blood and face the cruel reality: the war has been lost, there is no one available, and the next wave of demons is coming soon. The sense of oppression in the air can prove this. And there are only three of them, and the Star Torch will be defiled.

Unworthy of the mission. Tavitz thought.

He felt the urge to cry. finally.

"I think the servitors who have survived until now have killed more than one demon, Sigismund." Thunder retorted calmly. "So they have long been heroes, or, in your words, one of the heroic spirits."

The Imperial Fists glanced at him.

"There are no more soldiers available, are there?" he asked.

"Yes." Thunder said. "All dead, I saw it with my own eyes. Something as tall as a Titan—"

He turned around, as if looking for proof of his words, a corpse as tall as a Titan. He didn't have to look for it; Tavitz could see it, lying not far behind them.

Sigismund stopped him.

"—I saw it," he said. "It broke through the line. You killed it, but you were also knocked away by it. That blow shouldn't let you stand up again, Thunder."

"But I stood up," Thunder said. "Like Saul Tarvitz, he was the first one of us to stand up."

"I'm a fucking woodcutter." The Emperor's Son suddenly spat out a curse.

They looked at each other at this statement.

Thunder laughed, Sigismund also slightly curled his lips, but Tavitz remained indifferent.

In fact, he was so angry now that he clenched his sword and said, "Now, there are only three of us left."

"That's really unfortunate news." Lei Lei said, with a strange smile on his face. "Too bad for them, we still have three of us."

"It doesn't matter." Sigismund nodded to him calmly, lowered his head, and began to tighten the chains around his wrists.

"We've done everything we can. We may not be able to hold this place, but at least we can die here. The dead have risen more than once, haven't they, Sol Tarvitz? We can live again after death. Come on, just like Thunder said-"

He raised his head, turned off his stance, and touched his forehead with the blade of his sword.

"——Victory after death."

"No, no, just say this." Thunder suddenly changed his tone and gently began to correct Sigismund. "For the sake of unity, let this be our last battle cry."

"What does it mean?" Tarvitz asked. "I've been meaning to ask you, Thunder. What does this slogan mean?"

"It's not a slogan, it's a belief." Thunder said. "The first person to shout it was your emperor, for the sake of unity. When those barbaric warlords were fighting on their own, it was he who led us up from the dust and shouted these words."

"What do you mean, your emperor?" Imperial Fist asked.

"He was my master, but he was not the emperor at that time, at least not the emperor he is now." Lei Lei said with a smile. "That's all I'll say. I heard a sound, did you hear it?"

They nodded.

Of course they can hear it.

The clicking sound had been echoing in their ears from the beginning, like the second, minute and hour hands on a clock moving together at the same moment.

This shouldn't be like this. The second hand should move sixty times to make the minute hand move once. The minutes move again sixty times before the hour hand moves once.

This is how time has run on Terra since ancient times. A minute is sixty seconds, and a natural hour is sixty minutes. But now, it changes.

One second may become a minute, and an hour may become countless seconds - time passes wildly, restlessly, and clicks continuously.

Their heartbeats changed together, and the beating frequency changed without warning. In an infinite and chaotic time, they looked into each other's eyes, and the same thunder sounded in their ears.

Then the darkness receded, the thick fog cleared, and the top of the Star Torch Hall in the Fortress began to melt. Solid metals and materials were not allowed to continue to exist, and the birth of a god should be witnessed by all.

If someone could look at the entire Terra at this moment, they would find that the dark clouds in the sky are burning, and the fighting on the ground has also stopped.

The demon dissipated in the blood light, and was dragged back into the chaos by the dead who suddenly appeared from the shadows. However, the living stared at the scarlet crown that appeared in the sky for no apparent reason, as if they were affected by something. Inspiration.

And this is not the end, this is just the beginning.

"I think it's now," Saul Tarvitz said.

"Now, which now?" asked Sigismund. He made a rare joke.

"For unity!" Thunder roared.

Above them, a battleship pushed out the black clouds.

——

Ferrus Manus looked up from the pool of blood, and a mountain of corpses collapsed from behind him.

He killed it, but he didn't care anymore. This is not the first time he has fought against a so-called giant beast. He has won every time.

That demon was extremely powerful, and its size was incomprehensible. But it is just a tool. It does not have any so-called self-awareness. Maybe it thinks it does, but that is actually just a lie.

The purpose of its existence is to kill humans and offer sacrifices to please those ugly gods. For this reason, it has thick bones, strong tendons, and a thunderous heartbeat. And that was part of the lie—a lie that Ferrus Manus debunked.

He killed it, and all the other demons.

His company commander stood beside him, Gabriel Santo's face blurred. He already had a terrifying face, but now it's even worse. Like something out of a folk ghost story. But he's not, he's the one who kills those things.

"The Primarch," said Gabriel Santo. "We still haven't contacted Lord Fulgrim."

"I know."

"I mean, we called him, got through his communicator, but he wouldn't respond to us."

"I'm afraid it's not that I don't want to, but that I can't. So," Ferus turned around and asked. "Is he fighting?"

"Yes, Primarch." Gabriel Santo nodded. "He was fighting like hell."

Ferrus Manus showed a cold smile.

"Then that's enough. He lived up to the armor I found for him, that's enough."

"I remember that you have been making that armor for a long time."

"I came here, Gabriel. Don't contradict me at this time."

"I'm afraid I won't have a chance in the future." Gabriel Santo shrugged. "after all--"

Ferrus shook his head, interrupting at the approaching shadow.

"--I know."

He did know, because the great shadow had fallen. A huge warship, billowing black smoke, fell from the sky, but it looked like an evil ghost rushing out of hell. It was on fire, and steel and flames produced a wonderful fusion reaction.

Ferrus Manus looked up at the ship, seeing everything clearly with the primarch's extraordinary vision.

For example, the eerie bow image, the eight-pointed star mark on the ship, or the densely packed inscriptions all over the ship. Every word seems to be carved by a knife blade.

revenge.

The ship was the Vengeful Spirit, and it was now ramming headlong into Terra. Its hull caught fire from the friction, and it blocked the sky for all to see. Its prow looks like a gloomy black-robed ghost with a scarlet crown on his head.

At the fifth minute of the twenty-fifth hour, the Spirit of Vengeance descended upon Terra.

It became part of Terra.

What thought it was Horus Lupercal laughed loudly in his court.

The Emperor raised his hand.

"Kill it," he commanded, begged, growling in pain, blood pouring from his throat. "Kill it, be sure to kill it."

The god nodded indifferently.