40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 476 197. Terra (fifty-two, two messengers, one gem)

Orpeson gripped his gun and leaped into hell—not metaphorically or exaggeratedly, but literal hell.

The air is filled with the smell of sulfur, and the high temperature is everywhere, scorching everyone who tries to pass here. The ground looks rough red at first glance, but it is not.

They are mountains of corpses and seas of blood composed of corpses stacked one after another.

Constantin Waldo followed closely behind him, and the position of the guide had quietly changed. Unknowingly, the Custodian Marshal seemed to have regarded Orr as the one giving orders - and the veteran was not satisfied with this.

The mission is very simple at first. he thinks. But I just went to find four people on a bridge. Even if one of them has a really long name, I can call him with only two words.

Just as he was thinking this, he couldn't help but laugh.

It's always like this, Orr thought helplessly. As long as you do things behind that person, this kind of development will definitely happen.

It was like an uprising. Orr still remembered that at the beginning, the man just said that they were going to save two people in prison. As a result, when Orr came to his senses, they had already killed the biggest man in the area. The slave owner was hung at the city gate.

Orr asked him at the time what was going on, and the man said lightly: "We just did what we should do."

Yes, that's the kind of tone. This kind of ungrateful, taken-for-granted tone is really disgusting.

Orr stopped in front of a boiling and burning lake. It is not a sea of ​​fire such as magma, but a large area of ​​burning grease, with broken limbs floating in it, and the skin is gradually turning black in the high temperature.

Some human-like but not human-like shadows were walking through the grease, stirring the grease with their slender, blade-like arms.

"We have to take a detour." Constantine Waldo said immediately.

Orr nodded and agreed with his words - this was certainly not the first time they had encountered these things that were neither human nor demons during this long walk.

They were the creations of madness that had taken over Horus Luperkar's skin, and the veteran could not understand at all how it had created such a new race. They are not inanimate beings, and they do not have that special stench on their bodies, but they are definitely not human either.

"Olanez, we have to take a detour." Waldo said again, his voice very serious. "Maybe we can kill them in another place, but not here. Even if we pass by the lake, we will probably be attacked by them."

"First of all, Lord Waldo, I ask you not to call me that." Orr replied without looking up. "Secondly."

He reached out and picked up the gem. Among the blood-stained dark green uniforms, the faint light it radiated finally became a little more obvious. The Imperial Guard frowned, but quickly relaxed.

"If that is his wish," he said firmly, raising the Spear of the Sun in his hand.

They resumed their journey, choosing to walk around the right side of the lake. True to Waldo's words, those things discovered them quickly and launched an attack.

They ran wildly out of the gurgling grease, with funny and ridiculous postures, as if they had never experienced how to run, and some even kept falling. But Orr and Waldo naturally couldn't laugh. They stood back to back and began to prepare for battle.

Soon the things were approaching them. Veins popped up in Orr's hands as he resisted the urge to vomit. He raised the empty bolter at an angle, pointing the bayonet at the sky.

A shadow walked towards him, its slender limbs and twisted body suddenly began to change. Like chewing the cud, or 'turning over', the darkness on the surface of its body gradually transformed into human flesh color and hairy skin.

When the flip was completed, a confused civilian stood in front of Orr and Waldo.

"Sir, sir?" He stammered and looked at the Forbidden Army. "Where is this place?"

Waldo refused to answer. He looked away and pointed his spear at another mother who had just turned over. She was still holding a child in her arms and her face was full of joy at the moment.

"The Emperor's bodyguard!" she told her child. "We are saved, the Emperor has sent someone to save us!"

Waldor impaled her and her child with his spear. Blood splattered, and the mother's face gradually changed from confusion, pain, and incomprehension to fear.

At the last moment before she died, she reluctantly moved her arms, trying to take the child away from the sharpness of the Sun Spear. She failed to do so, and with absolute ruthlessness the Custodes withdrew the spear and severed her head.

Behind him, Orr also held out his bayonet.

Three corpses fell at their feet.

Orr tried his best to ignore them and told himself that these were all lies. He tried to lie to himself, but failed, because he knew very well in his heart that this was not a lie or an illusion. These people were indeed real human beings.

The gem had given him a revelation not long ago.

He swung his bolter again, and the bayonet brutally slit a man's throat. The man blushed, whimpering and fell to the soles of his feet. Before he died, his face was full of fear, and a little bit of anger that he didn't even dare to show clearly.

Orr forced himself to ignore the matter, stepped back, and leaned behind Waldo. He waved his weapon in a demonstration and began to drive away the crowd: "Get away! Get away! Stay away from us!"

"They are traitors!" someone shouted. "The Emperor's bodyguard betrayed us! And that soldier! He betrayed us too!"

"Traitor!" A woman cursed and rushed towards Orr, her face full of fearless courage. "How dare you do such a thing?!"

Orr knocked her to the ground with the butt of his gun, then stepped back, avoiding the woman's hands trying to grab his trousers.

Behind him, Constantine Valdor waved his spear wordlessly. Compared to Orr, his methods were much crueler. Anyone who dared to get close would be killed.

They began to move forward slowly in the crowd, but the curses never stopped. Not only that, there were already people in the crowd who were ready to make a move.

Orr saw clearly, he understood what was going to happen next, so he was extremely anxious.

"We must leave quickly, Waldo," Orr whispered.

"I know," the Custodian said.

He did know that as he increased the pace of his killing, more fell to his spear. Of course Orr didn't want to see this kind of thing, but what could he do?

They could only run away, and there was no way to even explain to these people. They've tried it, and it doesn't work at all. You can't use strong methods to calm them down. As long as there is physical contact, those damn black shadows will come back in an instant.

Then, they will spread along the contacting limbs at an extremely fast speed, and can completely wrap up a person in less than half a second - Orr was 'preyed' like this once.

If Waldo hadn't reacted quickly and used the Spear of the Sun to cut through the black shadow and pull him out, the consequences would have been disastrous.

Orr can probably guess his fate.

He walked in silence, not reacting to the overwhelming curses and hatred. He had no choice but to wrap himself up with this silent face. He knew it, and so did Constantin Waldo

Fortunately, I was never a hero. Orr thought mockingly.

About ten minutes later, they left this hell of fire and stepped into the darkness again.

It's always like this, before reaching the next hell, you always have to pass through this small area of ​​darkness that comes from nowhere. Orr didn't know what the principle was, and he didn't bother to care. Darkness is darkness, it is better than no chance to breathe.

He began to take deep breaths, and the hands holding the gun had lost all feeling.

"We will meet more." Constantine Waldo said calmly. "This is a trap carefully prepared by the monster for us. It will not stop unless we die or are assimilated by those things."

Orr didn't speak. He was so tired that he didn't know how to answer Waldo's words that tried to start a discussion. It has become difficult to remain rational, let alone use them to think.

The veteran closed his eyes tightly, filled with pain. He walked numbly forward, and not long after, his closed eyes felt a burst of light. He opened his eyes, but he didn't see any more nightmare scenes.

At this moment, the scene before him looked like a wasteland. The sky was so gray that it almost looked like the center of the eye of a storm. Orr moved his sight slowly and saw a blurry black spot at the end of his sight.

"There's something different here." Waldo said beside him.

The Forbidden Army finally showed some doubts at this moment, and he seemed to be unable to believe that they actually left the trap like this - but both he and Orr could actually detect the subtle differences. The most obvious one is the relaxed air.

When they were still walking in hell, the air was very heavy, almost so heavy that it could be said to crush people to death. Despite this, Orr still did not relax his vigilance.

He couldn't see the specific situation of that struggle. Although any change in the image probably meant that the battle between the Lord of Humanity and the monster had entered a new stage, the power of chaos had always been capricious and good at deception.

What if this is another trap?

"Can you see that thing?" Orr raised his gun, pointed at the blurry black dot at the end of the horizon, and asked Waldo.

"That's a tree," said the Marshal of the Imperial Guard. "Probably so"

There was actually a little hesitation in his voice.

Orr frowned, thought for a moment, and finally took steps and started heading in that direction. There was no turning back for them, and it was an extremely stupid idea to stop where they were and rest.

Therefore, no matter what lies ahead, they have no second choice.

The ground in the wasteland was bare, there was not even soil to speak of, and there were rocks everywhere. The gloomy light danced continuously, refracting some distracting illusions in the air.

They have no specific image, just some vague, beating shadows. Some of them even blocked their way by chance. Orr approached them cautiously and did not pass by rashly. Instead, he observed them first.

He didn't get any results. Even if the distance was close, the illusions were still blurry and had no distinguishing value.

So Orr turned his head and nodded to Waldo. The Marshal of the Forbidden Army stepped forward and gently thrust out the spear in his hand.

As if destined, or had been waiting for a long time, a beam of golden lightning immediately fell from the sky and struck in front of them.

The bright light forced Orr to close his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, the ground in front of them had been completely cracked, huge scars were exposed on the stone ground of the wasteland, and those illusions had disappeared.

Waldo was fine, he dodged the lightning with superhuman reaction speed, and even still had time to get back behind Orr.

Green smoke rises slowly, spreading from the cracks in the earth and floating into the sky. They looked down and saw countless demons twisting and dancing in it, but they did not dare to appear due to the majesty of lightning.

Orr clenched the gem on his chest reflexively.

"He is helping us, but he no longer has the time to take care of us while doing this." The veteran said in a low voice. "Looks like we're on the right track."

He looked at Waldo, who wordlessly retracted his spear and used it to support his body, like a dying old man - what kind of suffering did he have to go through to make him so exhausted?

Orr pursed his lips and actually walked closer to him, patting Waldo's arm armor with the butt of his gun as if to comfort him.

"Let's move on," he said.

——

Cassidorius panted and stretched out his right hand towards the top of the cliff.

The cold and wet mist was spreading below him, and the wind howled, making a terrifying sound among the cliffs. Half a second later, his hand was held, and a huge force came from above him, pulling him up.

Van Cleef nodded to him and completed the communication with a brief courtesy.

Above them, the sky was playing out the wonderful scene of day and night. The moon and stars still hung high in the sky, and the sun had not yet emerged from the far horizon, but its radiance had penetrated the clouds with a mesmerizing and announcing brilliance.

Sidorius knew that in a short time the sun would fully rise. And the mountain they were on was just enough to get a glimpse of its elegance - of course, this was not the most important thing.

"How is it?" Van Cleef asked.

This is just a routine inquiry.

Cassidorius lowered his head numbly and looked at his chest.

Because he was wearing power armor, he couldn't take out the gem directly to observe its condition. Fortunately, the priest who designed the power armor for him had obviously considered this matter. He designed a small peeking window and placed it on the neck guard of the armor.

As long as Cassidorius lowered his head, he could judge the color of the gem from the color of the hard crystal inserted into the viewing window.

At this moment, it is emitting bright golden light.

Cassidorius was stunned for a long time before he realized what this meant.

Finally, finally.

The descendant of the Delkunas family suddenly fell to his knees as if he had lost all his strength. He covered his cheeks with his hands, and after a while, tears overflowed from his fingers and fell vertically along his gloves.

Van Cleef did not bother him, but slowly took off his helmet and threw it to the ground. The sound of metal hitting the ground was extremely dull, almost sounding like a war drum, which could be heard far away on the cliff.

Before the sound disappeared, Van Cleef had already grasped his chain sword - the motor roared for a moment, and the saw teeth accurately hit a tall figure hidden in the mist.

It screamed and fell under the first company commander. It's not a demon or anything, just a spirit that only haunts the early morning fog.

They are easily attracted to the tears of sad people and, if not stopped, will attach themselves to those people and gradually devour their life force. Such harsh hunting conditions allowed these creatures to exist for only a few hundred years before becoming extinct.

What a coincidence is that the time they are living in right now happens to be an era when their tribe is still relatively complete.

The first company commander continued to swing his sword with concentration, without any hesitation, and soon completely killed this small group of monsters, which could be regarded as contributing to their demise in this illusory history.

Cassidorius also recovered at this time. He stood up, every muscle on his face was twitching. The alternation of ecstasy and great sorrow allows people to directly see the suffering that this soul has suffered without saying anything.

He walked forward in three steps and two steps at a time. He was rushing towards the end of the task in order to find relief, but he suddenly stopped. The appearance of stopping in place was strange and sudden, but Van Cleef was not surprised.

Cassidorius turned to look at him at this moment, his expression gradually changed from ferocious to calm.

"It can't be so easy," he said, his voice soft as a whisper, making it unclear whether he was talking to Van Cleef or to himself.

"How could it end like this? Where is that thing? Where is it?"

Van Cleef did not answer, but just stepped forward, cutting through the mist like a silent sword. His footsteps hit the ground silently, but his armor began to buzz.

He and Cassidorius walked for countless years in the repetitive cycle of human history.

At first, the scenery they experienced could be considered normal. However, with the appearance of that monster, everything began to change towards the worst part, like walking in a nightmare. Even if there is nothing around, you still have to worry about whether the trees will become what they are.

Van Cleef accepted this wholeheartedly, and it would be unusual for him not to. In a sense, he's more of a monster than that thing.

But Cassidorius obviously couldn't do that. He was just a mortal, and his mind had a threshold of tolerance - as long as it exceeded this value, he would go crazy. In fact, he had switched back and forth between sobriety and madness many times.

Van Cleef didn't comment on this, and he had no reason to ask too much of Cassidorius. No matter how tough the mind of a mortal is, it can't bear such torture after all. But he had to bear it, he had no choice.

He went crazy and woke up, woke up and went crazy again. His mind was forged by suffering in endless years and became a piece of twisted steel.

For Cassidorius Delkunas now, the clear boundary between madness and sobriety has completely disappeared. He is always in madness, but also in reason.

Otherwise, how did he notice the only blind spot under great joy and sorrow?

Van Cleef calmly raised the sword with one hand and slashed horizontally. The chainsaw sword cut through the empty air, but blood suddenly gushed out.

A non-existent thing was hurt here by him, and the flames of anger rose. The face of the first captain began to break with unprecedented strength and speed.

Behind him, Cassidorius stumbled over. The wind gradually rose, and the world suddenly underwent an indescribable change at this moment.

There was still nothing in front of Van Cleef, but he knew that there was already a crazy thing standing in front of him.

The first captain could see its outline, but only a corner. Its shape was very huge and very crazy.

It was a collection of all the darkness that Cassidorius had endured as a messenger in the endless time in the past, a monster that was born to be opposed to him, and a conspiracy carefully designed by Chaos. It was a thorn in the flesh, it always chased after them, never gave up, never stopped.

Now, it blocked their last way to complete the mission.

Van Cleef raised his head slightly and glanced at the sky. The sun had not yet risen, and the sky was already spreading gold.

This was some kind of answer, or promise.

"You can't kill me unless you kill him." The monster gradually took shape, becoming solid and real. Van Cleef looked at it coldly, shook his head indifferently, and then raised his sword.

In the next five minutes, he killed it 1,555 times. However, as it said, it came back from the other side of the darkness again and again, blocking Van Cleef and Cassidorius.

It didn't even bother to resist.

"I really can't fight you, the one favored by God. But I don't need violence. I am his opposite, his opposite, the endless torture that a mortal has endured in the eternal years. If he doesn't die, I won't die, and you can't pass. But if he dies, your mission will also fail."

"Carry my body forward!" Cassidorius suddenly roared. "Don't be deceived by this thing, come back and kill me, Van Cleef! It's the same no matter who sends this gem!"

Van Cleef shook his head.

"It's not a gem, so it can't be speculated by common sense." He said calmly. "Don't you realize its nature, Cassidorius?" He raised his sword and pointed at the vague and huge figure. "It is the echo of the endless darkness you have endured, but have we only endured darkness along the way? Our rule is to try not to communicate with others, and we did not abide by it. So, do you remember how many people we have traveled with?" "The Oriental who tried to save everything, the young man who was burned at the stake by religion, the thin woman who stood between her mother and the beast. You are not only a messenger, but also a witness. We measured the history of mankind with our feet, and you, Cassidorius--" He turned his head slightly, and his face suddenly broke at this moment. "-How many heroes have you seen?" The flames rose, and the wind blew. The cliffs began to change, the earth trembled and shifted, and then was baptized by artillery fire from nowhere, until it became a gloomy wasteland. The sky was changing, day and night were changing, and heavy rain was falling. A huge scarlet eye slowly emerged from behind the gloomy rain cloud.

The beast standing in front of Van Cleef lowered its back and paid tribute to the owner of the eye. It muttered words like "master" and its body was trembling, as if it was afraid.

Van Cleef looked up at the sky without fear. The raindrops stopped quietly, and the clouds rolled, forming a majestic but gloomy face.

The face of Horus Lupercal.

Although it only existed for a short moment and was completely dispelled by the golden lightning, Van Cleef was sure that he had found them.

This was certainly not good news, and Van Cleef no longer hesitated. He raised his sword again, and the flames of anger rose from his eyes, gradually enveloping his whole body.

Suddenly, a soft whisper sounded in the air. Cassidorius listened unconsciously and found that it was actually a kind of praise, a religious hymn. Before he had time to think about what this phenomenon meant, he felt a real fear rising from the depths of his bones. The messenger looked up suddenly and found that Van Cleef was no longer there. Instead, a huge demon stood in his place.

It was very tall, at least ten meters high, and in its right hand was a ferocious giant sword wrapped with black lightning. It was wearing broken armor, with multiple chains wrapped around it, leaving the dark red ferocious armor on its body. There are huge spiral-shaped horns on the top of the head, and the white hair on the head is like hair on the temples, fluttering in the strong wind.

The demon spoke slowly - or rather, swore.

"I ask you to witness." It raised its sword and its voice was extremely deep.

who? Who witnesses?

The question flashed through Cassidorius's mind, but he failed to grasp it. He had temporarily lost the ability to think and could only passively accept these things, like a safe that could only be entered but not exited. Then, a cold feeling penetrated his forehead.

Instinctively, the messenger raised his head, only to find that it was snowing in the sky, dark snow.

"I will take vengeance on this beast," the demon said calmly and clearly. "I will hunt it from now on until the end of time. It will never rest, living in fear and pain. I will kill it, I will gut it, crush its bones , cut off its head and threw it into the sea."

In the sky, there was a faint flash of red.

"You can't do it—!" The beast roared in response, and for the first time there was a little fear in his voice. Although it was not obvious, it was definitely fear.

As its voice fell, the huge form began to disintegrate. Countless monsters jumped out of the void and rushed towards the demon, drowning it like a sea tide.

The earth trembled, Cassidorius fell to the ground, the sky and the earth were spinning, and the surrounding sounds were extremely noisy. Everything in front of him turned into a huge whirlpool, and everything in the past began to flow in it.

Cassidorius spit out a mouthful of blood and saw the scarlet eye again. He seemed to have a clear understanding - this was the great treason Horus Luperkar, and the traitor came to find him. He didn't know how he did it, but, but...

But I must run.

With unprecedented fear, Cassidorius stood up suddenly.

I must run, I cannot fall into his hands, this gem - he reaches for his chest - cannot fall into his hands!

A burning pain rose from his hand, and before he could do anything, Cassidorius was dragged to the ground by an incomprehensible force.

He rolled around several times in embarrassment and landed under a stone tablet. The messenger raised his head in confusion and saw a man with his eyes tightly closed. He was tied to the stone monument, and blood from unknown sources streaked across his body and fell to his feet, forming a stream.

Cassidorius stood up tremblingly - without any reason, he already understood who this man was. He walked over tremblingly as if suffering from epilepsy, wanting to rescue the man, but was ordered to stop where he was by a voice from behind.

"He thought he hid you well," the voice said casually. “He has faith in you, he sees you as that source of hope — it’s so funny.”

Cassidorius's blood began to burn in his veins.

"Turn around," the voice ordered.

He turned around and saw Horus Luperkar and the one-sided truth he was trying to reveal - what was the truth?

The truth is that this wasteland and this stone monument do not exist at all.

These images are just a metaphor, an illusory scene created by nature. They exist for only one purpose, that is, to enable mortal minds to bear it, and to enable mortal eyes to see and understand.

And Horus Luperkar had just shown him the truth.

Cassidorius saw the stars, bleeding, wailing, screaming and sickly stars, and Horus holding them in his hand.

Then he saw the Emperor.

His emperor, his shield, his sword - the emperor who was eaten until his flesh was bloody, and half of his face was already a skeleton.