40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 664 46. Interlude: Burning Camas (2)

Khalil Lohars once lived by one principle - use the blade to solve everything.

And this is nothing to boast about. After all, this rule is too stupid. If killing to stop killing can solve everything, then Camas will never fall into the flames of war.

But if someone wants to find out the reason and why he adhered to this rule so firmly in the past, that person will probably find a surprising answer after a long search: This is just because of Khalil Loha Erls had no choice.

He does not understand the depth of strategy, does not understand how to control people's hearts, control government affairs, and does not understand how to turn a ruins from scratch into a prosperous and progressive city.

Then, there is no choice but to kill. Apart from this, what else can be done? Is it difficult to learn it from scratch? It would have been possible, but they didn't have the time - there was so much going on.

The four words "lack of time" were like a sharp sword lying across the heads of all those who could see through the fog during the Great Crusade, showing them an infinite cold light. Under the threat of this sharp sword, even the emperor must choose to compromise in many places.

But, what now?

Khalil pulled out his right hand.

The chest of a beast was torn apart like this. It whined and tried to struggle but was unable to exert force. Its limbs had been cut into pieces, and it was obvious that a butcher had patiently and carefully dismembered it.

Its sticky blood and splashing flesh were scattered around the scorched earth. It should have penetrated into the earth, but it was restrained by some shadows like living creatures and could not sink.

Khalil leaned down, looked at its only remaining eye, and suddenly inserted his right hand deeply into its chest again. He groped about, ignoring the struggles of the hairy, winged, lion-headed monster, and just went about his work.

Not long after, he took out a turbid pale pink gemstone from his chest. Khalil frowned, raised his right hand, and looked at the sky full of artillery fire in Camas for a few seconds.

A cold snort came from within his shadow.

"The beast is betting big, Khalil."

Khalil shook his head, held the gem in his palm, turned around and jumped down the huge hill made of corpses, sliding all the way down to a trench filled with corpses at a speed that was unexplainable.

"What? You have a different opinion?"

"I don't think they are gambling. The fall of Conrad Camas is a foregone conclusion. Although Leon's pre-arranged fleet can easily destroy the enemy's warships, Chaos pollution has already spread on Camas. ”

"Soon, the surviving people in this world will be taken away from their homeland. Perhaps a few centuries later, when the purification is over, Camas can be redeveloped, but that has nothing to do with them now. "

Walking in the trench with soft soil at an unstoppable speed, Khalil said these words with a calm expression, completely ignoring the bursts of coldness coming from the shadow - until he reached the end of the trench half a second later.

This place looks like it has been bombed and has been changed beyond recognition. It can only be judged by the way behind it that it was once part of a trench.

"But appropriate revenge is also necessary." He said again, there was no warmth in his breath. "How about cutting off their outstretched claws, Konrad?"

"A pleasure to oblige, Father."

The coldness subsided, and Khalil squatted down and began to dig into the ground with his hands. Compared with his previous killings, his movements were no longer fast, and even seemed gentle.

The dirt and gravel were removed together, and the Empire's unique cheap engineering artifacts also accounted for a large part of it. Soon, a half-destroyed Chimera chariot was revealed again.

Khalil stretched out his hand to hold the exposed steel beam at its front end, and the shadows under his feet clung to it like living creatures. Then, with just a slight movement of his hand, he lifted the chariot out of the ground and put it aside.

His movements were already very gentle, but for the occupants inside, it was like experiencing an earthquake all over again, and several shouts came from it.

Khalil tilted his head and turned sideways, taking a step to the left, dodging several beams of light emitted from the internal gaps of the chariot by a hair's breadth, and then knocked on the vehicle body very politely.

"Ceasefire, soldiers. This is Inquisitor Khalil Lohars. On behalf of the Inquisition, I would like to issue a call to combatants in this Chimera. Please report to me within one minute. Violators will be punished. punish."

He gave a one-minute time limit, and the soldiers moved much faster. Twelve seconds after he finished speaking, the Chimera's dented car door was torn apart by several knives.

Only seven soldiers walked out, covered in blood and bruised. The leader was a bearded man. As soon as he stood up straight, he saluted Khalil, but his face showed suspicion.

"Sir, you don't look like a judge, do you? Where are your followers? Where are the others? We have been buried for almost an hour. You can't dig us out single-handedly. Right?"

Khalil nodded to him, then pulled up the Sky Eagle emblem and the Inquisition emblem from his neck and showed it to the man, which initially dispelled his suspicions.

However, this was not enough, so he raised his right hand again and imitated while recalling the expressions of the priests on Leon El'Jonson's ship when they prayed on weekdays.

I saw him closing his eyes, holding the Sky Eagle emblem with his right hand, and seemingly praising the Emperor very devoutly: "May His glory soothe your bodies and minds, and regain your courage, soldiers."

Bursts of golden light - or disguised golden light - erupted from Eagle Emblem's eyes and fell on the shoulders of the soldiers, healing their injuries before they knelt down, shed tears and trembled.

Soon, bursts of fanatical atmosphere surged among the remaining soldiers. The soldier who had doubted Khalil before was the first to stand at attention and salute, and reported his name and rank.

"Gerhart, sir, corporal of the 11th company of the 6th Armored Regiment of the Camas Defense Force."

"Nice to meet you, Corporal, but don't get too excited. Our first goal is not to rush back to the battlefield. Soldiers, is there anything you need in the car? No? Very good, come with me. By the Emperor's command Name, we have something important to do.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and led this small team on a road completely opposite to the war front line. This team was too small to be relevant to the entire war in Camas, but things soon changed.

Just two hours later, the number of people in the team changed from eight to 469. At the same time, their route also quietly reversed. Four and a half hours later, as it was getting dark, there were enough soldiers to be reorganized into an entire infantry regiment and two armored companies, but this was still not the end.

At 11:53 in the evening, the war command headquarters on the Kamas space station received a communication signal from a position that had been confirmed as 'lost' three hours after the war began.

Pral Fallin, then the supreme commander of the Camas Defense Forces, personally picked up the signal before anyone else, without even giving it time to connect to the public channel. He got the news and was very excited about it.

After hanging up the communication, the red-eyed marshal immediately roared in his temporary headquarters.

"Send out all our fighter planes! Bring all the ammunition and go to this coordinate point for bombing!"

"But, sir?"

His aide-de-camp immediately questioned it, and other senior officers shared the same look. Pullar ignored them, but raced to the command podium and began to issue manual orders with his highest authority. He even used the last remaining ammunition in the space station's weapon array.

Just as gunfire suddenly flashed outside the window, the vacuum was illuminated like daylight. Several gunboats rushed past, and a huge monster belonging to the Dark Angels drove murderously to the other side of the space station, chasing down some fleeing Ten Thousand Eyes war gang. ship.

The face of the marshal himself was revealed to be extremely ferocious in the flames of war.

"Our troops that were scattered during the day were reorganized and four positions east of the Dutton River were recaptured."

He issued orders and explained in a low voice, looking focused and irritable.

"It was an inquisitor who did it. The Emperor is above me. No matter what he planned to do when he came to Camas before this, I will definitely give him a medal, regardless of whether he lives or dies after the battle. Adjutant, come here!" "

His adjutant rushed to his side with unparalleled tacit understanding, took over from him and began to operate the command platform.

"Pass me an order to dispatch the 3rd Armored Regiment, the 5th Armored Regiment, the 2nd Artillery Regiment, and the 11th and 14th Infantry Regiments. Let them set off from the western front position and go to the coordinate point to support the position."

"I only give them two hours, and they must do everything possible to get to the coordinate point. Do you understand? The air strikes are not allowed to stop until support arrives! We must contain those chaotic scum at both ends of the Dudon River. !”

"Understood, sir."

The adjutant carried out all his orders in an orderly manner. The communication network built by the battleship cluster and the Camas underground facilities was indestructible. Even the advent of Chaos could not completely destroy it.

The order from the marshal himself was clearly transmitted to the ground, but that was not the end, as the adjutant knew it. He raised his head and looked at Pullar, only to find that the gray-haired old marshal who had worked with him for twenty years was actually smiling.

"I know what you want to ask, Fix." The old marshal said in a low voice. "But don't worry yet, those traitors haven't reached the ground yet. Tell the gentlemen of the Knights, I guarantee with my life that now is still not a suitable time for them to land."

"Are you still going to keep them on standby?"

"This is my right."

The old marshal narrowed his eyes and answered like this, his expression suddenly becoming extremely cold.

His adjutant raised his left hand and made a gesture, indicating that he had connected the marshal to a new communication channel - at the same time, on the bridge of the Blade of Reason, Chapter Commander Raphael clearly understood Chu, clearly heard his voice.

"The Lion has personally entrusted this responsibility to me. I am the commander-in-chief - I will bear all responsibility for this, but if anyone dares to disobey, they will be immediately declared a traitor."

"I respect your will, Marshal Pral."

The Chapter Leader replied calmly and raised his left hand slightly to stop the anxious Dark Angels. They were all armed and murderous, and they just wanted to set foot on Camas immediately. Only Raphael himself remained motionless and extremely calm.

He turned his head, looked at his brothers, and said word by word: "We will wait, my lord, until you think the time is right."

The old marshal laughed and hung up the communication.

——

Khalil reached out his hand and took himself to the top of the trench in a mortal way. He changed his clothes and took out a short uniform of the Defense Force from the crate. The emblem of the Inquisition was still hanging on his chest, and the emblem of the Sky Eagle was wrapped around his right hand.

The blood that had dyed his whole body red disappeared, replaced by the original paleness. His face was blurred, but his eyes were shining, which could be seen clearly by everyone crowded in the trenches, positions and all directions.

Khalil looked around, then raised his right hand high, and golden light flashed. Compared with the dark black above their heads, this light was insignificant, but what about the people who were staring at this glory?

They focused their attention and stared at it intently.

Khalil spoke slowly.

"The Emperor is with us."

He only said this sentence, and his voice was extremely clear, and it was clearly transmitted to everyone's ears. However, it was not known whether it was a coincidence or not, but right after this sentence, the sky that was as dark as a curtain was torn apart by a sudden burst of light.

A huge beam of light that penetrated the sky and the earth fell from the sky, landing precisely at the far end of the position, in the turbid shadows that were surging on the other side of the Dadon River that had been submerged and piled high with corpses.

In an instant, the night became as bright as day, and countless demons and monsters disintegrated in the beam of light, making inaudible screams. They had just crossed the waves of chaos to the present world, and were about to return to the waves again.

And this was just the horn that marked the beginning of the destruction against them. Soon, even before the beam of light disappeared, hundreds of fighters, bombers and gunboats tore apart the dark fragments of the curtain, descended from the sky, and brought more destruction to the other side of the river.

The crowd surged, and an unparalleled wave of sound erupted. The gunner began to load the ammunition with great joy. The machine gunner took a deep breath and held the gun tightly. His assistant loaded the belt and told him which rounds were tracer bullets. In the tank or armored vehicle, the crew members who swore to live and die with this machine put on their helmets, and the engine roared. The soldiers of the infantry regiment rushed to the firing holes with courage and revenge.

Khalil jumped off the top of the trench and did something he had never done before - he took a light gun and loaded a new magazine, and then began to wait for the demon tide to approach.

Kamas was destined to fall, yes, there was no doubt about that, but he could do much more than just killing.

From a macro perspective, after today, no matter where the Kamas Defense Force will be transferred to according to the order, the fact that they had fought side by side with an "Inquisitor possessed by the Emperor" on the battlefield will follow each of them, and the "Emperor" will be with them in a true sense from today on.

This is what he did for the defense army, and behind the battle line of the Dadon River, the civilians who gave up going to other positions to kill and instead resisted the demon tide here and got more time to retreat can also survive more.

Old dog grows new teeth? Khalil thought with a sigh.

He picked up his gun and began to aim at the demons whose numbers did not decrease.

On a macro level, he had done everything he could, but from a micro, that is, from his subjective point of view, there was one thing that was not yet finished - the large force of the Ten Thousand Eyes War Gang had not landed on Kamas.

They did not teleport, did not airdrop, and did not arrive here through chaos sorcery. Since the beginning of the war, they have only done two things, one is to send many small ships to break into the encirclement of the Dark Angels.

This behavior has been determined to be deliberate, because all the wreckage of the warships that fell into the atmosphere of Kamas created an endless and continuous chaos demon tide at the place of crash.

The second thing is to avoid. Their main force, those dirty warships that were stolen and disappeared, did not engage in direct combat with the Dark Angels, and they remained indifferent no matter how the Knights mocked and insulted them through the communication.

It was unheard of to fight a void naval battle to this extent. Combined with what they had done in the past, it was hard not to suspect that they actually had a wide range of plans.

But it doesn't matter, Khalil thought, and pulled the trigger. A beam shot out from the muzzle, accurately hitting a flying bird and burning it into minced meat.

When they can't hold back and reach the ground of Kamas, they will find me here.

He smiled and pulled the trigger.