Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 479 The Burning of Prospero

His small boat slid into the huge belly of the Fifteenth Legion's flagship. When Battusa Narek stepped onto the vast ground of the Light, even though he had only been exiled in the warp and reality for just a few days, he still had It's like an illusion from another world.

What greeted him was a long-haired warrior with a gloomy face but a restrained tone, and an emerald scarab hanging on his chest.

"Legion 15, Ctesias," he introduced himself, looking at him for a few seconds before continuing softly, "It's a pleasure to meet you and the truth you bring, cousin."

Narek greeted his crew members with a look as they disembarked, some cowering in fear, others eagerly disembarking, unable to endure any extra second spent in the shabby little boat.

The Sun of Thousand Dusts received them in silence - first through some psychic tests that Narek could not understand, he could only feel the seriousness of the atmosphere and the dull atmosphere passed between the Suns of Thousand Dusts. They looked worse than Narek had first thought, especially mentally. There was a certain dim... hostility there, but more of a pale despair.

"Do I need any tests?" Narek asked, spreading his hands to prove he wasn't carrying anything extra.

Ctesias looked a little strange. He stared at him, as if his eyes were going deep into the depths of his mind, exploring something that even Narek himself didn't know.

"No need." He slowly withdrew his eyes, "I want to hear your opinion on the Word Bearers. One sentence is enough."

"A bunch of lunatics."

Qianchen Zhiyang's lips seemed to twitch slightly, maybe it was a satisfied smile. "Very well, we can take you away, but we don't know where to go... Narek the Heretic."

He turned his head and nodded with one hand in the direction of the mortals. A ray of silver light passed by, and finally connected with a spiritual blue light.

The young navigator stared blankly at the light rising in his chest, and then, another person's voice sounded in his mouth.

+We are still alive. + Azak Ahriman spoke calmly, + The Word Bearers did not kill us, and neither did the Throne. +

Narek looked surprised.

The navigator's body glowed with a hazy light, he turned around and nodded towards Narek. Even though his height and body shape had not changed, Narek seemed to see a taller shadow, looming over the navigator.

The smell in the air seemed to have undergone an indiscernible change: the smoke of incense, the sweet and bitter aroma of sesame oil, and the broken smell of books after being exposed to the sun filled the hall together, with the color of crystal and the red glow of golden fire. Patterns coat this place in the immaterial realm.

Ctesias gave a curled smile and said, "You still used Amon's method, the method of the invisible one."

+It doesn't hurt,+Ahriman remains calm even if it doesn't hide his weariness,+Everyone has multiple uses, they don't have to contradict each other. +

Ctesias shrugged, "Easy to avoid the easy, Ahriman. Why did you bring this Word Bearer to us? What did they do? To you, to our father?"

+I don’t know everything, but they were once close to where I was, and I had to have a medium to talk to you. The throne is no longer a throne... +

"Have you seen it?" Ctesias took a step forward, frowning.

+ Right. The Imperial Chancellor fell beside the throne, and the person on the throne was definitely not the Emperor. +Ahriman said.

Narek shuddered at the shocking information, a chill running down his spine. He barely stabilized his mind and joined the conversation: "I think what our chief said is true, Lorgar... Lorgar Aurelion has heard the new oracle, and he has already spread the news. The content is …”

He suddenly froze and realized who he was talking to.

+Destroy Prospero. +Ahriman said.

For an extremely long second, Ctesias's expression remained still.

Then, he took a breath: "When will the news be heard?"

"According to the speed of the warp," Narek had to remind him. These surprisingly cruel words made it difficult for him to speak directly. "I'm afraid the Luna Wolves have arrived at your home planet."

+So, we have to rush back. + Ahriman said, his light flickering on and off, and the stream of emotions brought with it a pain. +Amon isn't enough to fight an entire legion, almost all the Templar Lecturers are here. Only we have any hope of saving Prospero. +

He considered it, or took a moment to pull himself out of the sudden tide of despair.

+There is still hope. +

"But your Primarch is the most powerful -"

Ctesias gave him a cold look, that look was like a bullet, precise and full of purpose. "That's enough."

Narek sighed. "I guess I made a mistake."

Ctesias then turned to Ahriman: "Where are you? How do we pick you up? And how do we return? It is precisely because there is no star torch to guide us that we come to Terra."

+ Find me and the navigator will know the direction. + Ahriman said, as if this one answer was enough to answer both questions at the same time.

+I am in the place where the Imperial Chancellor and our father sent us, a place unknown to fate, a place that could have changed the entire galaxy. Although all this has come to an end, the dream has ended, and the spiderweb that is about to be formed is broken into almost unusable threads before it is formed - but an engine is enough to make use of this helpless residue. +

"Where is that?" Ctesias asked cautiously.

+This is the web channel. The burial place of our father, Ctesias. +

Ctesias's head was slightly raised back, his neck was stiff, and even Narek felt the strong fluctuations of his etheric energy. The former Word Bearers themselves were also immersed in this sudden onslaught of information.

Then, he lowered his hands, blinked hard, and said stiffly: "Wait for the Wan Zhang Ray to find you, Ahriman. Is everyone here?"

+ They are all here, all alive. +

Ctesias looked a little unsure of what to say. He breathed out, "Then there's hope, Azak. It's like you said. Hope. We still have something."

This means you still have something to lose. Untimely, Narek thought of this.

He lowered his head, letting his dazed face hide in the shadows for the time being, and silently counted his heartbeat.

"Let's go, Battusa Narek." Ctesias reminded him, his tone seemed to soften a little. "On the way, teach us what you know. A Word Bearer is not yet easily accepted among us, and you need to be prepared."

——

The light of thunder and lightning cracked among the convoluted heavy clouds, sometimes penetrating the thick invisible fog like the roots of a giant tree, snaking into the ring-shaped protective layer covering the Grand Tizka Secret Eye Square.

In the wild storm of metal fragments, the landing craft continued to land, sometimes in complete form, sometimes exploding into orange sparks in the air, destroyed by the physical anti-aircraft platform artillery that had been maintained for many years.

There were also some aircraft that rushed straight towards the weapon platform with thick and red-hot barrels. With the intention of destruction, they turned into fragments in a large number of explosive clouds. The corpses fell in the air in the form of ugly fragments...

In front of Camille's eyes, the world turned into a blur, noisy and chaotic shadow, with various blocks of color shaking alternately. Another memoirist, Lemuel Gaumont, was holding on to her, and she was holding on to Izala. . There were howls and sobs all around, as well as desperate curses in Tizka dialect, rare curses.

A rudder-like fragment fell from the sky with a hail of fire and hit Izala at her feet. Camille pulled her away in time. The clouds in the sky became darker and darker, and a loud bang threw her into a vacuum-like quiet space. She screamed and glanced at Izala's face, and her companion's mouth opened and closed in the silence, Pushing her back, let her keep up with the pace of the soldier in front.

The evacuation of Tizca has been ongoing. Most of the time, the Iron Warriors led them to the shelter under the building. Every Thousand Dust Sun tried their best to fight outside the great Tizca. At first, their defenses were impregnable, until they were high in the sky. The black sun began to pour down the flowing invisible lava, and the blazing black wind swept in from the end of the plain with the strong smell of sulfur, burning the spiritual energy of the Thousand Dust Sun into invisible dust.

Those painful and confused cries were still lingering in Camille's ears. The psychic energy controlled by the warlocks of the 15th Legion suddenly turned into a black invisible vicious dog, biting their flesh and blood. soul. Interim Commander Amon changed tactics and called on the sons of Magnus to join the Iron Warriors in the defense of the material universe.

However, there were still painful questions flying between every flying spark and dust. She remembered that the bright eyes of those Suns of Thousand Dusts were filled with the pain of betrayal.

"Why did the emperor give the order..." Izala's voice gradually returned to Camille's perception. Camille glanced at her, and the fire and lightning in the sky were still flying behind her.

"I don't know, I can't think of it." Camille said, "I don't know what the Fifteenth Legion did, but I would rather believe..."

"Nothing was done! I know it!" Izala roared, the shadow on her face like a deep painful scar.

"How are you sure?" Lemuel asked.

"Iskandar told me, my brother told me," Izala gritted his teeth and squeezed out an unwilling roar from between his teeth, "He is in the monastery, and the only reward we get is The death of the Primarch, and now we have to sacrifice our homeland?"

They walked through what was once a long street. The geometric carpet of aqua and light blue that was laid on the ground in summer was once brightly illuminated by the sun, but this familiar road now only makes them feel tired and dilapidated.

Smoke and fire flickered in the sky. Suddenly, half of the sky collapsed in an instant. Roiling mechanical fragments and rumbling artillery fire sounded horrifyingly at close range, smashing the swaying tree trunks and causing the trees to fall into the landscape lake with carbonized cracks. A man around them fell, half his chest covered in blood, his children looked around in panic, and the Iron Warriors shouted in the distance: "Hurry up, citizens!"

"Collapsed!" Izala said, and a control tower beside the Secret Eye Square on the skyline collapsed under the load, which meant that part of Prospero's defense line had been torn apart, and the firepower of the Moon Wolf began to truly touch the light. On the land of the city, the situation around them was even more chaotic. They seemed to be able to hear the howling of wolves, faintly heard among the shooting, shouting and footsteps.

Auxiliaries appeared in the blink of an eye among the fallen trees and low buildings, some trained by the Luna Wolves, some their own. There were chaotic shots and explosions of hand cannons everywhere. Camille looked at Lemuel's face and was horrified to find that the latter's left ear had been sliced ​​off by flying shrapnel, and he had no time to even notice.

The Luna Wolves' attack was comprehensive and even desperate. They rushed toward the white foam at the top of Tizka's waves, preferring to smash into pieces on the protective net.

More than 100,000 Astartes... faced 30,000 Iron Warriors and roughly the same number of Thousand Dust Suns... However, it was difficult to mobilize a large force of the 15th Legion, and not all the equipment carried by the Iron Warriors were Born to fight, even for defense... The volcanic ash-like smoke has covered the entire sky, and the painted pottery statue was smashed in front of Camille.

Camille could already see some red-armored warriors fighting within sight. From a distance, they looked like raspberry cans that had been suddenly smashed. The fragments of the outer armor were scattered in the mud together with the sticky contents. Grenades suddenly flew out of the alley, causing chaos everywhere with cracks, sudden bursts of fire, sudden flashes of laser beams and burning explosive bombs.

The Luna Wolves' attack was probably not as orderly and efficient as expected, Camille thought wildly, or prayed, because Frix was injured in exchange for Sejanus' command... The Iron Warriors are still on the front line Fighting, but the crescent moon cannot afford to be seriously injured, life or death is uncertain.

The Luna Wolves, a legion that lost its leader for the second time - no, there was still a glimmer of hope, because Sejanus was sealed on the operating table under the arrangement of the Fifteenth Legion. It was this glimmer of hope that made Shadow Wolf Yue Canglang's despair and pain became more sticky and unbreakable——

Maybe this is the reward they deserve for the destruction they brought, Camille thought bitterly, even if she knew her hatred should not be directed at a knife in the hands of the throne - why not!

Look what they did to Prospero! Look! The light above the fire phoenix pyramid went out, and the bricks rolled down, rolling all over the floor, like the heads of the dead! She breathed in the hot, smelly air, and a bronze pillar not far away crashed down, splashing a pool of boiling water burning with black oil.

A clothing store was blasted open by the air current in front of them. The colorful silks and satins were rolled into ironic buntings under the gray and black sky. Camille shook them off. A young man stretched out his hand towards the sky, trying to catch some flying rags to use as a bandage as a last resort. He cried as he recited a prayer dedicated to the Emperor. "Your throne!" He looked crazy.

"How will this end?" Lemuel said. He finally noticed his ears and covered them with his hands in disbelief. The blood instantly covered the sleeves of his gray coat. "Until we shed the last drop of blood?" "

No one answered him.