Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 503 Old Cadia

This was not the first time Fulgrim knew that the terrible eye was hanging not far above Medusa.

The warnings and perceptions of the Navigator family and the Astropathic Choir were unforgettable. The sharp-minded mortals listened to the distant noises on the other side of the world from the universe. On the brightest days of the Astronomican, there was silence here. Only in the occasional warp storm, the noisy whistles of the storm and the terrible wailing would echo behind the terrible waves of the vast world.

However, whenever they passed near Medusa - which was not so rare for the Emperor's Children, when they tried to bypass the swirling warp currents in a region that encompassed hundreds of star systems, the resounding noises and the howling of the warp entities here were so loud that even Fulgrim himself could vaguely hear a trace of it.

There were even times when he wondered if there was something in this storm, calling out his and Ferrus' names.

He had asked the psychically proficient Magnus about this, and the latter used this point to re-emphasize the filth and danger of the truth of the warp.

"I think this is a newly formed area." Magnus told him. "I have not seen this place in the tome. The star maps left by the old night did not mark this dangerous place... You know they like to draw strange creatures and shipwrecks on the sea charts... I have not heard of the ancient rumors about the natives with purple eyes here, although there is such a thing in the report given by Aurelion... But don't touch it, Fulgrim, no matter what it tells you."

Now he had to step into it.

No, not really into the inside of the eye of the storm. He just found something that violated astronomical common sense, that is, the closer he got to the core of the secret satellite above Medusa, the closer he was to the eye - the eye in the sky.

The air around him gradually broke at the edge of darkness. Fulgrim held the flaming sword tightly with a solemn expression, trying to disperse some enemies in the shadows, until he found that it was the endless storm itself that intended to peel off the shell of his soul. This eye wanted him to turn into another kind of thing to be eaten, a cluster of crushed fragments.

And he had to carefully resist all this, focusing on the dark and shiny stone slabs under his feet in the real world, and the glittering and flowing dark green light fractals. The clear perception brought by these entities was also one of the reasons why he dared to move forward.

If he could no longer reach the reality, then he would never move forward rashly.

Where is Ferrus Manus? Fulgrim couldn't help but think so. In the firelight in his heart, he clearly saw Ferrus somewhere in front of him, reflecting a very clear silhouette, still moving forward. But where is he?

What exactly did he experience? Is the experience of the Iron Hands in the outside world related to him? Or rather...

He erased a worrying conjecture, unwilling to delve into whether Ferrus was the solution to the incident or the cause of Medusa's current situation. Then, he heard the signal of the built-in sound array communication in the armor automatically start to receive, and a voice came.

A voice that was very familiar to him, but could not make him feel at ease.

"Fulgrim?" A mechanically synthesized voice said, and the tone that called his name was Ferrus's.

Fulgrim did not answer for a while, and the voice spiraled away in the depths of the world. His face became heavier, and the color of the light flowing on the surrounding walls became darker, gradually deviating to deep purple, and the mist condensed like flowing clouds.

He stopped and looked at the world around him: the thick fog surged towards him like delirious graffiti, and it was permeated with scarlet threads. Tiaras of amethyst and necklaces of turquoise tinkled at his feet, faceted with perfection, and the skill of human artisans could not have imitated even the smallest of these delicate jewels.

Fulgrim's boots crushed the gems beneath his feet with ease. This was not what he cared about.

"Ferus?" he whispered back, swallowing.

No one responded.

A drop of water brushed against his cheek, and he heard the deep winds surge cold and wet from below. Suddenly, he smelled the steam of the river, rising and rising, floating and curling to the beat of distant drums, mixed with small prayers and chants, yes, he heard the low chants of another world, those languages ​​he knew...

It was half Colchis, half Medusa. Two grammars and vocabulary mixed together, but neither of them surprised and confused the Phoenix.

What is this? Phoenix said to himself.

The golden-red fire burning on the flaming sword leaped up, illuminating a larger area.

He saw a stone road inside the mountain. The chisel marks inside looked rough and primitive. Some metal ornaments collided with rust, and half of the road collapsed into the underground river below.

Metal dust and stone chips with the smell of frankincense were scattered everywhere. Many collapsed worship objects were thrown casually beside the road. Some were crosses woven with copper wire, or double-headed eagles simply polished out of stone. In addition, there were some instruments that were enough to represent fertility worship, some entangled wooden carvings, which made Fulgrim simply unable to bear to look at.

He lowered his head and realized that he was still standing on the solid and flat obsidian ground of the Medusa satellite. But taking another step forward, the ground suddenly transitioned to the ancient stone slabs deep in the cave, covered with a layer of damp Water mist.

This means that going deeper - to the realm of unreality, at least there must not be Medusa. Fulgrim thought calmly... And that's probably where Ferrus Manus is.

Just in front of him, he saw an old woman wearing coarse clothes, kneeling in the shadow of the roadside, as if floating in the darkness. When Fulgrim noticed her, she looked up at him, her purple eyes staring blankly at the glowing steel of his cave, the wrinkles moving into an expression of confusion.

"Are you the Iron Hand?" the old woman said leisurely in the language of Medusa, her voice as hoarse as a late-flying crow. "Are you the Iron Hand?"

Fulgrim stretched out his sword a little and stared at the flames burning in the darkness of the other half of the world: it was still blazing and hot, and the light and shadow were swaying like dazzling sunlight, but it was enough to make many tiny things hidden in the darkness Insects fell with flapping gauze-like scorched wings.

He retracted his sword, his steel hand stroking the burning blade, and a flame spread across his arm. "Where is this?" he asked.

"This is our temple," said the old woman.

She stood up, shaky, with deep purple mist in her eyes. Her hair is bald and her skin hangs loosely on her frame, but her expression is unusually young, and her smile looks like she is still a young and radiant girl.

She bowed devoutly, half of Fulgrim's silver face reflected in her purple eyes, seemingly immersed in Fulgrim's exquisite appearance and unable to extricate herself.

"This is our home, my lord. We await you, Ferrus Manus," she said softly, compassionately.

Fulgrim heard his teeth bite each other angrily, "Where is this?"

"This world? Her name is Cadia, my lord. It is near your world, not far from the Eye of Heaven. Your brother Aurelion discovered us, but Cadia was not for him. And the doors of the Dark Mother were not created for him.”

The old woman said, stroking a string of metal bone chains hanging between her fingers, and knelt down to Fulgrim in a well-trained manner.

"I am Suryani, the destined maid of Ferus Manus. Come, sir, let's go to the depths, even though I have already seen you going to the depths. I will bring you what you have been waiting for for a long time. Blessings, this is what your father left in the cradle of fertility in the highest heaven before you were born, and forgot to take it away.”

"Is Ferrus here?" Fulgrim stared at the maid, the firelight on his sword's blade reflecting on Suryani's silver-gray robe. "Did you see him?"

"Not long before you came here, my lord, Ferrus Manus came." Suryani said attentively, "I'm afraid it was the will of the Dark Mother that allowed him to return to this sacred ceremony in the end. The place where it will take place, my lord, where you will become whole again.”

Fulgrim lowered his eyes and suddenly thrust the blazing sword into Suryani's chest.

The maid looked at him in surprise and giggled: "Sir, if you want my flesh and blood, then take it! Steel and flesh and blood, you have to weigh them separately to give to your heirs, so that you can pursue perfection. ! Although you are still resisting its completion in our ceremony, haven’t you already accepted it?”

"Go to hell." Fulgrim cursed.

"Perhaps, sir." Starting from her chest, the handmaid's body gradually burned into a large empty hole. She was still smiling sadly. "Perhaps, I will die by your hands, just as the body must decay. , steel must decay, for the same reason. If we are not blessed, all struggles will flow into the void of nothingness, and all perfection will decay under the erosion of time, and I am not as blessed as you. One of thousands of lives. However, your promotion will not last long, as long as you are willing to accept it..."

Halfway through her words, her very being was incinerated, and three-quarters of the way through, her soul was consumed by Fulgrim's merciless fire, but she The voice finished her sentence, or it wasn't her voice.

"Cadia welcomes you, my lord." Her voice echoed in the cave, gradually turning into an echo chanted by hundreds of mortals, creating ripples in the air of the cave.

Fulgrim stood quietly on the spot, neither moving forward nor backward. He seemed to know a lot and yet he seemed to know nothing.

Cadia, he knew that this place was indeed a planet that Lorgar Aurelion once regained within the empire's territory. With the fanaticism of that fanatical believer, didn't it wash away the blasphemous beliefs of the native people of Cadia? So, the people here are very good at enduring and hiding.

He closed his eyes and thought about how Ferrus Manus had arrived here and how he had gone deeper and deeper in his quest to confront the warp invasion...

No, is this really the order? Or, in fact, it was Ferus who first penetrated into the depths of the Key of Hel. Since the Great Crusade was coming to an end, he planned to immediately begin to fulfill that promise - to change the competitive trend within the Iron Hands where only machines were supreme. Woolen cloth?

Fulgrim's eyelids trembled slightly in pain. If the truth was the latter, he would probably regret those words that he had said in a joking tone to persuade Ferrus to change early.

He stood, listening to the calls of the warp, listening to the rustling hymns praising the holy dark mother. Gradually, he saw a dazzling gem rise in front of him, a ruby ​​expanded into six, and its number was still growing. Except for the sound of the thin wind through the endless darkness and the low hymn, he could no longer hear other sounds.

He stayed here too long, and this darkness began to cover his soul.

An accident? A deception? Or a long-standing trap?

Either go back now and wait for Rogal Dorn, who is not good at psychic power, to accompany him here, and wait for the think tanks of the Imperial Fist who are willing but not strong enough to explore this cave connected to the depths of Cadia.

He can't go forward alone to find his brother, right?

"Ferus?" He whispered to the sound array, "Ferus, are you there?"

No response. Perhaps the previous conversation with Ferus was his last echo in this world.

Fulgrim took a step back, blood diamonds and lapis lazuli creaking under his boots, and the fire was stretched along the blade of his sword, extending deep into the cave.

The singing from the depths of the cave gradually resonated in his bones. The depths of the cave were no longer dark, the light of amber and onyx complemented each other, and there were metallic colors of gold, silver, copper and iron. All kinds of arcs flowed dazzlingly on the water below like oil paint.

The longer he stood here, the more turbulent the light and shadow around him, and the calmer his heart became.

Soon, he could no longer stay here, because the natives of Cadia noticed him, and because the Eye of the Sky must have noticed him. Soon. Soon.

Fulgrim smiled, then picked up his sword and walked deep into the cave.

"Ferus, are you there? Don't listen to the persuasion of darkness. I'm coming to find you."

He asked loudly, his voice drowned out the noise of the river and the echo of the dark hymn.

The sound of his boots shattered the changing pearls, and on his back, a wing of bright red fire feathers gradually formed. Each feather was a moment of oath from his descendants in the past. As long as he did not give up his pursuit, his descendants would not leave him, no matter where he went. This was what they had agreed on long ago.

He walked deeper and deeper, listening to the noise from the warp getting louder, but Ferrus Manus still did not respond to him. He did not lose heart, but raised his sword, holding the sharp blade with the iron hand given by Ferrus, using it as a torch, and walked forward along the cave. Reality moved away from him, and he gradually recognized this familiar evil feeling.

He walked out of the evil realm of chaos once, and if there was a second time, there would be a second time.

"My brother, where are you?"