Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

"So, when did this journey start?"

Calvin sat upright in his seat, seemingly listening intently to the speeches of other people in the meeting.

But the countdown on his iris and the flowing data from Titan's database proved that his attention was not here.

The pilot's report from memory arrived in three minutes, and the records about Tingus in the Titan database backup in the battleship server were finally downloaded.

Bishop Klein's speech continued. Against the background of cold mechanical electronic sounds, Calvin clicked on the file icon marked as top secret in his consciousness:

+Name: Tingus Time Corridor+

+Security Threat Level: Very High+

+Status: Unfinished+

+ Posted by: None - The Tingus sector is completely out of contact and suspected to have fallen. The Supreme Council of the Inquisition made an emergency decision to issue the mission on behalf of the Hammer Order branch of the Tingus sector.

+Release date: 720.M37+

+Execution date: 720-745.M37+

+License Level: Black+

+Name/Codename: The third Guardian Shaper, Grand Master Natilik, and 1 Templar under his command, and 10 members of the Order of the Guardian Shapers. The list is as follows...+

+Task objective: Check the current status of the Tingus sector and deal with suspected pollution. ++Priority mission; transfer and retrieve the sacred sword of oath+

+ Feedback: The Xingyu Tingtinggus sector network disappeared, and the research ship reported that it was no longer able to go to the area, and there was nothing at the original coordinates. It is suspected that there was a large warp storm in the area. Another note: The Demon Tribunal task force has confirmed that it has lost contact... +

+Warning: The file is not transferable+

+Warning: This file cannot be copied+

+Warning: Destruction after reading+

The cursor in his iris quickly passed over the text description. Calvin turned directly to the middle of the page and found the part he wanted most:

+Executor: Natilik+

Click the cursor, and as expected, the page linked to the name is blank, with only the avatar displayed.

Theoretically, the Titan's archives only have information about fallen Gray Knights. Any active Gray Knight will not have any background information except his new name after officially entering service. This is an iron law of the Gray Knights Chapter. (Calvin is in a special case, as his name has proven to be unusable for tracing his true name.)

This is the Titan's protection for every Gray Knight who has not yet been confirmed dead in battle, so that the Gray Knights' only soul coordinates - their true names - have no chance of being stolen by demons during their lifetime.

Although the information cannot be queried, having an avatar is actually enough.

Calvin looked at the familiar body and face on the avatar that he had used for nearly ten years, and finally confirmed his suspicion.

And when he saw this face, the remaining memories in Calvin's spirit that did not belong to him were finally opened to him...

It was a failed mission, and Natilik and his team were seduced by the Lord of Change's machinations, and ended up staying there forever.

The evil god used the fall of the entire Tingus sector as bait and led him and his comrades into the eternal time maze that had been prepared.

The cultists and demons used the lives of tens of billions of people in the Tingus sector as sacrifices and projected Tzeentch's artifact, the Time Prism, into the real universe.

With the help of this artifact prism, the demon projects himself into 999 different mirror images that exist at the same time.

The Great Demon himself, with the help of the artifact, transformed into a part of the spiritual energy in this space.

It seeks to creep into the Gray Knight's soul with every psychic regeneration during their battles.

After all the plots and traps were ready, they spent more than ten years deliberately leaking the news of the fall here, and then waited for the arrival of Natilik and his brothers.

The narration belonging to Natilik gradually dissipated, and the first-person memories in Calvin's eyes began to appear piece by piece:

"Trap! This is a trap for us!"

Templar Lorenzo reminded Natirik loudly, otherwise his voice would not be able to penetrate the sound of the magic wave and the raindrops of explosive shells.

"Take the brothers who can walk! Attack the church!"

Natilik roared and executed the secret-keeping demon in front of him, but he seemed so powerless as more demons came after him...

"I need your cover to break up our rear, brothers."

Under the tall, dark dome porch of the church, he said with a heavy heart to his comrades who were destined to no longer be able to follow him.

"We understand," they replied.

"You will be abandoned and probably die fighting."

The sadness in Natilik's voice could still be felt by Calvin even through the barrier of time.

"We understand." The injured Gray Knights replied firmly. They did not want their presence to slow down the progress of the entire team.

"With the blessing of the Emperor, we will eventually meet again under his throne..."

The pressure of the mission was in front of him, and the unknown pollution had to be dealt with. The situation did not allow him to hesitate. After finally choosing to leave these words, he turned around and led the team away...

Calvin blinked, all this was very similar to what he had experienced in the dream, or in other words, he already understood the meaning of himself in this space.

In this echo of time, he plays the role that Natilik once was.

And everything he experienced was exactly the experience of the Gray Knight Grand Master who was lost in time.

"We must separate, the pollution here is worse than we thought!"

This was Natilik's voice outside the royal palace on the upper level of the hive city.

He had vaguely felt something strange in his body. After sending Templar Lorenzo and some Gray Knights away, he once again looked for a reason to send away the team members around him.

"But you can't go to the top floor alone! Since that was once the seat of the Tribunal, there must be a group of demons around!"

The members of the direct team who have served under Natilik since they were new recruits are obviously worried about the safety of the Grand Mentor, but how can they resist the Grand Mentor who insists on his own way?

They were finally on their way to the top nest, but were thrown away by Natilik, who was already determined to die.

This also confirms Calvin's previous experience...

The experience that follows is much the same as Calvin's own battle experience, it is nothing more than one battle after another.

The difference is that Natilik is far less unruly than Calvin. In his battles with the devil, he is really on the verge of death every time.

Natilik ultimately succeeded and failed.

He successfully found the sacred object "Sword of Oath" that had been hidden in advance from the secret warehouse of the Holy Hammer Order branch on this planet.

But he also failed.

During his ten-year fierce battle, the big demon finally found the opportunity to dismantle himself bit by bit, and then penetrated into Natilik's body, and finally gathered into a demon in his soul. Egg:

A seed that represents the corrupted destiny of Chaos.

What a great achievement! Since the birth of the Gray Knights, the gods of Chaos have been seeking ways to corrupt them.

But after thousands of years or even longer time in subspace, they still found nothing.

And now! A Gray Knight's soul has been eaten away!

Except for the core will, it is still resisting! Da Mo can almost declare his success!

It is only one step away from completely cracking the secret!

Only the last step remains! This Gray Knight will be its unprecedented gift to the Lord of Change!

And this is not an ordinary Gray Knight, but a Gray Knight who bears the name of the Grand Mentor of the first eight original men!

As long as it can capture the core will, it can crack the Gray Knight's uncorruptible secret!

As long as that will can be conquered! It can offer its lord the glory that will attract the attention of all gods!

Whenever it thinks of this, this great demon feels extremely happy. It can even imagine itself being favored by the Lord and becoming the most glorious existence chosen by all the gods.

But Natilik's tenacity far exceeded its expectations.

Two full millennia have passed in the real universe, and an unknown amount of time has passed in the subspace and time corridor.

But Natilik's resistance continued, and his remaining soul was firm and vigilant, never letting up.

"Of course you can destroy me, but you can never conquer me!" said the remaining fragment of Natilik's soul.

It cannot be conquered, let alone simply destroyed.

This is a troublesome problem facing the great demon. It is of course easy to destroy this remnant soul that can only be entrusted in the sword of oath. You even only need to break the sword.

Once this sacred object, which symbolizes the honor of the Chapter, is destroyed, the careless Natilik can give up his own existence.

And if he is really allowed to die like this, then the entanglement between the artifacts that Tzeentch painstakingly planted and these thousand years will become a complete joke in the face of this kind of sacrifice...

This is a dead end. Natilik is destined to be unable to escape, and the devil cannot succeed.

They all need an accident to change this deadlock that has been deadlocked for thousands of years. Finally, in desperation, the devil made a bet with Natilik:

Bet that the next person chosen by Natilik can accomplish ten times the achievements and great deeds of Natilik in the corridors of time.

And under the constant threat of losing oneself, one can still choose the same or even more noble sacrifice in the end...

The gods and chaos witnessed their oath together at this moment, and even the balance of the power of destiny hidden in the end of the universe rarely accompanied this.

This is the truth about Calvin losing his divinity, and the reason why his soul was replaced by a local demon despite being a higher-dimensional being.

His soul and divinity were never and could not be deprived of him, but were simply blinded by the balance of fate.

Natilik won, when Calvin turned the blade on himself.

The reflection in the water is not only the last trace of his existence, but also the demon's last attempt witnessed by the gods and the power of fate.

But this last interference was ignored by Calvin. While completing a campaign that was ten times greater than Natilik's previous achievements, he resolutely put himself on the final altar as Natilik wished.

Ten thousand and one deaths, the last one was Calvin himself.

Ten thousand and one deaths, the last one was also Natilik's salvation.

On the day when the oath was fulfilled, all the gods and demons left the scene after witnessing it. The Lord of Tampering also lost interest and looked elsewhere.

Needless to say, the fate of a demon who failed in his bet and embarrassed his lord in front of the gods;

As the winner, Calvin was naturally given the second largest chip on the gambling table - the Sword of Oath.

As for the biggest bargaining chip, Natilik himself had silently chosen to die permanently as soon as he broke free.

The meeting aboard the Revenant Redeemer continued.

Lord Mechanical Bishop Klein, who opposed Calvin, could not understand the former's unusual silence.

The mechanically modified detection array scanned Calvin's body for the third time in five minutes.

The latter was obviously still engaged in some matters other than the meeting. The green data reflected slightly in his irises was flowing, causing those around him to choose not to disturb him.

The red countdown in the upper left corner of the iris has come to an end, and the moment Calvin has been waiting for is about to come:

+5+

+4+

+3+

+2+

+1+

Countdown reaches zero!

After waiting with bated breath for a few seconds, he finally found that everything around him was normal and nothing happened.

The navigator still sat firmly in his seat, and there was no more unexpected situation in Calvin's memory.

The post-war summary meeting on the unnamed planet is still going on, with only the personal screen in front of the seat showing the current location of the Redeemer of the Souls - the Vestinggus Sector (no contact has been lost).

The cursor in Calvin's eyes paused for a few seconds. He carefully recalled the last memory in his mind, and then clicked on the black and gray option behind Natilik's name that was confirmed to have been killed.

+confirmed death+

+Name: Natilik+

+Position: Order of the Hammer - Third Order - Guardian Shaper, 26th Grand Master+

+Encoding source:+

+Permission traceability: Titan 2 Castle Master: Calvin+

+Evidence: The holy object-the Sword of Oath-was recovered+

+Retrieval: Gray Knights Chapter-Galvin+

+confirm submission+

+confirm again+

This name, which was wrapped in silver iris to show its glory inside the system, flashed a few times on the screen as he clicked to confirm, and then dimmed permanently.

As the information in the database was updated, according to the program, the mechanical bell in the chapel of the Soul Redeemer began to ring spontaneously.

The stirring sound of the bell was low and sad, and the news of Natilik's death spread throughout the battleship through the ship's broadcast.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked in the direction of the highest point of the battleship.

Although the names of the specific war dead are unknown, the meaning of the bells is never wrong.

It was telling the passing of a hero who was destined not to be publicized; it was also proving that these children of the Emperor were still inheriting His vision and silently guarding the defense line of the Human Empire.

The chief astropath on the strike cruiser sent out the encrypted message in his hand with a serious face, and the psychic network leading to Terra in the Storm Star Territory began to be activated one by one.

At each node that received the message, the psychic choir to which it belonged began singing hymns in unison.

At the expense of burning myself, they used each other's concerted efforts to break the barrier to Terra in the subspace, and then conveyed this precious information.

Update in advance.