Warhammer: In the Name of Nirvana

The Obscure Star Field, the Gothic Star Sector, the Behemoth Sector, and the Foraris System.

"This is the last one, the last black stone fortress."

"Finally, this power is fully grasped in the hands of our mother."

"Both Avalon and the Empire will become stronger and more invincible as a result."

When Lana once again saw the dark shadow of the Blackstone Fortress, his mentality seemed to have calmed down a lot: the head guard still looked up at the behemoth with awe, but the initial tremor was gone in his heart.

There is no other reason: after recapturing the first Blackstone Fortress, the expedition fleet of the Dawnbreaker Legion, led by the Primarch, swept through the entire Gothic Sector again non-stop, taking less than two Terran standard months. Time holds the entire five ancient alien fortresses tightly in his hands.

After witnessing with their own eyes how their genetic mother made these terrifying creations surrender, and even followed their fleet docilely and left in the transition light wave of the Tuchucha engine, the feeling in the hearts of all the Dawnbreakers The original awe of Blackstone Fortress was easily overwhelmed by the fanatical admiration surrounding the Lord of Legions, and completely disappeared.

In this frenzy, there is naturally no room for awe and trembling.

The originally remote and structurally stable [Geiserman] galaxy was positioned as a temporary legion assembly point by the Dawnbreakers. Subsequently, the huge expedition fleet followed their original body and used the ability of the Tuchucha engine to move one after another. The found Blackstone Fortresses are being transported here one after another, in preparation for the collective subspace jump to the Avalon home system.

The recovery of the first five Blackstone Fortresses was generally considered smooth. However, among the five recovered ancient creations, except for the two Blackstone Fortresses located in the Cyclops Star Cluster and the Brigia Galaxy, the Spider Queen's actions In addition to relatively active feedback, the remaining three Blackstone Fortresses behaved no differently from ordinary dead objects.

They did not resist Morgan: but they obviously did not want to pay attention to her, let alone actively cooperate with her orders or threats.

With the help of two ancient alien artifacts and the Tuchucha engine, the Spider Queen reluctantly drove away these three silent black stone fortresses, but in her heart, she also knew that she was destined to be unable to rely on these in a short time. The power of the three Blackstone Fortresses is: they may be able to serve as some kind of heavy defense weapon in Avalon, but they will not have the ability to take the initiative to attack with the army.

After all, she was about to lose the artifact of the Tuchucha Engine. Without the help of the Tuchucha Engine, just relying on the two controllers in her hands, she wanted to control these three ancient creations who were pretending to be dead. A difficult thing.

But then I thought about it, wouldn't there be two black stone fortresses that would obey her orders: If they were to take the initiative, such a force would be enough for the time being.

Thinking of this, the Primarch's mood became somewhat brighter: the resistance of the Blackstone Fortress was within her expectation, and she did not need to rely on their power in a short period of time. The two Blackstone Fortresses could take the initiative to attack. It was enough to satisfy her.

In this satisfaction, the Primarch commanded his legion and arrived at the location of the sixth Blackstone Fortress. Before the rapid and sufficient preparations, the already familiar Dawnbreakers surrounded their Primarch and began to Another boarding operation to check possible dangers in Blackstone Fortress and prepare for the next recovery operation.

This is an easy job: because in the previous five times, although the interior of Blackstone Fortress was filled with a dark and gloomy atmosphere, the Sons of Morgan have never encountered danger.

This time, they thought so too.

——————

Kulin, who came from the Avalon home planet, took off his helmet and breathed out slowly. He knocked on the strange onyx-colored walls beside him, unable to hide the displeasure on his face.

Kulin never liked these things, nor did he like this place called Blackstone Fortress: Although his team had carried out the same boarding work five times, he still could not adapt to the low air pressure here, just like the tall Irish The Wolfhound cannot fit into a narrow gray-black iron cage.

The new blood of the Dawnbreaker exhaled the breath slowly, like a sigh.

He began to miss the legion arena on the Dawn Goddess, which was spacious and brutal, allowing him to run freely, enjoy himself, and challenge those great warriors.

Bayar, Rana, Hector, Abaddon, Ahriman...

But he knew he couldn't go back now: the arena was temporarily closed.

The schedule and ethos of the Dawnbreaker Legion are as relaxed as they are during wartime. In the conception of the Lord of the Second Legion, she regards the relaxed rest time as a certain threshold that can be accumulated. , so that her heirs can maintain a good fighting condition and stable emotions during the most difficult times of war.

For now, there seems to be no problem with this reasoning. Even Kulin, an already well-known legion leader, dare not say anything more about the original body's orders.

He didn't want to say anything more.

"Be on guard, Kulin."

In front of the new blood of Dawnbreaker, a voice as heavy as the Blackstone Fortress crashed into his ears, making it impossible to refute. Kulin retracted his thoughts and nodded as a response to the team leader.

The squad leader is named Kaisba, and he is the leader of this five-man team. He is from Terra. Although he is not one of the earliest legion soldiers, he still has rich combat experience, which allowed him to get Kulin's Respect and conviction.

Under the leadership of Kesba, the five-person vanguard team explored the interior of the Blackstone Fortress with ease. It was said to be an exploration, but in fact it was more like an inspection: after all, they had already landed in five Blackstone Fortresses before. There are striking similarities in the internal structures of the alien creations, as if they were industrialized products created in the same batch.

All the corridors and halls reveal unimaginable rigor. Extremely hard and onyx-like metal building materials create the labyrinth-like structure in front of you. These alien creations are so huge that even if there are 10,000 Dawnbreakers, The soldiers boarded the ship at the same time, but they were still somewhat stretched in terms of manpower.

In this case, Kulin's team had to bear an excessive amount of tasks, because the main force of the legion had to take over and inspect the power energy system and energy grid of Blackstone Fortress immediately. The former ensured that this creation can continue to operate, the latter is the greatest guarantee for human beings to survive here.

In accordance with their mission objectives, the vanguard team painstakingly explored a wide outer corridor and slowly approached the end of these spiral passages. They were not far from the central area where the main force of the legion was located. Kulin even The calls of some battle brothers can be heard in the distance.

But even so, their communication platform is still almost dead: the gloomy atmosphere of Blackstone Fortress kills the possibility of using technology and psychic powers to achieve high-speed communication, which is another reason why Kulin hates it.

After restraining his disgust, the new blood of Dawnbreaker followed the team on the left side honestly, fulfilling his responsibilities. Everything seemed to be peaceful: until he suddenly discovered that the originally rhythmic pace of the team was interrupted by an abrupt change. interrupted by a pause.

"!"

Kesba, who was walking at the front, did not make a sound, but he stopped his steps, made a gesture, and led his subordinates to stick to the wall. Then, he gave the order with the expression on his face. , motioning his subordinates to look towards the end of the corridor at the end of their field of vision.

Kulin then looked around.

The interior of the Blackstone Fortress without any lights is comparable to even the quietest midnight. Although wandering for countless epochs has not allowed these strange creations to accumulate thick dust, it has indeed deprived them of any life. The last bit of comfort here.

Looking directly at the endless corridor of Blackstone Fortress is like looking directly at the night itself, which will arouse endless fear in the heart. In this state, even a floating dust is as dazzling as a star: let alone A strange light emerged in the darkness.

Kulin saw it: the bright light appeared at the end of the corridor, appearing in the dimness that even the Astartes warriors could not see clearly, but he was certain that it was definitely not the light that any natural existence could emit.

Because it is floating in mid-air.

Kesba frowned. Under his silent instructions, the two Dawnbreaker warriors were ready for remote support, and the emergency rescue message that could be sent out was also ready. After doing all this, he took the library with him. The two soldiers, including Lin, walked in front, followed by the two firepower outputters.

The five-person team moved forward again. They assumed a standard fighting posture, and their auras couldn't help but become a little tense. Soon, they arrived at a suitable position, and the existence in the shadow seemed to sense their presence. Approaching, he did not run away, but stood there and even walked towards them.

I don't know why, but when that being approached them, Kulin felt an obvious sense of depression. He felt that the shadow under his feet seemed to be deeper. It was like he was standing on a building where he couldn't see the bottom clearly. Above the bottomless abyss.

The new blood of Dawnbreaker heard the same confused voice from the mouths of his comrades: Obviously, this is not his own illusion. The existence in the shadow does have some kind of oppression, invisible oppression, Like a huge black spot in the sea of ​​souls.

Cullin couldn't help but mutter, but his dissatisfaction was quickly interrupted by a kind of surprise: as the existence in the shadow walked to a place not far in front of them, the five-person team recognized the identity of the thing in front of them at a glance. .

He is actually also an Astartes warrior.

Amid the astonishment of several Dawnbreakers, this taciturn Astartes warrior stood at a seemingly polite and safe distance. He was wearing a set of MKⅡ model power armor, which looked a bit too much. It was worn out, and it was not a complete set. It was obviously a piece of stuff.

However, some details of the power armor made several Dawnbreakers frown: Although the helmets and joints were tightly covered, they could not hide the strange odor that followed. Although this warrior is silent and serious, his walking posture reveals some incongruous feelings.

The bigger problem is: his power armor painting is a color that the Dawnbreakers have never seen before. It is a dark gray between the Iron Hands and the Iron Warriors. It has no luster, just like the sunset. A gray wilderness below.

In the memory of the five-man squad, no Astartes Legion was painted in this way.

Therefore, even though the opponent was also an Astartes warrior, the blades and muzzles of the Dawnbreakers were not completely lowered. Although out of courtesy, they did not point directly at the silent battle brother, but they only lowered it slightly. own weapons.

Kesba spoke, not wearing his helmet.

"I am Kesba, son of Morgan. I would like to pay tribute to you, strange battle brother. Please tell us your name and team, and the reason why you are here: Are there other battle brothers here?"

The squad leader's voice dissipated in the cold corridor, but received no response: the soldier just stood there, staring at the sons of Morgan in silence, saying nothing for a long time.

This move is really strange: the two Dawnbreakers responsible for fire cover have quietly raised their guns.

At this moment, Kulin, who was standing on one side of the team, saw the marks on the shoulder armor of the Astartes. Although the marks were extremely blurred, he could still identify them.

That is……

"team leader."

Kulin spoke in a low voice.

"He seems to be... from the Eleventh Legion?"

"The number on his shoulder armor, is it XI?"

"..."

Kesba was silent for a moment, and then Kulin heard an instinctive curse coming from the throat of the Terran veteran.

"Damn it!"

"Ready to fight!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Kesba issued an order to his soldiers, and everyone immediately raised their sharp blades and firearms: but those previous low-level moves led to fatal consequences at this time, because right there raised the weapon. In the split second it took to raise the gun, the originally taciturn [Astartes], like a black shadow that no one could see, ran straight into the queue of the Dawnbreakers.

The first person to bear the brunt was Kesba, who was standing at the front. The team leader raised his blade in time to block the claw-like hands from the unknown attacker.

At this moment, no one cares about why this guy's hands are like the sharp claws of some ferocious beast: because at the moment of a close encounter, the nameless Astartes' worn-out helmet was struck by some kind of savage strange force. Breaking through from the inside, its lower half exploded, but what was exposed was not a mouth or teeth, but a large mass of twisted flesh.

Kulin saw everything clearly: from the gap, a large group of wriggling tendrils rushed out, like a ferocious overlord octopus, and the colors of the dozens of wriggling tentacles were also frightening. : The color is almost that of rotting human flesh, and the stench that comes with it also tells the same scent.

Before any of the Dawnbreakers could react, this large mass of squirming malice mercilessly bypassed the interlaced blades and stabbed Kesba's neck, swallowing his entire throat and even half of his face in one fell swoop. , and then the harsh sound of acid corroding flesh clearly echoed in everyone's ears.

At that moment, Kulin heard a scream or a roar. He couldn't tell whether it was because of anger or fear. He didn't know if it was coming from him or another battle brother: the young Dawnbreaker. The warrior was stimulated by the bloody scene in front of him. He did not panic, but quickly fell into a kind of calmness that was almost fanatical.

In this kind of calmness, he actually didn't think about anything, but he clearly knew what he should do through the subconscious movements of his body: he roared, raised his blade, and rushed towards the man who was by no means his battle brother. The monster pierced the gap exposed by the broken helmet with its snow-white sharp edge.

Under the gap, he didn't see any skin, only rotten flesh.

The blade penetrated deeply into it, and at the same time it felt something like an obstacle like hard armor, and with a roar like a wild beast, the nameless monster painfully let go of Kesba, threw away Kulin's sharp blade, and Escaped from the Dawnbreaker attacking from the other side.

It still wanted to continue attacking, but Kesba had already raised the war blade: half of the captain's lower jaw was corroded to the point where the roots of the teeth could even be seen, but this did not prevent him from raising the blade, and he did not even fall into panic and anger. , he roared and asked his two subordinates to retreat behind him, and just as Kulin and the other Dawnbreaker did so, the two Sons of Morgan who were responsible for the fire cover seamlessly seized this gap with precision. The earth unleashed their fury.

Countless steel and flames were poured onto the monster in the next moment, even quickly tearing apart the patchwork power armor, but not even a drop of blood was shed: the Sons of Morgan discovered that in that tattered suit Under the power armor, there is also a layer of extraordinarily strong, skeleton-like existence hidden, with rotten flesh and blood attached to them, indifferent to the ferocious firepower.

A fireman pressed his teeth. He quickly took out another handle and accurately hit the monster's head, beating the part where the eyes were. The monster paused for a moment because of the huge impact, but it still didn't. Stopping one's progress can't help but make the battle-hardened Dawnbreakers feel a sense of absurdity.

Especially when the monster in front of them had almost the same appearance as them, the dark thoughts that followed were enough to make everyone present feel heavy.

"Keep firing, suppress it with fire!"

Kesba gave the ruthless order, and all the soldiers pulled out their guns. They no longer expected to kill the monster in front of them immediately, but continued to hit its joints and limbs, restricting its mobility: everyone present Everyone tacitly understood that it was obviously more valuable to capture this monster alive than to kill it directly.

They succeeded quickly. In front of the raging firepower, the monster that looked like the Astartes had its legs broken quickly and fell to the ground. The Dawnbreakers stared at it with ruthless eyes, not daring at all. Stop the constant suppression of firepower in the palm of your hand.

But just as they were taking a rotation, a faint scream came from everyone's automatic sensing system.

"There are more enemies than just the ones in front of you?"

"I felt it too: the sound was like a spider crawling on the floor."

"Is it the end of the corridor?"

"No...I can't be sure...the sensing system is suppressed here."

"So is the psychic perception. There is something weird about the monster in front of me."

"The sound is getting closer! Where is it!"

"Not in front!"

"more than one!"

"It's not on the ground...the wall! The sound is coming from the wall!"

"Not just the walls! There's also the ceiling!"

"Over our heads! Over our heads!"

"Fire!!!"

At the end of the deepest dark spiral of Blackstone Fortress, accompanied by countless angry war roars and beast-like roars, blood and flesh flowed in turn on the cold walls that had not changed for thousands of years.

Red blood, rotten flesh.

——————

"Something's not right."

The chief guard frowned and stopped in his tracks. He stopped the somewhat dazed battle brothers beside him. Behind him was the power energy system that had just been inspected.

"What's the matter, sir?"

someone asked.

"..."

Lana did not reply immediately. He just closed his eyes, briefly blocking all his perceptions, and using pure energy from his heart, he activated a kind of induction that could not be defined in the real universe.

In an instant, his sensing range expanded to several kilometers around, and countless hazy light spots gathered into human figures, quietly appearing in the darkness in his mind: Those figures were centered on Lana, scattered throughout this area. The various Dawnbreakers who execute characters within the scope.

【Round Table Bloodline】

This is the fifth step of the re-transformation surgery named [Phoenix Transformation] or [Path of Nirvana] by the Spider Queen. It is also an ability that only Rana and Bayar have in the entire Dawnbreaker Legion.

This transformation will bring about a powerful auxiliary ability: according to their own mental strength, the sons of Morgan who have accepted the transformation will sense the status of other Dawnbreakers within a certain range with themselves as the core.

Including actions, places, life and death...

…

etc!

Lana frowned, and all his attention was focused on one corner: there, he felt a clear signal that one of his battle brothers had fallen.

…

damn it.

The head guard looked back at the position behind him. His genetic mother was not far away, checking various information and situations on the Blackstone Fortress: She definitely couldn't leave, but it involves the loss of the Dawnbreaker...

Sure enough, the moment Lana looked at the Primarch, he got a look from Morgan: No more needed, the Chief Guard deployed the defense around the Primarch as quickly as possible, and then lit up A capable team was formed and rushed over quickly.

That location was not far away, and due to the communication barrier within the Blackstone Fortress, the team of the Chief Old Guard was the fastest rescue team: This was indeed the case. When Lana called the approaching battle brothers all the way, he formed a team. When a considerable force rushed into the scene of the incident that kept flashing in his mind, he heard angry war cries and the roar of wild beasts before he even got close.

Without any hesitation, the chief guard stepped into the corridor, even somewhat throwing away the other warriors behind him.

At the first glance, Lana saw a Dawnbreaker: He fell on the edge of the corridor, bleeding profusely, with at least four or five horrific wounds on his chest, one arm was broken, and his left ear was severely damaged. It has been corroded, and you can even see the dense white bones revealed in the wound that spreads to the bottom of the neck.

But even so, he still didn't really die. His chest was still heaving, retaining his last breath because of the powerful vitality given by the Spider Queen and the unshakable enhanced version of suspended animation.

The Chief Guard did not stop beside the battle brother, because he could even hear the footsteps of the pharmacists behind him. He strode forward and rushed towards the place where the roar came from.

But just when his steps were about to enter those darkness, the beast in the darkness could not control its thirst for blood: perhaps victory and battle made its savage instincts expand uncontrollably, and even gave up. The possibility of ambushing the Praetorian Guard in the dark.

With a shrill scream, an indescribable being jumped down from the ceiling and hit Lana's face like a meteorite. At first glance, the thing looked like a facehugger from an ancient horror movie. , but if you take a closer look you will find it.

It was not a bug at all, but a grotesque product derived from the Astartes warriors: This machine only had the upper body of an Astartes, and its face and arms had been smashed, revealing rotten flesh and blood without a trace of skin. There are spider-like legs on its back, which help it run quickly on the wall, and can pounce on the face of the chief guard.

But it picked the wrong opponent.

The attack that was originally caught off guard was narrowly avoided by the superior guard general, and the horror brought by the thing in front of him was forcibly suppressed in an instant. The chief old guard stretched out his iron-like hands. Palm, firmly grasping this blasphemous existence.

The squirming flesh and blood in the tattered helmet seemed to want to repeat the same trick, but before they rushed towards Lana's neck, a cold light flashed in the eyes of the chief guard, and endless power emerged from his palms. .

"Click!!!"

Without a trace of hesitation, the Chief Guard tightly grasped both sides of the monster. With a stubby roar and anger, he used force to tear the blasphemous creation into pieces, tearing its flesh, flesh and bones into pieces. He took it in half and threw it casually into the darkness on both sides, just like an angry giant tearing apart a cardboard box, as a matter of course.

In the shadow, there seemed to be a last struggle: but soon, everything became completely quiet, and there were only the shouts of the following battle brothers who continued to come.

The Chief Guard didn't pay attention to the astonishment in the eyes of the other Dawnbreakers. He just casually glanced at these desecrated remains, then listened to the roar of the beast in the darkness and gave the order calmly.

"Remember to catch one alive."

"Mother should have some interest in them."