Warhammer: In the Name of the Emperor

People always say that where there is light, there is shadow. The brighter the light, the darker the place. This sentence is often true. As far as Bell has more than two hundred years of service experience since joining the battle group, it is often The most gorgeous and prosperous places will have mirror-like opposites.

The more prosperous the mirror is, the more it will decay, and the more holy it is, the more corrupt it will be on the other side. This can be applied to almost all empires, especially the most prosperous hive cities. The aristocratic urban area of ​​Upper Nest, and the middle nest where people live hand to mouth, which is good or not, are the mirror image of all that prosperity.

Within the Lowhive lurk all the abominations, the horrific alien parasitic colonies, the insane and violent Lowhive gangs and savage mutant hordes, not to mention those who swim in the darkness of the Emperor's Light, hiding in all the shadows. of brutal Chaos cultists.

They are almost a ridiculous mirror image of the bustling city above, coming from the most terrifying, terrifying and unimaginable dark abyss written by a certain post-modern dystopian writer, which no normal person would want to escape into. A place of madness, a place of distortion.

Bell knew that in all the imperial cities, there were similar places underneath the hives. The difference was only in the degree of chaos and the difference in the residents. However, he could not imagine that there was such a place underground in the emperor's palace, and he did not dare to think about it. The place.

Bell was walking in the dark underground tunnel, which seemed to be some kind of strange dark temple buried deep underground. Everything around him was shrouded in a layer of disturbing and strange darkness. Bell looked around at everything around him. Countless stone pillars and sword-holding statues stand around the lightless underground palace.

Those statues are like sealed giant warriors. They stand between stone pillars with weapons in hand. Their swords and the stone pillars beside them are engraved with prayer scriptures, and the runes surrounding them The words on the scroll are like magic spells, something is sealed here, something that should never see the light of day again.

Bell walked in this deep tunnel with vigilance and uneasiness. He followed closely behind Vito. In front of him, Vito, wearing the emperor's golden armor, walked at the head of the team. The golden light was burning behind his head. The halo projects light around like a lighthouse, illuminating the ominous ink-like darkness on both sides of the road.

Bell looked at the halo. The halo was like the light of a star torch. This logic really makes sense. Where there is light, there is shadow. And in the universe of this galaxy, is there any place more beautiful than the palace? What about bright places? This is the seat of the Golden Throne, the seat of the Star Torch that lights up the dark universe, the seat of the Emperor.

Naturally, underneath it lurks the darkest place in the universe, a dark place that no one wants to step into. Even the golden-armored imperial guards are reluctant to step into it.

Trajan subconsciously held the lightning battle ax in his hand. The Imperial Guard squads surrounding him were all holding their own weapons and surrounding Vito. They were wearing golden advanced power armor. It should be said that this There should be very few things in the universe that could threaten them, but here, in this dark place, all the Imperial Guards are holding on to their weapons.

Bell looked at the Forbidden Army. He saw blue lightning flashing on the blades of the power halberds. Those jumping arcs continued to illuminate the surroundings. As the Forbidden Army advanced, they were like torches. Light up the darkness on both sides of the road.

But this is of no use at all. Just like the lanterns held in the hands of the statues on both sides of the surroundings, the hooded statue guards standing on both sides of the road stretched out a hand from under their robes and hung the lanterns. Thick black iron chains hung down in front of them, illuminating the hall with dim light.

Those lanterns with burning flames, those lanterns that are supposed to illuminate the dark space, are like swaying candles in the darkness. The weak firelight cannot illuminate the deep darkness here. All the light can only take a few steps away from the iron cover of the lantern. If you are far away, you will be swallowed up by the darkness and disappear into the misty and deep space.

Bell walked among the Forbidden Forces. He and Eisenstein followed Vito closely. Logically speaking, there was nothing to worry about in the palace, but Captain Eisenstein beside him almost acted out of instinct. With the instinct of an old warrior, he pressed his hand firmly on the hilt of the chain sword on his waist.

It was very quiet here, so quiet that it was eerie. Bell could even hear the heartbeat in his power armor. He looked around at the silent warriors. Everyone was staring at the deep space around them without saying a word. They were the only ones. The sound of breathing continued to echo in the air.

Phew, Phew, the heavy breathing sounds of the giants are particularly loud here, as if giant beasts are breathing. But if there is really a monster here, then this monster is also hidden in the surrounding darkness. The visitors who enter here are spied on in the shadows.

After hesitating for a while, Bell plucked up the courage and walked up. He approached Vito and asked the marshal in a low voice, "Sir, where is this place? Is this really the palace?"

"Haha, it's terrible here, right? At least the emperor's rich gold aesthetic decoration is gone here, and it won't blind my eyes." Vito said with a smile, his eyes scanning the darkness on both sides.

"It's just a matter of going from glittering gold to being blind."

"But where is this place? Is this the Royal Palace?" Bell asked in a low voice, but his voice was full of awe. He looked at the lantern statue sliding past him and the lantern hanging on the chain. The dim light shone on the face of the statue, vaguely illuminating the face invisible under the hood.

Bell looked at the face of the statue. When that face appeared in front of him in an instant, Bell felt his whole body suddenly go cold. It was not because the face of the statue was scary. On the contrary, the face was quite normal, calm and tranquil. , but it was too calm, without even a little bit of emotion that people could feel, as if it was made of this darkness.

"Shadow Prison, the full name is Shadow Prison, but you can just think of this place as a dark dungeon under the palace." Vito said, looking around at the darkness. He walked at the front of the crowd, burning with the back of his head. The golden halo illuminates the dark road.

"Dungeon? Sir, you said dungeon, but underground in the palace? What is locked here?" Bell asked in surprise. Eisenstein behind him also looked over. Not only him, but also Trajan and the surrounding imperial troops. He looked over with his peripheral vision, looking at Bell and at Vito.

They all looked at Vito, who turned his head slightly and looked at Bell with a cold expression like the statues around him. That look made Bell feel cold from the end of his spine to his neck.

"You don't want to know, Bell, you don't want to know at all." Vito said and turned his head. He continued to walk on the dark road. The surrounding environment suddenly became dead again, and Bell remained silent. There was silence for a while, and then he slowly spoke after a long time.

"Then where are we going? Sir."

"The cell door, the cell door guarded by the underground palace guards here."

"Cell door? Here? Are there guards? Are they the Forbidden Army?"

"Well, you can say that, but they won't make you like it. The things guarded by these forbidden troops are not very popular. You will be fine soon. It doesn't have to be fast, you can already see them."

Vito raised his head slightly forward, and Bell raised his head and looked at the things in front of the team. He was stunned for a moment and almost subconsciously stood in the middle of the road. He allowed the Forbidden Army and Eisenstein on both sides to pass by, showing his surprise. He looked up at the huge black door in front of him.

It was a completely black steel door, completely opposite to the golden doors in the palace. It didn't have any sense of sanctity or beauty in it. It was just like everything here on the other side of the mirror. It was a terrifying door. The cold and intimidating prison door.

Bell looked at the countless carvings on it. They were eerie rune symbols. All the scriptures were arranged and extended along the ravines on it, just like a magic circle. However, this magic circle had all It's a skull, with white bones deeply embedded in it.

It was a terrifying scene. There were all screaming skeletons on the door. They scrambled to stretch their hands out of the door, but they seemed to be caught by something, and were screamed amidst the screams. The terrible thing was dragged back into the dark door little by little, like a pitch-black ocean. The sailors escaping stretched out thousands of hands out of the dark sea.

Bell looked at the skull on the gate. He swallowed and looked at the screaming bones. He didn't know what they were trying to escape from, but Vito was right. He didn't want to know at all, not at all. .

Bell lowered his head and saw the guards Vito was talking about. When he saw them, he was stunned for a moment. Vito was right. Those guards were just like this door, just like everything here, which made people feel frightened. People feel a sense of uneasiness originating from the depths of their souls.

The underground Imperial Guards were standing in front of the gate. They were holding lightning halberds and wearing dark armor with pale skulls. They stood in silence at the grand gate, just like the surrounding people. Standing in front of the door as cold as a statue, without even the slightest bit of warmth, it makes you wonder if there is really a person under the armor.

Bell looked at them, then tilted his head slightly and widened his eyes. His eyes were wide open as he looked at the things on both sides. There were different doors surrounding the giant black door in front of him. The carvings are all different, but their common denominator is a sense of genuine fear.

Bell stared at the other giant door on the side of the towering wall in front of him. There was a giant dragon carved on the door, a sinister dragon made of steel. It coiled around the door and held its grip on it. Each star seemed to be nailed to the door like an all-devouring dragon of doom.

It was indeed nailed to the door. There was a spear in the center of the door. It penetrated directly into the chest of the steel dragon and nailed the dragon to the door. The dragon was dying here. It shook its long head and roared, and its entire body was three-dimensionally carved from the surface of the door, as if it was really living there.

"Bell." Eisenstein shouted from the front. Bell then turned his attention away from the gates. He looked at Vito and his group who had already reached the gates. The Golden Armored Forbidden Army and Ai Sunstein was standing behind him, meeting the shadow guards with him.

The guards in front of the black gate saw Vito. After the latter stood still, they all knelt down in front of Vito, but they still had black and cold halberds in their hands, as if they were ready to strike at any time. It's like fighting against something indescribable.

Bell returned to Vito from behind, and the latter also raised his head slightly and looked at the shadow guards in front of him, "Stand up, and then open this door."

The shadow guard who was kneeling in front of Vito raised his head slightly. He did not look directly at Vito, but looked at Trajan for permission. After the latter nodded in agreement, the shadow guard stood up. He turned back to his brothers in silence.

All the dungeon guards stood in front of the gate. They did not say a word the whole time, and almost at the same time, they raised their halberds and hit the ground with the steel ends. The neat knocking sound seemed to have a regularity, a rhythmic sense of regularity, hitting the dark floor, clang clang, clang clang, hitting again and again.

Bell listened to the knocking sound. The sound seemed to have a unique sense of rhythm, like a melody, an unknown cold accompaniment, but suddenly the accompaniment stopped abruptly, as the shadow guards suddenly stopped the halberds in their hands, and then instantly hit them heavily on the ground at the same time and stopped.

As the shadow guards collided, the points where the halberds collided on the ground lit up instantly. The light threads extended from the ends of the halberds, extending from the ground all the way up to the two sides of the gate behind them.

The light path climbed up the gate pillars, just like a snake climbing up. As they passed, all the runes lit up. Those runes flashed dimly and all lit up on the entire gate. Those complex runes spread and lit up quickly along the gate, just like the previous collisions with unique rules.

Bell looked up at the runes that gradually lit up. As the spread-winged eagle symbol surrounded by countless white bones in the center lit up, all the runes on the entire gate flickered without exception. Bell carefully observed the sky eagle. The eagle was very different from the empire.

That eagle had only one head, and it was holding a planet in its claws. Terra? Bell immediately recognized the planet. It was not the Terra of today, but the Terra of long, long ago, before the Age of Conflict and the nuclear war, the Terra full of vitality.

Bell was surprised when the door slowly opened. The huge black door opened slowly after a crack appeared in the center. With the creaking sound of heavy machinery, the huge door slowly opened with a rumble. Bell and Eisenstein both looked at the crack in the center that was gradually expanding. The crack soon reached a point where one person could pass through.

When the crack opened, Vito walked up. He walked towards the crack alone in silence. Bell was about to follow but was stopped by Trajan beside him. Bell looked at Trajan beside him in surprise. The latter shook his head as he looked at Vito walking towards the crack.

"Only the Marshal can face the things in there, and only he can go in."

Trajan said, and Bell did not refute. He knew what Trajan said was true. He just stood there and watched Vito walk through the shadow guards. He walked through the shadow guards who made way on both sides and strode into the dark crack.

Soon, just like everything here, Vito disappeared into the door. The halo behind his head was instantly swallowed up by the darkness in the dark space, and he himself disappeared into the deepest darkness, completely disappearing.

The shadow guards looked at Trajan, who nodded slightly to them, and the guards once again raised their halberds and hit the ground at the same time. In the neat sound of the collision, the door slowly closed, and the black giant door completely closed the open crack and re-sealed it.

"What are you doing?" Bell looked at Trajan in surprise, and the latter looked at the door and raised his head slightly. He put his battle axe on the ground and held the upper side of the axe with one hand to fix it to his side.

"When the marshal solves everything, the door will open again by itself."

"What should we do now?"

"Wait, we can only wait here for the return of the marshal."

Bell looked at the door in silence for a moment, and Eisenstein behind him came up. He pressed the hilt of the chainsaw sword on his waist and looked at the dark door, "How long will it take?"

Trajan also fell silent, his fingers tightly grasped the surface of the battle axe, and the commander of the imperial army looked at the door in front of him, "Pray to the emperor, may he bless you."

——

——

Vito walked into the dark corridor, and he heard the sound of the door behind him closing, but he was not at all uneasy because of the closing of the door. He continued to move forward without even looking back.

He walked in the dark corridor, the burning halo behind his head illuminated the dark steel walls around him. Vito quickly walked along the corridor to a terminal. He stood in front of the terminal and looked at the screen in front of him. After a moment of silence, he took out Helen's CD from the bag on his waist.

Vito put Helen's CD on the terminal, and soon Helen's image appeared on the CD after a flash. The little blue artificial intelligence girl looked at the golden giant in front of her.

"Sir." Helen said softly, and Vito looked at her and nodded slightly, "Start the lighting and power system here, so that this place will light up." "Yes, sir."

Helen closed her eyes, and the terminal screen under her feet lit up immediately. Countless icons and code arrays began to flash rapidly on the screen that had been silent just now. The entire terminal began to operate rapidly, with mechanical clicking sounds. It was constantly echoed and amplified in the silent corridor.

At this time, Vito turned around and walked to the other side of the corridor. He stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window on the side of the corridor. It was a glass window that completely cut off the entire steel wall. It occupied a considerable area of ​​the wall by itself.

Vito looked at the glass window. Everything behind him was shrouded in darkness. The halo behind his head shone dim light on the glass, but the only thing that could be reflected was his own face. Vito looked at himself His eyes were silent, because he knew that everything would change soon.

Suddenly lights came on in the corridor, and the lights above Vito's head suddenly turned on with a bang. The light instantly illuminated the entire corridor that was still dark just now. The lights quickly began to move forward along the long corridor. Stretching open, the lights run towards the end of the darkness like dominoes.

Vito did not look at the lights in the corridor. He continued to look at the darkness outside the window, where lights also lit up. They were brighter spotlights. The pale lights lit up from the darkness and instantly pierced everything. Shining on the shoulders of the man of steel, the pale light reflected a little luster on the reflective armor.

It was a robot, a combat robot standing in the hall under the huge glass window in front of Vito. There were more robots around the robot holding an unknown gun in both hands. Vito looked at the spotlights. The hall lit up, and as the lights came on more robots appeared in the light.

Vito looked down at the combat robots, those steel bodies called Iron Men. They were densely packed in the entire hall, standing like a military parade. At the end of their team were several huge multi-legged giants. Mechas, they stood among the densely packed iron infantry around them, standing under the pale spotlight.

Vito looked forward. He looked at the huge army of iron men that could not be seen all of a sudden. They were extending towards the tall iron wall at the far end. There was an army of iron men buried deep underground in the palace.

Vito looked at the iron wall at the end, where countless types of war machines stood. The tall wall was branded with a soaring eagle, one holding Terra, or the planet Earth. of the Astral Eagle, but the Golden Age text beneath it was obliterated and replaced by a line of High Gothic font.

"Terra - The Final Wall Defense Plan - The Last Iron Guard."