Warhammer: Start with a dog

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The sound of...waterfalls?

The rumbling sound of water rushing down the towering cliffs began to evoke memories of the comatose warriors' homeland.

The sound of...Hera...Waterfalls?

Is he dead? Is this what it feels like to return home?

"Uriel!"

Someone hit the scarred bone plates on his chest hard. It hurts. The wounds on his chest, which had been drilled and cut to find gene seeds, had not healed so quickly. He arched his body in pain, and his back was rubbed bloody on the rough and sharp black volcanic rocks.

"Uriel! Sir! Come back to us! Wake up!"

Accompanied by anxious shouts, huge fists hit his chest and abdomen fiercely.

With a loud "Ugh", turbid sewage mixed with suspicious mud and sand gushed out of the former Ultramarines Captain's open mouth. His lungs, which had been re-resuscitated due to suffocation and choking, expanded again against the common sense of mortal medicine. The alveoli that had been squeezed into a ball began to repair and supply oxygen to his brain.

When Uriel's mind slowly re-established the cognitive logic of the surrounding environment, he moved his fingers and toes and realized that he was still in the devil's world.

All the wounds on his body revealed their existence to him through various pain methods when he woke up - the earliest traumas had been temporarily repaired by the cells and membranes secreted by the Lariman organs - his chest ribs were very painful and broken in many places, but the whole body was still there, his lungs and trachea were burning due to choking, and there was a longitudinal cut on his back, but fortunately it was not too deep, which should be caused by the crusher blades.

Then he blinked and found himself lying on a rock beside a huge pool of water. In the sky of Medlengard, which was as bright as white phosphorus and burning forever, the black sun was staring at him like a huge eye, forcing him to turn his head uncomfortably and meet a pair of blue eyes.

"Pasanius...?"

The joy on the blond sergeant's face could not be covered even by the mud, "Great... Uriel! The Emperor bless us! I knew you wouldn't give up just like that!"

He sat up slowly with the help of his best friend, while continuing to cough, "Where... is this...? Where is Samokwan...?"

"He's there." In addition to joy, Pasanius' voice was once again filled with worry.

Uriel looked in the direction of his finger and couldn't help but take a breath of cold air, which made his damaged trachea twitch and cough uncomfortably.

The first thing that caught his eye was the depression they were in, surrounded by sharp mountain peaks like dragon ridges.

The lowest point here is full of sewage, and it is hard to tell how deep it is. Just hundreds of meters above the steep cliff that is almost 90 degrees, the black and red walls of Kalan-Gol can be vaguely seen. There is a broken round hole halfway up the cliff. The final destination of the sewage of the entire fortress is to pour down from it and fall into this deep pool, forming the sound of waterfall water that Uriel heard when he just woke up.

Just in front of the steep and narrow path that can only be climbed out of this small basin of sewage pool, there is an open space near the pool. Now Pasanius and Uriel are staying by the water, and Samokan is blocking them.

What shocked Uriel was that there were many other... weird creatures in front of Samokan, and there were nearly a hundred of them, and they looked hungry and unfriendly. Their turbid eyes that kept blinking stared at him and Pasanius, especially himself. They looked at him like a beast that had been hungry for several days.

These creatures are hard to describe. They will make any human observer feel uncomfortable, even though their limbs are twisted or at strange angles, sharp, crooked and huge yellow fangs are exposed from the jaws dripping with saliva, too few or too many eyes and ears, nostrils without noses emit loud snorting sounds, six or more fingers end with huge black sharp claws, some even have more than one arm or crab claw-shaped hands, dark red muscles developed to the point of deformation move in the grid composed of pale and abnormal exoskeletons, and strangely deformed organs pulsate and crawl deeper in the flesh. Some of them are like a mixture of giant apes, bears and humans, while others are like snakes, turtles and fish with hands and feet.

The only common feature is that they all have no skin or only a little bit of skin from other corpses.

- Despite this, it is disturbing and uncomfortable that they can still be seen as possibly once "human".

But as a survivor who had just successfully pulled himself and Samokwan out of the amniotic membrane farm, Uriel, after the shock at first sight, immediately and uncontrollably thought of the children who had been sewn into the amniotic membrane bags before them. The number of bags and the way they operated showed that the victims were constantly being produced.

And they had seen so many... so many children by the ritual pool next to the demon that had been absorbing the power of the subspace to maintain the abnormal vitality of those human skin bags...

The bloody and brutal "method" of those barbaric undertakers, which was more like random sacrifice, obviously would not have a high success rate in the end, and if the failed products did not die on the spot or died in the sewage outlet from which they escaped later...

"Primarch..." Uriel whispered, his mind now thinking and realizing that he and these monsters made of flesh and blood might have a common genetic ancestor. "What's going on? What's the situation now? Pasanius? Who are they or what do they want?"

The sergeant lowered his voice slightly, and Uriel saw him put his hand on his own rosary pendant, rubbing the place on the breastplate where the eagle had been.

"Although Samokan didn't wake up after you gave him the rosary, we both maintained a certain body temperature in the water, and there was a strange sense of repulsion. This holy object seemed to be able to form a kind of invisible psychic protective layer or something similar in the water that was too bad. Therefore, when I pulled him through the leaves later, although there should be some scratches, no substantial damage was caused. After we fell from there, he also woke up, so I quickly started to salvage you in the pool. Your injuries were more serious and you were unconscious. Not long after I fished you out, those monsters came."

"Why don't they attack now?"

"They... at least some of them can speak human language." Pasanius' voice became lower, as if he was talking about some blasphemous secret that made him feel disgusted or uneasy.

"These monsters can really talk. They claim that this is their hunting ground. For Samokan's sake, I was allowed to leave with him, but it is impossible for us to leave you as their meat. But our weapons were lost when we were washed down, and there are too many of them, so now Samokan told him to try to negotiate with them first, and let me think of a way to wake you up first."

"How is he going to convince them?"

"I don't know, but at least he succeeded in delaying time. You see, if we are going to die in the mouths of these monsters, we can now stand back to back, like in the boxing training ground of Macragge Military Camp, right? ? "

Just as they were discussing in a low voice, a deep and loud roar came from Samokuan. The leader of these monsters - the strongest one, whose body was larger than an armored Terminator, opened its three-sided, rock-grinding drill-like mouth towards Samokuan who was trying to gesture something. The six eyes from the three heads before the fusion on the nightmare-like swollen head stared at the boy in front of him with extreme viciousness - although he also had no skin, compared with these deformed monsters, Samokuan, who had a perfect body proportion, the right number of limbs and facial features, and was wearing a human skin cloak, undoubtedly looked too normal.

"Liar! Liar! You - are not - abandoned -! Don't even think about it -! Lie to me -! The beloved - eat! Eat you! Eat you all!"

With the howl of "eat", nearly a hundred monsters around responded to the burning sky.

"We have to help him!" "This monster is too big!" Just when Uriel and Pasanius were almost unable to stop the monster's swift attack that was inconsistent with its body size, an accident happened.

The first claw missed on the hard black volcanic rock, leaving seven deep grooves and flying stone chips, indicating that these claws that were once nails were not just for show. They had the hardness and hunting lethality that should hardly exist in organic matter, but the second claw that followed was blocked by something and could not fall.

"What is that?" The former Ultramarines who were in the middle of the charge blinked in surprise. "Where did he get it from?"

A battle axe formed by white bones, golden and silver streams and blood-red subspace energy held up the monster's claws.

Samokan's eyes shone with silver light like the think tank master Uriel knew, but without the cover of skin, every bone and muscle revealed the direction and flow of the energy in his body.

The boy roared and raised the battle axe high. Uriel saw with mixed feelings that the weapon seemed to have "grown" from the flesh and blood of Samokwan's arm. Although it was held in his hand and swung, the structure of bones and tendons locked the axe handle in the user's hand.

When he focused his eyes on Samokwan's face, he heard Pasanius growl incredulously and angrily, "The blood of the saint..."

Some kind of phantom appeared on Samokwan's skull, as if he was covered with a helmet with horns and sharp teeth. This strange phantom looked like a bull's head at first glance, a dragon's head at second glance, and finally a giant canine's head. The thinner hooves, claws, and huge membrane wings floated around Samokwan like a mirage formed by black mist, as if adding a layer of black and red armor to him.

"That can't be..."

As this frightening sign emerged, Samokan violently swung the huge battle axe in his hand, opened his mouth and let out a battle cry.

"Obey or...die...!"

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The floating spire leading to the central throne room of the Kalan-Gol Fortress is surrounded by a crack hundreds of meters wide. The ever-changing orange-red to golden-red light reflects the bottom and surroundings of the tower filled with the smell of sulfur, coke, metal and something burned into ash - at the bottom of the crack, a stream of molten metal magma is flowing like a river, emitting rolling heat waves and the smell of smelting.

The atrium gate is an iron building taller than any of the arches on the outside. It is made of black iron juice and blood-filled stone, with canine-like spikes emerging one after another. Warrior statues hundreds of meters high are made of the same material, arranged solemnly and repressively in the wide space. In the doorway.

Lifeless steel eyes stared at everyone who passed by from the towering shadows, and the once carefully polished and carved surface was covered with incalculable traces of every time the fortress changed hands over hundreds or thousands of years. Marks of bullets and axes carved during the battle.

Even taller, more terrifying and oppressive than these statues are the two nightmarish Titans. The original beautiful and solemn red and copper colors have been replaced by demonic appearances and inexplicable skin coverings, with additional flesh and blood and pulsations. Their veins suggest that the condition of their interior occupants may be as integrated as their appearance, with the battered and battered banner of the Legio Mortis flying from their bodies, the baleful glances in their metal skulls and the massive cannons in their hands. Direct a hostile visitor to the lord of this place.

Being locked on by the Demon Titan's firepower and pointing at the weapons of the Iron Warrior Guards who were eyeing here did not frighten the Earth Ruler who was walking towards the only bridge suspended above the crisscrossing magma fissures.

Soltarn didn't even have a guard. He came alone and stood in front of the gate.

"Toramino," he began, "I know you can hear me. I know the defenses of this fortress very well. I served here for many years, so don't play that wizard trick and let me in."

A strange, goosebump-inducing chuckle came from the mouth of one of the gargoyle statues on the eaves at the top of the fortress.

"Oh~~~~~ Soltarn, our old stone-breaking craftsman, why do you still want to surrender to me now? Wise move, you still have time to do so. If you lick the soles of my boots well If so, I will consider leaving you a seat next to the throne when I conquer Medlengard.”

The Stonecaller made no comment about the insult. "Open the door, I have something to discuss with you face to face."

"Haha, I'm really impatient, Soltarn. This is not elegant enough, nor is it in line with the etiquette of a noble war blacksmith visiting. But considering that we were once Olympians, I still condescend to grant your small wish. ”

The demonic titan guards on both sides of the atrium gate seemed to have received a silent order from someone, and put down the huge weapons in their hands. With the tooth-breaking piston sound of the transmission joints, they twisted their bodies and stretched out their claw-like hands. , the claw tips got stuck into both sides of the thick steel door weighing dozens of tons.

More black smoke and heat screamed from the demon titan's power chimney, whispering the name of the lord's visitor. The smelly power exhaust gas and suspicious ashes dispersed from the hinge pistons on both sides of the door. On the ground, with the harsh squeaking of the metal being squeezed by gravity, the door finally groaned and slowly opened in front of the visitor.

The Stone Caller slowly walked past the demonic titan that had returned to silence. The pale sunlight and the orange-red fire of the lava accompanied him into the inner hall of the fortress that had now been transformed into a ritual hall.