Warhammer 40: Shattered Steel Soul

Chapter 44 The Night of Intertwined Fate (4k)

Cruz has never been so eager to come out of his room deep in the countless corridors.

The tyrant Damex listened to the reports of the attendants, the first and then the second, who knelt in rows and announced the desperation of the deposed mad prince.

His fingers were on the golden staff, and the golden staff gave him only heavy coldness.In his memory, Cruz still looked the same as he had many years ago: his smart and clean blue eyes curiously circling under his thick eyebrows, following behind his two eldest brothers, holding the little boy who had just learned to walk. Little sister's little hand.

He didn't know when things went wrong.

Perhaps it started when Cruz suddenly asked him one day if he had seen the eyes in the sky. The child became more and more gloomy, and his temper became especially violent. Sometimes he shouted that the rain of fire would burn all the trees, and sometimes he shouted To kill the moon at night.

When Cruz said his sister was dead, Damex ordered him to be given a tiny house.

The only time he has seen his third child since then was at his naming ceremony.

It was already late at night, and the reason Damex was still awake was because he had received news that his eldest son had been injured in an accident and was returning to the capital.

Based on his understanding of Harkon, it didn't take him a second to guess the truth behind this so-called injury.

He didn't understand what he had done wrong, or where his education had repeatedly gone astray.

The eldest son devotes all his attention to being trapped in the power struggle; the second son is obsessed with art, and has been living in the workshop for a long time in recent days without going out; the third son is crazy; He is not close, and there is always a gap between the two.

Under the mold of Perturabo and his craftsman mentors, Lokos developed at an astonishing speed into a realm like the abode of the gods that Damex had never imagined before.

However, whenever he thought of his children, Damekus felt endless sourness and pain in his heart.

Another squire came running up and told how Cruz, shouting not to let the birds die, broke a bone against the door of his room, and blood poured out of the door.

The tyrant closed his old eyes tiredly, asked the doctor to bandage the mad prince, and asked Cruz to come to him.

-

Andos was always very disturbed. He had not fallen asleep since meeting the girl last night, as if the sweet sleep had gone away from him.

He felt a kind of blind panic and a backlog of emptiness all the time. These complex emotions almost blocked his thinking. He could only feel that things were extremely weird and nothing was working on the right track. .

Simultaneously, his perception of the world around him became so vivid that it became bleak.

Countless information floods into his mind every minute and every second. All colors that he can observe automatically match themselves into thousands of paintings that have not yet been born. The world, the sun, the moon, the lake, or the crowds in the city are all self-serving and desperately squeezed into his material storage, and can't wait to come to this world through artistic re-creation from his hands.

He must never sleep, eat or drink, and sculpt, paint, write, and smear endlessly to shape a thousandth of his thoughts into shape.

Before this, Andos never imagined that he would be driven crazy by artistic inspiration.

Andos knew something was wrong with him, this was not the state he really wanted.

He really loved craftsmanship and creation, but he especially valued kindness and tolerance between people. In his opinion, this was the most natural and beautiful thing in the world.

But in the daytime today, he accidentally discovered that the first time he saw his maid, he actually wanted to seal her in plaster and keep her forever.

Such thoughts deeply tortured his conscience, and he couldn't believe how he could be so obsessed with illusions.However, when he came to his senses, he was already holding the newly forged sword and walking on the road to kill the maid.

He immediately ran away from the road and locked himself in the workshop, throwing the key far away from the window and shaking uncontrollably.

There was a moment when he suddenly wanted to believe in the existence of the gods, hoping that they would bless his soul and sanity and purity of mind: everything he was facing was obviously far beyond the range that ordinary people could deal with.

Then he thought of a man, a craftsman, an all-powerful hermit.

Can that craftsman forgive the sins that he may be born at any time, or has already been born?

Andos didn't know.He wanted to leave the workshop to find him, so he searched everywhere for his key.

He found the key to the workshop in the small sailboat inlaid with gold and silver and inlaid with blood jade, so he felt forgiven and comforted like a boulder falling from his heart.

He held the small sailboat, pushed open the door of the workshop, and walked towards the brightly lit Locus Palace in the deep night under the stars and the moon.The masts on the small sailboats are shining beautifully, shining brightly, and they are the most exquisite.

Then give this little sailboat to Morse, Andos thought.

He was about to ask Morse to help him, and it was better to give such a brilliant handicraft to the true creator of art.How could he himself be entitled to it?

-

Perturabo was awakened by the cannon fire from the sky before being awakened by the sentries.

A bright red light burned under the dark night sky.The earth was shaken by the artillery and battle cries, and the dust particles bounced and fell on the ground like beans. The half-dream and half-awake army spontaneously responded to the enemy's attack. Every machine released the destructive power transformed by fuel and energy, and the shells and gunpowder Into the ranks of the night raiders.

Enemies are constantly falling under the pouring firepower, and no one can survive the rain of fire created by Perturabo himself, not to mention that this is just an automatic defense before the entire army starts to operate, accompanied by invisible radio waves in the position With the rapid spread in the middle, each cell that makes up the colossus of the Locus army is activated in turn.

One by one, the soldiers climbed up from their sleep, grabbing their guns, and silently and quickly joined their positions in the defense.The defense line was further strengthened, and the identity of the attacker was increasingly discovered.

This is not only due to their rumbling calls that are unwilling to stop even during night attacks, but also the remains of some of their iconic technologies inherited from ancient times that prove their origins.

"Ax people." Perturabo propped his hands on the table, reading the reports sent from all over the situation at high speed. While multitasking, sending various instructions to different teams, he cursed the group of familiar stupid enemies. .

It is indeed unexpected that the Caldis people chose to join forces with Akers, but it is also reasonable.

He remembered very clearly that ten years ago, on the way to Lokos with Morse, it was this group of howling and insidious warriors who carried out the attack.The lieutenant-general Miltiades who led the team at that time had sworn that although the Lokos were not good at fighting, they would never let him get hurt.

Thinking of this, his anger began to surge.

After the first round of sustained fire weakened, accompanied by louder and fanatical roars, some of the warriors who had survived the long-range attack relying on the unique protective shields of the Akers climbed up from the holes and rocks on the ground. A furious charge began.

They reorganized their formation, gathered into a group, rushed towards the defensive area from various bunkers and directions, and met the guards on the outer circle hand-to-hand.Once in close combat, the effect of long-range armor loses most of its effect.

Perturabo's carefully designed anti-infantry melee weapon for his warriors was put into action for the first time, and it showed impressive results.

Most of the blades easily hit and cut into the enemy's armor, pulling blood and flesh out of the body. The Lokos were faster and fiercer than Ax, and took the offensive initiative on the defensive side.

Whenever a group of enemies is eliminated, the entire defense line will push forward in the opposite direction, and the troops will quickly regroup, then raise their guns and aim at another group of enemies in the distance.

There were also a few Lokos squads that fell into a hard fight, and Perturabo ordered them to retreat temporarily and reintegrate their fighting posture.

Under the attack of long-range firepower and a new generation of melee weapons that far exceeded the imagination of the Ax people, a small number of the Ax people almost collapsed.Commander Ax directly chopped off the heads of those who escaped to support the morale level of the legion.

In a short period of time, offense and defense began to change shape.

Perturabo noticed that Callifon's vehicle was still unattacked, which reassured him.

The next moment, some dexterous soldiers jumped in from the center of the line, intending to cut into the center of Lokos's army - Kaldis' special force, which was especially good at rear assault.

A team dedicated to handling this situation immediately took action to ensure that no one within a certain distance could fall to the ground.As for the enemies that successfully landed in a few blind spots, they gained more fights and various responses.When a small group was lucky enough to get close to Callifon's chariot, the tracks took care of them.

The battle situation had a clear bias, even if Perturabo deliberately calculated for the opponent, he still couldn't find the chance of victory for this coalition's ambusher troops.

Obviously, the Olympian nations still only have a general estimate, or an underestimate, of the technological development of Locus.

He sat down on the steel chair, not only to savor the sweetness of victory in battle, but also to conserve his energy to prepare for other unexpected surprises.

With such precise strikes, it became all too obvious that there was an insider leak within the military.

After thinking about it, Perturabo dialed Califon's communication.

"Where is the team escorting Harkon?" he asked directly.

"According to their speed, they should have already returned not far from the city of Locus." Callifon's tone was filled with an extremely rare blankness for her.

"He left at just the right time. And I... I tried just now and I couldn't reach him."

Perturabo's chest heaved violently, unprecedented anger was swelling, he could hardly believe that such a thing could happen. "How dare he!" he roared loudly. "This greedy coward, this vile and disgusting traitor!"

"Should we continue the attack?" Callifon asked, "Caldis must have become a huge trap."

"Continue!" Perturabo slapped his palm heavily on the table, "Defending is worse than attacking!"

If there is nothing, the tip of his nose is filled with the smell of sulfur and iron rust, and the strike of the knife and ax seems infinitely far away, but also seems to be close to the ears.

-

Harkon lifted up the camouflage sheet and carefully wiped the dried blood off his face, making his facial skin white and soft again.He put on a luxurious robe, carefully put the silver crown that symbolized the prince back into his well-maintained hair, and then used some makeup powder to smooth out the wrinkles on his face caused by age.

He doesn't like beauty, or in other words, he never cares about his appearance.

What he really cared about, even the slightest mention of it, would fill him with resentment was his increasingly lost status.

As for appearance, this is but the most superficial of several signs of status.

Harkon looked out of the window, and the boundless darkness of night still held the land in its boundless hands.

Lokos appears small and helpless under the cold gaze of countless stars.

However, even such a small kingdom, a kingdom that should have belonged to him, was left behind by his stupid father step by step.

This should be his!As for Damex, he wants to give the country of the Lokos to two monsters who come from nowhere!

Harkon could feel that the jealousy in his heart was like boiling poisonous wine, emitting malicious steam to the surroundings.However, this little bit of moral corruption is far less important to him than the loss of power.

In front of the golden scepter, character is just a fun to laugh at, and what he wants is far more than this worthless thing.

He longs for others to bow their heads in front of him, longing for achievements to be accomplished under his hands.He wants gold and precious stones to roll down from his fingers, crimson grapes to turn into boundless pools of wine, and he wants the praises of all peoples to ring through the sky, but these are all out of reach.

Once he also blamed himself for his suspicion and jealousy.

Now, he doesn't care.

White and clean fingers gently caressed his shoulders, and the dark fragrance lingered around.He closed his eyes in enjoyment and whispered: "The Church of God will return to Lokos, my respected chief priest. No one will dare to tarnish your sanctity."

"And you will become a master, my dear prince," the officiant said cheerfully.Her beautiful light-colored eyes were full of gentle piety, and her raised lips were like blood-red roses.

"We have all heard the instructions of the goddess. Yesterday, I presented the boat to your brother. Oh my god, the goddess actually told us her will. This is the first time in thousands of years-"

The next moment, the officiant's blood spurted out from the broken neck, and the arterial blood splashed directly onto the ceiling. The fragrance immediately turned into a disgusting stench of depravity.

Harkon only felt that the world was hanging upside down for a while, and the severe pain from his limbs took away his fragile consciousness.

The eldest prince rolled to the ground in embarrassment, rolled up into a twisted ball of dirt together with the blood-stained cloth.

Morse grabbed the corner of the cloth sheet and carried the unconscious Halcon bag in his hands, stuffing the bag into the beautiful head of the officiant.

He took a breath and put the last condensation of dirty concepts into a black bag.

The remnants of these powers were far more stubborn than he expected, indirectly telling him that the twisted and dark existence had personally and unstintingly devoted itself to her gaze and attention.

In any case, after the incident, he will spend a period of time dedicated to purifying the pollution of the highest heaven.

Runes flickered on and off his black robes, resisting the whispered chant of joy and anticipation from the hungry and thirsty.

The wink of the starry sky is intimate and resentful.He controlled his will to ignore it, picked up the huge package, walked through the gap between space and space, and rushed to the core place where the fragrance gathered.

(End of this chapter)