Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 227 The edge of advancement is forged by sacrifice. This is true for mortals, and so is the angel.
The sky above the main hive complex of Shadenus is now covered with ominous thick black clouds.

The smell of gunpowder smoke, burnt biomass, and roasted iron filled the atmosphere. The main roads of the towering city Zhongchao were no longer filled with tired people rushing to work in factories and noisy people passing by. Kids.

Only the vaguely colored refracted light of the thick void shield that opened from the top of the main hive shone in the air as if mockingly, as if mocking the Imperial Navy's inability to do so.

The two satellite hive cities of the main hive, Miramar and Shirat, have been completely turned into ruins under the joint attack and bombardment of the Iron Hands, Titans and Astra Militarum shouting for the Emperor. Their remains are Mixed with steel, flesh and concrete rocks, mixed with the millions of original residents among them, they fell like broken stone idols into the filthy mire and fire of the factory area and wasteland area leading to the core main nest. The thick smoke was full of debris.

But the hive city has not become deserted and silent - in other words, it is still very noisy, very... noisy, very active.

The musk clouds of "joyful" and "free" rot and blood gathered in every recess and ceiling, filled with the fantasy passions, joyful babbles and innocent victims of mental patients who had completely succumbed to unnatural joyful madness. Screaming and wailing that drives you crazy.

Those who wanted to escape had either fled the planet far away like agile animals before that, while those who were slower or unable to leave had all been caught or killed, dedicated to the god of hunger and thirst. The feast of pleasure was beginning - months ago - with souls and flesh as its dishes.

Everything has become a living hell of Slaanesh corruption due to the false ease and joy afforded by the loss of moderation within and outside the environment.

This super three-dimensional labyrinth city that originally had a population of hundreds of millions has now been reduced to a place filled with chaos eggs, mutants, cultists - oh, sorry, almost no such thing in human form exists anymore, it is so corrupted. Deep, so pervasive, so rich, it's like the entire main nest has turned into a bottle of corrupt wine brewed for the Prince of Darkness. Inside the seemingly normal shell, there is nothing but the wails of ecstasy and pain, desire and raging demonic tides. there is none left.

After playing with everything to their satisfaction, the inanimate beings were killed by the Iron Hands' assault team, and then dissipated, letting out shrill, twisted laughter before leaving the real world, leaving only a mess and human corpses here. Their own remains turned into various flames, flying ashes and colorful dazzling lights and disappeared behind the curtain.

After paying a heavy price - in fact, in the second half of the journey, almost only Raus and the others were left to keep moving forward, and everyone else had fallen - the lower entrance passage to the main nest at the core of the Shadenus nest group was finally opened. After that, there are currently less than 70 of the 136 steel warriors of the Rakuan clan, and all of them are injured. What's worse is that.

The mortals and Titan Legion commanders who were summoned from the outskirts of the city to attack this place with them began to doubt, start to think, and start to guess because they could only see the "truth" in front of them in the ruins. They became dissatisfied because of the guessing. Dissatisfaction brings perversity, perversity leads to self-confidence, and self-confidence brings... disobedience, or betrayal.

The Iron Priest had already completed his inspirational speech with nerve stimulation waves to the remaining mortals who had finally gathered, using some physical methods to forcibly stimulate the tired brains and bodies of the Astra Militarum from the physiological mechanism, so that they could Charging after long journeys and battles will drain them of their remaining physical strength and make the most of the last "effect" these mortals can play after being driven here...

betray.

The Iron Hands were still attacking their only target mercilessly and quickly - their chief think tank, Trachi, was following the request and trying to explore what happened on the top of the main hive. His mental vision was watching before dissipating. The horrific content he received was enough for him to immediately and seriously warn Alvin Ravus Clan Commander to reach the top of the main hive as quickly as possible and at all costs to seal the pain that was caused by billions of mortals. The subspace rift is about to be torn open.

Because in the calculation, they must complete this goal accurately in the shortest possible time and save the entire sub-sector and even other worlds in the entire sector, the Astra Militarum who came to participate in the war were used as bait and died in droves. Even the members of the Titan Legion were sent as expendables under Ravus' ruthless but effective calculations into a cruel battle with no chance of leaving - in order to reach the top level of the main nest center as soon as possible, they did not even have time to follow the standard The tactics are to gradually knock down all the surrounding fortress defense artillery points - as a once rich and prosperous giant hive, the defensive firepower of the Shadenus hive group is very sufficient, and the Titans seconded by Ravus are destined to fall. Here, it becomes a firm stepping point for the Iron Hands on their way to their goal.

Not only the Astra Militarum, but members of the Adeptus Mechanicus were also furious at the loss of the Titan Legion, and it was obvious that at least some of them were involved in some kind of mortal conspiracy.

After re-sending a wave of command orders and encouraging slogans to the remaining warriors, and preparing to use his weapons and steel bodies to crush the next wave of charging chaos eggs and twisted monsters, the clan commander For some reason, Ravus once thought for a moment about the mortal officer who walked into his command post before the war and asked him questions, holding his head high.

There are many medals on the old general's uniform: the top of them is the silver-gray skull that marks the courage in battle, the sword that has completed the mission in the face of enemy fire, and the gun that represents the ability of a marksman. These medals remained on the chest of this mortal officer as he tried to talk to Lavus, and tried to use the things that mortals cared about to arouse mercy in his heart or what he thought was sanity. They reflected the dim light in the command post that imitated Medusa. .

It must be admitted that Lavus did not intend to make the other party feel insulted or slighted during the conversation, but the long service life and the constant replacement of prosthetics for himself and the removal of the weak flesh that made him itchy made the clan The Commander confirmed that he had successfully purged almost all weak mortal emotions from his mechanical body.

Therefore, he did not notice how much he needed to explain to mortals or... at least how much appropriate hints he should give to prevent their minds from being occupied by other things generated by their own thinking. Although at that time, Alvin... Ravus was not unaware that the plan he had devised was entirely fatal, being equally deadly to mortals, Titans, and Iron Hands alike.

Because he has been convinced that the Iron Hand will be the spearhead of sacrifice, and the sacrifice of mortals will make the spearhead faster and sharper.

The commander of Ra'kuan is certain that his mortal and Mechanicus allies understand this too, that sacrifice is painful, but sacrifice is necessary, and as such they will obey his precise orders to sacrifice themselves to victory. With the Emperor.

But the fact that they did not receive the planned support at this moment shows that there are obviously people who cannot understand, but there are also people who obviously understand.

What drove Alvin Ravus to press the weapon's power button again before a calculated retreat was a final cry from Astra Militarum Commissar Heliat and the mortals over the comm channel - "For the Emperor!" and A huge explosion ensued in the main hive's air purification system.

The chunks of flesh that had not yet mutated enough but were present in huge numbers had suffocated in the poisonous air of Shadenus.

The sickening wave of ecstasy washed over him again.

The demons were mixed among the Chaos Eggs, and they used their mouths on various parts of their bodies to chant at them the death of Ferus, the screams of Ferus, and the torture of Ferus.

In an attempt to defeat the spirit of the Iron Hands.

All he got was silence and more wanton and violent attacks.

The unbearable feeling hanging over Shadenus was getting stronger and stronger.

The Iron Hands are getting closer to their goal.

Their numbers are getting smaller and smaller.

The only staircase leading to the top, along with the scroll of Hell, unfolded before the Iron Hands.

(End of this chapter)