Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 478 The Second Person (4K5)
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(Warning: This chapter contains a lot of dad bragging) -
Honsou was now strolling beneath the palace of the ruler of this place, a symbol of his authority and his undisguised ruthless malice toward the entire universe.

When he looked at this place from the camp he had walked out of before, the feeling was different from actually walking in this mountain city - he later discovered that the "Hongsuo" he replaced did not spend too much time on the building materials of the camp, but directly chose to build the camp on a cape surrounded by cliffs on three sides, far away from the main mountain. It was safer and easier to defend but not close to the core, showing the caution of a newcomer - it was quite like what he would do, he thought.

His shiny ceramic steel boots stepped on the winding, crowded, noisy and steep steps of the mountain city. Both sides of the steps were covered with dirt and dust mixed with traces of countless years and countless races, but the center of the steps seemed much cleaner and smoother because of the repeated trampling of people frequently coming and going.

Obviously, even among Chaos Lords, there are huge upper and lower limits to the management abilities of each lord.

The lords here obviously have no objection to allowing alien and mutant mercenaries, prostitutes, thieves, swindlers, robbers and murderers to fill the streets here. Given that this place provides all those who believe in chaos with a trading area that is at least decent and has some rules, this alone has allowed business to grow spontaneously immediately, and commercial and service facilities have indeed flourished under such loose management. There are docks, mobile vendors, missionary areas, fighting cages, trading areas and bar areas. In a place where chaos gathers, it can be said to be half a paradise.

He looked up and saw countless large and small transport boats in the sky, as well as void ships higher up, coming and going, working busily like a swarm of bees bringing honey here.

Compared with the noise and crowds here, Medlengard was terribly desolate and barren. Hong Suo felt like a country bumpkin who had just come to the city from the frontier countryside. Fortunately, he was also proud that everything here was not even worthy of licking a toe of his father and his father's Iron Blood, which suppressed the nameless anger that had just risen in him.

When the rage that made him want to kill an alien prostitute who was flirting with him on the roadside was suppressed by the lazy warmth brought by the Iron Blood and his father, Hong Suo was keenly aware that in this mountain city where even the sky was changing in disorder, the influence of the dark power was open and ubiquitous.

Anyone who is unable to calmly balance his emotions and shows even the slightest crack in his emotional shell will be immediately taken advantage of, and an insignificant inner curse in the soul will quickly turn into bloodshed, murder, or the beginning of a huge conspiracy.

Its specific manifestation depends on which powerful being pays more attention to it.

Therefore, except for slaves and fanatics, there are lost humans here, ranging from Astartes who still bear various insignias of having fought for the Emperor to mortals wearing tattered Imperial Guard uniforms. Every adventurer and mercenary who has not yet lost his mind has a hungry look in his eyes.

Obviously, the blessings received by the lord here came from multiple gods, otherwise it would be impossible to explain the colorful species ecology he saw here and the different temptations he felt. Moreover, the world that only worships a single god often has very obvious characteristics of the dark power it worships. For example, the worlds favored by Slaanesh are completely different from those worlds that pray for the coming of Nurgle, and they are quite easy to identify.

Although Medlengard is known as undivided chaos, it is actually - something seemed to flash in Hongsuo's mind, and he wanted to catch it, but unfortunately he failed. He had to put this unimportant doubt aside and continued to think about it again.

As for when and where this place was, who was the lord of the palace, and whether there were other rulers - before he left the camp, he had asked his Iron Warriors for some information that would not lead them to suspect that he had changed his shell (although they all seemed to be puzzled as to why his armor suddenly looked so new and complete), including but not limited to:
First of all, he, the warsmith Honsou, is still the master of the Kalan-Gol Fortress. From what they said, it seems that the incident of "the Lord of Steel left the palace and the Iron Blood suddenly ran out of the Eye of Terror with the selected Iron Warriors" did not happen during the time when this "Hunsou" was there.

Secondly, he finally found out where they were. This was indeed not the Eye of Terror, but it was indeed in an equally ancient and huge Warp Storm: the Maelstrom.

As a large-scale subspace anomaly that has existed permanently and stably in the center of the Milky Way before the emergence of mankind, has been explored many times in the past, and can be dangerously but arbitrarily flown away from and driven into, the Great Vortex is likely to be a phenomenon entirely produced in the natural process of cosmic development.

That is to say, although it also possesses the evil and polluting properties of the Warp Storm, its degree is slightly "milder" than that of the Eye of Terror, and due to its "stability" and dense matter aggregation mass compared to other large Warp Storms, at any time there will be no less than thirty green-skinned Orc raiding bands, Dark Eldar pirate pocket kingdoms, pirate groups formed by human exiles or lost people, and the like operating in this star field vortex of hundreds of light years. Of course, there are also ancient heretics and traitors.

Based on Hong Suo's limited life and the little information he learned in the Eye of Terror on the other side of the galaxy, there is a large and well-run Chaos warband, the "Red Corsairs", entrenched here, and it is the time when their master is holding the "Harvest of Skulls" feast. The original "Hong Suo" was allowed to enter this area as a contestant of the Harvest of Skulls and had the right to set up a camp.

Therefore, it is obvious who the lord of this place is: the tyrant of Badab, the former guardian of the Great Whirlpool, the original commander of the Star Claws, the current lord of the Red Corsairs, the "Black Heart King" Huron.

After learning the news, Hong Suo actually felt relieved - unlike some legions or Chaos warlords he didn't trust, the reputation of the "Black Heart King" was obviously much more reliable in the eyes of a calm bystander like Hong Suo - even though Chaos itself was unreliable, knowing that this was the capital of Huron, then at least he could hang around for a while to continue collecting intelligence and decide on his next plan.

Then, not only do they have dozens of men stationed here, but the Iron Warriors are coming in an ancient warship that is now waiting for him in the orbit of the planet, which means that Hong Suo actually now has the first option in front of him: announce that he has suddenly received some kind of revelation or remembered that he has something unfinished, and immediately return to the Warbreed with his men and get out of trouble before any trouble or character starts to find him.

But obviously, something as close to cowardice as running away in battle is not something that can be done by a group of Chaos Iron Warriors, especially when you are a half-blood war blacksmith with half Imperial Fists bloodline, and not a respected Iron Blood Potion Master who can "dictate" and "speak his heart out" to the Imperial Fists' First Company and their captain.

He had no doubt that if he really made such an announcement and carried it out, even if he could explain it well as "this was a tactical retreat", his already precarious authority and leadership position would be further questioned, which would put him in an extremely unfavorable position when he was on a void ship or he might even be shot in the back before flying out of the whirlpool.

Especially when he asked which confidants he brought with him this time, the other party only gave a name in his answer, and the person represented by this name made him feel uneasy - if it was really the warrior he knew on the Iron Blood, then no matter what the situation was, he should have been in the camp when Hong Suo woke up, instead of not seeing any shadow of this person when he wandered out. There was something wrong with this, but he didn't know what the problem was.

Moreover, based on the weapons and equipment of the entire camp, he deduced that their ships were in average condition, and regardless of the quality of the supplies they carried, the quantity was definitely poor, which was not friendly for supporting long-distance voyages.

Suddenly, a strong sense of contrast and doubt came to Hong Suo's mind again: Since everything on the Iron Blood, currently called the Destiny Steel, can be so powerful, well-organized and beautiful, then, in this world where "Hong Suo" is located, does the Iron Blood actually also have very powerful strength?

He stopped in front of a roadside bar and thought.

The abilities and things his genetic father displayed on the Destiny Steel were far more than what he had seen. Just the equipment he had on him and everything he could experience there were beyond the technological level of any place in the current universe, and his control over the power of chaos was even very stable.

He suddenly realized where his long-standing resentment came from: Hong Suo had always had a vague intuition, and it was particularly clear at this moment.

If Perturabo wanted to, he could lead the Iron Warriors to conquer more worlds, break through more Imperial defenses, and allow warriors like Honsou to follow him to create more great deeds, realize their own value, and prove that they were as good, as strong, as cunning, and as tough as steel as any Olympian or Terran Iron Warrior. Just one day, he had no doubt that if he exerted all his strength, just one day, within one day, his father could lead his sons from the other side of the galaxy to Terra and tear down all the defenses and walls in front of him - now that the Empire has lost Rogal Dorn and other primarchs and has continued to rot for ten thousand years, if Perturabo is willing to reunite the Fourth Legion and vent his resentment for all the unfair treatment he has suffered on the Empire, he can do so, and no one, none of them can really stop him.

But he didn't, he just stayed there, alone, for ten thousand years.

A strong feeling of sadness, resentment and anger suddenly took over Hong Suo.

Look, look at how Perturabo ended up believing the lies of all those who betrayed him and even his brothers, and gave up everything because of trust, and ended up living in seclusion!

His father was trapped in a palace on a lifeless dead planet, imprisoned for ten thousand years by his unspeakable pain and resentment that had nowhere to go!

So, if this was one of the purposes for which Providence had sent him here, to free the Lord of Steel, his father, from this ultimate bondage, and this required Honso to accomplish a feat that would turn the sun and moon upside down, turn the vortex of the galaxy upside down, and millions or even hundreds of millions of lives might die before then, in order to gain enough power—

The master of potions or the warsmith grinned in the shadow of the mighty fortress-palace of King Huron the Blackheart, like a crown: Let it happen.

First of all--

"Hey!" A harsh voice sounded from behind him, "You're blocking the road! You'll pay for this with your blood!"

The War Blacksmith came to his senses and found that he was indeed standing at the door of the bar. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the person in front of him.

Apparently, saying that Hong Suo was in the way was just an excuse for the warrior to prepare for the killing.

The man was wearing armor that was mainly black, with yellow occupying the main part of his torso. The ancient mark of glory bestowed by the Emperor was broken but still hanging on his body, and the crossed sickles were still faintly visible on his shoulder armor.

But Hongsuo immediately realized at first sight that the soul of this once loyal warrior had been lost in killing and fighting, and was being gnawed by the blood god.

His black and yellow armor was splattered with the blood of the dead, as if he was wearing a dark red robe. His face was covered by the helmet, but two fangs extended long from it. It was difficult for ordinary people to determine whether they were connected to a living organism, but Hong Suo's biological eyepiece immediately told him that this was a canine demon-like tooth mutation. What made him think that this man was hopeless was the mark on the forehead of the helmet. The red skull and the eight-pointed star were eye-catching.

The man held an axe that was still dripping with sticky blood, and his low roar sounded like a harsh roar, "I am a servant of the Skull Throne, Vosok Dahl. Tell me your name, you cowardly bug with a shiny armor, and I will offer your head to my master!"

"Oh. Emperor's Scythe," Honsou replied politely, "I can understand you hate the Zerg. I heard your Chapter and Homeworld were eaten by the Zerg Hive Fleet. But you're here. Apparently, it's a pleasant surprise that there's still an Emperor's Scythe alive. What a pity."

The former potion master smacked his lips.

"But perhaps contaminated samples are also worth collecting, and it's worth a try."

"Stop talking nonsense! Hand over your skull!" Dahl said harshly, and his axe chopped down at the warsmith who didn't even seem to be carrying any melee weapons at the extremely fast speed that was unique to the warriors favored by Khorne without losing strength.

The Iron Warrior didn't even dodge or move his feet. He raised his arm and firmly caught the axe blade that was coming towards him.

The servos of the custom power armor hummed softly, the reactor power level rose slightly, and the people in the bar and on the sidewalks looked up from their plots of revenge, murder and destruction, and their excitement at the prospect of bloodshed turned into murmurs of surprise.

The beheading axe blessed by the Blood God began to spread from the part that touched Hong Suo's palm, like acid dripping into lye, losing its dark red luster like smoldering coal, and soon became an ordinary weapon. Dahl made a sound similar to shock, "This power, you are His..."

"No, I am definitely not a servant of the false emperor."

Hong Suo smiled. He could do a lot of things at such a close distance, such as pulling out his pistol and shooting off half of the other person's head, and then reaching into the exposed flesh and blood to take out his gene seed.

This final behavior made many of the spectators who were watching him frown, but some people also understood it very well.

After he got up from the corpse and put the two mutated gene seeds into a bottle for preservation, he turned to a corner.

"How long do you plan to watch the show?"

(End of this chapter)