Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 483 War Blacksmith, You Have Intrigued Me
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Luft Huron's current strange appearance occupied so much of Honso's attention that he was not brought back to his senses until Vannus gently touched him from a clever angle. He found that he had been staring at the broken lips of the Badab tyrant as he spoke, and the acidic saliva dripping from them as he spoke, and guessing what he was thinking for a long time.

- Mainly, in the hall where everyone knelt on one knee and saluted the owner of this place - even the Blood God Champion Uluwente, who was at the most intense level of anger just now, expressed his respect for the Blackheart King in this way, although he did not seem to be so happy about it.

And now, Huron's hoarse and broken voice was saying the last sentence of this speech. "...I don't care who you were or what you did before you got here. The Skull Harvest Feast is about the strong."

This voice was once full of power, and even though its owner was shot in the face by the composite melta gun of Captain Androcles of the Star Phantom Regiment and turned into a festering body, the experience of being rescued from death only destroyed his physical shell, but did not reduce the invisible appeal that his posture, voice and words brought to others.

It was with his impassioned speech that Luft Huron, once the guardian of the Maelstrom, persuaded the three Space Marine regiments, the Mantis Warriors, the Executioners and the Lamenters, to join the Star Claws, whose strength had already been greatly expanded, thus opening the prelude to the Badab War that affected the entire Maelstrom and its surrounding star regions.

This was the most serious Space Marine civil war in the Imperium's recent history. It took twelve years for the Imperium to finally put down the rebellion launched by the tyrant, as it had deployed all or parts of the other twelve Space Marine Chapters into the battlefield, with three of them even disbanded in the process - and deployed the Inquisition and its subordinate Stormtroopers, two Imperial naval fleets and countless mortal armies.

Considering that Luft Huron was actually only a little over 200 years old, with only a little over 100 years of operation, and that he had only ever launched one serious war against the Empire, this achievement is truly remarkable.

Not to mention that after everyone thought he was dead, his loyal Forge Master Valthex took his remains and more than 200 remaining soldiers and escaped into the Maelstrom with almost nothing. In just a few decades, the Red Corsair Warband withstood the harassment of large and small Greenskin kingdoms, Dark Eldar pirates, and other Chaos Space Marines (such as the Word Bearers), and rebuilt New Badab to its current prosperous scale.

Now, as shown by this new Palace of Thorns, every day countless Chaos warbands, alien tribes or pirates are willing to serve the Lord of the Red Corsairs. They use the Great Vortex as their base, attack everywhere, hunt for various resources, prey, treasures, weapons and equipment and ships, and return here to offer their tribute to the master of the new Badab.

And now, this heroic figure with extraordinary willpower apparently showed some interest in Hong Suo and Wannas who were standing there in a daze.

Unlike the usual Chaos tyrants who made a lot of nonsense, sarcasm, insults, or simply launched attacks, the Red Corsair King stood up from the throne with two attendants beside him, and slowly walked towards them with the greatest majesty that a seriously injured and weak person could achieve.

Wherever his huge, tube-lined body passed, Chaos warlords and alien leaders saluted him, expressing a kind of respect and flattery that was too artificial and purposeful to be decent to the organizer and issuer of the skull feast.

When Hong Suo's eyes met the tyrant's battered eyes, a feeling of accelerated heartbeat and buzzing blood instantly attacked the warsmith. His power armor servo started to work alertly, and began to inject the necessary potions into him from the spine, and automatically turned on the power armor's psychic purification device. When his psychic protection was turned on, the thin woman standing next to Huron narrowed her golden eyes, withdrew her originally uninterested gaze from a certain point in the warp, and stared closely at this little Space Marine who didn't seem to have much attack power.

Hong Suo blinked, calmed himself, and found that the Blackheart King's almost lipless mouth was giving him a friendly smile of a superior.

——It is still more convincing and more soul-cleansing to see such a smile on my father’s noble face.

Only then did Hong Suo notice that the troops gathered around them had quietly dispersed, forming a trend surrounding the two of them and the tyrant. He raised his arm and placed it on his breastplate, bowing to the other party - the host could still get some respect in his own home. After all, apart from making him climb such a bad staircase, Huron's hospitality and palace environment so far did not make Hong Suo feel that there was anything particularly offensive.

Huron first looked at Wannas, and when his eyes swept across the red cross on Wannas' shoulder armor, the Blackheart King nodded.

"Adalic Vannus, you have been quite active in various places below the mountain recently. I know you, the son of Clarks who serves the Prince of Darkness. You have served me before. Is this your new employer?"

"Yes, my lord." The Raven Guard bowed gracefully to his former employer. "I now serve the Warsmith."

"Very well, but you must remember that the Dark Prince is an equally jealous and possessive master, Murkrow. Perhaps your master is not as worthy of your loyalty as the power you originally served."

"I will remember your advice, sir. Thank you for your warning."

If it was the half-blood Honso who had come here to gain an opportunity and an army to carry out his crazy revenge plan, he would certainly have been unable to restrain the tyrant's subtle provocation of emotions and loyalty. But now the war blacksmith just stood aside, studying Huron and his demon pet with the precise interest of a dissecting scalpel, leaving Vannus standing there a little embarrassed to deal with his former employer.

The strange animal jumped around angrily on Huron's sharp iron halo and his power backpack, showing a primitive anxiety and helplessness. The expression on Huron's face became more unpredictable. "Hamadriya is very interested in you."

Honso looked up and found that Huron's actual height was much higher than his original physique because of the machinery, bioengineering and black magic that repaired his body. Even though Honso's height was normal for a Space Marine, his head only reached Huron's broken red breastplate.

He raised his head, his eyes passing over the working tubes in the jaw and neck of the Blackheart King, almost completely replacing the muscles and bones, and turned to the animal. He realized that this was what Huron was referring to, and his own medical auspicious instrument told him that this was a unique species of Warp Demon. Interesting, a special companion demon? It seems that part of the vitality that Huron recovered from his death was not entirely from the help of human technology. Well, because of this special companion... perhaps it is more necessary to study...

An invisible smile gradually climbed up the corners of Hongsuo's mouth, and Hamadria became even more uneasy. This creature, which originally looked like some kind of small bipedal reptile with black eyes, began to jump, swinging its tail and constantly changing its skin color and spot colors. It was colorful, like a rapidly changing irregular kaleidoscope, and its speed of change was so fast that it made the onlookers dizzy.

But seeing that Hong Suo remained unmoved and continued to observe it with disturbing interest, it began to hiss and rapidly change its appearance: first a snake (the medical biological label showed that it was a king cobra), then a creature that looked somewhat like an ape (the auscultator kindly pointed out that it was a Terran Egyptian baboon), then a falcon, and finally it turned into a creature that no one expected: a huge colorful butterfly with two huge golden eye spots on its fragile colorful wings. Now the wings were slowly flapping towards Hong Suo, expressing the most ancient biological instinct of the weak using their last resort: camouflage to scare away their natural enemies.

"A rare and impressively transformed pet, my lord." Huron's face darkened. The silent follower beside him took a step forward. This was a warrior wearing heavy Terminator armor, with a pair of huge fangs protruding from the chin of his Unyielding helmet. "How dare you speak to my master like that!"

"Who am I talking to? This..." Honso's slightly accented but polite voice once again made Huron's eyes full of assessment.

"I am Tagoron, one of my lord's attendants." The warrior who called himself Tagoron made a rumbling sound from under his helmet. It was more like an echo from the distant warp than a human speaking. Hongsuo nodded.

"Isn't your body... combining too quickly recently? It will eventually begin to affect your brain and heart. You'd better choose a master and sign a contract as a lifeless person before you completely transform. Of course, I think you will definitely choose your master first, right?"

Before Tagoron could figure out how to answer this sudden question, another person next to Huron spoke.

She was extremely tall and had long black hair that cascaded down her back, almost to the ground. Although she was actually very beautiful, her skin was stretched tight to her bones by her skin and cheeks, which severely reduced her otherwise stunning beauty. Her green robes hung unfittingly on her shoulders like fluffy curtains. In addition to an ebony staff with a skull with two horns on it, she also had a pair of eyes that shone with spots of golden light, and now these eyes and the gold in them were looking at Hong Suo.

"Oh, Targon, do not be rash. This is a... blessed one." She spoke softly, but somehow the sound was like a whisper of gossip that reached everyone in the throne room. "But I cannot see which god is protecting him." She slowly closed her eyes. "I can feel a very strong... thread of fate, very strong... yes... very strong... How could anyone... You are so bright...! So bright! The stars are so bright! With the brightest one... your fate! It is destined to be woven into the fate of the greatest men and their deeds, and the fate of the fall of empires!"

Honso raised an eyebrow calmly. "Thank you for your prediction, ma'am, although I think it's all nonsense."

The Blackhearted King showed an evaluating look again. He stretched out his right hand, which was wearing a huge, sharp power claw. It was a weapon called the Tyrant's Claw, with the Eye of the Great Vortex inlaid in the center and surrounded by eight-pointed starlight. Under it, at such a close distance, Hong Suo smelled the strong smell of promethium fuel, indicating that there was an inconspicuous flamethrower outlet hidden in it. There was also an invisible and uncomfortable feeling of ghosts on the sharp claws. Hong Suo guessed that there might be some credit for the Chaos Forging Ceremony and the souls contributed by the defeated. And the rough scan of his auspicious instrument also supported his guess.

The claw entangled by the ghost now lifted the chin of the war blacksmith, flashing dangerously, and turned his head left and right, observing him carefully, as if observing some rare new species. Hong Suo showed a serenity that made people around him admire him very much, and allowed the other party to look at him so rudely until the claw left his cheek.

"Why do you say that my prophet's words are all nonsense? You know, before she joined my camp, she was famous for being a talented astropath and fortune teller. Even I am very happy to listen to her description of the future."

"Oh, as expected." Hong Suo nodded.

"As expected?"

"Her original identity - well, I say it is nonsense because this is what should happen, my lord." The warsmith bowed again, "My destiny is to serve the greatest man, assist him in his achievements, and make the current empire no longer exist. There is no doubt about it."

The Blackheart King was no doubt smiling, "You have a rather grand vision, Honso, and I am impressed by your composure."

"My pleasure."

The Badab Tyrant nodded, then began to slowly walk back to his throne and climb the steps.

He raised the Tyrant's Claw and Huron's Axe towards the people who had raised their heads and were staring at him again. The power of the Warp and the kinetic field shone together on the blades of these two legendary weapons.

"Any warrior who dares to walk onto the Skull Harvest Feast Arena and expose his neck will draw his weapon on the thorny arena when the vortex eye opens. Fight, bleed, sacrifice. The weak will only die. The winner will obtain all the power and spoils I have promised."

Huron looked around at the people who were beginning to get excited again and replaced the fear and anxiety in the throne room with bloodlust and greed. His sharp teeth without lips seemed to be smiling. "The gods are watching us, everyone, cheer and have fun before the harvest begins."

All cheered and called out their gods or the titles of the Hurons.

Only Hong Suo turned his head and commented to his companions in an incredible tone, "What did he promise? It seems that he only provided the venue and the convenience of getting other spoils at one time, but in fact, the winner takes all the troops brought by the loser himself."

Vannus looked at him with a pleading expression that said, "I know you're smart but can you go back and be smart again?"

"I will stay." Hong Suo nodded. "Apart from this case, this technique that my father calls "getting twice the result with half the effort" is very worth learning."

(End of this chapter)