Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 491 Katarina (4K6)
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There is another thing that proves that this grove is indeed a strange existence.

The four visitors were all powerful and experienced warriors, and they were always aware of their own walking speed.

Nevertheless, they soon discovered that even though their minds remained somewhat lucid due to Hong Suo's potion, their bodies would involuntarily begin to move in circles along a certain trajectory, which greatly increased the distance they needed to walk and would also cause their shooting field of view to require more additional corrections, rather than setting shooting lines as their naked eyes should have deceived their brains into seeing a straight route - so if they did not discover this and planned to attack the witch's residence in advance, they would definitely miss the target. This might be one of her defensive measures.

At the same time, they also discovered that this strange dead forest always appeared to be an ordinary gray dead wood texture in the center of their field of vision, but when you turn your eyes to the other side, you will see some crooked stalagmites that seem to be engraved with spells in your peripheral vision.

"If that's the truth, it makes sense." Grendel reluctantly leaned forward along the spiral route with the others to the cave in the center of the stone hill. Now they could see the cave entrance, but they still had to go around half a circle according to their route. "I was shocked at first, and I thought she was really powerful enough to create an ancient forest that lasted for a long time here. Now it seems that she is just pretending to be a ghost."

Obviously, if there are visitors who have not discovered the scam of this witchcraft maze or visitors with bad intentions, the former will begin to respect the power of the owner of this place, and the latter will give the owner of this place more time to prepare.

“Perhaps the woods represent some kind of imagery and ritual in witch magic,” said Vannas, who also carefully observed his surroundings and warned others, “Don’t try to see clearly what’s in your peripheral vision.”

Atasia tilted his head to show that he accepted the warning from the former Raven Guard, who was also the Dark Prince's servant, but he immediately became bored again, "Grendel. I thought you would use more insulting words to describe the warmaster you hate, such as a stray dog ​​with its tail between its legs. Your words just now were so elegant that I am not used to it."

The Iron Warriors' chief of staff gave him an impolite and obscene threatening gesture. "When Thortan led us in the worship service, he repeatedly warned us to be cautious in using such words. I'm worried that I'll slip up if I get used to it, so I'll just stop saying it."

For the first time, Atasiya's beautiful face, which was mostly covered by a black leather mask inlaid with silver studs and always smiled and enjoyed the fun around her, wrinkled her nose and revealed a subconscious disgust, as if Grendel had just told him that he had to wear full power armor and a helmet properly, and paint himself a certain color according to the regulations of the Bible.

"'Church'?! Listen to what you are saying, like some disgusting preacher or a rotting fanatic! Grendel! I thought you were an Iron Warrior!"

"Of course I am." The Armed Chief was obviously very happy to disgust Ataxia, "and I am made of steel inside and out!"

But then he stopped being happy, because the Dark Prince's champion swordsman seemed to be thinking of something else behind his mask, "Is Soltarn your boss? You listen to everything he says? So you can be so obedient? You are made of steel inside and out...? Not as good as us..."

"Bah!" Grendel's face twisted into a sarcastic smile, and he took a big step forward - the never-ending quartz wind on this planet immediately slapped his shoulder armor with dense and fine sounds. At the same time, they saw that the yellow and black striped paint coating on Grendel's shoulder armor that was exposed outside Hongsuo's medical defense position was quickly worn away, revealing the underlying silver-shining metal essence.

"If you can also let me be struck by mysterious lightning and unable to get out of bed for several days just because I cursed stupid dogs in my heart when I was praying, I will also obey you. Don't think that I won't curse people if you don't use this word, your head is full of (didi——) stinky (didi——) words."

Atasiya's face straightened up with a serious expression, "How can we have such solid protection and such effective gaze? Who is the powerful person that the Iron Warriors worship now?" He looked at the other two teammates from behind the leather mask with an inquiring gaze.

Hong Suo shook his head.

"Shh. No more chatting, we have arrived at a wizard's doorstep."

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They cautiously passed through the strings of small things hanging high and low from the dark rock cave ceiling. They were connected by ropes of different materials and hung here.

Bones, crystals, shells from various unknown creatures, amulets from various races in the universe, exquisite Eldar craftsmanship or advanced technological products, as well as rough engravings of scavenger races or a simple piece of blood-stained paper, together they formed a huge, layered wind chime-like curtain, which collided with each other when the strong wind blowing outside the cave and the visitors constantly passed through them, making a tinkling and irregular ancient singing.

"Hmm. Wait."

Just as they were about to pass the last curtain of amulets, Hong Suo asked the other three companions to stop.

Before them was a darkness so thick that even the eyes of the Astartes and the scans of the Auspex could not penetrate it, but the smoke of incense, like the scented wood burned in ancient religious ceremonies, was slowly drifting out of it.

"The space-time ahead is distorted." He said, "I will go in alone, you guys stay here to support me."

"Then we should all go in together," said Grendel, and though he looked very uneasy and reluctant, he tightened his grip on his axe.

"Why? I thought you called me here because you wanted to borrow my swordsmanship. Oh, how sad. It turns out you just don't trust me?" Atasiya asked.

"But from another perspective, it shows that your ability is trusted, Atasia." Honso replied. "Stay here with them and wait for me to come out. If I can't come out, you two should take him back to orbit and let Grendel take you directly to Medlengard."

Vannus nodded, "Go with your judgment and intuition. Don't worry about this."

Hong Suo did not tell his companions the data and things he saw on his medical goggles. It did not help, but it was indeed not suitable for them to go in together.

He subconsciously took a deep breath to calm his mind completely, then walked into the darkness.

As he continued forward and crossed the "boundary", a familiar feeling of dizziness and disabling came over him: very similar to the time when he was blown away by the warp storm of the Great Rift, but much less severe.

He subconsciously raised his arm and looked upwards, but he couldn't see what should be behind him on the reflective surface of the screen: his teammates should be only a few steps away from him, and the light from the sky outside should be able to outline the silhouettes of the three of them, but there was nothing behind him, and now there was only darkness all around him.

He took a few more steps forward, and a slightly surprised voice sounded in the darkness.

"How did you get here so quickly? Are you an Iron Warrior? Weird... Just stand there."

Hong Suo thought about it, then stopped and waited patiently.

The voice fell silent, then started again.

The Warsmith stood there, squinting his eyes and looking around him. It was as if an invisible hand began to light up an invisible light. Starting from where he stood, everything in the surrounding world gradually began to turn into recognizable entities.

Shapes, textures, colors, details, smells…

"Huh?" The voice sounded even more surprised. "Go ahead, Iron Warrior's... Honso. Come here."

So the master of medicine took a step forward and continued to walk forward. The true appearance of the cave inside the building gradually began to reveal itself to him, just like he was a bright lamp, giving color and light and shadow to everything in black and white here. Every giant stone that made up the interior of the cave was engraved with countless lines of dense scriptures, spreading into the shadows in the distance. The words and the knowledge and memories they carried were endless, and products made by humans could be seen everywhere, as if humans were the most abundant resource here.

There were books and scrolls made of human skin, chandeliers, cabinets, tables, chairs and other furniture made of bones, the brains and blood of corpses were put into medicine bottles, and the yellow fat was made into lamps. There was also a whole set of wet and bloody internal organs spread out on the human bone table. Hong Suo took a glance and recognized that these were the remains of an unsuccessful internal organ divination.

But overall, it looked like a 'normal' wizard's room, no more than a Chaos Astartes Lord would have seen during his daemon planets and his plundering expeditions.

- After all, do you think the biggest source of human skin scrolls and human oil candles on Medlengard is the Empire's ready-made transport ships?

He turned his gaze to the other end of the room, and through the purple bonfire that was burning morbidly in the center of the cave, he saw a hunched creature hidden under a rag of unrecognizable color.

"Moriana?"

The creature made a slightly annoyed wheezing sound from the shadows and stood up shakily. Her hood fell over her messy, sparse hair, and the purple firelight illuminated the old woman's face. Hong Suo realized that she was wearing a wrinkled, tattered long dress that might have once been green.

"Of course it's me. But why are you here?" she chided. "You don't even smell like a newborn! Why are you here? You're not bringing the right person!"

Hong Suo stared at the prophet's face. Fortunately, she could not see his expression at the moment, because the prophet Moriana's eyes had been gouged out long ago. On her pale, old, and bumpy face, which looked like a rough piece of iron that had been hammered repeatedly, there was only a frowning expression.

"A newborn," Honso repeated.

"Yes, newborn. You must have been guided to me by it because it inherited the memory of Uriel Ventris."

"Uriel Ventress is an Ultramarines and a follower of the Corpse King. What is his relationship with you? Is it really because you once served the Corpse King?"

The witch coughed in dissatisfaction, and with an unpleasant spitting sound, she spat a large mouthful of thick black phlegm into the fire. The muscles in the master's eyebrows twitched.

"Uriel Ventris and his companions were once sent to kill me, but he failed. However, he memorized the star map here, so you should have been brought here by the newborn."

Her aimless face began to look into the darkness.

"Where is it? I can see its star, this new star is so bright, more powerful than the last time I divined it, they need it...but where is it? Why is it not standing with you? Without your silver hand to heal it, its brain cannot bear the knowledge and power, it will begin to disintegrate in itself...you must find it! Then you can go."

Moriana began to slowly turn back to her original position, "Don't come again until you find the newborn!"

"Well," Honso said slowly, and something he noticed from the prophet's words made him smile. "First, can you tell me the information I want to know, and then we can talk about this 'newborn' you mentioned?"

The witch sneered, "Bargaining? Who do you think you are? Even the Great Plunderer would listen to my divination results in front of me and mix countless powerful souls according to my instructions, and you are just an insignificant half-blood who thinks you are very smart just because you read a few ancient books in your shabby little castle. When I stood in front of the Golden Throne, the cells that made up you were still floating in the sewers of some underground nest!"

"Caterina Moliana," Honsou pronounced one of the names displayed by the medical goggles, and was satisfied to see the prophetess freeze in place as if struck by lightning. "Have I read enough books now, ma'am?"

"This is impossible!" Her wrinkled lips trembled, revealing half of her rotten teeth. She spat at Hong Suo and grabbed some salt and threw it at him, as if he was an ominous thing. "Get out of here, damn ghost! You are not welcome here! Why are you here again!"

"Aha. I'm not a ghost, Moriana." The master potion master's patience was not very good in front of this weird witch, or it might be due to some other reasons. In short, he did not stride closer to threaten the elderly lady for the time being, and it was definitely not because he couldn't.

"I don't believe it," she muttered, and began to throw more dried herbs at him, from which the master potion master's nose detected the scent of expired verbena, sage, nettles, thyme, wild poppy, and St. John's wort. "Go away, you ghost! Put the right people in your place."

"I am a living person." He felt that his patience had never been so good. "Or if you want me to leave, tell me how to find the Three-Lifer M'ka. I know it is imprisoned in a large mobile fortress. Tell me how to track it and find it, and I will leave here immediately."

Moriana fell silent, and turned to Hong Suo with a prophetic and aimless face. "Isn't this very clear to you?" The witch showed a vicious but complacent smile, indicating that she probably guessed the intention of the war blacksmith. "Why are you asking me?"

"If I had more clues do you think I would ask you?"

"Well, as I said, I will tell you the clues you want to know, and you will go find the newborn, bring it with you, and heal it."

"Heal it, and then what?"

"Then things will develop naturally," Moriana showed that triumphant smile again, "this new star... will make those who were forced to suffer humiliation regain the victory and glory they deserve."

Hong Suo nodded and said, "I promise you, so tell me now, don't beat around the bush."

"Then come closer. Men's words are always unreliable. I need blood as a guarantee of my oath."

The master potion master and warsmith's face crumpled in disgust, and luckily the witch couldn't see him, so he reluctantly let himself move a little closer and leaned down.

When he saw the witch's bird-claw-like fingers with curled nails and centuries of dirt that had not been cleaned, he could hardly control his hands from wanting to turn on the disinfecting light.

Moriana's bony hands stroked Honsou's face, tracing his strong hooked nose, thin lips, and beautiful, strong jawline.

Just as the Warsmith couldn't stand it anymore and was about to stand up, she scratched his face.

Scarlet blood flowed down Hong Suo's face and the witch's fingers. A long living tongue squirmed out of her mouth, greedily tasting the blood on her fingertips.

She moaned intoxicated by the powerful taste of ambition and destiny.

(End of this chapter)