How can a retired savior be considered retired if he drops to 40,000?

But she waited for a few seconds, and the raven still stayed there without saying anything, which made her a little angry: "What a great attitude! Can't you really speak? This is very interesting. When we meet the Primarch of the Night Lords tomorrow, I hope you can also maintain this precious-"

----

Her words were interrupted by another voice. And, at this moment, she also completely understood why Raven had chosen to remain preciously silent for a long time before:

A strange and terrifying loud noise shook the air and furnishings in the infirmary, and everything in the room seemed to tremble because of the loud noise. The sound seemed to not only echo in reality, but also directly resound in the souls of the people present. It is difficult to describe the creepy sound in words. It is so obscure that Jeanne Alter and Sevata, after being shocked, had to spend three or four seconds to think and distinguish before they realized that it was the raven "speaking".

"What did you say--"

Corvus Corax asked in a voice that emerged from the shadows.

This sound, which resounded simultaneously in front of and behind the curtain, carried a strong sense of resentment and anger that could be clearly felt by anyone who listened. It could almost destroy a weak mind in an instant.

Miu (no more)

At present, Chaldea actually does not have more than 393 Heroic Spirits, this is just what Black Jeanne said. As of the time period of this chapter, the current Heroic Spirit Base number in the Japanese server is only 1.7, and we have to consider the ones that occupy the place, such as Solomon, Goetia, Tima, etc., which exist but cannot be drawn in the card pool, and discuss issues such as whether the swimsuit Heroic Spirit Base and the main body are counted as one person or two people...

But who knows, maybe by the end of the second part, there will really be more than 400 people... ?

By the way, the way Yaya speaks at the moment is basically a low-end version of Old Man Huang’s telepathic voice transmission.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 157: The Regent is Not Completely Warp-Isolated

When Robouti Guilliman received the warning of an explosion inside Galatan Star Fortress on Macragge's Glory, the time on the ship showed that it was already late at night on the fourth clock.

There is no difference between day and night in the void, and working hours are divided artificially. On this basis, managers only need to skillfully stagger the work and rest time of the staff serving the operation of this behemoth, so that the entire starship can have enough manpower to respond to work at any time in a reasonable and healthy way.

Some clocks were set up on the Macragge's Glory to mark these artificially created "time differences". Among them, the fourth clock, according to Guilliman's own observation, was considered to be the most consistent with Fujimaru Ritsuka's current schedule. The Imperial Regent felt a little reluctant to get her out of bed in the middle of the night on the fourth clock to respond to an alarm message that everyone had expected.

Physiologically, she is still just a child who has not yet reached adulthood and may never reach adulthood.

But let's be honest. Although he thought of this, the Imperial Regent still issued an order to contact the Storm Brink and summon Fujimaru Ritsuka, just like when he received an urgent military intelligence report, he would mercilessly recall the naval officers he had just let go to rest. Then, he stood up from his seat, behind his desk piled with complicated government affairs, and announced that he would go to the scene to take a look.

He had already argued with his guards about this matter and reached a conclusion. Therefore, after he issued the order, Hill and Sicarius, although obviously reluctant, slowly moved to his side with a team of silent sisters, ready to set off together.

He would not bring more men with him for this. They were going to face another Primarch, perhaps two. This matter should be kept as secret as possible, and even if he brought more men with him, it would not have any decisive significance in terms of security when facing the Primarch.

But strangely enough, the "explosion" that finally occurred on Galatan Fortress made all those who knew about it feel relieved. Knowing that similar losses were bound to happen, when it actually happened in reality, it gave people a sense of finality. What Guilliman needed to confirm now was just how much damage Galatan Fortress had suffered in this incident.

As early as when they left the cell holding Konrad Curze, Fujimaru Ritsuka warned him that these protections were not reliable enough for one Primarch who understood the nature of his own warp, let alone two. At the end of their private conversation in the secret room, she emphasized similar words, saying that unless the dungeons of Terra Palace were moved to Galatan Star Fortress, it would be impossible to prevent the "certain" battle between Curze and Corax. Guilliman also adjusted his strategy on this matter: from "strict defense" to "damage control". Now it is time to examine the final results.

They arrived at Galatan Star Fortress through the warp platform, and walked towards the area temporarily designated as a prison with a clear goal, and of course they did not encounter any obstacles. But then, Guilliman found that the reason for the fact that they "did not encounter any obstacles" was not only due to his own identity and authority, but also because when they arrived here, the whole thing was actually close to the end.

When faced with the accusation from the Primarch himself, "Why didn't you tell me the news at the first time?", Marius Gage, the first Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, who had been stationed here as part of "damage control", and the twenty Cursed Ultramarines he led, all shrank back at the same time.

"At the time of the incident, the violent subspace fluctuations caused almost all communication equipment to stop working." Relying on his strong ability to withstand pressure, Captain Gage began to tell half-truths without blushing or beating his heart. "We repaired the equipment as much as possible, and only after the intensity of the local subspace storm decreased did we resume communication with the outside world."

The part about the equipment being shut down due to the warp fluctuations was true, but Chapter Master Gage was vague about the extent of the equipment being shut down. The Primarch himself may have discovered this, or may not have, but the result is that he did not pursue the matter further, but instead turned his attention back to observing the scene:

During this time, the battlefield between Curze and Corax had moved from Curze's solitary cell further down to the upper level where a large number of Night Lords were imprisoned. The vast space was squeezed by some invisible atmosphere, making people panic for no reason. Even Guilliman could feel this strange pressure.

In addition, there was a distinct smell of blood in the air. Some equipment and cell walls were inevitably damaged in the battle between the two Primarchs, but only a few Night Lords ran out, and they obviously had no intention of fleeing further - they all gathered around their Gene Father.

Surprisingly, Curze himself - almost unrecognizable to Guilliman, who identified the two brothers present by some inexplicable feeling rather than his own sight - seemed to have a protective attitude towards these broods huddled under his bat wings.

This was not the only surprising part. If Guilliman had not seen the raven who thought he was "Corvus Corax" beforehand and had not been reminded by Fujimaru Ritsuka, he would never have realized at the first time that the two... things currently lurking in this vast ruins would actually be his brothers.

In this wave of warp that interweaves with reality, Konrad Curze has almost lost his human form. In Guilliman's senses, he is in a darkness that is darker than black. No light can escape from it, and naturally no one knows the true nature of the darkness - but precisely because of this, this amorphous darkness makes people feel terrified from the bottom of their hearts. This is not information that can be conveyed by physical senses, but information that is directly infused into the soul of the viewer. The darkness is like a loyal but cold mirror, stubbornly reflecting the horror and sin in the viewer's heart, and as if slowly dragging the other party into it.

Even though he could remain calm under such pressure, the instinct of seeking benefits and avoiding harm that a living creature should naturally possess forced Guilliman to look away after a brief gaze. He tried to observe his other brother, but found that Corax's appearance was not much better. Unlike the raven he had seen before, which was "at least part of him", this Corax obviously looked closer to the Primarch in terms of size, but still far from the pale, quiet brother that Guilliman remembered.

He had almost completely lost his power armor, and apart from the broken and dysfunctional armor pieces, his entire body was covered in pure black crow feathers, which could hardly reflect any light from the outside. A pair of bird wings also stretched out behind him, similar to Sanguinius, but the feathers on them were also black. He seemed to have a physical body, but this physical body was changing size unsteadily with the nearby subspace waves, just like a dark candle flame flickering, almost melting into the darkness.

“You’d better not let your ladies get too close.” A distant and eerie voice came from the darkness that represented Curze, but after Guilliman had done his best to remove the influence of the Warp on his mind, he realized that the tone of this sentence sounded strangely calm. “The unresolved feud between the two of us is one thing, but our young brother is obviously... mentally unstable at present.”

This is a strange thing to say. Guilliman couldn't help thinking this, but he didn't say it out loud. Because the next cracked, broken and blurred roar that trembled from the warp made the best annotation for this comment:

"I'm going to kill you."

Wrapped in black feathers, Corvos Corax had almost completely transformed into some kind of subspace creature. Regardless of the occasion, he let out a shrill scream that shocked everyone's mind.

Meow (six o'clock)

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 158 A Family Ethics Drama

The waves of the warp rolled up again because of the roar of a Primarch from the depths of his soul, and the dim lighting around him flickered in response. The despair and misery of Corax, through this sound, pierced directly into the hearts of everyone present - except for the Sister of Silence, almost no one could react effectively for a while, even Robert Guilliman himself.

But he was not the only Primarch present.

"This is between you and me," said Curze. His voice seemed distant, as if it came from both reality and behind the curtain. "If you wish me dead, then come and kill me. Only after I, the one who should judge them, die, can you touch my offspring!"

What followed was the next round of vibrations filled with anger and pain. This vibration did not come from a specific location, but from the space itself. In the few seconds when everyone was unable to move, the vortex formed by the crow feathers quickly and repeatedly impacted another piece of darkness that was darker than black, and countless formations that could be the source of fear emerged from the latter, resisting all attacks one by one.

"What about my offspring?"

Similar words can be vaguely discerned in Corax's roar:

"Istavan-Number Five-My-Legion-"

At that moment, the black crow feathers swelled up, and Corax's body was swallowed up in them. Countless blood-red eyes glared at the rebels, and each pupil carried the will to hunt the other party to the end of time. The air flow surged irregularly out of thin air, and time and space in this area were distorted by the anger of the Primarch. Under the chaotic feathers, Corax's voice was broken and overlapped, as if there were thousands of him speaking at the same time:

"—Revenge—Kill—Requite—I will—"

“Corax!” After quickly adapting to such pressure, Guilliman resisted the impact of those words on his mind and raised his voice to try to call back his brother’s sanity. “Corvus Corax! I beg you to stop! I understand your urgency, but please listen to the cause and effect of all this before making a judgment!”

The Imperial Regent tried to move forward, and the unaffected Sisters of Silence immediately formed a line around him and moved forward with him. It was hard to say whether it was Guilliman's shouting or the force field surrounding the untouchable Sisters of Silence that finally had the effect, but at least, in the chaotic strong wind, Corax finally noticed him.

A portion of the blood-red eyes hidden between the feathers looked hesitantly in the direction of Guilliman, but seemed to want to turn back and continue staring at Curze. If they were all under the control of Corax's own will, this phenomenon might be considered as: he didn't know where to look.

The Primarch should not have been troubled by such a small matter. This phenomenon should have puzzled Guilliman, but he did not have time to think about it. While being stared at by those blood-red eyeballs, the Imperial Regent had an illusion that even his soul was frozen. Corax's gaze almost had a physical weight, something too heavy that passed through the Silence Sister beside him, pressing him down from the non-material level, and even depriving him of the ability to think.

"—Guilliman."

He undoubtedly recognized his brother, but that might not be a good thing.

"Guilliman—"

The first call was a confirmation, the second call was a scream. Corax's voice still conveyed strong emotions that might have come from him, and when the target of these emotions was a specific person, the target person would bear a shock thousands of times stronger than the aftermath.

There were too many emotions in that call, too difficult to distinguish even for the Primarch. Guilliman was struck by the second call from his brother, even though he knew it was only a mental reaction, these emotions did not belong to him, and his real body was not damaged, but he was still unable to stop himself from falling into the apology, guilt, and gloomy feelings of failure brought by the call.

- Corax considered himself a failure. Guilliman was made aware of this.

But he could not successfully organize any words to comfort him. Excessive mental stress sometimes reflects back on the mortal body. This was originally just a piece of knowledge that Guilliman could not empathize with, but at this moment, he realized that the difference between the Primarch and mortals was not as big as he had originally thought:

He was physically sick and nauseated by these strong emotions that were not his own, which was surprising because he didn't even know if he had a "stomach" in the normal human sense.

"—Guilliman—I—"

The Imperial Regent did nothing, but as a large ball of feathers, Corax himself wailed and shrank. The emotion in this unfinished sentence changed again, and the strong guilt in his heart gave rise to the fear of being unable to face his loyal brothers - Guilliman could read this, and Curze could certainly read it too.

Then they both realized that Corax was once again preparing to escape.

“You can’t do this!” The amorphous black shadow that could probably be considered Curze quickly rushed over, trying to spread to every feather flying around. “You coward, you’ve been running away for ten thousand years! Come out and face the reality—face me!”

This was a very straightforward provocation, and the word "provocation" was almost included in the sentence, but Corax was obviously immediately diverted by Koz's speech. He turned his eyes back again and roared angrily at the other party from the subspace.

"This is wrong!" Guilliman turned to Curze, who seemed to be more communicative at this moment and seemed to share the same goal with him. This sounded like a joke no matter how you looked at it, but in this empire that had only become more and more absurd over the past ten thousand years, such an absurd reality finally became true.

"Of course this is wrong!" Coze managed to throw out this sentence in the midst of his busy response to the opponent's attack, "I told you that his mental state is worrying now!"

In these two short sentences, Corax obviously recognized Guilliman's existence again. Countless ravens in the shadow screamed in unison at this moment, and he began to tear himself apart again uncontrollably: a part of him hoped to transform into a shadow and leave here, escaping into the warp far enough away from Curze to avoid Guilliman's possible questioning and condemnation; while another part urged him to continue hunting his rebellious brother, his irreconcilable enemy, one of the culprits he had vowed to punish, who dragged the entire empire into the quagmire and burned that great ideal.

Corax's chaotic thoughts could not decide which plan to follow. The Primarch's efficient thinking ability became a burden at this moment. He had gone too far in the warp and his own essence, and had lost his true physical form. Without the constraints of a physical form, two ideas that were difficult for him to unify due to his broken mind that had been spent in the realm of chaos for ten thousand years were splitting him in half.

Similar things have happened countless times in the past. At first, Corax only realized that he could do this, and thought that this method of splitting was very convenient, but as he abused this ability for thousands of years, his own thinking gradually broke apart, and his essence and thoughts that should have been split under his control gradually became uncontrollable. Now, the current situation is irreversible, and even Corax himself can't count how many ravens he is now made up of, and whether he himself is complete here.

Or perhaps, at this moment, He is no longer considered a "human".

At the moment when this thought reappeared in Corax's consciousness, a painful wail belonging to the Primarch was heard again in the Warp. The emotion contained in this cry of pain even surpassed the hatred Corax showed when facing Curze. He unconsciously succeeded in stopping others from approaching Him again, and then prepared to tear open the veil on the spot, leave reality, and retreat to the Warp that had made Him feel more comfortable in ten thousand years. But at the same time, another strange power emerged in this space that served as a temporary prison. The lighting stabilized again and increased the brightness. The solid ground originally paved with metal and marble was covered with illusory but beautiful and gorgeous flowers in the blink of an eye with a gentle breeze——

"I made it, I made it in time." For Coze, the frivolous voice of the colorful dream demon, which came from nowhere and probably came from Chaldea, floated into everyone's ears. The large group of feathers that were originally screaming quickly became quiet in this scene, and piled up lightly in the same place as if they had no weight.

Guilliman stared at the black, shapeless feathers in confusion for a few seconds before he had a vague guess: Corax seemed to have fallen asleep.

Meow (lie down)

By the way, I don't know if it was the seventh or eighth edition of the military book that said that the Crow King was no longer blocking Lorgar's gate, but had gone somewhere unknown. Then Lorgar was able to come out for a walk, and then there was the famous scene where the author of the Holy Word was defeated by a civilian woman holding the Holy Word...

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 159 A truly strong person can work overtime without getting up (two in one)

Ritsuka Fujimaru woke up, and then immediately realized that she was not awake.

This statement may sound contradictory to others, but to the experienced Chaldean Master, it is a common thing that is like a daily routine. It is better to say that she has not seen such a scene for a long time, and she still feels a little nostalgic like "revisiting an old place".

——She has now fallen into someone else’s dream.

I see, an interlude, right? She carefully stood up from the darkness as quietly as possible, trying to confirm her surroundings so as to roughly infer which person needed psychological counseling in a dream.

Falling into someone else's dream is always dangerous, but fortunately, this is a dream. Fujimaru Ritsuka's body in reality has not yet fully recovered and is not very agile, so it cannot affect her state in the dream. Even though this dream is not her home, based on her own experience, Fujimaru Ritsuka's current physical ability is not much different from her own cognition of a healthy state.

After getting up, the first thing she realized was that she was lying on a piece of untreated, hard gravel and rocks. This seemed to represent some kind of outdoor environment that had not been artificially repaired, but the air around her was very stuffy, which made her suspect that she was actually in a closed place.

It was dark, but not completely dark. Fujimaru Ritsuka calmly added a magic to enhance her vision: for her third-rate talent, such basic magic was not easy to master, but she also thought that if she had to live with a group of Nostramo for a long time, it would be better to spend more effort to master it.

Under the effect of magic, she slowly adapted to such subtle light and began to observe her surroundings normally. Then, she realized that she was in some kind of cave. This environment was obviously not pleasant. Although there were many obvious traces of artificial carving on the vast walls at a distance from her, and some corresponding equipment and scaffolding were piled nearby, it was obvious that the purpose of all the above things was not for beauty or art.

This is a mine, Fujimaru Ritsuka judged.

Based on the clues of the "mining equipment" piled up in the distance, which seemed advanced in her ancient people's concept, Fujimaru Ritsuka first guessed that this was Conrad Coates' dream.

Although whether from her own point of view or from the fragments of memory that occasionally flowed through after the contract was established with the other party, their impression of Nostramo was more of a polluted sky and atmosphere, a dull hive city, pipelines that were always swallowing up wastewater and sewage, "common people" who were so numb that they were almost the same as "livestock", and the extravagant nobles who had fallen into numerous crimes - but Nostramo, as a planet with an absurd amount of adamantine reserves, obviously also had mines.

But soon, she denied her guess, because she realized that the mine was not rich in fine gold, or at least, not the kind of fine gold commonly seen on Nostramo. Fujimaru Ritsuka didn't know much about this and couldn't tell what was being mined here, but she could at least realize that the ore produced here was very different from the one she was more familiar with.

Then things got strange. Looking at those simple, handheld mechanical devices that were more advanced than what she originally lived in, she didn't think that the other heroic spirits who had maintained a contract with her would have dreams set in this era. This question bothered her a little, but only for a moment - not even as much as the problem of "it's really hard to tell the direction in such a dark place" that bothered her more.

No matter which heroic spirit had a strange dream due to some recent stimulation, or her consciousness had inexplicably drifted to some messy place, she would not be able to find the answer by just standing there and thinking about it, let alone solving the problem.

She couldn't tell the direction, and didn't know where she should go, so she simply gave up thinking and just picked a direction that looked good to her. Just in case, Fujimaru Ritsuka picked up a pickaxe from the side of the road to use for self-defense.

This pickaxe is only similar to the "pickaxe" that Fujimaru Ritsuka knows in its rough appearance. In fact, it has more complex structures and cables, and is obviously equipped with an engine driven by unknown fuel, and there is also a very clear switch on the handle.

She didn't know what would happen after turning it on, and she had no intention of giving it a try. Engineering accidents caused by misoperation of equipment were terrible, and she didn't really need the other functions attached to the pickaxe: it had a weight that was intimidating enough to swing, and it had a sharp end, which was enough for Fujimaru Ritsuka.

She was very familiar with similar situations, and naturally she would not forget the most basic rules: if she died in a dream, she was really dead - the only exception was in her illusion trial, but that time she was guaranteed by the Emperor, so it didn't count. Although she was not afraid of taking risks, and even often took risky actions that frightened people, it didn't mean that she would try to die in any matter.

Fujimaru Ritsuka walked through the dark mine with a pickaxe, marking the parts she had walked on the wall. She couldn't say how long she had walked, but she knew that the space around her was sometimes wide and sometimes narrow, and it was obviously not arranged according to the correct physical laws. She felt that she had been walking in a straight line and had never passed the part she had walked before, but the passage in this mine was ups and downs, with no forks and no end.

This might go on forever. After walking like this for an incalculable amount of time and feeling tired, Fujimaru Ritsuka began to realize that this was the case.

As a Chaldean master who can even walk across the American continent, Fujimaru Ritsuka may not be able to compare with the infantry of the Celestial Army in this world in terms of marching speed, but from the perspective of endurance alone, she may be better than the mortal soldiers of the moment. Under the enhancement of magic, if we speculate based on her average performance and the number of steps she feels, she should have walked at least 40 kilometers during this period, which is about the distance of a day's walk on flat ground under normal conditions, but it is not Fujimaru Ritsuka's limit.

She could indeed continue walking, but Fujimaru Ritsuka decided to rest here. The only benefit of being in a dream was that she would not feel truly hungry, so she did not need to bother looking for food in this mine with almost nothing - but this was not a solution.

She sat down against the uneven wall of the mine and thought about what she should do next during her short rest.

Let's summarize the current situation: Although this mine itself is not a strict straight line, it is indeed too "straight" for a "mine", and there are not even any forks. In reality, this is of course unreasonable, but this is a dream after all, so there is nothing too surprising.

The scenes in dreams do not follow the logic of reality. These illogical scenes often express a certain reflection in the subconscious of the dreamer. According to Fujimaru Ritsuka's past experience, she should encounter some other movable things while walking. These things are often some clearer reflections of the essence of the problem, but obviously, in this section of the mine where "there is nothing", things do not work like this.

She didn't know whether it was because the owner of the dream was very special, or because the universe they were in was different and the rules of dreams were also different - after all, until now, she still couldn't figure out the most basic question of "whose dream is this", which did make her feel a little frustrated.

Somewhat unexpectedly, as she was feeling this frustration, a ball of dark flame suddenly appeared beside her. It did not emit light or heat, but suddenly expanded with a little illusory burning sound, and a figure emerged from it:

"You are so hard to find." The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmond Dantes complained, "Merlin brought me in only three minutes late, and you are completely missing."

It was hard to say whether he took it for granted or was too tired to react, but Fujimaru Ritsuka did not show any surprise, even the politeness of it. He just asked calmly, "Can't you follow the general direction shown in the contract to find us?"

"This dream is like a tower made of piled gravel. Perhaps because of this, many things, including direction and distance, have become ambiguous in my current senses." The Count of Monte Cristo answered, but his answer, as usual, still confused the listeners. "In the end, I can only try to chase your emotions like the 'subspace creatures' in this universe - do you realize that you have been walking in this narrow and dark passage for eight hours, and your spirit has not fluctuated during this period?"

The following sentence was obviously a complaint, but Fujimaru Ritsuka was a little confused about it.

"...Is there any problem with this?"

"Of course there is a problem. A normal person would go crazy if they walked in this environment for 30 minutes - but you walked for eight hours straight."

The Count of Monte Cristo was implicitly accusing her of acting recklessly without considering her own situation. In the past, Fujimaru Ritsuka would have brought up some irrelevant things here, trying to dodge the topic and avoid a possible sermon. But now Fujimaru Ritsuka just tilted his head and said, "That's good."

Her reaction made the Count of Monte Cristo frown: something was wrong.