Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

700.M39. The agricultural world of Shur on the edge of the Sun Star Domain.

It's two o'clock in the afternoon, daylight saving time.

In the field under the direct sunlight at noon, a strong man waved a branch and drove three skinny serfs out of the shade of the barn. The strong man has a baby face that is extremely inconsistent with his body shape, coupled with a height of 1.9 meters and a body of gnarled muscles. It's hard to tell his true age for a while.

He waved the branch in his hand childishly and pointed to the hillside in the distance:

"Listen to my order! Target the hillside ahead! Run back and forth for 1 kilometer. Soldiers, charge!"

After saying that, he dropped the branch and ran out at the lead. After running for tens of meters, the strong man turned around and found that the three serfs were not moving, so he jumped up and shouted at the serfs from a distance:

"Run! Why don't you run! You don't obey orders! I will ask the instructor to put you in confinement!"

"Your throne! My Master Calvin, if we can bring you out, we three brothers will take a huge risk! We can't run anymore, we really can't run!"

The three serfs moaned and complained. Seeing that Calvin did not respond, they simply lay on the ground and began to roll around.

Seeing this, the strong man had no choice but to walk back slowly. As he walked, he muttered: "You are not having fun. Come out and listen to me! I will tell the butler, Uncle Levin!"

The three serfs looked at each other. It was obvious that the strong man's butler Levin was more intimidating than the strong man himself, so the eldest of the three was pushed out and said to the strong man flatteringly:

"Master! It's not that we don't want to run, it's just that we can't run anymore! Let's change the game and just..." While speaking, Serf A winked at the other two.

"Just what you said last time about the scout grabbing his tongue! Let the three of us hide, come and catch us!" Serf B next to him continued.

"Yes, yes! Master, you are really good at this!" Serf C received the hints from the two men and said hurriedly.

"Okay, we agreed that we can't run this time. Then it starts with me." The strong man happily turned his back, faced the wall of the barn, and started counting the time loudly:

"1! 2! 3!..."

The three serfs looked at each other, chuckled, and wanted to run to the storage room on the top floor of the barn, pull out the ladder, and no one would be able to find them. If it weren't for laziness, who would have brought this delirious young master out?

However, the three of them had just arrived at the door of the barn when a woman came face to face. Her thin body and shabby clothes could not hide the fierce look on her face.

Just as the three of them were about to scream, the woman waved her hand and knocked them all down to the ground. Apparently, this was an unregistered illegal psyker, or to put it in familiar terms, a witch.

The witch's condition was extremely bad. After knocking down the three people, she swayed on the spot and forced herself to walk into the barn. Hoping to find a shady place to rest.

"20! Time's up! I'm here to catch you!" The strong man ran towards the barn with a happy face. Hearing his footsteps getting closer and closer, the witch who had just relaxed suddenly became nervous. There is not much psychic energy left, and on the way to escape below, you must keep some strength in case of emergencies... While thinking about the witch's eyes, he walked quickly around the barn.

"That's it." The witch picked up the hoe by the wall and walked slowly to the shadow-covered side of the barn door. Waiting for the strong man to enter...

It's five o'clock in the afternoon, daylight saving time.

The sun stayed in the horizon and refused to go down. The dim sunlight shines on a small town on the edge of a mountain forest. On the rooftop during dinner time, scattered smoke rises and is blown away by the wind. Not a single sound of human voices or barking of dogs could be heard in the houses and alleys. An ominous atmosphere enveloped this otherwise lively village.

"Tap tap tap tap" followed by a series of rapid and powerful footsteps, a dozen female warriors in black armor and tall ponytails, armed with long spears and short cannons, walked out of the town in a battle formation, covering each other. They gathered briefly in the open space in front of the church and then quickly walked out.

After passing through the two lifeless guards at the simple wooden village gate, and re-establishing the hunting formation, Kassin, the leader of the second team, the leader of the pursuit, moved forward while speaking quickly to Aldeline, the leader of the first team, in sign language. Communicating:

"Not a single person was left alive! In the name of the Emperor, that bastard must pay the price for her actions!"

"Calm down, Sister Cassin. She doesn't have much left in her psychic abilities."

"I know! Counting this time just now, this is the third time."

"She hasn't slept in a week."

"Yes, Sister Aldeline, I can feel that she is like a strange beast, waiting for the upcoming trial!"

"No, sister, I mean her spirit has collapsed. What we are about to face may be the last struggle of a beast."

"I know……"

Half an hour later, several kilometers of wheat fields were quickly cleared, and the encirclement was getting smaller and smaller. At the end of the field in the distance, the barn where grain and farm tools are stored is clearly visible.

"This is it, control this place! Find her! I want to live!"

Sixteen figures quickly passed through the waves of golden wheat as high as a person in the shape of a crescent moon, and surrounded the barn at the end of the field.

The witch stood at the door of the barn, showing no intention of running away. The bodies of the three serfs were still lying on the same spot, and the remaining strong man was also unconscious by the door.

The witch's clothes were covered with mud and plant ash. The witch, who had had enough rest, wanted to go back to the forest through the barn to escape pursuit, but the large flood ditch behind the barn apparently played a fatal joke on her.

The 10-meter-wide gully and the raging water in it made the nearby woodland out of reach, which made the witch who was already on the verge of collapse completely give up on herself. She simply stood at the door waiting for the pursuers to arrive. Obviously, this was the final battlefield she chose.

Sixteen nuns surrounded the witch with loaded weapons. Three of them raised their bolt guns and aimed at the witch's body from a safe distance from the front. The remaining nuns began to occupy high points and extended their flanks to the edge of the ditch to prevent the witch from jumping into the water and escaping. After all, she was still alive. Only witches are qualified to become the emperor's firewood.

When the encirclement was completely completed, the new initiate next to the nun captain Cassin said to the witch in High Gothic after reading the captain's sign language:

"Just surrender, witch! Only by dedicating your dirty soul to the Emperor can you pay for your sins!"

"You...you forced me! I...never thought about it!"

Vague Gothic came out of the witch's mouth. It was obvious that the first three "howls" had caused serious damage to her vocal cords.

"You... don't even think about catching me alive! I know what happens to those who are caught! You... you all have to pay the price!"

The witch opened her mouth, used up the remaining strength in her body, and began her final "singing". The powerful spiritual energy began to spread with her as the center along with the physical shock wave, and the ripples visible to the naked eye interfered with the aiming of the surrounding nuns.

"Not enough! This is not enough! A little more! A little more! If you don't have psychic powers, then take my soul too!"

The corners of the witch's eyes began to crack, and the burning blood flowing from the corners of her mouth proved that she was giving herself to the subspace on the other side of the mirror in exchange for more power.

Unprecedentedly powerful psychic energy fluctuations, accompanied by soul-piercing howls of terror, spread around the witch. Black blood flowed from her facial features, and even the blood vessels on her skin burst. The dripping blood floated around her against the gravity of the earth, and was then evaporated by the waves that continued to spread.

The nuns huddled in pain, trembling, and even the weapons in their hands fell to the ground. The spiritual pressure continues to rise, and the boundary between subspace and reality is being destroyed. Obviously, the desperate witch is giving them the final blow at the cost of burning herself.

Cassin has never felt such pain. His body movements that were so fast in the past are now extremely difficult to move a finger. The anti-psi grenade was hung on the buckle at her waist, less than 30 centimeters from her fingers. Just get it, pull out the safety, and it could all be over.

But obviously the witch knew who was leading this force, and she had suffered enough at the hands of Cassin in the previous hunt. Her open mouth was facing Cassin, and her eyes with black blood and tears were staring at her right hand with hatred, and the whites of her eyes were filled with bloodshot eyes.

The little movement of Cassin's fingers was apparently noticed, and this once again angered the witch.

After reaching her limit, the fluctuations in spiritual pressure suddenly strengthened again and became higher and higher. The sky began to lose color, and the low hum of the subspace penetrated the boundaries of reality and echoed in everyone's ears. Some nuns had already begun to faint.

The witch's body began to be covered with black flames. What was taken before must be given first. When the price has been paid, the rewards are unstoppable. Her abilities have far exceeded the upper limit of Beta level, and she has begun to move towards the legendary Alpha. When she reached her peak, it was also when she completely lost herself.

The body of the farmer at his feet was the first to be decomposed after being unable to withstand the fluctuations of spiritual energy. Like paper after smoldering, his appearance in life is completely preserved, but a gust of wind blows through the entire body like black dust floating in the wind. It seemed that the strong man inside the door could not escape his fate. The nuns a little further away had all lost consciousness, and no one could still stand, except Cassin.

"Closer, closer!"

Cassin muttered in his mind, the distance of 1 centimeter was like a chasm, and the grabbing action was like a stop-motion animation, with each frame being explained cleanly and long.

"Boom."

A sound like breaking eggshells suddenly sounded in the ears of everyone who was still conscious. The voice came from the strong man behind the witch. It was as if some kind of shackles on his unconscious body were finally broken in the extreme environment, and something indescribable was waking up in his body. What followed was a rapidly strengthening suction force, which neutralized the oppression brought by the witch like a vortex.

The suction power is still increasing rapidly, swallowing up every spiritual energy present at the scene without hesitation, and in a few seconds, it has sucked up the surrounding spiritual energy that was originally abundant to the point of overflowing. Even the irreversible fire that should have been burning in the witch's soul was drained away.

The behavior of subspace penetrating the wall of reality cannot be sustained and can only fade away with hatred. The sky began to return to its original color, the subspace that had lost its beacon began to be pushed away from reality, and the projections of the subspace creatures dissipated amid angry screams.

On the messy battlefield, only the witch stood alone in the center. Exhausted, she staggered around and looked around, then glanced at the person who caused all this with a slightly resentful look, then her eyes turned white and she fainted.

"What a good appetite!" The moment this thought appeared in Cassin's mind, she was noticed. She looked around with a little vigilance. The sisters were still unconscious. It seemed that she was the only one at the end of this battle. Sober people, that's good.

The young man who ended it all slowly woke up after a low groan.

Jiang Wen slowly sat up and looked at his hands in confusion. It has been 14 years. I have been watching this body for too long. Is it finally time to take over?

He raised his head and looked at Cassin, the only victor in this battle, his eyes changed from the childish look before. On the originally childish face, sharp and calm eyes immediately glanced at all the equipment on Cassin's body. Combined with the hoe at Jiang Wen's feet, this made Cassin instantly aware of the threat: this was a veteran.

Treat veterans with the respect of veterans, but unfortunately Cassin is exhausted. Without thinking too much, she chose the most effective way: she stood up, swooped down, threw the grenade in her hand, and hit Jiang Wen right between the eyebrows. The grenade, which the safety guard was deliberately not pulled on, was just enough to knock Jiang Wen unconscious again, and the threat was lifted again.

Cassin picked up the bolter at his feet, walked up to him, and watched him carefully for a few minutes. Then he took out the communication device, pressed the machine-readable code command that had been agreed upon, and began to call for response from the black ship in orbit.

At 6 o'clock on Terra time, the sun, which had faithfully performed its duties all day long, set down the hillside with the joy of harvest.