Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

"That was a really embarrassing five seconds." Many years later, people found Calvin's comments about this experience in his diary.

Jiang Wen, who has been a bystander for 14 years, is obviously not that proficient in High Gothic. Most of the serfs he interacts with on a daily basis speak low Gothic with unclear pronunciation as their native language, so it took him a full four seconds to understand each other. the meaning of.

Calvin, who failed in pretending to be dead, thought for a second and decided to do something.

He stood up and rolled behind the unresponsive servitor.

During this process, his flexible and powerful body made his movements soundless; his quick reactions allowed him to find the weapon he wanted and try to get it the moment he stood up; his powerful strength made simple joint techniques simple but simple. And full of deterrence.

Within half a second, Calvin snatched a screwdriver from one of the many prosthetic limbs behind the servitor and held it against the back of the servitor's head. Only then did he hear the naval officer's belated advice:

"Relax! Relax! Young man! You don't have to be so nervous at all."

"Give me a reason to trust you." Calvin said in unfamiliar High Gothic while looking around cautiously.

"This is the Black Ship, and she belongs to the Star Language Court. If we have any ill intentions towards you, at least you won't be brought here without any control measures. Do you understand? My child."

"Black Ship? What do you do?"

"You shouldn't know this, but your psychic talent has awakened, child. This ship is a special spacecraft used by the Imperial Star Language Court to collect psykers within the empire's territory. Its mission is to prevent your psychic powers from getting out of control. Find you."

"Psychic power?"

This taboo word seems to possess certain concepts and powers of its own.

The moment Calvin read this word, his instinctive reaction made him understand the meaning of "it".

He seemed to see a flower growing wildly above the physical laws of the universe, bewitching and wanton.

Every tiny pattern on the charming petals represented a powerful force, and the ugly roots entwining the entire universe clearly told him what a sinful and tragic story the end of each force was.

He saw someone making a deal with "it" in exchange for power he never had, at the cost of his own and other people's souls;

I also saw that some people tried to find the essence of "it", but lost themselves and humanity in the process of searching.

Everyone with psychic talents is both the lucky and the cursed in this universe. Fortunately, they are freed from their existing destiny and have the possibility of truly flying into the sky; unfortunately, from the moment they awaken , their souls have been put on the evil god’s table.

Every time you use this forbidden power, you will gain strength.

And every seemingly costless enhancement will repeatedly light up the projection of the user's soul on the other side of the subspace, until the demons hunting for the evil god follow the light and find your soul.

When a person cannot restrain his own desires and uses the power of this taboo uncontrollably.

The projection of his soul in the subspace will become clearer and clearer. One day, the evil god of the subspace and his minions will find him, take away his soul, devour it, or use it to serve as the evil god's near-eternal life. A plaything designed to relieve boredom and perform endless torture.

And the rest of his flesh and blood will become the gateway for evil gods and their demon descendants to come to the real universe.

Allowing them to break through the constraints of the laws of the universe and reach reality for a more terrifying carnival of hunting and killing.

Can anyone really resist the temptation of this power? Calvin had no expectations.

As a veteran who is nominally 14 years old but has lived two lifetimes, he has always been pessimistic about human nature.

There may be far fewer incels in the military camp than in society, but isn't the purpose of sweating and even blood and tears every day just to break through one's own limits?

The allure of seemingly costless enhancement is irresistible. This recognition even included Calvin himself.

When Calvin fell into a silence of thought, his spiritual energy finally responded to him actively for the first time in his short 14-year life. He saw from the perspective of his soul: a black gem with countless facets, slowly turning and rising from the ocean of his consciousness.

The gem seemed to be a miniature black hole, greedily absorbing all the spiritual energy fluctuations around it, so that when it responded to Calvin's call, the spiritual energy fluctuations that should have spilled out and the abnormal temperature changes from the subspace were completely destroyed. It was eaten up by it like a glutton.

Calvin's psychic energy fluctuations were thus completely suppressed within his body, so much so that the Geiger counters scattered throughout the hangar were not even aware of it.

But Calvin didn't understand this. He just saw from the frequency of its slow rotation that it didn't look like it was out of control at all...

Calvin came back to his senses and continued his previous train of thought:

"Then, what if the black ship comes late, I mean what if, I have lost control?"

"That is to destroy you after you lose control. You should be glad that you are not the latter. The corruption of the subspace is irreversible. This is a bloody lesson that the empire has learned with countless lives over the past ten thousand years."

"So I should still thank you?"

"Of course you can. And to be honest, you are different from those 'taxes'. You are a noble! Military noble! Unlike those palace nobles who hang around on Terra, the badge on your body comes from the blood of your ancestors. Rancheng, your parents or elders have contributed to the empire. You are ours! You deserve the best training and placement, instead of being simply used as fuel."

"Firewood?"

"That's not what you should know now, kid. All you need to know is that you are one of ours. You will not be treated unfairly. Put down your ridiculous weapons before you really make a big deal out of it."

"All right"

After looking around, I found at least 20 security guards with suspected heavy weapons, criss-crossed in all directions, covering the entire hangar without blind spots. Calvin, aware of the facts and resigned to the situation, dropped the screwdriver on the steel floor. The servitor was completely unresponsive to the crisp impact, and was still mechanically and repeatedly trying to complete its tasks.

"They are no longer alive. Ignore them and follow me." After speaking, the officer turned and walked towards the elevator in the corner of the hangar. Calvin hesitated for a moment, then followed.

"where are we going?"

"11th floor B, the purity testing ground directly below the church. There is someone waiting for you there. Don't worry, it's just a formality. If there is any problem, you will have been exposed."

"Raised? Is this a slang term for your navy?"

"Bullshit! What do you mean by your navy? What if you are assigned to us in the future?"

………………

The first floor below the church on top of the spaceship is also the office of the true owner of the spacecraft, the Lady Black Ship, one of the few highest-ranking officers in the Sisters of Silence combat force known as the Claws of the Emperor.

The surrounding walls are made of 3-meter-thick ceramic steel and are engraved with purity marks. In this spacecraft that takes 10 years to build even in the Forge World, the separate cost of this cabin can be listed as a separate expense. of.

But unlike its expensive nature, when you are lucky enough to enter this cabin, you will find that the spacious space is surprisingly simple.

In addition to the wall opposite the door, which occupied the entire field of view, the life-size oil painting of the emperor and the large desks and chairs directly below, as well as weapon racks, holographic maps and other necessary equipment, there were only tall bookshelves lined with walls.

When Kassin was allowed into the room, the woman was behind her desk, poring over piles of papers. Under the light of the human oil candle, the lady's face looked slightly pale.

Obviously, as a veritable "space city" with more than 50,000 employees, even daily administrative management is a headache.

And such black ships are just a drop in the ocean in the vast empire territory with tens of billions of administrative planets.

After waiting quietly for a long time, the lady finally raised her head from the document. Her gentle and determined eyes looked at Cassin, who was standing quietly aside. She smiled and said to her in sign language:

"Our little Cassin has grown up and started to become patient. Come, sit in front of me and tell me about things on the ground..."