The Dark Lady, who had not expected this detail at all, was stuck.
"So, I unilaterally suggest that you use Rusalka now - the Great Daemon of Slaanesh must have the ability to transform into mortal size. Then, after we prepare the chess pieces, we will use you as an auxiliary anchor to take you to the universe. After we find Erebus, we will perform a ceremony to throw out your follow-up troops. Perhaps, this is the right way to do it?"
25. Erebus must die! - The Hammers' 'infiltration' plan
The fine ground surface is all paved with minced meat.
The white stones are regular and meticulously carved, but they form a crooked wall.
Colorful and smooth to the touch, but all sorts of furs and silks sewn together messily with human skin or worse.
The halo is brilliant and the shape is perfect, but it is made of pearls, jade and gems embedded in dry flesh and broken bones.
The paintings hanging on the wall are full of beauty at first glance, but if you look closely, you will find that they are catastrophically incongruous, and you can vaguely smell the smell of blood or even more bizarre body fluids.
It seems to be seriously interpreting some stories, but if you get close to it, you will find that it is covered with meaningless symbols and protrusions, and sculptures made of completely abnormal materials.
Oh, and there is also the strong aroma that is always in the air and is so close to stench that it can easily suffocate ordinary people. There are bottles and jars filled with liquids that are obviously wrong in color everywhere, food scraps scattered all over the ground, and people imprisoned in cages - things that may be considered human beings.
This is the external manifestation of a tiny fraction of the filth that the power of Slaanesh has brought to reality. It is full of beauty and splendor, but put together by the concept of "extreme", they perfectly illustrate the meaning of the idiom "everything goes to extremes and then turns into its opposite" - beauty is distorted, leaving only weirdness, beauty is desecrated, leaving only corruption.
When the Dark Lady's Slaanesh Archdaemon walked with graceful steps into the Howling Desires' base camp on this planet and pushed open the main building door of the Slaanesh wargang's lair with a perfect posture, this crazy scene was presented to her without reservation - and to the eyes of other Hammer guys who had followed her to this lair with their avatars, impacting their will and spirit - even though the filtering degree had been turned to the highest, Liang Feifan and the Political Commissar Sister, who knew what these things were essentially, could still feel that the feeling called "disgust" was surging out from the depths of their souls.
"I saw in the combat logs that you have dealt with Slaanesh several times before? Why do you seem so uncomfortable even with the filter turned on?"
The dark lady, who seemed to have no problem at all, looked around curiously and touched things, and even tried to analyze what liquid the colors on the painting came from.
"...Before, I either watched it on a boat, or used Big E's fire to burn through it. This is the first time I've experienced Slaanesh's corruption so closely and immersively - Dark Lady, are you okay?"
Liang Feifan, who had finally controlled his situation, raised his right hand and wiped the corner of his mouth, which was actually empty. He looked at the Dark Lady who had already started to dismantle the sculpture with Rusalka's weapon with a confused look on his face. He could not understand why she was so brave when she could not use any filters.
"Ah? I have a special imagination skill. Some things can be imagined by imagination. This sculpture seems to be a mixture of six different styles, so the appearance is so bad. What do you think will happen if we add two more styles to it?"
"It's okay. I think you will be dragged back by Big E to calm down for a few days. We are here to beat Erebus, not to appreciate Slaanesh's art. Litchi Zhang, have you found the spaceship?"
The political commissar sister said in a "very scary" tone the possible consequences of the IF Dark Lady continuing to recklessly do so, and looked at Lizhi Zhang who was wandering around the surrounding rooms. When entering this hall, Lizhi Zhang, who was the best at running the Warhammer 40k group among them and descended into the 40k world with his Guan Gong-colored chess piece, spontaneously entered the state and frantically searched for clues around him. And looking at his current appearance, it seems that he really found something?
"I've already determined the location of the launch tower, and I've also found a spaceship that can reach the universe. But there's a small problem. Some random intelligence from the launch tower shows that the orbit above this planet has been blocked by a cruiser of the Erebus Warband, and its main gun is pointed at this base. If the Howling Desire Warband doesn't surrender when the countdown ends, they will open fire. By the way, the countdown may only have one hour left."
"Forehead……"
Liang Feifan looked up—well, now he could only see the wonderful Slaanesh ceiling—then thought for a second and put forward his own idea.
"With the power to control the universe, the Erebus warband did not immediately clear out the Chaos warband. Does that mean they want something? Can we take advantage of this? Do something like feign surrender and get in?"
"It's 100% begging for help. If we were to simply beg for something from the planet, with the Chaos Astartes' unscrupulous way of operating, they would have plowed the planet back and forth three or two times - and then, how can we survive with so few people now?"
The political commissar thought along Liang Feifan's line of thought and made a judgment.
"Playing chess? Is it okay for us chess pieces to pretend to be people?"
Liang Feifan felt that this matter didn't seem to be that difficult, and then he received a subtle response from Lizhi Zhang.
"The people from Erebas who came to force the abdication were a bunch of Slaanesh Astartes, but in the end it was Khorne's Black Legion brother who expressed his willingness to join them. What do you think the people from Erebas would think based on the usual thinking of Chaos Astartes?"
"That must be because they feel that this Slaanesh warband has been trolled, and these guys who trolled the Slaanesh warband haven't had enough - well, this is indeed our dilemma now."
Liang Feifan understood what Lizhi Zhang meant immediately. The Astartes of the Khorne faction were straightforward and never ambiguous about killing people. The Black Legion was the most prominent mortal force in Pa Pa's eyes. Chaos Astartes with this status were a little more impressive than other factions. These two factions suddenly appeared in the hometown of a Slaanesh war gang that they wanted to recruit as their own people. After slaughtering all the local Slaanesh brothers, they patted their chests and said, "Erebus, you are so handsome. We have decided to follow you!" Any Chaos commander with a normal mind would probably have the first reaction...
"You want to sneak onto my ship and show your loyalty to that guy with the pigtails while offering a blood sacrifice to the blood god? Boom!"
"But, all the Slaanesh Astartes in this place were burned by the Dark Lady. Even if the Dark Lady didn't burn them, they might not cooperate with us. Otherwise, how about I get a Manta to take us up to the sky quietly and then try to board him?"
Liang Feifan looked out of the corner of his eye at the Dark Lady who was "looking sad" as she was purifying the demon cave with golden flames, obviously under the order of Big E. At the same time, he came up with an idea that he himself did not think was a solution - after all, the sudden appearance of a Manta in a place like Papayan was something that everyone knew was a problem!
"I have a way. I can control the skins of those Chaos Astartes as puppets. I can just use their leaders to report back to the people of Erebus. Although the skins have no combat power, there is no problem in pretending to be living things - the operation of Slaanesh is actually very easy to simulate."
The Dark Lady spoke, and what she said made Liang Feifan's brain stop for half a second.
"Um... Dark Lady, are you sure you are not the true form of Slaanesh in the real universe?"
"Definitely not! Why don't you guys go get ready! Oh, and make the signal a little blurry! Half of this place is already burned down!"
——————————————Above the planetary orbit, the Painful Truth——————————
The truth is always full of pain, and only those who dare to walk in pain can understand the ultimate truth of the universe.
The captain of the Tormented Truth stood in front of his captain's seat, folded his hands, and looked at the "monastery" of the Howling Desire warband on the screen without any emotion, waiting for the leader of the warband to make the right choice after seeing the result of the ritual. As one of Erebus's confidants, the Word Bearer had actually learned from the voice in the warp that the Howling Desire warband was trying to use a ritual that he thought was neither high nor low to please Slaanesh and try to turn the tables. The reason why he did not interfere with the ritual at all was because he was very sure that -
A warband like Howling Desire that is not familiar with the Heart of the Mighty Power of Destruction will never be favored by the Mighty Power of Destruction!
"How long is the countdown?"
Although the Astartes' superhuman senses and the blessing of the powers of Chaos allow the Word Bearers captain to easily judge the jumps in time, in the Eye of Terror, time is not a number that can be strictly quantified. It is possible that the next second will arrive, or it is possible that the next second will never come.
"The energy light has begun to turn red. In addition, we have received clutter communications from the ground."
His subordinates answered his countdown questions and gave him an unexpected surprise.
"Oh, it looks like at least some of those howling desire little guys have figured it out, and that's good, very good."
After hearing what his subordinates told him, a hint of joy flashed across the face of the Word Bearers captain - admittedly, the Astartes of Slaanesh were not qualified to be cannon fodder most of the time, but Astartes were Astartes after all, and for a force like Erebas that had relatively difficult and undemanding recruitment - well, even a force that had blood feuds with most of the forces in the Eye of Terror, collecting every bit of power that could be used was an extremely necessary thing. After all, those Word Bearers who followed Erebas knew that if Erebas lost too much say among the Word Bearers, then, with Erebas's "reputation" among the Word Bearers, their Primarch Lorgar might sell Erebas to a force willing to "acquire" him at a good price!
"The signal is stable and the clutter is decreasing."
"Give it to me."
The Word Bearers captain, feeling that the matter was settled, nodded slightly, raised his hand, and triggered the communication device in front of him. In an instant, the face of the leader of the Howling Desire wargang, whose face was extremely horrible compared to the previous communication, appeared in a snowflake on the screen.
"I...I surrender! I am willing to follow you! Just give me...I want it...Ahhhhhh!"
The next second, the leader of the Howling Desire Gang suddenly disappeared from the screen, and then something
The sound of rolling on the ground was heard, followed by a chaotic noise. The Word Bearers captain, who had probably imagined the current situation of this Slaanesh warband that tried to please Slaanesh but most likely failed, froze for a moment, and then, while the communication was not interrupted, he issued his order to the ground.
"Take off all your weapons and equipment. I will arrange a flying machine to transport these weapons and equipment. Then, you will follow this flying machine and come up on your own spaceship. I will personally tell you the holy words of the Mighty Power of Destruction that you are following."
————————————————————The dividing line between the Hammer guys————————————————————
"Okay, what are we going to do next?"
Liang Feifan, who was currently in the form of an Astartes who looked like a Black Legion, was half-crouching beside the corpse of the Word Bearers Astartes, who died with his eyes open after being hit by an axe and a bomb. He was carefully "reading" the incomprehensible scriptures carved on the power armor of this Chaos rebel, trying to figure out the thinking circuits of these bad guys - of course, Liang Feifan gave up this behavior in less than three seconds, just because even with the power of Big E to filter, what the Word Bearers wrote was too outrageous.
"I will simulate his appearance and take this aircraft with my equipment. You will follow in the Howling Desire War Gang's ship. After I go up, I will use illusions to confuse the people in the hangar. You will take advantage of this window of opportunity to sneak into the ship and prepare your troops. When I send their captain away, you will take action immediately - will we be exposed in advance? Don't worry, the illusion I created has completely covered this ground-to-air aircraft. Now the other Chaos things on it probably think they are helping to move equipment!"
"Row."
Although the Dark Lady's operation could be described as quite chaotic, the Hammer guys all felt that this operation was very feasible. Of course, the next second, Liang Feifan thought of something else.
"Do you want to take those skins with you?"
As soon as he said this, Liang Feifan realized what he had said and kept silent. The Dark Lady's Great Secret Keeper also looked at him with a "weird" look. Half a minute later, this unreliable hammer guy finally uttered a word.
"I think you're a little extreme - if you like, I can help you..."
"Forget it! Just burn them all!"
Liang Feifan immediately denied what he had just said, while the Dark Lady shrugged her shoulders, raised one arm, and flicked her fingers lightly.
The golden flames surged, completely engulfing all the filth inside the devil's cave.
26. Erebus must die! - The Dark Lady on board
"This is the victory of the Dark Apostle Lord Erebus."
Looking at the two ground-to-air vehicles slowly returning to the cruiser on the screen, the Word Bearers following Erebus stationed in the hangar said so.
As a new generation Astartes who has been following the great priest who was the first among the Word Bearers to see the existence of Chaos Truth, this Word Bearer knows very well that although his leader dedicated the original Chaos Truth to his Primarch and made him understand the hypocrisy of the rotting corpse on the throne, it is an indisputable fact that his leader is extremely unwelcome in the Eye of Terror - and one of the most direct reactions to being unwelcome is that Lord Erebus's war reinforcements have always been quite subtle - therefore, as an emissary of Erebus, making more people understand the greatness of their leader, and making them willingly or even ecstatically join Erebus's great cause has always been one of their most important duties. After all, no matter how great the ideas are, in the Eye of Terror, a place overflowing with Chaos Truth, no one will listen without sufficient strength.
"Brother, I would say that the most appropriate fate for these rubbish who only know how to pursue pleasure is to be thrown somewhere and let them fend for themselves. Lord Erebus is really being too greedy to let such guys join our team of truth."
However, the battle brother standing beside him and carrying out this mission with him, who was said to have been born when the voice of the gods had not yet spread to the Word Bearers, expressed obvious opposition to this - in his opinion, his own warband was short of manpower, but it would not accept all the rotten fish and shrimp in its hands. The followers of truth who solely believed in the God of Pleasure were notoriously unreliable. Was it really meaningful to let such things join the ranks of Lord Erebus?
"Lord Erebus will make them realize the true original truth, and they will be reborn in the holy words of the Primarch."
The Word Bearer who spoke first had the iconic smile on his face when he was preaching, and he convinced his battle-brothers with an impeccable Word Bearer logic - of course, the words lingering in his heart were...
"Wake up, brother. With the connections that Lord Erebus has in the Eye of Terror, we can only gather as many of these guys as possible to replenish our ranks!"
"Indeed, I was abrupt, brother."
Although he felt that the Howling Desires would not change anything even if they read the Book of the Primarch from beginning to end, the Word Bearers flattered their battle brothers out of respect for the Primarch and the one they were loyal to.
, a flying vehicle filled with Slaanesh warband guys just flew into the hangar and slid steadily to the parking area.
"These guys finally didn't make any mistakes this time."
Looking at the aircraft's flawless parking action, the Word Bearer who spoke first muttered something and walked towards the rear entrance of the aircraft - he had to complete his task quickly and then go back to read the Primarch's book carefully, as he hadn't even finished his lessons for the day!
"Wait a minute, man, do you think they can really park it so perfectly? With a bunch of gear from the guys from Debauchery loaded on the craft?"
However, before the first Word Bearer could take two steps, the old Word Bearer who had experienced too many ups and downs during the Great Crusade raised his weapon to stop the young Word Bearer's actions - this mooring seemed to be fine on the surface, but the problem was that it was too perfect! Even the scale error of the mooring distance was calculated in a very small unit! Those guys on the ship could not achieve this level of mooring at all!
"Brother, are you saying that those guys are actually pretending to surrender and want to trick us?"
Hearing the doubts expressed by the veteran beside him, the young Word Bearer, who was slightly overwhelmed by the excitement of completing the mission, stopped.
"The followers of the Lord of Joy are not good at such tactics. Such tactics are more likely to appear in the organizations of the followers of the Lord of Change."
As he spoke, the veteran of the Great Crusade raised his bolter steadily and carefully aimed at the aircraft in the distance, waiting for something wrong to come out of it before taking action - however, one minute passed, two minutes passed... the aircraft still did not move, as if everyone on it had fallen asleep.
"Brother, the situation is totally wrong. Notify the others and form a battle formation - brother, brother?"
There was a sudden silence in his ears, but the Word Bearers veteran realized some terrible possibility. He quickly entered combat mode, chanting the holy words of the Primarch to calm his mind, and followed his well-honed combat instincts, pointing his gun in a certain direction - although there was nothing in that direction, he was sure that there was something over there!
"whee……"
An elegant and frivolous snicker exploded in his ears. The powerful psychic pressure almost made this veteran of the Great Crusade kneel to the ground. In his pupils, a Great Secret Keeper walked out of nothingness - on the weapon in one of its hands hung the body of its fighting brother that was so dry that only skin and bones were left - there was no doubt that his brother should not even have a soul left.
"Demons... So they succeeded?"
Under the constant psychic pressure from the supernatural being in front of him, the Word Bearers veteran gritted his teeth and uttered a sentence - that useless Slaanesh warband actually summoned a Great Keeper of Secrets? But why didn't anyone on his ship catch the wave of it stepping into the Eye of Terror from the warp?
"Heh... the truth you pursue, when it is extremely detailed, isn't it just demons like us? Everything will turn into its opposite when it reaches its extreme, and gods and demons are one. If you don't understand this truth, what kind of Word Bearers are you?"
However, to the Word Bearers veteran's surprise, the Great Keeper of Secrets did not come up and kill him, but looked him up and down for a while, then spoke with interest. Hearing the irony in the tone of the Slaanesh demon towards some of his own Primarch's ideas, the Word Bearers veteran suddenly became furious.
"Servant of Elysium! Are you slandering the original truth brought to us by our Primarch? You must know that in the endless chaos, you are just a wisp of dust!"
"No, no, no. I just think that your Primarch is quite unlucky. His truth cannot even be spoken of by himself. As we all know, all it takes to silence Lorgar is a book. Your companion has read this book just now. Now, it is your turn to read it."
As the Word Bearers veteran felt as if he had met Tzeentch and Nurgle as friends, a ball of golden flame suddenly rose on the hand of the Great Keeper of Secrets, and a book written by the Great Word Bearer but forbidden among the Word Bearers appeared in his hand. The book was opened, and the opening words of his own Primarch Lorgar were outlined in golden flames, clearly appearing before his eyes!
"You! Who on earth are you! You are not a servant of the Lord of Pleasure! No! No! I don't want to read that book! Ah...ah? Ah!!!!"
When the Word of the Emperor touched his face, for a moment, the Word Bearer veteran felt that he might as well face thousands of bloodthirsty demons, because those golden words were all branded with flames, firmly imprinted into his heart and ignited his soul - the thousands of heresies praising the Lord of Corpses madly collided with the original truth in his mind, making him more painful and fragmented - what is the truth? What is heresy? He couldn't tell the difference, he couldn't tell the difference!
but......
In the soul perception of this veteran of the Great Crusade, time may have passed in a second, or may have passed in tens of millions of years? The Word Bearers veteran felt that his mind suddenly opened up, and his soul, which had been burned to pieces by the golden flame, was slowly being "recast". A series of questions that he could not find answers to before became clear and understandable with the help of the words in the "Word of the Emperor". A bunch of facts that had originally confused him became clear in the "Word of the Emperor".
Under the baptism, it became something visible and understandable - so that's it, so that's it! His original body had already written the truth! But he actually betrayed the truth because of doubts! How ridiculous! How sad!
"I saw the truth! I heard the truth! So that's it! You are the real original will! Even those four will bow down before you in the end! What appears before me now is only the smallest manifestation of your great power! Great God Emperor! Your humble redeemer begs me to be merciful and give me a chance, a chance to let my filthy body be loyal to you with the last remnant of life and soul!"
Although his body had been completely engulfed by the Emperor's flames, and his soul was suffering from unspeakable pain brought about by the Emperor's raging fire, this old Word Bearers soldier instead entered a state of frenzy. He shouted wildly, tears streaming down his face, completely unconcerned about his own image, and even less about the fact that his life was already in countdown.
"......"
Looking at the mad Word Bearer Astartes in front of her, whose whole body was seething with the Emperor's flames, but who not only did not get burned to ashes, but instead suddenly exuded an aura of 'I've got it', the Dark Lady's mouth twitched involuntarily - but fortunately she quickly understood what had happened to the Word Bearer through the communication with Big E, and so, the Dark Lady immediately got into shape again and began her performance.
"Do you know your sin?"
The Dark Lady put on a solemn expression and spoke in a dignified and heavy tone, just like a state bishop who was interrogating a rebellious state church - if you ignore her current appearance as the Grand Keeper of Secrets.
"I have known my sin."
The words on his body had turned golden, and the flames on his body had gradually subsided. The Word Bearers veteran in the power armor immediately returned to his serious state, prostrated himself, and sincerely repented.
"Your choice?"
The Dark Lady took a step forward and gently placed one of her swords on the Word Bearers veteran's shoulder.
"I will give Him all my loyalty, with my life, with my soul - in life and in death."
The Word Bearers veteran stood up from the ground, holding his scepter-like weapon, which was one of the symbols of his identity under the Dark Messenger, in both hands, and broke it into two pieces with the strength of his hands and knees, and then threw it into the golden flames at the feet of the Dark Lady without hesitation. This action with a sense of déjà vu not only stunned the Dark Lady for a second, but also the Hammer Guys who came on the boat behind... with different expressions.
"He has promised that you can use your broken body to embark on the path of atonement. When the atonement is complete, his kingdom will naturally open to you."
The broken scepter fell to the ground with a clang, and was then burned into a twisted piece of scrap metal by the Emperor's Holy Flame. The Dark Lady realized what she should do from this scene and hurriedly continued to do what she should do. The Political Commissar, who had come here in the form of a World Eaters veteran, pondered for a moment, then threw a power sword at the Word Bearers veteran.
"The same to you?"
The Word Bearers veteran, who recognized the power sword as the Great Crusade-era version, looked towards the Commissar, receiving a hideous smile from the 'Astartes brother'.
"Let's not waste any more time. This time the Lord of Mankind wants us to settle the sins of Erebus - we all have different missions. You are a veteran, you must know what you should do now."
"Understood. I will contact the bridge immediately."
