Chapter 184: Envious! |
While order gradually returned to the other side of the ruins, the dense, rhythmic staccato of Bolter fire continued to echo throughout the quarantine zone.
Upon this elevated platform isolated by the power of the World Soul, the final purification ritual was underway.
A Keeper of Secrets that had once possessed an Imperial Noble slumped in a pool of blood, its greasy human face contorted into a comical, weeping grimace.
Its jewel-encrusted fingers scrabbled pointlessly against the ground before Arthur neatly slipped an adamantium chain around its neck, hoisting the creature up a flagpole like a slab of cured meat hung out to dry.
As the bloated carcass swayed absurdly in the morning breeze, the warped veil of reality surrounding them slowly began to mend, while the legion of automata marched forward in perfect lockstep.
A hundred meters away, Kai fought amidst a surging tide of Daemons and heretics, his eyes absently gazing into the distance.
Lohr approached as silently as a ghost.
He first made a few tactical hand signals from afar. When the other man showed no reaction, Lohr unhesitatingly raised his Bolter and aimed it squarely at his comrade's helmet.
Bang!
The ambushed knight did not break his stance in the slightest; he merely tilted his head casually.
His master-crafted power sword slid from its sheath at a flawless angle, cleaving the incoming Bolt Shell perfectly in twain. The split halves of the munition grazed past his shoulder guard and detonated with pinpoint accuracy, blowing two lurking Daemonettes of Slaanesh behind him into a shower of festering gore.
It was definitely him in the flesh.
A flash of confusion crossed Lohr's eyes.
He sidestepped the splattering daemonic appendages, his voice transmitting over their private vox-channel.
"Kai, this is a battlefield,"
he warned.
"I know."
The knightly adjutant's power sword carved a pristine arc, bisecting a leaping cultist at the waist.
As he coordinated the advancing phalanx of automata, Lohr scolded, "But your mind is wandering. That is fatal in a war."
Crack!
The surrounding scenery shattered like a broken mirror, and in the blink of an eye, the sorcery of Slaanesh engulfed several of the automata.
Lohr raised a hand, signaling an Eldar Wraith-Dreadnought to plug the gap in their defensive line. Although he still harbored a deep prejudice against these Xenos, he could not deny that their aptitude for warfare was truly unparalleled.
Having stabilized their killing formation, Lohr continued.
"I think you should pay a visit to the Conclave of the Five Points after this battle."
Those Librarians, whose lineage traced back to the ancient sorcerers of Terra, had been growing increasingly unorthodox lately. Relying on His Highness and the others' methods for isolating the Warp, along with the teachings of the Eldar Xenos, their tactics had become wildly unpredictable and endlessly inventive.
"There is no need,"
Kai's voice suddenly spiked an octave. He spun around abruptly, cleaving through a cultist attempting a sneak attack. His gaze involuntarily drifted back toward those crimson-and-gold silhouettes in the distance before snapping away as if he had been shocked.
If the lot from the Conclave of the Five Points ever found out what he was thinking right now, his life would probably be over.
"You are envious of those Blood Angels."
Lohr scrutinized the knight. His voice was deep and certain, laced with an almost imperceptible hint of probing.
Ever since discovering that out of their quartet, he was the only one who had legitimately followed the Lion in boarding Caliban, Lohr had deliberately honed his powers of observation.
These colleagues of his had at least eight hundred hidden agendas between them; sometimes, he simply could not outplay them.
"..."
Kai responded with silence, merely tightening his grip on his sword until his knuckles turned white from the strain.
His sword swings grew increasingly vicious. Amidst the piercing shriek of the blade slicing through the air, a charging Mutant was cleaved in two. Foul blood splattered across his armor, rapidly evaporating into a pungent mist against the scorching energy field.
"So that is it."
Lohr nodded, a glimmer of understanding flashing in his eyes behind the visor.
He sidestepped an incoming claw, smoothly raising his Bolter in the same motion. A deafening roar followed, and a Daemon's head exploded into fragments.
More often than not, he found dealing with people far more complicated than dealing with machines.
If a machine refused to move, it simply did not move. But with people, you never knew what they were hiding in the depths of their hearts, nor how exactly to go about repairing them.
"You should know that our identities are highly sensitive, and some of the incidents we handle can never be brought into the light,"
Lohr reminded him.
His Highness had long since made the Imperium's current situation explicitly clear to them. Until they possessed a crushing advantage over The Rock to take it down in a single decisive strike, they were not to draw undue attention to themselves.
Besides, the fewer people who knew about the war against Chaos, the better.
Although exterminating all witnesses was a routine operation for them by now, it remained an objective fact that facing Chaos directly made one susceptible to future corruption, which could spark rebellions.
However, maintaining absolute secrecy beforehand and snuffing out any adverse influences at the source was the true standard expected of the First Legion.
"I know."
Kai's power sword flawlessly pierced a Chaos cultist's throat, the disruption field on the blade choking off the man's dying scream.
"Regarding certain matters, His Highness has also been perfectly clear."
Lohr pushed on.
"I know."
Faced with Lohr's relentless pressing, Kai's voice took on an edge of reckless resignation.
"That is exactly why I am merely envious, instead of complaining and rebelling like I did back then."
The Blood Angels had fought their way across hundreds of kilometers, cutting through the Tyranid Hive Fleet as if wading through an empty wasteland. Battered by orbital bombardments, the Tyranids could barely mount a defense, left with no choice but to wait for death under the coordinated assault aided by thoroughly trained Librarians.
The Lamenters defended lives, holding out under heavy siege until reinforcements arrived; they rightfully deserved the reverence of the souls who had received their Divine Protection.
They all stood in the sunlight, basking in Honor and the adoration of countless masses.
But what about the Dark Angels?
They fought just as bloodily on the front lines, wove intricate intelligence networks in the shadows, and developed advanced weaponry in hidden laboratories.
The citizens saved by the Blood Angels would never know how many potential threats of Chaos had been smothered in the cradle by the Dark Angels. Just as they would never know how much blood from nameless warriors had soaked into the pristine earth beneath their feet.
They bore heavier burdens than any other legion and contributed no less to the war effort, yet they were forever condemned to hide behind the curtain, their monumental achievements intentionally obscured.
"You lot have not changed a bit."
Lohr stared at Kai's silhouette, blurred by the smoke of battle. He knew exactly what lay beneath that envy—it was simply a warrior's pure thirst for Honor.
As Terran-born members of the Dark Angels, they all harbored some measure of resentment over constantly being relegated to thankless, clandestine wars.
Because before they had been tasked with all this dirty work, the Dark Angels held the supreme Honor of being the very first Astartes Legion. Forged by the hand of The Emperor Himself, they had once been His direct, personal guard.
Since the inception of the Astartes as a fighting force, they had participated in every stage of the Unification Wars on Terra. They had aided The Emperor in executing the Great Crusade, fighting to bring Liberation to humanity from the dominion of alien races and Evil Gods.
Their victories had served as the blueprint for legends, and in the hearts of countless trillions, they were the pinnacle of the Astartes.
No matter where they marched, they shone with boundless glory, because they were the First Legion.
But all of that vanished after the Lion's return.
They were torn away from the Master of Mankind's side, forced to retreat from the most dazzling stage into the bleakest shadows.
They carried out the filthiest missions in the dark—operations where names could never be left behind, tasks where every witness had to be erased, and sacrifices that would never be sung about in epics. All they could do was watch as other legions were showered with flowers and anthems of praise.
Their Primarch was always silent, assuming that the Master of Mankind saw his deeds, and thus he ruthlessly squeezed his Progeny dry, believing every Dark Angel should be exactly like him.
If one were to ask why?
Because his loyalty was beyond words.
This was the greatest point of friction between the Terran-born Dark Angels and the Lion.
They were once the sharp sword and steadfast shield of The Emperor, yet now they had been reduced to a hidden Dagger in the Lion's grip.
To make matters worse, the Lion had failed to secure the title of Warmaster, causing immense dissatisfaction among the ranks toward their Primarch.
His loyalty might be beyond words, but they needed their loyalty to be spoken of. They craved Honor.
It was all they had left.
Kai's gaze fell once more upon Arthur, who, after dispatching the Keeper of Secrets, had already charged into the inner psychic realm of the World Soul alongside Rameses.
The most fundamental difference between Arthur and the Lion was that Arthur keenly understood the differences between individuals. He would never project his own severe self-discipline onto others.
Arthur would kneel down and patiently explain his reasoning to his warriors. He would look at you with those eyes that could pierce straight to your soul until every trace of suspicion and alienation dissolved into nothingness.
Therefore, Kai harbored no resentment toward Arthur.
Had they not met His Highness, they might still be wandering the fringes of the Galaxy today, tossing and turning in sleepless paranoia over whether each of their brothers could be trusted.
Let alone standing here openly and proudly, sharpening their blades to one day wash away the First Legion's disgrace with sword and fire.
A trace of lingering frustration surfaced in his eyes, but Kai merely let out a soft sigh and replied,
"Perhaps I am just being too greedy."
——
"If you ask me, Karna needs to ignore all that nonsense for a minute and focus on making the Lamenters strip off that yellow paint. It is way too unlucky."
Standing tall within the crevices of the spiritual domain, providing a secure anchor for his companions, Arthur completely ignored the joke and simply warned,
"Hurry up."
"What is wrong?"
Rameses looked bewildered, pulling a fraction of his attention away from his communion with the World Soul.
The battle was only half over; even if the guys next door were already popping champagne, they certainly could not afford to.
Arthur shook his head, rejecting his companion's assumption, and replied,
"We have a situation."