40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 570 88. Interlude: The Messenger of Death on Sosa

Sosa is a great place, and it's burning right now.

Khalil could smell the smell very clearly. It was composed of burning cities and corpses crackling in the flames. The black smoke emitted by the war machines was one of its annotations, and the red sky was one of its annotations. The outward form in which it truly manifests.

Even people who know nothing about it can realize that war is coming the first moment they see it.

But what kind of war is this?

Khalil walked into the ruins.

He didn't parachute into Sosa the traditional way, which would have been too late for what he was trying to do, so he went straight to some less traditional methods.

There are four steps in this method.

First, find a drop warehouse.

Second, remove its hatch.

Third, find a launch hole without a drop cabin, put the hatch under your feet, and then forcibly lock the mechanical structure, causing it to make an error, and use psychic energy to rewrite the program so that it thinks that the launch hole is a ready airborne warehouse.

Fourth, prepare to land.

This was how he reached the surface of Sosa without paying any price. He used his spiritual energy to carefully protect his physical body that was transforming into a human body. From this aspect, he did come down in the airborne pod, but he was just a psychic version.

Other than that, there's nothing too special about it.

Ah, maybe there is, that is, the momentum of the landing is not very obvious. Compared to a burning city, his drop pod that doesn't make loud noises is nothing worth mentioning.

Because of this, he appeared quietly on the surface of Sousa, in this city whose name he didn't know.

Khalil took a deep, deep breath of the smoke-laden air and unfolded the capture net amidst the screams of the civilians.

to the greatest extent.

Two straight knives slipped out of his cuffs and were held tightly in his hands, close to his wrists, bringing a supernatural coldness.

So does he.

The piercing siren tore through everything. It was a warning of the coming war, spreading death and misfortune to the heads of all the people who lived and worked in peace and contentment.

They were then surprised to find that the ones who brought about this war were not demons or aliens, but Astartes - and not the kind of traitor Astartes they were familiar with, but a group of people wearing midnight-colored livery and well-trained people. Su, a monster that attacks quickly.

They attacked the city's energy hub first, lowered the shields, and then simultaneously attacked the power plant, various military camps, and the city defense system that did not aim their guns at them at all.

The situation is so bad, but Sousa's auxiliary army and the three companies of the Emperor's Scythe are still fighting side by side. They are tenacious and heroic, but it is difficult to achieve the desired effect.

There are two reasons.

First, they have never fought against such an enemy and are not familiar with such ruthless tactics. Moreover, the unnecessary cruelty shown by the enemy in the battle greatly damaged the morale of the auxiliary army, which made the battle line become unstable. Even more difficult to maintain.

Second, the number of enemies is several times their number.

These two factors combined make winning this war exponentially more difficult.

Tiberius Avedo of the 4th Company of the Emperor's Scythe was clearly aware of this incident. At that time, he was standing in a temporarily dug trench to avoid direct enemy fire, and two stray bullets passed through him. helmet, causing violent shocks.

He himself forcibly turned a blind eye to it and rushed to his company commander's side with anxious steps.

Consus, the "Ruthless" known as the Zerg killer, was using his sniper torch to shoot at the enemy, but he still noticed his arrival and spoke first.

"What is it, Tiberius?"

"We must retreat, my lord."

His words caused Consus to retreat behind cover and glance at him.

He then shook his head and said in his characteristic toneless tone: "Until orders are received from the Chapter Master or Planetary Governor, the mission of the Fourth Company is to defend Sotopolis."

"But we can't hold it!"

"But you have to give it a try, Tiberius. I know what you're trying to say, and yes, we are knights of Sousa and must protect our people and their land, and the people are always more important than the land. But I'm telling you, We cannot retreat."

"Why, my lord?"

"Because of that mountain."

Consus whispered, raising the gun again and gently pulling the trigger. His shot was so accurate that a flower of blood immediately bloomed from across the street.

"Mountain?" young Tiberius asked in confusion.

"Yes, Pharos Mountain - because of it, we cannot retreat. Like you, I am confused about this group of traitors who suddenly appeared, but after all, I am the company commander and have the right to know something that you have no right to know. Something like that mountain.”

"It is the biggest reason why the 4th, 5th and 6th companies refused to retreat, Tiberius. But your point is also correct. We cannot hold it, so we will die here."

The Heartless retreated into cover again, replaced the magazine, and asked without raising his head: "What do you think?"

Tiberius responded with a shot and a roar.

"For Sosa!"

The Heartless laughed softly, and after dealing with the younger brother's confusion, he began to focus on shooting.

The enemy is lighting fires everywhere in his beloved city, changing it beyond recognition, but the Heartless has spent the 187th year of his life here, and this is his home.

Who doesn’t know their own home?

He raised his gun and began to move around the trench, sketching a map in his mind.

They are located on the 22nd Street of Guilliman, opposite a library and a university. The enemy's main firepower comes from the high-rise teaching buildings in the university. They probably don't know that there is a tunnel underneath the library that leads directly into the university.

Through it, the Fourth Company could launch a surprise attack that would turn the current situation around.

The Heartless stopped and looked up at the high-rise teaching building. He saw many corpses hanging upside down, including teachers and students, with blood smeared all over the outer wall.

He had seen with his own eyes how these monsters tortured them. What hung on their belts were not grenades or magazines, but cruel torture tools such as skinning knives, bone-cutting knives, and meat hooks.

There were stains of blood and rust, and the rust was deliberately retained in order to evoke greater fear and inflict greater pain.

An unparalleled anger suddenly arose in the heart of the heartless man.

Then, there was a roar in his ears. It was not a sound that any vehicle could make, nor could a cannonball tear through the air, or a bullet like an explosion pierce through it.

The heartless man instinctively looked back, but only saw a fleeting black shadow. His retinas couldn't even capture its afterimage. At this moment, the clearest sight he saw was the artillery position that the auxiliary army had just set up.

The Heartless immediately turned his head and aimed his gun at the same time, but he still did not see the true form of the thing that suddenly flashed by. He began to search, silently praying to the Emperor that this had better not be an enemy weapon.

His prayer came true, it was indeed not the enemy's weapon, it was the source of death.

Through his scope he saw six heads flying high across the street at the same moment, and then four more from another angle - the enemy roared, their firing interrupted, a battle erupted in their positions sudden commotion

Heartless moved his gun intently to get a better view through the scope.

The weapon he carefully maintained did not let him down. Its automatic enemy detection system quickly marked the specific location of a group of gathered enemies behind their bunker through heat source reaction.

Consus immediately recognized the opportunity, took aim, and pulled the trigger. The bullet came out, but just before it hit a traitor, something killed him.

Consus couldn't see clearly, but he was sure that something had killed the guy before his bullet hit him.

His cheeks twitched at this, but what followed was an almost instinctive speculation: No matter what this thing is, it is helping them.

His speculation came true just like his prayer. It was indeed a helper. He appeared in just a few seconds, but he was not anyone who Consus imagined was capable of doing this. A person who is waiting for atrocities, but a slightly taller mortal.

If one ignores the corpses beside him and the blood-stained hands, then he may even be identified by Consus's sight as a civilian who needs protection and is exposed in the war zone.

The man turned around, a cold light flashing in his dark eyes. Consus suddenly stopped moving forward. He had no evidence, but he just felt that this man was looking at him.

Then, again, his intuition came true, as did his speculation and his prayer.

Consus saw his lips move, and deduced from the shape of his lips that the fourth captain of the Emperor's Scythe was very convinced that what this man said was: I will kill them all.

What he said was true. Just seven and a half minutes later, an enemy fell from the occupied teaching building from a high altitude. His limbs were broken, his armor was damaged, and he fell straight to the ground like a lifeless piece of cloned meat.

A bright blue light erupted from the tall building, shattering all the reinforced glass, causing all communication equipment in the surrounding positions to malfunction, and also causing a piercing scream.

After another two minutes, Consus and his company arrived and began searching for survivors.

They were shocked to find that every corridor was filled with enemy corpses, and the death conditions were extremely tragic. There was no whole corpse.

They finally found the teachers and students hiding under the teaching building. Consus thought that they remembered this ancient tunnel and came to seek refuge, but the vice principal, who was covered in blood, denied it.

The white-haired lady, bewildered, told Consus and his brother that they had been saved and had been led here.

Consus asked if the savior was wearing a black robe and holding two sharp knives. But she shook her head and said it was a red robe. Behind her, the other surviving teachers and students began to praise the Emperor and the messengers of death he had sent.

Messenger of death?

The ruthless man took a deep breath and began to report the matter. Coincidentally, similar descriptions of monsters holding sharp knives, red-robed assassins, etc. began to be reported one after another across Sotopolis.

The Emperor's Scythes later relied on these long and short reports to piece together the movement trajectory of the Deathbringer. They believed that he started from near the university and library.

Nine minutes later, he moved to the administrative building four streets away, where he killed all the enemies who were killing civilians for fun in the administrative center.

Another twelve minutes later, he somehow appeared at the heart of the underground transportation network in Sotopolis, and another massacre ensued.

Next came the fallen barracks, the hijacked social welfare home, and the lost second front. His footprints are all over Sotopolis, his speed is as fast as lightning, and his methods are more cruel than those traitors.

No traitor could survive after meeting him. According to the subsequent investigation, there was not even a whole body of these people. Beheading was the most common method of death, and some received special treatment.

For example, cutting off the limbs, disemboweling the body, or cutting off the legs, opening the back, taking out the spine, and letting him kneel in front of the person he killed to bleed to death.

The report was quickly sealed.

And now, the protagonist of the report, the messenger of death who is said to bring down the wrath of the God Emperor in the underground legend of Sosa, is walking into an orphanage.

His robe was covered in blood. This ordinary fabric had a certain waterproof function, but it could not withstand the horrific atrocities he had committed in the past two hours.

More than 1,700 well-trained Astartes died in his hands one by one. Khalil calculated the numbers as he calmly walked through the door of the orphanage.

There was no blood or corpses here. A hundred silent and frightened children were squatting in the hall behind their dean and priest. The portrait of the Emperor is hung behind the statue of Robert Guilliman, with a calm expression, and both father and son wear similar laurel wreaths.

A group of giants in midnight-colored armor were waiting in the shadows.

When the leader saw him coming, he took the initiative to walk out of the darkness, put down his weapon, then took off his helmet and shook his head with a complicated expression.

"Who are you?" he hissed.

As before, nothing unusual happened.

Khalil glanced at him, didn't answer, just took a deep breath.

"I'm asking you a question-"

Khalil clenched his right fist and threw a sharp knife. It dug deep into the man's armor, and members of his squad immediately raised their weapons and aimed them at the surrounding children.

"Don't fire!" shouted the giant. "Stop!"

He reached out and pulled out the sharp knife stuck on his breastplate, with the fear of passing by life and death, his eyes lit up with the light of psychic energy.

"Where are we?" he asked, holding the knife tightly.

Khalil called out his name.

"Fel Zalost lives in Sousa," he said quietly. "But you shouldn't be here."