Emperor's Bane

Chapter 242 The Untouchables of Art

Ahriman owns a rare Chanabal saber.

This is the gift he received in the arena of the Second Legion. This is the recognition he received after he used his tenacity, seriousness and continuous transformation to amaze all the sons of Morgan present.

It was not an easy trophy of contempt, but years of competition, struggle, and thought behind it, until the sons of Magnus saw the value of the blade, until he proved himself a A guest worthy of the Legion's highest respect.

So, he got homage, he got chanabal.

This elegant and deadly weapon is a sensitive harvesting blade suitable for swordsmen, scholars and assassins. It relies more on the innate speed and acquired skill of the user than the empty brute force most fighters pursue. It is Only a master swordsmith on Terra can forge a fine piece, each one is unique, the micro-serrations with sharp edges can easily cut through the best Astartes power armor, let the breath of death cut through the most fragile The crucial point.

Perhaps in the eyes of many more outspoken Astartes warriors, this thin warblade made of repeatedly stamped metal is an ineffective and useless ritual weapon, but there are still people who love this weapon, And it has gained a lot of fame: the most famous of them is the [Palatine Blade Brotherhood] in the Emperor's Children Legion, a temporary organization set up only for the most valuable enemies, and they and Cha The fame of the Nabal Saber spread throughout the Great Crusade.

In addition to the descendants of Fulgrim, among the Dawnbreakers of Avalon, there is also a group of Chanabal sabers steadfastly surrounded by them. Their representative is Bayal, the chief champion swordsman of the Second Legion. : One of the strongest Astartes warriors in active service, the undefeated one as famous as Akudonna, standing at the top of the force, overlooking the multitudes of many legions.

And it was he who gave Ahriman the Chanabal Saber after the last duel, which lasted more than 8000 tera standard hours. A Dawnbreaker witnessed the scene, they were silent, but no one raised any objection or objection.

Including Hector, he was on the stand closest to the arena, together with his close former team members, and witnessed Ahriman taking over the hand that symbolized honor and strength in the silence and applause of the crowd. With approved thin blade.

At that time, months before his friendship with Ahriman had begun, that did not prevent him from truly admiring and applauding the Son of Magnus, like most of the people present.

Ahriman was overwhelmed when he entered the eighth tera gauge of the arena; at No.80 eight tera gauge, Ahriman was furious; at 888 tera gauge, There is only endless despair that lingers on the soldiers of the No.15 Legion.

But when the footsteps of the hour hand crossed the bronze bell on the sky dome of the arena for the eighth,880th time, the son of Magnus stood in the center of the arena, surrounded by endless applause and applause. The etiquette of the Second Legion for its most honored guests.

The story sounds magical, unbelievable, and has some incomprehensible abrupt turns: but the reason behind it is not inexplicable, especially for a character like Hector who almost witnessed the whole process, it is more natural. Clearly, such an outcome is the only answer driven by the monstrous tenacity and arrogance of the sons of Magnus.

It was also at that time that the friendship between him and Ahriman started. Although it was difficult for the two to say that they had any common topics, their relationship became more and more close, and soon developed to the point where they could provide real and feasible solutions to each other. opinions, and will really be listened to and adopted one by one.

Therefore, when the chief boss under Morgan finally found a perfect block of marble and prepared to use it as the basis for his victory in the first Primarch Statue Competition, he didn't really understand art Hector naturally thought of his friend Prospero who theoretically should be full of academic cells and artistic cells.

The incomparably tall No.20 Third Company Commander pushed the two-meter-long piece of marble, covered his semi-finished product with a curtain, and passed through the corridor of the battleship: after decades of service and battle, especially After the addition of the blue eyes of the Primarch, the current Hector is no longer the recruit who can only lead a small team. He is already the company captain of a main company with his own large cruiser and the company command group. , and all that comes with an Astartes Captain.

The No.20 third company, among the existing 44 companies of the Dawnbreaker Legion, is only moderate in terms of ranking and influence. Its positioning is only the main force, not the more noble elite and trump card, but Hector is very satisfied Due to his current progress, he knew that it would be difficult for him to make further progress in a short period of time: after all, among the company captains and officers in front of him, the most immature ones were all old monsters who had officially served before the Great Expedition, and Even the company commanders who lined up behind him were ancient figures who had witnessed Thunder Warriors.

After the return of the Primarch, the officer promotions of the Second Legion began to explode. A victory without casualties could be boasted in the first two years of the Legion's reorganization, but now it is basically The basics of every company captain: just because the Primarch has clearly stated on many occasions that she cares about the casualty rate, which is understood as the natural affection of the gene mother for her offspring.

Of course, it is not without the bitterness of the weather-beaten veterans in private: Compared with other primarchs, their gene mother seems to be somewhat inexplicably petty in terms of devoting military power, which does not fit her when she was the female tyrant of Avalon. open and close.

From the current point of view, this is certainly not a bad thing, but there are always people who worry that this will affect the Primarch's grasp of the right time in the future: similar concerns are emerging among experienced Terra veterans, but Heck But Te has never thought about similar things at all. He is now concentrating on how to become an excellent company captain, and using all the responsibilities and conveniences this position gives him.

Therefore, as it should be, when his friend Ahriman came to pay him a special visit, Hector could also set aside a lounge for Ahriman that fit the company commander's specifications. His private lounge was not much different, surpassed only by the luxurious room reserved for the Primarch.

The gate was specially raised, and Hector only needed to bend slightly to enter. He didn't wear his special power armor, which made him look only two heads taller than ordinary Astartes warriors.

"Do me a favor, Ahriman."

The unique low voice of Morgan's pride awakened the son of Magnus who was swimming in the ocean of knowledge. He put down the book in his hand that seemed to have just been published, and came to Dawnbreaker: Hector took a moment to glance at Ali The book in Man's hand, but he didn't see any title or author.

"What's that? Ahriman?"

The curious question made Ahriman flaunt the book in his hand, and answered with the most relaxed words.

"It's nothing, it's just a book about psychic powers, and I'm helping to compile it."

"Psionic books? I've seen quite a few spiritual books at Salieri, but I've never seen such a thick one. It probably has thousands of pages, right?"

"Currently, there are [-] pages, but each page has been protected by multiple layers of special protection spells, so it looks a bit too thick."

"What are you talking about?"

"Basic knowledge, the most basic and boring knowledge, even you will understand."

An indifferent smile appeared on Ahriman's face. He cleared an area in his guest room and asked Hector to put down his oversized goods, and placed them next to the display cabinet on the floor. The sharp-eyed Morgan's son saw a bottle of wine on the display cabinet, which seemed to be brought by Ahriman on purpose.

"Does psionic power also have basic knowledge?"

"Of course, the things in this book are all basic knowledge, not even a single bit of advanced theory. In Prospero, this kind of psychic explanation textbook can only be distributed to those novices who have just embarked on the path of psychic power. But in other places, if you can understand this book thoroughly, you can be called a qualified think tank, or a psychic.”

"It sounds like Salieri really needs such a book?"

Hector smiled. He and his friend sat on both sides of the somewhat messy table, took the tea offered by Ahriman, but never took his eyes off the book: he smelled some special smell in it.

Ahriman raised an eyebrow.

"Salieri? Why? I remember his psychic level is pretty good."

"That's right, he is very proficient in the spiritual spells of the mind system, and he is also proficient in a few of the fire system, but when he operates, some key contexts are not in his hands: simply put, he can't use the knowledge he has mastered. Truly linking together for complete mastery."

"No one taught him?"

"This requires a long and steady learning period, but in today's Great Expedition, how can we have time to arrange for him to spend more than ten years learning a little bit, and we have to transfer a senior psychic from somewhere, Spend the same amount of time teaching him?"

"Not everywhere is Prospero."

Hector glanced at the book again.

"So, a basic textbook that allows one to learn by oneself may be a good idea and save a lot of trouble: Is this book your own idea? My friend,"

"No, I didn't participate in the compilation of this book. I'm just checking the mistakes here as a test reader. I can't tell you its author, Hector, but you will know soon."

Morgan's son nodded, and did not continue to ask. The two chatted for a while, and quickly shifted the topic to the semi-finished product under the curtain.

"Why are sculptures so popular with you recently?"

Ahriman narrowed his eyes and looked at Linglong under the curtain, and couldn't help but recall the unforgettable scene he witnessed a few days ago.

He saw it with his own eyes: the face of the chief champion Bayar was also full of smiles and excitement, just like Hector at this moment, pushing a super-large cargo more than two meters high into the public event room, but what is slightly different is that what he pushed was a block of marble without any traces of carving.

then……

Then Bayar pulled out the extended cutting machine and angle grinder in front of him, and started his work at a speed so fast that Ahriman could hardly catch it. The snow-white whirlwind wrapped the corner of the room, Mag The sons of Nus could barely see the fake marble fragments falling to the ground without any hesitation, like lumps of smashed tofu, without the stubborn temper of stone materials at all.

For a moment, Ahriman found himself underestimating Bayar: Why was his stuff so outrageous?

"It's nothing, it's just a legion match out of interest, to increase friendship."

"Is it a serious game?"

"It's not...semi-formal, it's far worse than your [Ariman's Wrath]."

"...can we not talk about this, Hector?"

"Don't be shy, my friend, this is not a malicious title, on the contrary, after [Ariman's Wrath], you started to impress us, and we began to realize that our previous behavior was somewhat narrow."

"This is something worth remembering, Ahriman. Before that, most of the duel with you was driven by negative emotions, but after that, everyone came here for the name."

"All of them?"

"Well... well, in fact, many people, including me, have another reason."

"what reason?"

"Everyone has gone to compete with you, if I don't go again... I'm a bit out of the group."

"..."

Hector smiled and skipped Ahriman's question. Morgan's heirs tacitly limited the competition to the legion, and did not want others to know, and Ahriman didn't get too entangled or curious. Sincerely crossing your fingers, telling yourself that you don't have much achievements in art.

"It's okay, I don't have much experience."

Hector smiled, and was about to walk over and lift the curtain: After his day and night efforts, the sculpture was already a semi-finished product, its head and facial features had been roughly carved, enough to clearly distinguish It shows the endless fanaticism and support of the son of Morgan for the mother of genes.

Although in Hector's view, his hands are now unable to describe the perfect appearance of the genetic mother in his heart, and even half of the resemblance cannot be truly achieved, but he believes that his talent and acquired hard work will eventually overcome this moment. Dilemma, complete the ode to the Primarch.

After all, Lord Kairon, who had watched his semi-finished product before, gave Hector a very high evaluation after a long period of astonishment and bewilderment.

Hector remembered that sentence now.

------

"Hector."

"Ok?"

"Your work...reminds me of a person I've heard of and seen."

"Who?"

"An Emperor's Children, a very old Emperor's Children warrior, very powerful... Specifically, his artistic style should be a minority among the Emperor's Children."

"Thank you for your compliment, Your Excellency!"

------

Hector smiled and lifted the curtain.

Ahriman narrowed his eyes, too: for a moment, he feared that his first knee-jerk reaction would hurt the friendship, but when he actually saw the work, Son of Magnus frowned. .

It's actually...not bad.

It is very expressive and vivid, and it is indeed possible to recognize the carved figure at a glance. Although many places are still blurred, the rough facial features have already made the identity of the carved object ready to be revealed.

Ahriman couldn't help nodding, which made Hector even more proud, but while nodding, the son of Magnus was still frowning.

……

……

Weird.

How could he not know, when did the relationship between Hector and Abaddon become so good?

How could he still make a statue for Abaddon?
(End of this chapter)