40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 722 14. Catching the Eagle (I)

As Anazion rose to his feet quickly and powerfully, he didn't even realize that he was clenching his fists with more force than he had ever done before.

The thin barrier between reality and dreams has been broken. Now, there is no need for anyone to explore the truth of dreams for him or teach him how to use his talent - Anazion still has reason, and his reason tells him that something is about to happen.

He let go, letting the book that had been his favorite not long ago fall to the ground, crushing the grass, and pulling off the large coat that the owner had finally found from the shelf on the level marked Ogryn in her warehouse, and throwing it directly to the ground.

There weren't many people in the park, but someone saw his actions. His height, expression, and actions made a well-dressed man approach him very cautiously, smiling, with his hands in front of him, as if he wanted to say something to him.

Without even opening his mouth, Anazione had already guessed what was going on: There are children here, Mr. Big, if you have any problems, I'm happy to help you, but please don't scare them.
He apologized to the man before he could speak: "I can't help it."

The man looked at him in confusion and surprise, and Anazion didn't want to explain any more. He gently raised his hand, pushed the man away, and then ran away.

Even before the shuttle landed, he had memorized the map of City No. 3. Most Chemos people who had lived in this city all their lives did not know their huge homeland as well as he did.
In just two minutes, he ran out of the park at full speed, and the streets were still bustling, with no sign of impending disaster. But Anazion did not relax, he turned around and ran to the nearest Ministry of Justice office, and took out the private communicator Belisarius Kaur gave him from his waist.

This plain-looking black instrument soon issued a short prompt when he pressed it. Eleven seconds later, the unique half-dead voice of the Great Sage of Domination came out of it, still chattering.

"What do you want from me, Anazion? I'm busy right now. Oh, by the way, you should thank me for taking the time out of my busy schedule to connect with you, and then tell me what new insights you have gained today on Chemos."

The First Caster ignored this very typical, mocking joke from Belisarius Cole and just spoke in a deep voice.

"There are issues with my dreams that have not been resolved, Creator, and it's even worse."

There was a slight noise from Kaul's end, and when he spoke again, his voice had become very monotonous and steady: "Go on."

"A few minutes ago, I fell into a deep sleep without any warning in City No. 3. I saw the vines again. This time, they were even right under my feet and I could touch them."

There was a long silence on the other end of the communication. Shouzhu understood that this meant his creator was thinking, so he did not urge him, but continued to run towards the office.

The official armed forces of Chemos are on standby on the Eagle Wings. If anything happens, they will quickly send a beacon to the city that sent out the distress signal. The department that has the power and obligation to send out the signal is the local Ministry of Justice of Chemos.

Shouzhu had already prepared a set of words. It would take him forty seconds to reach the two reddish-brown wooden doors of the office. He had to make sure he could gain the trust of the investigators as soon as he entered.
Seven seconds later, the communication device rang again, and Belisarius Cole's voice changed again. This time, he sounded almost like a cold procedure without any emotion.

"I just entered Chemos' orbital defense system, and their monitoring of the nearby Mandeville Point is normal-"

Kaul's voice stopped here, and no matter what he wanted to say, it was completely interrupted by a sudden explosion.

The First Caster turned his head in an instant, but his face was covered by the flames. His eyes were forced to burn, and the dark pupils reflected a boiling wave of flames.
He flew backwards heavily, crashed through a wall, and fell on the edge of a store selling children's toys.

The children and their parents looked at the suddenly appearing, dusty giant in silence, so surprised that they even forgot to be afraid. Shouzhu climbed up with his hair standing on end, and before he could feel the pain, he felt his blood rushing because of a sound coming from behind him.

Without even thinking about being thankful that no one was hurt because of him, he lunged forward, grabbing as many kids as he could and ran straight for the store door, roaring as he did so.

"Run!"

His roar was deafening, but people just stood there in a daze, not reacting.

Shouzhu was extremely anxious about this. The world became extremely slow in his eyes. It was impossible for ordinary people to have such a reaction speed as him. Now he even forgot about this matter and only wanted the people in the store to run out with him.
He failed, as it should have, and the world, which was moving at a slow and rigid pace, was collapsing bit by bit before his eyes.

Debris, blasts and flames whizzed out from behind the wall of the store he crashed into. A young couple who were out playing with their little daughter and standing close to the wall died on the spot.

Their daughter was carried away by a piece of wall debris, and the real air wave appeared after that. It roared and swept across, blowing away all the people still standing in the store.
Before the scalding evil hand touched him, Shouzhu subconsciously turned around and knelt down, protecting the children under him.

"boom--!"

Heat and smoke spread, explosions continued, the ground began to shake, and all kinds of terror swept over, throwing people away and making them look like some kind of funny puppets.

Some of the puppets were still intact and just screaming, but most of them had broken apart gently, their limbs flying in the smoke and dust, and the broken firelight was like fragments of stars stuck in the flesh, bones and screams, and then burst into light and swallowed everything completely.
Until a certain point was reached, after which the First Cast could hear nothing more.

He opened his eyes in severe pain and dizziness, and only then did he realize that his posture had changed. He was no longer half-kneeling, but lying on his back in a ruin and a deep pit, surrounded by flames and billowing smoke.

Some were screaming, some were crying, and more were shouting different names.

The First Cast staggered to his feet, and adrenaline helped him to stand firm in half a second. The bleeding in his wounds had already stopped, and his naturally grown Laraman organs were working at full capacity. His three lungs helped him ignore the toxic smoke that kept coming.

He could hear voices all around him and see some shadows closer to him. So, yes, there were still people alive.

But what about those children he just protected?

The First Cast raised his hands. His broad palms were covered with blood and tiny pieces of bone, with burnt hair and clothing stuck to the surface of melted skin. He thought he had his answer.

The First Cast opened his mouth and vomited a large mouthful of boiling blood. But the culprit who caused this horrific scene seemed to still feel that it was not enough. The ruins began to shake, and the buildings that had survived the explosion collapsed with loud noises as the ground cracked.

A huge amount of bricks and stones fell to the ground along with the screaming people, and then were swallowed by the huge cracks that rumbled and split, as if falling into hell.
Shouzhu squatted down, barely finding a tiny but precious balance in the surging "waves".

He was very calm now, even a little too calm. Disaster and death were destroying his sanity, but he was still able to think.

He thought of the two dreams. He had forgotten the first one and could only vaguely remember some fragmentary scenes, but the second one was still fresh in his memory. There was a common point between the two, which he didn't know if it was a coincidence - vines.

He lowered his head and stared at the abyss of hell. He had a premonition that his nightmare would become a reality.
-
"Get in the car!" Guzman suddenly roared.

His voice went straight to the ears of Saul Tarvitz, the boy and his mother. The latter two were surprised and confused, but the former immediately realized that something was wrong after a brief glance back.

He picked up the boy, and with a little force in his right hand, he lifted the mother onto his shoulder. In two or three steps, he crossed the street and boarded the hovercraft. Without saying a word, the medical officer reached out and slammed the door with a brutal force.

Seeing his reaction, Tarvitz had to stop asking questions and gave the hovercraft a new order with his authority, asking it to take off at maximum power for the time being.
Just as it began to hum, a loud noise came from the far end of the city, shocking the mother to scream instinctively. The boy, who was still crying, now calmly grabbed his mother's hand and whispered to her to calm down.

Guzman left his seat and walked to the back of the car, with Tarvec following closely behind him. The two of them stood shoulder to shoulder and watched the flames rising into the sky through the reinforced glass.

"Did the energy pipeline explode?" Guzman asked softly.

"No," Tarvitz replied grimly. "It's impossible for just one or two main pipelines to cause an explosion of this magnitude. I'm more inclined to believe that there's something wrong with our underground power plant."

As if to fulfill his words, more flames followed, breaking out continuously within a few seconds, as if someone was bombing the ground in Chemos.

The area where they were staying was not spared either. The erupting flames, accompanied by strong winds, rushed straight into the sky, engulfing all the houses and pedestrians on the ground, and then soared into the sky.

The hovercraft struggled to maintain balance. This sturdy large carrier was actually a military version with most of its weapons removed. It had performance that was completely unmatched by the civilian version.
This reliability helped them fly high into the sky, but other hovercrafts were not so lucky. The various hovercrafts that were originally traveling back and forth on the designated air routes above the city were affected by the horrific explosion. One after another, the hovercrafts collided with each other in the wind and turned into flashing points of light in the billowing black smoke.

At the same time, the ground began to collapse, and the foundations of tall buildings were destroyed in an instant. The magnificent and exquisite buildings were completely destroyed, and the lives within them were annihilated. Huge cracks appeared slowly and quickly, swallowing up bricks, rubble, corpses and survivors alike.
Guzmán could hear Saul Tarvitz's bones crackling.

He did not turn around to observe the expression of the avenger at this moment, but continued to speak in the soft voice of the Eighth Legion.

"Will you go out?"

"Of course." Saul Tarvitz said calmly. "A disaster of this magnitude will be detected by Eagle Wings in the first place, and we will all be dispatched."

"In what way?"

"Remaining beacons, gunships, dropships, parachutes."

"I suggest you issue the order now and tell them to wait a little longer," Guzman said slowly. "At least until - ah, no need."

As soon as he finished speaking, countless vines shot up into the sky. Each one was extremely thick, like some giant beast from ancient times. Two of them just happened to brush past the side of the hovercraft. Everyone in the car could clearly hear the dull, strong, and vital creaking sound it made when it stretched its body.

This sound is like a sigh, which contains endless happiness and joy, like a prisoner who has been waiting for a long time and finally escaped.
They began to dance, bringing more destruction, like dancing gods intent on destroying the world.

Saul Tarvitz closed his eyes, exhaled, took out a data tablet from his waist, and began to contact Eagle Wing.

Guzman didn't know what orders he would issue, but now Sol Tarvitz was no longer someone he could convince with words. The appearance of those vines changed some unspoken rules, and both he and the Justice Man could sense it, and they had no way to solve it.

They are not the ones who solve the problem, in fact, they are even one of the beneficiaries of this change in the rules: reality is being distorted, and their power is enhanced.
But at what cost?

He looked down at his hands and suddenly smiled.

——It is interesting that before becoming a medical officer, Jairzinho Guzman was the most famous swordsman in the Eighth Legion, and Richternar was his apprentice.
-
Fulgrim and Khalil stood side by side as they watched the planet before them gradually being engulfed by a sickly dark green color.

They said nothing.

It was not until much later, until the weapons array of the planet's orbital space station began to warm up, that Fulgrim finally uttered a slight sound, like a resurrected stone statue.

"Why is this happening?" he asked in a hollow voice. It didn't sound like he was asking a question, but more like he was talking to himself.

No one answered him.

(End of this chapter)