40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 735 27. Interlude: The Sin of Heresy

Looking at what was in his hand, Khalil confirmed one thing again - people can really do anything when they have free time.

If he wasn't told, who would believe that the cup of cold dessert in his hand, which smelled so sweet, was actually made by Belisarius Cole?

This great hero of the Battle of Chemos had been busy for two years after the war. After finally having a short break, he personally designed an automatic dessert machine.
Khalil sniffed it gently, feeling the milky aroma that shouldn't be there, and the image of Belisarius Cole standing in front of him half an hour ago and speaking so passionately appeared in front of his eyes.

The ruling sage of today and the inevitable forging general of the future patted his metal chest with great pride and assured him that it would be a very delicious dessert.

Khalil did not doubt Kaul's ability, but he was confused, so he asked Kaul - how did you design such a machine that can make delicious food without having a sense of taste?

The great sage smiled slightly and pointed to the chief caster beside him. The latter covered his forehead and silently finished the dessert in his hand.

Khalil shook his head and took a sip. He first felt the ice on his tongue, and then the rich taste of cheap sugar substitute that did not come from the lowest level of the Empire's industrial system.

He was slightly startled, then took a bite and savored it carefully. This time the taste was even stronger, almost making him feel dazed.
Well, maybe it's just because I haven't eaten anything good, he thought silently as he swallowed the cold drink.

"Really?" Conrad Curze smiled maliciously in his shadow. "Can someone who has feasted on the Emperor's Dream and in the Imperial Palace say such things?"

Khalil sighed and thought: Dishes that have been left out for hours, becoming cold and even tasteless, and the uncomfortable atmosphere at the banquet - do you think the food tastes good?
“I don’t think so,” Coz answered thoughtfully. “But I think it’s not the fault of those hardworking chefs.”

He fell silent and stopped talking. This also gave Khalil the opportunity to quickly finish the dessert in his hand. Although he was reluctant to finish it so quickly, it was necessary.

Considering the people he was going to meet and the things he was going to do next, it would be better to destroy this delicacy as soon as possible.

After a few sips, he pinched the empty plastic cup, flattened it, and folded it in half. After two rounds, he turned it into a weapon that could be used to throw and literally take lives - it might not be very sharp, but as long as it was used properly, it didn't matter whether it was sharp or not.
Khalil trapped it in the center of his palm and strode into a dark and unguarded corridor.

He was no longer on Chemos or Eagle Wing, but back on the Inquisitor. The design of this warship was very different from most Imperial ships. It seemed that it did not consider the need to carry more people, and its interior was filled with various secret rooms and corridors.

Of course, these chambers are now almost all empty, with one exception.

A few minutes later, he walked to the end of the corridor, where there was a heavy stone door, pitch black and nothing special.

Khalil stopped and looked up. After a few seconds, a crisp sound of dripping was heard in the darkness, and the stone door slid open, revealing a huge circular hole behind it. A suspended steel cage was floating hummingly, and a body was tied up with chains inside.

After he stepped into the stone gate, there was clearly nothing under his feet, but his boots could actually make a dull sound of hitting the ground, which was so puzzling that it made his whole body cold.
The sound triggered an instinctive reaction in La Endymion, who was left outside the door. He suddenly clenched his weapon tightly in the shadows reflexively, and it was not until more than ten seconds later that he regained his senses and had the leeway to let go of his weapon.

He understood that this meant that the person who walked calmly into the darkness had already developed the intention to kill.

Khalil slowly came under the cage, moved his fingers slightly, and the cage lowered to be level with him.

The skeleton inside "woke up" in due time, and two green flames lit up in its empty eye sockets. It trembled for a while, and its upper and lower jaws with bionic joints collided comically, until several minutes later, it made no sound.

"How long, my lord?"

"Two years," Khalil said.

The skeleton sighed. Its synthetic sound, which should have been emotionless, strangely showed some extremely obvious sadness at this moment. However, it did not continue, but quickly got to the point.

"It seems that the famous angel is indeed a trustworthy person as I thought. In short, I am very happy to see you again."

Khalil shook his head expressionlessly. "But I'm not happy, Trazyn—tell me, are you crazy?"

"Well, this is a question worth thinking about, sir. According to secular philosophy, I would have been completely crazy, but since I can still talk to you here..."

The skeleton in the cage uttered two monotonous self-deprecating laughs and ended its answer there.

Khalil naturally understood the implication of his words. Sanguinius had already told him the whole situation, with unimaginable twists and turns, but he could still get to the essence of it. In the final analysis, the situation only required one sentence.

Trazyn, the overlord of the Solomus Dynasty, was declared a traitor by his race. His identity was stripped away, his territory was reclaimed, his hard work was trampled upon, and even his name was spurned.
"It is true that we have a deal," Khalil said slowly. "But I think it was a gradual process, and you exposed it to the eyes of your compatriots, which led to such a huge disaster. Your people are looking for you all over the galaxy, Trazyn. How long do you think it will take for them to find that you have come to the empire to seek asylum?"

The skeleton shook his head helplessly and said, "First of all, I want to correct you on one thing - I am not stupid enough to expose myself. The person who really made such an unforgivable mistake is the first-class rotten wood in the galaxy and my friend, Stargazer Orikan."

"What did it do?"

Trazyn smiled strangely. "It is difficult for me to explain his stupidity to you in just a few words. In short, he took the initiative to contact a compatriot he thought he could trust without consulting me and tried to recruit him into the gang."

"Then, he became a prisoner. As for me? I became an unprecedented traitor. The Council declared me a despicable person who sold out the safety of the entire race in exchange for self-satisfaction, and used their authority to forcibly shut down my rebirth protocol."

"If I hadn't made such a small preparation, you would probably see Trazyn as nothing more than a head, decorated on an executioner's chair or boat."

Khalil was completely oblivious to its humor. His expression remained calm, and his right hand did not loosen. He simply said, "Your reasons are very good, but this cannot erase the essence of what you did. You triggered a war between humanity and the Empire that should not have started so early."

"Hmm." Trazyn paused for a few seconds. "Regarding this, I actually did some calculations before taking action." "Go ahead."

"As you wish, my Lord - I have many hiding places and many backup bodies, as you know. And I managed to bypass the restrictions of our laws and rewrite the programs of those backup bodies at the protocol level. They are now going crazy all over the galaxy with my compatriots. Before my hiding places and backup bodies are completely destroyed, those idiots who want to take my head back for the reward will not be able to figure out where I am at the moment even if they want to stop the reactor."

Khalil narrowed his eyes, took a step forward, and stared at it.

Trazyn responded meekly, showing no fear of his current situation - as if his rebirth protocol was still working, and he could be "resurrected" in another body at any time through technology that far surpassed human imagination.
After a long moment, Khalil nodded.

"Then our deal is still valid," he said. "Next, a priest from the Mechanicus will contact you to take care of technical matters, but before that, I have a question for you."

As if knowing what he was going to say, the eyes of the overlord of the Sollems Dynasty, who was left with only a remnant of his body, suddenly trembled slightly, and then a star map was projected out, reflecting the outside of the cage. The light was steady, reflecting its determination.

"It's right here." Trazyn whispered. "The Council has turned my property into my bounty. As long as I am not confirmed dead, the tomb will remain the same."

Khalil looked down at the star map and a coordinate specially marked on it. Then, without looking back, he raised his left hand and clenched his fist.

The tribune who was waiting outside the door immediately left the shadows, hammered his breastplate with his right hand, and the sound of metal clashing slowly came. He quickly turned around and ran towards the bridge of the Inquisitor.

There, Sanguinius was waiting - yes, he actually had two things to do when he came to Chemos, and visiting Fulgrim was not even the most important thing. How to deal with the temporarily surrendered Necron Trazyn was what he cared about most.

For this reason, he temporarily left Terra and led a team to Chemos alone, in order to lead the overlord of the Solmus Dynasty as the regent of the human empire to find one of the patron gods of mankind to ensure that their previous transactions could proceed as usual.
Releasing his right hand and raising his head, Khalil looked at Trazyn, who still maintained his projection posture, his eyes dim, and his body trembling slightly.

"Is it worth it?" he suddenly asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You were labeled a traitor and everything was taken away from you. Your people clearly don't understand you, Trazyn."

The star map went out, and Trazyn's eyes lit up again.

"It's worth it, of course it's worth it." The Endless One whispered. "I understand what they do. It's normal, isn't it?"

"The last deal with the gods brought us disaster. The race called Necrontyr has existed in name only since then. What remains are just a group of living tombstones, wandering in the hallucinations created by neural pathways all day long, claiming to be nobles and the true masters of the galaxy."

"But the fact is that even this sense of superiority is only derived from a false simulation. The sad thing is that we know these are illusions, but we cannot abandon them and face the truth."

"And now, I want to tear off this illusion and force them all to face their true selves - this is like asking a once beautiful but now disfigured person to look in the mirror, Caryl Rohals, it is so cruel that it is hard to describe."

"So of course they will oppose me and use all means to stop me. There are only a few people in this world who have the courage to face everything. Moreover, they don't even have fear. They only act this way because of the program judgment. Without fear, how can they have courage?"

Khalil took a step back, looked at him, and nodded solemnly. The Endless was slightly startled, and then laughed. This time, the arc formed by the twisting of the living metal seemed extremely real, no longer stiff as before.

"I was a little surprised by your appearance." He sighed, and then shook his head in self-mockery. "I am an alien, right? Shouldn't the patron saint of mankind regard me as an enemy?"

"Humanity has never had any patron gods. God did not help them leave Terra, expedition to the starry sea, nor did he save them from bloodshed and tears. Humanity has achieved everything it has today with its own hands. As for the enemy——"

Khalil smiled slightly, raised his right hand, and handed the plastic throwing knife that had lost its murderous aura to Trazyn: "——For a friend like you who is willing to help the Empire advance in technology, it is not impossible for us to talk again."

The Infinite One laughed loudly, stretched out his only remaining left hand, trembling from the restraint of the chain, and successfully grasped it. He held it in his hand and examined it carefully, while Khalil had already turned and left.

"It's a pleasure working with you." His voice came slowly, no longer cold.

"It's a pleasure working with you." The Endless One replied softly.

He looked down at the flying knife. In the moment before the darkness struck and froze his consciousness, he couldn't help but feel a little absurd. A hundred years ago, he would never have thought that he would be frozen like this and become a collection.

But
He clenched his fingers and held the flying knife tightly, smiling as if he had held hope. Darkness came, the door closed, and his consciousness became stagnant. Then, after an unknown amount of time, the darkness faded away, and a red-robed priest whom he had seen once stood in front of him enthusiastically. His face was so hideous that he almost jumped out of his wits.

"Ahaha!" Belisarius Cawl stretched out his appendage and shook the cage, shouting with a distorted expression. "Teleport away if you can, you damned lump of metal!"

".Are you the Mechanicus priest who came to meet me?"

Kaul responded with a roar: "It's the Sage Ruler!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he grabbed the cage with wild laughter and carried it to the outside world - he couldn't wait any longer, and the enterprising spirit of a researcher was burning fiercely.

"Dead God," Trazyn couldn't help but lament. "How could it be you?"

(End of this chapter)