40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 754 43. Regaining Hope (Part )

Stepping off the shuttle, accompanied by sunshine and strong sea breeze, a castle built by hollowing out a mountain appeared in front of Khalil.

It is located on a cliff, with sharp lines, like a terrifying relic carved by a knife or an axe. However, at its feet is a sparkling sea, which is stable and has no big waves - even the weather is a cloudless day.

Of course, this is just an illusion created by the ecological dome. If it is closed, the castle will most likely become hideous in an instant.

Rogal Dorn smoothed the wrinkles of his coat, his boots clattering against the tarmac. The Primarch's footsteps were naturally swift and steady, but they still made a dull, thunderous sound when they touched the ground.

Khalil raised his hand to hold down his wide-brimmed hat, squinted his eyes, and looked up at the castle again. A huge Imperial Fist emblem was stubbornly visible on its brick and stone surface covered with moss and vines.

The designer must have anticipated this situation long before the building was built, otherwise, how could it escape the ruthless power of time?
They walked forward and upward, embarking on a winding and narrow mountain trail.

This road is old and poorly maintained, many of the stone bricks have mysteriously disappeared, and the remaining parts are either weathered or broken. As for those parts that are still intact, it is not a good feeling to walk on them. The touch from the soles of your feet will even make you wonder if they will turn into powder in the next second.

The natural scenery on both sides of the path is lush and beautiful. The trees that have been left undisturbed have spread their roots to the surface. Some of the older and larger trees are even more rampant. They not only proudly support the stone bricks and the road surface, but also grow their crowns to be extremely luxuriant, grabbing all the sunlight.

When the sea breeze blows, they rustle and make a sound that almost sounds like some strange cry - and it is indeed strange, for how could such obviously inland plants grow by the sea?

Khalil noticed this, but he didn't want to find out the reason. He just wanted to enjoy the journey.
Twelve minutes later, they arrived at an entrance halfway up the mountain.

The main gate here had long been destroyed. The outer iron door was rusted beyond recognition, and the inner wooden door was not much better. Surprisingly, they could still be pushed open. Rogal Dorn proved this with his hands full of rust and sawdust.

Of course, the scene behind the gate also strictly abides by the laws of nature - overgrown weeds and dead flower beds, dried-up fountains and collapsed statues.
A cursory glance at the doomsday scene made one feel sad, but Dorn was completely indifferent, as if his nature as a builder and protector had completely disappeared.

He walked into the courtyard and headed inward with big strides. In less than two minutes, he arrived in front of the real gate of the castle.

It was about ten meters high, with a rough surface, made up of two large pieces of raw, unpolished stone. Dorn raised his hand again and pushed lightly, causing the two stone doors built for true giants to open inwards.

An indescribable smell of decay gushed out from it, and the dust was swept up and down by the wind from outside, flying and floating in the air, as free as a dancer. The sunlight passed through the shoulders of the two people, sprinkled inside, and illuminated the ruins.

The rotten carpets, the scrapped tables and chairs, the dusty, crumbling chandeliers - everything looked unmaintained and lifeless.

Dawn finally sighed.

"What is this place?" Khalil asked softly.

"Why do you ask when you already know the answer? I don't believe you can't feel him."

"Who?"

The stone replied expressionlessly: "Sigismund."

After saying this, he walked inside. The rotten floor tiles crumbled under his feet, and as powder flew, the castle itself began to shake, as if some ancient evil spirit living inside had been awakened.

Khalil quickly followed him and said, "I can definitely feel his presence, but I really don't know where this is, Roger."

After a few seconds of silence, Dawn spoke slowly.

"I had a conversation with him long ago, when he was just one of my Templars. At that time, we were building Terra, and Sigismund and his brother faced countless problems every day."

"In theory, those things should not be handled by them, but the mortal officials can't pay attention to working with me at the same time, so they volunteered to take on this responsibility."

"That day, I was drawing the design drawings for some underground facilities in the unfinished East Line building complex of the Imperial Palace, and he just barged in and told me that he had just killed some refugees."

"I asked why, and he replied that it was because they were trying to storm the officers' camp, which was guarded by the Guards and the Imperial Guards. He thought that if he didn't act before the Imperial Guards, more people would die."

"So I asked again, how many did you kill? He told me he didn't count."

Dorn paused for a few seconds, and his sculptured face suddenly became alive. Khalil took it all in, but made no comment, just waiting for him to continue.

"I know him well, Khalil. From this answer, I can tell that he has killed many people. This problem must be properly dealt with immediately. After all, those people were forced to become refugees because we wanted to build civil engineering projects."

"So I dropped my work and took him back to the scene. The bodies and bloodstains were gone. The servitors had cleaned up everything. I could only ask the guards on duty at the time. Their commander told me with a pale face that Sigismund had killed at least forty people."

"Everything happened so quickly. From the time they tried to storm the camp to the time Sigismund drew his sword and sheathed it, it probably took less than two minutes in total."

"Then, I asked him if he knew the reason behind this incident. The refugees must have been dissatisfied with something, so they gathered together and tried to attack the camps where the bigwigs who controlled them lived. He hesitated for a long time before telling me that it was because the refugees had not received any living supplies for ten days."

"Did someone embezzle money? Or embezzle money?" Khalil made a guess with a hint of coldness.

Dorn nodded solemnly.

"Yes, but this is only one of the truths. The person who embezzled this batch of daily necessities was a small logistics officer. He took them to a nearby black market and sold them in exchange for two large boxes of gold, silver, jewelry, and many expensive clothes."

"He was dating his boss's daughter in an attempt to win her favor, but he couldn't have done it alone. A few days later, we found out the whole story."

"The logistics officer's boss has a political enemy. He secretly helped the logistics officer to sort out every link from top to bottom. Even the person who revealed the existence and location of the black market to the small official was his confidant. He did this just to find a handle to threaten the logistics officer's boss."

"Just for such a simple reason, he made a refugee camp with more than 100,000 people live in hunger and anxiety for ten whole days."

"When Sigismund interrogated him, I stood outside and observed. He cried bitterly and expressed his remorse, but he actually had no apology for those who died. What he really regretted was that he didn't do a good enough job and left his hands and feet, so he was caught by us."

"On the night this matter was over, Sigismund came to me again. He felt guilty because he had killed forty-eight hungry people." Dorn showed a rare hint of gentleness, as if he was about to smile, or like a person in a painting that came to life through magic.

"I asked him, 'Didn't you have no count?' He told me that he didn't, but he went to find the servitors that were cleaning up the scene and retrieved their data panels."

"In short, he believed he was guilty and should be punished. I agreed with him, so I transferred him to the refugee camp as a guard. Half a year later, he came to me again and said that he had spotted a few children with potential and wanted to recommend them to join the legion."

"I asked him why he did this, was it to atone for his sins? He said that he didn't think the blood on his hands could be washed away in any way, he just wanted to do what he thought was right. His answer interested me, so we started chatting and chatting."

"When the conversation was about to end, it was almost dawn, and I asked him one last question. I asked, if one day the war ended and you were still alive, where would you like to spend the rest of your life? In the end, he threw the question back to me."

They walked through the main hall and up the stairs inside the castle. At this point, the shaking became stronger and stronger, making people worry whether the castle would really collapse in the next second.
"How did you answer?"

Dorn pondered for a moment and slowly replied, "If we really achieve the ideal of unifying the galaxy and bringing humanity into light, given my status, even if I can truly retire, the scene will definitely not be what I want."

"But if there ever comes a day when I have to choose between my own ideas and what people think and want of me, I hope I can retire in a castle by the sea with sunshine all the time, just like the one you and I are seeing now."

"And what about Sigismund?"

"He said he would be willing to be a stable boy or a woodcutter in my castle, anything, but he also wanted to live in a castle like this one."

Khalil smiled, and Dorn's calm face softened.

They turned and walked into a long corridor. The torches hanging on the walls on both sides suddenly lit up, bringing real light, but also stretching and distorting their shadows until they filled the entire corridor.

A few minutes later, they reached the end of the corridor.

A sarcophagus was placed under the empty wall, and a skeleton with the seal of the Sky Eagle, the mark of purity, and gold inlay was placed on it. Its hands were crossed and tied to the surface of the sarcophagus with iron chains. Two strings of prayer beads were wrapped around its wrists, one made of wood and the other made of iron. There was nothingness in its deep eye sockets.

Dorn walked slowly to the sarcophagus and shook his head.

"I wanted to wake him up," he said bluntly.

"That's not necessary, Roger."

Khalil said as he took off his coat - or rather, pulled it off.

The darkness twisted, and the bloody flowers watered by sin turned upside down strangely, turning into the hideous head of an evil beast. It struggled unwillingly, trying to return to its original position, and even opened its fang-filled mouth to roar.
A hand gently touched its head, instantly suppressing the resistance. Khalil let go, letting it flow to the ground like liquid. The bloody flower bloomed again at his feet, and pitiful whimpers came from it.

Khalil sighed helplessly and offered some kind of comfort.

After doing this, he and Dorn approached the sarcophagus - and the bound skeleton began to creak.

"Who is it?" it whispered, sitting up, its chains loosening themselves. "Who dares to approach the burial place of the Emperor's champion?"

As it spoke, its voice gradually became as harsh as a roar, and two blazing white lights flashed in its eyes - then, it saw Rogal Dorn and Caril Rohars.

The skeleton shook its head, straightened its jaw with a click, and lay down without saying a word. The chains closed and tied it together with the coffin again.

Rogal Dorn retracted his gaze, looked at Khalil as if nothing had happened, and asked, "Why?"

"Just let him sleep. There is no need to wake the Emperor's champion for this battle."

Dorn was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly frowned: "But isn't this war very important?"

Khalil rubbed his wrist, lowered his head to look at the carvings on the iron coffin, and answered.

"Yes, it is important - that is why we gathered our forces and rushed to the battlefield in the shortest possible time. However, an important war does not necessarily mean that its intensity must be extremely high. The reason why this war is important is that it can become a symbol, a symbol of hope."

Dorn lowered his head in thought. After a long time, he nodded in understanding.

"Is it related to him?"

"Who?"

"Is it related to the Astronomican?"

Khalil smiled, straightened up, spread his hands and shrugged.

"What Star Torch? I'm just talking about something that will be published in the newspapers - the heroes who have been missing for thousands of years suddenly return together, the alien conspiracy is severely frustrated, etc. I don't understand what you are talking about, Roger."

Wanshi looked at him expressionlessly for a long time and gave an answer.

"The more human you are, the more you like to play these weird jokes, right?"

"I used to joke around a lot, didn't I?"

"Your jokes weren't so offensive before—" Dawn closed his mouth, took a breath, and then spoke again. "—Forget it, just pretend I didn't say anything and go."

Khalil laughed.

(End of this chapter)