40k: Midnight Blade.

Chapter 761 50. Regaining Hope (VII, 13)

Most importantly, how far can you go in the fire?
Khalil closed the book and walked slowly to a porthole.

There were forty-two steps from the Inquisitor's throne to the porthole he had chosen, and he walked slowly but with long strides, his boots making almost no sound as they touched the ground.

However, no matter how he moved in this iron-gray area, using his instinctive movement skills, a cluster of scarlet was always entangled around his feet.

It was gorgeously bright, like a bush of flowers growing out of a shadow, but many eyes loomed in it, dark as ink, and an evil beast was waiting hungrily behind them.

Yes, the demon named Larhe has been redoubling his efforts to assert his presence lately, something that would have never been allowed in the past.

Only now, its situation has changed a little, so all its actions have actually been allowed by one person without words, but only in such private occasions.

Elsewhere, it still has to play the role of a coat.
Ra took some effort to stop looking at it. He knew what it was, and he could even say that he was very familiar with it. However, this familiarity probably had to be traced back to a cave under Terra in the past.

Caril Rohals had sat there for a long time, trying to resist the sacrificial power from across the galaxy.

This thing already existed at that time.

At that time, Ra and his brothers had a very important task, which had to be carried out every five hours - they had to pierce the replica of the Spear of the Sun God into the body of Khalil Rohals again and again to call back his humanity and prevent him from indulging in those "voices" for too long.

Just by listening to the description, this matter may seem simple, but it is full of difficulties in actual operation.

First of all, only those with extremely strong wills could serve as spearmen, and this "extremely" standard seemed too harsh even for the imperial guards.

Secondly, although the shifts are every five hours, if you are selected, you must prepare several days in advance to ensure that your body and mind are in the best condition so that you can wait outside the cave without distraction.

Every second they stood there, they would feel a thorn in their backs and a chill deep in their bones. At the same time, they even had to face those looming voices.
Those voices were like the whispers in a dream, but every guard knew what they meant.

Finally, even if the five-hour countdown is about to end and the spearman enters the cave ahead of time, this person must first pass the level of Lalhe.

You know, Khalil didn't wake up every time they entered the cave, nor could he successfully stop the demon's horrific behavior every time, so they had to deal with it frequently with swords and spears.

Therefore, La Endymion did not like it, and he never did. It could even be said that he...
The tribune's eyes, which were originally staring at the distant star map, seemed to be pulled by something and returned to the bloody flowers.

The eyes hidden in them stared at him coldly yet greedily, and a faint chuckle accompanied by a whisper reached his ears.

"You hate me, don't you?"

It said this with certainty, and then laughed. La fell silent, and the laughter grew louder and louder until it became a crazy scream, mixed with the sound of fine teeth grinding.

"But you must admit that I did not kill any of your brothers, La Endymion. I only gave them some small warnings."

"I did my duty, just like you all, and you still hate me. But don't get me wrong, I don't mind, you noble soul, you can hate me more. This is not enough now, although it is delicious enough."

The tribune exhaled a breath of hot air like fire, pressed his sword with one hand, turned and looked at the other side of the bridge, and at the same time heard a violent tearing sound behind him.

Then there was the voice of Caryl Lohals.

"Try it again," he said calmly. "I didn't give you permission to do this. Be respectful to him."

Something was no longer as crazy as it was a few seconds ago. It was now wailing like a young animal begging for mercy, but the chilling tearing sound still did not stop.

"Don't indulge your nature too much. I know this is a difficult time for you, but I have high hopes for you. Don't let it fade away."

The tearing sound stopped and the wailing ended.

La turned around and saw that the flowers had withered and sank into the shadow of the man, temporarily silent, and his hands were stained with scarlet.

"I'm terribly sorry, Lara," Khalil said. "It's been a little bit different lately."

The tribune shook his head and said nothing. He just raised his hand and signed: It's the nature of the devil.

His performance elicited a fleeting smile and approval.

"Yes, it's hard to change one's nature, I guess we all are. It craves blood and hatred to feed on, and I guess I'm the same way - do you have such moments, too, La? Such moments."

He pondered and raised his hand, showing his long fingers to the tribune, which caused the latter to feel a needle-like pain.

He had to take a deep breath before he spoke to steady his voice, but even then, his tone still had a strange tremor.

"I understand, my Lord," Ra replied as best he could. "The urge to kill, is that right?"

Khalil slowly clenched his fist.

He didn't use any strength, he just gently closed his ten fingers, but the bright red marks seemed to come alive and began to boil on his skin.

He stared at them expressionlessly as a chill quietly came over him. Blood immediately floated up, seeped into the gaps between his fingers, and returned to his palm, becoming two blood-red blades that were crystal clear yet rough like stone knives.

"Um"

He smiled and hummed a long tune. A book floated beside him and turned away with him.

La watched him disappear into the darkness, and relaxed a little, but then she heard a similar soft voice again.

"Hey."

The tribune's body suddenly stiffened.

"Ha." Someone laughed happily. "Did it scare you?"

La closed her eyes and opened them again after a few seconds.

He tilted his head slightly and saw a slender and thin ghost in a black robe sitting peacefully on the throne of the presiding judge, with his legs stretched out, his left foot resting on his right, swaying leisurely.

No one could tell how long he had been there. The tribune knew he could not come up with an answer, so he simply bowed his head and saluted him.

"Hey, don't give me that." The ghost said in a bored tone. "You know very well that I don't like to do this with familiar faces like you."

Ra looked up at him: "How about this? I salute you, the Night King."

Conrad Curze grinned, and a hint of malice flashed in his eyes, which were cut into a dozen broken gems by his hanging black hair.

They were tiny and not dangerous, but they still made La immediately alert.

"Not bad." He said slowly. "Unfortunately, it's not enough to reach that standard. You need to improve a little bit, or learn from me, like this -"

He cleared his throat and suddenly gave La a new title he had never heard of before in a serious tone: "-my father's bodyguard." ".I understand." After a moment of silence, La answered.

"Really? Are you sure? That shows you're very talented. In that case, I'd like to play a few more similar jokes. Is that okay with you, Guard?"

"Forget it, sir, just tell me what you want."

"But I really want to tell you a few more - how about this, one? Just one, let me tell you another one."

La took a deep breath and answered firmly, "No."

"You're so boring."

"Thank you for the compliment."

"Ah, you are getting to the point of irritating me. I will report your actions to Constantine Waldo."

"I believe the commander has the ability to distinguish right from wrong."

"He did." The Night King crossed his legs, propped up his face with his right hand, and narrowed his eyes. "But I think it's best for him to give himself a break, you know? This is the ultimate loyalty."

"He doesn't need to rest. Seeing the light coming is the best comfort."

"Go to hell." Coz said unhappily. "It's this theory that makes you less and less human."

La wisely remained silent. After a while, with a sigh, Curze spoke again.

"I apologize for what I said, La, but I won't take it back - anyway, let's talk about Caryl Rohals. It's been five months since the voyage, hasn't it?"

"Five months and twenty-two days," Ra replied quickly. "We are halfway through the voyage, but in order to avoid the Necromancers detecting the fluctuations in the warp navigation, we will selectively perform Mandeville point jumps in the second half of the voyage. Taking this into account, the total voyage time may be extended to about a year and a half."

Koz laughed, but it was a helpless laugh.

"And he is not used to this, or rather, he does not like it. This man is really strange, don't you think? He has sailed longer than this and experienced many wars on a much larger scale than this one, but he just can't convince himself to remain calm during this wait."

"What do you want to say?" La asked very calmly.

"I want to tell you—"

Curze dropped his hand, leaned forward, looked the tribune straight in the eyes, and answered slowly.

"——There is a 100% chance that he will take the initiative to carry out a solo operation after you make contact."

Ra replied as expected: "The two Primarchs, Robert Guilliman and Sanguinius, have already discussed this matter with me. They both agreed that if he insists on doing this, there is nothing we can do."

Koz waved his left hand in boredom.

"Yes, of course you can't do anything. But you have to understand that they don't know him as well as I do, so please throw their solutions into the corner for now, okay? Now listen to me."

La listened attentively.

"If a war breaks out, he will definitely jump off this ship and go to the front line of the battlefield immediately. You can't stop him. He will never sit back and watch others bleed and sacrifice when he has a knife in his hand, so you don't have to stop him, at least not at this time."

"In fact, I even hope that you will take the initiative to make plans so that the vanguard troops can use him as a knife. He will be very happy to take on this responsibility, but others may not be."

"I think some officers and company commanders who don't know the truth will probably express very strong opposition. It's up to you to figure out a solution to this problem, Tribune. I would like to help you solve these problems, but I can't leave him too far, and it's impossible for me to really appear in front of those people."

La nodded.

"Very good." Coze smiled. "Then comes the second thing."

"Do you have anything else?"

"Yes, of course, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, please go ahead."

"You don't seem to be happy about it, but this matter is not as complicated as the first one. I just want to tell you one thing - when he engages in killing, Caryl Rohals will lose a lot of calmness and self-control."

"At this time, you have to regard him as a madman who retains basic rationality and can communicate with others, understand? Any decision he makes is most likely just acting on his intuition."

Having said that, Koz snorted coldly, as if he remembered something.

"Of course, he may have a plan, and he may communicate this plan to you in advance, but he will never say his true intentions."

"In summary, considering the specific situation in the Sollems Museum and the tactical purpose of your battle, he will definitely go straight inside after the battle begins to rescue every collection."

"It's dangerous to do so, so he will definitely use all means to make himself the first person to arrive inside the museum to ensure that he can investigate all threats alone, and you will definitely not be able to stop him."

La tensed his body and replied in a deep voice: "In your words, it seems that he can solve this war alone."

Conrad Kurtz raised the corner of his mouth and nodded without a smile.

"Maybe it was possible in the past, but it might be a bit difficult now. After all, the opponent is a group of Necrons - of course, unless he crosses the line, but there is an agreement between him and me."

He restrained his smile, stood up from the throne and floated down, disappearing silently in front of Ra, the moonlight above his head was quiet and peaceful.

La raised her head and stared at him, feeling something in her heart, and began to wait for his words.

The Night King spoke slowly.

"He will do anything to ensure that all the 'collections' are safe and sound. This is his true purpose. To tear off all the appearances of violence, killing and destruction, this is his deepest and most direct idea."

"Once this war begins, all his actions will revolve around this matter. So if you can't find him, try to see the problem from his perspective. This is the best advice I can give you - after all, you are a man of duty."

The tribune took a step back and bowed deeply. When he looked up again, Conrad Curze had disappeared, leaving only an illusory door quietly closing.

Ra looked inside instinctively and saw many souls with young faces cheering for the return of the Night King in a deserted cemetery.

They surrounded him, not afraid of this pale ghost at all, but rushed to talk to him, deliberately blocked his way, jumped, played, and shouted.
They seem to like him very much, La thought.

The door closed with a faint sound. The imperial guard stood there, lowered his head and thought for a moment, then turned and left.

——He still has a lot to do.

(End of this chapter)