Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 700 When Sigismund died in a galaxy with Perturabo BC... (2)

* This is a chapter about debugging Xiji and then mistaking someone for someone else. If you don't like to read the setting flow, you don't have to read it.
The eyes were fixed on him.

……Father……

……Feel sorry……

……I……

Then something that was labeled “horrible,” no, “terribly wrong,” happened.

He saw those loyal and once hopeful eyes staring at him without blinking, but at some point they had faded, turning from flesh and blood into lifeless metal.

Around the pair of electronic eyes, circuits and metals grew, spread, and wrapped around them rapidly like blood vessels, muscles, and bones.

Brain, skull, cervical vertebrae, clavicle, ribs, limbs...

Growing layer by layer.

They are all dead things.

Until the cables formed a nerve blood vessel, reactor fluid flowed through it, and the electron beam muscles were wrapped in a flexible skin.

The glorious and majestic golden armor stood before him again just as he remembered.

The red cloak fluttered like a flag in the wind and snow.

Snow and wind?

Sigismund blinked.

The snowflakes became denser and the wind howled, getting stronger and stronger.

It turned out to be the heaviest snow he had ever seen in his life.

The icy wind turned into thousands of sharp blades and began to tear his flesh and blood away from his bones.

At first, Sigismund did not succumb to this terrible suffering.

But when he tried to grasp the image to which his faith had once turned and to seek peace as always, he discovered with a kind of indifferent surprise that his heart was already empty.

Finally, his wandering soul couldn't help but let out a groan of pain.

The Wall of Saturn has fallen.

Someone exhaled heavily.

"...both father and son are the same... again..."

"It's good that it's done..."

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"Core matrix stage charging begins, flow valve adjusted to 44% and gradually increased. Begin first separation debugging."
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The electric current vibrated deep in the eye sockets, as if countless tiny silver needles were jumping under the eyelids.

The electronic muscles spasmed vividly.
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"The pain feedback is still very high. Can we reduce it by another 20 percent?"

"No, at most 10%, otherwise it will affect his perception and reaction speed."
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Sigismund's consciousness was pulled out of the thick abyss like an insect in unsolidified amber.

The first thing that came back was his hearing. The hum of the servo motor, the click of metal joints, and the hum of the circulating coolant and reactor fluid all collided back and forth in the small, enclosed space, making him feel dizzy as if he had lost blood.
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"Oh... balance, silicon crystal semicircular canals... adjust them..."
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He tried to open his eyes, but found his lids as heavy as a hatch welded shut.

There was a strange touch on the surface of my skin. It was not the friction of the fabric, but the touch of the strange yet familiar metal transmitted through the inner layer.

Sigismund paused for a tenth of a second, then realized that this was very much like the sensation of wearing power armor—only amplified sixty-nine times.

He never thought that he would find Tao Gang too cold.

He tried to turn his neck and heard a dry sound of metal friction at the joints of his neck bones, which reminded him of the groans of old machines he saw in his childhood.
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"The memory area wave map is normal, perfect! Vital signs are stable."

A low voice came from the left, with a unique mechanical distortion.

Sigismund finally pried open his eyelids, and the dazzling cold white light poured into his pupils like boiling iron. He instinctively raised his hands to block it, but found that he could not move.

Only then did he notice the shackles that bound him to the metal dissection table. They were made of the same metal, with complex runes carved on the surface. The runes emitted a faint blue light, and a light frost appeared when they touched his skin.

He wanted to struggle, but found that the feeling of muscle force was completely different from before, as if every bone had been replaced by a sophisticated transmission device, and the power output became mechanical and unfamiliar.

"Don't waste energy." This time the voice came from the right.

Sigismund turned his neck, and the layers of optical lenses contracted in his pupils until the human figure came into focus.

On the left stood a hooded, highly mechanized priest holding a staff full of energy. Next to the technician stood a giant with cables all over his head, his skin was pale and his eyes were like black stone.

"who are you?"

When Sigismund spoke, his voice sounded like a hollow echo squeezed out from the depths of a dusty tomb.

He tried to mobilize his memory, and he could even recall his past clearly, from the face of his childhood friend to the bloodstained and complicated face of Ezekiel Abaddon.

But when he looked elsewhere, he only felt more blank space. Even his own name seemed like someone had erased it and carved a new one in place, although - it should have been exactly the same as the original one.

Why do you want to do such a meaningless thing? The man on the left who looked like a mechanical priest spoke in a relaxed tone that did not match his appearance, "You are our verification work, the first experimental subject of the Great Legion. Although some people like to number the experimental subjects from zero or Alpha, I will be happy to call you Sigismund."

He lifted Sigismund's chin with the tip of his metal finger and examined him from side to side. "Your original biological brain was destroyed when you died, and the people who sent your body back even let your body float on the spaceship in a non-static state for several months... What can I say? So when they received your body and the message on the sword, it was normal to find that your brain and heart were almost destroyed."

"My body?" Sigismund repeated this word that was very terrifying to humans. Irregular vibrations came from his metal chest, like some kind of alarm device silently beeping. "I'm dead. I remember. So why am I still here?"

"That's because I happened to be passing by and couldn't bear to see your soul disappear, so I kindly brought back the 'you' in your brain and heart, and then he built a brand new verification experimental subject specifically for you!" The priest replied happily.

The giant sneered, the sound like caterpillar tracks rolling over steel. "Because you are strong enough and your record is traceable, but your final fate is not anchored. That woman used her fate to force you to become her sword. That's how it is. There will always be places where the lines of fate don't align."

He seemed to have pressed many operating keys, and the shackles on the dissection table suddenly tightened. "Now, you will continue to fight for my goal for many years - in a form that the Weaver of Fate cannot predict."

Sigismund felt a new stream of data being forced into his body, and countless broken images exploded in his mind matrix: the burning void, the battle, the sword-wielding demon prince, the former brothers infused with darkness, separation, father and son, the end and death, his previous oath, and the blurry figure in golden armor.

These fragments of memory carry a burning temperature, yet seem unreal as if they are viewed through frosted glass.

His fingers struggled to grab something, but all he heard was the harsh friction of metal joints and shackles.

"What did you do to me?" His voice was filled with anger, and the reactor in his chest suddenly burst into a dazzling light.

The priest quickly stepped back, and the black-eyed giant frowned. A pulse hit the back of his neck, and the backdoor in the program caused all resistance and emotional peaks to collapse instantly.

The room quickly calmed down.

"Patience, Sigismund." The priest's metal finger gently brushed across his forehead. "Your mind matrix is ​​adapting to these filtered memories. Your human soul still needs time to adapt to the living metal fillings and skin. This is indeed a great and bold attempt... Although the technology is so old, it doesn't mean it's not sophisticated, right?"

Sigismund sank into darkness paralyzed by the electric current. In his last remaining consciousness, the figure with golden armor and white hair became clearer and clearer.

He didn't know who it was, but he instinctively wanted to clench his fists.
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"Charge to the third stage 55%, prepare for the second test."

This time there was only one person's voice.

Sigismund's fingers flexed and stretched mechanically, and the living metal skeleton made precise sounds like gears meshing.

The shackles were removed, and he slowly sat up, staring down at his palms.

In perspective mode, through the gaps between the knuckles of the power nail, one can see fine ripples on the surface of the silver living metal, like liquid mercury flowing under ceramic steel.

This should have made him uncomfortable or even angry, but he felt nothing now.

"Stand up." The low command voice sounded again, with unquestionable majesty.

Sigismund tried to mobilize his leg muscles, but found that it was no longer subconscious muscle reflexes that drove the joints, but a series of precise energy pulses.

He staggered to his feet, and slammed his metal feet wrapped in ceramic steel heavily on the ground, splashing a string of tiny sparks.

There was a slight humming sound coming from inside the power armor, and many sophisticated instruments were calibrating his every movement.

He looked up at the black-eyed giant, who was standing in the shadows, studying him with sharp eyes.

That look caused Sigismund's reactor to overheat inexplicably, and something seemed to be struggling desperately deep in his memory.

"You..." He was about to speak, but a sharp electric sound came from his throat.

He subconsciously reached out to touch his neck, but touched the bottom edge of the helmet. When did he put on the helmet?

"Unsatisfied?" The black-eyed giant walked slowly closer, with an oppressive aura in every step.

Sigismund could feel the powerful force emanating from the other person, as if he were a moving dormant volcano that could erupt at any time.

"This body combines the ancient technology of the Necrons with... the lost technology of the Mechanicus and the Iron Hands. It is enough to allow your body to maintain the flexibility and grace of flesh and blood while becoming an invincible death god on the battlefield."

Sigismund rolled his neck, savoring every part of his body.

"Why...I can't feel any pain this time?"

He tried to pound his chest hard. The sound of metal collision was particularly harsh in the silent room, but apart from the vibration, he didn't feel anything else.

"Pain is the weakness of flesh and blood, and so is death." The black-eyed giant said coldly. "The noisy man has finally left. This time, the pain threshold is adjusted to zero. The test data will be recorded."

He waved his hand, and Sigismund's breastplate made a slight servo movement sound, and layer after layer of metal structure separated to the sides until the giant was facing, revealing the glowing and pulsating reactor heart in his metal rib cage.

The reactor was so small, emitting a faint light, and every beat was accompanied by a surge of terrifying energy. "This heart will make you extremely powerful, surpassing many creatures in the galaxy. It will not tire, will not fail, and is indestructible unless I crush it with my own hands."

Sigismund's gaze involuntarily fell on the other's eyes. Those black eyes that absorbed all light were like the abyss of death, which made him both afraid and attracted.

The knowledge provided by his broken memories gave him a constant interweaving of resistance and desire, yet he instinctively wanted to stay away from the other party.

"So, can you... be considered my father now?" The question came out almost without thinking, and even he himself was surprised.

There was a barely perceptible complexity in the other person's eyes, and then he returned to his indifference.

"Father?" He turned his back to Sigismund. "That word is too extravagant for both you and me."

(End of this chapter)