Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 742 Guess why this place is called this?
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*The jokes are funny-
"This place is called 'Whispering Mountains' in the local language—or rather, in the language of 'Terra'."

When Loken stepped off his Stormbird, he was pleased to see that all the soldiers of his 10th Company were already lined up, weapons in hand, and his senior sergeants—the officers responsible for leading each combat squad—were also assembled in one place as he had ordered upon landing, ready to launch an attack at any time on his command.

The wolf pack, clad in white armor, resembled a precisely coordinated war machine, or a massive beast, elegantly choosing its prey to devour.

However, this good mood vanished when he heard a sentence drifting over his ear.

He glanced sideways and out of the corner of his eye saw Ramizam pointing at the towering, snow-capped mountains reflecting the morning sunlight and the narrow natural stone bridge between them in front of the makeshift stone helipad.

"This kind of terrain is absolutely impregnable... The altitude of the place where we landed is already over 4,500 meters, and the altitude of the rebel stronghold is even higher, with even thinner oxygen. In this respect, the mortal auxiliary army is undoubtedly at a disadvantage against the locals from the moment they start breathing, so defeat and delays are almost inevitable..."

Loken had already seen several Imperial soldiers glaring angrily at the loudmouthed narrator.

"Ah, thank you, Ms. Oriton. I feel fine for now and don't need oxygen. You should use it as soon as possible."

Mesadi clearly meant more than just having the other person wear an oxygen mask, but apart from Ramizane, the other three were indeed very uncomfortable in this high-altitude region with its thin air.

The other pale-faced narrators swayed precariously in the cold wind, clutching their oxygen tanks and pressing their breathing masks to their faces as they gasped for air.

Only Lamizan was still curiously looking around and loudly praising the magnificent snow-capped peaks. Loken saw that the other person had also raised his camera and taken many landscape photos from various angles.

Yes, damn it, just landscape photos.

Loken swears that not a single person appeared in his frame, a level of professionalism completely incomparable to that of an event photographer like Ms. Qi Le or a person-focused chronicler like Ms. Oriton.

So what exactly is he here for?
—It's like they're here on vacation.

A thought suddenly popped into his mind, and then an uncontrollable second one followed.

—I really want to see what happens when he encounters enemy troops or gets injured.

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Of course, the person taking photos of the magnificent snow-capped peaks, so different from the style of Mount Olympia, had no idea what Loken was thinking. He was simply happy to be taking pictures to share back home and, incidentally, to tell his companions about the local history and legends.

As for the source of this local information, it was first-hand investigation data he had obtained from Vengeance Souls and the support of Peturabo's database—in fact, it was not classified information at all, as the chief preacher or company commanders could access it at will.

"However, judging from the browsing records, there is not a single Shadowmoon Wolf on this ship, including Gavial Locken, who is about to go to this mountainous area to fight. No one has ever consulted the database."

When Peturabo handed the data to Ramizan, he shook his head grimly, "A bunch of overconfident fools who think they're invincible and bring disaster upon themselves."

"Why don't you find a reason to let him know beforehand? Or just tell him he should look up information to prepare for the upcoming battle?"

Perturabo snorted. “This isn’t ‘Shadowmoon Wolves,’ you understand? I’m limited by my role. I ‘can’t’ do this. They have to rely on themselves.”

“Of course,” he added, “and now you are here too.”

————————— "So this is... a sacred place considered to be the abode of gods?"

Euphrates Kira muttered thoughtfully, “That makes sense. The local inhabitants, under attack, led their last resistance fighters into the sacred mountains for a final stand… It sounds interesting. I really want to take some pictures of the temples inside their fortresses; it would be very interesting.”

She shook her head. "However, I've been wanting to ask you this for a while now: who is Samus? Is it the title of a deity in our local culture? Could you tell me about it first? Something just doesn't feel right to me."

Loken had already finished assigning tasks to his squad of sergeants when he heard this question, and his ears perked up immediately: Are any of these narrators using communication beads?
Ramizam looked at her in surprise.

"Why did you start caring about this name?" he asked her. "I don't mean... why did you even think of asking about this name?"

Strange, Qile shouldn't have worn a communicator since the start of the trip.

“Because,” Qi Le said slowly, breathing in her oxygen tank, “from the moment we set foot on this land, I have been hearing a sentence, very soft but very clear, that keeps drilling into my ears.”

Her beautiful eyebrows furrowed as she sized up her companions.

"Can't you hear it? It keeps saying in my ear, Samus, I am the only name, Samus means end and death..."

Her face turned even paler when she saw the undisguised surprise on the faces of the others.

Ramizam cleared his throat.

"In fact... Sams is an ancient name in local legends, very ancient. It is recorded in the history book from 63-19. Can you guess why this mountain range is called Whispering Mountains?"

"How so?" Messati asked, the narrator blinking rapidly, clearly recording the conversation with her built-in recording device—after all, the clouds were now parting under the sunlight, revealing the devastated front lines, stone bridges, and distant mountains and fortresses, a perfect backdrop for a documentary to tell the audience later.

"This place has been a sacred site for the locals since ancient times, long before the reign of the 'Emperor' who was killed. The inhabitants generally believe that this is the only place in the world where non-human beings can walk among humans. Countless gods, demons, and the souls of the dead can appear here, and Samus is the leader of those demons and ghosts. According to local legend, one of their ancient emperors once fought Samus here. After a great battle, the emperor sealed the demon in the mountains. Since then, anyone who approaches these mountains may hear the whispers of the sealed demon."

"So, this is just a random event for me?" Qi Le still frowned, but her body language relaxed somewhat.

"That's true, at least according to their history books, whether or not one can hear the whispers of demons seems to be random."

Her expression relaxed a bit. "But why can the sealed demon still speak? Although it certainly adds to the atmosphere here."

"Ah, that's because..."

Ramizane's face was half-hidden by the shadow cast by a cloud. Behind him, golden light poured down from the gaps in the clouds, illuminating the rows of pearl-white figures, taller than those of ordinary Astartes, lined up in front of the stone bridge formation: the latest advanced equipment just delivered to the Legion, the Tactical Dreadnought Armor, also known as the Terminator Power Armor.

"Because they believe that the barrier separating the living from the dead, reality from the demon realm, has become weaker due to the sealing, and that is where the weakest point is."

He raised his hand, and Carl Casey followed his finger to see the mountain peak and the fortress within it that Loken's company was about to attack.

“We are very close to it.”

(End of this chapter)