Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 748 This [beep] Do we really have to pretend? That is to say...
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Although the blow to the head from Loken did stop Jubo for a few seconds, he immediately began to struggle frantically again. Loken was accidentally kicked away and almost rolled off the cliff, but fortunately he grabbed a protruding rock and is now trying to climb back up.

"This isn't right! He shouldn't be able to stand up by now!" Loken shouted, blood gushing from the corner of his mouth. Zhu Bo's kick had likely caused some internal injuries. "Quick, help me hold him down!"

"Samus!" Jubo howled, blood and saliva spurting from his mouth, his voice growing increasingly incoherent, "I am Samus! Samus is coming!"

Zhu Bo rushed toward Loken, who was teetering on the edge of the cliff, seemingly wanting to kick him in the head or punch him off.

The remaining soldiers of Wootton's squad tried to surround their company commander from the rear and flanks, but their sworn, superhumanly strong brothers gave them no chance.

The three Astartes pounced on him together, trying to subdue him, but Jubo, like a brown bear shaking off the dust, easily flung all three of them away.

One of them crashed directly into the mountainside, the sound of bones breaking clearly audible, before sliding to the ground like a puppet doll whose threads had snapped.

Two others were thrown off the path and tumbled down. The narrow, curved mountain path couldn't withstand the speed at which the two Astartes were falling. Seeing that they were about to crash off the cliff, Loken's eyes widened in horror as he shouted, "No—!!!"

"Ugh."

At this moment, everyone realized that there was still a person standing on the stone path.

"Logically, things should be left to develop naturally, because it's not the right time yet, but now it's upon us..."

Ramizan muttered, seemingly oblivious to the two hundreds-of-pounds-heavy steel-clad boulders hurtling toward him.

"...I still have to pretend to be innocent. Oh well! Oh well! Oh well! Sigh, I'm genuinely kind-hearted, I can't bear to see the ignorant die before my eyes..."

The narrators who knew his true identity had just recovered from the previous shock and couldn't help but scream when they saw this scene. Even Sindman felt his heart stop for a moment and reached out his hand towards the Iron Lord.

In the eyes of many, only a brief half-second had passed.

The two Shadowmoon Wolves that had been flung away crashed into the mortal narrator, who appeared to be nothing more than robust and unremarkable, like cannonballs.

Then the man turned to the side, making way for the first Astartes charging towards him, and then stretched out both hands.

With one hand on each neck, they grabbed the edge of their collarbone, forcefully stopping them from sliding down.

His body was as steady as a rock, and his feet did not move at all.

Finally, he skillfully placed the two Astartes, who were clearly half a head taller than him, onto the steps.

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"too……"

"...Unbelievable..."

Euphrates' index finger never left her camera, while Messard reacted even faster.

"Sir!!!" she cried, "Company Commander Locken! Upstairs! Save him!"

Ramizan looked up and saw Jubo at the end of the steps, his head covered in blood as if he were wearing a red helmet and veil, while he was kicking Loken's head as Loken clung tightly to the rocks at the edge of the cliff.

The youngest member of the Council of Four Kings was clearly unwilling to give up. He tried desperately to dodge the kicking boots, but the angles he could dodge were very limited at this point. After just the first blow, a large patch of skin was scraped off his cheekbone, and one of his ears started ringing.

"Sams is here!" the monster named Jubo shrieked with ecstatic joy. "Immediately!"

He raised his leg, ready to deliver a fatal kick to Loken's head.

That burning sensation surged through Loken's body again. He roared, his voice devoid of reason, more like the howl of a giant mastiff. With that roar, he arched his body and kicked the stone wall below with all his might. Using the force of the kick, he lunged forward and grabbed Zhu Bo's leg that had been kicked at him.

“If I’m going to die so dishonorably,” he said through gritted teeth, his eyes bloodshot, “then you’ll have to die with me!”

Then, amidst the combined screams of Messati and Calcassie, they plummeted into the abyss.

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“So,” Perturabo—wearing the face of Horus—sat in the Iron Lord’s guest room—shaked his head. This visitor, dressed in pearl-white armor and draped in a wolf skin, had just arrived temporarily.

"That's the problem. You can't alter the fabric of fate, or the river of time and space, so drastically. Doing so would cause this place to be rejected by the universe, forcibly dismantling the fabric of fate and returning it to the state before it was woven."

"How was I supposed to know it would turn out like this? I was already behind Samus, thinking I could just knock him out and drag Loken up with me, then everyone would be happy. I really... misjudged how Loken could be so aggressive after being provoked. Sigh!"

"The problem is that Samus and Loken are in a cycle, and Loken must at least live to the other end of the cycle. This time, 'the end and death' came to them both much earlier than expected, and it was Loken who proposed 'ending Samus.' The degree of bias was so high that it caused our time to go back."

The Iron Lord's body sat opposite him, muttering, "So, which period of time have we been sent back to now?"

"We're pretty lucky. The built-in timer on the power armor indicates that it's just before Loken's pre-battle ritual. Not too long, just a few hours, not beyond the computing power of this universe."

"Oh ho, so what about Qi Le, Sindman, and the others..."

"Yes, they still know who you are and what you want to do. I reckon they're waiting for you to take them to the observation deck in the hangar right now."

"Thank goodness. It would have been really awkward to have to go through the whole process again. —Oh, right."

Ramizam seemed to recall something and confirmed something with the true Lord of Iron.

"If we want to avoid backtracking, the key to this is still the location and Loken, right?"

“Yes,” Peturabo replied. “The nature of that weak point in the warp at the bottom of Whispering Mountains is actually quite similar to the fissures in Moro and Terra, or many other places. Although it looks like a fissure in the physical universe, it also carries the meaning of a warp veil fissure. Therefore, the intense emotions and echoes that occur there are very likely to generate entanglements and new demons… Anyway, you have already seen the actual scene last time, so I can tell you this level of information.”

"So what about Loken? What kind of situation should Loken be in so that we can see how things develop?"

The Lord of Steel gave his own face a disapproving look with Horus's sea-pine green eyes. "Of course, we'll let things develop as planned!"

"How can I know that things will definitely go as planned? What if Loken dies again if I don't help him?"

“Just trust him,” Peturabo said. “There have even been times when Loken was particularly alert and made the perfect choices in everything that should have seemed amiss.”

"Including Interrex and Davin?"

“He prevented the conspiracy and conflict from happening in the Interrex,” Peturabo said, not very pleased. “Then there would be no Davin!”

“Oh, right.” Ramizane gave him an understanding look. “So you got kicked back after that…”

“I came back on my own initiative that time. If I don’t come back here, I won’t be able to come back.”

"Why? Aren't all the things to come good?"

"Because entering the universe of racial understanding and unity went too smoothly and deviated too much, it wasn't a good thing when I found myself shouting 'Captain Picard' at a smiling Horus! Remember! Don't pretend to be that [beep] this time!"

(End of this chapter)