Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 239 "The Psychic"

After thinking for a few seconds, Alpharis spoke.

"Finus Manus will win this contest."

“This is different from the hunting competition in Fenris.”

"That contest was a Kraken hunt. Nimrod and Lehman Ruth were both Primarchs, and they could hunt any Kraken. The deciding factor was who found the bigger one."

Alpharis paused for a moment, recalling the scene in Fenris.

"Nimrod may have been lucky, or he may have had a keen sense of perception, which led him to find a larger Kraken."

“Ninlu could have won, but this time it’s different.”

“Excavating ruins tests technology, and Manus and his men had an advantage in this regard, which luck cannot make up for.”

The emperor's eyes flickered, and his tone was deep and profound.

"Perhaps, Nimrod will win again."

The ships of the 11th Legion took off and flew to the area covered by the poison cloud.

As the landing craft slowly descended, the Shadow Order members, through the viewing windows, saw below a landscape filled with the ruins of ancient metal equipment and stone structures of unbelievably large size.

They keenly sensed that there were hazy, shadowy figures below.

Ninglu knew that the Medusa people called this area the "Shadow Land," a group of ancient ruins.

According to Medusa legends, this place is a gathering place for ghosts and tribal spirits.

The landing craft slowly descended, and Ning Lu led everyone down the deck.

He said to the group, "The technical sergeants are studying the equipment, the rest of you are on guard and familiarizing yourselves with the environment."

Ninglu then spoke to Adams.

"'The psychic' is now in your hands. Go and question the ghosts, and find out the largest, oldest, and most precious relic."

Nimrod thought that the ghost Adams had asked might not know the whole story of Medusa.

But they could be used as a medium, as materials for ritual magic, to find the most valuable relics of Medusa, so he sent another thought pulse to the "psychic".

"Bring back the ghosts you encounter."

"As you command, Father."

The "psychic" examines the spirit crystals he has created.

These crystals are in the catacombs of the Fourth Warband.

The catacombs of the Fourth Chapter are built on the Chapter's flagship, the Graveyard, a relic-class warship bestowed upon it by the Father of Genesis.

At that time, Adams was still the "gravedigger" of Sequence 8. In order to master the power bestowed upon him by the Father of Genetics, he extensively studied the cultures of the dead of various races.

During this process, he had an idea.

The bodies of the father of genetics and his brothers who died in battle deserve to be buried in a cemetery.

The Death Lord ultimately decided to follow the example of those merchant families and build an underground tomb on the lowest deck of the Graveyard to bury those fallen brothers who could not be buried in the Dreadnought.

After becoming a "psychic," he went alone to the underground tomb to make a vessel for spirits using psychic crystals.

He named his work "Spirit Crystal".

The crystal in his hand emitted a dark green light.

Some of the crystals were covered with scales, while others were covered with feathers; both were adorned with strange, blood-red symbols.

Adams left the group alone; the highly inspired "psychic" followed his intuition and headed south.

In the ears of the "psychic," a series of faint, overlapping murmurs came from ahead, as if countless invisible people were discussing something.

The "psychic" walked about two kilometers before stopping.

He felt that in the metal machinery, in the shadows of the ruins of stone buildings, in the dim corners, there were pairs of eyes watching him!

A smile appeared on the psychic's cold face, as if ice were thawing.

"Ghosts lingering here, come forth."

The "psychic" had a low, soft, and ethereal voice, which seemed to blend into the surrounding wind and shadows.

His voice, like mist, seemed to come from another country, accompanied by subtle echoes.

A blurry figure emerged uncontrollably from the metal machine.

To the Medusa, he was a transparent phantom.

But in the eyes of the "psychic," his body was exceptionally clear; he was wearing a red worker's uniform and carrying a shovel.

One figure after another emerged from the metal machinery and ruins.

Some were charred black, others held blood-stained arms... Under Medusa's eternally dark sky, the ghosts emerged.

Faced with this terrifying scene, the "psychic's" face was not as cold as usual.

A smile played on his lips as he asked the ghosts.

“Who among you was the first immigrant? Step forward.”

The ghosts didn't move, and the charred ghost said in a daze.

"Am I an outsider, or was I born here?"

"..."

Four minutes later, a ghost dressed in fine clothes spoke loudly.

"I remember now, I was the first one here!"

"When we found this world, we called it Stöneros according to the ancient Terra name."

He took a step forward as instructed by the "psychic".

As if a memory switch had been triggered, several more ghosts emerged from the queue.

"After you, who came here first?"

By asking questions one by one, the "psychic" roughly determined the era of all the ghosts.

Medusa did not use Terra timekeeping, nor did the people struggling to survive in this cold, volcanically active world establish a way to commemorate her.

Then, the "psychic" asked another question.

What is the oldest building in the vicinity?

Generally, the older the ruins, the more likely they are to contain lost ancient technological artifacts, and these artifacts are often more valuable.

He didn't ask about the ruins, because what are now ruins might have been factories or other buildings in normal use during the time of the ghosts.

"Show it to me."

More than a hundred ghosts were facing different directions, but twenty-five of them were pointing in the same direction.

Among them was the earliest ghost, a nobleman dressed in fine clothes.

The "spirit medium" walked up to the noble ghost and asked, "How far is that building from here?"

After thinking for a moment, the noble ghost replied, "Fifty-nine kilometers."

The "psychic" inquires about the oldest ruins known to each ghost and records their locations on a data tablet.

He then inquired about the largest and most valuable buildings they knew of.

The "psychic" cautiously asked, "What is the oldest relic you know of?"

The ghosts turned in different directions, and to his surprise, he saw that the noble ghost was looking in another direction.

[If his memory serves him correctly and his account is accurate, then the ruins he knows of existed in Medusa even before the arrival of humans.]
Adams, through questioning, recorded the oldest, largest, and most valuable relics known to the ghosts.

There are three types in each of the two categories, totaling six types, which he recorded on the data board using different colors.

After completing the record, Adams selected sixteen ghosts from over a hundred.

These are all the spirit crystals the "spirit medium" carries. He didn't keep any because there are 104 more he made in the crates of the transport ship.

"come here."

The "spirit medium" pointed to the noble ghost, and without hesitation, he immediately moved over.

The "psychic" raised his hand, and spiritual energy spread toward the ghost in front of him, while chanting incantations in Dunn.

"I summon in my own name, commanding the ghosts that linger here to be at my beck and call, to reside within the crystal in my palm!"

As the "spirit medium" chanted incantations, a gray-green light enveloped the noble ghost.

Before he could speak, an invisible yet irresistible force pulled him toward the green, scale-covered crystal in the "psychic's" palm.

With a scream, a gray human face appeared in the green crystal, its features identical to those of the noble ghost.

The "spirit medium" binds the selected ghosts one by one into the spirit crystal.

No ghosts fled, nor did any ghosts resist.

The "psychic" looked at the other ghosts and spoke.

"Thank you for your cooperation. You can go back now."

The ghosts turned and walked back the way they came, and the "psychic" also returned the way he came.

　PS: The existence of ghosts can be found in Chapter 17, the author's note.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)