Warhammer: Primarch's Life from the Beginning

The sound of bells came from afar, night fell, and the city fell silent.

One by one, the lights in the Grey Throat Corridor went out, with only a few rays of light leaking through the cracks in the windows.

Leo did not return to the council the way he came.

This place is a post-apocalyptic punk film during the day, but immediately transforms into a supernatural horror film at night.

He looked up at the crisscrossing pipes above, where he could vaguely see the eerie purple light emanating from the large crack, then turned and walked inside.

Leo felt that the period after the curfew was like a natural paradise for those aliens, so they didn't need to show themselves during the day at all.

So what was supposed to be a relaxing stroll turned into a nest city adventure.

After walking for a while, Leo slowed down.

Several people were lying against the wall on the side of the alley. An old man sat up when he heard footsteps.

Although he was called an old man, his face was so obscured by a tattered cloth that all one could hear was his intermittent breathing.

It's like they're waiting for something.

As Leo approached, the old man slowly raised his head; those were not human eyes.

His vertical pupils resembled those of a reptile, and his eyes were vacant.

"The lambs left the flock at night...and entered the silent valley..."

"Their hooves were barely audible, but the wolves had already caught a whiff of it..."

"When the shepherd's torch went out, the lamb... fell into the wolf's throat..."

The sound of a sword being drawn rang out, and Leo looked down at the alien.

"There are no sheep here," he whispered. "And you're not a wolf either."

The old man smiled.

There was no fear or malice in that smile; he didn't care that he was about to die.

"We'll all do it sooner or later..."

A flash of light.

The old man's head fell onto his knees, and purplish-red blood flowed down the tattered cloth covering his chest, seeping into the cracks in the metal floor.

The other people, hunched over and huddled on the ground, seemed unconcerned about their companion's death, all bowing their heads and burying their faces in the ground.

Kara looked down at the corpse.

It was curled up, its fingers still in a praying posture, the ten fingers interlaced and pressed against its chest.

She frowned; the fact that aliens also had beliefs disgusted her.

Beside the corpse, a figure slowly straightened up from the shadows.

"...Sooner or later, they will become nourishment for the Great Devourer."

The man then finished speaking what he hadn't said before, in the exact same dying tone.

Bang bang bang!

Kara shot and blew the heads off several people on the ground.

Leo pointed his finger, and the corpses of the men burst into flames.

Hive consciousness.

He made a judgment in his mind.

Following in the footsteps of the Tyranids, it's possible that some node-level entity on this planet is speaking through the mouths of these lower-level believers.

What does it mean? Do you really think the empire does nothing?

The two continued walking inside.

As they reached a fork in the road, Kara suddenly reached out and grabbed Leo's elbow.

She didn't speak, but simply nodded forward with her chin.

There is a group of people ahead.

Seven or eight people walked in the same direction along the other side of the fork in the road.

Their pace was unhurried, no one spoke, no one turned around, no one looked left or right. Their figures didn't resemble those of ordinary people hurrying home, much less those of a Ministry of Justice patrol.

This piqued Leo's interest.

Kara, who was beside him, turned to look at him, her eyes full of questions.

Logically, he should have gone straight up to check, but curiosity drove Leo to want to know what these people were up to.

So the two slowed their pace and walked over there.

.

.

The group disappeared in front of an abandoned warehouse building.

Leo stood close to the outer wall, not going in immediately.

He and Kara waited in the shadows for a while, confirming that there were no strong psionic fluctuations or powerful auras inside.

So the two people, one big and one small, crept inside.

The building's interior corridors were filled with discarded machine parts and rusty shelves, and the floors were covered in oil stains.

There was a smell of cooled engine oil in the air.

But it also has another flavor, which is so sweet it's almost cloying.

There was an iron gate at the end of the corridor, but it wasn't locked.

Leo pushed the door open with one finger.

The space inside is quite large, and the ground is open and airy.

A few emergency lights were stuck in the ground, making do with illuminating the surroundings in a stark white light.

Several chairs were arranged in the center of the room.

A person was tied to the chair.

Those people had strips of cloth stuffed in their mouths, their eyes were wide open, and their faces had a sticky residue on them.

Purple lines spread from their lips to their cheeks.

Leo recognized what it was.

The Kiss of Infection.

This is the contamination method used by gene stealers to spread their populations: they inject genetic material through their mouthparts to alter the target's genes.

People who are infected may not even realize it and will go home and do whatever they want as usual.

However, their offspring will inevitably be purple-skinned aliens.

His gaze swept over the row of chairs.

Stopped on the figure on the far right.

That messy, bird's-nest hairstyle, and that filthy servant's robe.

It's Oleksandr.

The poor young man also saw them.

Those eyes, wide with fear, froze for a moment, then overflowed with immense, almost overflowing, relief.

His whole body began to tremble with excitement.

The chair made a clattering sound on the floor.

But when he saw Kara walking over, his relief slowly froze.

Kara stood in front of his chair for two seconds.

She squatted down.

He wiped the sticky substance off his cheek with his thumb.

Purple fine lines had crept up to his cheekbones.

Kara didn't speak, but turned to look at Leo, who then nodded.

Then she stood up and took a step back.

Olek understood everything.

He was on the execution list, but he didn't want to die; his father was still waiting for him at home.

His body thrashed violently a few times, the chair legs dragging on the ground with a screeching sound, and he made muffled grunts in his throat.

Kara drew his explosive gun.

After a gunshot, Olek's consciousness vanished.

The other bound people tried to say something, but their mouths were gagged and they could only make muffled sounds. Some twisted and fell to the ground along with their chairs.

Then more gunshots rang out.

Sparks from the spent cartridge cases hit the heads of the bound men.

Crimson blood, tinged with a hint of purplish-red, was spilled on the ground.

The room returned to silence.

"So..." After setting the corpse ablaze, Kara consulted the Primarch beside her.

"Your Highness, is this how these aliens expand?"

"Yes, these people have a strong desire to reproduce when they go home. They are eager to get married and have children, and their offspring are brainwashed by the alien's psychic energy."

Kara took a deep breath; she felt a surge of anger, unable to imagine how many citizens of the empire had been tainted by this filth.

Aliens really deserve to die.

.

.

The two did not rush to leave Greythroat Gallery. Leo stood in the shadows outside the building, leaning against the wall.

Some faint scents lingered in the air, probably because they had heard the gunshots and were now moving further and further away.

"Why not follow these things and see if you can catch a bigger fish?" Leo said.

"Your Highness, your analogies are becoming increasingly brilliant. It's a pity I've never been to an aquarium and don't know what fishing is."

"Uh, it's okay, let's go."

The two disappeared back into the shadows.

Tracking a group of people through a quiet city is far too easy for the Primarch's senses.

Sure enough, it didn't take long.

On a side road leading deeper into the area, they saw that orderly movement again.

A small team.

They walk at the exact same frequency.

They walked deeper into what looked like an industrial elevator leading down to the lower nest.

As he got closer, Leo gradually sensed a large-scale psionic energy fluctuation underground.

But the strength is very weak, no wonder I didn't notice it before.

It seems the cockroach nest in the house has been found. Leo mentally prepared himself to make sure he wouldn't be disgusted.

They quickly caught up with the group ahead.