Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but Warhammer 40k

Until the strange symptoms on my body gradually subsided.

The warp did not respond to his smirking, presumably because the ruler of the bronze throne had lost interest in him.

After all, how could an evil god possibly care about someone as insignificant as himself?

Henry rubbed his face.

Looking back on everything that had happened, he suddenly understood why those corrupted by chaos would gradually slide into depravity.

The feeling wasn't obvious; it wasn't exactly a temptation, but more like someone handing you something when you needed it most. Like a kind and mature older sister next door, thoughtfully giving you what you needed most.

If you lack strength, it gives you strength; if you lack courage, it gives you courage; if you lack victory, it gives you victory.

As for the cost—by the time you start thinking about the cost, it has often already been paid.

boom!

The entire Osprey shuddered violently.

The passageway outside the cockpit was clogged with flesh and blood, broken pipes spewing sparks, and the monster's mangled body still lodged in the passageway. But strangely, upon seeing Henry return to normal, it suddenly stopped, and its wildly flailing tentacles slowly contracted as if receiving some kind of command.

The tentacles retracted from the crack, the tumor shrank into the shadows, and even the mouthparts that had been frantically gnawing at the bulkhead gradually disappeared.

They burrowed into the spaceship's intricate network of compartments, ventilation ducts, cable shafts, maintenance access routes—all the narrow, inaccessible areas. Like a swarm of rats hiding in the walls, they vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving only a trail of sticky, black blood.

The cockpit fell silent, sending chills down your spine.

Henry blinked, then blinked again.

"……it's over?"

No one answered.

He tentatively probed forward, but the passage was empty; it had truly vanished.

  

"What's going on?"

The monster that was just about to tear me to pieces has suddenly run away?

It's impossible that after fighting to the death for so long, they suddenly have a change of heart, right?

Just as he was wondering, the adrenaline that had been suppressed for so long began to recede, and the last effects of Khorne disappeared.

The next moment, excruciating pain swept over his entire body.

"Awooo—!!!"

A scream nearly shook the cockpit to its core. Henry clutched his left arm and crouched down, his face turning deathly pale.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch—damn, damn, damn, damn, damn—why didn't it hurt this much before?!"

Penetrating wounds, lacerations, contusions, and countless tiny wounds.

The suppressed pain erupted all at once, so intense that tears almost welled up in his eyes.

Simon sat in the driver's seat, turned his head to look at Henry rolling on the ground, and remained silent for a long time.

"Weren't you being quite brave just now?"

"Of course!" Henry winced in pain. "You weren't thinking straight just now! You're back to normal now!"

He looked down at his pierced forearm; the area around the wound had begun to turn black, and the tissue was starting to die.

"Damn it, will I get infected?"

Simon couldn't help but chuckle.

"Infection? You're still worried about infection at a time like this?"

Henry looked up: "Then what should I be worried about?"

"Don't worry about anything."

"We will die pure and return to the Emperor's embrace."

Boom—

The ship shuddered again. The osprey had already soared into the low sky, and the night outside the window was rapidly receding, the clouds torn apart by its fiery white tail. Simon glanced at the dial before answering Henry's earlier question.

"As for the retreat of that half-demon, it was probably because it felt it was no longer necessary."

"What do you mean?"

"Perhaps it thinks we'll fall into chaos sooner or later, so there's no need to devour our future colleagues. Of course, I'm not a demonologist, so who knows what they're thinking?"

The alarms are still flashing, but one statistic is slowly climbing.

height.

Higher and higher, the osprey is leaving this planet.

Simon paused for a moment, then spoke.

"At least one thing it guessed correctly."

"What?"

"We are indeed dying... in what way are we human?"

Henry was speechless: "I knew I wouldn't get good news from you."

Simon laughed heartily, as if he had heard something very funny, laughing like a child who had never grown up.

Then he looked up at the dark universe that was gradually emerging in front of the cockpit.

"But before we died, we truly arrived in the starry sky."

"Be proud, Henry, this is a place most mortals can never reach in their entire lives..."

"So young, yet you talk like an old man about to die."

Henry wanted to retort, but what came out of his mouth was just a mutter.

He tore off a strip of cloth and, wincing, wrapped it around his bleeding arm, shaking his head as he bandaged it. "If you ask me," he said, "what kind of 'hear the truth in the morning and die in the evening' is a huge waste."

Simon turned his head and repeated the two words with a slightly awkward tone.

Savoring this ancient proverb I'd never heard before, I actually burst out laughing after a moment.

"A very interesting analogy, Henry. You might be qualified to be a Grand Secretary or a preacher of the God-King."

"Don't curse me." Henry waved his hand dismissively.

"Grand scholars are most likely to be targeted by evil gods. I don't want to be tied up in the square and burned to death for no reason one day."

Simon raised an eyebrow.

"Were you ever tied to the stake?"

"An unexpected turn of events led to a pardon from the local knightly family, but it also brought me a lot of trouble..."

Henry shrugged and stood up, supporting himself on his knees.

He remained uneasy about the demonic creature still inside the ship. Who knew where that thing was hiding now? Maybe it would suddenly change its mind and come back to kill them. In the warp, who could say for sure?

Henry, dragging his injured leg, searched the area around the cockpit inside and out.

Whether it was the ventilation openings, maintenance pipes, cable trays, or the alloy explosion-proof plates under his feet, he only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there were indeed no monsters lurking in the corner.

After completely relaxing, Henry looked up at the observation window directly in front of the cockpit.

The next moment, he froze on the spot, the words stuck in his throat.

They had long since transcended the constraints of clouds and atmosphere. The Osprey transport ship was gliding in near-Earth orbit. And beneath their feet, a complete planet was revealing its full form without reservation.

Azure.

Vast.

peaceful.

The boundless ocean covers most of the surface, and white clouds drift slowly like silk.

The continental plate is cut off by the terminator.

Half of it is bathed in sunlight, and the other half is shrouded in night.

At such a height, all the calamities and wars on the surface vanished without a trace. Mortals were so insignificant that even the invasion of chaos could not leave any visible scars on this planet.

Henry opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Having lived two lives, this was the first time he had ever seen a planet so directly from the perspective of someone who had experienced it firsthand.

Vast yet insignificant, its beauty tinged with boundless solitude.

It took Henry a long time to regain his voice.

"What's her name?"

"What?" Simon didn't understand.

Henry raised his hand and pointed to the slowly rotating blue star outside the window.

Simon followed his fingertip, paused for a moment, and then gave his answer.

"Bohemian II".

All the surrounding sounds seemed to fade away.

"Bohemia..."

Henry murmured to himself, his expression gradually drifting into a daze.

"What's wrong?" Simon noticed something was amiss.

Henry did not answer, but simply gazed silently at the world beneath his feet.

From the very first day he arrived in this world, he believed he was in medieval Europe... in a game.

War may break out, but justice will lead those with good intentions out of their homes.

The knights fought in all directions and returned from the wheat fields.

The village girls sang and danced, offering fine wine to welcome the heroes who had come from afar.

Love, hate, passion, and grudges all unfolded on this land, bringing him a magnificent and eventful life.

So he instinctively searched for familiar traces from his past life in those everyday moments, looking for Skaritz, inquiring about the territory of Bohemia, attempting to embark on the journey to the starting point of the knights of heaven in his memories.

After going around in circles for so long,

It wasn't until he left the earth and stood under the real starry sky that he finally saw the whole picture.

Bohemia has always been there, and he has always trampled it underfoot.

Henry couldn't help but laugh, but his smile carried an indescribable complexity.

"It's been there all along, isn't that too much of a coincidence? It's like... it was all done on purpose."

Simon frowned slightly, puzzled by these seemingly random words.

"What do you mean?"

"It's nothing." Henry leaned against the metal bulkhead, his gaze still fixed on the blue planet. "It just feels like fate is playing tricks on us. What I've sought my whole life was so close, yet in the end, it all seems like a dream."

Simon gazed at his companion.

I don't know why he was so sad, but I could really feel the regret that permeated the air.

After a moment, Simon looked away.

"Feel sorry."

Henry came to his senses.

"Why apologize?"

"If it weren't for me, you might be able to go home and live your own life."

A brief silence fell over the cockpit.

Not long after, Henry chuckled lightly.

"She'll understand."

"Are you that confident?"

"Of course, she's a brave girl."

Henry nodded naturally.

"Besides, the man she has her eye on is so outstanding. It sounds like a lame excuse, but it's still somewhat understandable that he would break his promise to save the world."

Simon was somewhat taken aback, then lowered his head and let out a helpless chuckle.

"You have absolutely no sense of humility."

"It's just stating the facts."

Henry answered in a very serious manner.

However, before he could finish speaking, the smile on his face froze.

Henry's gaze passed over the bulletproof glass and landed directly on the outer armor of the Osprey transport ship.

From some unknown moment, a layer of dark red, disgusting flesh and blood began to adhere to the outside of the cabin.

It may have started as small as a palm, but now it's spreading even in a vacuum. Like living mold, it's growing wildly along the edges of the armor plating. Vein-like tissue is weaving into the seams of the hull, and the granulation tissue keeps wriggling and climbing forward.

The demonic creation had clearly realized its current predicament. It found itself being stripped of its earthly roots, and if it did nothing further, it would be forever banished to the cold, endless ruins of space.

The spaceship's metal frame began to tremble.

"It seems it also feels like it's about to 'die'."

"I can't hold on much longer either," Simon suddenly said.

Henry's heart sank at the sudden farewell message.

He turned his head and looked at the nobleman sitting in the driver's seat.

Black lines had already crept onto half of Simon's face.

Those marks that were originally just like blood vessels are now slightly raised, as if something is wriggling under the skin.

The white of my right eye is starting to turn gray.

His face was illuminated by the flashing red light of the dial, and his physical condition had clearly reached a certain critical point, with consciousness and reason teetering on the edge.

An explosion came from deep within the ship's hull, and a cable burst into sparks. Dozens of scarlet fault messages immediately appeared on the holographic screen.

[The left attitude nozzle is damaged]

[Outer armor damaged]

[Abnormal airtight structure]

Multiple hull fractures detected

Simon glanced at the error codes and laughed instead.

"It finally panicked."

Henry looked through the observation window. The outer layer of flesh was proliferating wildly; the dark red tissue had already covered half of the hull, trying to penetrate the engines and attempt to take over the spaceship with the power of chaos.

But the osprey was also approaching its limit, and both were heading towards destruction; it was just a matter of who would take the final step first.

Simon leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh.

"If I lose control later, kill me."

Henry was taken aback.

"What did you say?"

"Kill me," Simon repeated calmly. "Before I lose all sense of reason, let me die a human death."

Henry remained silent.

Simon gazed at the pitch-black universe before him, his voice trembling slightly.

"The Carlos family has made too many mistakes, and I don't want to be one of them."

"At least, let me die as a subject of the Emperor."

The cabin shook again, and the machinery groaned.

Henry kept his head down and didn't respond.

Simon didn't seem to need his answer; he simply stared ahead quietly, as if recalling something from a long time ago.

After a long while, he smiled.

"My sister is a very outstanding person."

"The one who died in battle?"

"Yes." For the first time, genuine tenderness appeared in Simon's eyes. "She has always been braver than me, more determined than me, and more like the heir of the Carlos family than me."

He paused for a moment, a smile playing on his lips.

"She always said that one day, she would bring the country that someone had been longing for to the world."

Henry froze, his heart skipping a beat.

His back felt cold.

Those were the words he had once spoken, the words he had personally taught to Salia. The promise he made to the blonde girl by the river in Whitehead Village, in the afterglow of the setting sun.

Henry suddenly looked up.

"etc."

Simon was somewhat puzzled.

"What's wrong?"

Henry's breathing quickened as countless fragmented clues rapidly pieced together his mind. The sense of incongruity, the feeling of familiarity, the inexplicable coincidences all seemed to converge at this moment, pointing to the same answer.

"What's your sister's name?"

Simon was taken aback.

At this critical moment.

A feather fell into the cockpit without warning.

blue.

A second, a third, a fourth… and more and more appeared. They materialized out of nowhere, like a illogical blue snowstorm, forcibly intruding into the spaceship's interior.

They swirled into a storm, blocking Henry's senses and trying to prevent him from accessing the truth that was about to be revealed.

Simon had clearly noticed the anomaly as well. The instrument panel began to flicker wildly, the numbers jumped erratically, and a cacophony of whispers filled the communication channels, plunging the entire cockpit into a state of severe distortion.

Henry tried to break free from the feathers, grabbing Simon and almost yelling.

"Quickly! Tell me! What's her name?!"

Simon looked at him, seemingly not understanding why the other was so agitated, but still gave an answer.

"Salia."

Then, a blinding white light engulfed everything.

boom--!!!

A devastating chain of explosions erupted from deep within the ship. The shockwave ripped through the entire Osprey, shattering the bulletproof glass of the cockpit, exploding the control panel, and all the alarms simultaneously blared their final screams.

Time seemed to stretch out.

Henry saw the blue feathers being swept up by the violent air currents, flying all over the sky like countless shattered fragments of memory.

Then, everything turned pure white.

……

I don't know how much time has passed.

Henry opened his eyes and gasped for breath.

What comes into view is a long and decaying metal corridor.

The lights flickered, the walls were covered in thick rust, and a spaceship that had been dead for many years was still struggling to survive in the darkness.

Henry looked up and saw the outside world through the broken observation window on one side.

A huge, reddish-brown planet.

The earth appeared to be soaked in blood, the mountains twisted, and the oceans boiled. Countless rifts spread across the surface like gaping wounds, and dark red storms swept across the wasteland.

In the murky sky, one could even see some enormous, incomprehensible shadows moving slowly.

Like a purgatory, like a nightmare, a dead land abandoned by the God Emperor.

Henry stood there, silent for a long time.

Finally, he looked down at his palms.

There, lying there, was a blue feather.