Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but Warhammer 40k

"It's usually more eager to eat than a dog, but when its owner is really in danger, it runs faster than a mouse."

But there was no time for him to complain.

Henry quickly got up from the ground, dragging his injured leg.

He limped deeper into the dense forest, hoping to escape the pursuers' sight.

But behind him came a hissing sound like steam escaping from an old boiler, followed by a long series of friction sounds.

The heat blew from behind, ruffling Henry's short hair and stopping him in his tracks.

Suddenly, that metal lump was already so close to him?

Henry's expression was frozen on his face; he didn't dare to look back, looking like he had swallowed a whole hedgehog.

Then, footsteps approached.

Every step he took was a ticking time bomb on Henry's fragile nerves.

Henry could already picture himself with a gun pointed at him, like a rabbit being stalked by a wolf.

There was no den nearby, and the wolf's breath was already on his neck.

I'll die...

He quickly drew the short sword from his waist and threw it into the grass husks next to him like a hot potato.

After thinking about it, he felt it wasn't sincere enough, so he bent over, pulled the dagger out of his boot, and flung it ten meters away.

  

Finally, he obediently raised his hands above his head, making a gesture of surrender.

"Misunderstand!"

"It's a complete misunderstanding, sir!"

In a final, desperate attempt, he glanced once more at the shabby system panel.

The icon for "Break the boats and burn the bridges" is still grayed out.

Good news, there's only one person on the other side. Bad news, the other side might have a gun, and it might be a trained knight's servant.

The footsteps grew closer and closer.

The dry branches crunched under the footsteps of military boots.

Henry swallowed hard, then turned around with a smile.

"Sir, if I said it was all a coincidence, that I was just out picking mushrooms and happened to be passing by—"

Before he could finish speaking...

There was a slight extra sensation around my neck.

It was hard and cold.

It looks like a needle; what a despicable hidden weapon!

Henry instinctively reached out to grab it, but the moment his fingertips touched it, a powerful, tingling sensation, like an electric shock, shot straight from his skull to his heels.

"Holy crap..."

next second.

The whole world began to spin like a giant windmill. Trees turned upside down, and mud flew into the sky.

It wasn't until his face slammed solidly into the ground that he realized what was happening. His brain was still screaming for him to run, but his body had already collapsed.

"What's going on... why is it electrified?"

This was Henry's last thought before the system crashed.

Then.

A pair of black women's military boots covered in mud came into view.

The owner of the boots stopped in front of him, bent down, and picked up the longsword he had just thrown.

My vision began to blur, and my eyelids grew heavier and heavier.

But before he closed his eyes completely, Henry caught a glimpse of something strange out of the corner of his eye.

A blue feather.

It drifted in from who knows where, slowly swirling in mid-air before finally landing on the tip of his nose.

"This is really weird..."

"Are Smurfs still getting their hair removed in this lousy forest...?"

Darkness surged up, completely obliterating his last vestiges of consciousness.

But the darkness did not last long.

At least in Henry's dream, it faded away quickly.

Before he could even process what was happening, Henry found himself back under the old ginkgo tree.

The wind rustled through the tree canopy, filling the air with golden light, and dappled sunlight sprinkled among the blades of grass.

A girl in a white linen dress sat on the swing in front of her.

She tilted her head back, gazing quietly at the sky, surveying the distant lands behind the clouds.

Henry stood there, stunned.

It's Salia.

The neighbors in Baitouwo Town were always preoccupied with trivial matters. They dared not leave their familiar surroundings and never thought about what was in the outside world. Except for her, and only she, loved to look up and search for things that would never fall into this remote town.

The swing slowly stopped spinning.

The girl turned around and saw the person coming; her eyebrows and eyes curved into a smile. She was truly beautiful.

"What's your name?"

It was as if time had turned back to the day they first met; Henry couldn't help but laugh.

You know perfectly well.

"Knowing is one thing," Salia said lightly as she jumped off the plank, her skirt billowing in the wind. "But I just want to hear it from you."

"Henry," he replied.

"Um."

She nodded and repeated it.

"Henry".

The tone was like chewing a sweet, soft candy, and she savored it for a long time.

The two sat down side by side near the tree roots. The wind blew across the open field, and the distant wheat fields rippled in waves. Time seemed to stand still.

"I want to go outside and see the world," Salia suddenly said, her gaze fixed on the distant mountain ridge. "To cross the mountains, follow the river to its end, and go to even farther places—that's what you're thinking too, isn't it?"

Her eyes reflected the entire clear sky.

"But everyone always says there's nothing outside, and that we should be content just to survive." She paused for a moment, then showed a relieved expression. "But I think the outside world must be more wonderful, at least the scenery is different from here."

Salia turned her face to the side, the sunlight casting a soft halo around the bridge of her nose.

"If it were you, you could definitely do it, right?"

Henry opened his mouth, about to answer.

The sound of the wind stopped abruptly.

The leaves no longer sway, the wheat fields are frozen into a painting, and everything is like a clock whose spring has been forcibly pulled out, returning to deathly silence.

Salia remained standing there, her expression serene.

"May your kingdom come," she said softly.

"Henry".

next second.

Without warning, the sky shattered, seeping out a thick, scarlet red.

The earth shattered like peeling scabs, the green grass beneath our feet turning into muddy, rotting flesh. The trunks of old trees split in two, revealing countless distorted faces crammed beneath the bark, their mouths agape, emitting silent wails. The swing's rope transformed into writhing organs, and fallen leaves crumbled into pale, bone-like fragments.

A foul-smelling, dark red tide surged from the ground, submerging Salia's ankles, climbing up to her knees, and engulfing her waist.

Henry sprinted forward with all his might, but his hands always came up empty.

"Salia!" he roared.

The girl ignored him, calmly watching him as the thick sea of ​​blood slowly swallowed her up until she disappeared without a trace.

"No--"

Henry tilted his head back.

The crimson sea boiled and churned. A colossal creature slowly rose from the abyss.

The outline of a Sentinel mech was now completely distorted. The cold steel frame was crammed with pulsating, proliferating flesh, and thick, nerve-like cables swirled wildly in the air. Where the engine had once been, a massive, deformed heart had taken its place.

With each pulsation, dark red liquid seeped down the gaps in the mottled armor. The surface of the machine was inlaid with countless human faces. Men. Women. Old people. Children. Their features were twisted and distorted, as if a collection of all the filth and madness in the world.

This nightmarish creation lowered its body, and the dark, heavy machine gun barrel began to rotate at a steady speed, aimed directly at his brow.

boom--

A thunderous explosion brought Henry back to reality.

He opened his eyes and felt his heart pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst out of his chest; his back was soaked in cold sweat.

The surroundings were filled with a musty, damp smell, mixed with a nauseating, putrid stench.

He knelt on the ground, dry heaving.

The ceiling was made of roughly laid stone bricks. The dim, yellowish firelight slanted in from outside the iron fence, casting mottled shadows on the walls.

Stone walls, iron railings, and moldy haystacks.

In addition, there was a broken wooden bucket in the corner, filled with an unknown amount of excrement.

Henry sat there, looking around.

"Dungeon?" he muttered subconsciously.

Just then, a tremor came from my wrist.

Henry lowered his head and fell into a long silence.

Rough, damp stone walls, medieval-style cells, and prickly, tattered straw beds.

And the electronic shackles on his wrists, flashing red dots.

He stared at that thing for over a minute, finally exhaling a breath he had been holding in.

"You're using all your good stuff to get rid of me, aren't you?"