Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but Warhammer 40k

Henry listened to the old man's words, and the more he listened, the more uneasy he felt.

How could this old man be even more blasphemous than himself?

"Traitors deserve to go to hell." The old man's one intact eye turned bloodshot and bulged outwards.

"Having betrayed the God-Emperor, I should have died long ago. But the others have done nothing wrong. My surviving descendants, the people of my territory... they deserve a better life! Why should they rot away with me in this evil land?"

Like a long-suppressed rage finally breaking through a dam, the surrounding corridors seemed to resonate with his voice, echoing through the stone walls.

"The God-Emperor will not forgive me, but in his mercy, he will surely protect my people once again. I will not be ashamed of the Carlos name."

The flickering flames made his silhouette appear distorted and terrifying.

Seeing that things were getting out of hand, Henry quickly interrupted, "Sir."

"The residents of Baitouwo Town may not be living a bad life. They have fine wine and bread, and occasionally they can gather in the square to watch a burning at the stake for fun. Perhaps the so-called hellish situation... is just your wishful thinking."

"They may not want to leave here with your 'help'."

The old man was stunned, as if he had been doused with a bucket of cold water.

His body trembled, and he gripped Henry's wrist tightly, yet he seemed somewhat at a loss.

The mechanical prosthetic eye rotated, and red light shone on Henry's face, as if trying to pierce through the truth hidden beneath the surface.

"Wrong...you've been deceived...you've been blessed." The old man rambled on, as if justifying himself, "A great being has bestowed upon you...a perception unlike that of mortals..."

He began to speak incoherently, and his steps became erratic, like a storm swept away by his emotions.

It's like an old, neglected machine that suddenly breaks down and can't even speak clearly.

"You don't understand... You are the chosen one... You must have the power... to change everything..."

"I?"

Henry felt a chill run down his spine. Had the old man gone mad?

A great being?

A war god from the warp?

He knew he should have known; those four names resounded throughout the entire Chaos, but when he tried to recall them, his mind went blank.

What...fear...?

  

color……?

Familiar words are now completely forgotten, as if they had never existed in my mind.

Anxiety surged up like a tide, but then vanished without a trace.

His brain was preventing him from exploring further.

"Sir...you must have mistaken me for someone else. I don't understand what you're talking about at all."

"I'm just a blacksmith's son, a law-abiding citizen, probably not the person you're looking for."

The old man's grip on Henry's wrist gradually weakened.

He fell silent, turned to face the family portrait, and muttered to himself, "You don't understand, the suffering is spreading, but we must keep living."

The candlelight flickered in the wind.

Sadness and madness mingled in the air, blowing open the castle windows and bringing news of an impending storm.

One torch after another was extinguished.

The old man said nothing more, turned around and pushed open a hidden door at the end of the corridor.

A downward spiral of stone steps appeared ahead.

As the two walked down the steps, the smell in the air began to change.

At the end of the stairs was a huge alloy explosion-proof door.

The old man placed his palm on the identification board by the door.

With a screeching sound, the heavy metal door slowly slid open to both sides.

The towering dome disappeared into the shadows, and a massive transport ship lay quietly in the center.

Its landing gear was broken, its engine nozzles were covered with brown rust, and most of the double-headed eagle emblem on its belly, symbolizing the human empire, had peeled off, leaving what looked like a human skull.

Several bipedal Sentinel mechs were scattered around the transport ship.

Further into the shadows, stood a true steel giant.

A wrecked knight mech.

An absolute weapon of violence, a colossal creature killed by time, its head bowed, the Carlos family crest still faintly visible on its mottled shoulder armor.

Several electronic instruments lay askew in the corner, their screens shattered, and thick cables were piled haphazardly on the metal floor.

In the center of the cable was a long-weathered skeleton.

A tattered, dark red robe covered the skeleton, and the skull and chest cavity were inlaid with a large number of rusty mechanical prosthetics and interfaces.

"The truth of the world is right before our eyes: we once possessed boundless power, and our homeland lies beyond the stars..."

The old man continued to recount his family's past.

Henry's attention, however, drifted involuntarily to the remains of the mechanic priest. Beside the metal skull inlaid with gears, a strange glimmer of light appeared.

A blue feather.

It lay quietly among the blackened skeleton, radiating a light that was so striking.

As Henry gazed at them, the surrounding air distorted. A piercing wail suddenly pierced their ears, indistinguishable between male and female, filled with indescribable pain and madness, as if countless mouths were screaming simultaneously deep within their minds.

Henry closed his eyes and shook his head vigorously.

When I opened my eyes again, there was nothing around me.

The blue feather was gone, leaving only a rusty gear fragment in the dust.

It was just another illusion.

The old man, unaware of the strangeness behind him, continued walking deeper into the hangar.

"We tried to wake up the engine countless times, to no avail. Nothing was left in the machine, only deathly silence."

Henry wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

Don't stay here for long.

A creepy sensation, like vines, crept up my back. Regardless of the origin of the hallucination, the old man before me had clearly sided with some evil god.

Staying here will definitely not end well.

"grown ups."

"Thank you for your magnanimity, and thank you for showing me your family history." Henry tried to sound sincere, while raising his bound hands. "Since I haven't committed a crime, and what happened in town was a misunderstanding, if you don't mind, could you let me leave?"

"My horse has run away, and there are people in town waiting for me," Henry continued.

"If you would do me the favor and remove these shackles, I promise I will not reveal a single word of what I have seen here today."

Silence reigned all around.

Occasionally, a whistling sound, like crying or howling, could be heard from the ventilation duct.

The old man looked at Henry with pity in his eyes.

"leave?"

"Where to?" the old man asked.

"Go back to town, or go north. There's always somewhere to stay."

The old man shook his head.

"Outside there is only despair, disease, and endless torment, and a group of poor people who don't know where they are."

"Why go back to hell?" the old man said regretfully. "Wouldn't it be better to stay here?"