Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

In order to achieve victory in the war more quickly, the nun gritted her teeth and rushed forward. Even if she was punished by Saint Otto, she was determined to save Imran's life and let him finish his work before he died.

If we were to change our perspective, and the person being burned alive at this moment was Komi, would the Sister still risk her own safety to save him? Considering that the army Komi brought consisted of only one escort ship, the Exterminator, with a maximum capacity of 30,000, and the total number of troops deployed on the battlefield was less than 10,000, the Sister probably wouldn't have thought that Komi's death would greatly affect the battle situation on Iron Star.

The elder sister rushed to Imran's side almost instantly, smashed several bottles of precious holy water on him to extinguish the flames, and then placed his iron halo behind his head to prevent his ravaged body from dying in the deadly environment of Iron Star.

Komi dispersed the souls; these souls, forged into the armor of Markarth, could not return to the Pure White Hall, but would flow into the Warp.

He stared at the elder sister with some displeasure, his eyes conveying a very clear meaning.

What exactly gave you the courage to participate in the debate with the saint? Was it the feelings that developed from spending so much time with the saint Imam?

Other combat nuns shared similar thoughts with Komi. They were also very unhappy about the elder nun's sudden intervention. If Komi gave the order at this moment, they would immediately turn their guns on Imaran and the elder nun and execute them.

The elder sister felt that Komi's gaze was as sharp as a knife. Having witnessed the holy miracle, her voice trembled slightly as she replied, but she still made her thoughts clear, "Holy one, I beg you to postpone Imaran's execution. The Holy War Army still needs him. Please save his life for the handover of leadership of the Holy War Army."

Handing over leadership?

Koji blinked. This was something he hadn't expected. He had set up this scheme only to kill Imaran. Imaran's extremism and fanaticism had brought him a lot of trouble. If the Holy War Army was by the side of the Salvation Army, they would not only have to avoid enemy fire, but also be careful of the Holy War Army's discriminatory bullets against demi-humans.

Komi thought about it and decided that he could give Imaran a chance, provided that Imaran was willing. If Komi felt that Imaran was harboring resentment if he lost and seeking revenge if he won, then Komi would not consider the elder sister's plea.

He turned to look at Imaran, whose body was covered in sores that his features and fingers were burned together. He could only be told that he was still conscious by the movement of his limbs.

Komi asked, "Imaran, you heard what the elder sister just said, right? Are you willing to extend your life, which should have ended, until the moment your duty is fulfilled? If you are willing, shake your left hand; if you are not, shake your right hand."

Imaran shook his left hand. Komi knew that a fanatic like him would not choose to wag his tail and beg for mercy just to survive. He must have broken his faith and regarded himself as a heretic who was going against the emperor's representatives.

Since that's the case, I'll show you some mercy; you can't work in the state you're in now.

Komi instructed his men to bring up the severely burned soldiers and place them alongside Imran. Then, he cut his finger and dabbed his blood on their lips.

A miracle occurred once again. The critically injured, who could only survive by undergoing full skin grafts and biochemically grown new organs, were slowly healing themselves. Komi picked up a bottle of Beast Brew and splashed it on them, shouting, "The Savior is merciful! They couldn't bear to see you unable to return to the throne with your innocence, so he gave you a second chance! You must cherish this opportunity and let your lives burn with the value they deserve!"

Chapter 534: Harald's Visit

The severely burned patients, recovering from their burns, had no more to do with Komi than they could imagine. They struggled to roll off their stretchers and pressed their foreheads to the ground in reverence.

Ugh...

Koken sighed. He was not a true pope and did not enjoy the worship and respect of the masses. To him, religion was merely a tool to help him control his subordinates and unite their thoughts.

He couldn't bear to see a group of severely injured people, who could barely move, kowtow to him, so he reached out and helped them onto stretchers, gently patting their shoulders to comfort them, "Rest well now, and think about thanking the savior when you've recovered."

When Imaran saw Komi's actions, his lips twitched a few times, burning together with the fire, and tears streamed down Komi's bloodied eyelids.

I... am so far, so far inferior to Otto... such a compassionate heart is truly rare and precious.

Imran was taken away by the elder sister. He went from being a staunch opponent of Komi to becoming his follower. He immediately set off back to the headquarters of the Holy War Army, preparing to hand over the supreme command of the Holy War Army to Komi. The army that was running on land was also ordered by Imran to be dispersed and return to their respective posts to await new orders.

Imran understood that handing over command would arouse suspicion and discontent among many in the Jihad Army, but he had ways to eliminate these discordant voices. He had already made too many mistakes and could not continue to do so.

The soldiers of the Mard's loyal servants fear that they will not be able to return to the throne, and the high-ranking Imaran is equally afraid of this.

Once the Holy War Army is completely under Koga's control, he will kneel before Koga and gently kiss his toes to ask for a chance to atone for his sins with his death. Even if he is assigned to the Punishment Legion and dies on the battlefield in shackles and berserk drugs, he will have no complaints.

His rise to the supreme leader of the Holy War Army was not solely due to his ability to recite the entire Holy Word of the Emperor, but also to his political acumen in coordinating the various factions within the Holy War Army.

Imaran sat in the transport plane, looking like a mummy wrapped in bandages, with only his scarred face showing.

He stared blankly at the eagle statue inside the transport plane, repeatedly repenting for his actions of questioning and offending Komi.

After flying at full speed for six hours, Imaran finally returned to the headquarters of the Holy War Army. This place was once a stronghold of heretics, which was captured by Imaran's Holy War Army and then purified by Imaran through a ritual, becoming the core of the Holy War Army's attack on Ironstar.

Looking down from the transport plane, one can see thousands of bonfires scattered around the fortress. Each bonfire was used as an execution ground for heretics and cowards, whose suffering would inspire the warriors loyal to the emperor.

Although the transport plane's engine was loud, it still couldn't drown out the prayers coming from countless loudspeakers, most of which were messages urging the jihadists to be wary of demi-humans, hate heretics, and despise aliens.

Imran, who once felt proud of the poems he had written, now felt only shame. His face flushed red, he wanted to cut off his own ear to escape the truth.

“Sister…” Imran’s voice was like a plea, “Let the priests change the content of their prayers, let it be… the Gospel of Mercy, Chapter 5, Section 12 of the Word of the Emperor.”

"Yes, Saint Imaran."

As the heavy transport plane landed, Imaran was helped out by the battle nuns. His weak appearance shocked the jihadist officers waiting on the tarmac, who all rushed closer to ask him questions.

"Holy One! What happened? That damned heretic dared to harm you!" The officer also glanced at the nuns, silently questioning why they hadn't protected the Holy One's safety.

“Stop talking.” Imaran shook his head. The officer’s eager respect felt like a dagger to his heart. He forced a smile and said, “No heretics attacked me. I just had an epiphany and realized how foolish my previous actions were.”

“Foolish? Saint, I don’t understand.”

You'll understand later.

Leaving those words behind, Imran hurried away, ignoring the gazes cast upon him as he made his way to the deepest part of the fortress. When he was only a long corridor away from the final room, Imran broke free from the nun and prostrated himself in fear and trembling.

“Forgive my foolishness… Great Emperor. No, merciful Savior, please forgive my foolishness for now.” Imaran said in a trembling voice, walking on his knees and kowtowing heavily with each meter he moved.

He dared not look up for too long, for fear of meeting the gaze of the emperor statues with skull faces placed on both sides of the corridor. After fifteen minutes, the exhausted Imran finally reached the door, then fled inside and wept silently.

The elder sister had never seen Imran so devastated, and she felt a pang of sadness. She comforted him, “Saint Imran, although you misunderstood the Emperor’s revelations, you received a true explanation before you died, didn’t you? Compared to those saints who misunderstood their whole lives, you had the opportunity to correct your mistakes, which is quite precious.”

“Yes…you’re right.” Imaran took a deep breath, regaining some of his strength and composure in his chair. “Compared to those who die without ever knowing where they went wrong, I am indeed exceptionally fortunate. Quickly, we can’t waste any more time. Every second I spend here shortens my time for atonement. Immediately summon the high command of the Holy War Army; I want to announce the decision to transfer command to them!”

"Yes, ma'am." The elder sister bowed and left immediately. A while later, there was a knock on the door. Imran thought it was the high-ranking officers of the Holy War Army who had finished gathering, but after asking, he found out that someone else wanted to talk to him.

Harald, the trafficker and the supreme leader of a complex mercenary group, was disliked by Imaran, who viewed the mercenaries' fighting style as rather shameful.

Harald paved the way with money, and the army he assembled included all sorts of people. They were not willing to easily shed their lives on the battlefield, but rather preferred to live a little longer so they could use the money they had acquired to enjoy more worldly pleasures.

During battles, Harald also commanded his subordinates in a somewhat commercial manner. He divided the Iron Star into war zones of different levels. The lower the level of the war zone, the less commission he would receive after conquering it. Conversely, the higher the level of the war zone, the more commission he would receive after conquering it.

When a war zone becomes too difficult to conquer, Harald's army, composed of pirates, exiles, and scavengers, will temporarily unite and split the spoils based on their contributions after a victory.

Fighting for money and resources sounds absurd, but when the rewards for victory are substantial enough, even the slightest hesitation is disrespectful to the mountain of Throne Coins.

As a highly successful traveling merchant, Harald's wealth could no longer be described in terms of Throne Coins. When trading with other powers, he was too lazy to convert his wealth into Throne Coins. Instead, he would directly use the planet's annual GDP as a conversion rate and dispatch trade fleets to transport the goods.

Although they are greedy for money, the mercenaries' combat performance is even better than that of the jihadists. This is primarily because mercenaries are mostly people who have tasted blood and death. Even if they have not fought in earth-shattering battles, they are still much stronger than believers hastily recruited from the strongholds of the religious world.

Secondly, Harald also brought many demi-human slaves. He established a cooperative relationship with a mechanical guild, and by giving up a portion of the profits, he allowed the mechanical guild to transform the demi-human slaves into combat servants day and night.

When mercenaries have lost too many lives but still fail to capture enemy positions, and are even punished for exceeding the time limit, they will request support from Harald's fighter servants. However, this is not free. Harald has a very clever control over the cost and price of the fighter servants, so that he can recover as much of the wealth he has distributed as possible, and also make the mercenary leaders grit their teeth and accept his harvest without too much resentment.

Now that Harald has found himself, what does he want to do?

Imran pondered, thinking that Harald either wanted to hire the support of the Battle Sisters or send some priests to clean up the aberrations in the army.

However, none of this was Harald's purpose. He brought a sealed iron box, which even Imaran, who was not very knowledgeable about mechanics, could tell was expensive and technologically advanced.

Harald opened the box with a password, inside which was a white bone fragment emitting a faint glow.

“Saint Imran, do you know what this is?” Harald smiled, which reminded Imran of the confidence and composure Komi displayed when dealing with him.

Chapter 535: How could a sage possibly cooperate with an alien?

Looking at the contents of the box, Imaran asked what it was.

"Spiritual bone".

"Spiritual bone?"

"A material used by the alien Adarin race."

"Are you saying that the Xenomorphs were also involved in the turmoil on Ironstar?"

“No, no, no.” Harald wagged his finger. “You should ask me where I found this thing.”

"Stop being so mysterious, Harald. I don't have time to waste on your banter."

Harald shrugged. "I didn't even ask you why you look like a mummy, and you won't even answer my question? As a saint, you're incredibly rude."

boom!

Imaran slammed his hand on the table, causing his still-healing wound to reopen, and blood seeped through the bandage.

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you. We obtained this spirit bone at the Tyrod Heavy Forging Plant. You should know who's in charge of that war zone. There are many Hydra anti-aircraft guns deployed there to defend against air attacks. When Hydra raises its head, the entire sky is blocked by them; when it lowers its head, no one can pass through the cargo storage area in front of the forging plant."

I have many capable men under my command. One greedy, lustful, and extremely astute Lightling ratman infiltrated the forging plant, intending to launch the Hydra anti-aircraft guns into the sky with his molten bombs. Guess what he saw, huddled in the pipes?

A beacon was launched, then a rift tore open, and the messenger of savior appeared. The corrupted machine spirit of the Hydra anti-aircraft gun immediately aimed at the mysterious and swift being. Although its barrage of bullets hit, it did not affect the messenger's flight. The Hydra anti-aircraft gun was destroyed in the counterattack. The Lightling ratman, shocked, crawled out of the pipe and found the fragment that had fallen from the messenger among the burning scrap metal.

Imran listened silently as Harald finished telling him the story, then asked, "So? What do you want to prove with this fragment? That Saint Otto and the Aedalin had an affair? That the being summoned by his soldiers was not the messenger of the Savior, but a shameful alien?"

Harald leaned back, hands behind his head. "I think the situation is already very clear. I don't need to explain it to him. As long as we seize this point and question him, and let the Inquisition investigate his relationship with the Xenomorph, I think this will divert his attention from Ironbreaker Star. He will stop clamoring for the rule of this world, and the interests of the Child family will be protected."

Harald's account has a fatal flaw: he was a wealthy traveling merchant who could afford an apartment in Terra, and in his trading career, he would inevitably have to deal with aliens.

This situation is quite common among traveling merchants, but they never engage in open trade to defy the laws of the Empire. If the judges insist on pursuing the matter, every traveling merchant should be executed for trading with aliens.

As a high-ranking and powerful saint of the state religion, Imran couldn't possibly be unaware of this. However, Harald was quite confident that Imran wouldn't investigate this loophole, but would instead join him in attacking Otto.

After all, everyone knew about Imaran's dissatisfaction with Otto, and he had no reason to give up the opportunity to suppress Otto. He should be thanking himself for handing over the knife.

Harald happily imagined sending Otto to the Inquisition for investigation, where he could easily obtain many of the things he wanted from the Punisher with a little maneuvering.

For example, atonement-type combat suits, beast-brewing crafts, and even the methods for making those beacons.

The Mechanic Order, which had a cooperative relationship with Harald, was quite covetous of these technological products. They even explicitly told Harald that if he could cause the Punisher to lose its leader and fall into chaos, they would have ways to suppress the Sage of Sem and reclaim these technological products. Once they had a clear understanding of them, they would sell the first batch of products to Harald at a low price.

As Harald was envisioning this, Imaran smiled, a very bright smile, which was exactly what he had expected.

"So that's what you were planning..." Imaran shook his head, burying his face in the shadows, muttering the last part of his sentence silently.

How dare you distract the saint with such shameful slander...

Harald, feeling that the matter was settled and all that was left was for them to sign their names on a piece of parchment, stood up, straightened his clothes, and then extended his hand to Imaran.

Imaran also reached out his hand, and only then did Harald realize that Imaran's hand was bleeding. Being somewhat of a germaphobe, he wanted to pull his hand back to put on gloves, but Imaran grabbed it and he couldn't pull it away.

What incredible strength!

Harald was somewhat surprised that Imran's frail body could unleash such astonishing power; he felt as if he were not shaking hands, but wrestling with an iron clamp.

Harald's face flushed red, and he grabbed Imaran's arm with his other hand, trying to make him let go. Unfortunately, he was not a good warrior. Imaran found Harald's struggle ridiculous and his laughter rolled out of his throat, gradually turning into an angry questioning of Harald's audacity.

"How dare you! How dare you slander the Savior's chosen traveler like this! Even if it really was alien material, the Sage did not make a shameful deal with the aliens, but rather used his devout and angry hands to strangle the aliens and burn their kingdom to ashes to steal it!" Imaran roared and punched him directly in the face.

buzzing...

I saw stars and my ears were ringing.

Even after undergoing numerous advanced biochemical modifications, Harald was still disoriented under Imaran's furious iron fist. He staggered backward, trying to escape Imaran's side.

"Come here! You scoundrel! You coward!" Imaran gripped his hand tightly and pulled him into his arms with a sudden force, forcing Harald back. His arm dislocated on the spot with a crisp cracking sound.