Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

“Marcus…” Antoine’s voice was like a venomous snake. He was wary of this World Eater veteran, a wariness that even made him temporarily forget the pain of his body being unable to feel anything.

Komi coldly stared at Antoine, feeling even less sympathy for these Chaos Space Marines who treated ordinary humans as expendable resources or even entertainment.

Even if the judge were to concede that everything he did stemmed from the noble ideal of protecting humanity from destruction in this dark galaxy, he could at least say that everything he did was out of a desire to do so.

But what about these insects?

It's hard to evaluate the ancient ones. The noble ones among them died long ago in the Horus Rebellion, and the rest lived a muddled life in the Warp, occasionally going to the real world to burn, kill, and plunder.

Antoine and Komi faced off, several seconds having passed. For Space Marines, a few seconds of pause was enough to kill them dozens of times over.

However, Antoine did not make a move, simply because his prized longsword was controlled by Komi, and the immense power emanating from the blade made him dare not act rashly.

"What's wrong, Antoine? Are you scared?"

Komi spoke coldly and mocked, gripping the crosshairs of Antoine's longsword tightly with his fingers.

Upon hearing Komi's voice, Antoine, Sharon, and even Feren, who was kneeling on the ground stuffing his intestines back into his body, all displayed the same surprise and fear as Bennett.

Antoine was the first to recover from his emotions. He smirked and then abandoned his longsword, drawing out a lavishly decorated skinned monomorphic blade and thrusting it at Komi.

Chapter 93: Tzeentch's Curse

Antoine's fierce attack seemed somewhat slow to Koji, not only because the Devourer's physical reaction speed was exceptional, but also because of the divinity contained within his soul.

Although this divinity has not yet established a powerful divine status comparable to the Four Gods, it can at least further strengthen the body.

Komi tossed Antoine's longsword aside and continued to use that hand to block Antoine's attacks.

Antoine's thrust was much simpler than Komi's, but even so, he couldn't surpass Komi in speed and could only watch helplessly as Komi flung his sword away and then withdrew it.

Clang!

It was another precise pinch that even Antoine had to admire. Despite using all his strength, Antoine couldn't move the dagger an inch between Komi's fingers.

Komi didn't bother arguing with Antoine any longer. He fixed Antoine's dagger in place and then punched Antoine's helmet with his other fist.

The helmet was twisted and shattered by the punch, and Antoine flew far away.

Ferren rolled aside, and Antoine landed hard on the ground, sliding a distance and exploding in sparks.

Koken strode forward, and without Koken even needing to intimidate Feren, Feren obediently stood against the wall, afraid of getting too close to this mentally unstable World Devourer.

After protecting the user's head from being shattered, Antoine's magnificent helmet was completely ruined; the jewel-like eyepiece shattered into pieces, and the loudspeaker grille that could emit deafening roars was no longer functional.

Komi lifted Antoine with one hand and ripped off his helmet.

A handsome face, but unfortunately half of it was ruined by its owner's pursuit of pleasure.

One half of his face was covered in tattoos, while the other half had been stripped of its skin, revealing sharp nails and iron blocks embedded in the bright red muscle.

Komi raised his fist, preparing to deliver the final blow to the emperor's son.

Sharon, his voice weak but loud, warned, "Wait for Marcus! If you kill him, that curse will kill us all!"

Komi's fist stopped. He had indeed found fragments of the curse in Marcus's memories of blood and killing.

He changed his approach, slowly tightening his grip on Antoine's throat, wanting to gauge the intensity of the curse in this way.

Antoine was like a fish that had been ashore for half an hour; his strong body slowly weakened under Komi's strangulation, eventually endangering his life.

During Antoine's near-death experience, Komi sensed a sinister curse binding Markus's body and then silently merging with his soul.

This... is not a curse cast by an ordinary demon; it feels more like it originated directly from the Four Gods... or to put it bluntly, this curse was personally set by Tzeentch himself.

Tsk... How did this poor and strange war gang manage to offend Tzeentch? It's rare for that funny god to personally weave a curse for them.

Only when his hands were released did Antoine regain the precious right to breathe. His remaining hair drooped down, making him look like a disheveled, drenched chicken.

The other Chaos Space Marines also breathed a sigh of relief; they were genuinely afraid that Gu Jian would strangle Antoine to death right there in a fit of rage.

"Cough cough... Brother Marcus, are you alright?" Sharon asked, but Koji didn't answer him. Instead, Antoine, who had been catching his breath, let out a comfortable groan.

"I can feel it again, it feels so good, so exciting... Quick, Marcus, my good brother. Please, grab me by the throat, please, split my body open with an axe..."

Disgusted by Antoine's groans, Gu Jian kicked him, sending him into a deep sleep.

He turned to look at the somewhat timid Sharon, the wary Bennett, and Feren, who had concealed his stench beside his armor, and spoke.

"Now, let's have a proper talk."

Several tens of minutes later, the group sat around a table, which was clearly used for communication among the Space Marines. The spot that was originally reserved for Faerûn had been marinated in his bodily fluids and stench.

Komi's chair was occupied by Antoine, who was tightly bound. If the emperor's son were still conscious, he might feel a sense of humiliation and pleasure at Komi's actions.

“My memories are very confused… so I have a lot of questions to ask you.” Koji asked casually, which made Sharon, Bennett, and Ferren, who were used to him always shouting about blood and killing, feel very uncomfortable.

Sharon remained silent, afraid that his loud voice would displease the killing god before him.

Feren didn't say anything either; his throat, which was always sticky with phlegm, wasn't suitable for communication.

Finally, Bennett licked his lips with his scarlet tongue and answered cautiously.

“Brother Marcus, ask away. I will not hide anything I know.”

Where is this place?

“Uh… this is the warp, a chaotic nightmare land,” Bennett replied, then added, perhaps feeling that this answer wasn’t satisfactory to Komi, “The only thing we can be sure of is that we came from the Raiders’ Belt.”

"The Plundering Madness Belt?" Koji asked rhetorically, vaguely remembering it as a belt-like region composed of broken asteroids and living asteroids.

These asteroids have high mineral content, making them a key area of ​​control for the Dark Mechanicus and the Chaos Wars.

Many groups of chaotic pirates roam the Plundering Madness, barely surviving by double-crossing and doing odd jobs for the Dark Machine Cult.

“That’s right, we brought them out from the Plunderers. One of the spoils you have came from there.” Bennett pointed behind Komi.

His power armor's power backpack was welded with numerous sharp spikes, pierced with the heads of enemies recognized by Markus.

Komi nodded, indicating that he understood, and then asked, "So where are we going after leaving the Plundering Madness Zone?"

"We're heading to Broken Steel Fortress. I heard there's a shady deal going on there where you can get any equipment as long as you pay the price."

"What price can you afford?" Komi couldn't help but laugh when he heard this. In his memory, Bennett and his team were not only poor, but they had never succeeded.

Sharon once attempted to hijack an Imperial pilgrimage ship and sell the pilgrims inside to the Dark Mechanicus as slaves to purchase supplies.

They discovered that the pilgrimage ship had long been infiltrated by gene thieves, who shouted "Long live the Four-Armed Emperor!" and trapped them inside. If it weren't for Markus cutting a bloody path through them, they would have perished inside long ago.

Or perhaps they've set their sights on a barbaric planet ruled by aliens, wanting to eliminate these insignificant aliens to gain control of the planet and make its inhabitants serve them.

Unfortunately, Feren activated a space necromantic graveyard, and the entire planet was wiped out by the undead in just a few days. Luckily, Bennett reacted quickly and reminded them to board the warship and escape early, thus saving their lives from the space necromantic clutches.

(Thanks to readers 20230705234730011, AzoChan无XIN1, and 20180501111740596 for their donations. I can't add more chapters because I don't have any drafts saved up. *sobs*)

Chapter 94: Heading Towards the Shattered Steel Fortress

Komi's sneer was heard by the three of them. Only Bennett showed some shame on his face in this small group, while the other two remained as indifferent as wooden statues.

Bennett coughed lightly and continued to explain to Komi, "We still had some savings, enough to buy some bullets. And I heard that the owner of the Shattered Steel Fortress is a research fanatic. Even if we are destitute after being attacked by the Void Whale, we can still get some good stuff by selling the research value of this ship."

"Research value?" Koken turned his gaze and swept around. This dilapidated raiding ship was indeed quite unusual.

There were no sailors on the bridge; the screens and equipment were operating on their own.

It's more like a ghost ship, with the dead trapped in this steel tomb carrying out the work they did in life, even though no one can see their existence.

“Okay…” After briefly understanding their current situation, Komi sighed helplessly and then asked them another question, “I want to go somewhere. Do you know the location of the Edge of the Hazy Sector?”

The crowd remained silent, clearly unaware of the sector that Komi had mentioned. The territory of the Human Empire was so vast that even an official from the Ministry of Internal Affairs would find it difficult to browse through the names of all the Empire's star sectors in his lifetime.

Not to mention the Space Marines who don't often travel to the real universe.

Every minute and every second, new lands are being developed, while old worlds fall into the hands of aliens and traitors, making the work of statistics even more difficult.

Komi tapped the table with his hand, indicating his firm determination to go to the edge of the hazy sector. He had a score to settle and some ideas to implement.

Bennett frowned and remained silent, but in the end Sharon spoke up and told Komi an even more frustrating truth.

In a sense, this ghost ship was not under their control. It was like a tour bus suspended high in the air, gliding past point by point using cables that had been laid out beforehand.

Sharon and his colleagues' job is to fill the tour bus with fuel, press a button, and wait quietly for the bus to reach its destination on its own.

It was precisely because of this that they provoked the Void Whales of the Warp, passing through the ancient Warp creatures in an almost provocative manner, ultimately drawing the Void Whales' attack.

“We set our destination at Broken Steel Castle when we set sail. Only when we reach our destination can we change our course,” Sharon explained carefully, his voice low and slow as his volume control device was broken.

“Alright then…” Koji shook his head after hearing this, knowing that Sharon had not lied to him.

So he got up and walked towards the room with the memories he had merged with, completely ignoring the strange, awe-filled gazes of the people behind him.

Bennett breathed a sigh of relief when he could no longer hear Komi's footsteps. Just now, he had imagined the terrifying scene of Komi roaring in fury because his needs could not be met, and even pulling out an axe.

“Gods above… Markus is truly terrifying…” Sharon slumped into his chair, took off his helmet to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, and then looked at Bennett and asked, “How did Markus recover? Wasn’t he driven mad by the Butcher’s Nail?”

Bennett rolled his eyes. "How should I know? All I know is that this guy sat on the ground and rested for a while, and his chest injury and brain problems healed together."

Ferren interjected, "So what do we do next? Will Markus be angry because we used him as a fighting tool before? If Antoine can't beat him, then I'm even less likely to."

“Just don’t remind him. I’ve heard that the Butcher’s Nail of the World Eater can damage memories. If he’s lucky enough, he won’t even remember anything from before,” Bennett warned coldly. He was genuinely afraid that Feren would act foolishly again, after all, his brain had already been assimilated into something like excrement. “Keep quiet and be careful. I don’t want this god of death to go mad and then cut off our limbs and keep them in pits as trophies.”

Sharon nodded, agreeing with Bennett's suggestion.

"Ouch... my head... my face..." Groans came from under the table as Antoine, who had been used as a chair by Komi, slowly woke up.

Bennett glanced over and couldn't help but sneer, "Are you awake? Our little princess, would you like some massage service?"

Antoine stared at Bennett's excessively pale and emaciated face with his eyes, which had had their eyelids cut off, then his expression contorted and he rasped, "I...I can't feel anything, I can't feel anything at all..."

Bennett's lips twitched, then he punched Antoine in the face, dragging the once-unconscious Emperor's Son along, cursing, "Why didn't you die in that devil's bar? Why are you still alive to disgust me..."

Sharon watched Bennett's retreating figure and asked, "Where are you going?"

Without turning his head, Bennett replied, "Take him to Marcus. Only he can control this crazy drug addict."

Watching Bennett drag Antoine away, Ferren clasped his hands together and said with deep emotion, "The two of them have such a good relationship. It would be even better if they could join Father's family."

Sharon merely gagged a few times at Ferren's suggestion, then used his psionic powers to operate the flamethrower and clean up the mess Ferren had left behind.

The automatic mechanism of the hatch was old and rusted shut, and could only be opened by the immense strength of the Space Marines.

The creaking and groaning sounds tormented Komi's ears; it was far more agonizing than scratching a blackboard with fingernails.

The room was not simply furnished; many discarded weapons were neatly stacked against the wall, and a mound of skulls, a symbol of Khorne's worship, replaced the bed.