Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

A triangular holographic recorder gives Koga a distinctly ancient feel.

Bennett turned on the switch, and with a click, a small green figure was projected out.

The sound is distorted, making it almost impossible to understand what the person is saying.

The video recording is corrupted; it freezes every three seconds and then replays.

The only thing that was clear was the figure's shape and face. Komi whispered the person's name as soon as he saw him.

"Conrad Coates..."

“Yes…” Komi was not surprised that he knew about Primarch Bennet, after all, this guy was a veteran who had fought in the Great Expedition and the Great Rebellion, it would be strange if he didn’t recognize him.

"This is an artifact I discovered at a midnight lords' gathering... We fought fiercely over it, and only the last survivor could take it away."

"So, the other Night Lords are pretty useless, they can't even defeat you."

“No, no, no…” Bennett shook his head, correcting Komi’s mistake. “There are many strong among them, but it is clear that they have forgotten the secret and dark creed of the Midnight Lords and have become as mindless and barbaric as other raiders. I used my strengths to the fullest and escaped the gathering with the Primarch’s treasures.”

"But this is just a fragment, it's useless. Are you trying to decipher these distorted words? To be honest, even the gurgling of Feren's intestines is easier to understand than this."

“Of course I know that… I just miss my Primarch.” Bennett’s face showed an unfamiliar vulnerability. This Night Lord had never met Coz, but instinctively had a fervent adoration for him.

Komi understood the Space Marines' Oedipus complex, but he simply shook his head to indicate that he did not miss Angron.

"why?"

"Perhaps the Corpse King let him down, but that's no excuse for him to let down the War Dogs. We fought for him to the deepest hell, but he treated us like trash."

Chapter 112: Keep the Dog

After a brief exchange, Bennett finally understood what Komi meant by "boredom."

It's not that he's thirsty for blood, nor does he want to cut off someone's head.

With nothing to do on the warship, they eventually ended up wandering around, observing how others whiled away the time.

He couldn't believe that this World Eater, who had recently carried out a massacre of the lower classes, had such a weak side. Suppressing the urge to laugh, he explained to Koken how he passed the boring time during the voyage.

“I like to paint on human skin,” Bennett said, showing his work in the room. He treats these human skins so that they won’t fade away with time.

Bennett's pigments were mostly blood-based, with occasional mixing of mineral powders to blend the colors.

The blood-stained paintings of human skin illustrate Bennett's worldview, and his extreme pessimism about the future and his ruthless cruelty towards the losers left a deep impression on Komi.

Is this a picture of Hela?

"Yes."

"Why didn't you draw Hela's armor plates? Her wiring is all exposed... And what's this little hole for? I've never seen it before." Komi asked in a strange tone, finally realizing how accurate Antoine's assessment of Bennett was.

Bennett looked a little embarrassed, coughed twice to indicate that it wasn't important, and then tried to change the subject by saying what others would do.

Before he lost his senses, Antoine's private life was probably the most colorful of them all.

His room was huge and luxurious, filled with his favorite luxury goods and all sorts of toys whose purpose he couldn't guess.

Once he got carried away with the game, the emperor's son couldn't care less about anything else. The only way to bring him back to his senses was to open the door, forcibly drag him off the soft bed, and shoot him in the thigh.

Ferren, on the other hand, liked to use his own filth to cultivate equally filthy plants; the entire corridor in front of his room became a home for stinking mushrooms and even more disgusting plants.

Sharon would stand on the bridge every day, always watching the ebb and flow of the warp tides with great interest, and loudly reciting the dark scriptures he had memorized countless times.

As for Komi... or rather, Markus.

He had no daily activities, only standing silently like a statue in the house, gazing at the portrait of Angron pieced together from armor fragments. The only words he could speak were blood and kill.

Bennett recalled their previous conversations.

"Hey Markus, do you want to come with us and kill a few Xenomorphs and the Zombie King's minions?"

"Blood?"

"Does this mean agreement or disagreement?"

"kill!"

The conversation didn't take up too much of their time. Komi looked at Bennett and complained that he didn't know what to do to kill the long and meaningless time during the voyage.

“Once we reach Shattered Steel Fortress, we can buy some slaves to bring up. The World Eater I served before enjoyed himself by hosting blood arenas; you could try it too.”

"All right..."

Bennett's advice was of no help to Komi. He sighed and waved his hand to indicate that he would not disturb Bennett and his Primarch's private time during the recording, or even their intimate contact with Hela.

"Let's go, Elaine."

His gaze fell on Elaine, and then the demon dog piqued Komi's interest.

Yeah... how could I forget you?

Komi took a few steps closer and grabbed the trembling demon dog. "Dog, how about we go back to our room and collect your reward?"

The demon dog dared not look up, nor answer Komi. He could sense that Komi was about to do something terrible to him.

Just then, Bennett called out to Komi.

"Brother Markus, what are you going to do with this demon?"

Komi thought for a moment, then replied, "Tear his head open, pull out his tongue, and taste it."

Elaine's eyes widened; she couldn't believe this demon looked like something to be eaten.

Bennett's hand froze in mid-air; the scales that had just tipped Komi toward normalcy plummeted toward madness.

However, besides madness, devouring demons has another terrifying possibility.

I need to talk to someone else about Komi's mental state...

Swallowing hard, Bennett suggested, "How about we leave this demon dog here?"

"Leave?"

“I once made a deal with a Thousand Sons Wizard who taught me a method to bind a demon. If you wish, I can lock the essence of this demon within a skull and animal hide.”

"You can do this kind of thing? Now Sharon's value in my eyes is going to drop another notch." Koji was quite surprised by Bennett's versatility and wide circle of friends. This Midnight Lord seemed to be living a pretty good life before joining this group of five.

"The magic isn't as powerful as you think. This method can only capture weak, ownerless demons. It's completely useless in combat and can only satisfy people's desire to collect things."

"Then you do it. This demon hound needs to pay the price for his sneak attack."

Bennett, a proud smile on his lips, took the demon hound from Komi's hands, recalling the method the Thousand-Character Wizard had taught him.

The demon dog shook its head at Bennett, pleading with him not to bind himself to the dreadful Komi.

Bennett's gaze was cold and cruel, conveying his meaning to the demon hound.

You helped this madman find my secret room, now you need to bear the consequences of my revenge.

After the howling, the demon dog was locked inside a skull and a blanket of animal hide by Bennett. The listless dog drooped in Komi's hands, not even daring to sob.

“I never knew demons…could have such rich emotions,” Elaine remarked.

"So what do you think a demon should look like?"

"Brutal, cunning, ruthless, and disregarding human life, this is how the scriptures of the state religion describe the enemy of darkness. They cannot be communicated with; only by utterly annihilating them in His name can they be dealt with."

"Part of it is correct."

"Is it partially correct?"

"It's right to treat human life like dirt. Their ruthlessness and cunning are yet to be determined, because demons also have moments of weakness, stupidity, and serious illness." Koji curled his lip, recalling the dark history of some demons in the Warhammer story, "Their fearlessness of death compared to humans is only due to their ability to constantly regenerate and condense in the Warp. If they encounter a powerful being who can truly kill them, these demons will only retreat far away."

"What's the other half of the problem? Is it that they can't communicate at all?"

"They won't be completely wiped out...at least most people can't wipe them out."

Seeing the confusion on Elaine's face, Komi decided to reveal more about the dark side of the world to her. After all, it wasn't exactly secret knowledge; it was just an objective law governing the operation of the subspace.

“Every thought in life, every flicker of the soul, will cause ripples in the warp, thus creating so-called demons. Take you for example, your past kindness and naivety, and your current confusion and bewilderment will all create warp demons, only differing in strength. And the more extreme the emotion, the more powerful the demon it can give birth to.”

Komi's seriousness frightened Elaine somewhat. She took the theories Komi told her as unquestionable truths and eventually realized that all the struggles the human empire had made against the warp and demons were in vain.

"So, the only way to eradicate demons is..."

“It means the extinction of all life.” Komi said the second half of the sentence for Elaine.

"But you also said that someone could completely eliminate those demons, right?"

"Yes."

"Can that one from Terra truly kill the demon?"

"can."

Komi's concise answer made Elaine want to subconsciously praise the Emperor's greatness and immortality, but she felt that doing so in front of a world-devourer who believed in the Blood God would be too offensive, so she simply bowed in gratitude for Komi's patient explanation.

Seeing Elaine's happy expression, Komi shook his head helplessly.

The Emperor can indeed kill demons, and if he were to launch a new expedition into the warp one day, it would only prove that the human species has already perished in this dark universe.

Elaine asked her one last question of the day, a question that revealed the pure and innocent side of her nature.

"If demons arise from the ebb and flow of emotions and the soul, is it possible for a good demon to be born who feels compassion and pity for all living beings?"

Komi thought about himself for a moment, then answered uncertainly, "Probably."

Chapter 113: A Sudden Thought

This was a secret meeting, and Komi was not invited to the bridge.

If Antoine's information is correct, Komi should be training the demon dog named Inuko right now, but Bennett thinks Komi is doing other things besides training.

For example, cut off the demon dog's tongue and continue to savor the original taste of the demon.

Bennett tells his hated and disgusted brothers about Komi's abnormality, the strangeness that permeates his mind and body.

At first, everyone thought Bennett was overreacting, but when he mentioned that Komi had bitten off the demon dog's tongue and swallowed it, even the usually strong-willed Ferren thought that Komi had indeed gone too far.

“Farren, can Space Marines really eat... demons?” Sharon asked Farren, the most corrupt of them all, hoping he could give him a reasonable explanation.

After a moment's hesitation, Feren squeezed the swollen intestines with his hand, and several long parasites were caught between his fingers and sucked into Feren's mouth like noodles.

Antoine tried to decipher Faerûn's actions, "Does this mean they're really edible? Can those demons be cooked?"