Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

The miller awoke from a terrifying nightmare, yelling and screaming, before Sharon's whip lashed out at him. "What are you yelling about! You damned bastard! Get back to work! Or I'll have to clean you up and serve you on the dinner table!"

The miller stared blankly at his own body for a long time before silently beginning his work.

Sharon, wielding a whip, and his engineering servants walked among the demons, their heads held high, wishing they could sprout two eyes from their nostrils.

Karaka and Zanis scorned Sharon, then a demon ripped from the Ominous Engine beside Zanis suggested to the two demons, "Now that so many demons have gathered here, we are fully capable of launching a major rebellion! Let's make this warship completely ours!"

The idea is good, but unfortunately there is a problem.

Karaka sighed, mocking the naivety of the new demon beside him. "It's no use. When we succumbed to that bastard who wanted to taste everything, a part of our essence was robbed... We're like dogs with crippled legs; the mere sight of that stick will send our legs trembling with fear."

"You're just scared!" the demon roared. "Karakka is one of the worst debt collectors! If I can complete this mission, I can definitely take your place! And I can settle a huge debt!"

Zanis remained silent, only tapping the scorching iron ingot.

"Zanis, what do you say? Join the rebellion! Slaughter every single person on the ship! Hang that Word Bearer named Sharon on the spikes of the Soul Forge!"

Zanis remained silent, his gaze fixed on the iron ingot in front of him, wondering why it was such an iron ingot.

"Alright, alright... I understand. You two debt collectors are useless! No wonder you're standing together. Since you're not joining us, you won't get a share of the spoils if our riot succeeds!"

He felt hatred for the two demons' weakness, and then with a burst of magic, he ripped an iron bar from the forging machine. Standing atop the machine, he shouted, "My fellow demons from the Soul Forge! We cannot simply submit to their commands! We are powerful demons! All things will surely bow before us!"

"Yes! That's right!"

It was a case of one call and a hundred responses; many newly recruited demons destroyed the production line in front of them, then grabbed whatever parts they could find and beat the machine servants around them.

Sharon remained calm, seemingly unfazed by the demons' uprising. He took a few steps back, sent a message to his superiors, and then, holding his whip, adopted a spectator's stance.

The demons who had been working for a while sighed, lamenting the simple truth that people can't teach you everything, but experience teaches you everything.

The next moment, a lightning-like roar exploded in the assembly line, and Komi, wearing Terminator power armor, was precisely teleported to this location.

He didn't even bring any weapons; he stood barefoot with his hands on his hips, his gaze sweeping over the rioting demon.

The gaze was as deadly as a heavy cannon, instantly calming the rioting demons. Some of the more timid demons even put down their weapons and began to smooth out the dents they had just made, putting on an innocent and honest appearance.

Karaka and Zanis looked at the fierce demon beside them and laughed, urging him to stop his earlier bravado and ask why he didn't dare to give that unarmed Komi a good whack.

The demon opened his mouth but couldn't speak, only becoming increasingly nervous.

"Who started the riot?" Komi asked softly. The demon instinctively wanted to say that he knew nothing, but Karaka and Zanis beside him were not friendly guys and directly pointed out that he was the culprit of the riot.

As Komi walked towards him step by step, the demon was caught between a rock and a hard place, unsure whether to cry or run away.

He didn't even feel that he had ever been so terrified of Vashtor himself...

Karaka once mentioned that when Koken defeated them and gave them a chance to live, he also plundered a part of their demonic nature.

In an uncontrollable tremor, the demon understood the true nature of this plunder:

It was his courage in facing Komi that completely devoured his emotional strength, forcing him to choose to fear Komi and submit to him.

Seeing the demon trembling violently before him, Komi asked again, "You started it, didn't you?"

The demon trembled and gritted his teeth as he showed Koji his last shred of dignity.

Seeing the demon nod, Koken didn't waste any more words.

He grabbed the demon by the neck and headed for the door, ignoring the demon's cries and wails.

A few minutes later, a large dining table was brought up by the servants. Komi sat in the main seat, opened the lid of the table and sprinkled some seasoning on the demon, mostly various spicy spores that he had collected while fighting orcs.

Amid Komi's chewing and commentary, the demons worked even harder.

Chapter 164: Where did the food I ate go?

"So what exactly does a demon taste like?" Demas asked Komi from the side.

When there's nothing to do, Komi would sit on the ship's throne and watch everyone busy in front of him. Noticing Komi's loneliness, Demas would also spare some time to chat with him.

Komi tapped the armrest of the throne with his fingers, the gilding on it already worn shallow dents from his tapping.

"To be honest, that kind of taste, whatever it looks like at first glance, that's pretty much what it tastes like."

Komi's answer was rather vague, but Demas didn't think it was just a perfunctory response. He simply asked again, "For example, does a bright red one taste spicy? Does an orange one taste like citrus?"

"almost."

"So what is spicy? What is an orange? Are these alien creations you encountered during your Great Expedition?"

Koji was taken aback, instinctively thinking that Demas was teasing him.

When his gaze fell upon Demas's ornate sarcophagus, he immediately understood.

So much time has passed, and one devastating war after another has broken out.

Many species have long since become extinct or mutated.

Many words have been lost in the graveyard of civilization, and their meanings are no longer so clear.

"Spicy and orange... those are products of ancient Terra... before the Great Crusade, before the Great Unification, and even before the Dark Ages of human technology. How much of them still exist today... is truly impossible to say."

Komi's reflections inspired Demas. They lived in a turbulent and dark era, and many people longed for the most glorious time in human history. The secrets before that glory were all the more precious.

As they chatted, Demas asked again why the demons were so obedient to Gu Jian's words.

You should know that in the Shattered Steel Fortress, Demas and his Iron Warriors used every trick in the book to keep the demons obediently working in the machines.

Koji only defeated these demons, breaking off a few of their arms and legs and tasting them a few times. These demons were terrified, like mice before a cat, and didn't dare to breathe loudly in front of Koji.

Koji thought for a moment, then recalled the time when he fought in the Red Mining World. He became more and more ferocious as he killed, and no enemy dared to look at him in the mountains of corpses and seas of blood. At that time, Mi Yang said that Koji had scared them to death.

Now that he's connected with these demons, Komi senses something unusual.

It's true that I eat demons, but I feel nothing when I eat them, they just add a little flavor to my mouth. It would be an exaggeration to say that I eat seasoning.

The essence of a demon, formed from soul and emotion, is something that a mortal body cannot digest. If it were to digest it, flesh and blood would become entangled with the demon.

Komi examined himself thoroughly and found that apart from the terrible scars left by past battles, there was not a trace of mutation or corruption on his body. Even the cleanest steel warrior could not compare to Komi.

Others don't have Komi's resistance; even with the Geller Sphere open, the corruption of the warp will still seep in continuously.

Some in the Imperium may wonder why the Chaos Enemy would need to protect itself using the Geller Sphere; this is because they lack a proper understanding of the Warp.

You've become familiar with the demons in Area A, but the demons in Area B don't care who you are.

They said they'd jump up and start doing something, and then they did.

However, the entire Fifth Walker ship was devoid of the pure humans that the Empire of Man believed in. The upper decks were inhabited only by Space Marines whose armor was clean but whose bodies had undergone various mutations, while the lower decks were entirely occupied by mutants and Beastmen.

The moral compass of these mutants and beastmen is beyond redemption. Their bloody rituals make Komi deeply uncomfortable. Many strangely shaped men and women with noses and mouths in the wrong places hold a birthing convention. Warp energy flows into their bodies, distorting the form of new life.

Then, less than ten seconds later, the baby was born with amniotic fluid. These mutants did not care for the firstborn. Instead, they used a dagger to cut open the chest cavity and let Koken admire the chaotic mess inside, which resembled liquid internal organs.

It is euphemistically called: "To see loyalty by dissecting one's heart."

Komi is difficult to evaluate, but he is powerless to save these inhuman beings who are inextricably intertwined with the warp.

A few days ago, Ferren led a team to the lower decks of the battleship to wipe out the strange beliefs of those mutant tribes. After returning, he became corrupted, and his feet grew to enormous sizes. Many of the warriors who went with him to cleanse the area also had other mutations.

Perhaps because his unusually large toes were much better than his previous intestinal perforation and rotten belly, Feren was still smiling happily. When cutting away the decayed parts on the medical table, he could even point to other people's decayed parts and name them. He even stopped the Iron Warrior Pharmacist from cutting off his seventh little toe. Feren believed that this was his lucky charm.

If corruption can occur simply from slaying demons, what about eating demon flesh and blood?

They might become enchanted warriors that very night, with two souls vying for control of the body.

This demonic essence was neither absorbed by itself nor flowed back into these demons.

So where did they go?

At that moment, the ancient coin around his neck flashed for a moment, charging up and reminding Komi that he was not a completely free being, and that there was an unseen being influencing the direction of Komi's actions in His own way.

Every meal... can't all be a sacrifice to the fifth god, can it?

These demons were native to the Warp, so they must have been able to sense that Komi was not ordinary. Rather than saying they were afraid of Komi himself, Komi felt that they were more in awe of something behind him.

Komi replies in a different way, “These demons aren’t anything special, they’re all cowardly wimps… There’s a saying among us Devourers.” Komi says, “When you get their ball, you control their minds.”

Demas wholeheartedly agreed, believing that holding the devils' weaknesses was one way to control them. As for how Komi managed to seize these devils' weaknesses, he didn't ask any further questions.

Did you just say "devourer"?

Do you think this is inappropriate?

"Hahaha... You have a quirky sense of humor. Next time we meet, I'll call you Honso Hand Silver too."

"So what do you think of the Iron Coward?"

"Ahem... let's forget about it."

"What are you grabbing?" Their conversation was interrupted when Antoine appeared from behind the throne of Komi, flipped over and landed on Komi's lap, his hands naturally wrapping around Komi's shoulders.

Antoine tossed his long, silvery-white hair, increasingly able to discern Komi's emotions, and grinned at her, "Can you grab mine? Or should I grab you..."

Before he could finish speaking, Demas used his mechanical tentacles to grab Antoine from Komi's legs and expertly locked him in the solitary confinement cell prepared for him.

"How many days?" Demas asked.

Komi covered his face with his hands, looking quite helpless. "Let him out when he started self-harming."

Komi smiled awkwardly. After chatting with him for a long time, Demas finally asked another question that he was very curious about.

"Why weren't you affected by the magic when you fought the Demon Lord of Myriad Transformations that day? Could it be that the Blood God granted you the gift of resisting magic?"

"You mean that sensory bomb?"

"Yes."

Komi, recalling the battle not long ago, almost blurted out:

I don't understand.

Koji held back, feeling there was no need to tell Demas so much truth, and instead went along with Demas's meaning to imply that he received a portion of the Blood God's blessing.

Explaining everything completely diminishes the sense of mystery.

But not understanding it... that is indeed a question worth pondering.

Komi looked down at his hands, which, to put it bluntly, belonged to Marcus, not him.

The Komi Saint of Red's world was not himself, but a dark-skinned miner from the Lower Nest.

Neither of his two bodies belonged to him; only his soul was something Koken could be certain of. Although he had devoured and merged the souls of the miner and Markus, he still firmly held control in his own hands.