Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

A heavy slash came impatiently towards Komi, and the bloodthirsty maniac's scarlet eyes could already see the beautiful scene of Komi split in two and blood splattered all over the ground.

However, Gu Jian deliberately revealed such an opening, and he immediately faced the attack of this bloodthirsty demon without blocking it.

boom!

The ancient coin's energy was depleted once, and a powerful, inexplicable force swept away the Bloodthirsty Demon. Taking advantage of his surprise, Gu Jian also leaped up, grabbed the Bloodthirsty Demon by the neck, flipped him over, and smashed the back of his head, which was covered with hideous black horns, with a heavy punch.

His mind was held in his hand, controlling the bloodthirsty maniac's actions like a tether.

No one needs to teach this bloodthirsty maniac how to make him do things according to his own ideas. Koken just follows his intuition, pinching and squeezing his brain.

The bloodthirsty berserker roared in agony, unable to break free from Komi's control, and could only unleash his fury on his teammates with his two one-handed axes.

The controlled bloodthirsty demon didn't have such agile movements, and Komi's brutal methods severely injured his great demon in just three rounds. His heavy breathing revealed that the great demon was about to collapse at any moment.

The great demon's head fell to the ground, and another blade tore through the blood-red skin and hard bones as Komi rode on its back.

In a moment of desperation, Komi rolled backwards and landed to the side, where he was then relentlessly pursued by another bloodthirsty madman.

Knowing there was no way to avoid it, they had no choice but to rely on the power of the ancient coins once again.

boom!

A flash of light rippled outwards, carrying the bloodthirsty demon's slashes. Koji quickly rose to his feet and, taking advantage of the demon's brief moment of distraction, punched him in the knee. The demon crashed to the ground, its head lolling out from Koji's grasp.

The buzzing power sword pierced the demon's throat, and Komi even had to insert half of his hand before finally piercing his head diagonally with the power sword.

Another great demon fell at Komi's hands, but this victory only made Komi's mood heavier. Without the protection of the ancient coin, he couldn't even imagine how he could fight the remaining three bloodthirsty demons full of fighting spirit.

With a loud crack, the arm that had gone too far in order to kill the bloodthirsty monster was severed. It was only because Komi dodged quickly that the blow was severed; otherwise, it would have definitely split him in two.

Fortunately, it was the mechanical arm that Demas made for Komi that was lost, not the original arm that was more flexible and faster to use.

Komi was panting heavily. His achievement of slaying five bloodthirsty berserkers in a row was enough to make him proud, but for Khorne, who had been watching the battle, Komi needed to do more if he wanted to gain His favor.

They are just the lowest-ranked bloodthirsty monsters. If the top eight bloodthirsty monsters were to fight, those slaughterers whose very names could instill fear and death in mortals would easily defeat all the demons present.

Come on, Markus!

Let me see if you live up to my expectations of you!

Khorne chuckled softly, the deep laughter echoing down from the sky above the Boneblood Forest, filled with flames and smoke. This complex laugh, tinged with admiration and coldness towards the defeated, reached Sharon's ears as he worked up a sweat.

Seeing Komi showing signs of exhaustion under the attacks of the remaining three bloodthirsty demons, Sharon realized that he had to find a way to break the curse with the giant double-edged axe in front of him.

Only in this way will their trip have been worthwhile.

If they choose to retreat, regardless of whether it will be easy or not, the defenses here will be even more formidable next time. Even with Vashtor leading the way, they will never be able to bypass the millions of demons on the outermost edge of the forest.

Think quickly, Sharon! Isn't the dark knowledge you've acquired enough to break this damned curse?

Sharon cursed inwardly, then everything went black before his eyes. Time seemed to stand still, and only his thoughts and the uninvited guest that had abruptly entered his soul could move.

“You are…” Sharon’s eyes widened. Of course he knew who this dark blue demon was. He was the scribe who told them to break the spell of the Eternal Demon Lord when the Steel Fortress was shattered.

Perhaps we shouldn't call him Secretary anymore; we should call him Half-Faced Demon Lord.

The scribe was clearly caught between low-level and high-level demons, and to advance further, he needed to make the Lord of Fate smile with satisfaction at his schemes and plans.

"Shalang...why are you looking at me so warily?" The clerk chuckled, his seemingly harmless face revealing a sinister undercurrent of malice. "I'm here to help you, just like I told you how to leave when we were in Broken Steel Fortress last time."

"No!" Sharon screamed, "I will never ask you for a way to break the curse! I will rely on my own strength!"

"With your own strength?" The scribe shook his head at Sharon's naivety. "Your strength is not enough to decipher the Blood Lord's weapon."

The clerk paused for a moment, swallowing back the next sentence he was about to say.

Your power is nothing but a joke cast by our Lord. The fact that you have survived until now is simply because our Lord wants you to bring Him more variables and fun.

Seeing Sharon's lips drooping due to his lack of confidence, the scribe spoke with unusual bluntness, "Give up your obsession with so-called brotherhood. They only want to kill you after the curse is lifted, not keep you in their group... You know that yourself."

"No...no, it can't be." Sharon's face paled slightly. In the scribe's whisper, he thought of the cruel methods of execution that Bennet knew. He would weep bitterly under the Midnight Lord's torture!

“They will, Sharon.” The scribe’s face grew increasingly grim, his figure almost merging with the deep darkness of Sharon’s soul. “Forget your brothers. Bennett, Antoine, and Fauren were merely minor figures on your pilgrimage, not worth your much emotion. And that Markus is nothing but a living corpse controlled by the Butcher’s Nail; all his kindness towards you is just a lie uttered in a daze.”

Sharon closed his eyes, and the scribe, seeing this, looked more anxious. He walked over to Sharon and continued to tempt him, "Use their blood to forge your new life! Your pilgrimage has only just begun! If you agree, I will immediately tell you how to break the curse."

Seeing Sharon nod heavily, the clerk's smile almost twisted into a grimace, and the boundary between his advancement to the Myriad Transformations Demon Lord became somewhat blurred.

Chapter 192: I'd rather die than surrender to Chaos

“I know how to break the curse.” Sharon opened his eyes, his gaze dark and unfathomable beneath the stench of blood. Bennett, Ferren, and Antoine didn’t show much surprise on their faces; they simply hoped that Sharon’s method would actually work.

Under suspicious gazes, Sharon collected the blood of the crowd and began to draw a magic circle on the huge double-edged axe. Under the constraint of Sharon's magic circle, the axe gradually shrank until it was a size that the Space Marines could easily use.

Gazing at the intricate magic array on the axe, and at Komi, whose head had been nearly chopped off by the bloodthirsty demon, Sharon was filled with hesitation. He simply couldn't bring himself to betray everyone's expectations at this moment.

Marcus... Marcus promised... He's not the kind of person who would betray you after you've served your purpose.

Sharon tried to convince himself of this, but the scribe's shadow whispered seductively in his ear, "Can you trust Marcus's words? He's the World Eater! A bloodthirsty madman! He spared your life only because of the curse! He despises the weak! He despises the trash! You know that. Either they die! Or you die!"

Sharon's unusual behavior went unnoticed by the others. They didn't know what exactly psychic magic required, so they simply thought that Sharon's silence was just the final touch to complete the spell.

Sharon's memories of his life in the Losers' Gang flashed before his eyes. The threats from Bennett and Antoine, and the silly chuckles of Ferren, all became indistinct. In the end, only the figure of Komi remained in Sharon's mind.

“Go and manage those demons,” Komi said, with a demon nearly strangled under each arm.

Sharon pointed to himself, saying with great insecurity, "Me? How could I possibly do this... I can't do anything right. What if these demons go out of control?"

“Listen, Sharon, you’re not such a failure. You’ve accomplished something.” Komi said in a deep voice. Sharon’s heart first felt a little hopeful, but then turned into a sigh as he replied.

"But my achievements always seem to lead us to worse outcomes..."

"It's better than death. There's still a glimmer of hope while we're alive, but once we're dead, there's nothing left. Your deal with those demons did cause us some trouble. For example, Antoine lost his senses, and after the Battle of Shattered Steel Fortress, we were targeted by the demons of Vashtor. But your actions weren't entirely without merit. The Infinity Gate you opened allowed me to escape the war-torn grounds of Shattered Steel Fortress and flee the pursuit of Honso and the other warbands."

In a daze, Sharon felt Komi place his hand on his shoulder. The strong hands, along with the gentle words, warmed Sharon's heart, which was riddled with holes from all the unexpected blows.

"You will do your best to complete the tasks I assign you, even if they differ from my expectations. Compared to helpless failure, your achievements will be the envy of many."

"Really?"

"real."

“Oh...Marcus...you..."

"If you follow in Antoine's footsteps and become a bastard, don't blame me for slapping you."

Sharon blinked, and the illusion vanished. He shuddered, and the double-edged axe in his hand felt incredibly heavy.

His breathing became increasingly rapid, which made the clerk, who was prostrate in the shadow of his soul, uneasy.

"What are you hesitating for? Recite the incantation! Sacrifice Markus and Bennett!"

Sharon replied coldly, "I can sacrifice Bennett, Antoine, and Fauren without hesitation, but I cannot betray Marcus's expectations of me! We have a victory to win!"

The clerk was bewildered by Sharon's inexplicable steadfastness. In a fit of rage, he forcibly took over Sharon's body, preparing to wipe away the soul array on the axe with his fingers.

"No! I will not continue to fail! Never!" Sharon gritted his teeth, the struggle of his soul making his face contorted and his eyes bulging. However, this effort was still not enough to wrest control of his body from the scribe's hands. He could only barely throw the axe out and shout at Komi.

"Marcus! Catch this axe! Sacrifice the soul I've conjured within it! Only when one dies by this axe will the curse be broken!"

"What?" Sharon's roar was not even close to reaching Komi's ears; the roars of the bloodthirsty demons chasing him were far louder than that shout.

In this critical moment, Gu Jian only felt a dangerous gust of wind rushing towards him. When he hurriedly turned his head, he found that the axe was already spinning and approaching his face.

Wor... Sharon you...

In a split second, Koken could only slightly shift his body, trying to prevent the flying axe from hitting him directly in the face.

However, this dodging was useless; the vile curse, like a magnet, pulled the axe toward Komi.

"Treachery..." Khorne snorted coldly upon seeing this. He absolutely could not tolerate the involvement of ugly conspiracies in a battle. His gaze sharpened and fell directly on the scribe who was fighting with Sharon for control of his body.

With just one act of contempt, the scribe vanished in terror, while Sharon, because of his loyalty to Komi, was barely tolerated by Khorne for his failure.

Incompetence is certainly hateful, but incompetence combined with disloyalty is even more hateful!

On this point, Khorne and the Emperor shared the same view.

The scribe's utter demise did not elicit any pity or mourning from Tzeentch himself; only a few laughs, finding Khorne's actions childish and amusing, echoed from the depths of the crystal-clear labyrinth.

Khorne grew increasingly impatient, fully aware of how disgusting Tzeentch's move was to Him, both on and off.

If we don't help, we'll just watch a powerful warrior be dragged down by a vicious curse.

If you help, that bastard Tzeentch will start yelling again: "Hey~ why are you being so petty with our little devil? Are you getting impatient?"

That damned Tzeentch... he always finds these childish ways to annoy Him.

Although the gods are indifferent to the life and death of their subjects, Tzeentch is clearly far more indifferent in this respect than they are, perfectly illustrating that Tzeentch is the absolute opposite of Nurgle, the all-encompassing and benevolent father.

The gods would at least find a reason to renounce their blessings, such as a warrior's cowardly act that disappointed Khorne, or a dancer's inability to provide Slaanesh with any more novelty or pleasure...

And what about Jianqi?

Even after fighting and battling with Him for so long in the Warp, Khorne still couldn't understand what standards Tzeentch had for abandoning his subordinates; at times, He was even more capricious than the young Slaanesh.

Khorne's gaze grew increasingly sinister. He so desperately wanted Tzeentch to feel the pain of being toyed with, wishing he could just call back all the demonic armies blocking the Terra throne to attack Tzeentch's Crystal Labyrinth.

In the sawmill, Koken was so frightened by the axe that his breath caught in his throat. He was genuinely afraid that Sharon's excessively strange bad luck would cause the axe to blow his head off. But the axe stopped flying in mid-air and then suddenly fell to the ground.

The curse can only be broken by sacrificing the soul of one person?

So who deserves to die the most?

Komi grabbed the double-edged axe, and sure enough, the moment he touched it, he felt the souls of Sharon, Bennett, Antoine, Ferren, and others wrap around it and turn into a small human figure.

Sharon, who had regained his body, was somewhat pale. The eerie blue dust from the scribe's corpse flowed from his face. Sharon faced possible death without fear, but simply gripped the Chaotic Eight-Pointed Star Holy Talisman tightly with both hands to make his death more dignified.

Komi didn't have a good opinion of Sharon.

He did say some words of comfort and encouragement to Sharon, but that was only done casually because of the curse. He never took this Word Bearer, whose psychic powers were extremely unstable, seriously.

He naturally thought that once the curse was lifted, he would either chop Sharon up or find a reason to kick him to another gang; he definitely couldn't keep him working for him.

But when he saw Sharon break free from the control of a Tzeentch demon and calmly prepare to break the curse with his own death, Komi hesitated.

He could clearly see from the stories in many books how terrifying the perseverance and tenacity required to resist the control of a demon was. Even though Sharon was somewhat useless in battle, his unwavering loyalty improved Komi's opinion of him considerably.

Since this is what you want, then Sharon, I will grant your request!

Death is not the end of the story! If I have the chance, I will definitely find your soul!

Koji made a vow in his heart, and without much hesitation, he wiped away Sharon's soul image. Sharon trembled, and his soulless body fell to the ground without a sound.

The curse of sharing life and death was thus broken. The curse exploded and expanded deep within his soul, forcefully repelling the bloodthirsty demons that attempted to charge. This divine power belonging to Tzeentch made it difficult for the three bloodthirsty demons to open their eyes in the storm formed by the curse.