Warhammer: Empire Reboot

"You useless slug!"

The greenskins did not give up the search; they patrolled the nearby area, with the roars of the orc boys and the sharp curses of the fart spirits echoing in the distance.

Lawson and the others waited in silence.

The wreckage of the shuttle blocked out most of the sound and light, leaving the interior pitch black. Only a faint ray of light seeped in through the cracks in the deformed bulkhead, barely outlining the blurry silhouettes of a few people.

Then, Lawson sensed something was wrong.

It was as if something was staring directly at him through the metal wall.

"Hehehehehehe..."

A high-pitched laugh seeped out from the left side of the shuttle.

Lawson's pupils suddenly contracted.

On the left bulkhead, a face is slowly emerging from beneath the metal surface.

It was an ugly face, about the size of a fist.

Two disproportionately large eyes, with cloudy orange-yellow irises and pupils that are vertically slits like a cat's.

His mouth stretched to the sides, revealing several rows of small, sharp teeth.

It has two curved little horns on its head, the left one being shorter than the right one, as if it had been gnawed off by something.

Little devil.

The lowest-ranking demonic entity in the warp, classified as a "Secondary Unindividual Malicious Being" in the Imperial Inquisition archives. If orthodox demons are sharks in the warp abyss, these things are parasites clinging to their skin.

But parasites also have teeth.

For ordinary humans, even the weakest little devil is enough to corrupt the mind and destroy the soul.

The Great Rift tore apart the barrier between reality and the warp, and this wrecked ship had been submerged in the warp for centuries. The material structure was permeated to its limit, and for a low-level entity like an imp, passing through this severely softened interface was like a fish poking its head out of the water.

"Poor little bug, shivering in here?" The first face on the bulkhead cackled.

Immediately afterwards, a second face appeared on the bulkhead less than an arm's length away on the right.

This one is uglier than the first one.

Its left eye was blind, and its eye socket was filled with some kind of wriggling, dark red parasite. Half of its lip had been bitten off, revealing its jagged teeth and a piece of blackened tongue underneath.

"Hehehe... Six little mice, hiding in a tin can."

The one-eyed little devil let out a sickening laugh: "There are so many big green cats outside looking for you. If I call out, they'll all come running..."

"You will die here."

The first little devil licked its lips: "I can smell the fear in your souls, sweet and sticky... Feed me more before you die!"

Chapter 12, is it really about killing?

Lawson stared expressionlessly at the two ghost faces on the bulkhead.

Numbers 1 through 5 simultaneously tightened their grip on the Fang of Katachon.

Lawson chuckled softly: "The only thing I'm afraid of is the mushroom soup made by the mess sergeants of Katachon."

"But the two of you are not even as good as mushroom soup."

The two little devils were both stunned for a moment.

The first little devil let out an even more piercing laugh.

"You'll cry."

"All humans eventually weep. We've seen it too many times—Imperial generals, inquisitors, even Space Marines—weep in the darkness of the Warp. Your mortal souls are too fragile, like paper, torn to shreds..."

“Do you know what your biggest problem is?” Lawson asked.

The two little devils tilted their heads curiously.

"Talks too much."

Suddenly, Lawson burst forth, swiftly thrusting the Fang of Katachon into the first lesser demon on the left bulkhead.

Little devils can peek out from the walls, but that doesn't mean they can always retreat back in.

Projecting entities from subspace into real space requires anchor points; the part of their bodies that protrudes is temporarily fixed to the real space side.

To retract, a very brief unanchoring process is required.

Lawson made his move before the process was complete.

The tip of Katachon's Fang pierced that ugly face with pinpoint accuracy.

The blade cut into its left eye socket and pierced through its entire skull.

At the same time, Lawson suddenly stretched out his left hand to the other side.

In the narrow cabin, less than a meter and a half wide, he used his size advantage to instantly grab the neck of the one-eyed little devil on his right, who was sticking out from the cabin wall.

The one-eyed imp clearly hadn't anticipated that this mortal would take the initiative to attack when facing two warp entities; it focused all its energy on manipulating the other's emotions.

The moment Lawson's fingers gripped its neck, it was horrified to find itself being forcibly pulled out of the bulkhead.

"Ho!"

The one-eyed imp's entire body was violently pulled out of that blurry material interface.

Its complete form was exposed in the real world.

A hideous little creature, about forty centimeters tall, covered with a layer of dark purple skin similar to the membrane of a bat's wing, with two vestigial small wings on its back, and a long tail that forked into two pieces at the end, twitching and writhing wildly in the air.

[A secondary warp entity (imp) has been physically destroyed.]

The soul energy has been intercepted and purified.

[Subspace Energy +1.]

That was the settlement from the little devil on the left bulkhead who had been pierced by Katachon's Fang.

Lawson's pupils contracted slightly.

Subspace energy.

This was a type of resource he had never seen before.

But he can't afford to study that for the time being.

Because he was holding a struggling little devil in his left hand.

The one-eyed imp was writhing violently, its tail wrapped around Lawson's wrist, its tiny fangs constantly biting at Lawson's fingers, but this level of attack was no different from being bitten by a few mosquitoes.

After its initial shock, the one-eyed imp grinned, revealing a malicious smile.

"Hehehe... you idiot!"

"You think killing my comrade is something to be proud of? You think you've hurt us?"

“We are the offspring of the Warp! Killing us is merely sending us back home! In a few days, we will reassemble and return! We are immortal, insects! This is something you pathetic mortals will never understand. When you die, you are dead, turned to dust, your souls torn apart by the storms of the Warp, and nothing remains! But we will return! Again and again and again!”

It let out a burst of maniacal laughter.

"So what if you choke me? Even if you tear me to pieces, I'll just reappear in some wall soon enough, watching you cry, watching you bleed, watching you die."

The one-eyed little devil's laughter stopped abruptly.

It suddenly noticed something.

When a demon is killed in the real world, its materialized body will decompose into a surging mass of warp energy within seconds. These remnants will flow back into the chasm between the real world and the warp, returning to that chaotic abyss.

But nothing was left on the left bulkhead.

Clean and tidy.

It was as if its companions had never existed.

The one-eyed little devil's smile faded from its face at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Where...where did it go?"

"It should be returning to the subspace, it should be re-coalescing, I should be able to sense its presence..."

The dark red parasites in its eye sockets wriggled wildly, as if they could sense the host's terror.

Why can't I feel it anymore?

It suddenly looked into Lawson's eyes.

What did you do to it?

Lawson did not answer.

Because he himself didn't fully understand how the system did this.

However, judging from the wording of the system prompt, "the soul energy has been intercepted and purified."

The essence of that little devil, its soul core, which should theoretically return to the warp after its physical body is destroyed, was intercepted by the system.

It is a true annihilation.

There will be no reunification, no return.

In this universe where souls are immortal and demons are eternal, this kind of death is more terrifying than death itself.

The one-eyed little devil was finally scared.

What exactly are you?

Lawson stared at it coldly: "I'm the one asking the question, not you."

“Tell me your real name.”

A demon's true name is a symbolic expression of its essential existence. Knowing a demon's true name means having a certain degree of control over it. This is what Imperial Witchers and Grey Knights pursue at all costs, and it is a secret that no demon would rather die than reveal.

The one-eyed little devil's expression changed.

Even under the extreme fear of being choked and having his companions truly wiped out, the little devil's nature remained unchanged.