Warhammer: Start with a dog

Chapter 636 Under the Magma

Dantioch didn't quite understand.

Firstly, why such an important operation, led by the Primarch himself, would unfold in this way.

This was quite different from any of the imagined battle scenes of glory and great sacrifice that he had prepared for.

This is so...

Well, that was perhaps a little too much like their other cousins, whose secret, little-known fighting styles and stories he had heard about.

Night Lords, Raven Guard... maybe, Alpha?

Such a way of fighting was neither noble nor honorable in the Olympian tradition.

Even Barabas Dantioch, who is considered a flexible and capable warrior among the Iron Warriors, would not be willing to give up direct combat, sneak around various surveillance posts and sentries, and burrow into the ground like a rat. Of course, using vehicles and legionnaires to dig a tunnel filled with explosives that can blow up everyone in the city is another matter.

——But now.

From this day forward, this way of fighting must, must, and will have an honorable place in the Olympian tradition.

Dantioch glanced at Soltan who was leading the way for them in the front.

——And beside Thor Tarn, the Primarch, the Supreme Tyrant of Olympia, the Master of the Iron Warriors Legion, the King and father, the Fourth Son of the Emperor of the Imperium of Man. The great demigod now had a strangely sincere smile on his face illuminated by the red light of the magma shining through the black glass-like walls. He was watching with interest as Thor Tarn opened a path for their team of three at the bottom of the molten magma lake with solidified obsidian crystals as walls and floors.

The second question is, why didn't the Primarch choose those who were younger in body, whose combat experience and skills were equal to or even stronger than his to accompany him to carry out the plan?

...And the power displayed by Soltan is the third question.

Dantioch kept pace with the Primarch and Thortann, while thinking deeply.

He temporarily brought his thoughts back to a few days ago.

—————————

As Flex, who never prayed, looked at him with an expression that seemed to be begging for the blessing of a non-existent god.

The Primarch boarded the specially made Stormbird that had been prepared with only two people.

Brown clouds rolled in the pink sky, and storms were brewing in them. From time to time, huge bright lightning flashed across the sky, and its branches were densely packed like giant trees across half the continent. Acidic rain rich in corrosive components and various small molecules kept falling all over the world. But even so, it could not extinguish the thick black smoke and magma from the folds, faults, and uplifts caused by the unstable crustal plates moving on the turbulent mantle.

The gray-black ground here is all formed by condensed magma. The entire planet is barren and there is no sign of any native life. Even the original ponds are still in an unstable state.

Moreover, the war blacksmiths keenly noticed that when their wings flew low over the ground, the shapes of many huge rocks were not randomly grown natural forms, but were almost abnormal spherical, spiral, stepped and square shapes. The rapid artificial cooling gave them unique large structures, but they were undoubtedly only recently transformed from magma to a solidified solid state, and the acid rain did not even have time to wash out more water erosion stripes on them.

There are not many warships patrolling above the clouds here now, and it is not as difficult as they imagined to bypass them.

Because according to the Primarch, the chaotic magnetic field and high-energy particle storms of this newborn galaxy would disrupt navigation and other communications, which is why the coordinates here were originally unavailable - the usual exploration fleets and colonization fleets would never come to this damn place, it is too new and would not be a normal target world.

"But I think this place is full of the sense of convenience for destroying the bodies afterwards or even during the incident. - A new world, you can't escape without special navigation, and the main venue is inside a giant crater full of magma - to be honest, I really can't think of any place more suitable than this place to deal with disobedient offspring."

The ominous meaning in these words and the understatement of the death of a Primarch once again reminded Dantioch that their Gene-Father, whose condition seemed to have not deteriorated much in the past year, was actually not getting better at all - even though the Pharmacy Department tried its best to treat him secretly.

Worry crept up on his brow: if anything happened, there was no doubt that he would use his life to protect the safety of the Primarch, but after seeing the dangers of this place, Dantioch's thoughts became less optimistic: how many seconds could his flesh and blood and armor withstand the primordial natural force composed of tens of millions of tons of magma and basalt?

When they landed near the giant crater thousands of meters high on the planet, which was undoubtedly their destination and surrounded by large-scale environmental stabilization machinery and other equipment of the Mechanicum, and began to "walk down" directly on the spot, the strong stench of sulfur, hydrogen sulfide and other toxic chemical gases was so strong that it could be faintly smelled even through the breathing masks of the power armor. At this time, Dantioch once again realized with horror why the Primarch had asked them to focus on modifying certain aspects of their power armor systems before setting off.

Although the Primarch had never shown his power in this regard before, assuming that their father had gained some extra abilities due to illness and deduced the details of what was about to happen, why was his attitude towards these events so strange? Even if the Fourth Legion might not be a welcome guest in the Imperial Court, as a legion and its master with a decisive influence on the war situation, could the Primarch still use his foresight to buy more time and opportunities for himself and the Iron Warriors? The Primarch always said, "It seems that if we don't go to Ullanor, the big thing that the First Sagittarius wants to do in thirty years will be accomplished" and "There is no time"... When that thing comes, what kind of scene will it be that will make the whole galaxy look sideways?

At this moment, Soltan, who had been striding forward with his eyes slightly closed as if he could see, suddenly stopped and made a few gestures to them.

The Warsmith's attention immediately returned to the current situation.

Dantioch knew what these gestures meant. They indicated that there was a suspicious situation ahead and he needed more time to determine it before deciding whether to move forward or bypass it.

But it was obvious that this time Soltan took longer than before.

"What's wrong? Is there trouble ahead? Is the Mechanicus conducting in-depth environmental stabilization again?"

The voice of the Gene-Father sounded in the internal channel, reminding Dantioch of the spring flowing from the snow-capped Mount Olympia. It was incredible. Although he was so crazy, so crazy that he planned to face his irresistible father and his father's entire empire, this voice was calmer and more rational than anything the War Blacksmith had heard before, and there was a strangely soothing laziness, as if he would not care even if the nine-thousand-meter-high Holy Mountain Trafax collapsed in front of him.

"No, sir." Soltarn frowned, and the young sergeant now pressed his entire body against the wall at the front end of the obsidian tunnel they were in, as if this would increase his ability to sense the other side. "This noise... doesn't seem to be a large environmental control device of the Mechanicus. But they are all warning me not to get too close. Please allow me...?"

Who are they?

A question naturally came to Dantioch's mind, but he remained silent wisely.

"I grant you permission."

Thortan vo Bron's skin was not as pale as the other sons of Perturabo. Now, his dark yellow skin reflected the bright red light of the magma, looking almost light orange, and his hair was lighter than black - in other words, he looked like he was painted with an earth-tone palette, except for the pair of light blue eyes inherited from the gene sequence of the Lord of Iron, which were like two clear springs on the land.

Now, this warrior who had undergone a year of mysterious special training unknown to anyone had been given permission to remove the shackles bestowed upon him by the flesh in this environment where only the Primarch and another brother were present, and to display more of his talents.

It's windy.

But this is thousands of meters underground in a giant crater. Where does the wind come from?

No, it's not exactly wind... It's more like... a wind-like side effect of the movement of indescribable matter...

It's like the matter that makes up this place... something smaller... something more ethereal and yet solid...

"I can hear it clearly this time." Soltan spoke, but it was as if he had not spoken a word. The entire tunnel in the magma seemed to be speaking his voice with a slight resonance and echo.

But it wasn't because of this that Dantioch's eyes widened.

...Does Soltarn now look more like... a statue made of rock and earth...?

The "statue" suddenly opened its eyes, and its pale blue pupils, similar to those of Dantioch, looked at him, then separated from him in an instant.

The warsmith thought he saw something bright golden-red flash across the depths of Thortarn's pupils, but it could simply be the reflection of the same color of magma from outside the obsidian glass tunnel.

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"What's ahead?"

"It is a group of rooms and corridors that have been excavated...or a group of halls. They are obviously two functional areas with the theater that is almost completed inside the crater outside."

"Can't you take us through and restore it? Oh, wait, is it because the walls there are also translucent like ours, so we will be discovered if we get too close?"

"No, it doesn't matter, my Lord. It's not a problem when no one is around. I can even lead us through and restore the walls of the room. No one would have thought that we could walk freely in the magma without any additional machinery. They used a lot of luxurious resources, humans and mechanical equipment to solidify thick enough magma to form a temporary cave for this meeting, but I don't need that much."

"Then why did you stop, so hesitant?"

"Our next direction is entirely up to you, my lord."

"So." The Iron Lord's face was reflected by the fiery red light of the magma into the color of the sunset, as if it were a giant statue carved out of some red sandstone. "These earliest and most hidden dark rooms located under the theater... not only have early guests, but they are all very important, more than one, right?"

"You are so wise, father." Thortarn bowed, his hand on his breastplate. "There are many. Powerful ones. Capable ones."

"...So, they have been waiting here for Magnus to arrive with the Thousand Sons...Interesting, but those who would have been notified or who might have stood on Magnus' side were not invited, while the others were waiting for him here in advance. Haha, it seems that our father is really afraid that Magnus will overturn the table or rebel against him and form his own faction. Interesting. That means he is not as confident as he thinks. And he does not have as much father-son affection for Magnus as he thinks."

Dantioch, who had gradually become accustomed to the fact that the Father of Genes often said things that were not suitable for anyone else to hear, lowered his eyelashes slightly, put on a poker face, and pretended that he had heard nothing.

"Who are in these dark rooms?" The Lord of Steel began to pace slowly in the place where they stopped. The narrow space made him look like a steel behemoth trapped in a cage, but the vitality and wisdom that surged when he was thinking diluted this impression. "Tell me in the order you saw it."

"The Space Wolves. They are the most numerous. Lord Russ is deep in their gathering lair, but they tell me that he often can't help but run out."

The Gene-Father's ramblings during his illness were right again. Dantioch thought that it was very likely that this was a disease related to prophecy and other special abilities. It was not uncommon for myths to make prophecies due to madness. If he was lucky enough to return with the Primarch, he would remember to submit this report to Soraka.

Thinking of the fact that the Primarch had mentioned that there were probably more Space Wolves here than there were, and that they were even responsible for supervising the construction of the theater - and that the drawings were drawn by Perturabo and sent by Frix to the Great Crusade Command as part of a gift to the Emperor, a wave of uncomfortable disgust surged into his heart. He suppressed it, but his brows were still furrowed.

"Your brother, Lord Mortarion, and his sons, the Death Guard. Accompanying him this time is their First Captain Typhon."

"Oh, I'm not surprised he's here, but Typhon is here too?"

"That's right. In fact, the two captains of the Death Guard and Blood Angels are assisting the Custodians in guarding the core control room deep inside the mountain."

"So Sanguinius is here too," the Primarch said with a hint of amusement. "If he is already here, I imagine that Fulgrim, Krax, Rogal Dorn, and Valdor are all waiting in the darkroom as well."

"Not all of them, my Lord," Thortann added quickly, "Only the main group of Space Wolves and Lord Russ are hidden in these halls at the bottom, while the Death Guard, Raven Guard and Imperial Fists are slightly above, but they are also specially shielded. According to my estimation, this shielding should prevent peepers, especially psychic peepers, from seeing their true appearance. The Custodians, Blood Angels and Emperor's Children are openly active on the upper floors."

Just as the Lord of Steel began to sneer, the Warsmith eased the tense atmosphere in a timely manner.

"My Lord, please forgive my ignorance, but who is the last person you mentioned? How can his name be mentioned in the same breath as the Primarchs?"

"Ah. I forgot that you are too young, Barabas. You may not know his name." The Lord of Steel turned around, his tone was gentle, but there was an obvious sarcastic smile on his face, "Constantine Valdor, let's call him that, because his full name is more than 1,900. He is the Marshal of the Emperor's Guards, commanding his golden pets."

The irony in this statement was so strong that a thought once again came to Dantioch's mind:

...At this point, will you really not consider our proposal to blow him up in the crater and bury him alive while your father is here, father?