40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 120 23. Burn out (2)

Kahn felt confused, very confused, extremely confused. He wasn't afraid, he just couldn't understand it.

"Where is this?" he asked softly, his voice echoing quietly in the dark cabin. "Where are we, Khalil?"

The pale giant loosened his grip on his left arm armor, and the cold feeling disappeared. The giant lowered his head and began to cough up blood while explaining to him: "Your ship."

"Our ship?"

"Yes." He vomited out a large mouthful of blood again. Kahn looked at the blood suspiciously and found that it began to dissipate in the air.

"You are hurt?"

"It's okay," Khalil said. "Do you recognize where this place is?"

Kahn looked at him blankly and shook his head.

Of course he didn't recognize where this place was - the deck of the Unwavering Resolve was always clean and tidy, and the emblem belonging to the War Dog remained in the form of a brand on the wall.

They used no ornaments to decorate the walls of its corridors, leaving the iron-gray color alone as a gloomy and dreary austere decoration. The Warhounds don't need many symbols of honor to prove or remind themselves. Their armor bears the Emperor's lightning, and their names are given by the Emperor himself.

Is there any deeper honor in the world than this? there is none left.

But what now? Where does he stand now?

He stood in a horrible place.

The deck beneath his feet was filled with dark ashes, and Kahn was sure he could see bugs looming among them. The wall turned into a twisted and wrinkled material, with countless skulls arranged in a certain order. Symbols made of stinking blood loomed throughout the corridor, even flickering like breathing.

"Are we in the wrong place?"

Kahn gripped his chainsaw and stared warily into the darkness at the end of the corridor. He asked his guide, who for some reason had placed a lot of trust in him.

"No," Khalil said quietly. "right here."

His eyes scanned the darkness, and Kahn heard him sigh, the most obvious emotion in his voice, and Kahn knew what it was.

He is angry.

Why?

"Follow me." The giant stepped forward, his steps gentle as if he didn't exist here.

Kahn followed closely, wondering where exactly he was taking him.

They walked in silence, from corridor to corridor, from the deck to a certain cabin. Some automatic doors are still working, while others are broken. That bloody symbol was everywhere, as well as skulls - Kahn didn't understand, why were skulls everywhere?

He breathed silently, dust filling his nose. He had already picked up his helmet, but the breathing grille failed to help him. They moved on, and on, and on, like two dead men trying to cross the river of darkness back into the world of the living.

Then, at some point, they finally stopped.

Stopping in front of a dark door.

"Where is this?" Kahn asked softly.

Khalil didn't answer, he just raised his right hand and covered the dirty and dirty door. The pale skin actually seemed to be glowing slightly at this moment, and blood vessels, nerves and bones were clearly visible under the skin.

Kahn was horrified: "What are you doing?"

"Open the door," Khalil replied calmly.

"But your hands—"

"——It's not important." He turned back and glanced at Kahn. "It's just an image, a proof that I'm fighting, nothing more. Like your brothers, can't you hear them, Kahn?"

".what sound?"

Khalil turned his head and the door itself began to bite his hand.

The darkness came to life and turned into a bloody curtain under the anger of something. It dragged his hand deeper and made terrible noises. This was supposed to be a torture, but Kahn found that Kari Er's face didn't waver at all, as if he was really just opening the door.

After a few seconds, the right hand that could already see the bones slowly tightened its grip, and the door slid open completely. The sound of it colliding with the wall was so terrifying and terrifying that even Kahn could not bear to twist it. head.

There was some sticky stuff coming out of his ears, and he knew it was blood without even thinking about it.

Then he heard laughter.

Khalil is laughing.

"He was angry," he said. “But the more angry He becomes, the more He proves one thing.”

Kahn couldn't understand what he was talking about. He looked behind the door and was suddenly startled.

At this moment, tens of thousands of noisy voices boomed, rushing into his damaged hearing. However, it did not further damage his eardrums, but allowed him to truly hear everyone's voice, and even see it.

He heard the roar of Jericho from the heavy firepower team, and saw him charging into the enemy group and fighting desperately. His enemies, the brutes in armor of brass and scarlet, seized him, and they brought him down. His blue and white armor was submerged in the crimson torrent, and then, a grenade hidden under him exploded, and the fire was blazing, swallowing everything.

He heard Hotz, commander of the Storm Eagle Squadron of the Ninth Company, shouting hoarsely in the name of the Primarch.

Robert Guilliman's messenger informed them of the Primarch's name. They knew him as Angron, and they had discussed the matter many times. Hotz kept shouting for Angron. Then he saw Hotz, the commander fighting bloody battles with his squad in the hangar, the endless waves of traitors coming from the darkness, easily overwhelming them all.

He heard the voice of Haytham of the Second Company - he heard him dying slowly. Haytham's voice was extremely weak, as if it was about to disappear in the next second.

Kahn saw him, saw his brother standing alone on the deck with only the upper half of his body, eyes open, holding a grenade in his hand, taunting the darkness with the voice of a dying man.

"Come on! Come on! You bastards! Haytham of the War Hounds is waiting for you here!"

He heard their deaths.

He saw them die.

No one was missing, no one was bad, he remembered everyone's voice, knew everyone's face, and then he watched them die with his own eyes.

Kahn trembled and fell to his knees, facing the dark door.

He covered his helmet in pain, his thoughts became confused at this moment, the surrounding space shook, and the scarlet light flashed away, forming a blur of light and throwing it at his neck, trying to turn him into some kind of slave.

Until Khalil stretched out his bloody right hand again.

"Do you want to stop here, Karn of the War Hounds?" he asked softly.

Kahn raised his head and looked at him blankly. The helmet isolated his expression at the moment, but it could not isolate the sound. The breathing coming from the breathing grille was like some kind of intermittent sobbing.

Khalil shook his head.

"Stand up," he said in an extremely soft voice. "There is something. He wants to make you slaves, and he is already halfway there. Do you want to be his slave, Kahn?"

I don't want to, of course I don't. Kahn responded with his instinct. He said nothing because he could no longer speak. But Khalil had already understood what was going on in his heart.

The cold blue light in his eyes lit up again.

Khalil stared at him, through the eyepiece, reaching his eyes, and finally touching his soul. He could clearly see Kahn's soul. At this moment, half of this soul was dyed scarlet.

The false god spent a lot of effort. He took illusory and filthy blood to pollute these innocent people, tied them with chains, and used whipping and pain to make them submit. The door that has been opened is one of the evidences of His painstaking efforts.

He used this as a foundation to shake Kahn's mind and tried to take advantage of it again. He already knows that Khalil does not have the extra strength to clear Kahn's influence again, unless he immediately abandons his human identity.

But, in that case, He actually won.

They all won.

And Khalil won't let them win.

"Your primarch is called Angron, Karn. You know his name, but you don't know what kind of person he is. Let me tell you."

The pale giant spoke calmly and narrated. In the field of vision that Kahn could not hear or see, something was exerting terrible power on him to hurt him, but the giant was completely indifferent to it.

"He was a gladiator, a born fighter. He had also been a slave, but he never surrendered. He endured torture, insults and whippings, the darkness and the torture tools nailed into his skull, but he Never gave in."

"We found him, we saved him, but the truth is far from that. If a man himself is willing to be a slave, no one can save him."

"Are you going to be that thing's slave?" Khalil asked softly. "Are you going to embarrass him?"

Kahn howled.

His chaotic thoughts finally came together briefly at this moment. The human will took over with tenacious fighting spirit in the filth, and time was quickly slowed down. Khalil closed his eyes and sighed softly.

He knew that Kahn's fighting spirit could not be maintained for long, and he might not even be able to hold on for even a second before he would be swallowed up by the scarlet wave again.

But that's enough.

Time has been controlled by him again. The power of chaos is so convenient.

+Stop——! +

From the other side of the Milky Way, a voice roared with thunder.

+I can't. +

+Stop or you will die. +

+I can't, I have a way. +

+ Khalil Lohars must die, think of Conrad Coates. +

The sound began to approach gradually, and there were distorted and sharp shouts all around. The thunder was not loud, but it could always overwhelm these twisted things.

+Yes, think of him. But, my friend, I taught the ghost that one should do the right thing and choose the right path. Although I don’t know what is right, I know another thing. I will not watch all this happen. I will not let my brothers continue to kill each other and become slaves of the monster in blood and tears. . +

+You have to stay calm. +

+I can't, I'm never calm. +

Khalil hung up the psychic communication, and a terrifying smile suddenly appeared on his pale face.

He pulled Kahn up during the slowed down time, pulled through the scarlet threads, and draped them around Kahn's neck with his own hands.

The scarlet light flourished.

Karn howled tremblingly, and the blue and white armor changed in an instant. Scarlet armor with brass edges replaced the honor of the war dogs, and the wails of skulls and souls replaced the lord of mankind. design. This illusory soul now took its place, standing in front of Khalil, staring at him quietly.

In other words, it was the power beneath the skin of Khalil Lohars.

"Kahn." Khalil said softly. "Kahn the Betrayer? I saw your name, but nothing else."

Kahn lowered his head and nodded slowly.

"You betrayed humanity, the Imperium, and the Emperor," he asked. "Right? I can tell by your armor that you're all betrayed, right?"

"Yes." The betrayer said in his hoarse voice.

"Why?"

"For our father," said the betrayer. "We fight for him."

"Betrayal for him too?"

"Yes."

"Very good." Khalil nodded slowly. "Well, you still have to fight for him now."

"He is dead," the betrayer said without emotion. "He's no longer who he is—"

He was speechless, because the pale giant was showing him a picture, a hope they had never imagined.

".What's this?"

"This is your father," Khalil said through his own blood, his skin beginning to disintegrate like a melting wax figure. "Did you see him?"

The blue light in his eyes continued to be bright.

"...I saw it." The betrayer's voice began to tremble for the first time. "But how is that possible?"

"Kahn, the traitor. I have no time to tell you any other evidence." Khalil looked at him with pity and hatred. "But I guess you don't need to be forgiven. You know that you are unforgivable, right?"

".right."

"Then let's betray him again."

In the darkness, a hand that was about to melt slowly stretched out.

"Who are you betraying?"

"The Blood God," said Khalil Lohars.

A shirtless, iron-wrapped right hand pressed against the melted hand without hesitation.

Karn the Betrayer nodded.

"good."

The next second, his soul began to give up everything. The obtained body, the memories of the past, his own name - everything was gone with the wind. The betrayer once again completed the betrayal with a power that did not belong to him and the Blood God.

He erased himself.

The war dog fell to the ground, his armor covered with black ash. He raised his head in confusion and pain, but felt an unprecedented sense of relief. However, when he raised his head, he saw a bloody skeleton.

".Caryl?"

"It's me." Bai Gu nodded calmly. "I can only help you get here. Kahn's ship has changed its appearance, but it is still your ship. If you think about it carefully, you can recognize the way. Hurry to the bridge."

"What are you—"

"——My situation is not important." Bones said. "I will survive."

The blue light began to transform, becoming vaguely gold.

"Now, step into the darkness and fight, Karn of the War Hounds."

As the words fell, he disappeared in the flash of light. Kahn rushed forward, but only caught a wave of extreme pain. He gritted his teeth and took it with a groan. If this was the last trace of the man who helped them, Kahn wasn't going to let it fade away.

He clenched his left fist, pain accompanying him like a shadow, roaring in his mind. The pain was so intense that it allowed him to ignore everything else that was watching in the darkness.

"Okay," Kahn croaked, removing his chainsaw and stepping fearlessly into the darkness. "Okay, Khalil Lohars, I will fight."

The guarantee is 10,000 today. This chapter is 4k.