Karn felt confused, very confused, extremely confused. He's not afraid, he just can't understand.

"Where is this?" He asked softly, his voice echoing quietly through the dark cabin. "Where are we, Carlil?"

The pale giant let go of the hand that held his left arm, and the cold perception vanished. The giant lowered his head and began to cough up blood as he explained to him, "Your ship. ”

"Our ship?"

"Yes." He vomited a mouthful of blood again, and Karn looked at it suspiciously, seeing that it was beginning to dissipate in the air.

"You're hurt?"

"Out of the way." Carlil said. "Do you recognize where this is?"

Karn looked at him blankly, shaking his head.

Of course he didn't recognize it - the deck of the Steadfast Resolve had always been clean and tidy, and the insignia belonging to the War Dogs remained in the form of an imprint on the walls.

They didn't use any ornaments to decorate the walls of its corridors, just making the iron gray itself a gloomy and dull austere decoration. The War Dogs don't need to prove or remind themselves of the fact that they have the Emperor's lightning on their armor and their names are given by the Emperor himself.

Is there a deeper honor in the world? Without.

But what about now? Now, where does he stand?

He stood in a. Scary place.

The deck beneath his feet was covered with dark ashes, and Karn was sure he saw worms looming in it. The walls were twisted and crumpled material, and countless skulls were arranged in a certain order, and symbols of foul-smelling blood loomed throughout the corridors, even as if they were breathing.

"Are we in the wrong place?"

Karn gripped his chainsaw axe, watching warily into the darkness at the end of the hallway. He asked his guide, who for some reason had placed a lot of trust in him.

"Nope." Carlil said calmly. "This is it."

His gaze swept across the darkness, and Karn heard him sigh, a most obvious emotion in his voice, and Karn knew what it was.

He's angry.

Why?

"Follow me." The giant stepped forward, his steps softly as if he were not here.

Karn followed, not knowing where he was taking him.

They walked in silence, from hallway to hallway, from deck to one of the cabins. Some of the automatic doors are fine, while others are broken. That bloody symbol was everywhere, as well as skulls - Karn didn't understand, why were there skulls everywhere?

He breathed in silence, dust filling his nose, and he had retrieved his helmet, but the breathing grille had not helped him. They marched, forward, and on, as if two dead were trying to cross the river of darkness back into the world of the living.

Then, until a certain point, they finally stopped.

Stop in front of a dark gate.

"Where is this?" Karn asked softly.

Karil didn't answer, he just raised his right hand and covered it over the dirty, filthy door. The pale skin looked faintly glowing at the moment, and the blood vessels, nerves, and bones were clearly visible under the skin.

Karn was shocked, "What are you doing?" ”

"Open this door." Carlil replied calmly.

"But your hand—"

"—it doesn't matter." He looked back and glanced at Karn. "It's just an image, a proof that I'm fighting, that's all. Like your brothers, can't you hear them, Karn? ”

"What sound?"

Carlil turned his head, and the door itself began to gnaw at his hand.

The darkness came to life, turning into a bloody curtain under the wrath of something, tugging his hand deep in, and the terrible sound rang out constantly, it should have been a torture, but Karn noticed that Carlil's face did not fluctuate in the slightest, as if he was really just opening the door.

After a few seconds, the right hand, which could already see the bones, clenched slowly, and the door slid open completely, and the sound of it crashing against the wall was so horrible and terrifying that Karn turned his head unbearably.

There was something sticky coming out of his ears, and he didn't have to think about it, he knew it was blood.

Then he heard laughter.

Carlil was laughing.

"He's angry." He said. "But the more angry He is, the more he proves one thing."

Karn couldn't understand what he was talking about, and he looked behind the gate, startled.

At this moment, tens of thousands of noisy voices rang out, rushing into his broken hearing, but instead of allowing the eardrum to continue to be damaged, he could really hear everyone's voice, and even see.

He heard the roar of Jericho of the heavy fireteam and saw him rush into the crowd and fight to the death. His enemies, brutes in brass and scarlet armor, captured him, and they brought him down. His blue-and-white armor drowned in a torrent of scarlet, and then a grenade hidden under him exploded, burning brightly and engulfing everything.

He heard Storm Eagle Squadron Commander Holtz of the Ninth Company shouting the name of the Primordial Body, roaring hoarsely.

Robert Killiman's messenger informed them of the name of the Original, they knew his name was Angron, and they had discussed the matter many times. Holtz kept shouting for Angrån. Then he saw Holtz, the commander fighting with his squad in the hangar, the traitors coming from the darkness in a never-ending manner, easily drowning them all.

He heard Haytham in the second company—he heard him slowly dying, Haythami's voice was so weak that it seemed to be dying in the next second.

Karn saw him, and saw his brother alone on deck, with his eyes open and a grenade in his hand, mocking the darkness and the voice of a dying man.

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

He heard of their deaths.

He saw their death with his own eyes.

One doesn't fall, the other is good, he remembers everyone's voice, recognizes everyone's face, and then he watches them die with his own eyes.

Karn trembled and fell to his knees, kneeling before the dark gates.

He clutched his helmet in pain, his mind becoming confused at this moment, the space around him vibrating, and the scarlet light flickered and disappeared, forming a blurry light that fell on his neck, trying to turn him into some kind of slave.

Until Carlil stretched out his bloody right hand again.

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

Karn looked up at him blankly, his helmet cutting out his expression at the moment, but not sound, the sound of breathing coming from the breathing grille was like some kind of intermittent sobbing.

Carlil shook his head.

"Stand up." He said in an extremely soft voice. "There's something. He wants to make you slaves, and He is halfway there. Are you going to be His slave, Karn? ”

I don't want to, I certainly don't want to. Karn replied instinctively. He didn't speak, because he couldn't speak anymore. But Carlil had already seen what was going on in his heart.

The cold blue light in his eyes lit up again.

Karil stared at him, through the eyepiece, to the eyes, and finally to the soul, and he could clearly see Karn's soul, which was now half dyed scarlet.

The false god took great strength, and he took illusory, filthy blood and polluted these innocent people, and he chained them and brought them to their knees with scourges and pain. The door that had been opened was one of the evidences of His painstaking efforts

He used this as a foundation to shake Karn's mind and try to take advantage of it again. He already knew that Karil didn't have the power to clear Karn's influence one more time, unless he immediately threw away his human identity.

But, in that case, he actually won.

They all won.

And Carlil won't let them win.

"Your original name is Angron, Karn. You know his name, but you don't know what kind of person he is, let me tell you. ”

The white giant spoke calmly, and in Karn's sight, which Karn could not hear or see, something was exerting a terrible force on him to harm him, and the giant was completely indifferent to it.

"He was a gladiator, a born fighter, he was also a slave, but he never gave in. He endured torture, verbal abuse, whipping, darkness and torture instruments nailed into his skull, but he never gave in. ”

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

"Are you going to be a slave to that thing?" Carlil asked softly. "You're going to put him to shame?"

Karn let out a howl.

His chaotic thoughts finally converged briefly at this moment, and the will belonging to humanity took over for a moment with tenacious fighting spirit in the filth, and time was quickly slowed down. Carlil closed his eyes and sighed softly.

He knew Karn's fighting spirit would not last long, and he might not even be able to hold out for a second before being swallowed up by the scarlet wave again.

However, this is enough.

Time has been mastered by him again, and it belongs to the power of chaos, how convenient.

+Stop——! +

On the other side of the galaxy, a voice roared with thunder.

+ I can't. +

+ Stop, or you'll die. +

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

+ Carlil Lohals is going to die, think Konrad Coetzes. +

The sound began to draw closer, and there were twisted, high-pitched shouts all around, not loud, but always able to overpower their twisted things.

+ Yes, think of him but, my friend, I taught the spirits that one should do the right thing and choose the right path. I don't know what is right, but I know the other thing, I won't watch this happen, I won't let my brothers continue to kill each other and become slaves to that monster in blood and tears. +

+ You have to stay calm. +

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

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

He pulled Karn up in the slowed time, pulled the scarlet threads, and draped them around Karn's neck with his own hands.

Scarlet Light is in full bloom.

Karn howled as the blue-and-white armor changed in an instant, scarlet, brass-edged armor replacing the honor of the war dogs, and the wails of skulls and revenants replacing the design of the human lord. The illusory soul took its place at the moment, standing in front of Carlil, staring at him quietly.

Or rather, the power to gaze at the skin of Carlil Lohars.

"Karn." Carlil spoke softly. "Karn the Betrayer? I saw your name, but I couldn't see anything else."

Karn lowered his head, slowly bowing his head.

"You have betrayed humanity, the Empire, and the Emperor." He asked. "Right? I can tell from your armor that you've all betrayed, haven't you? ”

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

"Why?"

"For our father." Said the betrayer. "We fought for him."

"Betrayed by him too?"

"Yes."

"Good." Carlil nodded slowly. "Well, then, you still have to fight for him now."

"He's dead." The betrayer said emotionlessly. "He's not him anymore—"

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

"What is this?"

"This is your father." Carlil said this in his own blood, and his skin began to disintegrate like a melted wax figure. "Did you see him?"

The blue light in his eyes was still bright.

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

"Betrayer Karn. I don't have time to tell you any more evidence. Carlil looked at him with pity and disgust. But I guess you don't need to be forgiven, you know you're sins unforgivable, don't you? ”

"Right."

"Then, let's betray again."

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

"Betraying whom?"

"Blood God." Carlil Lohals said.

A shirtless, chained right hand did not hesitate to stick to the melted hand.

Karn the Betrayer nodded.

"Okay."

In the next second, his soul began to give up everything. The body gained, the memories of the past, his name—everything, all went with the wind, and the betrayer completed the betrayal once again with a power that did not belong to him and the blood god.

He erased himself.

The war dog fell to the ground, its armor covered in jet-black ashes. He looked up in pain and dazedness, but he felt a sense of relief that he had never felt before. However, when he looked up, he saw a bloody white skeleton.

"Carlil?"

"It's me." The white bones bowed calmly. "I can only help you get here, Karn's ship, it's changed, but it's still your ship, think about it, you can recognize the way. Let's get to the bridge. ”

"You're—"

"—my situation doesn't matter." White Bone said. "I'll survive."

The blue light began to transform into a faint gold.

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

The words fell, and he faded in the flickering light. Karn pounced, but caught only a breath of extreme pain. He gritted his teeth and took it with a muffled grunt. If this was the last vestige of someone who helped them, then Karn would not let it fade.

He clenched his left fist, pain ringing in his head. The pain was so intense that it allowed him to ignore everything else that was watching in the dark.

"Okay." Karn said hoarsely, removing his chainsaw axe and stepping into the darkness without fear. "Okay, Karil Lohals, I'm going to fight."

10,000 guaranteed today. This chapter is 4k.

(End of chapter)