"I'm from Nostramo, Enrique." Carlil said in a deep voice. "A decaying star, a planet soaked in the blood of innocents. You've seen it already, company commander. What are your impressions of it? ”

Enrique Barbatos was silent for a long time before giving an answer in the tremor of the ground.

Until then, he had only held his helmet in his arms, unable to take his eyes off Karil Lohals's body—the black and white armor intertwined with each other, the cloak like a living creature and a shadow, the cold light of the blue of the forest.

He stared at the details, feeling his teeth and tongue glue together, with a bloody sweetness. And opening your mouth to speak is a painful torture.

Enric survived the ordeal.

It should be baptized by fire."

"Yes."

The skeleton slowly bowed its head.

"It should be burned, turned into decaying scraps, destroyed by warships. Nostramo has changed my and your genetic protoplasm forever. It has taught me many things, and I will never be grateful for them. ”

Enric heard a cold chuckle - he had never heard an instructor of the Eighth Legion laugh in such a terrible voice.

In fact, in him, or in their perception, Carlil Lohals is not only gentle, but even responsible. No matter how you look at it, he doesn't look like a person who should be in the Eighth Legion.

However, at this moment, Enric Barbatos suddenly realized something.

And before that?

And before they knew him, before Karil Lohals became an instructor in the Eighth Legion? Who is he?

More details swept in, turning into roaring waves that began to rage in Enric's mind. He opened his mouth blankly, took a large breath of air, and tasted the extremely thick smell of blood with the tip of his tongue.

The darkness continued to gather, and they became heavy and oppressive. The sound of heartbeat thunder struck in all directions, and the dead began to wail, scream, and curse.

Enric clenched his hands, teeth clenched and gurgled as he stood trembling on the dark border, waiting for the verdict from the man who had called them forward.

Or answer.

After five seconds of silence, Enric got his answer.

"It only takes nine seconds to drain a person's blood, Enric. I learned about this from a nobleman who proudly wrote down the data in his notes with a blood-stained quill. ”

"To get this figure, he murdered three thousand four hundred and seventy-one people. I killed him, and he didn't regret it, he was just confused—confused that I was going to kill him for this. ”

"Again, I'm confused. I was puzzled as to why he could see such brutal torture as a pastime, a feats to brag about at dinner tables and balls. Later, I understood why. And now, I want to know"

"How long does it take to drain the blood of a civilization?"

Enric looked helplessly at the skeleton's eyes burning with pitch-black rage, and said hoarsely, "I-I don't know, Instructor. ”

"I don't know." Carlil said calmly. "But we'll find out later."

Carlil opened his hands in a soothing motion, but Enric's two hearts began to beat wildly. A new fear rose in his heart, and he realized something, and realizing that this was definitely not a good thing for him.

Hoarse, broken voices rhythmically emerge from the deeper darkness, and after the tremor of the ground, the spire itself begins to tremble.

The characters that had been inscribed by the Harkosuthians wriggling between the metal floor and the walls began to shine at this moment, and then they began to melt, and the voices began to grow clearer and clearer, until they were completely resounding in Enrique's ears.

After a moment of silence, Enric finally realized what the voices were doing.

They were chanting, they were singing an ode. It's about hatred, it's about revenge, it's about the obsession that the dead can't get away with – it's about a name.

Enric bent down and felt a burning sensation rise from her body, like substance. The pain of burning inside came immediately, and he slowly held his hands on the ground, and the names of the dead swept in. Between the line between fantasy and reality, Enric Barbatos raised his head and asked with all his strength.

"What price will you pay this time, instructor?"

"Good question." Carlil said.

He didn't answer.

——

Conrad Coetze strangled the last xenomorph with his hand, and he threw the body down and stood up calmly. He began to walk forward with a gentle movement, like a wandering ghost rather than a human with actual weight.

Van Cleef followed him closely, barely an inch away—the company commander had already made up his mind to create a separate guard position for the original body after the war.

Conrad Coetzes almost never moves with his legions, he always leads the way, jumping into the crowd and slaughtering. It's a challenge to the hearts of the members of the Eighth Legion, after all, it's hard to see where Koz is.

Once he kills, he is like a cloudy cloud that will descend on any enemy. But until then, you'll never know when he's coming.

No one – or creature – can look up at the sky all the time.

"The wind has changed."

Conrad Coetzes spoke suddenly, and he stood in the middle of the battlefield, the sky scarlet, like the bloodshot eyes of a dying man. He lowered his head and muttered to an alien corpse, as if speaking to it. But Van Cleef heard his name from the original body.

"Do you feel it, Van Cleve? The wind has changed. ”

The company commander stared blankly at Coetzes - he tried to answer, and his heart tugged him into a frenzied image in the next second.

The rain of corpses descended from the scarlet sky and spread wildly, a strange green swept across the starry sky, but it was firmly blocked out by the burning black flames. The image only appeared for a moment, but Van Cleef knew that he was not hallucinating.

He was completely conscious.

"The wind has changed." Conrad Coetzes turned his head and looked at his company commander with a thoughtful look in his gaze that seemed to have magical power, two swirling black swirls. He stood still, pondering for a moment, then suddenly turned and left, leaving only a command.

"Prepare to contact the Nightfall, Van Cleef. The second phase began. ”

The company commander watched his original body leave with a complicated expression, and sighed heavily.

It's starting to accelerate

(End of chapter)