Carlil clenched his right hand slowly, and some of the white shards fell like that, adding more white to the ground.

The last of the souls belonging to Harcosus died at this moment.

Believers were killed by the hands of their own gods, and the faith, in turn, persecuted themselves. The shards slowly landed, joining the rest of their companions who had already been here. They look almost as thick as year-old snow, but they're not snow. They are ashes and fragments of souls.

Carlil lowered his head and stared at them, finally gaining a bit of real peace.

In the midst of that battle—or slaughter—the aliens of Harkosus, cursed the god of fire in their eyes.

They denounce the betrayal of the gods, the hypocrisy of the gods. They cursed Him and wished He would be brutally murdered, forgotten in history and unmentioned. Hope that every altar of Him will be overthrown and every temple will be burned to ashes by flames.

They want Him to live forever and suffer for 10,000 years.

Carlil embraced it.

Why didn't he accept it? They had every reason to hate him, and although the relationship between the gods and the believers was never equal, he never considered himself a god.

If these true Halcosus hate him, let them come.

Rather than accept an unwarranted curse and fate under Tzeentch's control, and crave the mercy of a false deity, it is better to die a crisp death—and it is with this thought that he evokes the dead soldiers of the Eighth Legion.

He kills in the temple of the god of fire, while they fight alongside their living brothers above the surface.

Carlil closed his eyes, and a thousand images swarmed in.

As night fell, the undead draped in black flames slaughtered mercilessly. Without mercy or any superfluous emotion, they have become immortal dead, and the dead never desire.

He's about to accomplish one of his goals—Carlil realizes it, but isn't half overjoyed.

The troubles on Harcosus One are about to be cleared completely, but what about after that? How will he explain all this to the VIII Corps?

And, that's just the first step. There are three planets in Harcosus, and the danger of One may be gone, but what about Two and Three?

In other words, what about the War Hounds and Ultramarines? What will happen to them?

With a sigh, Carlil closed his eyes and vanished little by little as a shadow faded away, and after he left, the ancient temple began to crumble.

Temples and faith will be things of yesterday, but for now, this is still a kingdom of God. He floated up to the surface, unstoppable by the rocks and dirt, as if it didn't exist, and after an indescribably short time had passed, he appeared beside Conrad Coetzes.

The latter sat on a large mass of charred metal, staring into the distance with his face propped up, not speaking, and not looking surprised by his arrival.

"Instructor?"

Carlil turned his head and nodded to the company commander, "Van Cleef." ”

"How did you get there?"

The corners of Carlil's mouth curled, and the skull visor dissipated—intentionally or not, but he actually made a joke: "I flew up, like a ghost." ”

The first company commander's expression looked very intriguing, he glanced at his original body, and only then spoke again: "The original body said, you have a lot to explain to us. ”

I do.

Carlil turned his head and glanced at Conrad Coetzes. The latter still maintained that deliberately made posture, and did not look at him. His expression was tense, and his eyes looked straight ahead with melancholy and sharpness.

"Yes." Carlil said. "I do have a lot to explain to you."

As soon as the words fell, many pitch-black shadows came into the darkness, and the soldiers of the Eighth Legion were as quiet as ghosts.

"Then let's talk about it."

Conrad Coetzes finally spoke—he looked at Carlil with a serious expression, no detail of Midnight Ghost lingering on that face. At this moment, he only exists as the Lord of the Eighth Legion, and he is asking Karil for a reasonable explanation.

And Carlil had to answer, whether it was of his own volition or the duties that came with being an instructor.

Carlil lowered his head, his face pale and calm under his hood. He spoke slowly, his tone as casual as chatting, but the words themselves were as sharp as a sword, cutting almost every listener.

"I've been thinking about whether to tell the truth and tell it. I tried to be completely honest with you, and I failed, because some truths require sufficient qualifications to be heard. ”

He looked around, the gaze that had always been gentle on them now pierced like a pinprick in the face, a pain welling up in Van Cleef's heart, but the company commander did his best to keep it calm.

"I've thought about it a million times." The instructor of the Eighth Regiment spoke slowly in his characteristic low tone.

"To be more precise, I've assessed your qualifications countless times. I've evaluated you when I've been training on the ground, I've evaluated you in my daily life. I've looked at you countless times, digging through your names, personalities, information, and past. I've been trying to find someone who can get me to reveal the truth. ”

"So did you find it?" With a hint of hope he hadn't even perceived, Van Cleef asked.

"Nope." Carlil stared at him. "Including you, Van Cleef."

"But I've been—"

"—Yes, you've faced the monsters of the darkness once, and you've even relied on your own willpower to win at the last minute, but that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. What we're going to discuss is outside the realm of willpower, Van Cleef. ”

Carlil Lohals interrupted him indifferently, he sounded arrogant, very impersonal, very .

Very unfamiliar. A company commander thought.

"But, Instructor"

A tired voice sounded in the darkness - it was Siani, from Terra, and he sounded so tired now, no longer alive and dead.

Carlil could hear his frustration at the moment, but he forced himself to remain unmoved.

"Don't we even have the qualifications to be revealed?"

Siani raised her right hand and pointed at the black flames at the far end of the horizon. He wore a helmet and a scarlet eyepiece from which Carlil could clearly see his reflection.

Siani didn't speak anymore, but was silent as he pointed to the shadowy ghosts in the flames. For a moment, he took off his helmet and took a deep breath of cold air.

"We're fighting with you." Siani from Terra said in a low voice.

Carlil felt like a fish in his throat—he looked directly at Siani, but he could detect Conrad Coetze's gaze, which was urgent, anxious, and hopeful.

Wish.

What do you want, child? Do you want me to tell them the truth? Or do I hope they will forgive me for my concealment?

Silent. Sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty-four pairs of eyes stared silently at their instructor, and three thousand six hundred and seventy-six ghosts stood on the dividing line between life and death staring at this place, they were dead, but they still had 'hope'.

wish

"If you insist on listening." Carlil Lohals slowly closed his eyes. "Then listen to it, but after you hear it, you can't look back."

Pitch-black flames swept in, raging, and surrounded the warriors of the Eighth Legion. They remained silent, their heads held high without fear.

"Come on, then." Conrad Coetzes chuckled. "Come on, instructor."

"Okay."

As the words fell, flames crept upward, burning above their iron armor, leaving a boiling mark. Sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty-four people were caught at the junction of illusion and reality.

Darkness covers the face, deep silence, and horror. They began to stare into the darkness, with the eyes of a human being—and the monster in the darkness gave them an answer.

The filthy, greedy, undetectable and unseemly monsters looked back with malice. In just an instant, their sanity began to boil and burn, and their proud willpower was shattered in an instant.

Van Cleef was the longest of them all, clenching his fists and shouting at the darkness without fear, only to be caught by a hand on his shoulder in the next second.

He turned around and saw Carlil Lohals.

"I'm sorry I said that about you." Their instructor spoke softly. "But I think you've got it by now, Van Cleef."

"What is this?" Van Cleef asked bitterly.

He thought he knew something about them, but he didn't expect that his so-called understanding was nothing more than the birth of an ant after he was lucky enough to see an elephant's tail.

His 'understanding' and 'preparation' are completely vulnerable in the face of facts and truth.

"That's the truth you want." Carlil said.

At this moment, his voice echoed not only in Van Cleve's ears, but also in the ears of sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty-three other people.

"That's what lies in the darkness. Countless monsters hungry for humanity were born from nightmares and baptized from evil thoughts. You must not be killed, you must not be looked at, you must not be talked about. They are the monsters of myth and legend, the things that harvest life at midnight. You see it, what do you think? ”

Silence, silence again, dead silence in the truest sense of the word—Van Cleef bowed his head in frustration, but Carlil smiled.

He turned, took Van Cleef with him, and saw Conrad Coetzes, with sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty-three dark shadows slowly approaching.

"Monsters in the night?" Conrad Coetzes asked solemnly. "Is this the truth?"

"Yes." Carlil bowed slightly.

Conrad Coetzes walked past him, his scarlet cloak curling like a fire in the darkness, windless and automatic. He moved forward, and kept going, almost reaching the boundary between the Veil and the real world. He just stood there, without fear, even sneering.

"Look clearly, you monsters. Look at us, see every face here. ”

He proclaimed in a low voice what was in the darkness.

"I, Conrad Coetze—I speak to you from the edge of our world. Yes, yes, you are monsters, you are devils, you are seducers from hell. But you are nothing but fairy tales, you are thieves who steal mothers and children at night, and if it were daytime, you would be very weak. You fear the sun and the light, and from now on you will fear us. For we will be the Blade of the Midnight, we will be the sentinel in the darkness, we will help those who are suffering in the darkness you have created, and we will kill you all without leaving you alone! ”

He roared, his voice louder than ever.

"Listen, you maggots, monsters hiding in the dark! This world is where we live, and we will protect it until we die! ”

Carlil lowered his head and chuckled. Three thousand six hundred and seventy-six ghosts flickered in his shadow.

"Yes." He spoke. "Till death."

"Till death!"

Twenty thousand voices rang out in unison.

Nothing (collapse)

(End of chapter)