Ur Pesson gripped his gun tightly and leaped into hell – not metaphorically or exaggeratedly, but a literal hell.

The air was filled with the smell of sulfur, and the heat was everywhere, scorching everyone who tried to pass through. At first glance, the ground looks like a rough red, but it is not.

They are a sea of corpses stacked on top of each other.

Konstantin Valdo followed him closely, and the position of the guide had been quietly reversed. Before he knew it, the Janissary seemed to have taken Orr for the one who called the shots - and the veteran was not happy about it.

The task was simple at first. He thought. But just go to a bridge and find four people, even if one of them has a dead name, I can call him in just two words

He was thinking about it, but he couldn't help but laugh.

Always, Orr thought helplessly. As long as you follow that person and do things, there will definitely be this development.

Like an uprising, Orr remembers that at first, the man just said that they were going to go to prison to save two people, and when Orr came to his senses, they had already hanged the biggest slave owner in the area at the gate of the city.

Orr asked him what was going on, and the man said lightly, "We just did what we were supposed to do." ”

yes, that's the tone. This tone of non-pride, right-for-giveness is disgusting.

Orr stopped, pausing in front of a boiling lake. It wasn't a sea of fire like lava, but a vast expanse of burning grease in which shattered limbs floated and sank, and the skin was gradually blackened in the heat.

Human-like and non-human-like shadows were walking through the grease, churning in the grease with their long, blade-like arms.

"We're going to have to take a detour." Konstantin Valdo spoke immediately.

Orr nodded, agreeing with him—it was certainly not the first time they had encountered something that was neither human nor demonic during this long walk.

They were the work of the madness that had taken possession of Horus Lupecal's skin, and the veteran had no idea how it had created such a new race. They're not lifeless, they don't have that particular stench on them, but they're not human either.

"Oranius, we have to take a detour." Valdo said again, his voice very serious. "Maybe we can kill it in another place, but not here, even if we pass by the lake, I'm afraid they will attack you."

"First of all, Lord Valdo, I ask you not to call me that." Orr replied without raising his head. "Secondly."

He reached out and scooped up the gem. Between the blood-stained dark green uniforms, the faint glow it emitted finally became a little more apparent. The Forbidden Army frowned, but quickly let go again.

"If that's his will." He said firmly, raising the Spear of the Sun God in his hand.

They started moving again, choosing to walk around the right side of the lake. As Valdo had said, they did spot them very quickly and attacked.

They rushed out of the gurgling grease in a comical and ridiculous manner, as if they had never experienced how to run, and some even fell all the time. But Orr and Waldo naturally couldn't laugh, they were back to back and began to prepare for battle.

Soon, these things approached them. Orr's hands were bruised, and he resisted the urge to vomit. He raised the depleted blaster diagonally, aiming the bayonet at the sky.

A shadow walked towards him, its slender limbs and the twisted body itself suddenly beginning to change. As if regurgitating, or 'flipping', the pitch black of its body gradually transforms into the color of human flesh and hairy skin.

When the flip was complete, a confused civilian was already standing in front of Orr and Waldo.

"Great, sir?" He stammered as he looked at the Praetorian Army. "Where is this?"

Valdo refused to answer, he looked away and pointed his spear at another mother who had just 'flipped over', still holding a child in her arms, and was now beaming with joy.

"It's the Emperor's guard!" She told her child. "We are saved, the emperor has sent someone to save us!"

Valdo swung his spear and pierced her along with her child. Blood splattered, and the mother's face turned from confusion, pain, and confusion to fear.

In the last moments before she died, she barely moved her arms, trying to take the child away from the sharp edge of the Sun God's spear. Unable to do so, the Praetorian Army withdrew the spear with absolute ruthlessness and decapitated her head.

Behind him, Orr similarly handed out a bayonet.

Three bodies fell at their feet.

Orr tried to ignore them, and told himself that it was all a lie, and he tried to lie to himself, but he couldn't, because he knew very well in his heart that it was not a lie or an illusion, and that these people were real human beings.

The gem had given him a revelation not so long ago.

He swung his blaster again, and the bayonet brutally slashed a man's throat. The man's face flushed, and he fell to the bottom of his feet with a whimper, and his face was full of fear and a little bit of anger that he didn't even dare to show obviously.

Orr forced himself to skip the affair and stepped back, leaning against Waldo's back. He demonstratively waved his weapon and began to drive away the crowd: "Get out! Get lost! Stay away from us! ”

"They're traitors!" Someone shouted. "The Emperor's guards have betrayed us! And that soldier! He also betrayed us! ”

"Traitor!" A woman cursed and rushed towards Orr, her face full of fearless courage. "How dare you do such a thing?!"

Orr knocked her to the ground with the butt of his rifle, and then stepped back, dodging the woman's hands trying to grab him at the hem of his pants.

Behind him, Konstantin Valdo wielded his spear without saying a word, and his methods were far more fierce than Orr's, and anyone who dared to approach them would be killed.

They began to move slowly through the crowd, but the cursing never stopped, and not only that, but there were already people in the crowd.

Orr saw it clearly, he knew what was going to happen next, so he was extremely anxious.

"We must get out of here, Waldo," Orr whispered.

"I know." The forbidden army said.

He did know that he had increased the pace of his killing, and more people had fallen under his spear. Of course Orr didn't want to see that, but what could he do?

They had no choice but to flee, and there was no way to even explain to them. They've tried, and it didn't work in the slightest. You can't use forceful measures to calm them down, as soon as there is physical contact, those damn black shadows will come back in an instant.

Then, they will spread up the limbs they touch, and they will be extremely fast, almost in less than half a second, completely enveloping a person - Orr has been 'preyed' like this once.

If it weren't for Valdo's quick reaction and the use of the Sun God's Spear to cut through the black shadow and pull him out, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Orr could probably guess what was going to happen to him.

He walked in silence, not reacting to the overwhelming swearing and hatred. He had no choice but to wrap himself in this silent countenance. He knew, and so did Konstantin Valdo

It's a good thing I'm not a hero in the first place. Orr thought self-deprecatingly.

After about ten minutes, they left Hell and stepped into darkness again.

Always, before reaching the next hell, there is always a small darkness that comes out of nowhere. Orr didn't know exactly how it worked, and he didn't bother to care. Darkness is darkness, better than no respite.

He began to take a deep breath, his hands holding the gun unconscious.

"We'll meet more." Konstantin Valdo spoke calmly. "It's a trap that the monster has prepared for us, and it won't stop until we die, or be assimilated by those things."

Orr didn't speak, he was so tired that he didn't know how to answer Valdo's words that tried to start a discussion. It's hard to be rational, let alone use them to think.

The veteran closed his eyes tightly, full of pain. He walked numbly forward, and it wasn't long before his closed eyes felt a burst of light. He opened his eyes, but he didn't see the slightest nightmare.

At this moment, what appeared before his eyes looked like a wasteland, the sky was gray and gray, and it almost looked like the center of the eye of the storm. Orr slowly moved his gaze, and saw a blurry black dot at the end of his sight.

"Here. Something is different. Waldo said beside him.

The Praetorian finally showed some suspicion at this moment, and he couldn't seem to believe that they had just left the trap like this—but both he and Orr could actually detect the subtle differences. One of the most obvious is the relaxed air.

When they were still walking in hell, the air was so heavy that it could be called crushing people to death. Despite this, Orr did not let his guard down.

He couldn't see the specifics of that struggle, and although the slightest change in imagery would have meant a new phase in the battle between the Lord of Humanity and the monster, the forces of chaos had always been capricious and adept at deception.

What if this is another trap?

"Can you see that?" Orr raised his gun, pointed at the blurry black dot at the end of the horizon, and asked about Waldo.

"It's a tree." The Marshal of the Forbidden Army said. "Probably so"

There was a hint of hesitation in his voice.

Orr frowned, thought for a moment, and finally took a step and began to move in that direction. There is no turning back for them, and it is an extremely stupid idea to stop and rest in place.

Therefore, no matter what exactly exists ahead of them that awaits them, they have no second option.

The ground of the wasteland was bare, there was not even mud to speak of, and there were stones everywhere. The gloomy light kept pulsing, refracting distracting illusions in the air.

They don't have any specific images, just vague, pulsating shadows. Some of them even happened to stand in their way, and Orr approached vigilantly, not rushing by, but observing them first.

He didn't get any results, and even if he was close, the illusions were still vague and of no discernment value.

Orr turned his head and nodded to Waldo. The Forbidden Marshal stepped forward and gently stabbed the spear in his hand.

As if they were destined, or had been waiting for a long time, a golden bolt of lightning immediately fell from the sky and slashed in front of them.

The brilliant light forced Orr to close his eyes, and when he opened them again, the ground before them was completely cracked, the stone floor of the wasteland showed great scars, and the illusions were gone.

Waldo was fine, dodging the lightning with superhuman reflexes and even having room to get back behind Orr.

Green smoke rises, spreading out of the cracks in the earth and drifting into the sky. They looked down and saw countless demons twisting and dancing in them, but they did not dare to appear because of the majesty of lightning.

Orr reflexively clenched the jewel on his chest.

"He's helping us, but he doesn't have the time to do it and take care of us at the same time." The veteran whispered. "Looks like we're on the right track."

He looked at Waldo, who wordlessly withdrew his spear and used it to support his body, like an old man on the verge of death—what kind of ordeal would it take to make him so tired?

Orr pursed her lips and approached him, patting Valdo on the armarm with the butt of her rifle as if comfortingly.

"Let's move on." He said.

——

Casidorius panted and stretched out his right hand toward the top of the cliff.

A clammy mist was dispersing beneath him, and the wind howled, making a terrifying noise between the cliffs. Half a second later, his hand was gripped and a huge force came from above him, pulling him up.

Van Cleef bowed to him and completed the communication with a brief courtesy.

Above them, the sky was playing out a wonderful scene of day and night. The moon and stars still hung above the canopy, the sun had not yet risen from the far end of the horizon, and its brilliance had pierced through the clouds to bring a mesmerizing and announced brilliance.

Sitorius knew that it would not be long before the sun would rise completely. And the mountain they were on had just the right spot to catch a glimpse of it – and of course, that's not the main thing.

"How?" Van Cleef asked.

It's just a routine inquiry.

Casidorius numbly lowered his head and looked into his chest.

Due to the fact that he was wearing power armor, he couldn't take the gem out directly to observe its condition. Fortunately, the priest who designed the power armor for him had clearly thought about this, and he designed a small peephole to be placed on the neck guard of the armor.

As soon as Casidorius looked down, he could tell the color of the gemstone from the color of the hard crystal tucked into the peep window.

And at the moment, it is emitting a brilliant golden light.

Casidorius was stunned for a long time before he realized what that meant.

Finally, finally.

The last descendant of the Delkunas family suddenly fell to their knees as if they had lost all their strength. He covered his cheeks with his hands, and in a few moments, tears spilled through his fingers and fell vertically down his armor.

Van Cleef didn't bother him, just slowly took off his helmet and threw it on the ground. The sound of metal hitting the ground was muffled, almost like a war drum, and it was heard far away over the cliffs.

Before the sound had died down, Van Cleef had already grasped his chainsaw sword—the motor roared for a split second, and the serrations struck a tall figure hidden in the mist.

It let out a wail and collapsed under the commander of the first company. It's not a demon or anything else, just a spirit that only haunts the early morning fog.

They are easily attracted to the tears of those who are grieving, and if left unchecked, they will attach themselves to those people and gradually eat away at their life force. Such harsh predatory conditions allowed these creatures to exist for only a few hundred years before becoming extinct.

Coincidentally, they were at the same point in time as their race was still complete.

The commander of the first company continued to swing his sword intently, without the slightest hesitation, and soon completely killed this small group of spirits, which can be regarded as a part of the force for their demise in this illusory history.

Casidorius also relented at this time, and he stood up, every muscle in his face twitching. Ecstasy alternates with great sorrow, and it is needless to say that one can see directly the suffering that this soul has suffered.

He walked forward in three steps and two steps, rushing to the end of the task in search of relief, but suddenly stopped. The appearance of being frozen in place was strange and abrupt, but Van Cleef was not surprised.

Casidorius turned his head to look at him at this moment, and his expression gradually changed from hideous to calm.

"It can't be so easy," he said, his voice so soft that it was impossible to tell if he was talking to Van Cleef or to himself.

"How could it end like this? What about that thing? Where is it? ”

Van Cleef didn't answer, but stepped forward, like a sword of silence cutting through the mist. His footsteps fell silently, but his armor began to hum.

He and Cassitorius have walked countless years in the reincarnation of human history.

At first, the scenery they experienced was normal. However, with the appearance of that monster, everything began to turn towards the worst part, like walking in a nightmare. Even if there is nothing around, worry about whether the tree will become what it is.

Van Cleef accepted this in its entirety, and it would be abnormal for him not to accept it. In a sense, he was more of a monster than that thing.

But Casidorius is obviously not good, he is just a mortal, and his mind has a threshold of endurance - as long as he exceeds this value, he will go crazy. In fact, he had gone back and forth between sobriety and madness many times.

Van Cleef has no comment on this, and there is no reason for him to ask too much of Casidorius. No matter how tenacious a mortal's mind is, it can't withstand such torture. But he had to bear it, and he had no choice.

He went mad and woke and woke and went mad, his mind forged by suffering for endless years, and became a distorted piece of steel.

For Casidorius del Kunas today, the clear line between madness and sobriety has disappeared completely. He's in madness all the time, but he's also in sanity all the time.

Otherwise, how could he have perceived that only blind spot in the midst of great joy and sorrow?

Van Cleef calmly raised his sword with one hand and slashed horizontally. The chainsaw sword slashed through the empty air, and blood suddenly gushed out.

Something that didn't exist was hurt by him here, and the flames of rage rose, and the face of the first company commander began to shatter with unprecedented strength and speed.

Behind him, Casidorius stumbled over. The wind gradually rose, and the world suddenly changed indescribably at this moment.

Van Cleef was still empty in front of him, but he understood that something crazy was already standing in front of him.

The commander of the first company could see its outline, but only a corner. It's huge, it's crazy.

It is a collection of all the darkness that Casidorius has endured as a messenger in the past endless time, a monstrous monster born against him, a conspiracy orchestrated by Chaos. It is the epiphysis that always chases after them, never giving up, never resting.

Now, it's in their way to the last mile of their mission.

Van Cleef raised his head slightly and glanced at the sky. The sun had not yet risen, and gold was already spreading in the sky.

That's some kind of answer, or yes.

"You can't kill me unless you kill him" The monster gradually appeared, becoming solid and real. Van Cleef looked at it coldly, shook his head nonchalantly, and raised his sword.

In the next five minutes, he killed it fifteen hundred and fifty-five times. But, as it had said, it had come back from the darkness again and again, and had stopped before Van Cleeve and Casidorius.

It didn't even bother to resist.

"I can't stand up to you, God's Favor. But I don't need violence, I am his opposite, his opposite, the endless torment of a mortal in eternity. If he doesn't die, I won't die, and you won't be able to pass. But if he dies, your mission will fail. ”

"Take my corpse forward!" Casidorius roared suddenly. "Don't let this thing fool you, come back and kill me, Van Cleef! Whoever will send this gem is the same! ”

Van Cleef shook his head.

"It's not a gem, so it's not a matter of common sense." He said flatly. "Haven't you realized what it is, Casidorius?"

He raised his sword, pointing at the vague, massive figure.

"It is an echo of the endless darkness you have endured, but, along the way, have we only endured darkness? Our rule is to try not to communicate with people, and we don't follow it. So, do you remember how many people we walked with? ”

"The Oriental man who tried to save everything, the young man who was burned at the stake by religion, the thin woman who stood between his mother and the beast, you are not just a messenger, you are a witness. We have measured the history of mankind with our feet, and you, Casidorius—"

He tilted his head slightly, his face shattering at this moment.

"—how many heroes have you seen?"

Flames rise, and the wind blows. The cliffs begin to change, tremble and shift in the earthquake, and then are baptized by artillery fire from nowhere, until they become an eerie wasteland. The sky was changing between the stars, day and night were infinitely alternate, and the pouring rain fell with a bang, and a scarlet and huge pupil slowly emerged from behind the gloomy rain clouds.

The beast standing in front of Van Cleve bowed its back and saluted its owner of the eyes. It muttered words like master, and its body trembled as if it were afraid.

Van Cleef looked up at the sky without fear, and the rain quietly stopped, and the clouds rolled to form a majestic but eerie face.

Horus Lupecar's face.

Although they only existed for a brief moment before being completely dispelled by the golden lightning, Van Cleef was certain that he had spotted them.

This is certainly not good news, and Van Cleef no longer hesitates. He raised his sword again, and furious flames rose from his eyes, enveloping his entire body.

Suddenly there was a soft murmur in the air, and Casidorius listened intently, and found that it was a salute, an ode to religion—and before he could think about what it meant, he felt a real fear welling up in his bones.

The Courier looked up sharply and saw that Van Cleeff was gone, replaced by a massive demon.

It was tall, at least ten meters tall, and in its right hand it held a monstrous greatsword entwined with pitch-black lightning. It was clad in shattered armor with multiple chains wrapped around it, leaving the hideous dark red armor on its body. The huge horns on the top of his head are spiraling, and his white hair flutters in the wind like sideburns.

The demon spoke slowly—or, rather, swearing.

"I ask you to bear witness." It raised its sword, and its voice was deep.

Who? Who witnesses?

The question crossed Casidorius' mind, but he failed to grasp it. He has lost the ability to think for the time being, and can only passively accept these things, like a safe that can only enter and exit. Then, a chill came across his forehead.

Instinctively, the messenger looked up, only to see that it was snowing in the sky, pitch black snow.

"I will take revenge on this beast." The demon said calmly and clearly. "I will hunt it from now until the end of time. It will never be at peace, and it will live in fear and pain all day long. I will slaughter it, I will hollow out its entrails, crush its bones, cut off its head and throw it into the sea. ”

In the sky, there was a faint red flickering away.

"You can't do ——!" The beast roared in response, a little fear in his voice for the first time, not so obvious, but it was fear.

As it spoke, its massive form began to disintegrate. Countless monsters leaped out of the void and surged towards the demon, drowning it like a tidal wave.

The earthquake trembled, and Casidorius fell to the ground, and the world spun around, and the sounds around him were extremely noisy. Everything in front of him became a huge vortex, and everything in the past began to flow in it.

Casidorius spat out a mouthful of blood and saw the scarlet pupil again. He seemed to have an understanding—this was the great rebel Horus Lupecar, and the traitor had come for him. He didn't know how he did it, but, but.

But I had to run.

With fear like never before, Cassitorius jerked to his feet.

I had to run, I couldn't fall into his hands, and the jewel—he reached out to his chest—couldn't fall into his hands!

A burning pain rose from his hand, and before he could do anything about it, Casidorius was dragged to the ground by an incomprehensible force.

He rolled around a few times in embarrassment and rolled under a stone tablet. The messenger looked up in embarrassment and saw a man with his eyes closed. He was tied to the stone tablet, and the blood from nowhere streaked across his body and fell to his feet, forming a stream.

Casidorius stood up trembling - for no reason, he had already understood who this man really was. He walked over trembling as if he had an epilepsy, trying to free the man, but was ordered to stop by a voice behind him.

"He thought he hid you well." The voice said nonchalantly. "He's confident in you, and he's looking at you as that source of hope – it's funny."

Casidorius's blood began to burn in the blood vessels.

"Turn around." The voice commanded.

He turned around and saw Horus Lupecal and the one-sided truth he had deliberately revealed—what was the truth?

The truth is that this wasteland, this stele doesn't actually exist.

These images are just a metaphor, an illusory scene that has been created after tomorrow. They exist for only one purpose, that is, to make mortal reason bearable, so that mortal eyes can see and understand.

And Horus Lupecar had just revealed the truth to him.

Casidorius saw the stars, the bloody, wailing, screaming, sickly stars, and Horus holding them in his hands.

Then he saw the emperor.

His emperor, his shield, his sword—the emperor who was gnawed until his flesh was blurred, and half of his face had become a skeleton.

(End of chapter)