Reserved for important people among mortals, the mobility vehicle, which had been particularly considered for comfort, slowly stopped in front of an even more magnificent building. Fujimaru Rika slowly got out of the car with Kellya, and said to the blood slave who was in charge of guiding the way in a tone with just the right amount of emotion: "I didn't expect that the head of Dante's war would arrange the banquet in such a significant place. ”

This is the undoubted centerpiece of the entire complex. The building used by Fujimaru Ritsuka's previous appearance ball, which was specially used for diplomacy, of course, also had the grandeur and magnificence of the Holy Blood Angel's level, but if it was compared to the "huge structure" in front of her now, it was obviously too trivial.

This is where the soul of the Angel Fortress of Araks lies. 10,000 years ago, it was the home of St. Giles, the original body of the Ninth Legion, the center of a powerful and violent institution fed by the people of the Bal Trinity for generations; After 10,000 years, it is still a place where the leaders of the warbands live and entertain, and due to the deposition of history here over the past 10,000 years, it has gained a thicker symbolic meaning under the passage of time.

The blood slave, who was smiling politely, did not speak, but just reached out and made a "please" gesture.

There had been a slight amount of unpleasantness between them during the previous trip, but not enough for either side to lose their professionalism. Rika Fujimaru also smiled and followed the other man, quietly stepping into the overly grand gate of the building, and politely and quietly observing the surrounding scene.

The atmosphere in the short group was still cheerful, or at least it seemed so. The Blood Slave did what he had done when he led his guests into the building for the first time, usually Astartes from other warbands, selectively pointed out and introduced some of the special decorations or works of art in the magnificent building as he had done as he had done before. And Fujimaru Rika, like any well-mannered and very cheerful guest, threw out some unimportant questions at the right time, and then exclaimed.

In fact, the latter is comparing the furnishings inside the building to those she remembers.

Ten thousand years have passed since the Great Expedition ended in rebellion and St. Giles died. It is impossible not to leave traces on the Bloody Angel Warband's Abbey, a dead thing that exists in reality, even if it is a complex that has been carefully maintained by generations of Blood Angel Space Marines - not to mention, in the fierce battle a hundred years ago, this building has indeed suffered a blow that cannot be ignored.

The meticulousness of the Holy Blood Angels in their rebuilding work is really remarkable, but rebuilding is rebuilding. But then again, even if the building hadn't survived the catastrophe that made it need to be rebuilt, it might not have been able to "still be as it was 10,000 years ago" after countless repairs overlaid on top of it over the years.

To do this, you might have to keep the entire building in a stasis field, as the Ultramarines or Raven Guards did with their original rooms. But firstly, the Empire does not have a static force field of such a large scale, and secondly, the Fortress of the Angels of Arrakes is not just a monument to a fleeting glorious past, it also has its own functions as a warband monastery.

The overall layout of the building should not have changed much, but in Fujimaru's opinion, many of the details of its interior have long since been unrecognizable - this description is not a compliment, but simply a statement of fact. The frescoes painted on the dome and walls are still the themes of the victories that the Angels of the Holy Blood have achieved in various places, but there are obviously far more than Fujimaru Ritsuka remembers.

It was not only St. Giles himself who led the legion to kill the enemy in the Great Expedition, but also the countless glorious battles of the Holy Blood Angel Wargroup after the Second Establishment of the Army were also turned into murals in this building with special significance. In these artistic records that belong to the warband, not to the legion, St. Giles still appears, but not as the center of the picture, but hovers above it with a faint sadness, looking down on the triumph of his children with a gaze that seems to be both gratifying and scrutinizing.

In addition to the frescoes, the decorative figurines placed throughout the building also have different themes. In Fujimaru Ritsuka's impression, most of the small decorative carvings placed in inconspicuous corners are based on the native flora and fauna of the three stars of Bal. In view of the fact that the poor mountains and bad waters of the dead world really do not raise any soft and lovely creatures, those small carvings always show a primitive ruggedness and vigorous sense of power in style. But now, most of those details have been replaced by soft, cute little angels. This brings a harmonious beauty of order to the overall decoration of the decoration, but in Fujimaru Ritsuka's view, it is indeed less wild.

She didn't know when the change took place. Perhaps these small carvings were changed little by little over the course of 10,000 years of the Holy Blood Angel's restoration of the building, or perhaps they were collectively rebuilt after the Tyranid invasion, or perhaps they were the way they were in the first place, and Rika Fujimaru was not the right impression - what she experienced was not a real expedition, but a fantasy stacked up by one after another too real psionic illusions. The visions in this illusion are not entirely based on historical realities, but are mostly based on the participants' impressions of the past. What she remembered in her illusion was, in the final analysis, nothing more than "the part of the torch that St. Giles had of her abode".

Considering the mental state of the person, there is no guarantee that his memory will be correct. St. Giles had even his soul shattered in the final battle, and he still hasn't been able to recover - not even all the fragments scattered in the subspace. His memories are often confused, so it is normal for him to subconsciously reassemble the missing parts in some unimportant details, so that the impression does not match the reality.

It is completely impossible to find the truth nowadays, and the truth has long been completely buried by the history of weathering and dispersion for thousands of years. In many cases, it is not the visible enemy that creates obstacles to the inheritance and survival of human civilization without realizing it, but time itself.

But it doesn't matter. At least in the eyes of Fujimaru Rika, all the differences she has actually seen so far are still within the "margin of error".

Magic does require "absolute precision" in some angles and directions, but in many cases, this precision is not reflected on a physical level. The human race in the Angelic Fortress of Araks has not been broken, faith has not been broken, civilization has not been broken, history has not been broken. For her, that's enough.

With this strange sense of relief, Fujimaru Rika's journey finally came to an end under the guidance of the Blood Slave: she finally met once again the current head of the Holy Blood Angel, the living legend of more than 1,500 years of service, surrounded by the Holy Blood Guards in golden armor, the dark regent of the empire standing solemnly at the door of the banquet hall in regular clothes, Dante.

(End of chapter)

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