There was nothing wrong with the air circulation system, but the Shadow Hammer's bridge was still suffocating. Even the mere verbal confrontation between the two Inquisitors would have made the apprentices and servants around them tremble.

"I warned you a long time ago, don't meddle in Fujimaru Rika's side - not even try!" Hastings tried to keep his voice down, but his emotions were approaching his limit and the effort was ineffective, "You didn't listen to my advice, and the spies you sent out were caught; I've spent hours here again trying to get this thing to work out without bloodshed, and you don't listen to my advice - well, it's your own death! ”

"I will not listen to such baseless alarmism of yours." Verchak's attitude also became extremely sharp, and apparently, after these few hours of negotiations, she also decided to completely tear off the useless social mask, "If I hand over a respectable subordinate who risked his life to work for me just because of a reprimand from others, how can I still sit firmly in this position?" What will other people who work for me think of me? ”

"At least if you do, they'll be able to see you in the future." Hastings almost burst out laughing, "And save it, can you still pump such warmth and concern in that mechanical heart?" You should really think of a reason why at least not the moment you say it. ”

"Do I need to understand this as a threat?" Verchak lowered her voice—whatever Hastings was thinking when she said this, at least for now, she did want to express her threat, "It's unbelievable that you're so intimidated by a little girl who isn't even an adult and start working on her diligently?" ”

Hastings had already told her what to say, more than once. So now, he just gave up and laughed: "Well, if you insist on moving forward with your eyes closed only on your past experience, I won't stop you." I guess everyone has the freedom to find their own death. I'm just asking you, what exactly are you trying to hide in this matter? ”

Verchak snorted coldly: "On what basis do you think that I am 'hiding something' by making such a decision?" Or what does what I'm hiding have to do with you, Sibylla Hastings? ”

"Because this is the Shadow Hammer." As if to say a well-known axiom, Hastings declared, "From my own point of view, whatever you are hiding, I must make sure that the blood you spilled when you seek death does not burst out on me." ”

"It's a shame that when we first met, I thought I could reach an agreement with you."

"It's a very surprising fact that until 10 minutes, I was actually trying to be on the same side as you."

"That's surprising, because I don't see it at all."

"After all, our esteemed lord commander has never deigned to open her theoretically usable eyes. Ms. Verchak, I said a long time ago that sooner or later you will be killed by your own arrogance. ”

"Ha," Verchak raised an eyebrow dramatically, "is that a prophecy?" ”

"Does this still need to be prophesied? This is just a reasonable inference based on facts, and anyone with a normal thinking ability can easily come to such a result. Hastings sneered, "I suggest you pray to the God Emperor from now on, the day you were killed by yourself will not be today." ”

After these words fell, Verchak really laughed: "Do you really think that little girl who was put in the position of 'saint' can execute me for such a trivial matter? A lord inquisitor who has served in the Inquisition for more than four hundred years? ”

Hastings suddenly felt a sharp exhaustion. Out of responsibility, he felt he should repeat the argument he had repeated so many times, but he knew it wouldn't work—how could you force the person to understand what he was saying if he plugged his ears himself?

"Whatever you want." He ended up just saying, "If you firmly believe that Rika Fujimaru is just a mascot erected by the forbidden army, that is also your freedom." ”

There was no need to ask the Emperor Tarot for divination, and Hastings was sure that Verchak would soon be killed by his arrogance - either today or tomorrow. Seriously, he didn't understand why the other party could ignore the fact that the Imperial Dream was Rika's ship Fujimaru Richika, and insisted that some of the examples that Hastings had given her about what happened to Pamenio were all nonsense. Perhaps, she did have an idea of the energy that Rika Fujimaru could mobilize, but she refused to think that the other party could use it as she commanded.

Vilczak showed a strange self-confidence throughout the negotiation, as if he firmly believed that all those who had gathered around Rika Fujimaru to build momentum for her were blinded, and that she was the only one who saw through everything and then proudly insisted on the smallest details, as if that were the real thing for the Empire.

She's a lord inquisitor, she's honorable, she's always right. When Hastings first met Verczak, she was adamantly convinced. In the previous hours of negotiations, Hastings had tried to rectify this. It didn't work out – but in terms of their shallow friendship, Hastings at least made an effort, and he did his duty.

"Out of the friendship that can be regarded as non-existent in the past, I would like to remind you one last time: I am the one who came here today to negotiate for this matter, because my work happens to be relatively idle." Hastings concluded, "The Praetorian Squad has been split into three parts today, and is negotiating with the Anglican, Mechana, and Barr's internal affairs agencies. Fujimaru Rika didn't send the Forbidden Army because she thought it might be better for you and me to talk to each other—of course, she had been proven wrong—and in her mind, the Forbidden Army's mission was clearly much more important than that. It's not because she thinks the Forbidden Army will refute her, what you call 'vexatious'. ”

It's better to say that if the forbidden army was here, based on the resistance that Verchak showed in the negotiation just now, she might have died ten times by now. Hastings thought so, but he didn't bother to continue to spend energy explaining it in detail to the other party. He put on a "that's it" attitude and turned to leave the bridge. Verchak did not give up and asked behind him: "Where are you going?" ”

"Go where the Inquisitor should be after the negotiations have collapsed." Hastings replied coldly.

Perhaps this sentence would normally be understood as "I'm going home", but after going through the previous negotiation process, Verchak will not just make this level of understanding:

"What does that mean?" Her tone was visibly nervous, "Elud, stop—"

Before the Lord Inquisitor's words fell, the Force Field Sword on Hastings' waist had already swung out. Nearly at the same time as the blue light of the psionic energy lit up, the mechanical right hand of the acolyte, on whom Verchak relied so much, fell to the ground before he could draw his spear.

"Are you serious?" Hastings asked rhetorically with a smile, "Do you think you can stop a psionic prophet?" ”

"Do you think you can run amok on 'my ship'?" Vilczak took the previous manifesto to mean that "Hastings is ready to start investigating what she is hiding by her unreasonable refusal to hand over Mita Ashn", and is extremely angry because of it, "What makes you think you have the ability to launch an investigation on 'my ship'?" ”

Unfortunately, this leapfrog understanding is correct. The temperature around him was slowly decreasing due to the activity of psionic energy, and Hastings shrugged his shoulders indifferently: "Maybe it's because if 'that thing' from a hundred years ago had landed smoothly, then this should have been 'my ship'." ”

The Shadow Hammer, about a hundred years ago, was a Black Tribunal ship affiliated with the Order of the Holy Hammer. At that time, the owner of the ship was Horace Scripps, who was the Inquisitor Mentor of Sibylla Hastings.

"My original plan was to do a 'big cleaning' of the entire ship once the dust settled, but you took her away, so I didn't have time to do it." Hastings said calmly, but there seemed to be a hint of frustration hidden in his tone, "In retrospect, maybe I should have been tougher then, so that you wouldn't have been able to get any forbidden knowledge out of this ship, and therefore have a mind that you shouldn't have." ”

This is clearly a clear provocation. Verchak's brow furrowed viciously at this.

——

The corridor leading to the stern of the ship was getting colder and narrower, and the atmosphere was becoming more and more unsettling.

It's a location that's far removed from any of the ship's major structures, and a dangerous psionic prison is certainly the right decision from a design and security standpoint, but it doesn't feel good from a user point of view. Sahar continued to mumble something on the way here, and as they got closer to their destination, he seemed to be infected by the oppressive atmosphere and gradually quieted down.

Fujimaru Rika and Sahar, who simply stopped acting, rushed all the way over. They made no secret of it, leaving behind the terrified staff of the black ship, and broke the jar and prepared for a bloody welcome ceremony of the specification that "the siren sounded all the way". But for some reason, until they approached the corridor outside the psionic prison, there were still no guards or defenses to stop them.

To put it another way, it's a bit of a dark humor: the rigidity and redundancy of the imperial bureaucracy isn't entirely unreflected in a black ship of the Inquisition. The mortal staff who witnessed the two men running down the hallway - most of them didn't actually react to what they were seeing. A Death Watch Astarte is chasing something down the hallway? It's a bit unusual and scary (God knows if they're going to hit something) and it's worth complaining about, but not so bad that you need to pull the alarm.

All in all, Sahar and Fujimaru Rika's little adventures weren't going to be known to the class on board that could actually make decisions - unless those people had other reliable sources of information until the staff who did decide to complain had written their protest letters and dropped them in the suggestion box, and until someone had actually checked the letters in the suggestion box. As a result, Rika Fujimaru was able to stand in front of the heavy gate for a long time, completing all the identification with the help of the Aquila Scepter, waiting for the huge piece of adamantite gold, which would take at least ten minutes to be burned through with hot melting, to be slowly lifted in front of her by hinges.

The slight difference in air pressure allows the air to naturally communicate between the inside and outside, and the wind blowing from the inside seems colder than outside.

There was no doubt that this was a psionic prison - Sahar had known this in advance from Fujimaru Ritsuka, but he had not expected that it was a description that could be easily seen intuitively from the interior decoration. The moment the air began to circulate, he smelled a rotten smell of dried blood. But what revealed the lineup was only a mezzanine: in front of them was another heavily sealed door, flanked by a staircase leading to the observation room on the upper floor.

Given the contents of the cell, it is clear that the more common way to use this cell is for the interrogator to walk up the stairs and ask questions of the prisoners safely in the observation room. But Fujimaru Rika and Sahar weren't here to interrogate a demonic host. The gem scepter brought from the vault was needed to be used on the door inside, and a special identification certificate that was independent of most of the Empire's security systems was put into operation, and after confirming the correctness of the "key", the two people waiting outside were reluctantly put inside.

The rotten gore was even stronger. Sahar followed Rika Fujimaru into the small room on the inside - it was really small, a small space only five meters square. Even if the stand is high, standing in it gives a strong sense of oppression. Sahar and Fujimaru Rika barely huddled into the outer side of the room, letting the door close silkily behind them. The feeling of oppression seemed to have intensified as the space became closed again, and Sahar had no knowledge of it, but he wouldn't be surprised if he was told that it was a supernatural sense of oppression.

The cell was empty, and the strip of lumen lamps cast only a faint cold light on the six-meter-high walls. There was barely any lighting here, but that didn't stop Sahar's eyes familiar with darkness from looking around. He could see the details, the walls and floors of the room were densely engraved with some kind of incantation or scripture that he did not understand, and the traces of the liquid drying up were everywhere, leaving behind a precipitation with color that was naturally embedded in the engraved scriptures.

Sahar had no doubt that it was blood, and felt a little hairy - even if he was a Midnight Lord, he was a Midnight Lord from the Great Expedition. The blood that flowed and dried up wasn't a problem for him, but the sight of spells or religion, which he had previously scoffed at, but which he had recently realized did work, made the sight creepy to him.

He didn't do any more research on it, and he didn't have time to ask questions like "where is Mita?" again. Because Fujimaru Ritsuka, who was blind to the scene in front of her, had already given the order in a loud voice: "Interrogate the prisoner." ”

The floor of the empty cell shook slightly from the mechanical movement, and after a tooth-aching sound of metal grinding, a cage swirled and rose on the floor of the cell in front of them—almost an airtight jar, the outer shell unsurprisingly stained with dried blood and countless marks of purity. It raised itself to the right height step by step, aiming an angle in the direction of Rika Fujimaru, who gave the command. The black-stained metal window fell with a smaller sound, revealing the barely human-shaped "Mita Asher" inside.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time—" The triumphant expression on the thing's "face" lasted only half a second, and when it saw the scene in front of its "eyes", it immediately turned into horror: "No, no! That's not right! You should wait quietly on your boat for the results! The first person to find this place should be Sibylla Hastings!! That's how the plan was supposed to be! ”

"I'm talking about it." Fujimaru Rika sneered and complained to Sevita on the other end of the communicator, "I always feel that there is a smell of Tzeentch Demon in this matter. ”

(End of chapter)