Nearly a hundred people collapsed at once. Among them, more than a dozen whose ears were larger and longer than normal bled from their ears and noses.
The Space Apes staggered, then continued fleeing.
Nimrod was not surprised. He knew that Space Apes had no known language or culture, and no motivation beyond survival.
With a boom, the Primarch slammed into the crowd. Four people were crushed to death, and more than a dozen others were hurled away by the shock wave.
Nimrod extended his consciousness, forcibly opening the Gates of Mind of twelve people nearby.
The brain held a person's thoughts, but the mind revealed their truest responses.
Countless chaotic mental images flickered through his mind like a shower of flower petals filling the sky.
Hmm?
Nimrod was immediately drawn to an image that appeared in all twelve minds at once. Holding blazing-hot hearts in their hands, they knelt in a crystal forest glittering with multicolored light, worshipping a crystal statue dozens of meters tall.
The statue's most striking feature was its serpentine tail, which was as long as half its body. Each of its four hands held something.
The twelve worshipped the statue devoutly. Through their minds, Nimrod directly grasped the meaning of the local Low Gothic.
"Great Heart-Slayer, we offer you these sacrifices!"
"Please protect us! Grant us your blessings!"
"..."
The Heart-Slayer? That sounds a little familiar.
Hearts, a serpent's tail, four arms.
A Keeper of Secrets, the Heart-Slayer?
Nimrod looked around at the crowd and realized that they all showed slight mutations to varying degrees. Some flicked forked tongues from their mouths, while others had eyes that glittered like crystal...
The mutations aren't severe, but a very high proportion of them are affected.
He frowned slightly again. He had sensed neither a weakening of the