Erda walked with hurried steps, swiftly leaving the laboratory with the Custodes closely following behind her.
Surprised by Malcador's sharpness, Erda nonetheless gave mere two Custodes no mind; she now had to return to her quarters quickly to execute the next step of her plan.
"You may fall back. I am already safe."
Stopping before the courtyard gates, Erda dismissed the Custodes, and though it seemed somewhat impossible, she made one last effort.
The Custodes stood there, as if they had heard no command, unmoving, with no intention of leaving.
Out of respect for the Emperor's friend, one of them explained, a clear and passionate voice coming from beneath his helmet, "My lady, we are acting on Malcador's instructions to ensure your personal safety."
"Then sorry for the trouble." Erda shook her head and walked into the courtyard.
The two Custodes stood straight at the courtyard entrance, facing inward, without the slightest intent to provide actual protection.
Calling it protection, it was surveillance in reality.
Not dwelling too much on the excessive persistence of the Custodes, Erda returned to her room, dismissed her attending maids, and lay quietly upon the bed.
Opening the bedside hidden compartment, she took out a silver dagger, gripped it tightly in both hands, and slowly thrust it into her chest.
With the plan set, Erda had to restore her energy in the fastest possible way; little time remained for her.
As blood flowed, the dark red silk and the gold-patterned quilt grew a few shades deeper in color, and Erda's breathing gradually steadied, passing away peacefully on the luxurious bed like a sleeping beauty.
She had grown used to death, her consciousness plunging completely into darkness, but in just a day's time, her perpetual constitution would fully regenerate, healing all physical injuries.
The Custodes guarded the courtyard entrance like statues; the protected target had not appeared in their field of vision for a long time, no threats approached from any direction, and the Adeptus Custodes thoroughly enjoyed standing guard—they only needed to stand.
Though the Custodes possessed extraordinary combat prowess, combat was not their essence.
Every single Custodes was a unique talent; regardless of whether it was a specialized field or a common skill, they had reached the peak of human capability.
Perhaps of the two holding halberds on guard duty, one was a top-tier chef among humanity, and the other might well be a master shoemaker.
Combat and such things were merely byproducts brought by the extraordinary physique of a Custodes.
A pale arm pushed open a window, and a Custodes noticed that it was the arm of the protected target. A gust of breeze swept past, and the superhuman senses granted by their transhuman physique detected an abnormality.
The Custodes' nostrils flared slightly, acutely catching the faint scent of blood carried by the breeze drifting past the window.
No words were needed, nor any redundant movements.
The two Custodes guards charged into the courtyard instantly, their figures moving as fast as lightning and barrelling forward, the marble path crushed beneath their armored boots, while maids clutched their heads and screamed, dodging the tall, imposing figures of the Custodes in a panic.
"Fall back!" The voice of the Custodes guard was like thunder, both hands gripping his Power Halberd and aiming it at the bedroom doors. The bolter mounted beneath the halberd was pointed squarely at the entrance, and his right index finger was already resting upon the halberd's trigger.
With just a gentle squeeze of the trigger, the large-caliber explosive rounds of the bolter would instantly tear the mahogany doors to shreds.
The two maids standing guard before Erda's bedroom doors were scared out of their wits and stood frozen there, not daring to make the slightest movement, until they were startled back to senses by the Custodes' angry roar, standing pale and rigid.
The Custodes had no time to care about the maids; their armor rose and fell with their breathing, emitting a slight frictional sound. Their heartbeats were strong and powerful, and accelerated blood flow allowed the Custodes to enter a combat state immediately.
They felt somewhat tense; within the Emperor's domain, at the foot of the Himalayas, what kind of methods had the assassin behind the door used to sneak in, evade the gaze of the Custodes, and silently complete an assassination?
The fact that Erda was a perpetual was not a profound secret among the Custodes, but for safety reasons, not everyone knew it.
Technological warlords? Techno-barbarians? Just who was it?
The footsteps behind the door were approaching slowly, steady and even, showing not the slightest panic, as if even preparing to come out and face the Custodes directly.
The two Custodes tacitly stepped back slightly, as close quarters were ill-suited for halberd swings, and waited grimly for the person behind the door to appear.
"Custodes, you don't need to be nervous." Erda's voice came from behind the door. She gently pushed the door open and pulled up the maid who had collapsed to the ground, elegant and poised, completely devoid of the shattered fragility she had shown a day ago.
She had returned from rebirth, and her condition was better than ever before.
Seeing Erda safe and sound, the Custodes let out a long sigh of relief. Tactfully skipping over where the room's bloody stench had come from, one of them asked with some surprise, "My lady, are you preparing to go out?"
Erda was not wearing her usual silk court robes, having instead changed into military attire.
A thin, black, form-fitting combat bodysuit tightly enveloped Erda, perfectly outlining her figure.
The insignia marking her identity and rank on her shoulders and upper arms had long since been wiped away, and a tactical belt hung around her waist, tucked with a dagger and a strange pistol of an unprecedented model.
Yet the Custodes dared not underestimate this seemingly crude tactical ensemble.
Clearly, this set of tactical equipment hailed from humanity's most glorious Golden Age—an era now referred to by humanity as the Dark Age of Technology.
Beneath the heavy dust of history, that great and brilliant era buried too many secrets, dark and mysterious.
"Yes, I am going out on a trip, and I require your escort and protection." Erda smiled faintly, directly stating her travel plans and inviting the Custodes to accompany her.
Erda knew very well that she could not shake off the Custodes, so she decided to turn the situation to her advantage, utilizing the Custodes to achieve her own goals while securing an extra layer of safety insurance.
"We are deeply honored to accompany you. I suppose the journey will be quite long, so please call me 'Achilles', and this is my colleague, 'Claudius Ptolemy'."
The Custodes stated their names, sharing them with the great heroes and scholars of ancient Terra.
Custodes candidates were selected from infancy, their original names long since discarded or forgotten, and the Emperor bestowed upon them new names, generally those of the great heroes of ancient Terra.
Hearing the names of heroes, Erda felt an even greater aversion to the Emperor's morbid sense of humor. She quickened her pace to leave the courtyard, wishing to depart this place sooner.
Achilles followed closely behind Erda, while Ptolemy went to prepare three hoverbikes.
The three of them mounted anti-gravity hoverbikes, leaving the Himalayan mountain range and pressing onward until they crossed out of the territory under the Emperor's direct control.
"My lady, can you tell me our destination for this trip?" The two Custodes rode hunched over their flying bikes, guarding Erda in the middle. Seeing that they had traveled very far from the Emperor and still saw no destination, Achilles asked through his comm-helmet.
"A secret base."
"Understood, my lady."
The three rode on in silence all the way, and after a long journey, they finally arrived at their destination.
Terra's ecosystem had been utterly destroyed; during the warlords' civil war, nuclear weapons were traded back and forth, and mountain ranges were razed to the ground, leaving behind only yellow sand and barren wastes.
Only those resilient and lethally dangerous organisms survived the harsh environment, lurking within the endless deserts.
Erda led the Custodes through the shifting sea of sand, finally arriving at her destination—her private base.
Entering an underground facility and successfully passing through still-operational security systems, the three arrived deep within the secret base; the things Erda needed were kept right here.
"My lady, please allow me to assist." Seemingly asking for permission, Achilles preempted Erda, stepping forward to lift a box and cradling it in his arms, with no intention of handing it over to her.
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