13. The First Battle (III)
Blood.
The smell of blood was everywhere. Konrad Curze Curze pinpointed the smell precisely, but he didn't let it affect him.
He turned and walked out of the broken metal door. Van Cleef immediately handed him a Dataslate. Curze took it without saying a word. He lowered his head and began to read. The Dataslate displayed a scan result from the Nightfall.
Based on the data, Harkosus I is indeed, as the senior traders said, a fully developed planet with only one city.
One of the three leaders of the Burning Fire Chamber of Commerce rules this place. The senior traders do not utter his name, but the trembling in their voices when they mention him reveals an extreme level of obedience.
The interesting part is that the commoners who accompanied them to Nostramo were completely unaware of this so-called leader—they didn't even know much about the existence of the Burning Fire Chamber of Commerce.
Konrad Curze Curze looked up, Van Cleef stared at his Primarch through the eyepiece, awaiting orders. Curze handed the Dataslate back, but instead of giving orders, he asked a question.
"How is the situation?"
"As planned, we are gradually taking control of key areas around the spire," Van Cleef said. He wanted to say more, but a violent tremor interrupted him.
Immediately following was a terrifying roar. The company commander steadied himself and immediately began asking questions on the communication channel. Half a minute later, a member of a scattered hunting squad gave him an answer.
"We blew up an armory," he said quietly over the channel. "These guys even have heavy tanks, sir."
"Understood. Continue your work," Van Cleef replied calmly, watching his Primarch leave the burning gate.
His crimson cloak billowed behind him in the fierce wind. The Eighth Legion's Storm Eagle and transport ships streaked through the clouds, and the screams of civilians echoed from the nearby streets. Konrad Curze Curze watched all this in silence, that chilling premonition returning once more.
He clenched his fists.
"Come on if you dare," he muttered to himself.
There was no fear, no trembling. He had witnessed Karyl driving them away, and he knew what they were.
He will never run away again.
--
Officer G-A2-4 heard a terrible scream. He turned around, his combat pistol and dagger dripping blood.
He had just executed two soldiers of weak will; those who did not Kindling the Body were so lowly that even having received the Burning Fire gaze within the spire, they would rather betray its favor.
Officer G. A2-4 was furious, but his actions were not opposed by the soldiers. All those who Kindling the Body approved of his actions, and the power of the Burning Fire protected them until now.
Until that scream came from the end of the dimly lit corridor.
Officer G. A2-4 raised his rifle and, using his combat helmet, issued an order to the soldiers he had gathered.
They had to pass through that corridor to reach the forty-ninth floor. The spire had eighty-one floors in total, and the forty-ninth floor was the central node. Officer G-A2-4 had received orders to come here and shut down the energy core, which would disable all the automatic doors below the forty-ninth floor.
He knew this wasn't a big problem for those lightning-fast monsters, but they could be killed.
Officer G-A2-4's squad had already done this before; he used four combat robots and an entire squad of twenty men as a trap to kill three monsters.
At this moment, his confidence soared. Soon, a six-person team broke away from the main group and headed towards the end of the corridor. Although the emergency exits of the spire were narrow, they provided them with some convenience at this time.
Those monsters had no way to dodge bullets in such a confined space.
The squad quickly moved in and reported to Officer G-A2-4 through their combat helmets that they were making a steady advance. Then, within two seconds of this message being relayed back, another terrifying scream erupted.
Officer G-A2-4 roared, shouting with all his might, as if he were trying to tear out his own guts. His soldiers began firing toward the end of the corridor without hesitation. They knew nothing of their comrades' condition, nor did they grieve for their deaths.
The Burning Fire protects everyone's soul, and no one would fear sacrifice in such a situation.
The firing lasted for twenty seconds. Officer G. A2-4 raised his hand and made a gesture, and his soldiers immediately ceased firing. The standard magazine of the battle rifle had sixty rounds, so he had no need to worry about being caught off guard by the enemy during a gap in a volley.
But at that moment, a dark figure suddenly rushed towards him. Officer G-A2-4 froze in shock for a moment, but fortunately a soldier reacted quickly and pulled him to the other side.
Two seconds later, they had time to observe what the object that had been thrown at them actually was.
It was a corpse.
A mutilated corpse—only the upper body remains, with the broken spine and internal organs hanging inside the exposed abdominal cavity, blood constantly oozing out.
His combat suit was completely shattered, with only some broken fragments of white armor hanging on his chest.
His helmet was also ripped off, and the Burning Fire mark on his forehead disappeared without a trace. Someone had carved another symbol on his forehead with a blade or something else—a strange symbol with Aquila.
After a brief moment of fear, Officer G-A2-4 felt a surge of unnatural rage. He looked up, wanting to order his soldiers to advance and seize the scum who dared to desecrate the Burning Fire flames. But he would never have the chance to issue any new orders.
Because a Ghost was standing before him, silent and still, its empty eye sockets emitting a chilling blue light. It was terrifyingly large, so large that it shouldn't exist in the real world.
Officer G-A2-4's reason crumbled at that moment. He took a step back, wanting to kneel, but the mark on his forehead suddenly throbbed with burning pain. Humiliation followed, and Officer G-A2-4 roared as he raised his dagger and stabbed at the Ghost.
"I admire your actions," the Ghost said. "You and your squad drew blood from the Eighth Legion."
After that, the world of Officer A2-4 was filled with darkness.
Karyl calmly stepped over the corpses scattered everywhere—it took him twenty-one minutes to ascend from the twelfth floor to the forty-ninth.
He wasn't very efficient, but he killed many Harkosus soldiers on each floor. Considering that, the lower efficiency wasn't a big deal.
His psychic powers continued to function; in fact, he would use them indefinitely as long as he wore the armor. The memories and names of the dead had become a book that could be freely consulted, and many of his questions had been answered. However, this also gave rise to a new question.
One of the leaders of the Harkosus Federation, and one of the family heads of the Burning Fire Chamber of Commerce, resides at the top of this spire.
He never left the ship, was widely loved, and would give a televised address or participate in other programs every night at seven o'clock to spend a wonderful evening with the people aboard the Harkosus I.
He reigned for a long time, and many soldiers even grew up watching his shows. Yet, this approachable leader left no trace in the memories of any of the fallen soldiers of Harkosus.
No name, no face, no voice.
They called him a leader, but what else?
There is none left.
That's all.
This person seemed to exist only in dreams; every night at seven o'clock, this dream would appear in the minds of the people on Harkosus I.
That's really interesting.
Karyl looked up at the top of the tower.
Having reached this point, he could roughly guess what was waiting in the darkness—in fact, he had already used his psychic powers to probe it once.
He was cautious, so he only explored it once. In that one exploration, the thing remained at the top of the tower and did not choose to leave. It even leisurely greeted him with its psionic energy.
Thinking of this, Karyl couldn't help but smile. Beneath his cloak, a rapid, intermittent rustling sound could be heard.
Thirty-two more floors remained before he would face the truth, whether that truth would be as he wished or not. Karyl Lohars didn't really care.
He was tired of the endless guessing, the patience, telling riddles to others, and going back and forth between lies and truth.
He was also tired of watching those things come and go in the darkness, seeping through the Veil, using every possible means to harm this galaxy that belonged to humanity.
--Only killing is possible.
The Ghost floated upwards, but did not go to hell.
Update complete. I had dinner and it's a bit late, sorry.