28-Day War (VI)

Karyl slowly clenched his right hand, and some pale fragments drifted down, adding more white to the ground.

The last soul belonging to Harkosus died at this moment.

The believers were killed by the very gods they worshipped, and their faith, in turn, persecuted them. The fragments slowly fell to the ground, joining their companions who had been there all along. They looked almost as thick as years of accumulated snow, but they were not snow. They were fragments of ashes and souls.

Karyl lowered his head and gazed at them, finally finding a bit of real peace.

In that battle—or rather, the massacre—the Xenos of Harkosus cursed their God of Burning Fire without ceasing.

They denounced the gods' betrayal and hypocrisy. They cursed Him, hoping He would be cruelly murdered and forgotten in history. They hoped that every one of His altars would be overthrown and every temple would be burned to ashes.

They wished for Him to live forever and suffer for ten thousand years.

Karyl readily accepted this.

Why shouldn't he accept it? They have every reason to hate him. Although the relationship between gods and believers has never been equal, he has never considered himself a god.

If these real Harkosus hate him, then let them come.

Rather than accept a fabricated curse and fate under Tzeentch's manipulation and yearn for the mercy of a false god, it would be better to die cleanly and decisively—it was with this thought that he roused the fallen Eighth Legion warriors.

He slaughtered in the temple of the God of Burning Fire, while they fought side by side with their living brothers on the surface of the earth.

Karyl closed his eyes, and hundreds of images flooded his mind.

As night fell, the undead, clad in black flames, carried out their merciless slaughter. Without pity or any superfluous emotion, they had become immortal corpses, and the dead never craved anything more.

He was about to achieve one of his goals— Karyl realized this, but felt no joy whatsoever.

The trouble on the Harkosus I is about to be completely resolved, but what happens after that? How will he explain all this to the Eighth Legion?

Moreover, this is only the first step. Harkosus has three planets. The danger to the first planet may have passed, but what about the second and third?

In other words, what about the War Hounds and the Ultramarines? What will become of them?

With a sigh, Karyl closed his eyes and vanished into a shadow. After he left, the ancient temple began to collapse.

Temples and faith will become things of yesterday, but at this moment, this place is still a divine kingdom. He floated up to the surface, where rocks and soil could not stop him, as if they did not exist. After an indescribable amount of time, he appeared beside Konrad Curze Curze.

The latter sat atop a large piece of charred metal, propping his chin up and gazing into the distance without speaking, seemingly unsurprised by his arrival.

"Instructor?"

Karyl turned and nodded to the company commander. "Van Cleef."

How did you get here?

Karyl smirked, and the skull mask vanished—whether intentionally or unintentionally, he quipped, "I flew up here like Ghost."

The company commander's expression was quite intriguing. He glanced at his Primarch before speaking again, "The Primarch says you have many things to explain to us."

I do have it.

Karyl turned his head and glanced at Konrad Curze Curze. The latter maintained his deliberately feigned posture, not even looking at him. His expression was tense, and his eyes were melancholic yet sharp, staring straight ahead.

"Yes," Karyl said. "I do have a lot to explain to you."

As soon as the words were spoken, many dark Shadow emerged from the darkness, while the soldiers of the Eighth Legion remained as silent as Ghost.

"Then tell me."

Konrad Curze Curze finally spoke—he looked at Karyl, his expression serious, devoid of any trace of the "Night Haunter" on his face. At this moment, he existed solely as the Lord of the Eighth Legion, demanding a reasonable explanation from Karyl.

Karyl had to answer this question, whether out of his own will or out of his duty as an instructor.

Karyl lowered his head, his face pale and calm beneath his hood. He spoke slowly, his tone as casual as if he were chatting, yet his words were as sharp as swords, almost cutting into every listener.

"I've been pondering whether to reveal the whole truth. I tried to be completely honest with you, but I failed, because some truths require certain qualifications to be heard."

He looked around, and the gazes that had always been gentle towards them now felt like needles pricking him. A pain welled up in Van Cleef's heart, but the company commander did his best to remain calm.

"I've thought about this countless times," the instructor from the Eighth Legion began slowly in his characteristically deep voice.

"To be more precise, I've assessed your qualifications countless times. I've assessed you during training sessions, and I've assessed you in daily life. I've scrutinized you countless times, burying myself in your names, personalities, records, and pasts. I've been trying to find someone I can reveal the truth to."

"So, did you find it?" Van Cleef asked, a glimmer of hope he himself didn't realize.

"No." Karyl stared at him. "Including you, Van Cleef."

But I have already--

"--Yes, you've faced the monster in the darkness once, and you even triumphed at the last moment through sheer willpower, but that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. What we're discussing isn't about willpower, Van Cleef."

Karyl Lohars interrupted him indifferently; he sounded arrogant, cold, and...

It's very unfamiliar, the company commander thought.

"But, instructor..."

A weary voice echoed in the darkness—it was Xianni from Terra, and he sounded utterly exhausted, devoid of his former vitality.

Karyl could hear the frustration in his voice, but he forced himself to remain unmoved.

"Aren't we even entitled to have a tiny bit of information revealed to us?"

Xianni raised his right hand, pointing to the black flames on the distant horizon. He wore a helmet with crimson goggles, through which Karyl could clearly see his own reflection.

Xianni fell silent, pointing at the flickering Ghost in the flames. After a moment, he removed his helmet and took a deep breath of the cold air.

"We are fighting alongside you," said Xianni from Terra in a low voice.

Karyl felt a lump in his throat—he stared directly at Xianni, yet he could sense Konrad Curze Curze's gaze, a look that held urging and anxiety, but also a glimmer of hope.

Hope.

What do you hope for, child? Do you hope I'll tell them the truth? Or do you hope they'll forgive me for keeping it a secret?

Silence. Sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty-four pairs of eyes stared silently at their instructors; three thousand six hundred and seventy-six Ghost stood on the dividing line between life and death, gazing at this place. They were dead, but they still held onto "hope."

Hope

"If you insist on listening," Karyl Lohars slowly closed his eyes, "Then listen, but once you've listened, there's no turning back."

The pitch-black flames swept in, burning fiercely and engulfing all the soldiers of the Eighth Legion. They remained silent, their heads held high without fear.

"Then let's do it," Konrad Curze Curze chuckled. "Come on, Instructor."

"Good."

As soon as the words were spoken, flames climbed up and burned on their iron armor, leaving a boiling mark. Sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty-four people were thus caught in the boundary between illusion and reality.

Darkness shrouded them, a profound silence filled with terror. They began to gaze into this darkness, looking with human eyes—and then, the monsters within the darkness gave them their answer.

Those filthy, greedy, imperceptible, and even unseen monsters looked back with malice. In an instant, their reason began to boil and burn, and their proud willpower was shattered in a flash.

Van Cleef was the one who held on the longest. He clenched his fists and shouted angrily into the darkness without fear, but the next second a hand grabbed his shoulder.

He turned around and saw Karyl Lohars.

"I'm sorry I said that to you," their instructor said softly. "But I think you understand now, Van Cleef."

"What is this?" Van Cleef asked bitterly.

He thought he understood them, but he didn't realize that his so-called understanding was nothing more than what an ant could come up with after luckily catching a glimpse of an elephant's tail.

His "understanding" and "preparation" are utterly inadequate in the face of facts and truth.

"This is the truth you wanted," Karyl said.

At that moment, his voice not only echoed in Van Cleef's ears, but also in the ears of the other 16,323 people.

"This is what lies hidden in the darkness. Countless monsters, ravenous for humanity, born from nightmares, baptized by malice. They cannot be killed, cannot be looked at, cannot be spoken of. They are the monsters of myth and legend, those who reap lives at midnight. You have seen them, what do you think?"

Silence, then silence again, a truly deathly silence— Van Cleef lowered his head in frustration, while Karyl smiled.

He turned around, pulling Van Cleef along with him, and saw Konrad Curze Curze and 16,323 dark Shadow slowly approaching.

"A monster in the night?" Konrad Curze Curze asked seriously. "Is this the truth?"

"Yes." Karyl nodded slightly.

Konrad Curze Curze walked past him, his scarlet cloak billowing like flames in the darkness, moving even without wind. He went forward, ever forward, almost reaching the boundary between the Veil and the real world. He stood there, fearless, even sneering.

"Look closely, you monsters. Look at us clearly, look at every face here."

He made a low, somber pronouncement to something in the darkness.

"I, Konrad Curze Curze —I speak to you from the edge of our world. Yes, yes, you are monsters, demons, soul-reapers from hell. But you are nothing but creatures of fairy tales, thieves who steal mothers and children by night, utterly weak in the daytime. You fear the sun, you fear the light, and from this day forward, you will fear us. For we will become the Midnight Blade, we will become the sentinels of darkness, we will help those who suffer in the darkness you have created, we will kill you all without mercy!"

He roared, his voice louder than ever before.

"Listen up, you maggots, you monsters lurking in the shadows! This world is where we live, and we will protect it to the death!"

Karyl lowered his head and chuckled softly. Three thousand six hundred and seventy-six Ghost flashed by in his Shadow.

"Yes," he said. "Until death do us part."

"Unto death!"

Twenty thousand voices rose in unison.

Complete exhaustion (exhaustion)