Gangrene of Steel

Falling was a long torment.

This was not a free fall, but rather a collision and slide between countless slippery, entangled pipes.

The darkness all around was broken only by the occasional flash of electric sparks and the dim illumination provided by some kind of luminescent moss.

The air grew hotter and more humid, filled with a suffocating smell of sulfur and the foul stench of rotting flesh fermentation.

Bang! Li Wei crashed heavily onto a pile of soft, spongy things.

Following closely was Elena, and finally the heavy Space Marine, Atticus.

The giant's landing triggered a muffled echo, sending the surrounding sludge splashing in all directions.

"Cough, cough... cough, cough, cough..." Li Wei struggled to climb out of that pile of nameless filth.

His hand touched a sticky liquid, and when he brought it to his nose to smell—engine oil, coolant, and... blood.

This was the lower abandoned sector of the Pain.

In other words, the "gut" of this living warship.

"Mortal, report casualties." Atticus's voice rang out in the darkness, still deep and powerful, but Li Wei could hear the suppressed pain within it.

The Iron Hands sergeant was leaning against a huge sewage pipe, trying to use his remaining right hand to adjust the nerve bundles at the severed stump of his left shoulder. A mix of black and red fluid was leaking from there.

"I'm alive." Li Wei wiped the dirty water from his face, his voice hoarse.

"The Sister has passed out, but her pulse is still there."

He crawled over to Elena and checked on her.

She had hit her head during the fall, with a large bump on her forehead, and her breathing was rapid, her body temperature frighteningly high.

In this environment full of viruses and radiation, a mortal's immune system was collapsing.

"We need to move." Li Wei endured the waves of drilling pain in his mind and stood up.

The Necron knowledge base did not stop operating due to the change in environment.

On the contrary, in this place full of Chaos corruption, it reacted even more violently.

Across his retina, countless lines of green alien characters were frantically refreshing, trying to analyze everything around him:

[Warning: Environmental radiation exceeds standards... Warp pollution source detected... Unstable material structure...]

[Analysis: Left wall is an organic-metal composite... Gauss stripping recommended...]

[Error: Unable to connect to tomb network... Isolated state...]

Shut up... shut up... Li Wei roared inwardly, smashing his head twice with his fists.

He didn't need to know the molecular structure of this wall; he just needed to know whether this wall would suddenly grow teeth and eat him.

"Which way?" Atticus stood up.

The giant, missing an arm and most of his armor, still resembled a towering spire.

Red night-vision light flickered in his single eye as he vigilantly scanned his surroundings.

Li Wei closed his eyes, shutting out his vision, and instead relied on the passively instilled "intuition."

Although the Necron data in his head was annoying, it was extremely sensitive to energy flows.

In this chaotic Chaos warship, the flow of energy was the best map.

"Below." Li Wei pointed to the metal grating at his feet, which was still flowing with sewage.

"The heat is coming from below. The power core is deeper down."

"And... the 'noise' is greatest there."

Atticus did not ask further.

He grabbed the grating with his intact robotic hand and, accompanied by teeth-setting metal-tearing sounds, forcefully ripped away the five-centimeter-thick steel plate.

Below was a narrower, darker maintenance tunnel.

Heat rushed over them like a physical wave.

"Move." Atticus jumped down first, using his massive body to scout the way for the two of them.

Li Wei carried the unconscious Elena on his back and followed closely behind.

Moving forward in this maintenance tunnel was like swimming in the blood vessels of a behemoth.

The walls were no longer cold metal, but covered with a thick layer of flesh-red biofilm.

These biofilms writhed slowly, covered with vein-like pathways that transported glowing promethium fuel.

In some places, metal pipes had completely "ossified," turning into huge white bones; while in other places, flesh and blood had hardened into steel, growing sharp spikes.

This was the masterpiece of the Dark Mechanicum, and also their curse.

They pursued the fusion of machinery and demons, ultimately creating a monster that was neither biological nor dead.

Li Wei walked very slowly.

Every step felt like walking a tightrope.

Because as a Pariah, he had a unique, destructive impact on this kind of environment.

When his hand accidentally touched the biofilm on the wall.

Hiss—!

That patch of biofilm instantly turned black, shriveled, and necrosed as if splashed with strong acid.

The wall trembled in agony, and the vibration traveled far down the tunnel.

"Be careful, mortal." Atticus warned in a low voice from the front. "This ship has a sense of pain. You hurt it."

"I didn't want to either." Li Wei withdrew his hand, looking at the tiny wisps of black smoke dissipating from his fingertips.

"But I'm like a walking cancer cell. Wherever I go, the tissue necrotizes."

"To Chaos, necrosis may be a form of purification." Atticus stopped in his tracks.

He raised his right hand, clenched his fist, and signaled for a halt.

"Something's here." The Space Marine's voice dropped to a whisper.

Ahead, at the corner of the tunnel, came a strange sound.

Click... click... grunting... It sounded like metal collisions, and also like the grunts of a beast.

Li Wei cautiously poked his head out. Aided by his mental Necron vision, he made out the outline of the thing in the darkness.

It was a maintenance servitor.

But it had mutated completely.

Its lower body was replaced by a multi-legged spider-like chassis, and its upper body was grotesquely swollen, the skin split open to reveal the operating gears and pistons beneath.

Its head was gone, replaced by a constantly rotating crusher maw filled with teeth.

It was gnawing on the biofilm of the tunnel wall, eating while discharging black waste oil.

[Identification: Mutated Servitor - Corruption Level III.]

[Weakness: Abdominal fuel tank, spinal connection.]

Tactical analysis automatically popped up in Li Wei's mind.

"That's a cleaner." Li Wei pulled his head back and whispered in Atticus's ear. "It eats the necrotic tissue on the ship. If we disturb it, it will sound an alarm."

"Can we go around?"

"There's only one road." Li Wei looked at the behemoth blocking the entire tunnel.

"We have to take it down. And it has to be fast, without letting it make a sound."

Atticus glanced at his empty left shoulder, then at his right hand.

"I have no weapon."

"You do." Li Wei pulled the broken sword from his tunic, the blade that had accompanied him through the Warp drift.

Although the sword was broken, the remaining half was still extremely sharp—it was metal from a Necron tomb, far exceeding the hardness of imperial plasteel.

"Use this." Li Wei handed the broken sword to the giant.

"Stab its third spinal vertebra. That's its artificial neural center. Once you cut that, it will instantly paralyze."

Atticus took the broken sword, which looked like a toothpick to him.

He gave Li Wei a deep look. "How do you know this so clearly?"

"Like I said, I read the manual." Li Wei pointed to his head. "Although that manual was written in a language I don't know."

Atticus asked no more.

As a veteran of countless fires, he knew how to seize the moment of battle.

The giant took a deep breath, his muscles tensing all over.

The next second.

He moved.

Without any wasted motion, without a warcry.

Atticus crossed a distance of more than ten meters in an instant like a streak of black lightning.

The mutated servitor had just sensed the vibration and turned around, revealing that rotating crusher maw.

Thwack!

Atticus precisely thrust the broken sword into the spinal connection on the servitor's back.

The immense force directly pierced through the armor plating and bone.

The servitor froze.

Its crusher maw was still spinning, but its body had lost all control.

Atticus did not stop.

He pinned the servitor's head down with his single arm, using his own weight to press it against the floor to prevent it from struggling and making a clattering noise.

Three seconds later.

The red light in the servitor's eyes went out.

It turned into a pile of scrap metal.

"Nice moves." Li Wei walked over, praising sincerely.

This was a Space Marine. Even crippled, killing remained their instinct.

Atticus pulled out the broken sword, shook off the black oil on it, and handed it back to Li Wei.

"Your intelligence is accurate."

"If not for that stab, it would have taken me three minutes to dismantle it."

"Let's keep going." Li Wei took the sword and glanced at the deeper darkness ahead.

"We're getting closer to the heart."

The further down they went, the more spacious it became.

They finally stepped out of the narrow maintenance tunnel and entered a massive, cathedral-like space.

This was the waste disposal center.

Or the "stomach" of this ship.

Countless iron chains and hooks hung within the enormous space.

On the ground was a massive, boiling pool of acid.

All the waste, corpses, and failed experiments thrown down from the upper levels converged here, to be dissolved by the acid and then converted into nourishment for the ship.

The acid mist in the air was thick enough to almost corrode skin.

Li Wei had to tear off a corner of his clothes, wet it with water, and cover his nose and mouth.

Elena groaned in pain on his back, her skin turning red.

"We can't stay long." Li Wei surveyed the surroundings.

"There's no path here. All the tunnels lead to that acid pool."

"Look over there." Atticus pointed to the center of the acid pool.

There was a massive island there.

Or rather, a platform.

The platform was piled high with metal debris that had not yet been completely dissolved.

And at the top of that pile of debris stuck a huge energy conduit that was still sparking.

The conduit connected upward, leading toward the dark dome.

"That's the main power conduit." Li Wei's "Necron eye" instantly analyzed the structure.

"That tube directly connects to the laboratory and core engine above. It's the main artery that transports the energy recycled here back up."

"If we can climb up there..." Li Wei calculated the distance.

"We can bypass all security measures and enter the back door of Axis's laboratory directly."

"But how do we get across?" Atticus looked at the boiling acid pool.

It was at least fifty meters to that platform.

No bridge, no boat.

Falling in meant leaving not even bones behind.

"Wait." Li Wei said suddenly.

He stared at the continuously moving hooks overhead.

"This ship is feeding. It will transport large garbage across."

Just then, the hatch overhead opened.

A massive black shadow was thrown down.

It was the wreck of a scrap Leman Russ tank, already crushed flat.

It was suspended by a huge iron chain, slowly moving toward the center of the acid pool, preparing for the soaking process.

"That's it!" Li Wei pointed at the tank.

"That's our bus."

"It's moving." Atticus gauged it visually. "The speed is fast. And it's still some distance from us."

"We need to jump onto it." Li Wei glanced at Elena on his back. "Atticus, you carry her."

"What about you?"

"I'll jump myself." Li Wei gritted his teeth.

This was not only a test of physical strength, but also a test of nerve.

The tank wreck suspended by iron chains swung over.

The closest point to the platform where they were was about five meters away, and it was still swaying.

"Get ready..." Li Wei stared at that swaying dark shadow.

The Necron data in his mind was frantically calculating the parabola, gravitational acceleration, and coefficient of friction.

[Jump window: 2.5 seconds later... Success rate: 78%...]

"Jump!!"

Atticus hugged Elena with one arm and charged out like a cannonball.

Thud!

The giant landed steadily on the tank wreck, and the armor plates emitted a loud bang, causing the entire wreck to sway violently.

Li Wei followed closely behind.

But after all, he was a mortal.

He jumped out, and his fingers barely managed to catch the edge of the tank track.

His body hung in mid-air. Directly below was a boiling pool of acid, where green bubbles burst, and the splashing acid was only a few centimeters away from touching the soles of his shoes.

"Ugh!" Li Wei gripped that piece of rusted metal tightly, his fingers instantly cut.

That "pain shielding" derived from Necron knowledge prevented him from letting go, instead fueling the adrenaline in his body.

A ridiculously large hand grabbed his collar. Atticus hauled him up like a little chick.

"Thanks." Li Wei lay on the tank wreck, panting heavily.

They were hanging in mid-air, sliding along the iron chains toward that central island.

"Don't thank me too early." Atticus pointed downward.

In the acid pool, something had been awakened by the vibrations of the tank.

Gurgle... Gurgle... Huge bubbles churned.

Several tentacles covered in suction cups and barbs extended from the acid.

Acid Tentacle Beast.

This mutant creature living in industrial waste fluid could even digest steel.

A tentacle snapped upward, coiled around a fallen armor plate, and instantly dragged it to the bottom of the pool accompanied by a set of teeth-gritting corrosion sounds.

"They're hungry." Atticus picked up a steel pipe, guarding in front of Elena.

"We're the appetizers for this meal." Li Wei climbed up, gripping his broken sword tightly.

"But before being eaten... I want to blow out their teeth first."

Bang! A tentacle lashed fiercely against the bottom of the tank wreck.

The entire wreck shook violently, almost throwing the three of them off.

"Attack the joints!" Li Wei shouted.

He saw not only a monster, but also data.

[Tentacle structure: Soft tissue... Weakness: Root ganglia...]

"It wants to drag us down! Atticus! Cut it off!"

The Space Marine roared, wielding the steel pipe with one hand, and smashed it fiercely onto the tentacle wrapped around the tank track.

Splat! The tentacle was beaten to a pulp, spraying a stream of yellow fluid.

But more tentacles reached up.

They were dense and numerous, like a forest, surrounding the tank wreck.

"Too many!" Although Atticus was fierce, he only had one arm and still had to protect Elena, leaving him stretched thin.

Li Wei looked at those approaching tentacles.

He suddenly realized that physical attacks could never finish them off.

These things were mutant creatures; they had pain sensations and instincts.

And he... was a Pariah.

"Step aside!" Li Wei suddenly pushed Atticus away and rushed to the edge of the tank wreck.

Facing those dozen swinging tentacles, Li Wei did not use his sword. He jumped down directly.

"Li Wei!" Atticus exclaimed.

Li Wei did not jump into the pool.

He jumped onto one of the thickest tentacles, wrapping his hands tightly around the slippery fleshy pillar.

"Shut your mouth... you bastard!!"

Full-power release: Void Deterrence.

In that very instant.

Li Wei turned himself into a highly toxic spike.

He injected the soul-targeted "sense of disgust," "sense of emptiness," and "sense of despair" wildly into the monster's body along the tentacle's neural network.

For this mutant creature that had lived under Warp radiation for a long time.

Li Wei's existence was like injecting pure bleach into their blood vessels.

"Screech----!!!" A muffled, extremely shrill scream came from the bottom of the acid pool.

That was not pain.

That was fear.

That was the fear brought by absolute void, as if being abandoned by the entire universe.

Those tentacles that had originally attacked frantically stiffened instantly as if electrocuted.

Then, they began to twitch violently and wither.

The monster released the tank.

It thrashed wildly in the acid, wanting to escape from the "tumor" clinging to its body.

Li Wei was sent flying.

He traced an arc in the air and crashed heavily back onto the tank wreck.

"Cough cough..." Li Wei spat out a mouthful of acid water.

The surrounding tentacles all retracted to the bottom of the pool.

The entire acid pool was as calm as a mirror, and that monster would rather starve to death than dare to come out again.

"You..." Atticus looked at Li Wei, his single eye filled with shock.

"What on earth are you?"

"You can scare away even that kind of brainless beast?"

"I said." Li Wei wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, revealing a weak smile.

"I am disgusting."

"So disgusting... that even monsters despise me."

At this time, the tank wreck finally slid above that central island.

The three of them jumped down, landing on that pile of metal scrap.

The huge energy conduit was right before their eyes.

It resembled a Tower of Babel, piercing straight into the dark dome.