Hades walked silently, almost cautiously, along the edge path of the stronghold.
Every so often, a few figures would appear in the distance along the path, but when the other party saw that it was Hades in the distance, they would choose to change lanes and avoid him.
It was usually like this.
Hades thought silently.
Though he had long since stopped caring about such things, when he realized the reason why the villagers inexplicably resented him, a lingering melancholy washed over his heart.
True to a Warhammer grimdark world.
Power always came with harm, just as powerful psykers were more prone to madness and being gazed upon, and Blanks were naturally shunned by their own kind.
Yet the others acting this way was fine as well, for at least it saved Hades from having to go out of his way to avoid them.
Hades carefully tried to keep the spherical null field around a five-meter radius of himself clear of any villagers.
He carried a letter in his embrace; just moments before, he had tied one of them to the door handle of Herrela's home, while the empty bowl that had originally held porridge was returned to Herrela's windowsill.
The taste of that porridge was indeed quite mediocre.
In the letter to Herrela, Hades simply wrote that he wanted to leave this northern stronghold and head south to seek out people at his so-called relative's home.
The so-called non-existent relative had appeared!
Yet he could not tell Herrela that it was due to his own physical constitution; in this dark world, ignorance was sometimes the greatest protection.
In addition, Hades scratched his head, unable to help himself—the rest of the content in the letter consisted entirely of recipes he had written, meticulously marking the quantities for each dish, condiment dosages, proper stirring times, and heat levels.
Hades knew that very likely, this parting would be forever.
Rather than a heavy farewell, it was better to leave something behind that the other person could use in her future life.
Ah, he hoped his past time interacting with her would not bring Herrela any trouble.
Nearing his destination, Hades walked along the central road of the stronghold, trying his best to control his distance from the others.
When there was truly no way out and the distance became too close, Hades would instantly cause his compressed-to-the-extreme null field to expand, which simultaneously diluted the null field as it expanded to the utmost limit.
The other letter was for Mortarion.
He certainly could not run away without a word, as that would easily lead to him being treated as a traitor and struck down.
In this letter, he wrote down the true reason for his departure word for word—his constitution. Hades briefly described the changes in himself after fighting the alien lord Lazar.
Naturally, to avoid suspicion, Hades merely described this ability as one "completely opposite to psychic power," and "an existence capable of suppressing psychic power."
He did not mention "Blank"; as a Barbarus peasant, where would he even learn such profound terminology?
He also mentioned heading to the Southern Swamps after his departure.
Mortarion's foster father Nac'Lare was further north in the stronghold, while the southern part of the stronghold gathered lords of all sizes, large and small.
Unlike the northern lords, most of whom had already submitted to Lord Nac'Lare, the majority of southern lords remained in a loose state of fighting amongst themselves.
This ultimately resulted in the south lacking a single super-large lord holding down the fort; the lords were generally small in scale, yet frequently engaged in chaotic infighting, leaving the common people in dire straits.
Presently, the resistance army led by Mortarion primarily fought against the northern lords, along with various other small factions.
Mortarion had originally planned to dispatch Calas Typhon to fight in the south, and in fact, he was already making preparations.
Once they weeded out another nearby lord and the stronghold's population grew once more, Calas Typhon would lead a detachment of the Death Guard to the south.
The mission of this Death Guard force was to rescue the human villages in the south and conduct preliminary reconnaissance for the southern expedition Mortarion would lead afterward—
—yes, given their current weaponry and equipment, even Death Guard elites would find it extremely difficult to slay a mid-to-small-scale lord wielding psychic witchcraft if they had to rely on sheer numbers.
The close-combat prowess of these mid-to-small lords might not be as fierce as that of the large lords, but with the coordination of psychic powers and poisonous fog, elite Death Guard struggled to contend with them in a fight.
Except for Hades, who had solo-killed and claimed the head of a medium lord while the latter was at low health and subjected to attribute counteraction.
Yet few people believed this; most believed Hades had simply lucked out, especially since that lord had already been battered and bruised in previous battles against Mortarion.
Even Mortarion's personal guard Hazniel had disdainfully told others that had he encountered the alien lord Lazar at the time, he could have taken its head as well, and without looking as wretched as Hades.
Mortarion, present at the time, immediately put a stop to his words and punished Hazniel by reassigning him to the logistics army.
"Facing comrades, the Death Guard must not show such mutual contempt."
"We are a collective."
Yet Mortarion, who spoke these words, had his mind entirely elsewhere; only he knew what sort of monumental feat Hades soloing the alien lord Lazar truly was.
The alien lord Lazar was no minor lord; both its psychic power and practical combat ability were exceedingly formidable.
To describe it thus: you deeply believed that the cat you raised possessed decent offensive power, capable even of going toe-to-toe with an eagle.
Yet when it equipped a set of iron jaws and then blew up an advanced, electronically equipped aircraft, anyone would have to put up a row of question marks???
Even if that aircraft was running low on fuel, out of munitions, and on the verge of being scrapped.
Only Mortarion, who had fought the lords himself, understood the chasm between these humans and the lords.
These humans were still far too weak.
Yet what manner of existence was Hades? Had he truly won the fight?
Or had that alien lord already manipulated him?
After dispatching personnel to observe Hades, Mortarion was convinced that Hades was normal and had not been manipulated by witchcraft.
Perhaps that alien lord truly had been on the verge of death; moreover, Hades's combat prowess was indeed second to none among mortals.
(In reality, the proper analogy should be that Hades was a mutant cat equipped with built-in electromagnetic interference, who relied on his exceptional electromagnetic-interference physique to blow up the enemy's electronic system, after which the enemy crashed and gg.)
Following this, Mortarion received Hades's letter, brought inside by the Death Guard on guard duty outside the door.
If it was this kind of constitution, then certain matters could indeed be explained.
A Blank?
No wonder Typhon always cried of a headache whenever he encountered Hades.
Mortarion thought with a trace of subtlety.
Still, both of them were heading to the south after this.
Wasn't this a case of enemies crossing paths?
Hades was running at a dead sprint with his pack on his back and his scythe in hand; he needed to reach the next human village before nightfall.
The preceding experience had broken him out in a cold sweat all over again.
He had originally walked up to the entrance of the armory at that moment, intending to bid Mortarion farewell before bolting.
Then he had curiously let his null field ripple outward, intending to see what a Primarch's warp projection looked like.
Yet right as he began to expand it, a sudden sense of alarm surged into his brain, his heart began to pound wildly, and Hades slammed on the brakes instantly.
That place—that place held an ominous aura.
Mortarion had long since been targeted by Him.
Hades's heart hammered wildly.
What about Hades himself?
Was he still engaging in self-deception?
Hades. Is there a possibility. That the moment he encountered Mortarion, he had already been targeted?
Was He watching him?
Fuck.
Today, Hades once more wept internally and curled into a ball like a Gretchin that had just been stepped on.
No inner agents, time for some Warhammer jokes: a time-traveler who knew the plot got targeted by Tzeentch the moment he transmigrated to Warhammer.
A rare time-traveler indeed; Tzeentch would never let someone like that go without playing a few tricks.
Side Story
After returning home, Herrela saw the letter and the empty bowl.
From then on, she began bitterly practicing her culinary skills.
Yet because Hades had omitted the duration required for certain steps, the meals she produced became all the more bizarre in shape.
Another joyous and celebratory day.
Whenever GW struggled to round out the plot, they could simply choose between Tzeentch and The Laughing God Cegorach to pin it on their machinations.
As for combat power scaling, the self-established setting was that psychic power basically suppressed physical might at the same tier; unless one's physical might vastly exceeded the opponent's, allowing one to counter psychic power, in most cases a reasonably skilled user of psychic power could violently beat down a physical powerhouse. (Naturally, late-stage Space Marines belonged to the category of physical masters capable of violently beating down most low-level psykers, such as the large and small lords on Barbarus—aside from Mortarion's foster father, of course.)
Thus, certain elite Death Guard (who were still ordinary humans at this time) could actually take down mid-to-small lords in the absence of psychic power on the opponent's part, yet a lord "devoid of psychic power" simply did not exist.
Whereas Hades was functionally equivalent to having created an environment devoid of psychic power all by himself.
Before you continue