Warhammer: I don't want to become a stinky can!

Page 623

Cold air seeped out.

The fire lizard took a deep breath and then followed the jubilant fanatical followers of the Underworld Cult into the room—

"You're here? You've worked hard."

An unexpected male voice rang out, deep yet surprisingly relaxed and casual, startling the fire lizard.

He then saw the room clearly; it was a small strategic command center, with the walls completely transformed into huge, sensor-activated screens displaying real-time strategic intelligence.

A tall, grayish-white monster stood bowing before the strategy table, turning his head to look at the visitor with his smudged white eyes. His strange, tattered cloak trailed to the ground, dusting down in a soft rustling.

Beside him stood a seemingly old Death Guardian and a handsome son of Hades, who were assisting in controlling the holographic projection on the strategy table.

Some specks of silver liquid floated above the strategic table.

But the voice that greeted him did not come from there.

On the other side of the room, the black-armored giant was lounging comfortably on the sofa, holding a thick stack of battle reports in one hand, while a plate of pastries hung down not far from his other hand, and the same silver liquid was floating beside him.

...Pluto.

Thanks to the fanatical followers around him, the fire lizard immediately recognized that this was Hades. Beside Hades stood several mortals with serious expressions. They seemed to be important generals of this great expedition, either from the navy or the legion.

In the dim light of the room stood a member of the Imperial Guard, equally tall, comparable to the original body, yet still not as tall as the lean behemoth before the strategic table.

!

The first thing the fire lizard did upon realizing what was happening was to kneel down and pay its respects.

"Gabu, the captain of the second company of the Salamander Legion, greeted the esteemed lords and praised Hades and the God Emperor."

Praise be to Hades!

The fanatics around him also knelt down, bowed, and shouted, their voices coming from the muffled protective suits.

"Please rise, my warrior. Next time, the Eagle Salute will suffice—the situation is urgent."

"Yes, my lord."

"The fire salamander said, then he realized that the monster beside the strategy table must be the Primarch of the Death Guard—Mortalian, the Pale Lord."

? !

He felt ashamed of his blasphemous thoughts and quickly corrected his subconscious behavior of viewing the Primarch as a monster.

The fire salamanders and fanatics remained motionless, awaiting orders from their superiors. The Pale Lord continued to watch coldly, putting some pressure on the legion's warriors. Hades, however, was not at all what he had imagined.

“You must be very tired after coming down from the front lines. If you feel tired, you can sit down and rest—don’t panic. I invite everyone in this room to sit down and rest—but you see, that’s how it is.”

Hades shrugged. He was used to speaking first; otherwise, with his appearance, apart from Karas who would start cursing, most people would probably shut up because of the aura he exuded.

"And, excuse me, I won't ask about the fighting on the front lines right now—what's the story with this lady?"

Hades said, looking at the fanatics dressed in full protective suits.

"Praise be to you—"

The fanatic bowed again.

“Lord Hades, I possess the power of the Desire Heaven. On a fallen planet, I captured this spiritual energy and collected samples.”

Hades suddenly stood up and walked a few steps to the believer's side.

“I commend your courage—but next time you can capture some demons or Eldar without being so brave—excessive courage is recklessness.”

Mom! Yay!

Hades realized that he had once again learned the unorthodox methods of his cult. He laid out the Black Domain and then gestured for his followers to remove their protective suits.

The heavy, black protective suit fell to the ground. Hades heard another extremely faint footstep. Mortarian had also come over and was carefully examining the believer who had been tainted by Slaanesh's psychic power.

They had faced humans infected by Slaanesh, with Karas being a prime example. But clearly, the Slaanesh were changing; they were no longer scales. The areas where scales and other obvious features used to appear had been replaced by tiny fleshy growths, their ears were becoming pointed, and their pupils were turning black.

【…】

Slaanesh is being corrupted by Eldar.

Motalian said, blinking his alien-like eyes, raising his hand, a wisp of mist dripping from his fingertips.

Don't move.

The Primarch said that as the white mist seeped into the believers' bodies, Hades watched as the fanatics immediately began to tremble violently.

"Ugh!"

Hades said, Black Domain Movement,

"What are you doing? What are you doing?"

You mustn't bully his followers!

The examination will make her slightly uncomfortable.

Motarian said, frowning.

Slaanesh's psychic infectivity has increased... Is it due to the arrow... or is it due to his current state?

Hades,

Death said,

[I need this person. You can't use the Dark Domain to remove the psychic energy attached to her soul right now. I need to create antibodies and a vaccine.]

[Before this, I had already created a complete vaccine using infected individuals from within the Death Guard... but look, Hades, he mutated.]

Seeing Hades staring at him, Mortarian quietly added,

She will be safe and sound.

"..."

"Then are you willing, my believer?"

Hades turned to ask, only to see the fanatic nod firmly, which did not seem like a slight "discomfort".

“I am willing, sir—that is why I have persisted for so long.”

Alright alright.

Hades sighed inwardly, thinking, "They're all lunatics."

He stretched out his hand, and liquid metal condensed in his palm into a necklace of a three-headed dog. Due to his armor, a small cut appeared on Hades' exposed cheek, and blood stained the necklace before the wound healed.

"Give."

Hades said,

"If the chaotic psionic energy reaches the final stage of corruption, I will forcibly eliminate it."

He handed over the necklace and, unsurprisingly, saw the fanatic faint from excitement. The fire lizard beside her gasped slightly, as if suppressing a gasp.

"..."

Hades didn't want to say anything, but after the war, he thought it would be good to work with Angron to publish a book on "what a normal healthy person is, why the Empire advocates normal healthy people, and how to become a normal healthy person".

The Death Guard's apothecary arrived quickly and took the fanatic away.

Mortarian seemed to sense Hades' silence and added,

A vaccine will be available soon; we cannot protect the entire battlefield.

"It's you, not me."

Hades smiled, glanced apologetically at the fire lizard, turned around and sat back down.

“Unless it’s a region with high psionic energy—but multiple layers of insurance always work, you’re right.”

On the battlefield against chaos, if the spiritual energy is too concentrated, chaotic characteristics will appear in unmodified people, which is unavoidable.

What have you brought this time... the offspring of my merciful brother?

The Primarch did not return to the strategy table. Mortarion walked to the Salamander's side and carefully examined the dark-skinned warrior.

He extended a hand, gesturing for the soldier to follow him to the strategy table, where the Empire's war map was being projected, focused on the Scalus sector in the hazy star field.

On the map representing the territory of the Azure Empire, a giant eye-like depression has appeared near the Scalus sector, stained with the crimson purple of the Slaanesh forces, which has also encroached on a considerable area.

That giant eye, which looked as if it had been punctured from the inside, was originally a network outlet, "the Valley of Laughter," but Laughter seems to have let it fall, thus turning it into the Comoros's gaping maw spewing out onto the physical world.

Nearby, countless hidden or marked entrances and exits to the network tunnels had also turned a bloody purple.

"...You come from here."

Mortalian reached out and pointed to a fallen planet near the Scalus Sector.

Tell us, what's the current state of the battle?

The salamander swallowed hard and began to recount what the frontline defenders had encountered.

..............................

First came the raiders who attacked the ships.

The Dark Eldar raiders appeared as if they had just appeared, launching immediate attacks on merchant ships and naval patrols in the Scalus and Calissis sectors.

Before the local defenses could react, the first two waves of attacks were over, and all the people and supplies on the attacked ships had vanished.

What terrified people was that they found the Slaanesh emblem among the bones of those slaughtered by the Eldar, which was completely impossible.

This immediately triggered panic among the local elites, but the empire responded extremely quickly.

Before the third raid occurred, the local minor bishop of the Underworld reported that the cardinal of the Underworld had personally arrived in the sector and immediately contacted all nearby Imperial forces.

The Second Salamander Company, stationed in the nearby Ultimate Sector, also arrived at the front line at this moment.

……

Hades and Mortarian exchanged a glance.

At that time, the Empire could not be sure where the Slaanesh's attack would come from. The network of routes was extensive, and a wrong direction could lead to a completely different destination.

Because of concerns about the corrupting influence of Chaos on the general populace, news about Slaanesh was suppressed. However, once Slaanesh's condition was confirmed, Hades immediately notified his cult of the Underworld.

This down-to-earth organization, which is closely connected with the local people and has good resistance to chaos, has always been an invisible oversight body for large-scale psionic events.

At the same time, thanks to the establishment of the Academy of Athens as an information hub, information was able to spread rapidly through non-psychic means.

……

Initially, apart from the Underworld Cult and the Mechanic Cult, which had a love-hate relationship with the Underworld Cult, who mobilized almost all their forces immediately, the other local defending forces were still unaware of what they might face next.

Soon, the hidden network of the Milky Way once again unleashed countless armies.

At the same time, war broke out on at least six civilized planets. Eldar battleships and cruisers of different styles appeared, and the fleets of the Dark Eldar were mixed with the ships of the Wild Eldar. Warp projections that could almost blind psykers flowed across them.

That was an unimaginable army size, completely different from the Eldar's usual preference for operating alone.

These madmen, it's hard to tell how much of their own will and flesh and blood they possessed actually crushed countless soldiers on the battlefield.

On the bloodiest battlefield, an alien Titan was released, and the moment it landed, it beheaded a Marauder-class Titan from the Mechanicus Titan Order.

Meanwhile, the attacks did not only come from the Eldar; the Slaanesh Grand Daemon moved among the Eldar armies, directing the advance of the war.

Compared to the fanatical Eldar army, the local garrison was superior to the Lexon forces. On a key pivot planet, the Cardinal of the Church of the Underworld personally led the battle, securing the last stepping stone to the heart of the Slaanesh-infested territory within two weeks.

However, on the other side of this planet, the battle line continued to retreat, eventually stabilizing at the border between the Scalus and Calissis sectors.

At this very moment, on that isolated planet, the war situation remains dire. Giant pterosaurs and dinosaurs raised by the wild Eldar have even appeared on the ground, engaging in battle with the Empire's army.

In the starry sky, the Dark Eldar's incredibly fast cruisers and battleships, relying on the Eldar's Ark World, dealt a heavy blow to the Imperial Navy—the seas had completely fallen.

………………

After the fire lizard finished reporting, a brief silence fell over the room.

Hades pondered that the armies in the nearby star system had already ordered support for the battlefield at the first opportunity, an efficiency and speed that was completely unimaginable for the former empire.

But it still didn't work...

Hades realized that even though he thought the firepower was still insufficient, the front lines clearly needed more support.

They had to set off. Although their goal was to finally behead Slaanesh, the empire's territories ravaged by Slaanesh also needed to be protected.

Yay! That's it!

Chapter 670 The Last Calm Before the Storm