bookbashuk Page 503
Page 503
【garden】
ripple.
Subtle ripples spread outwards, fingertips twitched slightly, and the corpse seemed to be moving.
The swarm of flies buzzing around the corpse continued to be noisy, and a few rotting flies were startled by the twitching fingers, but after a brief pause in the air, they fell back down.
The swarm of flies continued to buzz, convinced that it was just an illusion.
heartbeat.
Seven heartbeats
With a whoosh, the swarm of flies suddenly burst open, mud and water tumbled down, and the giant who had stood up hunched over, his sickly eye sockets gazing deep into the garden.
With his arms wrapped around the sickle, barely supporting his body, and one hand covering his mouth, Mortarian coughed violently.
vomit--
The Pale Lord vomited a pile of poisonous water, and the vomit was teeming with writhing, fat white maggots, spiky flying insects, and pieces of flesh whose original form was indistinguishable.
The swarm of flies, which had just been startled, suddenly gathered again and attacked Mortarion with even greater ferocity. They circled around the Lord of Death's head, using their bodies as projectiles to strike his ears, eyes, nose, and tongue.
The swarm of large, black flies almost solidified, completely enveloping the Lord of Death.
But Mortarian seemed completely unconcerned; he just kept vomiting, as if trying to expel everything—the part he hadn't intentionally taken, the part he had been forced to give.
Finally, what came out of the Pale Lord's mouth was the remains of a rodent, stained with black plague.
Snapped!
With a soft splash, a decaying fly landed on the water's surface, lifeless.
*Smack!* *Smack smack smack*—
A sudden, fine drizzle began, and large black insects fell one after another, splashing and crackling in the muddy river water.
Two withered branches that had been lingering in the swamp began to move, causing ripples to spread across the water, and the dead flies that covered the surface of the water rose and fell with the waves.
Mortarian slowly made his way to the shore, feeling a restlessness, a turmoil that disrupted his balance—something he had always tried to avoid, but now he needed it.
Tiny green flames flickered at the edge of his damp cloak, but Mortarian paid them no heed; it was the necessary price to pay.
His dazed, cloudy eyes gazed toward the other side of the garden, sensing the vibrant life in that area—those idiots from the Eldar.
Before he could utter the Greenskins' disgusting catchphrase, Mortarian interrupted him with "waagh."
There is only one word that can beat waagh.
[…Hades.]
Death felt a slight displeasure, not only objectively, but also subjectively; he was angered by Hades's practice of not using names.
but not now.
The giant beast, rising from the swamp, staggered toward the shore.
----------
Hades blinked and paused for a moment.
He was sitting on the largest greenskin throne on this planet, propping his chin on his hand and watching the greenskins below fight each other.
As for the original owner of this seat...
That green leather head at Hades' feet is it.
"For Mortalian, the Grim Reaper!!!"
Big Tooth roared, and the brats of the Underworld Clan roared back, fighting and chasing the enemy brats in the palace.
They split into two groups: Black and Magnus led their forces to destroy the main Greenskin army on the planet, while Hades's force directly attacked the command post.
Another reason is that Magnus needed massive deaths and Greenskin battles to complete communication with the High Heavens—which meant Hades had to stay away.
Meanwhile, Magnus advised Hades to avoid interfering in the battle, because the part he did interfere with might not be included in the portion available for the Lord of Death to restore.
So Hades began to watch the show.
He sat on the green-skinned throne atop the high steps, watching idly as his green-skinned minions hacked and slashed at each other.
Those who died were sacrificed to Mortarion, while the living remained to serve him as his beasts of burden.
Below the towering steps, blood splattered everywhere, and screams and wails echoed, but no green-skinned beast dared approach the Black Boss on the throne.
Just now, the gang leader stepped into the palace alone, pointed at the green-skinned warboss, and shouted, "Die!"
Then the guards beside the Warboss throne watched helplessly as their leader fell silent, the massive green-skinned corpse swaying, leaning forward, and then rolling off the throne.
The dull footsteps sounded as the mob boss calmly walked towards the throne, stepping on the carpet. None of the greenskins realized what was happening.
Just as the gang leader stepped onto the first step—
"I—you—I want to report for the boss—"
A sudden shout came from the battle bunkers in the hall. The greenskins looked at the young man who had stood up and was wielding a big scythe, and then watched his beady eyes turn white—
died!
"Aaaaaaah! WAAAAAAAGH! It's a monster!!!"
The greenskins, who had just been on high alert, immediately fell into chaos. They either tried to hide themselves or charged towards the gate, but the gate was opened, and a large man wielding a cleaver stood guard at the entrance.
Behind the large front teeth were countless well-equipped, massive green-skinned men.
"For Mortarian, the Grim Reaper! WAAAAAAAGH!!"
The big-toothed man raised his large cleaver and swung it down fiercely at the first green-skinned creature that ran to the door!
Head flew off!
Hades stepped onto the last step, listening to the shouts of the greenskins behind him, and recalling Magnus's advice that he should also refrain from shouting war cries.
"I'm sure now," Magnus said seriously, "You'd better come up with a nickname for us—not Little Magnus, of course. Calling us by our full name occasionally is fine, but it's best not to do it too often."
Magnus paused for a moment. There was another reason: the Primarch always felt that Hades seemed to become somewhat agitated when calling him by his full name.
Hades once again suppressed the urge to shout Mortarion's name.
He sat down, ignoring the guards scrambling around the throne, and waited for the war to end.
Unfortunately, he couldn't simply raise his hand and end it all.
Hades lamented that it was too low-level, a low-level war, but it was necessary for the evolution of the Greenskin race.
If the Dark Domain were used at this time… Hades realized that there were differences in taste between different clans of greenskins.
Hades then chuckled at his own thoughts. He felt like a tyrant, like some tyrants who exploit others for palaces and treasures, but he was simply hungry.
"A tyrant who devours his own people."
Bang! The door that had been closed to prevent the greenskins from escaping was kicked open again, and Hades watched with satisfaction as Black walked in carrying the head of the Greenskin general.
The giant green-skinned man's head, its eyes wide open in death, was thrown to the ground. Black, covered in blood, at Hades's signal, ascended the high steps straight to Hades' side.
"Well done,"
Hades said softly, then slowly stood up.
The clanging of armor, for some reason, sounded particularly jarring in the noisy hall. The greenskins, who were fighting amongst themselves, slowed their movements and couldn't help but look towards the figure on the throne.
Hades said in a muffled voice,
"You bastards! You bunch of shrewd scoundrels! I think you're not so bad after all. I'll give you a chance! I'll let you live! And you can participate in even bigger WAAAAAAAGH in the future!"
"Listen up! We are followers of Death. As long as you bow down to Death, we will spare your lives!"
silence.
A somewhat awkward silence followed.
"I bow! I bow!!!"
A green-skinned creature, pinned to the ground and beaten, cried out miserably, "I worship Death, the Great God!"
Like a boulder thrown into cold water, the impact created a huge ripple effect, with cries for mercy filling the air, and for a moment everyone pleading for help, like "Die, save me!"
Faced with the pleading boys, Big Tooth shouted a few words, and the green-skinned men of the Underworld all let go.
Hades laughed loudly, "Alright! Then listen up, from now on, once you've paid homage to me, the God of Death, and joined my Underworld Clan, you'll have to call me that!"
Hades waved to Black, who walked over. Hades then lifted Black up, like an old baboon lifting a young lion king.
"call!"
"For Mortalian, the Grim Reaper! Death endures forever! WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Blake's voice was deafening.
"So that Death may touch his face! Death will live on forever!!! WAAAAAAAGH!!!!"
Yay! That's it!
Chapter 576 Too Many Insects
[A few months later]
"Krepteman! Do you even know what you're doing?!"
The conference room door was kicked open violently, boots slammed heavily on the floor, a red robe fluttered, and a man who looked like a judge stormed in.
His gaze passed over the long table, over the planetary governors, judges, commanders, caravan representatives, forging world representatives, and chapter leaders seated around it, and landed on the man who sat calmly at the end of the table.
The man with round glasses helplessly spread his hands. Beside him, Death Watcher—a black-and-white helmet-clad alien-killing enthusiast—turned to look at the intruder.
"The defense line has already been built without breaching it, and my plan is one of the few feasible ones."
"Feasible?! The Gaiden district has fallen! And for your failed plan, you've issued extermination orders to at least dozens of worlds!!!"
"You still hope to use the Orks to hold off Leviathan Tyrannosaurus—absurd! Absurd! You've created two monsters!"
The intruder cursed loudly, and countless dissatisfied eyes were fixed on Creptman from among the people seated at the long table.
Kriptman sighed softly and slowly stood up.
"Please give me a chance to explain the reality, sir."
The intruder wanted to say something more, but fearing the watchful gaze of the Death Watcher, he had no choice but to remain silent.
An illusory blue light shone from the projection equipment on the long table, and specks of light outlined the shape of this star field, the Octarius Sector.
As can be seen, the world in the heart of the sector has been completely cut off from communication, with the green and red symbols representing the Orks and Tyrannosaurus flashing in the air—the Imperium is not even aware of the battle situation inside the sector.
On the outer edge of the star sector, one by one, bluish-white dots were extinguished and swallowed by red.
In the battle between the Orks and the Terrans, the Terran army gradually moved to the outer edge of the sector and attacked both the Orks and the Imperium of Man from two sides.
On the map, there is a line of many galaxies connected by fluorescence, an unbreakable defense line. But now, on this long, glowing blue line, two galaxies have already fallen and turned crimson.
Countless Imperial armies are moving toward the fallen sector; they need to plug the breach, which Leviathan is breaching, extending its evil tentacles toward the Imperium of Man.
“Sir,” Creptman said, “without an impenetrable defense line—do you think the Empire of Man could defeat the Terrans?”
Kriptman sighed and slowly paced back and forth.
“I have personally witnessed countless battles with the Tyranids, and I know that the Empire cannot resist this force. A single Tyranid tentacle can even penetrate deep into the five hundred worlds of Alteramar and, with most of the Ultramarines and their mother group gathered, severely damage Macragge.”
“And now,” Kriptman waved his hand downwards, and dots of numbers and tiny badges appeared on the map,
Thousands of Imperial Guard legions, four Space Marine chapters, totaling approximately one thousand Space Marines, the Sisters of the Cleric, four Imperial Knight families, Mechanicus reinforcements (mainly the Riza), two Imperial Navy battleships, 50 cruisers, and their accompanying escort ships and transport ships.
This is almost all the troops that the Octarius sector can muster.
"Given that we can only mobilize the following troops, not breaching the defenses is the only option."
"A solution?" the intruder scoffed. "Your defenses have been breached! Two gaps! The Leviathan army will soon be pushing in!"
“Then use an extermination order,” Kriptman said. “Use an extermination order to block part of the road, and then move our troops there. Make sure they can’t break through.”
"Pay the price and hold the line."
Kriptman said that a cold glint flashed in his eyes behind his cloudy glasses.
His opponents, on the other hand, laughed in near despair.
"The world inside was completely abandoned—Executioner, you're not in charge of communications and transportation, did you hear the last screams of those human planets before they fell?"