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

Page 281

“I know… I just… hope I can do something more before the storm comes.”

"At least I can yell at people sailing at sea to run!"

Hades' rare display of human emotion caused Makado to pause for less than a fraction of a second. Then, Hades smiled and patted Makado on the shoulder in a friendly manner.

"Old Ma, although reality is bleak, as long as we work hard, even greater blessings await us—"

“Get out,” Macado said softly. “Get out, Hades, don’t make me repeat myself.”

Macardo tapped the ground with his scepter.

“I will go to the Legion to oversee things as you have entrusted me with, and I will reiterate to my Lord that, if necessary, I will advise him to speak with the Primarchs, but do not expect this to change much, Hades.”

Moreover, Macardo silently thought to himself that the difficulties lay in more than one aspect. Some Primarchs were accustomed to interpreting the Emperor and Empire's actions from a purely interest- and political perspective, while others analyzed them purely from a personal standpoint.

This means that every move the Emperor and Terra make will have different reactions, and these reactions are destined to be less than always positive.

In a critical situation, if it were Macardo, he would absolutely not be able to laugh, and would still have the leisure to joke.

Makado stared at Hades in front of him.

"you can go now."

Hades blinked.

"I will cherish the wonderful memories I have of the Glory of Macragge, with Neos, with Guilliman, and with you, old Macragge."

"My name isn't Lao Ma."

“Okay, old—Macado.”

Hades turned to board the ship, where Little Herrera, Blackfa, and Charon were waiting for him.

But suddenly, a dazzling golden light flashed across the spacious deck, and the Emperor slowly emerged from there.

"I'm late."

He said this, and then raised his hand, in which the Emperor held a black woven rope.

“Change that wire, Hades. I told you I had a rope.”

Hades quickly turned around, a smile playing on his lips.

"I thought I was just leaving like this. When will we see each other again, Neos?"

Hades reached out and pulled the rope away, naturally beginning to replace it.

"See you soon."

The Emperor said,

"That would be a surprise for you."

Hades raised an eyebrow.

"Then I'll start looking forward to it, and hopefully it won't be a shock."

The emperor shook his head and spoke.

"You should go now. Legion Number Twelve awaits you."

Hades was speechless.

"Perhaps you should address me differently, Neos, after all, he is your child."

"There is no difference, but if you insist, then the legions of Angron await you."

Hades sighed.

“Talk to the Primarchs more, Neos. Maybe that could save hundreds of millions of lives.”

“I will. You should worry about yourself, Hades.”

Hades glanced sideways.

"Don't worry, I'm extremely afraid of dying."

Makado snorted, it was unclear whether he was agreeing or disagreeing, or simply trying to show contempt for Hades.

They chatted briefly, but there wasn't much to talk about. Then Hades boarded the ship and got out.

The distance gave him courage. Hades pressed himself against the window and shouted, "Old Horse, Old Horse," and then shouted something else.

After Hades left, the Emperor turned and stared at Macado.

"Why does he call you Old Ma, Makado?"

Makado felt like he was about to grind his teeth to powder.

"That's... Hades's damned sense of humor."

The emperor seemed to be deep in thought.

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Apart from Primarchs Mortalian and Fernus, no one knows what the Lord of Death and the Lord of Medusa talked about that day or what agreement they reached. But when Fernus left the Endurance, he left with a faint, pungent smell and an even harder, colder mask.

The Lord of Death, sitting comfortably in his seat, was clearly satisfied with the conversation.

The three legions lingered on the scorched earth of Ipsen for some time. Vulcan stayed to commemorate the innocent dead, while Fenus stayed with Vulcan. Both Primarchs had a profound dialogue with their own souls on this planet.

The Death Guard seems to have returned to the place where the three Primarchs were trapped. No one knows what Mortarion went to do. He was accompanied by the mad sage from the Death Guard.

The Primarchs gathered again after that, and Vulcan, who liked to give weapons to his brothers, gave Mortharian a large scythe. Perhaps he really did take Mortharian's so-called "dream" to heart.

Unlike the scythe of Annihilation, which Mortarion snatched from his adoptive father and was covered in an aura of misfortune and death, the Mistletoe forged by the Lord of Fire Dragons seemed to possess boundless vitality. The patterns on it resembled new leaves gathered around the scythe blade, reminiscent of the mottled green of tree branches.

Interestingly, perhaps due to the Lord of Fire's sensitivity to forging, Vulcan coincidentally chose blackstone as the main material and mixed it with lead to increase the material's ductility.

While Mortarion wouldn't use this weapon often, the Lord of Death was more familiar with his scythe of obliteration. The mistletoe would lie quietly in the Death Guard's collection until the day it was truly needed.

After submitting a war report to the Empire, and proving that the planet could not be taxed for the next fifty years, Deathguard, Iron Hand, and Salamander left.

The Deathguards and Salamanders headed to the next battlefield, while the Iron Hand, led by the Primarch, went to the Emperor's Sons. However, Fenus, who was usually very open with Fugen, did not mention his conversation with Mortarion.

It would be a secret, a promise, an agreement, a... unintentional glimpse into the heartfelt conversations of people from the same world.

Although Fernus hoped that day would never come, he hoped it was an illusion, he hoped Mortarian was a madman, he hoped that perhaps he himself was just a madman who believed the madman's nonsense.

But when facing Fugen, Finus made no mention of that drunken incident.

2.6k, don't wait, there might be some.

Chapter 337 Arrival at the World Eater

The empire's envoys finally arrived, dragging along an ominous and somber silence.

Kahn, the World Eater, stood aboard the Conqueror, with the Conqueror's captain, Lothara Salin, standing beside him. They stood by the porthole, silently watching the massive, silent black ship dock at the Conqueror's harbor.

"Kahn, are they here to disband the legion?"

Salin asked softly, but it was a statement of fact.

Kahn let out a muffled, angry groan.

"When did you become so pessimistic, Salin?"

Salin turned to look at Kahn, whose resolute eyes held a hint of uncertainty. She spoke,

“We haven’t been able to contact him for a long time… Company Commander Rock’s fleet has also lost contact.”

"Two years and seventy days."

Kahn picked up on her words; he remembered them very clearly.

The black monster outside the porthole was about to come to a stop. Kahn put on his helmet; it was time for him to go.

“It won’t be long, Salin. Keep ordering the Star Speakers to call for our father. We’ll be able to finish searching this area soon.”

He said in a muffled voice

"Let me see what the Empire is up to with these World Devourers. Are they dissatisfied with the progress of our war?"

Kahn left without looking back, his footsteps clattering on the metal floor. Salin roared angrily behind him, her high-pitched voice echoing down the corridor.

"You and I both know the truth of this matter! It's the Black Ships! The Black Ships! You can't hide it from them, stop deceiving yourself, Kahn!"

Kahn ignored her; he clenched his fist, the scars on his palm throbbing slightly.

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If this were a Warhammer 30 game, Hades would have ranked the Emperor and Macardo as the most frustrating NPCs.

Specifically, this manifests as a lack of clear or ambiguous task information, no task rewards, and no walkthrough.

When Hades asked the Emperor and the Makado World Eater Legion what had happened, Makado replied that he didn't know and that Hades was the one to resolve it.

When Hades asked them if there was anything they should be aware of or any tips, Makado replied that if they already knew, what would be the point of having Hades?

Then Hades asked the most profound question.

"How did the Empire know that the World Eater Legion was acting strangely, Makado?"

Makado rolled his eyes and tossed Hades a thick stack of World Eater battle reports.

Hades had previously skimmed through some of the Twelfth Legion's battle reports, but when so many reports were put together at once, the crucial question came to light.

Hades buried himself in examining the documents.

"Angron...Angron has never personally led a single battle?!"

Over the past two years, battle reports have consistently described Legion Commander Angron as follows: "Legion Commander Angron devised a detailed and specific plan for this operation, greatly reducing legion casualties and boosting morale."

Hades opened his mouth, then fell silent.

Even the most self-proclaimed peace-loving and non-warlike figures like Vulcan or Luojia couldn't do this. Two years, two years!

Moreover, Angron, the Primarch known for its warlike nature.

Makado spoke calmly.

"Now you know why. If you have no questions, get out of here, Hades."

Hades raised his hand.

"Old Ma, then why did you send me there? Give me a reason, and I'll get out of your sight immediately."

“Through your follower Jin’s eavesdropping on the Martian technology sergeant, we learned that the Devourer’s think tank is shrinking rapidly, and some of their word choices have a clear bias—likely related to chaos.”

Hades looked at Makado in disbelief.

"What? Wait—Kim is listening in—"

"You should get out of my sight, Hades!"

So Hades sat sullenly on the black ship, carrying with him the fragmented information he already possessed.

The Black Ship was quiet, and Little Herrera became serious and spoke little. Hades could only shrink into his little house, sadly listening to the curses and screams coming from the Warp.

He began to frantically ponder what exactly the World Eaters were all about.

He imagined several possibilities. One was that Angron might have actually become a pacifist or a strategic planning enthusiast.

Hades shook his head.

Forget it, the probability of that being less likely than Mortalian swearing to quit smoking on the spot is probably not as high.

One possibility is that Butcher's Spikes prevent Angron from continuing to fight, but this is unlikely, because Butcher's Spikes only stop torturing the implanted person while they are fighting. Prolonged periods without bloodshed will only cause the Butcher's Spikes to penetrate deeper and deeper until the implanted person dies completely.

Or... the World Eaters were trying to remove a nail from their Primarch, but something went wrong? That's highly likely.

The Emperor also showed Hades the data from the surgery he had previously performed on Angron. The Butcher's Nail had replaced part of Angron's brain and prefrontal cortex, and the surgery had failed. Angron was still wearing the nail.

The Butcher's Nail is also sensitive to psionic energy, which connects to the sudden reduction in the World Eater's intelligence treasury revealed by Makado—it's just that Hades can't figure out the specific process in between.

Angron may have fallen into a coma after pulling out the nails, and the World Eaters wanted to keep this a secret?

Of course... there's another possibility: that Angron has really disappeared.

Hades recalled that in the original story, Angron had once left the World Eater without permission. The Son of the Mountain hoped to find an opponent capable of killing him so that he could find true peace, rather than being trapped in the Twelfth Legion, a legion composed of his own mad slaves.

But his 8th Company Commander, Kahn, had foreseen this. Kahn secretly installed a locator in Angron's armor and eventually found Angron.

The time interval between Angron's disappearance and Cain's recovery of the Primarch was not short.

but……