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

Page 116

Later, Hades went south alone because of his physical condition, and Karas also went south to lead his army.

What followed was life in the legion, but due to the legion's management style, the three gradually went their separate ways.

Although Carrastiphon initially contacted him, there has been no further private contact since the Duel Cage farce.

Mortarian began to carefully recall and compare the last scene in his memory with the one from Typhon who came to him to request to return to Barbaros to recruit soldiers.

He noticed nothing unusual about Karas, who was exactly the same as he remembered.

Mortarian frowned.

"If Karas has no problem, how will you explain it to him then?"

"I will apologize."

Hades stared at the map marked with various shipping routes, his voice hoarse and heavy.

He also hoped that he was just being overly nervous.

Barbarossa.

just now.

A lone eagle swept across the murky yellow sky, flapping its wings and screeching, before disappearing straight into the rolling, poisonous clouds.

Thick clouds hung heavily over vast stretches of barren farmland, a downpour was imminent, and the air was thick with the acrid smell of water vapor.

People had all returned to their settlements to avoid the rain, leaving a lone figure on the vast, gloomy earth.

Carrastiphon walked slowly along the ridge of the field, his sickle hanging limply, the blade carving a straight furrow in the loose soil.

He was still actively preparing for the enlistment of new recruits. Rodan went to negotiate with the bio-sage in charge of the gene seeds on the Star Ring, while Karas chose to return to the human settlement on Barbarus to recruit new soldiers.

But something seemed to have happened; the things that should have perished remained alive. Amidst the boiling sound of the swamp mud, the plan was shelved and terminated.

So he stayed there, keeping a safe distance from everyone, and slowly made his way toward the highest peak of Barbarossa.

Upwards, to the highest peaks, into the thickest fog, beneath the skin, flesh and blood surge.

There was a slight commotion in the distance behind him, but it quickly subsided.

A buzzing sound began in my ears.

+You've come back, my son.+

Calastiffon gritted his teeth and pressed on, his once clear mind sinking into a quagmire once more.

+ You should understand that you are ultimately an outsider, so why force yourself to seek acceptance from those who have rejected you?

Accept the power from the highest heavens and trample those weak humans under your feet!

"My mother is human."

"Shut up, monster."

A piercing and sarcastic laugh shattered Callas's patience.

Oh—that poor human woman, if she weren't so strong, I would have chosen someone else.

However, it seems that what was born was destined to be a failed monster.

Look at that! You thought it was another Mortarion, a pet kept by the lords, but it turns out to be true gold.

+ Only you, a hybrid of alien and human, a monster that is neither fish nor fowl. +

Nobody cares about you; you're just a clown who keeps yelling, "Look at me!"

Weakness, your original sin is weakness!

The piercing sound grew faster and faster, the clouds hung low to the ground, and thick fog descended.

With a click, the sound disappeared.

A figure slowly emerged from the fog, and Karas staggered.

"mom?"

He said.

The short, hunched woman stood in the room, smiling at him, and Callas realized just how short his mother was.

He walked over and sat down. His mother gently stroked his power armor. She was still the same as she had been in the earliest part of his memory, when she held him and hid from the villagers' pursuit.

+ You've grown so much! +

she says.

He smiled. Calastiffon had not died, had not been corroded by the omnipresent poison gas, had not been stoned to death by the angry villagers, and had not been devoured by his alien father.

Karas is alive; he won.

+ What's wrong? Are you unhappy? +

She looked at him, a faint green light shimmering in her cloudy, dim pale green eyes.

"I'm fine. I came to Barbaros to recruit soldiers, and I became a junior manager in a legion."

Does someone dislike you?

Karas was speechless, but then shook his head slightly.

"No."

"It's just...just because of some things,"

Tell me about it?

His hunched and weary mother also sat down, and Karas seemed to be transported back to that twilight when he was being chased by the villagers.

They sat silently on the edge of the poisonous fog, shivering with fear and cold.

Fearing discovery, the collected firewood was not lit, and a few black branches lay forlornly on the ground.

"I had some unpleasantness with a friend."

"Originally, everything was fine, but some unexpected things still happened."

His mother watched him patiently.

+ It's a good thing that Callas has made friends. +

Wherever there are people, there will be disagreements, even among friends.

She placed her withered, small hand on Callas's hand, which, after surgery, resembled the hand of a giant.

If the differences are too great, perhaps you should share His teachings with your friends.

Him?

+Struggling through the cycle of life and death, despair and greed melt away remnants, entropy accumulates, destruction reignites, and stagnation continues. +

All people suffer, but He alone is benevolent.

Mom knows she can't keep up with you.

She looked at him tenderly with her pale green eyes.

If you can find refuge in His merciful embrace, then even destruction holds no fear.

And I think your friend will also choose a benevolent ruler.

He will forgive your past mistakes, and you no longer need to rush.

His pale green eyes held a lingering kindness.

He reached out and took his mother's hand.

His mother looked at him tenderly.

Fat, white maggots swarmed in his eye sockets, and pus flowed out.

"I have to go."

Karas looked into those light green eyes and muttered to himself,

"Indeed, I need to make my two friends realize their current mistakes."

The figure before him dissolved into a puddle of thick water as he had his epiphany, but Karas seemed oblivious to it. He picked up his scythe and continued on his way.

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Chapter 131 Gene Seeds!!

Barbarossa, now.

Hades looked at the chaotic battle scene before him, took a deep breath, and raised the explosive gun in his hand.

Beside him, Mortarian, with a menacing expression, also raised his pistol, the Netherworld Lamp, and the Death Shrouds went on high alert.

They were now walking down the corridor leading to the Death Guard Gene Seed Vault, but the once tidy corridor was now riddled with bullet holes and corroded marks.

"I really didn't expect anyone to dare touch the Death Guard's gene seed."

Mortarian's whisper came through the channel.

Genetic seeds will determine the next generation of the legion and will affect the strength of new recruits to some extent.

Each gene seed extracted from a previous Space Marine carries that Space Marine's combat experience, allowing the next recruit to receive their gene seed-based organ to learn a vast amount of combat skills from the very beginning of their enlistment.

Gene seeds are not entirely stable; each gene seed is susceptible to mutation, and the probability and direction of mutation depend on the legion it belongs to.

Some legions have a high probability of gene seed mutation, while others are much more stable, such as the Fourteenth Legion, Death Guard.

The direction of mutations is also diverse, with both good and bad aspects.

For example, the genetic seeds of Rogdorath make the Imperial Fist more tolerant of pain, but at the same time their salivary glands are slightly degenerated.

But besides mutation, there is another way to change the impact of genetic seeds on the next generation.

That is--

Pollution.

For example, the Third Legion, the Sons of the Emperor, suffered a massive loss of geneseeds infected with the Blight in the early history of the Legion, which led to a sharp decline in the Legion's numbers before the Primarch was found.

The importance of genetic seeds is self-evident.

If someone deliberately tampered with the Death Guard's geneseed and they haven't returned to check or discovered it...

Disappointment and lingering fear crept up Mortalian's spine.

Karastiphon. It seems there really is a problem. Why?

The Primarch was also fortunate to have discovered the problem in time; as long as these Geneseeds were destroyed before they infiltrated the Death Guard, the losses would not be too great.

Mortarian glanced at Hades, who was hurrying ahead. How did he manage to spot these subtle threats every time?

The closer one gets to the gene bank, the more obvious the signs of the struggle become; the mangled limbs of servants and guardians lie scattered and lifeless beneath the walls.

Grip the explosive pistol tightly, turn the last corner—

Hades gasped.

A mechanical sage's body was pressed tightly against the blast door, like a giant octopus. His blood-red robe was squeezed to only a corner by the unfolded weapons. He slowly turned, and the still-smoking machine gun muzzle was pointed at the visitor.

The entire corridor was deformed by the bombardment, and as far as the eye could see, shell casings were piled up on the ground.

The red light on the mechanical sage's face flashed.

[Reinforcements?]

A binary ciphertext containing a secret code of the Mechanicus was transmitted to Hades's brain.

However, the next moment, Mortarion's tall figure appeared from around the corner. Upon seeing the Primarch and realizing that his allies had arrived, the mechanical sage, who no longer needed to defend himself, immediately peeled off the blast door, revealing the tightly sealed blast door behind him.

Hades only realized that most of the sage's basic structure had been corroded and it was no longer able to maintain its basic structure after the mechanical sage fell to the ground.

After confirming that there were no threats around, Hades quickly crouched down and performed basic first aid on the sage, addressing the unstable power supply.

Realizing that Hades hadn't intended to tamper with his work and was only providing basic structural repairs, the sage allowed Hades to continue the repairs. A hoarse, crackling electrical sound rang out.

"My Lord Death Guardian, I apologize, but I am unable to perform the proper salutation at this moment."

Mortarian looked at the scene before him and fell silent. After a long while, he slowly spoke.