Warhammer 40k: Shattered Steel Soul

Leaving the four Luna Wolves at the entrance of the village, when Mortarion and Horus Luperkar rushed to the fallen Stormbird, Magnus was still standing in the deep pit created by the vehicle, uneasy. He clutched his parchment-colored robe and looked at the black-robed wizard Morse from afar who appeared at an unknown time.

Judging from the smoothly cut edge arc of this pit, the size of the pit with a diameter of 150 meters, and the precise arc of simple geometric patterns inside, it can be seen that the falling Crimson King smashed into the Barbarus Plain from the atmosphere. In the last few seconds of the process, he finally managed to control the way Storm Bird plunged into the ground.

At this time, the steel flying eagle was covered with mud from the swamp. Its smooth lines and polished red paint surface were half mud and half burnt scorch marks. The relief carvings were originally carefully designed and arranged. The lines, and the High Gothic text that was an indispensable part of the imperial instrument's hymn, were all burned under the red fire until they were unrecognizable.

This transport aircraft, which Magnus picked out from his hangar and which recently suited his personal aesthetic best, was not used to welcome the newly arrived Primarch brothers. It died under the welcome gift generously offered by Barbarus.

"Come out, Magnus," Mors leaned over the pit, hands behind his back, and issued an invitation, "This is the real universe."

"Are you serious, Morse!" Magnus shouted from the pit, a light halo of light glowing around him to block out the slight but unpleasant poisonous mist of Barbarus' surface, " Isn't there that rotten smell in your perception? I smelled it as soon as I entered the atmosphere! And it chased me! I just went in over Olympia a year ago, and I won't go in again!"

"Believe me, Magnus." Morse's voice contained a strange smile, "The power of darkness has been dispelled. Although there are still traces of corruption here, the source has long been destroyed along with the speaker. And the truncation, really, you can come out."

"The first time you took me there..." Magnus showed a choked expression, frowning and swallowing a word, "When we were in the garden, we also said it was clean and tidy..."

Horus took Mortarion to the edge of the pit and waved to the pit: "My brother, why are you still standing there? Come and meet Mortarion, Magnus, he is a a good person."

Magnus sniffed: "Hello, Horus, and Mortarion. The Emperor has told us your basic information, but his orders never mentioned anything related to corruption. Set the conditions... Please wait for one to two minutes, I need to make some preparations."

After saying this, Magnus got back into the smoking Stormbird. Ninety seconds later, an extremely rare man who wore boots instead of sandals and was accustomed to bare arms was covered with a thick layer of windproof leather. Magnus, whose thick red hair was barely stuffed into his sealed helmet, jumped out of the hatch and walked out of the pit.

With Mortarion hiding his surprise with a calm facial expression, Magnus cautiously held Mortarion's hand, and hummed in his helmet through a layer of gas filter circulation device: "I'm glad Meet you, Mortarion. I am Primarch of the Fifteenth Legion, Magnus of Prospero."

He paused and continued: "If you have any improvement needs for Barbarus's psychic environment, please send me a request statement."

"Hello, Magnus," Mortarion said, "What do you mean by the smell of corruption?"

Although he asked this question, Mortarion obviously had a suspicion and just wanted to confirm it again.

"It's the etheric color here," Magnus waved his hand around, as if to include the ground of Barbarus, "You..."

He glanced at Morse carefully, and after receiving a wink from Morse, Magnus continued: "You should be able to feel the abnormal witchcraft environment of your home planet. It was once contaminated by some forces. And the pollution situation has reached a high level of assessment.”

"The Overlord of Sorcery." Mortarion spat out the word coldly, as if its very existence tainted his tongue. "They have perished under my scythe."

"Yes," Magnus nodded, "the source of the influence has been eradicated, but waiting for the etheric color to return to normal on its own will take an incalculable amount of time. What's more, this power is essentially subordinate to countless people who are more corrupt than the sorcery overlord. It’s a relief to know that the spying has ended.”

Mortarion was confused about what the Watcher was, and a picture flashed through his mind again - that was the last moment of his duel with Nacre, who had used a set of witchcraft hand seals to summon and communicate. , but never received the response he deserved, and Mortarion thus laid the foundation for victory.

The Emperor silently banished the observers for him.

"Don't look moved, Mortarion," the black-robed wizard reminded, which made Mortarion almost reach out to confirm whether his expression had changed.

The Primarch said with a cold face: "Let's go back to the village and talk. Magnus, Horus, do you have any dietary restrictions?"

"For Magnus, as long as there is no Leman Russ sitting opposite him, there is nothing he can't eat." Horus said briskly, "However, let me be curious, Barbarus is What are some unique and good things to eat?”

"Toast, oatmeal, multigrain pancakes..." Mortarion honestly listed the things he usually eats. He was not sure whether this was a good thing in the eyes of the two primarchs - probably not, after all, they had traveled widely among the stars and had seen a lot, but this did not prevent Mortarion from deciding to give him the best food is brought to the table.

If they took a negative view, Mortarion thought silently, there was nothing he could do about it.

"Why didn't you mention the special drink here?" Morse said. "I see from you that the Emperor's favorite drink is that."

"What kind of drink?" Horus asked immediately with interest.

"Barbarus poison wine." Mortarion said hesitantly. "Brewed from the natural rainfall here, mortals can drink less, but you and I can drink it directly... But it has some toxicity. Is this appropriate?"

"It sounds much less toxic than Fenris Mead," Magnus nodded slightly reservedly, "From my personal point of view, I can take a few sips with you."

"Alas, our great scholar," Horus glanced disapprovingly, and after seeing the sight of Magnus being wrapped up airtight, the corners of his mouth that he had finally suppressed turned up again.

Magnus and Horus walked on both sides of Mortarion, walking through the swamp in the light gauze-like mist towards Mortarion's village.

The brief light of day soon faded into the darkness of night. According to the habit of the Barbarus people, pitch torches were quickly lit on the outskirts of each village, causing the darkness in the mist to recede in the light of lanterns or torches.

After the thirteen bells on the top of the pitch-black mountain range rang, the witchcraft and ghosts in the fog that were capable of infesting the village at night were rarely able to appear. This defensive measure was also transforming into a habit accumulated over the years.

Perhaps hundreds of years later, when the newly born Barbarus children light their torches, they will also think that the evil spirits in the past are just fables that only exist in the mouths of the elderly, and that the torches are used when the power supply is unstable. A traditional custom used for lighting.

Only when they passed by the statue of Mortarion watching in the wheat field, and felt something in their hearts, and stopped to look up at the deep eyes of the original body, could they catch a glimpse from the slit of time and see the human reaper wielding the war scythe in the distance. , the legendary battle to liberate Barbarus.

At this moment, in the 844th year of the 30th millennium, sitting in the middle of the village's empty threshing floor, there were only three Primarchs who were consuming the village's wine reserves at a high speed.

"Psychic power!" Magnus said loudly, his face became even redder, and the helmet he had just put on for a short time had been thrown to the ground again. "Although it has its place of use, among the stars, it can Too easily destroying everything humanity has built to survive, and you know it, Mortarion..."

Horus took the empty cup from Magnus, stood up on the ground, and went to the barrel to get another cup for Magnus and himself.

What Mortarion said was correct. The alcohol content was not high, but its unique toxicity gave the poisoned wine an irreproducible stimulating taste and accompanying excitement. As long as it can resist the basic toxins, it is easier to taste than ordinary high-altitude spirits, and the Primarch is the type of lifeform that can easily resist toxins.

"You are the first person to identify with me so much, Magnus," Mortarion murmured, leaning against the barn wall and drinking slowly. "Even the Emperor... uses sorcery, and That wizard in black robe, don’t..."

"Morse!" Magnus took the cup from Horus, his words full of depression, "He always wants to throw me into that garden, how interesting is it to see me anxious? I..."

He frowned and thought about what he was going to say next, "In the future, when we renegotiate the guidelines for the use of psychic energy and remove the hidden dangers of subspace from the lifeblood of the empire, I must regard Morse as a typical case... …”

"Witchcraft must be—" Mortarion thought of the Emperor's existence, changing his word, "restricted."

He nodded again, fully agreeing with his words, "Witchcraft must be restricted."

"You are also the first brother to have such a good conversation with Magnus, Mortarion." Horus stroked the furs across his knees. "The rest of us, either way, People who can't put psychic energy in the palm of their hands, like Robert, will have difficulty understanding the threats posed by psychic energy."

"And Russ," Magnus muttered softly, "that rune priest just wants to use his name to deceive people... But last time my soldiers went to his army as exchange students, but they were defeated with fists Killed those wolf pups..."

"Again, Magnus," Horus said with a smile, "Again."

A little further away, a burst of hearty laughter suddenly broke out from the four Luna Wolves who had started to drink with Mortarion's elite team at some point.

"You said your Legion uses psychic powers?" Mortarion asked.

"Yes, yes... considering the talent and the fact that someone has to do it..." Magnus shook his head and sat up straighter, "We have to make sure that there is always a legion that can handle it correctly. Psychic issues.”

He thought for a moment, dug up a nearby example from his memory, and continued: "There are no psykers in Fulgrim's Legion. He feels that this is a flaw. Yes, in the current development process of mankind, We can't avoid the use of flaws. Maybe if the Emperor's Children have psykers themselves, I won't have to go to the garden to deliver shoes..."

Magnus trembled, and the topic was immediately changed.

"Your Twilight Raiders look so much like you, Mortarion," he swallowed a yawn. Whether in Prospero or on Terra in the Segmentum of the Sun, Magnus had never had a drink with anyone. He was so happy, "When we worked together, the Twilight Raiders refused to have any communication with us because we were a group of psykers."

"Ignore him, he is just complaining, not traveling all the way to Barbarus to complain." Horus shrugged and added.

"Yes," Magnus said quickly, "I just suddenly thought of this."

Mortarion nodded. "I understand, my brother, that witchcraft is awful."

"That sucks," Magnus agreed. "Psionics are difficult to deal with properly."

"Almost too much to handle!" Mortarion continued. "Maybe there are a few who can use it correctly, such as the Emperor... but most wizards will only create disasters!"

"And psychic energy comes from the subspace, which is so blasphemous..."

"If there is a better choice, we don't have to continue to borrow these dirty powers." Mortarion raised an arm and smelled the smell on his body. He didn't smell anything abnormal, which just showed that he had The stench surrounding Barbarus. "I may have some ideas..."

"Tell me about it?" Magnus leaned forward, full of curiosity.

Mortarion dipped his fingers into some poisoned wine and drew a circle on the ground.

"This is a scientific method of transforming material forms based on the constant characteristics of mathematics, using different data characteristics and the exploration and derivation of axioms." Mortarion said, "It is not witchcraft, but true knowledge and truth. Mapping is the truth of the physical universe.”

"Imperial truth?" Horus asked. "The Emperor will like it, indeed."

Mortarion continued to draw geometric patterns in the circle.

"When I was building the safe haven, Perturabo gave me a set of mathematical models to calculate various data in the war system, and to adjust the constants to better fit the real conditions. After that, I began to further appreciate the beauty of mathematics.”

Magnus looked at the patterns on the ground and gradually felt that something was wrong. "Perturabo gave you a set of models...is this what you call the truth?"

"The truth of numbers," Mortarion said. After the final battle with Nacre, and with the excitement brought by the poisoned wine, he decided to introduce his discovery to others for the first time. "As long as the combination is reasonable and appropriate, By using numbers that meet the truth standard and using the calculated known conditions and substitution variables that require solutions, we can obtain the truth that changes reality.”

He drew the last symbol, then added his imaginary subscript to each symbol according to a unique sequence in his mind.

The moment Mortarion's digital formation was completed, a ripple of psychic energy rolled through the threshing floor.

Magnus immediately woke up from his drunken state. He was shocked to perceive the surrounding ether vortex and the energy flow contained in it, which was similar to the foreboding spell of the Black Crow School. After being stunned for a few seconds, he slowly turned his gaze to Mota. Ryan.

"I decided to call it Numerology," Mortarion said, waiting expectantly for his response.

"What did Perturabo teach you!" Magnus frowned carefully, hiding his emotions, and drank the remaining bitter poisonous wine in the glass in one breath, feeling the dull pain caused by the wine rolling in his chest. .

"Let me prepare mentally... Mortarion, do you plan to name the psykers in your legion Digital Priests?"