Warhammer: Don't Call Me the God of All Machines

Chapter 176 Prey and Hunter

As Guilliman cried out in silent prayer, unknown to him, there was a Primarch brother in the High Heavens who actually heard his cries.

Amid the chaotic Warp storm, a massive ship is leading the fleet through the raging waves of the Sea of ​​Souls.

Logically speaking, even a Queen of Glory-class battleship should have difficulty moving in such a terrifying destructive storm and should have narrowly avoided the devastating damage brought by the storm.

But this dark Queen of Glory showed incredible suppression capabilities. It seemed to be shrouded by some mysterious power. It almost ignored the terrible storms and rushed through the storm at full speed.

This is the fleet of the First Legion. More than 20,000 elite Dark Angels escaped from the war in Salamas and are desperately seeking a way to escape the warp.

This Glorious Queen-class battleship named Indomitable Truth is no longer just the flagship of the Dark Angels Legion. In a sense, it is more like a huge cage.

A large area inside the battleship was completely sealed off by fallen gates and mechanical structures. All mortals were cleared out, and even the servitors responsible for maintenance were ordered by the mechanical priests to stay away from the forbidden area.

All the sounds of life disappeared, and the only sound echoing in the closed cabin was the ticking sound of the ancient instruments and systems.

A fully armed giant was quietly waiting in the dark cabin.

All lighting facilities were turned off, the energy was cut off, and the space was blocked, but he didn't need light. The dark environment made him feel more comfortable.

Dark, damp air with a heavy metallic smell was filtered through the armor and entered his reinforced nasal cavity and lungs.

This was a hunter, a master far superior to any of the Astartes' masters, who could smell the damnable stench of prey in the air.

Even if the smell in the air was only one billionth, the hunter could still sense the pain, hatred, and the bloody smell that was close to nothingness.

"I smell you, Conrad, how long can you keep playing hide and seek with me?"

The hunter murmured in his heart, the Emperor's eldest son, Lord of the First Legion, Lion El'Jonson, was hunting his brother, Konrad Curze, the Primarch of the Night Lords, in his flagship.

Ever since Conrad and his Black Guards boarded the Dark Angels' flagship, the Indomitable Truth, during the Salamas expedition, they had begun this deadly game of hide-and-seek.

Conrad's Black Armored Guards were almost wiped out in the successive battles, but Midnight Haunter relied on his innate cunning and viciousness to evade the Dark Angels' pursuit again and again.

As one of the Primarchs, Konrad Curze possessed skills and strength comparable to that of the Lion. He escaped into the intricate network of tunnels aboard the Indomitable Truth and without a doubt killed the Dark Angels who came after him.

Lion King once sent his Astartes to track down his brother, forcing the Night Haunter to show up through layer-by-layer investigation and carpet search. But the ghost wandering in the depths of the Indomitable Truth, the monster from Nostramo, killed batches of warriors.

The heroic Dark Angels were murdered and divided by tactics, their bodies hung upside down on the beams of the battleships, their power armor and skins peeled off, the heads of the Astartes were impaled on broken steel spikes, and their dismembered internal organs were scattered all over the metal floor and pipe network.

Lion King refused to let his warriors make unnecessary sacrifices. That was not courage, but pure stupidity. Endless anger surged in his heart. The damned monster should have been killed long ago, but it was still wreaking havoc in his warship.

Therefore, he blocked off the dangerous area where the Night Haunters roamed and put on his own black armor with gold edges, which was carefully forged from Mars.

For sixteen weeks, every second of those sixteen weeks, he was concentrating on hunting the Nostramo.

During this long period of time, Leon had two chances to catch the Night Haunter, but the prey escaped from his hands thanks to its strong perception and the prophetic perception ability that was famous among the brothers.

From then on, the Midnight Haunter not only played hide-and-seek with his brother, but also left messages written in blood, whispering and taunting in the ventilation ducts to tease the Lion King's remaining patience.

Zhuang Sen's body suddenly started from silence. He bent down and squatted, balancing his body on a horizontal railing inside the warship with incredible agility.

The metal support was so slender, yet it steadily carried the incredible weight of the Primarch and his full set of power armor.

He looked down and saw rows of exhaust shafts that looked like deep valleys spewing out toxic polluted gases. The lighting facilities had been turned off, but the heat pipes and exhaust fans were still glowing red.

The lion's long golden hair was blown by the hot and scalding air, but he didn't care about it because the back of his prey was now appearing in another exhaust shaft below.

He was downwind of the current and the Night Haunter could not smell the hunter's scent.

This was the best chance, this one and only time. The hunter dropped from the tower's railing, landing as silently as a dead autumn leaf, then scrambled up the other side's support like some large cat.

The Midnight Haunter was very close, even within eighty meters.

He approached the Midnight Haunter step by step, using his vision, hearing, and smell to fully lock onto the target's location.

Leon stopped and this time he was closer than the previous two times. He saw Conrad seemed to be curled up in a corner of the passage, gnawing on some mutant creature he had caught living in the cabin.

"Come on, come on, let's put an end to this." The Lion King clenched the finely crafted sword in his hand, and the blood of the Caliban hunter was burning.

He didn't know why Conrad's strange predictive ability failed this time, but no matter what, he was right under his nose.

The Lion Sword was silently pulled out of the scabbard, and Ryan's body was ready for the next leap and slash. According to the hunter's plan, he would appear from behind the Midnight Haunter, and the sharp Lion Sword power field would easily tear Conrad's throat.

He should have died long ago, this blasphemer who betrayed the Lord of mankind.

The Primarch stretched out his arms, all his bones and muscles gathering strength for it. At such a close distance, there was no room for error. Even if he closed his eyes, Conrad would definitely not be able to escape.

The lion king held his breath, about to bare his deadly fangs.

"Ding!"

In the silent cabin, the buzzing of the communicator was so clear that even a mortal could feel the abnormality, and it naturally could not be hidden from the Midnight Ghost who was lying in wait.

"Sir! Something's happening!"

The communicator in Ryan's arms was still ringing. The lion's face looked extremely ugly, and the anger like an eruption of underground fire was roaring in his chest.

And his brother, his prey, the Midnight Haunter from Nostramo suddenly looked up with a look of surprise, and at the same time stared at the brother who came to kill him with joy.

The lion could clearly see the damn traitor's pale and bloodless face, his sharp razor-like teeth, and the half-bitten rodent mutant.

There were still a few scarlet muscle fibers stuck between the Midnight Haunter's teeth. He screamed, laughed wildly, and threw himself directly into the bottomless exhaust shaft with open arms. The fleeing Midnight Haunter avoided the deadly murderous intention that the Lion had been brewing for sixteen weeks.

"Almost, just a little bit." Conrad's frantic voice came from deep in the shaft, echoing in the closed cabin.

Lion El'Jonson stood still. He took out the communicator that had ruined his plan from his arms and spoke in a low voice.

"Tell me about the situation."

The lion's deep voice was enough to terrify Astarte, the more violent the rage, the calmer it would be before it erupted.

"Sir, we saw a beam of light, an unknown light guiding us." A voice sounded in the communicator.

"Torch?" the lion asked.

"It's not Terra's Astronomican, but a powerful, unknown flashing beacon." The person on the other end of the communicator obviously didn't know what his recklessness had caused, but he still shouted excitedly, "This beacon is enough to guide us out of the warp."

The lion who failed in the hunt took a deep breath. The pheromones left by Conrad exposed his poor condition. There was no doubt that the Midnight Haunter was getting weak.

This is a rare opportunity.

He calmed down and immediately gave the order.

"Unknown beacon? It's better than nothing. Let Houguin and Redross come to the exit to meet me."

(End of this chapter)