As long as you die, you are invincible, but in 40K

Amidst the still echoing "applause", the mayor and his four concubines had their farewell ceremony, but this was not the end for the five members of the beheading team. The cultists outside would not spontaneously disband because of the mayor's death, so it was impossible to return the same way. They could only keep moving forward and find another way out.

After recovering the cross and gathering the bodies of the four concubines and the mayor together, they poured Sister Amelia's fuel on them and set them alight to prevent the cultists from using the bodies for sacrifice. Then, amidst the flames that grew from licking the wooden materials and other combustible materials of the "theater", the five men walked to the place where the mayor had broken through.

It was a wide corridor. Perhaps because the mayor's aesthetic taste had not yet been completely alienated, it was very clean compared to the outside world. There was no trace of evil things, and it basically retained its magnificent appearance. A large number of handicrafts and paintings were displayed on both sides of the corridor.

At the end of the corridor was an elevator that was large enough to accommodate the mayor's huge body. Just as everyone was about to move forward, Big Mouth, whose adrenaline had faded, suddenly knelt on the ground.

Although he had received emergency medical treatment, the current conditions could only keep him in a barely survivable state, and there was no way he could continue to move on his own.

Big Mouth took off his helmet, coughed up the blood, looked up at the political commissar, and slowly shook his head.

After a brief silence, the latter replied:

"Big Mouth, hold here."

Ogrin nodded, showing a simple smile, and dragged his body to lean against the wall on one side.

This was the first and last time Zhang Ge saw his expression.

ps: I am writing, I am writing, my keyboard is going to smoke, urgent

Chapter 15: Altar

The artworks on both sides of the corridor are exquisitely crafted, and their high value can be sensed just from their appearance. Perhaps the price of one piece is enough for a Xiachao person to live for several lifetimes. It is hard to imagine that this is the accumulation that a mere mayor of a water supply town can have.

However, no one intended to linger on these works of art, nor did they really want to pocket and sell the works of art that had been degraded in such a corrupted environment.

After quickly crossing the corridor, the remaining four people came to the front of the elevator. Three of them stood separately to be on guard, while Pastor Reid was responsible for pressing the elevator button.

Amidst the obvious sound of mechanical operation, the elevator door that had already stopped at this floor slowly opened. There was no other living creature inside, and the mirror-like inner wall appeared in front of the team.

A small, enclosed space is a deadly word in street fighting, let alone in this environment. But there is no other choice at the moment. After letting the cross enter first as a means of purification, the four people followed closely and entered the elevator one after another.

After everyone checked, Zhang Ge, who approached the right operating panel, found that this elevator actually only had one option. It seemed that it should lead to the mayor's bedroom or something like that?

There was no time to think. After pressing the button, the elevator door closed. As the mechanism operated, Pastor Reid looked at the mobile terminal in front of him and suddenly said:

"The depth gauge shows that our depth... is decreasing."

In other words, it doesn't look like a room leading to a bedroom or office, unless the mayor is rather insecure and likes to live underground.

Zhang Ge shrugged and said:

"Like this? At least if they want to catch up, they'll have to take the elevator down in waves."

"This should lead to the altar. There are usually some guards here."

Sister Amelia interrupted the teasing and gave a reminder.

The political commissar said nothing. Although his expression did not change, his gloomy mood was clearly palpable.

In the silence, the depth continued to decrease every second, but finally stopped before breaking a thousand.

This depth is far beyond the depth of the nuclear defense facilities on Zhang Ge’s previous planet.

After the elevator door opened, there was no enemy in front of everyone, only a huge void with no end in sight.

Aside from the light spilling from the elevator, the only source of light in this empty cavern was a pale, white lamp shining down from the ceiling, illuminating an altar with a blasphemous symbol carved into its center.

The altar seemed to be in the center of the cave, and surrounding it were six corpses divided into six parts, each part occupying exactly one-sixth of the body.

Zhang Ge glanced at everyone, briefly assessed who was most suitable for reconnaissance, and said:

"I gonna go see?"

The commissar turned his gaze to Reverend Reid, who was stunned for a moment before realizing what he meant. He shook his head and said,

"This is just a conventional instrument. Subspace readings are no longer detectable."

If you stare into the warp, the warp will also stare back at you. Due to the need for high-intensity active exposure to the warp environment, the instrument probes used to detect warp readings usually have a short lifespan and will self-purify once they are corrupted. Pastor Reid had not expected to go this deep before he came.

In other words, once you leave the protection of the cross, it is possible that you will be corrupted into a chaos egg in the next second.

But Zhang Ge didn't seem to care and just continued:

"Sacrificing me is better than letting everyone die. If something unexpected happens, remember to give me a quick death."

However, Sister Amelia, who had remained silent since her initial statement, now objected:

"You are one of the sources of the miracle. Your value is far greater than all of us combined, at least until the cause of the miracle is discovered."

Pastor Reid wanted to agree with what he said, but before he could do so, Zhang Ge retorted:

"If the Emperor truly favors me, how can I tolerate a coward who only cares about self-preservation, and that coward is me?"

After saying that, Zhang Ge turned his head to look at the political commissar. After he nodded, he stepped out of the elevator and further left the range of the light emitted by the cross.

It was a close call, I almost died.

As for the discomfort... to be honest, it didn't exist. Apart from being a little cold, Zhang Ge didn't feel any special changes in the environment.

But this does not mean that the subspace infection phenomenon does not exist. Zhang Ge took out a flare from his waist and pulled it open. He found that although it was triggered normally and flew into the sky, the flickering red light did not illuminate the surroundings at all, as if it was a distant star embedded in the dark cave ceiling.

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Ge decided to keep moving forward. After walking about ten meters in the darkness, something strange happened.

Starting from his feet, a huge pink ring surrounding the altar suddenly lit up, followed by the second ring which was closer to the altar and was enclosed by the largest outer ring, the third ring of the same form but closer to the altar, and so on until the sixth ring. The blasphemous glow began to fill the underground space.

Before Zhang Ge could get a closer look, he felt an unimaginable force on the back of his neck. He was pulled into the air, as if he was in a convertible on the highway, and was dragged back into the elevator with a roar.

He stood firm and looked back, and it was Sister Amelia with an expressionless face.

The moment the change began, she rushed out of the elevator and, despite the corrosion of the subspace outside, pulled back Zhang Ge, who seemed to be standing there in a daze. However, Sister Amelia only had one arm left, so she had to choose to give up the two-handed sword that she had never let go of and threw it to the place where Zhang Ge had just been.

Sister Amelia didn't say anything extra, she just extended her hand:

"arms."

Zhang Ge sighed softly. Seeing her like this, he probably didn't expect to die before her for the time being. He had no choice but to hand her the laser gun and several magazines he was carrying.

"Thank you, but I would be more grateful if you could let me die with honor... This is produced by the Military Affairs Department. I hope you find it satisfactory."

During their brief chat, the Six Rings had become completely bright, illuminating the outline of the natural cave.

Immediately afterwards, a shadow gradually appeared in the center of the altar. He did not see the previous worshippers and seemed to be briefly confused, but soon noticed the people in the elevator.

This is not Slaanesh. It is impossible for a cultist of this level to communicate directly with the evil god of the Warp, but even if it is just the shadow of a powerful demon's clone, the psychic energy it emits is suffocating.

"Ah, you have his scent on you."

ps: I forgot to add the traditional art of begging segment, I’ll make it up here, I almost starved to death, please give me more votes *fake crying.

Chapter 16 Ascalon

He, who is he referring to?

Although it is not Slaanesh himself, the one who can be worshipped is at least at the level of a great demon, which is a level that ranks among the best in the entire galaxy.

For ordinary people, it is meaningless to worry about the difference between demons and gods. Even for the worst ones, what is worthy of their personal intervention is at least planetary-scale corruption, or simply launching an expedition to destroy the entire galaxy.

For them, performing sacrifices to their gods on a scale of hundreds of billions of people at one time is only a small part of their long life, and an ordinary person is just an insignificant fraction of these hundreds of billions of numbers.

The person, or thing, that can be remembered by this kind of existence is not someone that anyone in the decapitation team can come into contact with.

But it was obvious that the other party did not explain the meaning of that sentence in detail at the moment. His body became more solid, and he obviously paid more attention here.

Although those sacrifices were obviously not enough for the other party to further descend into the physical universe, the Great Demon was not an ordinary warp demon.

For them, after obtaining a specific coordinate and a gap, they can take the initiative to tear open the membrane separating the real universe from the subspace side. Now that the Great Rift spans the galaxy, this has become much easier than usual.

However, the other party did not seem to intend to land here. Before solidifying into an observable concrete existence, He stopped.

Except for Zhang Ge, everyone else was completely unable to take any effective action at this moment, even with the protection of the cross.

But what's the point of Zhang Ge being able to do actions? Is he supposed to try to blow the demon's head off with his plasma pistol? Or press the elevator button? He could easily push the entire elevator back if he wanted to.

He simply pretended to be motionless: At worst you can just stab me, you don’t know that I will be invincible after I die. Could it be that a big devil is planning to capture an ordinary person as a collection?

This is as ridiculous as the Earth's leader going to the moon just to pick up a specific stone.

And to be honest, even if the four of them were tied together and squeezed out enough oil, it probably wouldn't be enough to burn during the few seconds when He spontaneously descended.

"Ascalon."

He raised his hand, and a longsword that seemed to have nothing to do with Slaanesh descended from the void. The sword looked ordinary, without any decoration. It looked like the most ordinary one-handed longsword, and at best its shape was a little retro.

But the name "Ascalon" is completely different from its ordinary appearance. This name comes from Christian mythology and is the dragon-slaying weapon used by Saint George, who killed the dragon.

Okay, so, whose holster is Jesus?

If what he said was true, then this was an ancient holy object from at least the 1k period of ancient Terra, and it was an ancient holy object related to the Emperor. It was so ancient that, except for Zhang Ge, no one present knew the name at all.

Without mentioning anything else, just the three words used to describe the symbolism of St. George slaying the dragon: "Humanity eliminates animality, humanity protects the weak, and the human heart is naturally holy" are enough to make people understand the value of Ascalon.

Just by taking out this sword and dropping it in the center of the altar, the opponent's almost solid figure disappeared.

It seemed that it was far more than that. Even the subspace erosion phenomenon in the cave was cleared out, or drained away. As the six rings dimmed, the flares still in the air replaced the previous pink light and became the light source illuminating the cave.

The other three people naturally recovered their normal ability to move.

Almost facing the Great Demon and surviving, and even being given a gift, this kind of thing... for people like them, even if you take the initiative to go to the Inquisitor to tell him, he will think you are wasting his time and causing trouble.

However, as outrageous as the experience was, one thing is certain.

Zhang Ge raised the plasma pistol in his hand, letting the hot plasma ball streak across and hit the altar.

The altar without the evil energy of the Warp was just an ordinary stone platform, which was directly burned into gas and magma, but Ascalon, which was inserted into the altar, was intact. Even though it lost its support, it still hung in the air.

Seeing this, without even asking Sister Amelia to pick up her fallen two-handed sword, the political commissar who replaced Zhang Ge and stood next to the operating panel reached out and pressed the elevator button directly.

Zhang Ge was not so curious as to go and see what was going on - there was no doubt that if he did that, he would definitely be considered seeking death.

"Looks like you'll be using the laser gun for a while."

Zhang Ge said to Sister Amelia.

But right now, no one was in the mood to joke. They weren't afraid of death, but who among the three could guarantee that they wouldn't fall after facing the great demon? This matter had nothing to do with determination; it was simply a huge gap in strength.

Just like when the Imperial Guards were directly controlled to attack the Emperor physically, the gap was too big, and it would be meaningless even if their spirits were not corrupted.

This concern reached its peak next.

The elevator slowly stopped after running for a while, but as the elevator door opened, what appeared in front of everyone was still the cave.

"Impossible, the depth meter data has been decreasing..."

In the end, Pastor Reid couldn't even convince himself.

The political commissar was silent for a moment, then said:

"If I can return to the battlefield, I will apply for an investigation. Although the influence of the Warp demons is powerful, it is not insurmountable for the Empire. Until then, I will be responsible for the containment of this sword."

This was basically equivalent to sentencing himself to death. For an ordinary political commissar, if he directly came into contact with the product of a great demon, even if after investigation it was found that it was really not contaminated at all, or the value was within a reasonable range, after Ascalon was confirmed to be a product of the great demon, he would most likely be cleared out for the sake of precaution.

It goes without saying that it was really contaminated, but in another situation, if it is confirmed that it is not contaminated, as long as the political commissar insists on not revealing the other members of the decapitation team, Sister Amelia is a member of the Battle Sisters, Pastor Reid is a pastor of the state religion, and Zhang Ge is just one of the countless interstellar soldiers.

The Inquisition was basically too lazy to spend so much time and energy on a thorough investigation - it wasn't that they didn't want to, but there were countless far more serious things happening in the Empire at any time, and they needed to make the most of every bit of time.

Even if there are really several landmines buried that will explode in a few years or even more than ten years...if there is a time bomb in your house that will explode with the entire building in ten minutes, would you choose to spend nine minutes to dismantle these landmines?

What's more, he only came into contact with the shadow of the Great Demon's clone, which is not serious enough to make the review mechanism of the Inquisition unable to detect it.

However, just as the political commissar made up his mind to walk towards the sword and grasped it, he did not take any further action.

Because... I can't pull it out.

An extremely difficult to describe awkwardness quietly spread in this extremely tense atmosphere. After he obviously tried hard a few more times but to no avail, he looked over. Pastor Reid and Sister Amelia looked at each other and tried one after another, but without exception, they were unable to shake the sword at all.

Until Zhang Ge put his hand on the hilt of the sword.

ps: He is not referring to the Emperor, but he does have a relationship with the Old Dengs. The next chapter will tell you what it is. Now we can reveal that he is related to Ascalon.

Chapter 17: Dragon Slaying Sword