Chapter 99: Black Legion

Zhou Yun froze in place, but after several seconds of observation, he realized the church had changed in many ways from before.

The entire structure had become slimmer and taller, its walls carved with images of the Emperor, skulls, angels, and roses; the bricks and stones themselves were an odd interweaving of crimson and bone-white, giving the church an eerie beauty.

This church was clearly no longer the one Zhou Yun had once known.

It had been demolished and rebuilt from scratch on the same site.

“This church was rebuilt by our Holy Rose Convent.”

Battle Sister Agelaid introduced it to Zhou Yun.

“This time, we purged every trace of corruption, mixing the crimson soil of Bal with the ashes of deceased sisters into every brick and stone. Now, this is a church wholly belonging to the Emperor, and our forward outpost against humanity’s enemies.”

As she spoke, Battle Sister Agelaid pushed open the church’s heavy doors and gestured for Zhou Yun and Leina to enter.

Inside, the church was dim and gloomy, the scent of incense thick in the air; the holy statue of the Emperor stood amid the incense smoke, overlooking a hall that bore no resemblance to a sacred place.

Artificial lighting cast a thin veil of twilight over the entire hall; countless metal cables coiled across the floor, connecting dozens of screens, control panels, gauges, servitors, and communication devices, while hurried figures darted between the machines like schools of fish swimming through a mechanical sea.

A faint odor lingered at Zhou Yun’s nose—the adrenaline of nervous humans, the metallic stench of machinery, and the tang of oil.

Zhou Yun’s gaze passed over a group of veterans gathered around a map and a Lethinian trying to steal the veteran’s flask, fixing instead on two men at the center of the hall.

One was General Drostron, his short, faded hair clipped close to his scalp, one eye a cybernetic implant, the other bearing the pale purple iris characteristic of Cadia.

The other wore a long crimson robe emblazoned with gear insignia; beneath it, his body had been reduced to little more than flesh squeezed between machinery.

He was a battle-tech-priest, locked in heated argument with General Drostron.

“Commander Drostron, allow me to repeat this once more.”

“The shadow of the Hive Fleet draws near; the machine-spirits sense danger more acutely than humans, and they refuse to function normally.”

The tech-priest, whose bulk made him resemble an Astartes, emphasized:

“I need more time to restore interstellar communication.”

“But it is impossible now—I must soothe these machine-spirits; they are deeply displeased—hmm?”

The tech-priest suddenly paused, frowning at the flickering data on the screen.

He instinctively placed his hand on the communication device, trying to sense the machine-spirit within.

General Drostron’s gaze shifted to Zhou Yun and Leina as they entered.

“Tech-Priest Shahlolic, I’ll return to the communication issue shortly.”

General Drostron turned his purple eye toward Zhou Yun and Leina:

“I have more important matters to discuss.”

With that, General Drostron stepped forward, pulled three chairs from the side, and gestured for Zhou Yun and Leina to sit.

After sitting, Zhou Yun studied the veteran commander with interest.

This commander had led wars for over half a century; his Cadia forces were famed as Drostron’s Urban Elite.

The title arose because General Drostron excelled at fighting through the labyrinthine streets of hive cities.

Fort Vedia was his chosen battlefield.

Zhou Yun studied the commander with interest.

“Meeting the Underhive Viceroy lifts my spirits.”

General Drostron glanced at Leina, then fixed his gaze on Zhou Yun, speaking casually:

“The Upperhive Viceroy refuses to see me—he sent me off with a servitor for half a day.”

“I guess he didn’t give you the PDF either,” Zhou Yun said, a faint smile touching his lips.

“Of course not—he’s hidden with his PDFs in some underground crypt,” General Drostron nodded helplessly.

“When I asked for troop support, he actually recommended I come to you.”

“Even so, he kept hinting—through every linguistic trick he could muster—that you’re a dangerous heretic, a cultist, an enemy of humanity, merely pretending otherwise.”

“And for the sake of the Imperium, he felt compelled to denounce you, his former ally.”

Here, General Drostron paused.

The commander’s gaze swept over Leina, then returned to Zhou Yun:

“But it seems there’s some truth to his words. An illegal psyker? And not a weak one.”

Leina tensed instantly, clamping her tongue: “I have not fallen to Chaos—I do all this for the Emperor—”

“Leina.” Zhou Yun cut her off before she finished.

He glanced at General Drostron: “He’s a Cadia man—he knows how to tell if you’re corrupted by Chaos.”

“A Cadia man? So a Cadia man knows how to judge Chaos corruption?”

!

General Drostron burst into laughter, pulling a lho cigarette from his pocket and lighting it. He smirked:

“On my sixth birthday, my father and his comrades completed a mission with an Inquisitor so brilliantly, they earned a half-day leave.”

“They decided to celebrate my birthday. My father asked me what I wished for.”

General Drostron smiled:

“What dream could a Cadia child have? Of course—to strike the Emperor’s enemies sooner.”

“The Emperor granted my wish. A Black Legion warrior—perhaps his teleporter malfunctioned—got stuck in my kitchen wall.”

“My father and his comrades raised their weapons. Neighbors joined the fight—but reinforcements never arrived.”

Hearing this, Leina felt a tightness in her chest and whispered: “I’m sorry for your father’s ordeal.”

General Drostron blinked, then gave her a strange look: “No—I forgot to mention my father and his comrades were Keshajins.”

“Their previous mission was assisting an Inquisitor in exiling a Chaos Daemon.”

“As you guessed, before reinforcements arrived, the Black Legion warrior was already executed by my father and the neighbors.”

“The only serious injury was mine—I lost an eye to debris kicked up when the Black Legion warrior fell.”

General Drostron rubbed his cybernetic eye:

“And I fired six shots at that Black Legion soldier—only five hit.”

“So the birthday party was canceled. My father beat me soundly.”

Leina listened, her lips twitching at this absurd tale.

For some reason, she felt that in General Drostron’s story, Chaos Daemons and the legendary Black Legion were as common as common soldiers.

Was the fighting on Cadia really that intense?

“In any case, Viceroy Augustus seems to have lost his wits.”

General Drostron sighed:

“Two loyal servants of the Imperium—Viceroy Augustus Flax dared to teach a Cadia man how to judge Chaos corruption.”

(End of Chapter)