Chapter 193: The Angel

Blood slaves hurried between the seats, carrying heavy plates filled with wine and food in their hands. Cherubs flew across the sky with censers, scattering blue smoke carrying fragrance.

"... Bitter wine," Chapter Master Kaen of the Crimson Blades evaluated, holding his wine glass: "But a little fresh blood has been added... Can the just-right source of life satisfy the Red Thirst without further provoking it?"

Chapter Master Yoll of the Blood Knights, who had always worn his helmet, put down the wine glass in his hand and snorted coldly: "Do not hold onto luck; the Red Thirst will only sink deeper and deeper, until there is no turning back."

"You..." Kaen frowned slightly, seemingly dissatisfied with Yoll's tone.

Then he heard Yoll nod and add: "In the end, you will become like me."

Kaen froze for a moment, looking at the eerie blood aura and hunger emanating from Yoll's entire body.

The scent of blood permeating the air was stimulating him, but Yoll was trying his best to suppress himself, always unwilling to take off his helmet to eat.

Yoll's hand rested slightly on his waist, where there was a long, strip-like object wrapped in cloth. Kaen did not know what it was, only that the blue-armored warrior seemed to have met Yoll in private. That thing might have been given to him by the blue-armored warrior, and it seemed to help Yoll suppress the Red Thirst to a certain extent...

"... Being like me is not a good thing," Yoll lowered his voice and said again. His voice was still sharp enough to make people feel uncomfortable.

But Kaen put down the wine glass in his hand and nodded with slight gratitude: "This is sincere advice; I will remember it."

Yoll only hummed softly in response.

"They are actually celebrating before the battle..." Chapter Master Goren of the Holy Angels, sitting on the other side of Kaen, clicked his tongue slightly.

"My friend? Is it not worth celebrating to be loyal to the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang?" Kaen asked with a slight smile: "What would you do before the battle?"

"Vigil, the silent kind," Goren shook his head and said.

Kaen marveled at the different customs between the various Chapters. Suddenly, he noticed an Astartes warrior wearing magnificently ornate power armor sitting in the seat in front of Goren.

Intricate metal patterns were carved on that warrior's power armor. Judging by the patterns, this was a Tomb Warden. The content of the patterns was mainly praising death, tombs, and the death of the Archangel. And judging by the style of the patterns... this was a piece of power armor made at least three thousand to five thousand years ago. In terms of exquisite craftsmanship, it could completely be called a relic.

And that warrior did not even look like a Captain... The Tomb Wardens are truly wealthy.

That warrior seemed to notice Kaen's gaze, turned his head, and cast a strange look at Kaen.

Kaen nodded slightly to him: "Very beautiful and sturdy power armor. Is it a relic of the previous generation of Tomb Wardens?"

That Tomb Warden warrior hesitated for a moment, then said: "I carved it myself..."

"Ah?" Kaen froze for a moment.

Goren on the side laughed out loud. The Holy Angels Chapter he belonged to had a good relationship with the Tomb Wardens.

"The Tomb Wardens are a fleet-based Chapter. In non-combat situations, they seal themselves in huge stasis fields."

Kaen stood frozen in place for a moment. He had only noticed that the power armor was an ancient relic; he had not expected that even the person was...

"Do you need these external things to prove that you are a descendant of Sanguinius?" Yoll glanced at Kaen and asked.

"... That may be so, but if we don't have these external things, how can we remember the history of our gene-father?" A bitter smile crossed the corner of Kaen's mouth.

His Chapter had once mistaken their father, so naturally, they could not help but pay attention to those relics that could prove their gene-father was Sanguinius.

Kaen's gaze lingered on the cloth bundle at Yoll's waist for less than a second, then he withdrew his gaze.

If only he could win the Sanguinius relic brought by that blue-armored warrior... Kaen sighed slightly in his heart, his gaze unable to help but shift toward the distant high platform.

That blue-armored warrior seemed to be sitting beside the Lord of Death, Mephiston. No one questioned why he sat so high; for one, in a sense, he represented an entire Chapter, and for another, not many people were willing to sit beside Mephiston.

Hmm? Kaen blinked slightly, discovering that the blue-armored warrior and Mephiston had already left their seats at some point and disappeared.

This was clearly done with the help of some Warp power.

But before Kaen could think for long, he heard cheers rising in the arena.

Dante walked back into the Well of Angels. He wore the pure gold mask of Sanguinius, on which the Archangel's angry face was carved, and the Archangel's blood, like a gemstone, shone brightly on his forehead.

Dante paused slightly at the seats of Mephiston and the blue-armored warrior, but he seemed to have expected this long ago, only sighed slightly, and walked to his own seat.

A nearby blood slave picked up a wine bottle, wanting to pour wine for this glorious warrior...

"No!" Dante refused the blood slave.

His gaze swept across all the descendants of Sanguinius present.

"When I first learned of the existence of the Red Thirst, I threw myself into a pool of fresh blood, greedily drinking the blood of aliens..." "When I last drank fresh blood, my hands were covered in blood, and mortals fell by my side..."

"So I swore never to drink fresh blood from living beings again, never to sink into the Red Thirst again... I have kept this commandment for a thousand years and long to keep it until death."

Corbulo, standing beside Dante, stood up and took a bottle of red wine mixed with blood from the blood slave's hand.

This Chief Sanguinary Priest poured a glass of wine for Dante. Dante nodded in salute to him, then slowly took off his golden mask.

That aged face was exposed to all the descendants of Sanguinius. Dante's deep eye sockets seemed to have traces of the years.

In an instant, the entire arena was silent. A Blood Angel had never tasted a drop of blood in the long span of a thousand years, relying entirely on his own willpower to resist the temptation of the Red Thirst, even letting his body suffer the erosion of time...

"When I was still a recruit, my instructor, Lord Kaphiel, once told me that both the Black and Red curses come from the Archangel's rage."

"To control this rage, the Archangel once taught us the five virtues... We should be focused, we should be humble, we should be merciful, we should be restrained, we should be forgiving."

Dante slowly raised his wine glass:

"But if adhering to all this still cannot defeat our enemies... then all we can give our enemies is rage! The Archangel's rage!"

Dante held the wine glass high and drank the red wine mixed with blood. In an instant, the scent of fresh blood flowed from Dante's body, and everyone present trembled because of it.

The pupils in Dante's deep eye sockets flashed with a turbid blood color, becoming sharp and terrifying. The wrinkles on his face seemed to become shallower, and that face faintly overlapped with Sanguinius, full of scorching rage, as if to bring the cruelest punishment to the enemies of humanity.

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"Dante!!!" Kaen almost felt a tremor from the depths of his soul, roaring the name of the Lord of Baal.

"Dante! Dante! Dante!" The Astartes hammered their chests, loudly praising Dante's name.

Only Yoll of the Blood Knights let out a low laugh, a laugh filled with bitterness, sorrow, and sighs, as if mocking Dante, mocking fate, the Red Thirst, and himself.

"In the end, we are all not pure enough..." Yoll muttered in a voice no one could hear clearly.

His fingers rested on the cloth bundle at his waist, and he could faintly feel the bundle trembling slightly.

No... Yoll widened his eyes slowly. It was not the bundle trembling; the entire world was trembling slightly, as if being silently pushed by a pair of hands from among the stars.

The starlight shone into the Shrine of the Holy Day. This magnificent building belonging to the Blood Angels Librarians was trembling slightly.

Not just here; all of Baal was trembling, and even the entire star system was shaking, and the space supporting all this was wailing.

"... The Hive Fleet is coming," Zhou Yun felt the vibration in the air and said in a low voice.

The Hive Fleet's faster-than-light travel method is particularly unique. They use special ships called Narvhal bio-ships to utilize galactic gravity to create a compressed spatial corridor to move quickly toward the target... This method is slower than the Warp, but more reliable.

In addition, when the Hive Fleet begins to move, the target star system will frequently experience earthquakes, tides, and stellar anomalies due to gravity... Conversely, the appearance of these situations indicates that the Hive Fleet has already advanced toward Baal.

But soon, the tremor disappeared, and the space in the Shrine of the Holy Day seemed to become stable, as if some force was protecting the Shrine of the Holy Day.

"... The Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's grace?" Zhou Yun's mouth curled into a smile, looking at the scorching star Adalia floating in mid-air.

This star was restrained by the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's psychic power and placed in the chest of a statue of Sanguinius. Complex mechanical structures were installed inside the statue, allowing the star's power to be utilized, becoming the energy source for the entire Shrine of the Holy Day.

And a portion of the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's power still remained on this star; that portion of power might be more powerful and valuable than the star itself...

But no one could truly utilize this star and the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's might on the star, not even a powerful psyker like Mephiston.

Even if there was only a portion of the power left by the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang on the star ten thousand years ago, it was far from what Mephiston could rival.

"How is the ritual prepared?" Zhou Yun turned his head slightly to look at Mephiston and asked: "Can you connect the passage for Ka'bandha to enter reality to that pocket of mine?"

Mephiston stood beside him and nodded slightly: "The ritual at the Heart of Baal is also ready, just waiting for the Hive Mind to shroud the Baal star system."

Zhou nodded lightly and took out a remote control embedded with buttons from the Four-Dimensional Pocket. There was a metal sight on the remote control.

Looking at this prop, a trace of imperceptible heartache crossed Zhou Yun's face; he only hoped that Ka'bandha could help him break even.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 194 =====