Chapter 458

"How could you possibly still be alive?"

"Have you truly become a wraith!?"

Kharn's voice was laced with horror and disbelief.

He had guessed what the shadow was, but also noticed that its condition was strange—far weaker than in Kharn's memory, and it didn't seem to have a material body.

It was more like... a shadow of some Warp entity projected into the material universe?

Kharn couldn't judge; after all, he wasn't a Thousand Son, and he had no daemonological knowledge, only his intuition.

The shadow ignored Kharn, its body beginning to writhe, dragging the surrounding darkness toward the depths of the corridor.

But Titus raised his chainsword, standing resolutely before the shadow.

The shadow seemed like the embodiment of the concept of fear in the mortal world, yet Titus showed not a trace of fear.

"You are inno. cent." The shadow's words were fragmented.

"If I let you pass, that would be the true guilt." Titus roared in a low voice, "What exactly are you? What is your purpose?"

". Sinner."

". Thief."

". Mission."

Fragmented and manic words spilled from the shadow's mouth; Titus couldn't understand them at all.

Then, the shadow's blood-red eyes suddenly began to stare fixedly at Titus, as if seeing something in him...

". Roboute. Guilliman." The shadow pointed at Titus with its claw, as if seeing the shadow of the Ultramarines' gene-father in him.

"My father?" Titus frowned, not knowing what this shadow had to do with his gene-father.

". Imperium Secundus, Regent." The shadow let out a mocking, cackling laugh.

"Imperium. Secundus?" Titus looked at the shadow strangely, not understanding the term.

"Ambitious." The shadow muttered deliriously.

"Slander." Titus furrowed his brows.

The shadow let out another cackling laugh, as if mocking Titus.

Before Titus could react, the shadow charged at him.

The shadow reached Titus in the blink of an eye, a sharp, savage, and terrifying roar emanating from within it.

"Must. deliver. atonement."

The manic roar made Titus's whole body go numb; he stiffly raised his arm to try and block the shadow's claws.

But the claws were so sharp they almost instantly sliced through Titus's master-crafted chainsword, which he had used for many years.

Titus did not hesitate, throwing the broken sword at the shadow and then quickly grabbing his bolter to unleash fire upon it.

But the shadow was faster than the bolts, dodging the broken sword and the bolts in the blink of an eye, about to rush behind Titus.

"Next time, get a better weapon!"

"Where is your Ultramarine armory?"

Kharn growled.

He had spent a moment digging himself out of the wall and swung his blood-soaked axe to kill the shadow.

The sharp axe hummed, the chain made of mica-dragon teeth hacking toward the shadow.

It seemed that in the shadow's eyes, Titus was innocent while Kharn was guilty, so it attacked Kharn more viciously and lethally.

It turned with a speed Kharn couldn't keep up with, its claws thrusting straight at Kharn.

But Kharn didn't dodge or evade, crashing into the claws.

He let out a savage growl as his chest was pierced by the claws.

But Kharn used this to get close to the shadow, close enough to see the head hidden beneath the darkness.

He hacked straight at the shadow's head.

The shadow let out a terrifying roar, but didn't even move its head, simply extending its other claw to easily block Kharn's axe.

The shadow let out a disdainful, twisted, cackling laugh—

Bang!!!

A sound like a funeral raven's cry rang out, the sound of a large-caliber steel needle breaking the air sharp and piercing.

The steel needle pierced Kharn's left collarbone and shot toward the shadow's head, which Kharn had pointed out with his chain-axe.

His breathing was steady, calm, and light as nothing.

Wind, temperature, gravity, and even the density of Kharn's flesh were all calculated by him.

The needle sniper rifle he was intimately familiar with was in perfect condition, the trigger pressing affectionately against his finger.

He applied slight pressure to the trigger with his finger.

"Blood God above." Kharn gritted his teeth and spat out those words, then added, "Saint Doraemon above, and the False Emperor above too, damn it."

His chest was pierced by the shadow's claws, and his collarbone was pierced by the large-caliber steel needle from the Raven Guard hidden in the dark.

If not for the Belisarian Furnace constantly healing him, he would have collapsed here.

The shadow struggled and retreated a few steps, its claws pulling weakly out of Kharn's chest.

A large-caliber steel needle was embedded in its head, constantly leaking viscous black mist like blood.

Then, a sharp mechanical sound came from the needle, and an imperceptible crack suddenly appeared on it.

Gray-black dust, golden powder, and silver liquid burst out, dispersing into the air and following the needle directly into the shadow's body.

"Damn, ashes of a Blank mixed with Astronomican ash? And spiked with Baal's Water of Hunger? That's truly dark." Raum, the daemon parasitic in Kharn, exclaimed with disgust, "How afraid is he of not killing the target??"

Thanks to the three gods, the Raven Guard hiding in the dark had guessed Kharn's thoughts, understood the tactics Kharn had planned, and seized the opportunity Kharn created.

But this stunning marksmanship—was it really him?

How on earth did Saint Doraemon find this guy...

Kharn looked at the steel needle embedded deep in the shadow's head, clutching his wound and thinking.

Large-caliber steel needle, Blank ashes, Astronomican ash, Water of Hunger—any conventional target suffering this damage should be dead.

But... but Kharn knew the thing before him was not a conventional target.

The shadow writhed, twitching as it reached out to grab the needle in its head and yanked it out.

The shadow let out a sharp roar, and those viscous black mists that had flowed out like blood all drilled back into its head; in the blink of an eye, it was restored to its original state.

Kharn panted as he watched this scene.

This was entirely within his expectations; if being pierced in the head by a nail killed you, Angron would have died long ago.

But they had delayed long enough; Soth should have run out of the communication interference range and transmitted the situation here.

The shadow writhed savagely, its bright red eyes looking toward the position where the Raven Guard was hiding.

"You are inno. cent."

Although it had been headshot, the shadow seemed to have no hostility toward that Raven Guard.

Then its scarlet eyes looked at Kharn.

". You. are. guilty." it growled.

"You too." Kharn took a deep breath, staring at the shadow and saying.

". Yes." The shadow nodded savagely, about to swing its claws at Kharn, and then...

A red-and-pink wooden door suddenly appeared between the two, and Zhou Yun stepped out with Nobita Nobi, standing between them.

Zhou Yun's gaze swept over the unconscious Seth, the panting Titus, the gruesomely wounded Kharn, and the Raven Guard who seemed annoyed at failing to kill the shadow.

Then, he looked at the shadow, which was still holding its claws high.

"Careful, my lord." Titus shouted urgently, grabbing his bolter to block in front of Zhou Yun.

Then, to Titus's bewilderment, the shadow slowly lowered its claws, curled up its body, and writhed before Zhou Yun.

It pulled a spear wrapped in bloody skin from within its body.

The spear seemed to be of Aeldari style, shimmering with a terrifying radiance, as if housing the power of a dying sun.

The shaft was wrapped in a layer of smooth, hairless skin, seemingly just peeled off, with a wailing soul faintly visible on it.

The Spear of Twilight, or the fourth Crone Sword.

This was originally the weapon of the Aeldari Prince Yriel, but now...

Zhou Yun looked at the Spear of Twilight wrapped in bloody skin with some disgust.

Fragmented words spilled from the shadow's mouth, but Zhou Yun understood the gist.

Prince Yriel and the Spear of Twilight were eternally bound; the soul of that Iyanden Craftworld hero was largely fused into the spear and could not be separated.

So he had brought Prince Yriel and the Spear of Twilight back together.

"..." Zhou Yun looked at the soul of Prince Yriel wailing on the spear, suddenly speechless.

He sighed, turned, and waved his hand, signaling the shadow to look at the mess it had made: "Since you came to deliver the Crone Sword, why couldn't you speak properly?"

Another burst of fragmented and manic words spilled from the shadow's mouth, but Zhou Yun understood.

"I don't know how to explain; after all, I am just a madman." The shadow said.

Indeed, this one was a genuine madman, incapable of logical thought; that it hadn't directly killed Titus, Seth, and Kharn was already the result of it trying to restrain itself.

"More importantly, your body has long since died, and now you have no vessel to carry yourself to talk to them?" Zhou Yun's expression crinkled.

Another burst of fragmented words spilled from the shadow; when talking about having no vessel to host its power, the shadow seemed to glance at Titus.

"Hmm... you can't stay in reality for too long? Fine, go back to the Warp."

"Try your best to steal the fifth Crone Sword too."

Zhou Yun nodded at the shadow and said.

The shadow's body stiffened, and it quickly drilled back into the Warp, disappearing without a trace.

"My lord..." Titus let out a deep breath, unable to help asking: "What exactly was that? Some kind of daemon? To be so powerful."

"Could it be..." He remembered some rumors he had heard: "Could it be a Daemon Primarch?"

"Ah, no, rest assured, that is not a Daemon Primarch." Zhou Yun shook his head and said.

Titus breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was Konrad Curze." Zhou Yun said.

That's even worse than a Daemon Primarch!!!

(End of Chapter)