Warhammer: Saving Humanity Begins with the Resurrection of Horus

Page 112

"Cough cough cough... cough cough..."

The coughing echoed through the empty church. The young boy coughed incessantly for a while, until he felt his throat was on fire and aching terribly, before he finally managed to stop. He raised his head again, feeling a strange weakness emanating from his body, and tried to look around.

The boy's light brown eyes swept over the interior of the church, and he quickly gathered information about his surroundings—just like the church's simple exterior decorations, the interior was also very simple, or rather, apart from the simplest stone chair in the center, there was nothing at all.

The style of the stone chair reminded the boy of the single sofa at home, but the backrest was more upright and longer.

The stone chair was empty, but the boy's intuition told him that it belonged to someone, and that it was just waiting there for its owner to return and sit on it once more.

What exactly is this?

Before the boy could find the answer to his inner question, he suddenly felt an indescribable, intense chill coming from behind him. He turned around abruptly and, to his astonishment, saw a giant draped in a black robe, with glimpses of pearl-white armor beneath it.

The giant remained silent, but reached out and, before the boy could react, smacked him hard on the forehead.

The boy winced in pain, took two steps back, and glared angrily at the giant. For some reason, he didn't feel utterly afraid of the giant; quite the opposite, he felt a strange sense of familiarity and warmth.

"Oh." The giant lowered his head, looking at the hand that had just tapped the boy's forehead. "So this is what it feels like. It's really quite nice. Asford and the others didn't lie to me."

"Who are you?" The boy asked the giant with a surge of courage.

A deep laugh escaped the giant's lips, and as it echoed, whispers of laughter began to ripple through the shadows of the church. However, the laughter vanished abruptly when the giant's expression changed. The giant crouched down and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders.

"Who I am is not important. You will definitely find out about this in the future."

"why?"

"Because in the future, one day, you will definitely make the same choice as I am now, cross that long road, come to this temporarily empty throne, find a still innocent child, and say some seemingly nonsensical and boundless words to him."

How do you know this will definitely happen in the future?

"Because in this future context, humanity has done the best it can, and many people will work hard and struggle for this future until it can be successfully achieved... Never mind, after saying so much, you still don't understand at all."

The giant shook his head. The boy was puzzled, so he reached out and slammed his hand hard on the giant's leg armor.

The giant looked at the boy calmly, ignoring his offensive behavior.

"I didn't come here to chat with you. To be honest, if I had the chance, I wouldn't even want to come here. But there's nothing I can do. It affects the future. Some people want to overturn things when they can't win, but we can't let them have their way."

The giant sneered, and then, with a sudden thrust of his hand into his own chest, he forcefully pulled out a luminous, shapeless spherical object right before the boy's eyes.

"This is........"

"Something that should never have appeared in this era."

The giant looked at the boy, and without hesitation, took a step forward and forcefully inserted the ball of light into the boy's body.

"It does not exist on the operating table, but exists in nothingness as the zeroth surgery."

The boy was terrified. He instinctively tried to resist, but after a violent shudder, everything went black. When the light came on again, he found himself in his room at home.

The boy touched his back and found it was completely soaked with cold sweat.

He felt a sharp headache, but he couldn't remember why, or...

"Caesar!"

His sister's voice came from inside, and the boy quickly got out of bed and opened the door.

"Hurry up! Have you forgotten that Daddy said he's taking you to the angels' selection ceremony today?"

"......Okay, I understand. I'll change my clothes first."

Meanwhile, in Badab, the Thorn Court.

Time flies by so quickly it can be startling; in the blink of an eye, two months have passed. However, for those who were prepared, this wasn't so hard to accept, at least not for Lynch.

For two months, Lynch focused on the affairs of Star Claw. He was so focused on his duties that he even considered working sixteen-hour days in the office as a routine—which sounds rather creepy, since even at the most exploitative times at the Nest City factory, it was known that workers should not be allowed to work more than fifteen hours a day.

However, Lynch found it not boring at all; in fact, he successfully found enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment in it.

Becoming an Astartes brings not only an improvement in physical fitness, but also a tremendous boost in mental capacity. Many questions that would take mortals a long time to ponder can often be answered by an Astartes in just a few hours or even minutes. This is especially evident in the descendants of Guilliman.

However, Lynch is not Guilliman's son, but that doesn't mean he lacks potential in this area.

On the contrary, his potential even exceeded his own, and even Horus's, imagination.

The mountain of documents was being processed quickly. Horus no longer helped him, because for a child who is capable of feeding himself, the first thing adults need to do is let go.

An hour later, the hill had disappeared. Lin Qi shook his hand, looked at the still-dry High Gothic body beneath the parchment in front of him, and let out a long breath.

Through their official documents and data reports, Lynch could clearly see the changes that had taken place on Badab. Before his return, Star Claw had indeed managed the area very well, allowing most people to at least survive.

However, for Lynch himself, this is far from enough.

In two months, he further improved the living standards of the people of Chaodu without affecting, or even improving, the factory's work efficiency; the process alone was enough to give him a great sense of satisfaction, not to mention the even more comfortable feeling after achieving remarkable results.

“You should know,” Horus began. “You have upheld your mission, and you and your chapter cannot stay here forever. The expedition is imminent, and even shortly after the conscription begins, you will have to break up the current chapter, leaving some behind, and then lead the rest into a large-scale war.”

“I know,” Lin Qi replied calmly. “But I still want to do something. I’m doing my best to get everything sorted out before I leave, so that no matter what happens to Star Claw and us when we go out, we can at least have a stable home base and people who support us.”

At this point, Lynch looked at Horus and smiled slightly.

"Wasn't it the same when you were the war commander? The people's hearts were with you, and everyone was united."

Horus remained silent, and finally, he sighed helplessly.

"I just hope you don't regret it. But it's true, the empire is nothing to its people... Heh, I was too proud before and didn't realize that. In reality, without mortals, this empire is nothing."

Lynch snapped his fingers. Changing the living conditions of the people of Nest City was never a whim of his, but a policy that took into account various factors and was intended to start with Badab and spread outwards.

Why do so many planets within the Empire experience rebellions?

After thinking about it carefully, Lin Qi finally realized that ordinary people usually organize and join cults for one reason.

That means they can't survive.

The empire suppressed human desires, but human desires do not simply disappear. The state religion did provide an outlet for these desires, but when material oppression outweighed spiritual solace, chaos naturally seized the opportunity to fill the void.

Since that's the case, then I need to find a balance between the two.

If one could survive, or even thrive, only a mortal with a screw loose would be crazy enough to join those seemingly abnormal Chaos beings.

Chaos is a very dangerous enemy, and Lin Qi naturally wants to build up as many shields as possible before officially engaging in battle. Furthermore, a stable Nest City can provide more high-quality population and resources, which is also a good thing for him.

The door opened, and Asford walked in. After Lynch returned, he resumed his role as a "security guard," his daily job consisting of standing guard at the door, dressed in a suit of sophisticated power armor and equipped with a power sword and a bomb gun.

"Afu, what's wrong?"

"The selection ceremony is ready, sir."

Asford lowered his head and spoke respectfully.

"The company commander invited us to come and observe. Also, the child you mentioned last time was brought to the new recruit selection ceremony by his father."

Oh?

Lynch remembered the middle-aged man he had met just two months ago. Horus had suddenly told him that he felt the genetic seed of this middle-aged man's offspring was very compatible. At the time, Lynch asked how he could tell, and was told, "It's from psionic perception."

Okay, Psionic, you win.

Lin Qi thought for a moment, then nodded to Asford. The selection of new recruits was a major event for the chapter, and this time the Star Claws had even modified the original selection ceremony under his leadership. It was only right and proper for him to go to the scene and take a good look.

"Yes, sir."

Asford suddenly spoke up and called out to Lynch.

Lynch stopped and looked at Asford. He was now a full head taller than Asford, and looking at him felt like an adult looking at a thirteen or fourteen-year-old child.

"My lord, here is a letter. I was too busy to hand it to you earlier, but it is from our ally, and you should take a look."

After saying this, Asford took out a small parchment from behind his waist. Judging from the size of the parchment, Lynch knew it was made by an ordinary person.

Upon opening the parchment, Lin Qi was immediately jolted by the first sentence that came into view.

[Long time no see. Our exploration of the network has made progress and we will arrive in Badakhshan in three days. We will discuss the details with you immediately.]

This is the first and only sentence.

There was no signature, but Lin Qi already knew who had written the letter.

He carefully put it away, then waved to Asford and walked out of the office.

"Let's go watch the ceremony."

Chapter 139 New Recruit Selection (Part Two)

Recruiting has begun.

Although the official date is now the tenth day of the third month of this year in Badab, the news of conscription has been echoing in the city for a full month.

The message originated from the Thorn Royal Court. On the day it was sent, everyone in the hive, from the upper-class nobles to the middle-class administrators and the lower-class workers, knew the news—giants clad in pearl-white power armor arrived on the ground aboard enormous iron birds, and the Servo Skull proclaimed the message in Low Gothic, a language everyone could understand.

The angels' mortal servants followed them into the hive city, where they set up information booths in many places to help those who wished to participate in the selection process. This included helping them fill out a profile and medical examination application, and explaining why the selection was open to children between the ages of twelve and fifteen.

Even so, on the first day, the hundreds of information booths set up across Badab were already overcrowded. Star Claw had to send in more people, increasing the number of information booths to one thousand, which finally alleviated the situation.

Parents with school-aged boys rushed to the counseling center with their sons. Among them were nobles, factory managers, workers, and even the most destitute homeless people...

It sounds absurd, but although it was indeed emphasized that if a child in a family successfully joined Star Claw, their family would receive good benefits, for many people who don't understand the meaning of "benefits" at all, sending their children to Star Claw to participate in the selection process is only for two reasons.

The first reason is simple: faith.

As for the second reason... there's something really funny about this world: repaying kindness.

Yes, to repay a debt of gratitude.

The boy walked alone in the line. He entered the information booth, picked up a form to fill out like the adults in front of him, and then used a quill pen dipped in ink on the table to write his name crookedly on it.

Lancelot

Since there was no surname, the boy wrote down this name and then walked up to the person in charge of the information center and handed it over.

The person in charge frowned as he looked at the boy's completed form and name.

"Where are your parents? And your children? Don't use the names of poetic figures that those tavern poets make up."

The boy looked at the person in charge, his face calm.

"I don't have parents."

The person in charge paused for a moment, then lowered his head and picked up a pen.

"real name?"

"It's Lancelot... although I named him myself."