Chapter 626: Aftermath

Several days have passed since the battle.

Silence filled the Black Legion's communication channel.

A depressing and depressing silence.

However, in this silence, Kayan truly found a sense of security - after several careful searches, Kayan had confirmed that the black-armored warrior had been sucked into the subspace rift created by the explosion of the subspace engine.

Back to where he belongs.

At this moment, the Black Legion is hiding in the depths of space, and the Vengeful Spirit is drifting in the space between the stars - it has lost the ability to jump into the warp. A significantly reduced number of frigates, cruisers, and captured warships from the Black Templars are surrounding the Vengeful Spirit.

The previous scattered retreat was too hasty, so the Black Legion needed several days to regroup the scattered fleet. Now they were hiding in a pre-arranged assembly point, drifting casually in the tranquility, waiting for other warships of the legion to arrive here and reunite with the main force.

At this time, on the medical deck of the Vengeful Spirit, Kayan stood beside Nagua, stroking the demon fur distractedly and listening to his master's speech about the future.

"This is a unique opportunity for us."

Abaddon said solemnly.

His rough voice came from a speaker installed next to the incubator he was in. Abaddon floated in the center of the life-support fluid, which looked very similar to the artificial amniotic fluid in Enaminessis's life-support tank, both in terms of the shadows it cast and the blood-stained color.

A breathing mask was attached to his face, providing him with oxygen and also conveying his words. Abaddon took off his armor, and his pale body was immersed in the hazy liquid. A scar started from his cheek, gradually thickened and extended to his collarbone, and finally stopped in the mess on his chest. Sigismund's attack was really powerful, destroying many organs in Abaddon's body, so that the pharmacist had to clone and replace the organs.

A team of Lightless Blade Terminator Guards is guarding outside the cabin. Any outsiders, including Space Marines, are strictly prohibited from setting foot on this deck, otherwise they will be killed without mercy.

"What chance?"

Kayan played the role of a supporting actor.

"Between the freedom of the Black Legion and the death of Daravek." Abaddon's eyes became fierce and ambitious. "It heralds an unprecedented opportunity. The Black Templars will return and will no longer act alone. Following closely behind is the wrath of the Empire. What will they see?"

"They will see worlds burned, outposts razed, shipyards pillaged, and waterways ravaged... the devastation we leave behind."

Kayan continued his words and answered.

"That's right."

Abaddon nodded and said:

"But they will also discover who is behind this drama - scattered warbands and independent warlords, not an army, let alone nine legions."

Kayan followed his thoughts and soon understood Abaddon's intention. He suddenly said:

"But Daravek is dead..."

Abaddon laughed and said:

"There has never been a better time to unite the Legions - in the name of our common hatred. Once we have assembled our fleet, we can force the disbanded warbands of the Parasite Legion to obey us through temporary alliances and individual challenges. Some will betray us, some will rebel against us, but now we need to unite, Khayon. The Black Legion must rise above these petty acts of piracy and once again wage open war!"

What a confident and bold statement.

What a perfect and great plan.

Kayan was overwhelmed with emotion after hearing this.

But that's not the whole plan.

"Don't forget the prophecy, Ezekiel."

Void Prophet Moriana reminded.

"Of course, I feel that Draconian is calling me. This magic weapon will definitely belong to me."

Abaddon said confidently.

"You reacted correctly, Kayon."

Abaddon turned his head and said approvingly:

"Your decision to disperse the fleet was very timely, brother. This preserved most of our manpower and allowed the expedition to continue."

Kayan nodded.

Although he knew that this decision would be extremely correct in retrospect, he still felt very relieved that Ezekel agreed with his decision at the time.

"but."

Abaddon suddenly changed the subject:

"As for your other decision to exile the black-armored monster by detonating the Warp Engine of the Spirit of Vengeance, many soldiers in the Legion have some complaints."

"That thing…"

Kayan was about to explain.

Abaddon raised his hand and pressed:

"Because of your decision, Enaminess suffered heavy damage. The Spirit of Vengeance cannot perform a warp jump and can only move slowly at sublight speed, which greatly delays our progress. As a result, we must attack an industrial world or forge world with a space dock in order to repair the Spirit of Vengeance and continue our journey to find the magic sword."

Kayan remained silent upon hearing this.

Abaddon glanced at the star map as he spoke,

"Let me see. The closest forge world to us is... Oh, Agrippina, the Star of a Thousand Holes. This is a tough nut to crack. It's very, very hard to chew."

"Is it really necessary, Kayon?"

Morianna also questioned:

"It's such a huge price to pay."

"You didn't see…"

Kayan said in a serious tone:

"He banished three Chaos Daemons."

"How is this possible?"

Moriana said with a questioning look on her face:

"Are you sure what you saw wasn't a psychic hallucination?"

"but..."

Abaddon changed the subject again:

"I support your decision, brother."

Kayan was slightly stunned when he heard this.

"I looked at him."

Abaddon said in a low voice:

"With just that one look, I knew I was no match for him, at least not at the moment. He was so confident in killing me. From that look, I could feel that he firmly believed... He was certain that he could kill me."

"Indeed."

Kayan also sighed and said:

"Ezekel, with all due respect, that is true. You were wise to listen to my warning. That is not something in the real universe. In fact, we should thank him. He killed Daravek, and I saw it with my own eyes."

"You can kill Daravek too, Kayon."

Abaddon said in a deep voice:

"I have this confidence in you."

"But I can never be so relaxed and straightforward."

Kayan shook his head and said:

"Daravek's magical attainments may not be as good as mine, but he has the blessing from Nurgle. I have to fight him for at least several rounds before I can find an opportunity to kill him with one blow. What about him? He suppressed Daravek the whole time. It took him less than a minute to kill the Lord of the Host. It's terrible."

Mollyanna fell silent after hearing this.

"Whatever the case, Daravek died on the Vengeful Spirit, so we killed him. I will nail his body to the ram of the bow. I will show the Nine Legions and all the Chaos warbands in the Eye of Terror that this is the result of disunity, this is the result of rebelling against us."

Abaddon said in a resounding voice.

Then he changed the subject:

"We brought back Sigismund's body."

Khayon was silent. He guessed that Abaddon might have intended to keep the body as a trophy, to be impaled on a ram along with Daravek's remains, or perhaps he was desecrating Sigismund's body to please some deity, he didn't know.

After saying these bold words.

Abaddon seemed to be growing weaker.

So Kayan asked for permission to leave.

Abaddon nodded slightly in agreement.

"I have something I have to do,"

Before leaving, Kayan turned around and said:

"There is one last thread left to be cut."

Abaddon remained silent and did not answer. His eyes did not look at Kayan but drifted away. It was as if he was looking at Sigismund again, pondering how to answer the brother with whom he could never talk again, the brother he once revered but who despised him when he was dying.

…

At this time, the Soul of Vengeance was in a secret cabin.

A bald Space Marine stood here.

On each shoulder armor of his power armor, there was a wriggling black monster face with curved horns and a long tongue, tightly bound by several iron chains.

Sargan Eregesh, a powerful dark apostle from the Word Bearers Legion who chose to join Abaddon. He was once the chief priest of the Brass Head Chapter under the Seventeenth Legion, and now he is the nominal second in command of the Black Legion, as well as the chief priest and supreme master of the Black Legion.

Sagan gathered a group of space warriors in his cabin suite. They stood in the candlelit prayer room, talking to each other and waiting for the chief priest to perform the ceremony. It was Kayan who asked Sagan to gather them to this private secret temple for the oath ceremony. If Kayan summoned them personally, it might arouse their suspicion, which was not what Kayan wanted to see.

Eleven people in total.

Eleven warriors survived the duel between Abaddon and Sigismund.

Eleven warriors saw Abaddon fleeing from the attack of the black-armored warrior.

Sagan asked the eleven warriors to repeat the oath in silence - they had sworn at the end of the battle not to tell what they had seen, and no one who was not at the duel was allowed to know the following facts: Abaddon was almost seriously injured and killed in the duel with Sigismund, and Abaddon was forced to flee by a black-armored warrior. Such unpopular facts must not be allowed to exist in the legend written by the Black Legion.

They all obeyed without objection and renewed their oaths, a ceremony that they all felt honored by. Each of them knew that breaking their oaths would mean death, while keeping them would bring Abaddon's favor. This was truly a godsend - the position of squad leader or even warband lieutenant was within their reach. Such good fortune would allow them to rise quickly and be close to the Black Legion's leadership, and they would never want to let this opportunity slip away by proving themselves unworthy.

This was the thought that Kayan sensed from a distance using his psychic tentacles: ambition, impulse, and hunger... Kayan knew in his heart that none of them intended to break their oath, and they all cherished their loyalty.

Sagan blessed them one by one, and with his bloody thumb he gently drew the sign of the eight-pointed star of chaos on their foreheads as a sign of blessing. He dipped his finger into a bowl filled with the pulp of slaves' entrails, and whispered that the gods would look upon them differently because they kept their master's secret.

When Sagan finished the ritual, he raised the iron bowl to his lips and drank the remaining bloody contents. Then, with great care and patience, he put the empty bowl down steadily, waved his hand to signal the warriors to leave, and thanked them again.

They lined up in a row, walked through the hatch, out of the corridor and onto the metal deck. They hadn't started talking to each other yet, but their faces were already full of pride. They felt that they had entered a secret circle that was not allowed to be known by other brothers.

Then the heavy iron doors on both sides of the corridor began to close along the friction tracks, and finally closed completely with the ear-piercing sound of metal collision. At the same time when the front and rear gates at both ends of the passage were completely closed, Kayan stepped forward alone in the shadows and appeared in front of the eleven soldiers.

Kayan looked at them silently without saying a word.

This fake show ends here.

Many people immediately realized what was about to happen. Two Chaos Space Marines reached for their chainswords and activated them. At the same time, four others drew their bolters and opened fire. However, Kayan simply raised one arm and opened his psychic field shield to block the flying bolts, causing them to explode in front of him.

Kayan did not ask them to surrender and accept the inevitable. He could indeed promise them that if they would accept their fate, everything would be quick and painless. But Kayan did not want to lie - whether they surrendered or not, the pain would still be inevitable.

"Cease fire, cease fire!"

One of the team leaders yelled.

He pulled the other man's gun down.

"Lord Khayon!" He looked at Khayon with a sincere and trusting look and said, "Lord Khayon, there is absolutely no need for you to do this. We have sworn an oath that we will never tell anyone what we have seen. I beg you to believe in our loyalty."

Kalyan admired his clear head.

But I don't appreciate his naivety.

The demonic lynx leaped out of the shadows.

The size and weight of the giant tiger directly pressed the sergeant to the deck, completely covering him like a moving giant shadow with claws. The ceramic steel armor was twisted and cracked, and the splattered blood made the air smell fishy. The remaining ten soldiers moved in a chaotic manner, shouting and shooting while charging, trying to find a way to escape.

Kayan sent out a psychic shock, pushing them in all directions, and the high gravity acceleration simulated by psychic energy made their backs slam into the iron bulkhead, and then they were firmly fixed to the wall. Every attempt to twist their arms or legs to get rid of the heavy restraints would only cause their limbs to be pulled back to their original positions by psychic power.

"That's enough."

Kayan said calmly.

The demon lynx immediately stopped eating.

The sergeant was still alive, his throat was no longer functioning, and he had lost half of his chest and an arm. But he was still alive, and his internal organs were exposed in his broken chest, beating slowly and greasy.

"Sir…" The warrior's mouth was full of black, smelly blood, and he tried hard to squeeze out words from his lips, "Please… don't leave us… to your… dark Eldar…"

Kayan smiled at his dying request, at least he could still fulfill this last wish.

"You are not traitors," Kayan replied calmly, "so you will not suffer the same fate as traitors. So I regretfully bid you farewell, Sergeant Havelock."

"grown ups--"

Sergeant Havelock's efforts and struggles to speak were suddenly interrupted by the blackening and swelling in his body. His armor was torn into pieces, and the unformed words melted into a long and powerful cry from the mutated vocal cords in his throat. A pair of feathered, broken and thin wings suddenly burst out from behind him, and a slender and sharp beak pierced his face and stretched out, covered with bloody saliva.

Kayan uses his soul body.

Summoned a Tzeentch Daemon.

"Come here, Nagua."

Kayan said, waving his hand.

"Owner."

The demon immediately followed Kayan.

Kayan left the cabin with Lynx and Sagan. The door behind him was sealed again, and Kayan released the psychic grip that held the ten warriors against the wall. The imprisoned warriors desperately scratched the wall and the door, making a dull and pleasant sound.

There was the sound of bolter fire that sounded like distant thunder, the crash of flesh on metal, the shouting of the Chaos Marines, and then silence.

"I'm sorry."

Kayan looked at Sagan and said apologetically:

"For the mess inside."

Sagang blinked to show that he didn't care.

Khayon nodded, and turned to his other duties. It was a cruel, but necessary measure, and Ezekael was presented as the new Warmaster of Chaos, victorious and undefeated, rather than a weakling fleeing from his enemies. The Black Legion was now scattered and weakened, and Khayon had to ensure that its first expedition would not be its last.

......

(End of this chapter)