Chapter 546 The Rise of the Lion King: Hidden War

The cages were hung on the outer wall, swaying in the cold and biting wind. The long-dried corpses sat in the cages, stretched their legs out, hanging in the air, and there was a bottomless abyss below.

This was an extreme torture. If you sat here, you would die, and if you fell down, you would also die. The only way to survive was to return to the fortress behind you, but according to the screams coming from it, I thought it would be better not to go back.

The shrill screams echoed in the rock corridors of the black fortress and in every cell hidden in the rock wall. The long-dried blood solidified on the torture instruments, and the blades and spikes were covered with black blood. There was a skull on the table, and his lower body was leaning against a cage on the side.

The skeleton held a glass of wine in his arms. It seemed that he had a good drink before he died, but it should have been a long time ago. After all, you can see that he has become very exposed, and the bottle is covered with thick dust.

Behind him, between two hanging braziers burning on the wall, the owner of this place is obvious. There is a scarlet letter i on the wall.

The black prison of the Inquisition stands on cliffs and cliffs. Of course, do you expect that there is no secret base of the Inquisition and their station agents on that planet? Ah, you may be overthinking it. In my experience, most planets, even those that are going well, will have rumors of secret activities of the Inquisition. As for those that really don't, you can only wish for the best, because those who replace the Inquisition here are generally not very pleasing.

The firelight flickered on the wall and reflected on the skeleton. Suddenly, the swaying firelight was blocked by a shadow, and a figure appeared in front of him, staggeringly raised his hands, and bowed to him.

"I am Vito Constantine, the judge. Would you mind lending me a sip of your wine?" Vito said, smiling at the headless skeleton in the room. He shrugged, "I'll take that as your consent."

He bent down and pulled the bottle out of the skeleton's hand, along with one of his hands. "You're so polite. You don't have to give it to me in person." Vito said, pried it open and took a sip. He held the dusty bottle and staggered along the prison corridor with the burning brazier.

He swayed and kept jumping around in the surrounding firelight, illuminating the prisoners who had long died in the cells on both sides and were changing from mummies to skeletons. "This place is really terrible. Don't the managers clean it up?"

Vito said as he came to a door at the end. He swayed his body backwards with the wine glass in his hand, then leaned back and randomly clicked on the interface on the side, but the door was never opened.

He watched the door shake, and then saw a skeleton leaning against the cage door. He reached out to grab his hand and pulled it off. After swinging the broken hand and knocking it on the door panel a few times, the door really made a ticking sound.

"I knew you knew the password. Thanks." Vito said, and inserted the skeleton's hand back, but he used a little too much force and accidentally let the skeleton fall to the ground.

After the door opened, Vito raised his glass and took a sip and walked in. He staggered to the handrail and looked at Bell, Eisenstein, Loken and Sexus below. They all turned around and looked at Vito. The latter raised his glass high, took a step towards the steps on the side, and then stepped on the ground. A skeleton rolled over from the cage outside the door and fell down.

Bell and the others watched him roll down the stairs along the arc, and finally fell to the ground at the bottom. Vito raised one hand, holding the bottle of wine stubbornly, "I'm fine, it was an accident."

Lokken and Serksos looked at each other, then watched Vito climb up, holding the wine glass and staggering to the side, stepping quickly and bumping into the table on the side. He took another sip of wine and put it on the table, "This wine must be expired."

As he spoke, he raised his head and looked at the four Space Marines in front of him who were looking at him strangely. They were obviously thinking about what to say in the face of his "accident" just now. Several people looked at each other, and after holding it for a long time, Serksos said "Good morning, Marshal."

"Good morning, Sexus, and Loken, and... Big Guy." Vito said, looking at Eisenstein in the Terminator, and stared meaningfully for a long time before saying, Eisenstein raised his eyebrows, "Are you sure you can listen to any slightly complicated questions like this?"

"Yes, why not? I drank Russ all the way back then, and Ferrus could still beat the greenskins normally the next day." Vito said, leaning on the table and sweeping his hands on it, knocking over a lot of bottles and knives, making a clinking sound in the whole room, then grabbed a glass of water, or another glass of wine and took a sip, then turned around and leaned on the table.

"Tell me, Don, what have you found these days?" Vito said with a swaying tone, Eisenstein turned his head and looked at Bell, the latter shrugged helplessly, and then Eisenstein turned his head and looked back.

"In the past few days, we have visited and investigated the local armed forces, the Planetary Defense Force, the Special Task Force of the Ministry of Justice, and the Church of the Church for allegedly violating the "Sectarian Agreement." It is basically certain that they are sympathetic to the Tau separatism. "They don't have much influence in these units, and they are mainly distributed among gangs, radical student groups and social dissidents in the city."

"Since ancient times, rebels have been this group of people, but it seems that at least we have good news. We don't have to worry about being shot in the back, right?" Vito smiled and leaned on the table, just trying to stand up. , and then swayed and leaned back.

Eisenstein looked at the "wise and foolish" man and shook his head, "No, I'm sorry that you are going to be disappointed. Although the Tau have little influence among the defense forces and other armed forces, this does not mean that they will fight after the conflict breaks out. Stand firmly on the side of the empire.”

"So, what do you mean, among these guys, are there others who don't like us very much? Let me guess, there are people who don't like the Empire and regard the old bastard as a fool, including mutants and separatists. , local bureaucrats with ulterior motives, and heretics, plus "

"Chaos heretic." Bell suddenly interrupted. Vito looked at him and smiled. He picked up the cup of unknown liquid and took a sip. Then he smiled easily, as if that was simpler than the Tau's problem. It seems like that, but it might be true.

"Yes, souvenirs are found in every world. Therefore, there are souvenirs everywhere who want to treat the emperor as air-dried bacon, and they are planning to turn us into air-dried bacon and hang them up."

"Yes." After Eisenstein gave a simple answer, Vito stood up and raised four fingers in front of him, "Let me guess, the main believer here is a red-skinned giant who is half-paralyzed in a wheelchair?"

Vito looked at Loken, and he shook his head. Vito put away one finger and looked at Serksos, "The one with the blue wriggling octopus?" Serksos also shook his head, and Vito asked again. He put away another finger and looked at Bell, "You're overweight and can't even move, that one who is giggling every day?" He received Bell's shake of his head again.

Vito laughed and put away one of his fingers. Now only one was left standing on his hand. He looked at Eisenstein and smiled, put the hand down, picked up the cup and took another sip. , but the liquid in it was gone. After throwing it away, he started rummaging around on the table and quickly found a glass of transparent liquid with a label on it.

"Sir, that's medical alcohol." Bell kindly reminded him, but Vito just opened it, "I'm a Slav." He said and poured a few gulps into his mouth.

"I don't think there is anything to be happy about. The number of followers of Slaanesh will be very large and difficult to be effectively eliminated. In the end, we may be forced to evolve from a war against aliens to a war against Chaos heretics or even demons. war."

Eisenstein said seriously, with such seriousness, "Currently, most of the forces on the planet are mortals. If it evolves into a chaotic war, I'm afraid they will not be reliable."

"Mortals?" Vito asked, and the atmosphere suddenly became quiet. Eisenstein glanced at the brothers around him who also cast hesitant glances, and then remained silent for a moment, "Humans, ordinary people, with all due respect, sir, in the past It seems that the Astra Militarum alone cannot fight against the demons, and their psychic defenses are not enough to face the challenge. "

Everyone understands what Eisenstein means. Most ordinary people will be corrupted as long as they take a look at a demon. As for the Astra Militarum, even if they are battle-hardened, they cannot be called absolutely reliable. The Astra Militarum As a result, rebellions are common, even among the most reliable troops.

Therefore, the Space Marines do not trust the mortal troops. Like Eisenstein, most of them remain suspicious and vigilant, and will even eliminate those mortal troops who have fought against the demons after the war.

After a long time, Loken spoke, intending to ease the awkward atmosphere, "Brother Eisenstein is right. Even if we don't consider other issues, the current Valhalla Legion only has eight regiments, and it seriously lacks navy and heavy weapons. Support, most of the follow-up troops are still on the way, disrupted by subspace."

"And this makes it even more suspicious. Most of the troops are kept out, so if the followers of Slaanesh here rebel and summon daemons, Damocles will be doomed to fall."

"Loken is right. Neither the people of Valhalla nor the local loyal defense forces can stop the possible wave of demonic invasion. And we only have five people, even if we add the Sky Blade."

Bell stopped mid-sentence. He knew that he had almost said to use the Iron Men, and any human being knew the horror of hating intelligence, not to mention that if Chaos corrupted those Iron Men, it would lead to even greater secondary disasters. , then Damocles will not be the only one who is about to suffer.

"Chaos won't be a problem. I'll take care of it. Let them stop shooting at the noseless faces of the Tau instead of our backs when we're shooting at the blue-skinned aliens."

"How?" Eisenstein asked, but Vito did not answer him. He just smiled and walked up, dragging medical alcohol with one hand and swaying from side to side as he walked, "Okay. Gentlemen, I have my mission and you have yours."

Vito walked up, came to Eisenstein and patted his chest, "You go find the giant rock, Helen will help, then go up and ask those guys what they are doing here, and, if possible, bring They come to help, as Loken said, we are short of troops, and the Space Marines are valuable support at any time. "

"I can understand what you mean, but why me?" Eisenstein asked puzzledly, and Vito shrugged, "Maybe it's Donne's son, who has something in common with Raun's son, such as strictness, No sense of humor and a penchant for silence.”

"It would be great if Lancelot was here. He could follow and help Captain Eisenstein." "No, I don't think he can, but you can, take Bell with you."

Vito didn't give Bell a chance to ask anything, and came directly to Serksos and Loken. The two looked at him with strange expressions. The former was holding the edge of the bottle of medical alcohol with several fingers in one hand. , shaking his head and looking at them both.

"Go and investigate the local gathering places of Chaos believers, clubs, bars and nightclubs. We have a professional who was from Chaos not long ago. He knows how to make the local believers believe that you are emissaries from subspace. , and then tell me not to kill them all in a hurry."

Vito looked at Serksos, who showed a strange expression. Then Vito turned to Loken and pointed at him, "You go with him." "Why?" "Because two Space Marines, More scary than one, remember to paint the armor black."

After speaking, Vito carried the alcohol and walked shaky steps from side to side towards the stairs. When he passed by, he bent down and picked up the bone on the ground. After smelling it, he held it above his head and shook it. "Okay, let's go. Well, the Emperor bless you."

After that, Vito walked up the stairs. As he passed the door, he knocked the button next to the door with the bone in his hand. The door closed immediately, and the person behind the door whistled and walked away, leaving only the person standing at the door. The four people looked at each other in silence.

Vito has a plan, but the problem is, they don't know it. In fact, no one can know it, not even the gods.