Chapter 155: One Thousand and One Deaths (4) Gambling and Solving the Mystery

"So when did this journey begin?"

Calvin sat upright in his seat, seemingly listening attentively to the speeches of others at the meeting.

But the countdown on his iris and the data flowing through the Titan database proved that his attention was not here.

In his memory, the navigator's report will arrive in three minutes, and the records about Tinggus in the Titan database backup in the battleship servo have finally been downloaded.

Bishop Klein's speech continued. Against the background of the cold mechanical electronic sound, Calvin clicked on the file icon marked as top secret in his consciousness:

+Name: Tinggus Time Corridor+

+Security Threat Level: Very High+

+Status: Unfinished+

+Publisher: None-Tinggus sector has lost contact and is suspected of falling. The Supreme Council of the Inquisition made an emergency resolution to issue the task on behalf of the Holy Hammer Order branch in the Tinggus sector.

+Release Date: 720.M37+

+Execution Date: 720-745.M37+

+Clearance Level: Black+

+Name/Codename: Third Shaper, Grand Master Natiric, and 1 Templar Knight under his command, 10 members of the Shaper Order. The list is as follows...+

+Mission Objective: Investigate the current status of the Tinggus Sector and deal with suspected pollution. ++Priority Mission; Transfer and retrieve the Relic Sword of the Oath+

+Feedback: The network of the Tinggus Sector of the Astropathic Court has disappeared. The survey ship reported that it can no longer go to the area. There is nothing above the original coordinates. It is suspected that there was a large-scale subspace storm in the area. Note: The Demonic Inquisition Task Force has been confirmed to be out of contact... +

+Warning: This file cannot be transmitted +

+Warning: This file cannot be copied +

+Warning: Destroyed after reading +

The cursor in the iris quickly passed over the text description, and Calvin turned directly to the middle of the page and found the part he wanted most:

+Executor: Natilik+

Click the cursor, and as expected, the page linked to the name is blank, with only the avatar displayed.

Theoretically, the Titan archives only have information on the deceased Grey Knights. Any active Grey Knight will not have any background information except the new name after officially joining the service. This is the iron rule of the Grey Knights. (Calvin's situation is special, and his name has been confirmed to be unable to be used to trace the real name.)

This is the Titan's protection for every Grey Knight who has not yet been confirmed dead, so that the Grey Knights' only soul coordinates-real names have no chance to be stolen by demons during their lifetime.

Although the information cannot be queried, the avatar is actually enough.

Calvin looked at the familiar body and face on the avatar that he had used for nearly ten years, and finally confirmed his guess.

And when he saw this face, the memories that did not belong to him in Calvin's spirit finally opened up to him...

This was a failed mission. Natirik and his team were induced by the conspiracy of the Lord of Tampering and eventually stayed there forever.

The evil god used the fall of the entire Tingus sector as bait to lead him and his comrades into the eternal time maze that had been prepared long ago.

The cultists and the great demons used the lives of tens of billions of people in the Tingus sector as a sacrifice to project the artifact of Tzeentch, the Time Prism, into the real universe.

With the help of this artifact prism, the great demon projected 999 different mirror images of himself that existed at the same time.

And the great demon himself, with the help of the artifact, became a part of the psychic energy in this space.

It tried to quietly infiltrate the souls of the Grey Knights every time their psychic energy was restored during the battle.

When all the conspiracies and traps were ready, they spent more than ten years to deliberately leak the news of the fall here, and then waited for the arrival of Natirik and his brothers.

Natirik's narration gradually faded away, and Calvin's first-person memories began to appear piece by piece:

"Trap! This is a trap for us!"

Templar Lorenzo reminded Natirik loudly, otherwise his voice could not penetrate the sound of magic tide and bullet rain.

"Take the brothers who can walk! Attack the church!"

Natirik roared and executed the secret-keeping demon in front of him, but he seemed so powerless under the continuous attack of more demons...

"I need your cover to cover us, brothers."

Under the tall and dark dome porch of the church, he said to his comrades who were destined to no longer follow him with a heavy heart.

"We understand." They answered.

"You will be abandoned and may die here."

The sadness in Natirik's voice can still be felt by Calvin even through the barrier of time.

"We understand." The injured Grey Knights answered firmly. They did not want their existence to drag down the progress of the entire team.

"With the Emperor's blessing, we will meet again under his throne..."

The pressure of the mission was in front of him, and the unknown pollution had to be dealt with. The situation did not allow him to hesitate. He finally chose to leave this sentence and turned around to lead the team away...

Calvin blinked. All this was so similar to his experience in the dream, or he had understood his significance in this space.

In the echo of this time, he played the role that Natirik once played.

And everything he experienced was exactly what the Grey Knight Grand Master who was lost in time had experienced.

"We must separate. The pollution here is more serious than we thought!"

This was Natilik's voice outside the royal palace on the upper level of the hive city.

He had vaguely felt something strange in his body. After sending Templar Lorenzo and some Gray Knights away, he once again looked for a reason to send away the team members around him.

"But you can't go to the top floor alone! Since that was once the seat of the Tribunal, there must be a group of demons around!"

The members of the direct team who have served under Natilik since they were new recruits are obviously worried about the safety of the Grand Mentor, but how can they resist the Grand Mentor who insists on his own way?

They were finally on their way to the top nest, but were thrown away by Natilik, who was already determined to die.

This also confirms Calvin's previous experience...

The experience that follows is much the same as Calvin's own battle experience, it is nothing more than one battle after another.

The difference is that Natilik is far less unruly than Calvin. In his battles with the demon, he is really on the verge of death every time.

Natilik ultimately succeeded and failed.

He successfully found the sacred object "Sword of Oath" that had been hidden in advance from the secret warehouse of the Holy Hammer Order branch on this planet.

But he also failed.

During his ten-year fierce battle, the big demon finally found the opportunity to dismantle himself bit by bit, and then penetrated into Natilik's body, and finally gathered into a demon in his soul. Egg:

A seed that represents the corrupted destiny of Chaos.

What a great achievement! Since the birth of the Gray Knights, the gods of Chaos have been seeking ways to corrupt them.

But after thousands of years or even longer time in subspace, they still found nothing.

And now! A Gray Knight's soul has been eaten away!

Except for the core will, it is still resisting! The big devil can almost declare his own success!

It is only one step away from completely cracking the secret!

Only the last step remains! This Gray Knight will be its unprecedented gift to the Lord of Change!

And this is not an ordinary Gray Knight, but a Gray Knight who bears the name of the Grand Mentor of the first eight original men!

As long as it can capture the core will, it can crack the Gray Knight's uncorruptible secret!

As long as that will can be conquered! It can offer its lord the glory that will attract the attention of all gods!

Whenever it thinks of this, this great demon feels extremely happy. It can even imagine itself being favored by the Lord and becoming the most glorious existence chosen by all the gods.

But Natilik's tenacity far exceeded its expectations.

Two full millennia have passed in the real universe, and an unknown amount of time has passed in the subspace and time corridor.

But Natilik's resistance continued, and his remaining soul was firm and vigilant, never letting up.

"Of course you can destroy me, but you can never conquer me!" said the remaining fragment of Natilik's soul.

It cannot be conquered, let alone simply destroyed.

This is a troublesome problem facing the great demon. It is of course easy to destroy this remnant soul that can only be entrusted in the sword of oath. You even only need to break the sword.

Once this sacred object, which symbolizes the honor of the Chapter, is destroyed, the careless Natilik can give up his own existence.

And if he is really allowed to die like this, then the entanglement between the artifacts that Tzeentch painstakingly planted and these thousand years will become a complete joke in the face of this kind of sacrifice...

This is a dead end. Natilik is destined to be unable to escape, and the devil cannot succeed.

They all need an accident to change this deadlock that has been deadlocked for thousands of years. Finally, in desperation, the devil made a bet with Natilik:

Bet that the next person chosen by Natilik can accomplish ten times the achievements and great deeds of Natilik in the corridors of time.

And under the constant threat of losing oneself, one can still choose the same or even more noble sacrifice in the end...

The gods and chaos witnessed their oath together at this moment, and even the balance of the power of destiny hidden in the end of the universe rarely accompanied this.

This is the truth about Calvin losing his divinity, and the reason why his soul was replaced by a local demon despite being a higher-dimensional being.

His soul and divinity were never and could not be deprived of him, but were simply blinded by the balance of fate.

Natilik won, when Calvin turned the blade on himself.

The reflection in the water is not only the last trace of his existence, but also the demon's last attempt witnessed by the gods and the power of fate.

But this last interference was ignored by Calvin. While completing a campaign that was ten times greater than Natilik's previous achievements, he resolutely put himself on the final altar as Natilik wished.

Ten thousand and one deaths, the last one was Calvin himself.

Ten thousand and one deaths, the last one was also Natilik's salvation.

On the day when the oath was fulfilled, all the gods and demons left the scene after witnessing it. The Lord of Tampering also lost interest and looked elsewhere.

Needless to say, the fate of a demon who failed in his bet and embarrassed his lord in front of the gods;

As the winner, Calvin was naturally given the second largest chip on the gambling table - the Sword of Oath.

As for the biggest bargaining chip, Natilik himself, he had already chosen to perish forever in silence as soon as he broke free from his restraints.

The meeting on the Soul Redeemer was still going on.

Lord Klein, the mechanical bishop who opposed Calvin, could not understand the former's abnormal silence.

The mechanically modified detection array had already swept over Calvin for the third time in five minutes.

The latter was obviously still stuck in some matters outside the meeting. The green data reflected slightly in his iris was flowing, so that people around him who noticed it chose not to disturb him.

The red countdown in the upper left corner of the iris had come to an end, and the moment Calvin had been waiting for would also come:

+5+

+4+

+3+

+2+

+1+

The countdown returned to zero!

He held his breath and waited for a few seconds, and finally found that everything around him was normal and nothing happened.

The navigator was still sitting steadily in his seat, and there was no more emergency in Calvin's memory.

The post-war summary meeting for the nameless planet was still going on. Only the personal screen in front of the seat marked the current location of the Soul Redeemer - the vestibule Gus sector (disconnected).

The cursor in Calvin's eyes paused for a few seconds. He carefully recalled the last memory in his mind, and then clicked on the black-gray option behind Natirik's name status, which was confirmed to be killed.

+ Confirmed to be killed +

+ Name: Natirik +

+ Position: Order of the Holy Hammer - Third Order - Shaper, 26th Grand Master +

+ Coding source: +

+ Authority tracing: Titan II Castle Master: Calvin +

+ Evidence: Holy Relic - Sword of the Oath - Recovered +

+ Recovered by: Grey Knights - Calvin +

+ Confirmed to submit +

+ Confirmed again +

This name, which was wrapped with silver irises to show its glory inside the system, flashed several times on the screen as he clicked to confirm, and then dimmed forever.

As the data in the database was updated, the mechanical bell in the chapel of the Soul Redeemer began to ring spontaneously according to the program.

The stirring bell sound was low and sad, and the news of Natirik's death was spread throughout the battleship through the ship's broadcast.

Everyone stopped their work and looked in the direction of the highest point of the battleship.

Although the specific name of the dead was unknown, the meaning of the bell was never wrong.

It was telling the departure of a hero who was destined not to be promoted; it was also proving that these children of the Emperor were still inheriting His vision and silently guarding the defense line of the human empire.

The chief astropath on the strike cruiser sent out the encrypted message in his hand with a serious face, and the psychic network in the Storm Segment leading to Terra began to be activated one by one.

At each node that received the information, the psychic choir began to sing hymns in unison.

At the cost of burning myself, they used their concerted efforts to break through the barrier leading to Terra in the subspace, and then conveyed this precious information.

Update in advance.