The ground was covered with blood, his blood, Mortarion's blood.
The milky white mist flowed on the ground like waves.
With blood flowing down his cheeks, he slowly, slowly picked up the dying Sevatar.
One foot deep, one shallow, the crunch of flesh and bone beneath his feet as he led his remaining surviving offspring away into the deeper darkness of the Nightfall...
The golden flames ignited.
"Conrad Coates,"
Malcador's call brought Curze back to his senses. Curze looked at Malcador silently. The eyes under the regent's hood were staring at him in an unclear manner.
He looked at Malcador, and he saw a dried corpse, burning in golden flames.
The light he had just seen came from here.
Koz's eyelids twitched abnormally twice, but he swallowed and remained sitting in the same position and silent.
Mortarion stared at him from across from him.
Malcador continued to speak, the old man's words without a trace of ups and downs.
“He gives you sight and judgment.”
Conrad Curze hid his face in his messy hair, but still trembled when Malcador said the first sentence.
Mortarion sneered, while Horus stared at Malcador intently.
"As his descendant, why did you allow yourself to fall to this level?"
This was still a trial, a trial against him, and Conrad Kurtz trembled in his heart.
If it were Conrad Coates before, he would roar and rage, he would question why he was allowed to see, he would question why his father was so cruel
He would ask why, why was he the only one who had to bear all this
But now…
The subtle poisonous smell of the Lord of Death swept over Conrad's nose, slightly stinging Conrad Curze's nasal cavity, constantly reminding him of the story of the Lord of Night.
Even the memories were enough to pull Konrad Curze into the deep sea. Unlike Mortarion who was always reminiscing, he blocked that piece of his memory and buried it in the deep night.
He lowered his head and spoke hoarsely,
[The Great Crusade was a mistake.]
He didn't look up, just listened. There was a commotion from Horus's position, and it looked like this seemingly righteous guy was about to punch him in the nose, but then the temperature dropped and Malcador used his psionic power.
The old man's lips moved twice.
"continue."
Tens of millions of worlds were destroyed by war, billions of lives were killed, all committed war crimes, soldiers committed atrocities on thousands of battlefields - and I tolerated them.
[Because I can't control this, just like I can't change...]
Konrad was silent, listening to Mortarion's breathing.
[destiny.]
He uttered the word in a low voice.
All sinners will eventually be judged by fate. No one can escape. Even the god-like Emperor will eventually be judged, and his brothers who claim to be righteous will also be judged by fate.
If there is no executor in the galaxy who can judge them... then they will punish each other.
In the room, Mortarion's chuckles were even more piercing than Malcador's sighs.
Mortarion was about to sneer when Malcador raised his hand, signaling Mortarion to shut up.
The Lord of Death fell silent again in displeasure.
"You have been too deeply influenced by Nostrum, Conrad."
Malcador spoke calmly.
"Nostram has made you an out-and-out pessimist. It has shaped you and even distorted the Emperor's original design for you."
Koz laughed.
[So what is the Empire going to do to me, old man? Like the brothers who disappeared?]
He stretched out his right index finger and drew a line on his neck.
The fingers that were broken by Mortarion had long since grown sharp nails again.
[The guilty must be punished, and I am a worthless defective product, so death is a good ending. ]
He smiled tremblingly, was it more of fear
Or is it because the death he predicted was not like this
Or was it because he really wanted to be punished
He felt those eyes thoroughly, Malcador's calm but suppressed look of disappointment, Mortarion's resentful and mad look, Horus's serious look of pity and disgust.
After a long moment, Malcador sighed.
"Destiny can be changed and chosen. I thought Mortarion had shown you another possibility."
Mortarion's look of horror and disgust now turned to Malcador, but Malcador ignored it, having grown accustomed to it during Mortarion's time as a student on Terra.
The old man looked calmly at Konrad Curze, golden flames burning quietly in his eyes.
“You wish you could forget it, no, you still need to learn it.”
Conrad Coates opened his mouth.
A ripple suddenly appeared on the lake of Conrad Curze's memories. They began to spread layer by layer, forcing Curze to sink to the icy bottom of the lake.
He sank, slowly suffocating.
He thinks of Sai who was near death.
Is it blocked? The child who always has a sad face and can't sleep.
He found Sai's corpses. Some of the corpses were missing half of their heads, some had a big hole in their chests, and some were very old. He parted the hair and saw Sai's extremely old face.
Is Sevatar dead
He asked himself, but the voice that sounded was not his. That voice was even more vicious, as if it had been soaked in poison for a thousand years.
He should be dead.
He thinks, Sai is not immortal, he has his life span.
But... he turned around and saw the underwater mountain range made of corpses.
Which one is his offspring, Sai
Which one is it
Can he choose
He began desperately rummaging among the swollen, water-soaked corpses. The cold water poured into his lungs, and his respiratory tract burned with pain, as if poisonous gas was pouring into his lungs, screaming inside his body.
The heavy water pressed on him, and he was dying. Wounds appeared on his torso, and he saw the skin on his face peeling off piece by piece, and finally the tip of his nose fell off—
It's too late! No, it's too late!
Finally, Conrad Curz grabbed an old but relatively intact body of Sevatar. He held on to it and tried hard to float up. The people he killed grew hair and hands at the bottom of the lake. They screamed and hoped to drag him into the deepest nightmare.
He tried desperately to float upwards, and the waves rose and fell around him like a sickle, cutting scars on his side and tearing his flesh.
They are almost there, almost there! The ripples on the water are reflected in Coze's eyes...
Koz's pupils suddenly dilated—
Above the water, boundless darkness pressed down, with a determination to destroy everything.
No, no no no no no no no!
Below him is the judgment of his sins, and above him is the doomsday that will destroy him. What can he do? What should he do? !
Fate never left him a way out! He was destined to perish! Even his innocent offspring would be taken with him!
Conrad Curz stopped there in despair. He felt like a floating corpse, not far below the water...
His wrist tightened.
Conrad Curze's head snapped down as Sevatar's unconscious body tightened its grip on his wrist.
Sai doesn't want to die yet.
Below is death, and above... is a destruction that even Konrad Curze doesn't know what will happen.
But... But Sai said he didn't want to die.
Coze felt like he was about to explode. Where should he go? Where should he go
In the end, he chose to give up the precarious rationality that tortured himself, and he chose to follow his intuition...
Buoyancy told him the answer.
Curze suddenly surfaced, holding up the body of the loyalist, and the boundless darkness swallowed them up in the next second—
Koz was breathing heavily.
He saw himself kneeling on the ground, with Sevatar lying beside him. Was he dead
Conrad trembled.
Darkness has a flavor, that is, that is...
He looked across from him tremblingly.
That is the smell of the poison gas of the god of death.
"You've already chosen it, haven't you? You are his creation after all."
Malcador said calmly.
"I think you can now negotiate the conflict between the two of you rationally with Mortarion."
[It was impossible for me to negotiate with him rationally.]
Mortarion spoke immediately. The Lord of Death was very satisfied with Curze's embarrassment, but he still spoke frankly.
Malcador frowned, as if he was very unhappy with Mortarion's interruption.
"If you can't be rational, then send Hades to talk to Conrad."
[I can try to be rational.]
Mortarion immediately changed his tone without changing his expression.
Conrad Curze was gasping for breath and felt like vomiting, but obviously, except for the astonished Horus, the other two people who were fighting verbally were no longer paying attention to him.
Is Sai alive or dead
Curz thought.
The next moment, he saw Sevatar's life signal displayed on the armor.
Sevatar is still alive.
His noblest, most loyal child, the warrior of the Empire, the pride of the Legion.
He is still alive.
2.7k
Yay!
Go to bed early on weekdays
Regarding the description of Makado's image, thanks to the good idea of Brother Xianyu who wrote Makado ('ω'). The gender-swapped Makado he wrote is fragrant and beautiful! (°з°)-
And today’s recommended book!
It's about Perturabo's adoptive father! I think it's pretty cool, the writing is great, great, great, the author is also quite knowledgeable about mythology, the process of twisting Perturabo is very enjoyable, it's still a seedling now, go and read it (><)
(End of this chapter)