Pain, restlessness, buzzing.
Calastiphon emerged from the deep and dry ocean, dizzy and exhausted, the dazzling light made his eyes blurry.
He subconsciously wanted to rub his aching temple with his hand, but the slow and dull force feedback reminded him of his current state.
He is not dead yet.
"grass."
Carastiphon muttered a curse.
After realizing this, Carastiphon stopped any activity and stood still patiently, waiting for himself to recover.
His eyes began to adjust to the dazzling white light, and only then did he realize that the white light that had just hurt him was not dazzling. On the contrary, it was dim, with the unique dimness of the Endurance.
When he finally got used to it all, including his broken body and his current terrible situation, Calastiphon raised his eyes, and sure enough, he saw a familiar and tall figure.
"Mortarion?"
"I don't know if the sarcasm in your voice is directed at yourself or at Mortarion," Karastyphon called out hesitantly and somewhat sarcastically. He was unsure if the sarcasm in his tone was directed at himself or at Mortarion.
The Lord of Death was sitting quietly on a simple chair, his armor covered in dried blood and obvious dents from impact, looking like he had just been through a fierce fight.
Calastyphon allowed himself a second to imagine, could this be the scar Mortarion sustained after killing Hades
This imagination gave him a subtle and evil satisfaction, as if it was making up for his current imperfections, and then he moved his gaze and looked straight into Mortarion's eyes.
Mortarion looked tired, very tired, but his bright yellow eyes gleamed brightly beneath the shadow of his hood.
[Carastiphon, long time no see. ]
Mortarion spoke with a sigh, the Primarch seemed to want to say something, but was stuck.
Carastiphon observed his surroundings silently. There were two Death Guards at the door. He could identify one of them as Garro and the other as a technical sergeant.
—But Hades wasn't there.
"Where's Hades?"
Karas asked bluntly.
Mortarion paused, then spoke hoarsely,
[Left, he went to Terra.]
Karas raised his eyebrows.
"He finally abandoned you too? Just like you abandoned me?"
"What a shame, Mortarion, I was hoping to see Hades instead, so I could taunt him and tell him you were left behind as well."
After all, the Primarchs are different, they were born strangers.
Karastyphon watched with satisfaction as Mortarion's brow furrowed deeply. That's it, Karas thought, and then Mortarion would flee, taking his own harsh words with him, and leaving himself in this forgotten corner.
But Mortarion did not leave. Although he seemed dissatisfied with what Karas said, he still sat there steadily.
[If you still feel regret about that scene back then.]
Mortarion said calmly and softly, "How disgusting!" Karas felt vaguely that Mortarion seemed to be trying to comfort himself.
But the next second it was really disgusting.
[Then I apologize, Karas.]
Karas felt that the gastric juice in his empty stomach was about to rise, but Mortarion was still talking. It was strange that Mortarion did not refute the mocking words.
[This is my negligence, I should have noticed all this.]
Mortarion calmly looked at the dreadnought machine equipped with Kalas Typhon. In a sense, this huge iron guy was already Kalas himself.
After Hades left, the Death Guard quickly plunged into another battlefield, Kachor, where they encountered primitive people roaring with blood and skulls, and altars built with skulls.
It took them three full months to end the battle, and even though the enemy's weapons were only simple swords and flintlock rifles, every night when night fell, blood-red monsters would spew out from the darkness and ominous flames, and the local primitive people obviously knew how to drive them.
Witchcraft again.
Mortarion scoffed.
The Lord of Death already knew how to deal with all of this. He carefully and cleverly placed the Zeroth Company on the battlefield. By now, even the Cerberus had learned that there was a team of Death Guard that could restrain psychics.
Finally, with the coordinated suppression of the three Wandering Soul Knights, Mortarion successfully beheaded the leader of the Kachor people, a madman who was so big that he was almost mutated.
Without the Zero Company, it would have taken the Death Guard much longer, and at a far greater cost, to put an end to this.
Mortarion understood this deeply.
When he led the Death Guard to fight those bloodthirsty monsters in the forest, when he commanded the knights in the channel to outflank the opposing wizard troops, when he was fighting with the opposing leader and heard Ribo's roar in the channel, what was Mortarion thinking
What is he thinking about
Mortarion didn't know that he had hurriedly ended the battle. He returned to his office, held the pen with his bloody hands, and wrote a war report announcing the end. Then he looked up and stared at the two framed, incompatible letters on the wall.
How stupid, he thought.
Then he opened the channel, without any extra thoughts, he called Enrique, the Death Guard's forge master, a Terran descendant, with whom he was not familiar.
[Enrique, wake up Carastiphon, and call Galo over.]
Then he sat here abruptly, facing Calastiphon who was about to wake up.
He heard Karastyphon's curses, which gave him a strong urge to leave here, but he couldn't just wake up a Dreadnought and then lock him up. Even if it was the Primarch, it would be inappropriate to do so.
Calastyphon was still the man in his memory, and he stung Mortarion with his sharp words, but he was right.
Mortarion apologized dryly.
The words got stuck in his throat. It wasn't like when he was facing Horus, where he could easily say words that made him sick, nor was it like when he was facing Hades, where he could say whatever he wanted.
He was stuck. Mortarion wanted to know what had happened to Calas Typhon at that time. He also wanted to know how Calas was doing now...
And... Mortarion hoped that Karas might still have the possibility to move forward, although he would need to examine this severely.
In a sense, a Kharas sleeping in the Dreadnought is like a badge displayed in the Hall of Glory. He symbolizes a past, a past in which Mortarion once made mistakes.
A stubborn and prejudiced past.
Under the gas mask, Mortarion took a few quiet breaths, then he decided to say what he wanted to say.
[Karas, after you fell asleep, the Death Guard went through a lot, including the Battle of Druun, the Battle of Rust, the Battle of Abst, and some others...]
"What is your point, Mortarion?"
Carastiphon is always like this, sharp enough.
Mortarion paused.
[… I want you to keep up with the Death Guard, rather than become a broken silhouette of the past, thrown into battle shorthanded and then forced into hibernation.]
Now it was Karastiphon's turn to be silent. After a while, Karas began to laugh.
"Thank you for your kindness, but they are a little late."
[It's better than nothing.]
There was another period of silence. They no longer had anything in common to talk about like old friends in the past.
The Lord of Death spoke first.
[Karas, if you still wish to die.]
[Then I can... help you.]
Karas' pupils trembled violently.
Of course he wanted to die. He should have died long ago in Barbarus, instead of being imprisoned in this small corner as a half-human, half-ghost piece of meat. He had ridiculed Hades many times just to make him kill him in a rage.
But by some strange coincidence, looking at the blood-covered Mortarion in front of him, perhaps the long-dormant desire to survive of Karas suddenly erupted, perhaps he was really inspired by the battles that the Death Guard had experienced, or perhaps hearing that Mortarion was abandoned by Hades made Karas Typhon feel a long-lost joy...
Karasun paused for a moment, well, he was unwilling, he was afraid of death, he didn't want to leave like this.
He changed his tone to a lighter one.
“No, Mortarion. I was thinking that the next time I wake up, I might hear better news—just like this time when Hades abandoned you.”
Mortarion shook his head.
[You don't have to be so mean, Karas.]
[If you really enjoy the suffering of others, then... I may have other news to share with you. ]
Callas raised his voice,
"for example?"
[Rumors about Hades have long been circulating within the Death Guard... ]
Karas frowned.
[And I recently learned that the rumor they spread was not about how heroic Hades was, but that he collapsed a recruit's bed - and Hades tried to escape, but was discovered by the poor recruit.]
… Mortarion looked at Karas, and Karas looked back at Mortarion.
Mortarion seemed to be asking him if this wasn't funny.
After a moment of absolute silence, a startling burst of laughter broke out from the fearless can.
Karas didn't know whether he was more impressed by Mortarion's bad joke or if he was actually gloating over Hades' misfortune.
Also, Hades himself is indeed very heavy. Karas is very sure of this because he was once pulled down by Hades purely by his weight.
No more.
Also, Mortarion lied to Karas, I mean the bad joke he told.
(End of this chapter)