chsdbacks Page 38
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The Cursed!
Curse!
escape!
The voice inside suddenly began to scream in terror, uttering words that Salkota did not recognize.
The next moment, Salkota found his body no longer under his control. He turned around in a panic, feeling an immense pain sweep over his back. Finally, amidst a scream of agony, the power armor on his back was forcibly broken through, and a pair of ugly blue wings sprouted from them, with countless eyes seemingly hidden within their feathers.
"what!!!"
With a sudden flap of its wings, it was about to carry Salkota into the sky.
The burning warriors remained silent, slowly beginning to move forward. As they traveled further, their speed increased until they resembled high-speed jet fighters, soaring into the sky and transforming into a golden, fiery tornado that enveloped Salkota, who was already airborne.
"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah!!!"
A scream escaped Salkota's lips, and golden flames seemed to illuminate the entire sky as if it were daytime. His body slowly turned to ashes, and from within the ashes, a small blue bird emerged, crying out in agony.
"Change! Change! Change!"
The golden warriors coldly watched the little bird, and finally they all swung their swords together, silencing its continued chirping.
Beneath the city walls, watching all this unfold, Bell was also lost in a state of confusion.
The power of this spell... just by replacing the blood of the ritual with Lord Lynch's, has its power become this great?
A figure emerged from the Thorn Royal Court, approached Bell, and helped him up.
"Let's go to the square."
"Eric, we did it, right?"
"Yes, it worked... but we can't hide it anymore. How are we going to explain this?"
"...It must be the power of the emperor."
Chapter 50 Trial
The enormous golden fiery tornado swept across the entire sky, attracting not only the attention of Bell and Eric outside the royal court, but also causing the two opposing teams inside the court to look up in awe.
Ryan was the first to react. Without hesitation, he stepped forward, looked at the leading Astartes in front of him, and shouted.
"The Emperor's miracle has already occurred here! And didn't you see that the one engulfed in flames is Salkota?! Look at him, isn't that enough to illustrate the relationship between Huron and Chaos?!"
Ryan's words silenced the crowd for a moment, before a heated argument erupted.
Lynch stepped off the Damocles rhinoceros, looked up at the still-burning tornado, and his lips twitched.
To deal with Salkota, he chose to use a think tank against a think tank. After releasing Bell, he chose to spy on his memories, and then... extracted a concept.
That was Bell's perfect physical condition and psychic abilities during his most prodigious period as a think tank member.
Lynch wasn't confident at first, but he had extracted a fragment of Horus's soul before, and he had a vague feeling that "a complete body and psionic energy" were just as ethereal as a fragment of the soul. Since the latter could be extracted, the former should not be impossible to extract.
He did succeed, but if it weren't for Horus's help, he would have almost died of exhaustion on the spot.
Fortunately, all the vehicles were retrieved and secured in advance; otherwise, the plan would have been in serious trouble.
However, Bell also told him that even if he and Eric went together, the probability of defeating Salkota was actually not high. After all, the opponent had absorbed power from the warp, and according to the Chief Think Tank's assessment, something was very likely already residing on the opponent.
Lynch had never met Salkota, but although he couldn't get Horus to confirm it, he could roughly guess.
That means there must be a demon residing in the other party.
So when Eric suggested using a psionic spell called "Avenger" to defeat Salkota, Lynch followed Horus's advice and offered him a drop of his blood.
Now it seems...
"You already knew?"
"You forgot what that little girl said, that you are the Emperor's chosen one. Of course, her blood can be used, but to achieve the same effect, you would probably have to drain all the blood from her body."
Horus hovered beside Lynch, also watching the golden tornado.
"Such power... he has probably really become a god."
"Well, he's just a biased god. For humans, this is already lucky enough."
"makes sense."
Horus shrugged and spoke with a sigh.
“Let’s go, let’s meet that Rufus Huron, let me take a good look at this silly kid.”
Lynch nodded, then called Ryan, who was speaking to the approaching Astartes, over. After informing him of his request, the priest hesitated, then stammered.
"That Huron... he wasn't seriously injured in that explosion, but meeting him like this, I'm worried he might cause you..."
"What do you want to do?"
"Wait a moment, I'll go and break his limbs with explosives, and then bring him up to you."
"No, no, no, I'm not as weak as you think."
A barely suppressed smile appeared on Lin Qi's lips. He waved his hand and then let out a long breath.
“Give him one last bit of dignity. Bring him up. There are some things I must say to him personally, no, or rather, your father must say to him personally.”
After hearing Lynch's words, Ryan no longer hesitated. He looked at the open space surrounded by armored vehicles and waved to two of the men inside. Soon, a disheveled Astartes was brought forward. He was bound with chains and then unceremoniously thrown to the ground.
"Damn it, I am the Chapter Leader of the Star Claws! You damned traitors, do you even know what you're doing...?"
"I'm sorry, Lord Lynch, he's been like this ever since he witnessed that imperial miracle. We suspect..."
One of the soldiers escorting the prisoners hesitated for a moment, then slowly uttered a sentence.
"We suspect he's lost his mind."
"It's alright. His mental fortitude is much stronger than you think. Am I right, Rufort Huron?"
Huron stood up from the ground. He first looked at Ryan behind Lynch, snorted coldly, and then looked around before turning his gaze to the mortal in front of him.
"Hmm? Interesting, mortal. What methods did the High Lord use to make me feel a sense of kinship with you? Ryan and the others must have been bewitched by you in this way."
Lynch did not answer Huron's question immediately. Instead, he gestured for Ryan to direct the people surrounding him and Huron to make way so that the Astartes watching from the outside could see the two of them.
The moment they saw the two, the Astartes watching outside erupted in a cacophony of shouts. Many of them were armed; for them, Lynch's initial speech had little effect, and Lynch didn't expect a single address to make a group of Astartes obediently follow orders.
His speech was actually aimed at the mortals in the Thorn Court. After all, if mortals were attracted there, the large number of people would easily lead to a mixed bag of characters, making it easier for unpredictable and unexpected situations to occur.
Moreover, Horus's charm is targeted at his offspring and has little effect on mortals.
Huron watched all this and guessed what the other party wanted to do.
Huron was astonished by the other side's coup tactics; the entire process was seamless, targeting several of his key forces. Now, with the recent miracle and Salkota's sudden mutation as further aids, he was in a very unfavorable situation.
Among the onlookers, some people outside the Third Company and the First Company had begun to look at him with suspicion. After all, apart from a few close confidants, no one knew that he had been involved with Chaos.
Now, those close confidants are either dead or have betrayed the cause. Almenus was blown into the air by the Predator tank's heavy artillery, and Salkota was burned to ashes. Most of the Honor Guard died during the shelling, and those who survived were finished off by Ryan and his men.
As for Eric...
That damned traitor!
Huron cursed inwardly, then looked at Lin Qi and waited for his move.
Huron knew perfectly well that the other side wouldn't just collapse like that, unless they wanted to directly face the wrath of the other three thousand Astartes and the million mortal support troops stationed outside.
So, without a doubt, they will be put on trial, a public trial, a trial in which they can even defend themselves.
In this way, Huron knew clearly that he still had a chance.
He was extremely confident in his eloquence, which was the best thing he had inherited from his genetic father. It was also thanks to his excellent oratory skills that he was able to successfully win over many people, become the chapter leader of the Star Claws, and even gain support from the Black Legion.
“Open up the channel, connect to this server skull, and let our conversation spread.”
Ryan nodded, picked up a servo skull, adjusted it as required, and placed it in mid-air between Lynch and Huron.
Just as Huron had thought, what Lynch was going to do was indeed to hold a public trial against Huron.
Lin Qi was well aware of Huron's excellent oratory skills. After all, in the original timeline, this guy had even persuaded a group of Space Wolves warriors to join his team in the future, and the members of his war gang came from all over the world, making it a real hodgepodge.
But Lynch wasn't afraid, because the man beside him was probably the source of Huron's excellent eloquence.
What he was going to do was this: after basically destroying Huron's power militarily, the next step was to completely crush Huron's last reliance through language, or rather, through spirit.
Only in this way can he truly win over the hearts of the Star Claws and achieve his goals.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Qi raised his head, looked at Huron, and spoke calmly.
"Ruford Huron, in the name of the Throne of Terra, you have committed numerous crimes, including colluding with Chaos, attacking the Imperial fleet, violating the Codex Astartes, assassinating, and framing loyal Imperial nobles. For these crimes, I now sentence you to death in the name of the God-Emperor, Terra, and Luna. Do you plead guilty?"
"I don't recognize it."
Unsurprisingly, Huron responded in this way.
"Alright, then the next five minutes will be your final defense. Please begin. Your fate will not be decided by me, but by..."
Lynch looked at Huron and a smile appeared on his face.
He then stretched out a hand and pointed to the crowd of onlookers.
"They will be the ones to conduct the trial."
Chapter 51 The Dust Settles (7000 words, that's all for today.....)
"They will be the ones to conduct the trial."
Lynch pointed a finger at the crowd, and as Huron watched his gesture, a cold smile slowly crept onto his face.
"Are you going to put me on a public trial? In the presence of all 3,224 Astartes?"
Huron's words were tinged with a faint disdain. From his current attitude, Lynch sensed an arrogance—but this arrogance wasn't directed at him alone. Rather, it was the arrogance that an Astartes would inevitably exhibit when facing a mortal.
Lin Qi sighed softly, then nodded gently to Huron.
"Yes, Huron, I will put you to a public trial."
"Hehe... What would you do if the public trial turned out badly for you?"
"Then naturally we'll let you go."
Lynch said those words calmly, which surprised Huron.