Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes.

Chapter 156 Ten Thousand and One Deaths (5) Ending, Return of the Sword of the Oath

No matter how vast the stars in the Milky Way, night is the true dominant color of the universe.

While the emerging race of human beings claims to be the master of the galaxy, in the final analysis, it still sticks to the dots of light in the boundless darkness.

But this is the charm of civilization. There are always impossible things that are made possible by hard work;
There are always seemingly unsolvable problems that have been changed under the wisdom and dedication of countless beings.

This is the case with the astropaths, who endured the pain of flesh and blood destined to mutate, making interstellar communication possible;
It is also them who dedicate their souls to maintain the existence of this ancient and huge empire.

It is they who use their souls to connect these lonely dots into threads and weave them into nets, and finally build a young and huge country.

Without the existence of astropaths, inter-galaxy communication would take a hundred years, and inter-stellar communication would be even more difficult to maintain, and the existence of the human empire would lose the basic possibility of existence.

Countless psychic energy nodes are being activated, delivering their missions to the distant Terra;

The wills that penetrate the subspace are fighting, relying on the power of mortals to cut through the waves in the subspace, and transmit the sound and picture to the distance.

The high tower on the moon is shining, that is the information distribution tower of Xingyuting in the local solar system is working.

At the end of the wilderness on the surface of Titan, which is full of sandstorms and nightmares, a bell rings from the highest point of the black fortress group. It is the bell of Natrik that has been late for two thousand years.

when!when!when! …………

Nineteen bells rang, echoing in the sparsely populated hall of the fortress. Except for a small number of mortals and machine servants, most of the gray knights were active in various battlefields of the empire at this time.

Behind the Titan Auditorium, in the office of the Grand Instructor, Walden, who had just returned to Titan's rotation, sat behind a marble desk, looking at the documents waiting for approval in front of him, unable to write for a long time.

When the bell for the obituary rang, he raised his white-haired forehead and looked into the distance,
"Natiric... after all, haven't you been able to return?"

Walden remembered the time when he had received the Titan Sword from his former Grand Master.

The former Supreme Master entrusted him with the responsibility of the sword and the entire regiment from the battlefield, and told him the task that the former failed to complete:

Find Natrik, bring back the core inheritance of the Third Order, and bring back the sword of the oath corresponding to the sword of the Titan...

These three tasks are actually one thing, because finding Natrik is equivalent to finding the core inheritance of the Third Order;

And to find the core inheritance, you must use the sword of the oath twinned with the sword of the Titan as the key to open it.

And the core inheritance of the Third Order is actually the core secret of the Gray Knights.

If it weren't for Natrik's accident, the supreme masters of all ages should have come from the third order just like the original supreme master Janus.

Walden was not surprised by Natirick's death. After all, the latter's disappearance for 2000 years is itself a very unfortunate thing.

But the return of the Sword of the Oath surprised him, because this seemingly insignificant sacred object actually held too many secrets for the Gray Knights.

This sword is as powerful as the sword of the Titans, and once swung it can turn demons away.

It appeared almost at the same time as the Sword of the Titans, but there is almost no record of killing demons, precisely because it is not so much a sharp sword as it is a sacrificial weapon.

A long-lost core strength of the Gray Knights Chapter-the inheritance ritual of the true name.

Yes, the gray knight, as the ultimate weapon for humans to fight against demons, has its own real name just like supernatural creatures such as demons.

This kind of real name is similar to that of a demon. While bringing great power to the gray knights, it also has complicated rules and more difficult conditions for formation.

Under the witness of the think tanks of the Guardian Shapers of the Third Order, the candidates completely forget their past personality and memory, and make a solemn oath in front of the sword of oath, which is the most core ceremony, none of them.

At that moment, they will completely abandon their past as mortals. In front of the sword of oath made by the emperor himself, they will take over one of the 300 real names inherited from the original inheritance from the hands of the dead predecessors before they can become true gray knights.

Yes, there were never many real Gray Knights, only 300.

The true names they hold are equivalent to the demons of the Warp:
The real name of the demon comes from 666 evil symbols from the warp; and the real name of the gray knight comes from the 300 symbols of wisdom and reason of the human race collected by the Emperor himself since the birth of mankind.

The initial strength of these real name holders varies, but as long as they are given time to grow, each of them is enough to compete head-on with the big devil, and each of them is the ultimate weapon belonging to mankind.

The Emperor hid the collected 300 real names in the sword and presented them to the Gray Knights, so there are only [-] real Gray Knights, no more, no less, neither increasing nor decreasing.

Only when the previous holder of the real name dies can the next gray knight be born, and then give up and take over the ancient name and continue to fight against the devil.

This is the secret of the Gray Knights, and the Emperor's final gift to them.

The true name is bestowed by the sword of the oath, for the three hundred seeds of the true name are preserved in the inscription on its blade.

Therefore, if mortals want to obtain this kind of power, they need the testimony and enlightenment of the Sword of Oath.

But there are surprises in everything, and so are real names.

This mighty power is not exclusive to the Gray Knights, other Imperial powers also have records of their existence.

There are always those born with noble souls who can inherit or spontaneously condense new real names that are not included in these 300 names, so as to gain the favor of the emperor and become the savior of mankind in times of despair.

Such people are extremely rare, but once they appear, they will save the lives of billions of people.

Walden had hardly seen anything like it, save those favored by fate and true living saints of the state religion.

Most of them are precious and difficult to copy, and in the long history of the empire, there are very few of them.

Only the real name of the gray knight can be stably continued with the help of the sword of oath.

And it is such a precious treasure that they have lost for two thousand years.

The bell rang again after a break. Walden put down the pen in his hand, got up and walked to the window facing Terra, smiling and looking into the distance.

The first nineteen chimes of the bell let everyone in Titan know that an unnamed hero was confirmed dead in battle, and his soul returned to the throne of the emperor.

But only he himself knew the meaning of the 24 bells that rang again later. It was the Machine Soul of the Titan Fortress, welcoming the return of the Oath Sword 2000 years late.

The star port on Titan started to be busy again, and the servants and technical sergeants were busy preparing supplies for the battleship.

The majestic body of the battleship Supreme Law stands out from the crowd on the Titan Starport.

After the Battle of Orpheus and a decade-long hiatus, it was finally allowed to set sail again.

The Templars guarding the Hall of Victory on the mother planet Titan and the Purifiers of the Pure Chamber gave up their perennial seclusion and came out in full force to prepare for the ceremony with the highest standards.

Under Walden's order, they were led by the Lord of the Hall of Victory and the high-ranking Templar Gallagher St. Dimas on their way to the Tempest Star Field to meet up with two other Gray Knight battleships, And on the base of Titan II, the holy sword was returned from Calvin's hand.

Everything went smoothly on Calvin's side, and there were no more accidents on the way back to Titan II.

Different from the day and night journey when it came, the Revenant Redeemer quietly arrived at the star port of the home port Titan II after several weeks of peaceful driving.

After waiting for all the mortal troops to disembark and return to their respective stations, Calvin returned to the core fortress of Titan II with his honor guard and the newly added "portable corn pendants".

In the deepest part of the Gray Knights' newly built home star fortress, a soul ferryman from the Titans waited quietly for them.

Passing through the main gate of Titan No. [-], the magnificent granite triumphal arch allowed Jin and his colleagues to discuss in silence, each comparing the difference between this place and the King City of Terra in their hearts.

The mortal auxiliaries with gold in black robes are on guard. They are fully armed at various posts, watching the return of these giants with solemn eyes.

After passing the double gate leading to the auditorium in the fortress, Calvin turned around and stopped Jin and the others.

He spoke to Kim and his colleagues.

"For the first time, as a landlord, I should have introduced you to the situation here, but the comrades who died are still waiting for us to hold a funeral. You don't have to attend. Please forgive me for not waiting for a long time, this is our internal ceremony .”

The Custodians have no objection to this interpretation, and for that reason deserve respect.

And thinking in another way, they also don't welcome outsiders to appear on private occasions such as mourning comrades-in-arms.

"You are welcome, forgive me." Jin nodded in agreement, and then went to the resting place prepared for them under the leadership of the mortal auxiliary army.

After Calvin watched them leave, he took the members of his guards and carried the coffins of the three comrades-in-arms to continue walking inward.

The soul ferryman had already been waiting in the deep cave that had been built underground. After seeing the team of Calvin and others, he didn't ask any questions, but led the way ahead with a pale light in his hand.

The spiral corridor is ten people wide, and the newly built catacombs are obviously wider than those on the Titan home planet;
The sculptures on the armrests on both sides are the same as the mother planet, and the fighting postures and faces of the ancestors are the same except for the renewal.

Calvin was not in the mood to talk on this occasion, and it wasn't the first time the gray knight behind him had fulfilled this mission.

The twelve members were carried by four, and they were divided into three teams.

The temporary wooden coffin was replaced with a sarcophagus made by technical soldiers in the hall on the first floor of the basement. The armor of the three monks was removed here, the bodies were washed, and sealed together with their weapons in the coffin.

The Gray Knights watched the ceremony in silence, and after the session was over, they lifted the sarcophagus again and placed it in a deeper tomb under the guidance of the ferryman.

Everything is over, and the funeral here comes to an end in the low-pitched carols and prayers of the crowd.

Calvin, who was supposed to turn around and leave, said to the strange soul ferryman who had hardly seen him before:
"Please wait a moment, here is another person who needs a funeral that belongs to him."

As he spoke, Calvin took off the Terminator Cross he was wearing from his armor, and he said to the gravekeeper who belonged to the Gray Knight in front of him:

"Please give him a dignified ceremony, it is the honor he deserves."

"Has the body not been retrieved?" asked the soul ferryman.

"Unfortunately, he died thousands of years ago." Calvin shook his head and said.

"Are there any belongings left? Such as clothes or armor." The soul ferryman asked again.

"No more..." Calvin replied.

"This way..." The ferryman paused for a moment and then said again:

"Names are always there, right?"

"Natiric St. Ramakdan." Calvin recalled his own memory and said with some uncertainty.

"Oh, is that him?"

Unexpectedly, this ferryman of indeterminate age had an impression of Natrik.

Seemingly aware of Calvin's doubts, his hoarse, almost unusable voice struggled to make a sound again:

"I was also a member of you before. It's just that when I served the front line of the battle group, this respected great mentor was still alive..."

He turned around and walked up the surface, and said to Calvin and others as he walked:
"Come with me, this is not the place to bury him."

Passing through the circular corridor and the sunken stairs, the soul ferryman said to the swords on the surrounding weapon display racks:
"Whoever has a weapon or armor in life, here it is."

Calvin touched the Sword of Oath at his waist. He vaguely felt the power contained in this sword, so he didn't believe that the Gray Knights were so generous as to use this sword as a funeral offering.

Going up, until there is a layer between the lost dagger hall where the body is resting, the soul ferry stopped, and then on a blank column, he gently took out the dagger and wrote the first line:

"Natiric, a member of the Gray Knights Chapter, No.20 Sixth Order of the Third Order of the Guardian Shaper Grand Master - cause of death: death in battle - remnants - none."

After confirming the correctness with Calvin's eyes, the ferryman scratched Natirick's name with the sacrificial knife he carried...

Calvin instantly understood the meaning of these pillars, and he quickly scanned the entire venue. The hall of nearly several hundred meters was obviously new enough, except for Natrik, there were almost only the coats of arms of ordinary gray knights.

"Everything is over, I will not send it away."

After saluting Calvin again, the veteran walked silently to the depths of the surface with his already faltering steps.

After Calvin watched the man walk away, he also brought his comrades back to the surface.

The war never stops, the war continues.

After a short period of sadness, Calvin still had to cheer up and face the next journey of life.

He doesn't have much time to recall, and as the owner of the castle, he has too many responsibilities to bear.Not to mention, just now on the top floor of the church of Titan 7, there is still a mission in hand, and Jule, the commander of the [-]th company, who is about to leave immediately after a short greeting, is waiting for him...

　Two in one, updated.Ask for a ticket.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)