40k: Midnight Blade

Chapter 15 15. The Dance of the Rainy Night ([-])

The old town of Quintus is an interesting collection of buildings.

In fact, 20 years ago, it was the 'new town'.

And today, 20 years later, it has been called the old town by all Quintus people.Everyone calls it that for no reason.A small number of people who knew the reason also kept silent.

And the dead naturally cannot speak.

How relentless the changes of the times are.Even the bones of the workers who once lived in the old city are no longer visible.All of them were completely buried, no cemetery, no headstone, no name.

Death means losing everything, doesn't it?
But at least one person still remembers them.

A Revenant remembers.

Khalil jumped off the broken roof, dodging the vehicles patrolling the Honor Overseers.

The motorcycle rolled over the potholed road, and the two people sitting on it were jolted and cursed.None of them knew that at this moment, above their heads, there was a dark shadow flashing past.

Watching him and his companion go away, Kalil shook his head, somewhat regretful in his expression.

Those who patrol are cautious, or rather, those who draw up these patrol routes are cautious.He set many routes along the road, but each route has places where they intersect each other.This makes quiet killing a luxury.

After all, the way it looks, the disappearance of any group of people will attract the attention of others soon after.

Khalil can erase the sound of the killing, but not the results of the killing.

Every time he swings a knife, someone will die—and death cannot be concealed.

Khalil moved on.

He knows every detail of the old city by heart.Going forward, turning, running into the alley, jumping onto the gloomy pointed house - after only twelve minutes, he had reached the goal of the trip.

a bell tower.

Once, it was one of the many symbols of the old town.Around the clock tower, there will be many neon lights and floating billboards from the factory.The dark night will be reflected in colorful colors, and the war that broke out near the clock tower has not stopped for a day.

All gangs want to have it.

It is silent, tall, standing in the darkness, like some kind of symbol, so that everyone who sees it has to try to conquer it.

However, all of this has been completely changed with the advent of the Great Cleansing.Subsequently, the establishment of new urban areas is even worse.

Today, this place can truly be called a ghost town, only half of the area is still in use, and it is not used by workers.

It fits Nostramo's temperament very well, Khalil thought.

He couldn't help but twitched the corners of his mouth and smiled coldly.

Khalil stepped forward and clung to the ancient building in a few deft jumps.When he climbed to the top and walked into the core of the bell tower through the small round arched door, as expected, he didn't see the huge bronze bell here.

Was it stolen, or was it taken for collection by some nobleman?Khalil doesn't have an answer for that.

He came to the other end of the small round arched door, and his sight was already on a road.

Compared with the pitch black of the old town, it is very different.There are incandescent lamps every 50 meters, making the whole road bright like Nostramo's creation.

The Glory Warlord has set up a key defense here. If you insist, the previous sentries and patrols are just appetizers.This checkpoint set every 500 meters is a luxurious dinner.

Men with guns are everywhere, and they even have sentinels - a bunch of real dumb iron golems, built by the artisans of Prim's Hive, and sold in astonishing numbers.

It is worth mentioning that the pavement condition of this road is also very good.This is thanks to the workers who are driven every two months to maintain the pavement.

But where are they now?
Khalil didn't have an answer.

He exhaled lightly, then bent down, took away the bricks and tiles piled up on the edge of the small round arched door, and dusted off some dust, before sitting on the ground.

He would wait for their arrival, as he had done in the past.As soon as he smells them he leaps out of the darkness and slits the throat of his prey.

But, until all this can be successfully executed, he needs patience.

A qualified hunter should have patience. This is also a rare quality. Without it, you can't do this job.

"Patience, ghost," Khalil murmured. "Don't get hurt, don't let yourself down."

Yeah, don't let yourself down.

He lowered his head and clenched his hands, pressing the blade against his skin.
-
"Don't run," said the ghost. "You shouldn't run, you should accept this."

"Go away, you monster!"

A man cried and roared. He was standing in an attic full of blood, holding a gun in his hand, but he didn't have the courage to pull the trigger on the ghost again.

In fact, his hand was so trembling that he could barely hold it.

Half a minute ago, he emptied a magazine, but he didn't even touch the hem of Ghost's clothes.

And if you go back half a minute, you will see how a black figure entered the attic in an instant, and tore off the limbs of one of the two guards between two waves of hands.

If you could see the scene mixed with screams and blood spattering, maybe you could empathize with the man's intense fear at the moment.

Facing the man's cry, Ghost just tilted his head.

So, is this what fear does?
He nodded thoughtfully, and finally began to truly understand why Khalil had to act in silence every time he carried out his mission.

He had thought that Khalil was doing it just because he liked it.Ghost really didn't expect that Kalil did this just because it was more effective.

In the face of fear, they are simply vulnerable.

In fact, this was even the last outpost that the ghosts were responsible for clearing out.The weeping man wasn't the first to break down in front of the ghost tonight, though.

Before him, and many more.

"Don't come, don't come!" the man cried bitterly. "Please, don't come here, I don't want to die, I don't want to die"

"Aren't you going to shoot me again?" Ghost asked softly, his voice hissing, standing where he was.

"me"

"Shoot," Ghost said quietly. "I want you to accept this."

"Accept what, are you sick?!"

The man broke down and yelled, his voice echoing in the broken attic.His fat belly was stained with blood, and behind him a dismembered corpse watched silently.

"Accept your death, Barry."

Ghost replied in a low voice, his voice was slow and low, his tone soft and natural.He didn't sound like he was threatening or pushing, in fact, he almost sounded like he was being normal with Barry.
to chat with.

"We heard your conversation with Jovan, Barry. You have accepted to be a servant of the Scolevoker family and have given everything to them."

"Then, why can't you accept your death? You are not willing to die like this, but why? Why are you not willing?"

Ghost asked sincerely, and he took the question seriously.Because he couldn't think of an answer, and he didn't want to bother Khalil—and Barry...
Barry's eyes widened and he froze.

His legs began to weaken in the next second, and then he knelt on the ground involuntarily.

We, heard, you, and Jovan's conversation.
we
we.

A vengeful soul.

It turned out to be the case.

No wonder the bullets missed him, no wonder he was so tall, no wonder my yelling failed to attract the attention of the other teams, no wonder .
It turned out that they came to me.

Barry's face began to twitch, and he began to gasp for air, but the air that was sucked in did not provide him with any relief at all.

His breathing became more and more rapid, and his expression began to break down more and more. In the end, he even knelt on the ground and sobbed.

The cry broke.

"Don't cry." Ghost said softly. "Shoot me, Barry, and accept it."

"Clap."

A gun fell to the ground.Barry refused in his own way, and the ghost frowned, thinking back to Khalil's words
"Why... I encountered this kind of thing?"

Barry wept. "Why don't you go to them? Vengeful spirits? Why don't you go to those who made us do these things?"

"Who are they?" Midnight Ghost asked, he didn't want to correct Barry's mistake in addressing him for the time being.

"The Scolewalker family!"

Barry roared, his eyes widened, they were bloodshot, and the cloudy eyeballs looked like glass corroded by acid rain to the ghost.

"Why don't you go find them?!"

Faced with Barry's questioning, Ghost just crouched down.In this way, he was entrenched at the other end of the darkness in the attic, like a monster waiting for an opportunity in the darkness.

His expression was calm and natural, full of patience.

Khalil had taught him that during a conversation, the other party should feel a kind of respect.And now, he was already talking to Barry.

He continued, "What did they make you do?"

Barry was stunned. He was the one who asked this question, but he didn't seem to have thought about what happened after this question.

But the ghost thought about it.

Or—Khalil thought.

The hissing voice of the Midnight Haunting sounded again in the darkness: "They let you squeeze the workers, collect taxes, and suppress those who resist, right?"

"Yep!"

As if grabbing a life-saving straw, Barry began to nod repeatedly, a strange madness flashed on his tearful face. "Yes! They made us do it!"

"So, did they let you cannibalize, open a butcher shop, murder, traffic people, kill people in the street, and wantonly rob?" Ghost asked again.

Barry was stunned again, he hadn't expected it, all this was a matter of course in his mind.Being a member of a gang means having access to these privileges.

He never thought that these things would one day be questioned by others.

Moreover, he still had no way to answer.

"Then, did they let you learn from them and drive out the civilians who can't pay the money out of the Hive City, let them fend for themselves in the wilderness, and become the rations of wild beasts?"

"So, did they tell you to imitate their superiority?"

The ghost stood up slowly.

"You have long accepted the fact that you have become a servant of the Scolewalker family. In fact, you are comfortable with this identity, Barry. You accept the benefits of this identity, and you should accept the responsibilities it brings .”

"No, no, that's not it," Barry said tremblingly.

"Yes, Barry." Ghost whispered. "Yes."

"No!" Barry roared ferociously.

"I do this because I have to! I have to! I can't live without it, I don't want to get lung disease like those factory workers, I don't want to cough up blood and get covered in dust—"

Ghost nodded silently, he knew what Barry was talking about.

Workers in factories get sick, they get all kinds of diseases.The most common is lung disease, and if one person gets it, the whole family gets it.

He had seen it many times when he passed the shantytowns—a family, or a person, lying by the side of the street, lying on the moldy hardwood board that had died, coughing up blood, in great pain, waiting for death to come.

For no reason, Youhun felt a sense of depression in his heart.So, he took the initiative to interrupt Barry and ended the conversation.

"—Shh, stop it, Barry. Take it."

The ghost said softly, and took a step forward.

Barry screamed in horror, obviously he hadn't suffered any harm yet, but he was already in pain as if he had been ripped open.Stimulating tears and snot criss-crossed his fat face, and the ghost continued to walk forward indifferently.

"No, please, don't," Barry whimpered. "I really don't want to, I really don't want to"

The ghost stopped where he was and stared at him for a moment.

Khalil was right, he thought.

They really cry, they really make a confessional look.

'However, we cannot forgive them.We are not qualified to forgive victims. '

The ghost stepped forward, stretched out his right hand, and lifted Barry's chin.

"Don't cry, Barry," said the ghost softly. "Crying is a human privilege, and you are not."

There was rain outside the window and it started pouring down.

(End of this chapter)