Chapter 140 The End of the Era: The Origin of the Dark Raven

In the dark corridor of the warship, the light of the flashlight extended with the footsteps, and the circle of light illuminated the vermilion and gray-black armors. The burly giants fell on each other, and the dried blood had almost disappeared without a trace. Only the deep bullet holes on the wall and the broken traces of the chainsaw sword and power claw cutting through the wall still told the story of the war at that time.

As Vito and his party went deeper, more and more traces of war were exposed in front of them. Lancelot looked at the broken power armor and the broken bones on the ground.

The tall giant walked forward with heavy steps, and his helmet swept the illumination light over the corpses as it turned. Every warrior died in the fight. Although the number of the brave Raven Guards was far less than that of the traitors, they suffered heavy losses to the invaders through flexible combat deployment and unpredictable infiltration attacks.

The scarlet armors lying on the ground, and the obvious excess gray-black armors, most of them were pierced and torn apart by the power claws, and only after paying a heavy price could a Raven Guard be killed.

Lancelot checked the symbols of those scarlet armors, which made him feel unfamiliar. He vaguely remembered that he might have seen them somewhere, but he couldn't name them.

"Are these people the Black Legion? I vaguely remember seeing them among the traitors." Lancelot said, and the footsteps of the power armors came and went behind Vito. The Inquisitor's flashlight shone on a fallen red-armored traitor.

The man's chest was pierced by a bullet, and the entire armor was torn and dented inward. Vito walked past the corpse and bypassed the defensive positions arranged in the corridor.

Sandbags, bulletproof steel plates, and broken steel frames were dumped everywhere, and Vito bypassed the debris one by one.

"No, it's the Word Bearers." Vito said, while Lancelot was slightly confused. He looked at the numerous Word Bearers' bodies around him. "I've never seen so many Word Bearers acting together, Vito, never."

Yes, Word Bearers are rare nowadays, or their number is not large, and most of them are hiding under the protection of the evil gods in the warp. Most of the Word Bearers who roam around in the physical universe have joined the Black Legion and threatened the Empire as Chaos Priests and Warlocks.

Rarely do warbands composed purely of Word Bearers appear, and the number of Word Bearers here is obviously not small, and their number may even be more than one warband.

Vito looked at the Raven Guard warriors around him. He looked at those ancient power armor models in silence. Lilith followed behind him with her hands behind her back and looked around. She didn't seem to feel as heavy as Vito and Lancelot.

"These armors are very old, Inquisitor. I have only seen them in the Hall of Glory of the Chapter, but I can conclude that these armors are from the Great Crusade era."

Lancelot examined the ancient armors, the ancient power armors that were passed down from ten thousand years ago. It must be said that the quality of the armors at that time was very high. In addition, the environment inside the hull was basically dry, so the preservation of these armors was quite good.

Although most of them were completely unusable due to combat damage, after walking for so long, Lancelot could conclude that the preservation of this battleship might be quite good. Although considering that it crashed, many of its parts might not be repaired or processed, but it was still worth excavating and disassembling the usable parts and installing them on the Infinite Frontier.

As they went deeper, Lancelot's conjecture was gradually confirmed. Although most of the hull parts were damaged to varying degrees, the reactors and large transmission shafts were still intact, at least to the extent that they could be repaired and used.

Most of the equipment inside the ship was covered with dust and suffered losses in the street fighting of the Space Marines, but most of them were only instrument losses, and the core components underneath were probably still working.

With just a little awakening, the machine soul here can be revived, and Lancelot is sure that the people of the Mechanicus will probably be very excited and happy. After all, this is an ancient warship from the Great Crusade era, and there may be some technology in it that is missing and forgotten by the empire today.

But Lancelot still can't understand the obsession of the Mechanicus on this, and their madness after digging up similar equipment. To Lancelot, these things are just tools.

"The preservation of this ship should be good. We may be able to dig it out and install some of its parts on our ship, although I'm not sure whether the warships of the Great Crusade era can be adapted to our ship."

"I believe Omega will handle it. After we go back, we will give them the coordinates and then dig it out." Vito said silently. He looked at the armor around him and his eyes gradually became brighter when he looked at the armor of the Raven Guard.

He recognized the owners of these armors, veterans of the First Company, they were all members of the guards around the Primarch.

Vito passed through a line of defense with heavy casualties, in front of which were the bodies of Word Bearers, where the Raven Guards fought the most fiercely.

The barricades of the defense line were covered with single holes and cut marks, and the warriors in vermilion armor and gray-black armor were entangled and fell together. A gap was made in the broken defense line, and it was through this gap that Vito was able to pass.

He reached out his hand to help Lilith jump off the Word Bearers, and Lancelot went around from one side and pushed several bodies aside to open a passage.

They passed through the fierce defense line and came to the door. It was a room at the end of a long staircase behind the defense line. The door was closed tightly, and there was a decoration hanging on the door. There was some kind of totem made of crow feathers and metal rings.

Vito stood in front of the door and looked at the thing. Lancelot also walked up to look at it. The Inquisitor took a deep breath and pointed to the end of the stairs, "If I remember correctly, according to the Inquisition's database map , then it’s the command bridge of the ship. Go and take a look. Maybe you can activate the backup circuit and at least activate a few displays to see the situation of the ship. "

"Lily, go up with him. If necessary, you can help the little lion look at those things, if you can." Vito said. Lilith nodded slightly, turned around and patted Lancelot's leg armor to signal him. Keep up.

Lancelot looked at Vito, "Aren't you coming together?" "No, I'm going to take a look inside. Maybe there's something valuable. You and Lily go up, I'll be back in a moment."

Vito said coldly. Lancelot was not saying anything. He knew that Vito did not like to explain at this time and would not explain. He had followed Vito for many years and understood his habits and some of his thoughts.

If it were other people in his own group, they might suspect that Vito was hiding something or plotting something, but Lancelot believed in him, and even if he had doubts, he would believe Vito.

"Come here! Light up the light for me!" Lilith shouted in the middle of the stairs, and Lancelot immediately walked over and walked up the stairs wearing his own helmet lantern.

Vito took a deep breath after confirming that Lancelot had left. He raised his fingers and pushed gently inward. The huge psychic power instantly penetrated the iron door, and the door tilted inward to open the passage.

Vito walked in with a flashlight. He snapped his fingers, and golden lightning was injected into the wall beside him as his fingertips beat. In an instant, the whole room lit up. The lighting equipment that had been silent for many years was illuminated by psychic lightning. Resurrected with recharge.

He turned off the flashlight and walked to the huge desk in the dim light. The desk was very large, far larger than the size of an average Space Marine.

This room is very simple, so simple that it is a bit too simple. There is only a desk, a chair and a bed. There is nothing else, no additional decorations, and no additional daily necessities.

Its user must be simple, simple and pragmatic, although he may be outstanding in ideological cultivation.

Vito looked at the books placed on the bookshelf. The size of the books had been enlarged according to the user, but the titles on them had not changed in any particular way.

"The Complete Poems of Kant"

Vito smiled, held his forehead helplessly and sighed, "Kovaz, your taste is as profound as ever."

As he spoke, Vito waved his finger slightly, and the book flew off the bookshelf and landed in front of Vito. He skillfully opened the huge book page and used his psychic power to quickly turn it to page 47, which was just like his impression. , a letter was placed there, the size of which was normal human size.

Vito stepped on the page and picked up the letter. He sighed and sat on the ground beside the bookshelf. He sat on the floor and looked at the wax seal on the letter, as well as the familiar calligraphy style and poetic signature technique. It can be called soaring, but it does not lose its beauty.

He had always been a literary young man back then. Although he was usually withdrawn and silent, or silent as a stone, Vito knew that his literary quality was no lower than Guilliman's, even though his favorite style was the same, very melancholy.

Vito opened the envelope and took out the letter that had been dusted for thousands of years. He looked at the yellowed parchment letter and had to say that this might be the reason why the Ministry of Government liked parchment. Even if After all this time, the parchment still ensured that its contents were clearly visible.

"To my dearest friend Vito, I know that the one who will find this letter will be you, my friend, and I know very well that you alone of all people will come to look for my footsteps, or maybe By chance, but, my dear friend, please believe that I trust and miss you.”

Vito looked at the lines of handwriting. It was hard for him to write such a small letter and write it so beautifully.

"As you know, I left. I left quietly alone, crossing the ocean like a lonely raven. I'm sorry that I didn't say goodbye to you.

"I am ashamed of my warriors. As their father, I failed to protect them. I am ashamed to face them. I am also ashamed of the emperor and my people. Therefore, I left and went to the shadows. , use my last life to complete the final redemption.”

"And my guard captain, he knows me as well as ever. He caught up with me with his small group of warriors. I told them my road to salvation. They stubbornly chose to sail with me. I have no right to refuse. They, when I kill their brother, I no longer have the right to refuse them."

"And my friend, here I can finally tell you, my shadow brother, the purpose of my coming here is to hunt down the traitors and make them pay the price. What I am hunting is all chaos. origin."

"I know, you once told me that it was not his fault, but brothers kill each other, brothers kill each other, destiny and duty, he must pay the price for it, even though we were brothers."

"Logar." Vito sighed and pressed his head. He closed his eyes and sighed sadly. He sat on the ground, sitting on the cold ground.

He raised his eyes and continued to read the lines of letters.

"The members of my guard still follow me. I feel ashamed of my friends. They prepared with me to enter the Eye of Terror, but in the process we were attacked by the Word Bearers. They gave their lives to win my escape. Opportunity, once again, I feel sorry for my children. I must leave alone and let them sleep with the enemy in the darkness. "

"They are dying as I write this, so please forgive me for not being able to say more, my friend."

"I will never forget the beautiful memories we had in the past, my best friends, and I will never forget my brothers. I will never forget the days when we drank wine together, discussed and imagined the stars all night long, and I will never forget the friendship between you and me. , until the stars burn out and time reaches the end.”

"Here, I will go to the deepest darkness, the darkness that will never return, and let the traitors join me in the dark night and usher in eternal sleep."

"This is my farewell to my truest friend."

Vito put down the letter. He sat in the cold room, alone, on the cold ground. In that deep and cold room, the lights went out again, and the last energy was finally exhausted. And darkness enveloped everything again.

"I go here to say goodbye forever, my friend, my most precious friend. It was in the dark night that we met for the first time, and it was also in the dark night that we said goodbye again."