The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"Have you really decided like that?"

After hearing the words of the prophet, Ottavia looked surprised.

Talos didn't look at her directly, he walked around her throne, his gaze crossed the pool, and thought of the previous owner of this room.

The man died in the dirt, torn to pieces by the first fierce claw.

Although Talos remembered this, he couldn't remember the name of the creature now. It was rare.

"Are you listening to me?"

Ottavia raised her voice a bit, her voice was so elegant and polite, it caught Talos's attention.

"in."

"That's good."

The navigator sat on her throne, with one arm around her swollen belly.

She appeared extremely thin, which made her pregnancy more prominent.

"How likely is Dieterian's ship to escape the encirclement safely?"

Talos thought it was meaningless to lie to her. He stared at her for a long time, letting time pass slowly with the rhythm of her heartbeat.

"Your chance of surviving is almost ridiculously small, but there is still a chance."

"With Septims?"

"He is our pilot."

"But he is more of a father—"

Talos immediately raised his hand as a warning.

"Be careful, Ottavia, don't make the mistake of thinking that I can be moved by an emotional request... You know, I have also slapped my children in front of their parents."

Ottavia gritted his teeth, but was never willing to compromise.

"So he...he will always follow me, you can't keep him here, I know him better than you."

"I haven't decided his fate yet."

"What about you? What is your'destiny'?"

"Don't talk to me in that tone, I disagree with arrogant tone, so save it."

"I am sorry."

The navigator lowered his head.

"I... just angry."

"Understandable."

"Then what do you do? You let those aliens kill you like this?"

"Do you see what happened when we tried to escape, how we broke through the blockade one after another and smashed the bow of the ship? They won't let us run to the Eye of Greatness. Scream, the noose began to wrap around us, their prophet is too strong, it has been staring at me, I can't go away...Ottavia, if I delay, I will lose the choice of the location of the war Last chance."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I must die."

Talos made a gesture to her-row monitors on the wall, and each monitor showed a different angle from the outside of the ship—each monitor had an eye staring at the flying star floating under the orbit.

"How can I make it clearer? Outside this planet, alien warships are waiting for us... We are dead, Ottavia, that's it."

As he said, the Prophet sighed, but there was no regret on his face.

"Get ready to leave the spaceship. Take whatever you want. You have 11 hours before I never want to see you again."

Finished,

He turned to leave, and pushed away the two attendants who had not dispersed fast enough.

The navigation film watched him walk away, and for the first time since being caught, she tasted freedom, but she was not sure whether it was as pleasant as she remembered.

"Talos, you often say that the Primarch is the least cherished creature in the galaxy, so why don't you?"

Talos paused for half a second, and then his head would not disappear outside the hatch.

A few minutes later, the pilot’s preparation room

The door opened.

A giant appeared in the arch at the door.

Septimus looked up, holding Talos' helmet in his hand, and he had been doing the final repair to the lens of his left eye.

"the host?"

Talos walked in, and the sound of wolf howling and the buzzing of armor echoed in this humble room.

"Ottavia left the spacecraft in 11 hours."

The prophet looked at each other.

"Your unborn child will go with her."

Septims nodded, his eyes fixed on Talos' face.

"Dear master, I have already guessed it."

Talos was pacing around the room, looking around, never staying on things for too long.

After that, he picked up the half-repaired pistols on the table, Ottavia's charcoal drawings, and some toys the size of his thumb—perhaps for a little life.

The most important thing is that there is a breath of life, a breath of personality, and a breath of a specific soul flowing in this small space.

that's

A human room.

Talos suddenly realized how empty and lifeless his own room was—except for the prophecies scrawled on the iron wall, there was no trace of personality.

The Prophet closed his eyes. He tried to get something in his mind, something that he had forgotten for a long, long time...

At the end of the Great Crusade, the last Midnight Lords to step on the surface of Nastem were the soldiers of the 10th, 12th, and 16th Company.

Homecoming is very rare, because few Astarte can see their homeland again, and Nasturm is hardly known for the honor brought by the children.

The parade was very humble, but very sincere.

When the expeditionary fleet was refueling and repairing at the dock of Nostronamo, the company commander leading the three companies made a gesture.

50 Astartes from each company will land on the planets and proceed from the spaceport along the main avenue of Quintus.

Talos remembered that even at the time, this was a strange emotional gesture.

He and the other nine Astartes in the already full First Fierce Claw were completely blackened.

During the parade, among the scary crowds, the young Talos held his blaster tightly to his chest, and took off his helmet together with his brothers.

The experience was dazzling. Although there was almost no sound at the beginning and almost no one cheered, the applause soon turned into thunder.

In front of the children of Midnight Ghost, the contradictory people of Nastem abandoned their indifference and welcomed their soldiers home.

The situation got worse when the crowd started calling out their names.

That is not an insult, but the real name.

It's not messy, but the crowds on both sides of the street shouted names at the Astartes, the reason even Talos could not guess.

In several places, the thin lines set by the law enforcement officers to block the crowd were broken, and the firepower of the light weapons shot out violently, shooting down a few of the crowd who wanted to go with the Astartes, only A few people squeezed into the ranks of marching soldiers.

The people who squeezed into the queue looked around as if they were lost, looking up at the faces of the walking soldiers like drunk, frightened and fever animals.

An old woman harassed Charles, she was less than half his height.

"Where is he?"

She screamed, her thin hands clutching the marching warrior's armor.

"Charle! Where is he? Answer me!"

As Charles moved on, Talos could see his uneasiness in his brother's face, and the old woman saw his gaze under her tousled white hair.

Talos immediately turned her head and looked forward, but the old lady had already grasped his motionless arm with her weak hand.

"look at me!"

She pleaded.

"look at me!"

Talos didn't, he just kept going.

The old woman cried and wailed behind him, and fell behind him.

"Look at me! I know it's you! Talos, look at me!"

Soon, a law enforcement officer ended her request with a gunshot.

Talos hated that he felt relieved at the time.

When the parade was over and he returned to the Dark, Charles was sitting on the sofa next to him.

Talos had never seen such a hesitant expression on his brother's face.

"It's not easy for each of us, but you did a great job, brother."

"How did I do it differently?"

Charles swallowed, and there seemed to be dawn behind his eyes.

"That woman, the one in the crowd, you...you didn't recognize her?"

Talos tilted his head and looked at Shire carefully.

"I barely saw her."

"She called your name."

Charles kept asking.

"You really didn't recognize her?"

"They are reading our name from our armor scroll, and she called your name too."

Charles stood up and prepared to leave, Talos stood up with him, his gauntlets gripping his brother's shoulders tightly.

"What did you find, go ahead, Charles."

"She is not reading our names~www.readwn.com~ but she knows us, brother... She recognizes us, even after twenty years and the changes brought about by genetic seeds, Throne, Talos ...You must have recognized her too."

"I didn't, I swear, I only saw an old woman."

Charles threw his hand out of Talos' control. He didn't turn around but his breathing became disordered. Then his words were as decisive as the gunshot that silenced the old woman's plea.

"That old lady—"

Charles with his back to Talos said slowly:

"She was your mother."

For an instant, Talos opened his eyes suddenly, then walked towards the gate without looking back, and said loudly:

"Mortal Septims, I don't need you anymore, go away, take your woman and your child, get away, go to a place... where there is not so much blood."

Under Septims' stunned gaze, Talos' back figure disappeared behind the closed gate.