Warhammer 40,000: Mortal Gods

…

In a forest, a man slowly wakes up.

He heard the sound of running water, heard the whistling wind in the forest, and smelled the scent of earth and grass.

The man instinctively recalled his past and identity, but he found that he knew nothing. He appeared in this forest inexplicably, and woke up inexplicably, as if he was a created thing rather than a naturally growing life.

Without knowing anything else, the man walked toward the sound of water and soon came to a river.

There was a small wooden boat parked on the calm water, and an old man was sitting on the boat.

The old guy is wearing a crown and holding a fishing rod in his hand.

What was completely inconsistent with the peaceful scene before him was that there were scars all over his body.

The man was very puzzled... How could this guy still be in the mood to fish when he was injured like this?

"What is this place?" the man asked.

The old man didn't react at all, even if the fishing rod in his hand was shaking because a fish was biting the hook, he didn't react at all.

This is as puzzling as how he is still in the mood to fish even though he is covered in wounds.

"What is this place?" the man asked again in a loud voice.

The old man still had no reaction.

The man jumped up and jumped into the river, trying to avoid being ignored by approaching the old guy and asking questions.

While swimming, the man suddenly thought of something and asked out of nowhere, "Why did you wake me up?"

This question was like a correctly entered key. The old fisherman finally responded, turned his head and said two words that were extremely confusing to the man.

"You wouldn't have woken up so early, but everything has changed."

"You have a special mission to leave here."

"Go ahead and do what you have to do."

Those sounds made the man named Man feel pain, and some information was emerging in his mind. He instinctively fled, jumped ashore and ran wildly along the path in the forest.

Finally, a roar from a beast stopped the man.

The man immediately lowered his body and hid in the bushes - just like he did when he was a child.

But after hiding it, the man discovered that the target of the roaring beast was not him.

About two kilometers ahead, at the junction of the forest and the wilderness, a huge beast was chewing up an agricultural machine in one bite. It didn't like eating iron, so it spit out the parts and fragments in its mouth. Go and attack the two men in front instead.

The two men seemed to be hunters. They had weapons in their hands that could shoot red energy arrows without arrows by just pulling the bow.

But even with such weapons, they couldn't fight the beasts.

The size and ferocity of the beast were obviously beyond their expectations, otherwise they wouldn't be so panicked.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

The roar of the beast angered the man, who also roared, jumped out of the bush and ran towards the location of the beast.

He ran across the distance of two kilometers in an instant, even tearing down vines and leaves to cover himself on the way.

Finally, the man ran up behind the beast, howled, picked up its tail, which was as heavy as an iron chain, and swung it hard.

The beast, which was larger than a Leman Russ tank, was thrown away and smashed into the jungle, breaking more than a dozen towering trees one after another.

The two hunters were stunned.

No one would see a man over three meters tall, covered only by leaves, running out, throwing out a beast the size of a Leman Russ tank, and remaining calm about this series of scenes.

Especially the giant that jumped out of the forest was showing its fierce look, baring its teeth and howling in the direction where the beast was thrown away.

He looks more like a beast.

But while the man was baring his teeth, a memory suddenly emerged from his mind.

Through this memory, the man understood what civilization is.

He survived like a beast in the forest until he met a group of people who taught him civilization.

The man shut his mouth and faced the beast with dignity like a warrior.

And during this period of vague memories, the beast had already come out from another direction, and slapped the man's head hard with its huge palm, causing the man's upper body to tilt back.

The man gritted his teeth, grabbed the beast's mane, pulled it over its head, and slammed his head against the beast's head.

What happened next was like a hammer hitting a watermelon.

The beast's headless body shook a few times and fell to the ground.

The two hunters were in a daze when the man rushed out. They didn't react until they were stared at by the fierce eyes and quickly thanked him.

"Thank you, sir! Thank you for helping us!"

"Thanks!"

The ferocity in the man's eyes quickly disappeared. He looked at the two similar people and asked them: "What are your names?"

The hunters were puzzled by this question. They didn't know why the man asked for his name first at this time.

But since he asked...

"My name is Sutik, sir."

"My name is Harlem."

The two hunters said their names one after another.

The man nodded after hearing this, suddenly feeling familiar. This was the name he often heard in his memory.

Unremarkable and featureless, it was as if their father had casually muttered a few syllables when naming them... but it sounded particularly close at this time.

"What about you, sir?" Sutik asked.

The man was really stunned by the question. He stood there and thought for a long time, trying to find his name from the broken memory fragments.

"Ryan."

The two hunters were a little surprised when they heard this.

"Ryan? Lion? This name really suits you."

"I'm sorry, sir, Harlem didn't mean that you are the same as a beast, but that you are brave and have the strength and courage of a beast."

"..."

After listening to the two hunters talking for a long time, Ryan turned around and picked a few wild fruits from the trees next to him.

He didn't know why he was so skilled. It was as if he had made his home in the forest before. Anyway, he could tell which fruits were edible and which ones were not.

The two hunters also benefited from it, but they really found the fruit Ryan found hard to swallow.

Ryan didn't care. He sat on the corpse of the beast and gnawed on the fruit. A question came from the chewing sound: "Where is this place?"

Sutik immediately stepped forward and sat next to Ryan, and took out a small, square box from his pocket.

When the button on the box is pressed, the star map projection is released from the box.

"This is Karis, our home." Sutik pointed to a galaxy.

Ryan looked at this galaxy and found that he was in a straight line from the place called Terra in his memory, but the distance was too far.

Among the territory markers on the star map called the Imperium of Man, Karis is the northernmost.

"There are so many stars." Ryan took a bite of the fruit and asked curiously: "So where is Caris among the stars?"

"At Tyrone's Gate."

Sutik said.

"Defense Zone No. 1."