My Life as A Death Guard
Chapter 519: Sitting on Blackstone Beneath the Blackstone Tower
"If I'm going to die, I'll at least die knowing the truth..."
Hades lay on the ground, muttering to himself. His eyes were vacant, staring up at the towering, sharp dome inside the Blackstone Obelisk.
After making his decision, Trazyn had resolutely brought Hades to the nearest operational Blackstone Obelisk.
Trazyn tossed Hades into a corner of the control room and went to calibrate the equipment. Hades turned his head and saw the dead Korklan standing beside him.
Korklan stood there, his mechanical body charred, not a single scrap of his crimson cloth remaining. However, the metal around him had been remelted, dripping down to form a new black robe that also pinned him firmly to the spot.
Hades looked at Korklan's expressionless mechanical face, then lowered his gaze to see the Blackstone spear in Korklan's hand completely fused with the Blackstone circuitry.
With a single glance, Hades understood what had happened.
To force the Blackstone Obelisk to activate, Korklan had chosen to forcibly connect the severed circuit from the outside.
The Blackstone Obelisk had successfully activated, but the massive energy surge from its overload had also claimed Korklan's life.
The only thing Hades couldn't fathom was the Blackstone Spear. It was the weapon of a Word Bearers—had Korklan already attained such prestige among them? Or had the Magos stolen it himself?
No matter.
Hades sighed, struggling to sit up and leaning against the wall. His blurred vision scanned the Magos's body. Hades had crafted this very form for Korklan—and after all this time, Korklan had never "iterated" it.
Magos typically updated and iterated their bodies with great speed. Jin-306, for instance, the little one who used to hide behind Hades, had already become a Giant Beast Unit.
Since Hades had built this body, his inspection was straightforward. He silently reached out and began to manually disassemble the parts.
Something to keep him busy before he dies... or rather, before he sleeps.
After all, there's not much left for him to do now.
Hades knew his broken body couldn't even defeat a mortal auxiliary soldier. The Black Domain was also out of control—his body was re-adapting to it, while the Black Domain was obediently receding, returning to his command.
Two paths lay before him. One was to flee, survive for now, and wait to regain his peak strength. The other was to act as a massive power bank, plugging himself in and sending everyone here to their deaths.
The few good news was that Hades was an expert at both options.
After a simple analysis of the battlefield, Hades decided to take everyone down with him.
Though the Obscurus Segmentum contained trillions of living beings and legions locked in fierce combat—Death Guard, Ultramarines, World Eaters...
Hades broke into a violent coughing fit. He turned his head away to keep the blood spray from hitting Korklan, but in truth, he had almost no blood left to cough up.
He had failed them. He had failed them all...
Hades thought weakly, but his hands never stopped working, continuing to dismantle Korklan's Mind Engine... Can he still restore his personality?
Hades' hand froze.
Compared to the atrocity he was about to commit, what he was doing now felt more like hypocrisy. Yet he couldn't stop himself, as if he were just trying to keep himself busy.
Hades knew—better than anyone else—that their enemy was Chaos.
If he left now, the Dark Imperium would never know peace. Even if the Four Gods were weakened, they would soon regain their strength with half the galaxy already submerged in the Warp. The Warp tides would surge through the Eye of Terror, eroding the Imperial Brightside.
And this—this was exactly what the Four Gods wanted.
Hades continued his calculations. The only variable he couldn't account for was the Emperor. The Astronomican had gone dark; he wasn't sure if the Emperor was even alive.
But according to Trazyn's observations of the Webway, the Master of Mankind should still have a relatively high HP.
Without relying on Necron technology, could Neoth directly shut down the psychic tides of the Dark Imperium?
Hades pondered for a moment. He figured the old bones who had sat upon the Throne for ten thousand years might have been able to do it, but not the Emperor now, whose faith had been partially devoured by him.
So... in truth, the moment the Dark Imperium was unleashed, the Four Gods had already won most of their game.
If they could also successfully seal him—then for the Four Gods, this game would be a true, absolute victory.
Unfortunately, they still made a wrong move, miscalculating Lorgar's play.
And Lorgar... Hades's eyes went blank. So, had the Emperor already been arranging this game since Monarchia?
Chaos had countermeasures for the chaos caused by Lorgar's betrayal, but Hades had just played a completely unexpected checkmate—
Trazyn.
Hades took a deep, trembling breath, staring at the Figurine King in the distance, who was cursing and setting up all sorts of equipment. When he had first met Trazyn and chatted nonsense, Hades never could have imagined this scene.
Trazyn's appearance presented Hades with another option: close the Eye of Terror and slowly fish the Dark Imperium, stranded in the Warp's tides, back to safety.
At the same time, if the timing was right, Hades could take the opportunity to slap the Four Gods and the One God in the face while closing the Eye of Terror.
Chaos... Chaos... Hades mused. He successfully extracted Korklan's Mind Engine. Some circuits were severed and components damaged, but the majority remained intact. In his final moments, Korklan had still managed to protect his own personality matrix storage unit.
Hades suddenly burst into a coughing laugh. If anyone was going to survive, it would be Korklan. The Magos was cunning to the core.
He smiled, gazing at the small storage unit. A cowardly old man... The smile faded from Hades' lips.
He turned his head, staring at Korklan's dead body, which stood like a statue.
In this sector... the only "person" who would survive would be Korklan.
The one who had "died" first.
Hades sighed and carefully wiped the mind-shard in his hand again, deciding to give it to Trazyn later, who would then pass it on to the Imperium.
After finishing this, Hades leaned against the wall, sitting with his arms hanging down.
Dimness shrouded Hades' face. He tilted his head slightly, listening to the explosions outside. If his senses weren't mistaken, the ammunition being poured onto Cadia was increasing.
The fleet battle in Cadia's orbit was about to end.
Hades took a deep breath.
The sign of its end would be a Cyclone Torpedo landing on Cadia.
I hope it's still in time, Hades thought, glancing again at the nearly frantic Trazyn. He knew that at this moment, dozens or even hundreds of Trazyn's splinter bodies were still on other planets, calibrating the Blackstone Obelisks.
Trust your invincible Xenos friend.
Hades thought mockingly. Even if there wasn't enough time, the omnipotent Trazyn would still activate time suspension—he just didn't know what kind of contract Malcador had actually made with the Figurine King.
Hmm... Hades thought. Malcador wouldn't have signed Mortarion to a slave contract and sold him to the Figurine King, would he?
That would be a good thing, though... Hades thought silently. At least Mortarion wouldn't die.
Hades didn't even need to think about it. Right now, in the fierce battle raging in the skies above Cadia, Mortarion was definitely there.
And he would personally end his life.
Along with the lives of billions.
Guilliman, Angron, Garro, Vorx, Khârn... those with names, those without; those he knew, those he didn't.
Those willing to accept death, and those who refused it.
Dead people, so many dead people, so, so many dead people.
The thought made Hades want to cough, but he held it back.
And the price for all this would be the return of half the galaxy, and the long-term weakening of the Four Gods.
It would buy more lives.
From beginning to end, Hades and the Emperor's enemy had always been Chaos, the Four Gods.
For them, the measure of "victory" or "defeat" had never been about the outcome of battles on the physical battlefield.
Hades fell silent. On the scales of fate, the lives saved outweighed the lives lost; hope outweighed despair—
He would make this trade.
Hades took a deep breath. He thought of the Emperor; the Master of Mankind must have faced this same choice countless times.
But this time, it was his turn.
Hades respected every life, but he would not hesitate.
Mercy would only lead to greater sacrifice. Faced with a simple, objective mathematical comparison, Hades never wavered.
This galaxy recognized only logic; it did not judge victory or defeat by emotion.
Trazyn approached, looking fully prepared. Hades tried to struggle to his feet, but Trazyn did not offer a hand. He merely watched with cold detachment.
"One last choice," Trazyn said, his voice now completely devoid of warmth. A ruthless green light flickered in his mechanical eyes, and his half-shattered face made him even more hideous.
Trazyn now looked like the very embodiment of the Necron stereotype.
"You can choose to leave with me now, Hades. You don't have to mind them—this is the Imperium's business. You don't need to make this choice, nor do you need to be the one to bear it."
Hades trembled as he pulled himself up against the wall. Cold sweat poured down his forehead, but thankfully, he hadn't let the mind-shard of Korklan slip from his hand. The small cube remained secure in his grip.
Hades asked, his voice shaking, "Trazyn, did you hate the Silent King back then?"
The Silent King, the ruler of the Necrons, was the bastard who had ordered the Necrons to undergo the biotransference experiments, transforming them all into Necrons.
The icy demeanor Trazyn had shown just moments ago vanished completely. Hades watched as Trazyn nearly leaped with fury.
"You're fucking asking me that?!"
Trazyn lunged forward, intending to grab Hades by the collar, but the height difference made him abandon the idea. Instead, without hesitation, Trazyn reached into the gaping hole in Hades' chest and yanked out a handful of flesh, forcing Hades to bend down and look him straight in the eye.
Hades sucked in a sharp, pained breath.
"That guy's a bastard! Hades, listen up!!!"
Trazyn's voice boomed, righteous and fervent.
"He's a blind, arrogant bastard, the Galaxy's number one genocidal dealer! You're nothing like him—that bastard would never even care—"
Trazyn's voice trembled, crackling with static and electronic distortion. "He'd never empathize with us! Empathize with the slaves beneath his boots! He'd never even face death—you don't understand! You just don't understand!"
The Necrons were a strictly hierarchical race; their overlords could slaughter a few champions of other species on a whim, just for amusement.
Hades gasped for air, speaking rapidly. "Okay, I get it. Please let go of my trachea first, I mean..."
Trazyn abruptly released Hades' windpipe. Hades let out a long, ragged sigh. The excruciating pain nearly sent him into another blackout.
"Fine," Hades continued, "I understand the price I'll have to pay for what I've done."
He swallowed a mouthful of blood. Trazyn stared at him, his eyes gleaming with a cold light, but he remained silent.
Hades smiled. "Just a tyrant."
Hades scratched his head. He figured Trazyn's attack had finally drained his last drop of health, leaving him under the Death Guard's unique buff—
Sudden Surge of Vitality: You refuse to compromise with death. Standing on the brink of oblivion, you feel great—you even feel like dancing.
"Oh, right," Hades said, reaching out to hand Trazyn the Korklan cube. "Help me give this to Jin-306. You know who he is."
Hades was certain Trazyn was rolling his eyes, but unfortunately, his mechanical body couldn't express it.
Trazyn took the cube and said coldly, "Alright, Hades, sit down."
The Figurine King pointed to the seat he had hastily constructed from Blackstone. The chair's design resembled a plastic stool from a street food stall, with countless pipes glowing with green light extending from the hollows of its back and plugging into the towering Blackstone Obelisk.
"Alright..."
Hades sat down with the resignation of a man facing death, summoning more courage than he had expected. Trazyn helped him connect the mess of tubes, the Figurine King mercilessly thrusting them directly into his flesh. Another long bout of torture ensued, but fortunately, Hades was tough.
"Jaghatai Khan is locked in combat with Magnus. I've already notified him to leave—" Trazyn lowered a pot-like hood over Hades's head, plunging his world into darkness. "But I feel that in this situation... it's better to let them enjoy the thrill of battle one last time before they die."
Hades' voice trembled. "Is it almost done?"
"No," Trazyn replied ruthlessly. "It will be a while longer. The procedures required to keep you alive are far more complex than simply letting you explode. Just wait."
Hades gave a dry, hacking laugh.
Trazyn suddenly stood up and stared at Hades. After a long silence, he seemed to realize something.
"Are you afraid and full of regret, Hades?" the Figurine King asked in astonishment.
Hades spoke plainly. "Anyone would be. I just hope you finish before the pain crushes me." He smiled faintly. "But I'm tough. I won't go down easily."
Trazyn muttered a curse, but Hades didn't understand it. It was in the Necron language.