As the words fell, the system interface at the edge of his vision vanished. But Raynor could feel an invisible connection quietly taking root in the depths of his and Solene's consciousness.
Raynor crouched down, meeting the gaze of Solene, who was curled up on the floor. The golden flames on her chest had extinguished. Solene's cheek was swollen and a trickle of blood hung from the corner of her mouth, yet she still held her chin up with stubborn defiance.
His voice returned to a state of calm. "The world isn't just black and white, Solene Vimlot."
Solene raised her swollen eyes, looking at him blankly.
"The rules of the Inquisition are not the yardstick for all things. The God-Emperor's will is to protect humanity, not to be bound by frozen dogmas." Raynor's gaze fell upon the rose emblem on her breastplate. "You don't have to be my enemy."
"Stay by my side. Witness. Anticipate!"
"Brevis shall be great once more!!!"
A long silence fell within the compartment. Only the sound of the wind outside occasionally whistled through the gaps in the armor, letting out soft whimpers. Solene looked into Raynor's eyes; those purple orbs held no deception, only a steadfast conviction.
It was an obsession to protect something—one that was remarkably similar to her own original intent as an Inquisitor. She thought of the refugees of Brevis, the soldiers on the front lines; under Raynor's leadership, they had food and they had hope. And she, who was supposed to protect them, had treated a man truly guarding them as a heretic due to cold dogma.
After a long while, Solene's lips moved, and she answered as if possessed: "Fine."
From that moment on, Raynor's banner gained another "Lictor."
Turning back the clock a few days, at the same time Raynor was confronting Solene.
Deep in the ice plains, the settlement of the Snow Claw clan was witnessing a miracle that would be etched into the annals of the wasteland's history. At that time, the blizzards of the plains had just subsided, and the pale grey clouds hung low. The people of the Snow Claw clan were busy clearing snow from the camp, and no one noticed something rapidly approaching from the horizon.
The first thing to break the silence was a piercing whistle. It wasn't the howl of a storm, but the sound of air being torn apart by massive wing membranes, growing louder as it drew near.
The first to look up was a wildman warrior guarding the edge of the camp. His spear fell into the snow, his eyes widening into round circles. More and more tribesmen, hearing the commotion, stopped their work and craned their necks toward the sky.
Ten giant cyan shadows dived down from the depths of the clouds. Their wingspan exceeded ten meters, and their bodies were covered in overlapping scales that gave off a cold luster under the dim sky. On their long, slender necks, a pair of slit-pupiled dragon eyes looked down coldly at the camp. The pressure of a top-tier predator swept over them, silencing the entire Snow Claw clan.
These were the Flying Warrior Overlords personally bred by Sarah No. 2 at the cost of a massive amount of biomass. They were the kin and offspring of the "Frost Dragon" Sarah.
Clutched tightly in the talons of each Flying Warrior Overlord was a massive chunk of blue ice. These ice blocks were over ten meters in diameter, their surfaces flowing with pale blue frost patterns, and something could be seen wriggling faintly inside.
The ten Flying Warrior Overlords circled the camp three times, each pass bringing with it a violent gale. Their draconic eyes swept over the tribesmen below with the coldness of a predator looking at food. Then, simultaneously, they released their talons.
Ten massive blue ice blocks smashed toward the clearing in front of the altar cave.
Boom! Boom! Ten consecutive explosions shook the ground like an earthquake, sending ice shards flying dozens of meters high. After the ice landed, the ten Flying Warrior Overlords flapped their wings and quickly disappeared into the clouds. Only the wildmen of Brevis remained, buffeted by the violent cold wind and too awestruck to speak.
The camp remained silent for dozens of seconds. The same scene was unfolding at the Ice Fang clan's settlement—another ten blocks of ice.
The first to kneel was the Great Chieftain of the Snow Claw clan, Snow Claw Yu. She knelt on both knees, her forehead pressed hard against the frozen earth, chanting the most ancient prayers of the plains. On the other side, Ice Fang Kuai of the Ice Fang clan was also the first to kneel.
Then followed all the wildmen of Brevis. Tens of thousands of wildmen knelt in the snow, their foreheads against the frozen ground, none daring to look up. They were convinced that this was the descent of the Frost Dragon—messengers sent by the Frost Lord.
Among the Snow Claw clan, the few cavalrymen who had previously participated in the attack on Raynor—those who had witnessed the "Dragon Fear"—felt their already unstable mental states collapse completely. They knelt on the ground, hands clutching their heads, bodies shaking violently, their eyes vacant.
A moment later, Snow Claw Yu and Ice Fang Kuai rose and personally led the clan's finest warriors to carefully move the ten blue ice blocks into the depths of the altar cave. The green-robed Divine Envoys stood at the cave entrance, expressionless.
"The holy artifacts of the Frost Dragon. Mortals shall not approach. Transgressors will die."
No one dared to disobey.
Deep within the altar cave, the biomass conversion network constructed by Sarah No. 2 activated. Each block melted to reveal a Warrior Hive Mother. The mountain-like piles of sacrifices—the carcasses of ice plains beasts and the remains of Orks—were completely decomposed under the Hive Mother's consumption. They were transformed into the purest biomass and genetic segments, recombined within the Mother's body.
For an entire day and night, a muffled, rhythmic thumping echoed from the altar cave, like the beating of a giant heart. At dawn the next day, as the first light hit the plains, the thumping stopped abruptly.
Then, one white figure after another walked out of the cave.
They were a species that had never appeared on the ice plains before. Their size was slightly smaller than an Ice-Spine Strider, with a shoulder height of about 1.6 meters and a body length of two meters. They looked like miniature versions of the Striders, equally agile and ferocious.
Their fur was snowy white, blending perfectly with the ice plains environment, and beneath the fur, a layer of hard, pale blue carapace could be faintly seen. Most striking were their forelimbs.
The forelimbs of each creature were different; some had evolved into half-meter-long bone claws, pale blue and incredibly sharp. Others had evolved into biological cannons, the muzzles of which were translucent crystalline structures with pale blue energy flowing inside, capable of firing ice spikes.
Leaping, turning, pouncing—all movements were fluid and natural. They walked on the snow with light steps, making no sound at all. They could easily traverse the blizzard without being affected, as if they were the original inhabitants of the plains.
The green-robed Divine Envoys walked out of the cave and stood before the creatures, their voices devoid of any fluctuation:
"The kin of the Frost Dragon, named 'Frost Soldiers' (Han Bing)."
"They are the fangs of the Frost Lord, the protectors of Brevis."
"From this day forth, they shall be your comrades-in-arms, fighting together against the Greenskins!"
The wildmen looked at the creatures called "Frost Soldiers" with complex expressions. Mostly it was awe and curiosity, but there was also a hint of doubt. They looked ferocious, but could they truly stand against the Greenskins?