Chapter 156: One Thousand and One Deaths (5) Ending, the Return of the Sword of Oath
No matter how vast the stars in the Milky Way are, darkness is the true dominant color in the universe.
Although the emerging race of human beings claims to be the master of the galaxy, in the final analysis, it still sticks to individual points of light in the boundless darkness.
But this is the charm of civilization, there are always impossible things that can be made possible through hard work;
There are always seemingly unsolvable problems that have been changed with the wisdom and dedication of countless lives.
This is the case for the astropaths, who endure the pain of flesh and blood destined to mutate and make interstellar communication possible;
It is also them who dedicate their souls to maintaining the existence of this ancient and huge empire.
It was they who used their souls to connect the lonely dots into threads and webs, and finally built a young and huge country.
Without the existence of astropaths, communication across galaxies would take hundreds of years, making cross-sector communications even more difficult to maintain, and the human empire would lose its basic possibility of existence.
Countless psychic nodes are being activated, delivering their mission to distant Terra;
The wills that penetrate the subspace are fighting one after another. In the subspace, they rely on the power of mortals to cut the waves and transmit the sounds and images to the distance.
The high tower on the moon is flashing, which is the local information distribution tower of Xingyuting in the solar system at work.
At the end of the wasteland on the surface of Titan, which is full of sandstorms and nightmares, a bell rang from the highest point of the black fortress group. It was the wake-up call for Natilik that was two thousand years late.
when! when! when! …………
Nineteen bells tolled, echoing in the sparsely populated halls of the fortress. Except for a few mortals and servitors, most of the Gray Knights were active on various battlefields in the empire at this time.
In the Grand Master's office behind the Titan Auditorium, Walden, who had just returned to Titan for his shift, was sitting behind a marble desk, looking at the documents waiting for approval in front of him, unable to write for a long time.
When the obituary bell rang, he raised his white-haired forehead and looked into the distance.
"Natilik...did you still fail to return after all?"
Walden remembered the time when he received the Titan Sword from the previous Grand Master.
The former Grand Master entrusted him with the sword and the responsibility of the entire Chapter from the battlefield, and told him the tasks that the former had failed to complete:
Find Natilik, bring back the core inheritance of the Third Order, and bring back the Sword of Oath that corresponds to the Titan Sword...
These three tasks are actually the same thing, because finding Natilik is equivalent to finding the core inheritance of the Third Order;
To find the core inheritance, you must use the Sword of Oath, which is twinned with the Titan Sword, as the key to unlock it.
The core inheritance of the Third Order is actually the core secret of the Gray Knights Chapter.
If it hadn't been for Natilik's accident, all the supreme masters in the past should have come from the third order like the original supreme master Janus.
Walden was not surprised by Natilik's death. After all, the fact that the latter had not been heard from for two thousand years was a very dangerous thing.
But the return of the Sword of Oath surprised him, because this sacred object that didn't seem to have a strong presence actually held too many secrets for the Gray Knights that couldn't be told outside.
This sword is as powerful as the Titan's Sword, and once wielded, it can dispel demons.
It appeared almost at the same time as the Titan Sword, but there are almost no records of killing demons. This is precisely because it is more of a ritual weapon than a sharp sword.
A long-lost core strength of the Gray Knights Chapter - the heritage artifact of the true name.
Yes, the Gray Knight, as the ultimate weapon for humans to fight against demons, has his own real name just like demons, other supernatural creatures.
This kind of real name is similar to that of demons. While it brings powerful power to the Gray Knights, it also has complicated rules and more difficult generation conditions.
And under the witness of the Guardian Shaper Think Tank of the Third Order, the candidate completely forgets his past personality and memory, and makes a solemn oath in front of the Sword of Oath, which is the most core ceremony.
At that moment, they will completely give up their past as mortals, face the Sword of Oath forged by the Emperor himself, and receive one of the 300 true names inherited from the original from the hands of their fallen predecessors before they can become true Gray Knights.
Yes, there were never many real Gray Knights, only 300.
The true names they hold are equivalent to those of the daemons of the Warp:
The Daemon's true name comes from 666 evil symbols from the warp; while the Gray Knight's true name comes from the 300 symbols of wisdom and reason of the human race that the Emperor himself has collected since the birth of mankind.
The holders of these true names have different strengths and weaknesses at first, but as long as they are given time to grow, each of them is enough to compete head-on with the demon. Each of them is the ultimate weapon for mankind.
The Emperor hid the collected 300 true names in the sword and gave them to the Gray Knights, so there are only 300 real Gray Knights, no more, no less, no increase, no decrease.
Only when the previous holder of the true name dies can the next Gray Knight be born, and then he gives up himself and takes over the ancient name and continues to fight against the devil.
This is the secret of the Gray Knights and the last gift from the Emperor to them.
The true name is given by the Sword of Oath, because the seeds of these three hundred true names are preserved in the inscriptions on its sword.
Therefore, if mortals want to obtain this power, they need the testimony and enlightenment of the Sword of Oath.
But there are always surprises, and so are true names.
This powerful force is not only possessed by the Grey Knights, but also by other imperial forces.
There are always people with noble souls who can inherit or spontaneously condense new true names that are not within these 300 names, thus gaining the favor of the Emperor and becoming the savior of mankind in despair.
Such people are extremely rare, but once they appear, they will save the lives of billions of people.
Except for those darlings of fate and the true living saints of the state religion, Walden has hardly seen other similar existences.
Most of them are precious and difficult to replicate, and there are very few in the long history of the Empire.
Only the true names of the Grey Knights can be stably continued with the existence of the Sword of the Covenant.
And it is such a precious treasure that they have lost for two thousand years.
The bell rang again after a break. Walden put down the pen in his hand, stood up and walked to the window facing Terra, smiling and looking into the distance.
The first 19 bells let everyone on Titan know that an unknown hero was confirmed dead in battle and his soul returned to the throne of the Emperor.
But the meaning of the 24 bells that rang again was only known to him. It was the machine soul of the Titan Fortress, welcoming the return of the Sword of the Oath 2,000 years late.
The starport on Titan began to be busy again, and the machine servants and technical sergeants were busy preparing supplies for the warships.
The towering body of the Supreme Decree battleship stood out on the Titan starport.
After experiencing the Battle of Orpheus and more than a decade of rest, it was finally allowed to set sail again.
The Templars guarding the Victory Hall on the mother planet Titan and the Purifiers in the Pure Chamber gave up their long-term seclusion and came out in full force to prepare the ceremony with the highest standards.
Under Walden's command, they, led by the Lord of the Hall of Victory and high-ranking Templar Gallagher Saint Dimas, met with two other Grey Knights battleships on the way to the Storm Star Field, and took the Holy Sword back from Calvin at the base of Titan II.
Everything went smoothly for Calvin, and there were no more accidents on the way back to Titan II.
Unlike the day and night journey when they came, the Soul Redeemer quietly arrived at the starport of Titan II, the home port, after sailing peacefully for several weeks.
After waiting for all mortal troops to disembark and return to their respective bases, Calvin returned to the core fortress of Titan II with his honor guard and the newly added "portable corn pendants".
In the deepest part of the newly built home star fortress of the Grey Knights, a soul ferryman from Titan was quietly waiting for them.
Passing through the main gate of Titan II, the magnificent granite triumphal arch allowed Jin and his colleagues to discuss it quietly, and each of them compared the difference between this place and the Royal City of Terra in their hearts.
Jin's mortal auxiliary soldiers in black robes were on guard duty. They were fully armed and watched the return of these giants with solemn eyes at various positions.
After passing the double doors leading to the auditorium in the fortress, Calvin turned around and stopped Jin and his group.
He said to Jin and his colleagues.
"This is your first visit. As the host, I should have introduced the situation here to you, but the fallen comrades are still waiting for us to hold a funeral. You don't have to participate. Please forgive us for being impolite, this is our internal ceremony."
The guards of the imperial army had no objection to this explanation, and this reason deserves respect.
And thinking from their perspective, they also do not welcome outsiders to appear in private occasions such as mourning for the death of their comrades.
"Please make yourself at home. Please excuse me." Jin nodded in agreement, and then, led by the mortal auxiliary army, went to the resting place prepared for them.
After watching them leave, Calvin and his guards carried the coffins of three comrades and continued to walk inside.
The soul ferryman had already been waiting in the deep cave built underground. After seeing Calvin and his team, he did not ask anything, but led the way with the pale eternal lamp in his hand.
The spiral corridor was ten people wide, and the newly built underground tomb was obviously wider than that on the Titan mother planet;
The sculptures on the handrails on both sides were the same as those on the mother planet. The heroic postures and faces of the ancestors fighting were no different except that they were updated.
Calvin was not in the mood to talk on this occasion, and the Grey Knights behind him were also not fulfilling this mission for the first time.
The twelve members carried four people each, just divided into three teams.
The temporary wooden coffin was replaced with a stone coffin made by the technical sergeants in the hall on the first underground floor. The armor of the three monks was removed here, and their bodies were cleaned and sealed in the coffin together with their weapons during their lifetime.
The Grey Knights watched the ceremony in silence, and then after this link was over, they lifted the stone coffin again and placed it in a deeper tomb under the guidance of the ferryman.
All things were done, and the funeral here came to an end with the low hymns and prayers of the crowd.
Calvin, who was supposed to turn around and leave, said to the strange soul ferryman in front of him:
"Please wait, I have another person here who needs his own funeral."
As he spoke, Calvin took off the Terminator Cross Medal he was wearing from his armor, and said to the gravekeeper of the Grey Knight in front of him:
"Please give him a decent ceremony, this is the honor he deserves."
"The body cannot be retrieved?" asked the soul ferryman.
"Unfortunately, he died a thousand years ago." Calvin shook his head and said.
"Are your belongings still there? For example, clothes or armor." The Soul Ferryman asked again.
"No more..." Calvin replied.
"So..." The ferryman paused for a moment and then spoke again:
"There must be a name, right?"
"Natirik Saint Lamakedan." Calvin recalled his memory and said uncertainly.
"Oh, is it him?"
Unexpectedly, this ferryman who couldn't tell how old he was actually remembered by Natirik.
As if he also realized Calvin's doubts, his hoarse voice struggled to speak again:
"I used to be one of you. But when I served on the front line of the regiment, this respected Grand Master was still alive..."
He turned around and walked above the ground, saying to Calvin and others as he walked:
"Please follow me, this is not the place to bury him."
Walking through the circular corridor and the sunken stairs, the Soul Ferryman said to the swords on the surrounding weapon display racks:
"If you have weapons or armor from his lifetime, it's here."
Calvin touched the Sword of Oath at his waist. He vaguely felt the power contained in the sword, and he didn't believe that the Grey Knights were so generous as to use the sword as a burial object.
After walking up until there was a layer between the Lost Dagger Hall where the bodies were resting, the Soul Ferryman stopped, then gently took out a dagger and carved the first line of words on a blank pillar:
"Natyric, a member of the Grey Knights, the 26th Grand Master of the Third Order Shaper Guards - Cause of death: killed in battle - Relics - None."
After confirming with Calvin's eyes, the ferryman scratched Natyric's name with the sacrificial knife he carried with him...
Calvin instantly understood the meaning of these pillars. He quickly scanned the entire venue. The nearly hundreds of meters long hall was obviously new enough. Apart from Natyric, there were almost only the emblems of ordinary Grey Knights.
"Everything is done. Sorry for not seeing you off."
After saluting Calvin again, the old soldier walked silently towards the depths of the surface with his already staggering steps.
After watching him walk away, Calvin also returned to the surface with his comrades.
The war has never stopped, and the war is still going on.
After a brief period of sadness, Calvin still had to cheer up and face the next journey of life.
He didn't have much time to reminisce, as the lord of the castle he had too many responsibilities to bear. Not to mention the distant past, just now on the top floor of the church of Titan II, he still had a mission to accomplish, and the captain of the 7th company, Jules, who was ready to leave immediately after a brief greeting, was waiting for him...
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