"Leman Russ, you bastard!"
Mont cursed at Alexander, who was standing outside the Corpse Guild's gate:
"We were still inside, and you were already sweeping with a lasgun?"
Alexander's lips curved into a brilliant smile: "How could I have known that, by such a coincidence, both of you would be here."
Marquite picked up the rusty, decaying triangular sword from the ground and tucked it into his clothes.
He looked at Alexander with a hint of speechlessness; this guy clearly knew that he and Mont were in the Corpse Guild.
Marquite and Mont had been masked until now,
but Alexander could recognize them at a glance, and was not surprised in the slightest that they were mutants.
This meant that when Marquite and Mont took off their hoods and entered the Corpse Guild, Alexander was watching nearby.
Marquite couldn't help but shake his head.
Mont didn't seem to realize this, only grumbling a few curses about Alexander's disloyalty.
But Alexander's lips remained curved in a brilliant smile, which sent a shiver down Marquite's spine.
"Although I almost injured you two, I also saved your lives,"
Alexander stood two or three meters away from the Corpse Guild's gate and said to them:
"And the fact that both of you are mutants… that's not so good."
Behind Alexander, twelve lasguns suddenly rose, aiming at Mont and Marquite.
Mont instantly froze in place, and Marquite's body also stiffened slightly.
"Leman Russ, although we are mutants, we are not villains."
Marquite slowly raised his hands, shaking his head as he spoke:
"What I said before was not false in the slightest; we truly came to save Ashford."
"We… we were guided by an 'angel'."
"An angel?" Alexander was visibly taken aback.
"Yes, an angel." Marquite nodded emphatically.
"Which angel?" Alexander's lips curved into an interesting smile.
"Which one else could it be?" Marquite shook his head and said.
"Oh, what a coincidence, I was actually also guided by an angel." Alexander smiled and nodded.
This time, it was Marquite's turn to be surprised. He looked Alexander up and down.
"Doesn't look like it," Marquite couldn't help but murmur.
"I don't think so either." Alexander agreed with a nod.
Then, he looked at the Corpse Guild behind Mont and Marquite.
"Since I saved your lives, and we were all guided by an angel,"
"Then can you do me a favor?"
Alexander said with a light chuckle:
"There's a safe with a small Static Field installed. Did you see it? Help me move it out."
Hearing this, both Mont and Marquite were stunned.
Marquite looked at Alexander, who was standing a good two or three meters away from the Corpse Guild's gate, arms crossed, with twelve lasguns floating behind him, and his mouth twitched slightly.
From the looks of it, he had no intention of stepping foot inside the Corpse Guild.
"It's heavy as hell." Mont complained.
The man-high ceramite safe was dragged and carried out of the Corpse Guild by him and Marquite.
Alexander reached out and gently stroked the ceramite casing of the safe.
The true value of this safe was not in its thick casing, but in the small Static Field installed inside.
It was a remnant of humanity's research into time technology during the Golden Age, capable of creating an area where time was almost stagnant.
Aside from the field, this technology was also once made into weapons called "stasis bombs."
Lucas the Trickster, of the Space Wolves, had replaced one of his hearts with a stasis bomb.
If any unlucky soul killed him, this bomb would be detonated, ensuring that he and his killer would be frozen in time-stasis.
According to the intelligence provided by Old One-Eye, the Static Field in this safe was a degraded version, only able to slow down the flow of time to a limited extent.
But for preserving a notebook, it was enough.
He took out the Arbitrary Ring from his four-dimensional pocket and placed it on the safe.
Through the circular opening created by the Arbitrary Ring, Alexander saw what was stored inside the safe.
It was a notebook bound with thick, cream-colored paper, wrapped in a soft black lambskin cover, with an elastic strap.
The Bondsman VII notebook, custom-made by Ignes. Kalkas from a hive city in the polar regions of Terra, only two hundred copies made.
Alexander slowly used telekinesis to take the notebook out of the safe.
Although it had gone through tens of thousands of years, this notebook was clearly well-preserved.
"What is this notebook?" Mont looked over with curiosity.
He was probably interested in this notebook, which actually needed to be preserved with a Static Field.
Especially since this notebook was in the office of the Corpse Guild branch director…
"Most likely just a poetry collection." Alexander shook the notebook in his hand and said.
After glancing at the notebook, which indeed didn't look like a codex recording some ancient, blasphemous witchcraft, Mont lost interest.
Alexander held the notebook, and his mind began to recall the works of this poet from ten thousand years ago.
"In Praise of Unity," "The Imperial Epic," "Oceanic Poems," "Introspection and Hymns,"
and "We Have Only the Truth," which cost him his life.
He wondered which piece was in this notebook…
Alexander opened the notebook, only to see a note tucked between the endpapers, apparently torn from this very notebook.
It was written in heavy, powerful script, so strong it didn't seem to be from a mortal hand.
A soft sigh escaped the winged figure of Sanguinus at the corner of Alexander's eye.
"It's Captain Loken's handwriting." He said softly.
Captain Loken, Captain of the 10th Company of the Horus' Sons, a member of Horus' advisory Four Kings Council, once stood alongside Abaddon by the Warmaster's side.
He was a loyalist Horus' Son, the last Luna Wolf in the graveyard of Istvaan III.
This paper was a pre-battle declaration, an oath Astartes typically made before combat.
However, this oath was written by Captain Loken to the mortal Ignes. Kalkas, asking him to keep a secret.
"I swear to Captain Gavriel Loken, in the name of Terra and the Emperor, to keep what happened tonight strictly confidential, and swear not to reveal it to anyone."
Alexander read the words on the note in a low voice.
Then he opened the notebook:
"Captain Loken asked me to keep a secret, but First Captain Abaddon almost broke my neck. I need to vent my fear."
"This is my private diary. Writing down what just happened here shouldn't count as breaking my oath, right?"
"As I told Captain Loken: 'Even the most exceptionally talented actor could not achieve the masterful performance Erebus delivered today.'"
"Erebus said Governor Tamba betrayed Horus, not the Emperor. He turned this into a personal vendetta; he was misleading and deceiving the Warmaster."
"This definitely isn't a good thing. First Captain Abaddon might also be involved."
"I personally saw him give Erebus a silver coin… that might be a token of some warrior society."