Chapter 355: The State of Glory
By the campfire, the two of them carved meat off the bone with their knives and drank the wine.
Once Kian had his satiety and hydration topped back up, he asked the question on his mind.
"Lord Luca, what exactly is going on with this world? I'd barely landed before I got a rather aggressive welcome."
Luca laughed softly.
"Sounds like you ran into the Crimson Legion, then. Warriors chasing so-called power and glory, utterly corrupted now, betraying every bit of honor their ancestors stood for."
He set down his utensils, picked up his flute, and began playing softly as he told Kian the story of their world.
"Long ago, our ancestors arrived on this world aboard the great pioneer ships, and founded the royal court that stands to this day. We followed the teachings of the wise, holding to tradition, honor, and loyalty. When the Emperor's own fleet finally arrived, His herald descended to our world and extended an invitation, to join a great crusade to carve out living space for humanity among the stars. Our ancestors accepted. They rallied their Knights and joined that crusade. The Emperor saw our loyalty, our honor, and named this world Glory with His own voice. From that day forward, glory became instinct, woven into the blood of every soul born here."
He kept the flute at his lips, letting a long, drawn-out phrase play through.
"But the pursuit of glory taken to its extreme became, in the end, our curse. At some point, no one quite knows when, our Knights stopped drawing steel to defend that glory, and started fighting simply for the violence and slaughter of it. The weak and the hollow within us began masking their emptiness with killing, drowning their confusion in rage. And the more men fought without meaning, the more they indulged in violence without cause, the more it drew the attention of something evil."
Kian asked, "How far has the Chaos taint spread across this world? When did the signs first start showing?"
"I hadn't been on the ground an hour before I ran into an army over a hundred thousand strong, all touched by the same corruption."
Luca said, "The god you're speaking of, we call him the God of Wrath. The Crimson Terror. The War Hound. No one knows exactly when he first turned his gaze toward our world. Scholars believe it had something to do with our culture of dueling, and the gradual creep of unchecked violence among our Knights. He noticed those traits in us, and slowly extended his hand.
Dueling became more common. Violence became more casual. The more we fell, the stronger he grew. At first, it was small things, a weaker duelist somehow finding the strength to overpower a stronger opponent in a fight he had no business winning. Later, ranged weapons began to fail entirely, lasrifles, melta cannons, Lumberer Stubbers, jamming without cause as if cursed, and no amount of prayer from our Enginseers could fix it.
Fortunately, the effect only touched powered and energy weapons. Melee weapons, Knight suits, and other production equipment were untouched. But soon after, communication systems and electronics started failing too, and the royal court lost the ability to govern the world effectively. That was fertile ground for rebellion.
It started with peasant uprisings, then civil wars between counts, and now the fighting has spread across the entire world. Warlords everywhere. War-bands everywhere. The Knight Houses that remain loyal attack the Chaos-touched warlords, the warlords attack the Knights, and everyone attacks everyone else. The whole world is caught in perpetual war now. Travel more than a few dozen kilometers in any direction, and you'll find another battlefield."
Piecing his account together, Kian was starting to get a real picture of the situation.
No functioning ranged weapons, communications severed, no wonder the entire world had regressed to medieval-level warfare.
Holding a planetary-scale nation together depended heavily on communication and mobility. Cut those off, and it made total sense a world-spanning realm would fracture almost overnight into thousands of warring factions.
Which put Kian in an awkward position. The Inquisitor's whole plan to recruit a Knight House here was looking increasingly doomed.
Judging by the state of things, this world had already been dragged into total war by Khorne's influence, arguably no better off than the Forge World under Ork siege.
Kian shook his head and moved on to the question he actually cared most about.
"What's the situation with High King Budas?"
Luca's tone turned wry. "High King Budas remained vigorous to the end, still chasing war and glory well into old age. He stepped into a dueling arena himself, against a noble who'd challenged him, and had his skull caved in by a mace. He was ninety-eight.
His throne passed to his son, Prince Frales. Or rather, His Majesty Frales now. May he reign long. Right now, I'd guess he's leading somewhere around twenty Knight suits and sixty-odd squire-suits from the family, out putting down the Chaos warlords rampaging beneath Throne Mountain."
That settled it for Kian. This mission was dead in the water.
The High King was dead, his heir was busy putting out fires across the whole planet, and there was no realistic way the man could spare any forces to support the Inquisitor right now.
Still, Kian figured, might as well head to Throne Mountain anyway and see the situation firsthand before deciding what to do next.
"So, Lord Luca, you mentioned glory is woven into the blood of everyone born on this world. What about you, as a Freeblade? What's your own goal now?"
The sudden question caught Luca, comfortably fed and content, off guard for a moment. He thought it over before answering.
"I no longer carry the burden of glory or duty. My purpose now is simply to walk this world with my own two feet, every inch of it. I began my journey on the far side of Throne Mountain, and now I've circled nearly the entire planet, closing in on my destination, the near face of the mountain itself. Once my pilgrimage is complete, I mean to take a handful of my homeworld's soil with me, wait for a ship bound for the stars, and become a true Freeblade at last, out to see what the rest of the universe has to offer."
Waiting on a ship, are you? Kian thought. Well, would you look at that, I happen to have one.
He was already mentally plotting out a month-long "Romance the Beautiful Boy Luca" dating-sim campaign, maxing out affection stat by stat.
Then, the special CG scene: Luca, Knight suit in tow, boarding the shuttle alongside Kian, off to live a shameless, star-hopping life together.
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