Chapter 366: Khorne's Contact
The Emperor's Blessing effects read: Willpower +10, Divine Purging.
Divine Purging: removes one point of Corruption per second.
Well, there it was. The Emperor above, Khorne below, locked in a permanent standoff over Kian's soul.
Khorne would tick him up one point of corruption, and the Emperor would clear it right back off, keeping the value pinned permanently between zero and one.
Effectively, he got to enjoy Khorne's blessing without carrying any of the actual risk of corruption. Absolutely sweet deal.
He also noticed a new entry had appeared in his contacts list: Khorne himself.
Under Khorne's icon sat a standing quest: sacrifice 888 valuable enemies, and unlock the second tier of Khorne's Blessing.
Kian cursed out loud. There was a second tier?
Sacrifice 888 valuable enemies. Which apparently just meant any strong enemy he killed from now on would automatically count toward the tally.
Could this red-skinned, towering gym-girl of a god maybe not force this arrangement quite so aggressively?
Not much he could do about it, though. It wasn't like he could just stop killing strong enemies going forward.
He could only hope the Emperor's protection kept scaling up alongside it, or he was genuinely going to end up poached by Khorne one blessing at a time.
With the blessing mechanics sorted, Kian turned to check on the rest of his situation.
Blessed by both Khorne and the Emperor at once, his body had changed dramatically.
His three core stats now read: Strength 65, Endurance 65, Focus 73.
In practice, he could feel his raw power output had jumped a full tier.
If someone handed him a one-tonne barbell right now, he figured he could probably rep it once or twice.
His height had grown noticeably too. Standing there now, he'd hit two point two meters, his whole skeletal frame a size larger, trending steadily toward double-door-refrigerator proportions.
He genuinely felt like he could dominate an Astartes recruit in a straight fight now, and hold his own against a fully trained Astartes.
Just as he was mulling this over, the tent flap was pulled aside, and an Enginseer stepped in.
Seeing Kian already on his feet, the Enginseer bowed.
"My lord, you've recovered?"
Kian grunted an acknowledgment and asked, "How long was I out? What's the situation outside?"
"My lord, you were unconscious for two full days. The fighting in the city has concluded. The cultist forces have been wiped out entirely. We're currently gathering anything of value and preparing to put the city to the torch. This place has been corrupted too deeply. Only fire can cleanse it now. And with the Baron's entire line dead, there's no one left to contest ownership of the city. Complete destruction is the kindest fate left for it."
The mention of collecting valuables lit Kian right up, and he immediately wanted in on it.
Problem was, he had no clothes on. His body had grown a full size, and the PDF fatigues that used to fit him had split apart at the seams.
The Enginseer noticed his predicament and produced a loose-fitting robe from behind his back.
"My lord, this has been tailored to your current build. Additionally, your armour has already been repaired. The damaged servos have been fixed, and the internal skeletal frame adjusted to accommodate your new size."
Kian took the news in, then asked, "Do you have anything to say about how I ended up looking like this?"
His height had jumped from just over two meters to two point two, all in a place still soaked with golden light and the shredded remains of a Chaos Spawn.
Anyone with a hair-trigger for heresy might have taken one look at that and assumed he'd pledged himself to Chaos, and there was every chance they'd have simply killed him in his sleep rather than risk waking him.
But he'd woken up fine, well cared for besides, which meant nobody here had accused him of throwing his lot in with Chaos.
The Enginseer answered, carefully.
"Count Voss, Lord Luca gave the order to suppress any rumors, and had the daemon's remains burned with promethium fuel. Some did question whether close contact with the daemon might have corrupted you, but Lord Luca personally staked his own honor on your loyalty. Lord Luca has, as it happens, witnessed the Emperor's own presence firsthand, so his word carries considerable weight. Rest assured, my lord, no one questions your loyalty, and no one questions your purity."
Luca has seen the Emperor in person? What was that supposed to mean?
Kian didn't quite follow, but he didn't press the matter either. He'd get the answer out of Luca later. Right now, it was time to go find some loot.
Kian pulled on the robe the Enginseer had brought, shouldered his sword, and headed eagerly into the city.
A noble house with a thousand-plus-year lineage, a city that size, there had to be plenty of good treasure buried in there somewhere.
The city was crawling with Luca's soldiers, gathering anything of value and setting up flammables to burn the whole place down.
Kian made straight for the inner keep, the Baron's own castle. That had to be the highest-value spot in the entire city.
By the time he reached it, though, Luca's men had already taken the place over.
The obvious valuables scattered around the castle had already been picked clean, soldiers carrying out paintings, vases, bolts of silk, that sort of thing.
None of it interested Kian much, though. Bulky, limited value, and none of it even worth the cargo space on a ship off-world.
He grabbed a passing soldier and asked, "Have you swept the whole castle already? Anywhere left you haven't checked?"
The soldier, recognizing him as the man who'd apparently killed a daemon single-handed, answered respectfully.
"My lord, we haven't gotten into the underground vault yet. It's sealed behind a heavy ceramite door. We can't get through."
Kian turned and headed straight underground, and within moments found the vault door three levels down.
The ceramite door resembled the entrance to a bank vault, at least a hundred millimeters thick.
With ranged and powered weapons dead on this world, even explosives refusing to ignite, a door that thick was practically a wall of despair.
Fortunately, Kian had his power sword. He drew it, activated the disruption field, worked the blade into the seam where the door sealed shut, and pulled down hard.
A crackle of metallic snapping followed, and the locking mechanism sheared apart at the seam.
Kian grabbed the handle and, straining with everything he had, dragged the massive door open, inch by inch.
The next moment, the Baron's vault lay open before him.
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