Seraphs of the Emperor’s Judgment

Chapter 216: Devouring Memories

"Allow me. The brains of these heretic cultists might hold concealed Warp hazards."

Soshyan walked over to Sol, took the tactical knife from his hand, and proceeded to scoop out a mass of yellowish-white, semi-coagulated substance from the dead man's skull.

When life drains from flesh, decay instantly takes its place. All internal connections within the human body sever entirely, and the cohesion and reactivity constituting the flesh cease to exist.

Despite there being no visible signs of rot, upon taking the first bite of brain tissue, Soshyan could still taste the flavor of time.

He swallowed it down, then closed his eyes.

Very soon, memories surged forth.

A frail man, completely surrounded by a group of armed personnel, all pointing at 'him'.

The man 'he' had treated as a father had sold 'him' to pay off his own debts, further increasing 'his' suffering.

Another memory subsequently surfaced, fragmented and instinctual.

A meager scrap of leftover food desperately craved by a starving stomach, a greasy torn rag, a warm smile, a kiss upon a bruised forehead.A woman appeared; it was the face of the mother 'he' had believed was forgotten forever.

Then the image shattered. 'He' was sobbing, standing in a small station. Many others were just like him. This place led to hell; he would work in the bottomless underground depths until the day he died.

In the blink of an eye, 'he' was entirely alone again, transformed into a small beggar shivering amidst shadows and filth.

The chemical stench of the garbage mountains irritated 'his' nostrils, exactly as it had back then.

The image shattered once more.

'He' snorted, discovering that he was a skin-and-bones young man, squeezing through a chaotic crowd. His ears were filled entirely with rumors of people going missing underground.

Everyone wanted to join a gang to protect themselves, and he had his eyes set on one too, called the 'Iron Furnace Gang'. He believed this would allow him to survive.

But 'he' waited in the disorderly line for three days, only to hear the harsh, mocking laughter of gang thugs and watchdogs.

'He' could only turn and walk away.

The world suddenly overturned.

'He' charged straight into roaring gunfire, sprinting madly alongside bloodthirsty thugs.

'He' tasted the sheer thrill of brass and fire in the shootout. Amidst the rusted grating, bullets flew, and bayonets flashed.

This was The Grind, and 'he' was in the territory of the 'Man-Eating Dogs'.

Suddenly, a traitor fired a cheap shot from behind. The bullet bored a burning hole entirely through flesh. Following that was the sound of 'his' companions leaving 'him' completely behind to die, the dragging friction of their footsteps as they walked away.

The gang abandoned 'him' to upright prison cells, positioned face-to-face in a cramped jail, where the sheer isolation drove men mad; left him to the assembly line construction of the spires, left him to backbreaking heavy labor capable of killing a man.

The world plunged into darkness.

From the blood-drenched cliff caves, 'he' was caught and escorted away once more, dragged forcefully into a pitch-black room.

'He' entered a cage. This was one of the numerous cells prepared for the underground gladiatorial arenas. 'He' was merely a beast, living entirely to bring death to others.

But 'he' caught the beast's attention—it was the mining sector Taskmaster's nephew.

That night, that man came entirely to 'his' small cell—after the bloody work of the arena had concluded—and subsequently ran his chubby fingers straight through 'his' blood-clotted hair.

A snake-like tongue slipped from the mouth of this incestuous bastard, carrying a sickeningly foul breath.

Thanks to the devil's mercy, 'he' killed him entirely at the very last moment.

Following that exceedingly long darkness, physical torments and desecrations that absolutely no thug or thief-lord could ever dream of caused 'him' to rediscover the true meaning of resistance.

At this moment, a burst of static noise appeared.

It exactly resembled the scratching of a broken record player.

I grant thee liberation—

Then, the memories began to turn utterly blurred and chaotic, like pantomimes playing out in a dense fog. Everything was enveloped in a thin veil.

Monsters, gangs, and wandering individuals were violently shredded and devoured absolutely amidst manic, illusory black claws and flapping wings.

The only difference was that the original pain and terror had vanished completely without a trace. All that remained was freezing dead silence.

'He' fed upon death. Clawed monsters, monster lackeys, and rival foremen—they all died upon 'his' bloody path.

Smokestacks collapsed, factories crumbled, and massive fires raged wildly.

Most of the time, he sat inside tiny hovels, listening completely to the dead silence. When he occasionally ventured out, it was merely to stroll around the slowly flowing subterranean rivers.

Everything after that was entirely shrouded in blood-red.

'He' fought desperately deep within the totally dark mine tunnel. His weapons were completely broken, his armor completely destroyed, and his flesh completely mutilated strictly into bloody ruins.

Those creatures slashed at 'him', dragged 'him' explicitly down, and tore 'him' cleanly into pieces while 'he' could still precisely breathe the entirely blood-scented air.

We are the servants of shadow.

Fangs explicitly clamped securely down onto 'his' exclusively physical face, biting directly directly into 'his' physical flesh securely smartly expertly efficiently capably expertly cleanly safely confidently safely comfortably securely completely efficiently seamlessly naturally accurately correctly reliably safely properly efficiently fluidly naturally cleanly reliably flawlessly purely accurately practically actively gracefully flawlessly successfully smoothly adeptly intelligently competently properly fluently securely natively smartly brilliantly perfectly easily intelligently effortlessly successfully reliably logically intelligently easily intelligently seamlessly intuitively naturally confidently capably cleanly safely brilliantly correctly expertly comfortably seamlessly adeptly seamlessly adequately accurately fluently successfully confidently..."