"So that means there are about four girls for every ten people in this club of yours?" I asked incredulously, turning after my friend into an extremely dark and downright creepy alley.
- Yes, of course! And today, it seems, Kristina, Masha and Lena are coming. Not photo models, of course, but quite a B+! - Maxim confidently declared and then began to go down the steps into some basement. - Well? What are you standing there for?
"What a snake pit... it also stinks of paint..." I drawled and sighed.
- Don't worry, you'll like everything, - Maxim said, clapping me on the shoulder. - I'll introduce you to everyone now, Andrey, our old-timer, switched to the Eldar, but didn't throw out the old guards. Yes, they're a bit creepy, made of Chinese pulp, but for the first time it's just right. I think he'll share with you.
- No, I won't play your board game. I'll just watch, chat with the girls and...
Maxim nodded in agreement, and then opened the door and I saw the basement itself, full of dubious people. There were students from our sharaga, and some guys in dirty clothes, as if they had just returned from a shift at the factory, and there was also a guy who was showing off his probably Chinese roller skates. That is, the contingent was extremely diverse, including men of all ages and incomes. The key word is men.
- Where are the girls, Maxim? - I asked immediately, stunned. - Did you deceive me?
"Hydra Dominatus," Maxim replied and instantly rolled into the center of the room to join in some heated argument over the origins of the primarchs.
- Leman Russ is Russian, that's clear from his last name.
- I'll turn your skull into Cadia right now if you don't stop talking this crap. He's a Viking.
I sighed heavily, because I didn't really understand what they were talking about and, to be honest, I didn't want to understand. So I was about to turn around and leave, when suddenly a guy about my age came up to me. The only difference between us was that I lived a normal life, or at least tried to, and he seemed to have not left this basement for a month or two. But on the other hand, he had two bottles of beer and he had already handed one to me.
- First time, huh? I understand how it all looks from the outside, - he grinned, immediately hiding his gaze at his feet, as if he was afraid to look not only into the eyes, but at the face and the interlocutor in general. - But the guys here are good. And as for the Vaha... before you can blink, you'll know all the primarchs by heart.
"God forbid," I rolled my eyes, but took the beer and decided to stay.
And although the guys here were really good-natured and even these men two or three times older than me talked to us, students, as equals... but I was still bored. I was mostly silent, could not support any of the topics and only understood some of the jokes separately. Although it was still hard for me to imagine what the joke of Fulgrim's pear was.
And the beer was running out surprisingly quickly, so I had to quietly leave or... make a fuss. Well, since I had a bummer with the girls, I could still have some fun.
"Cough-cough," I cleared my throat to get attention: it wasn't hard to do, since the players hadn't even started playing for the past hour and were still just setting up their giant armies on the table. "I have a few important announcements."
Everyone turned to me and froze in surprise, but fell silent, because they were interested in what the "fresh blood" would say, who had not been seen here for a long time.
- Cadia is not worth it, Leman Russ is an asshole, Magnus did not betray, the Emperor is a corpse on the throne, Sanguinius lived like a loser and died like a loser. Blood Ravens are the best legion. This board game of yours is crap. Oh, and yes, you are all still too trusting, you don't know anything about the lore, - I blurted out, taking the last sip.
Literally the last sip, because what happened next was beyond all reason. The guy who gave me the beer, a bullied nerd, came up to me and looked me straight in the eye with a furious look. I had never seen such primal rage. And then he punched me in the nose.
The blow was extremely weak, I didn't even feel any pain, but I was stunned. Was it really possible to get hit in the face over some toy or book or board game? I expected that a good old fight would start, but a moment after the blow, a stool, thrown by that same Andrey, flew into my forehead.
- FOR THE EMPEROR!!! - the same guy with roller skates, which he had already put on his fist like brass knuckles, rushed at me, shouting.
But I never got to know what happened next. After all, the stool knocked me off my feet and I broke the back of my head.
"The dumbest death after death in the toilet," was the last thought that flashed through my mind and emptiness washed over me.
*
"Your mother… you crazy bastards…" I groaned, opening my eyes. "What the…"
I expected to wake up either in a dorm or a hospital, but as soon as I opened my eyes, a rainbow light pierced them. High glass walls, a crystal floor, flying surreal birds with multi-colored plumage - everything around was so strange and incomprehensible that it cannot be described in words. And the worst thing you could do was to close your eyes or blink, because after that everything around you immediately changed.
- Where am I?
"You are in my domain," thousands of voices rang out, their timbres and intonations changing with every syllable.
And turning around, I saw the embodiment of fate itself. The skin of the unknown creature hovering before me was teeming with changing faces that looked at me with malice and mockingly distorted the phrase that had just been said. At the same time, they did this subtly, so that it seemed to me that all the phrases were no different from each other. Because of this, doubts immediately enveloped my mind, and because of them, fear appeared with a feeling of powerlessness before no other god.
"Enough," said the wrinkled face in the center, and the other faces obeyed.
The burning eyes of the main face were shining brightly and the creature itself was approaching, the crackling of flaming horns above the monster's head became audible and my heels were already touched by the strange smoke that was spreading from under the creature.
"Your mother, your mother, your mother…" I repeated in horror, crawling backwards and gradually getting up to break into a run.
However, as soon as I turned around, the creature was already right in front of me.
"You can't escape, calm down," the monster said, and his smoke entered my nostrils.
And suddenly I calmed down, and then suddenly I remembered Maxim's stories and put all the available information into context.
- It can't be... - I shook my head in shock and smiled like a madman. - No, it can't be. It's just a crazy dream or rather a nightmare.
- No, you died.
- You'll tell me, yeah...
And then a hellish pain pierced me, and memories began to appear before my eyes, among which was the moment of my death. I rolled on the ground, screamed and gradually realized that such colossal stress would have pulled me out of sleep long ago. This meant that what was happening was quite real, and the creature could clearly manipulate even my mind.
"Who are you?" I asked as soon as the pain subsided, although I already knew the answer.
- Tzeentch, the God of Chaos, the personification of change and transformation.
- What the hell am I doing here?
- Because I need it.
- So you... really exist? Do you want to take my soul or something?
- Everything I want from you, I will get anyway. I am getting it right now, with every action you take.
I had so many questions that my head started to hurt and my mind was gradually flying apart. My mind refused to accept what was happening and even this smoke didn't help. And Tzeentch was apparently satisfied with everything, this damn manipulator had probably already thought everything through in advance and the stress I was experiencing now would have to play its role in the future. Or did he want me to think so? I only understood that I didn't understand anything.
- I will be brief and laconic. Your soul already belongs to me, as do you yourself. I can condemn you to eternal suffering, the bottomlessness of which you cannot even imagine. Or I can reward you with everything you wish for good service. I can grant you those very changes that you dreamed of so much, going to stupid classes and looking contemptuously at your alcoholic neighbors. Or I can take away all the meaning of life and make you a slave... or a king? An emperor?
Suddenly, an image of a golden throne and a dead man sitting on it flashed before me, the spark of whose life was supported only by a mysterious mechanism.
— What… what about my world? If… if this is all reality, then we are in the fortieth millennium? That means… that means…
— Time doesn't exist in this place. There is only an endless and single flow. So, do you want a second chance? Or a third? A fourth? To change everything and become something more? Will you serve my plans?
And Tzeentch chuckled, and thousands of faces burst into laughter. My answer was unimportant, just as the questions played no role, or perhaps, like a butterfly effect, they had now set a thousand worlds on fire. And suddenly my soul left my body again, flowing along an invisible river, constantly changing its appearance.
I flew through the darkness and saw the past, present and future all at once. However, I couldn't remember anything, because the human brain simply couldn't perceive such a thing. So only pain became my companion and when it seemed to me that I couldn't bear it any longer, my eyes opened again.
The explosions of the guns tore through my eardrums, hot metal rained down on the ground around me, and I greedily gasped for air and looked up at the burning sky. I felt a lasgun in my hands, hot blood flowed down my face, and the acrid smell of burning flesh hit my nostrils.
- TO FIGHT, DOGS!!! FOR THE EMPEROR!!! - a cry rang out and the commissar ran up to me, trying to lift me up, but I immediately fell to my knee again, dropped the lasgun and began to look at the commissar with a dazed look.
- COWARDICE IS PUNISHED BY DEATH!!! - the commissar screamed madly, shouting right in my face. - COUNTERATTACK!!! FORWARD!!!
"Fuck, you're fucking nuts…" I said in a trembling voice that wasn't even my own, sinking to the ground and trying to cope with the panic attack.
There were ruins and bloody, mutilated bodies all around. Every now and then, torn remains with leaking intestines, melted limbs and split skulls came into my field of vision. This was a real war, which life had not prepared me for. I was an ordinary guy, a student, I hadn't even served in the army, and then this… I was scared and there was nothing shameful about it.
And then the muzzle of the commissar's pistol, who had already stopped screaming, came into view. Despite the fact that there was practically nothing left of the regiment, the commissar was going to shoot me right here. However, I didn't care, I'd rather die from a shot in the face than writhe in agony, bleeding from my torn-off legs.
However, an easy death in this world had to be earned.
- A-A-A-A-A-A!!! - with a scream, one of the soldiers suddenly appeared behind the commissar and pierced the back of his head with a bayonet, after which he continued to scream and shoot at the corpse. - DIE, YOU BASTARD!!! FOR THE BLOOD OF MY WORLD, FOR THE GUYS FROM PLANETARY DEFENSE, BURN IN HELL WITH YOUR EMPEROR!!!
The soldier got into a frenzy and couldn't stop for a long time, but when his lasgun started to heat up, he finally calmed down. Breathing heavily, he turned his gaze to me and swallowed and said:
"Let's go, we need to retreat," his words were almost inaudible.
However, he did not wait for any reaction from me and grabbed my hand, lifted it sharply, and then dragged me along. And suddenly I realized that I really wanted to live. I could not fight, but run... yes, I will run as fast as I have never run before, just to survive. I did not remember Tzeentch anymore, everything was closed on basic instincts, the main one of which was survival.
We ran through the ruins, stepping over bodies and praying that the guns of allies or enemies would not catch up with us. Along the way, we met the wounded who asked for help, but... we couldn't help ourselves either. There were a lot of ordinary young men, these were not the guardsmen that board gamers played, these were planetary defense, recruited at the last moment during forced general mobilization. Although we also met the bodies of guardsmen, who usually played the role of barrier detachments, because panic caused much more harm than orbital bombardments.
"Damn it, over here!" the soldier suddenly barked and turned sharply to the side.
He clearly saw something, but I was mostly looking at the floor or at his back. I just ran after him, and then we reached some kind of bomb shelter. Inside we found more survivors, including civilians. It was a miracle they survived, because the bomb shelter was neither strong nor deep enough. If a shell lands here, we'll all die. However, it's still better than being on the surface.
"Shit… they were supposed to be evacuated this morning," the soldier said, swallowing. "Why does it have to be like this? Why?"
Exhausted, he barely hobbled to the wall and sat down by it, then covered his face with his hand. I also sat down next to him, trying to fight not with fear and horror, but with apathy. We would all die, it was as obvious as two times two, but I didn't want to believe it. That's why many repeated prayers, hoping that the Emperor would hear them. But if he heard the chorus full of pain, then apparently he wasn't going to help us in any way.
"Who attacked us?" I asked quietly. "What's going on?"
- What? - the soldier asked in surprise, turning his gaze to me. - Are you shell-shocked or something? The Xenos attacked. They are raiding deeper and deeper into our city. Every night they attack and slaughter us like cattle.
- Xenos? What kind?
And at that moment, a shadow appeared in the passage of the shelter. Everyone fell silent and fell silent, turning their terrified gazes to the enemy in black armor who had entered. He was tall, elegant and incredibly terrible, holding a sword in his left hand and some kind of alien pistol in his right. His helmet was high, with a plume of black hair on top. His aura was paralyzing.
At that moment, the soldier raised his lasgun, but he aimed it not at the incoming xenos, but at me. He pulled the trigger without hesitation and burned my head, after which he began to shoot at all the survivors. There was fierce panic, screams, blood, and tears streaming down the soldier's face. It was hard for him to do this, so hard that he began to scream in despair, but he still continued to press the trigger.
However, he did not manage to kill everyone, and a shot from a xenos broke the lasgun, after which he cut the tendons of the poor guy with his blade. The xenos needed prisoners. The soldier, in turn, heard what the enemy was capable of and therefore did not want to be given alive. However, he did not protect himself from a fate that was worse than death. Like most of those hiding in the bomb shelter, they survived.
*
And again I took a breath, and my eyes flew open. Again I was lying in a glass palace, but this time I recovered from the shock much faster and jumped up. The body was already mine, at least it looked like mine.
- Congratulations on your second death, - Tzeentch said with a laugh. - You didn't live long, but a piece of this soldier's experience will remain with you forever. And your soul has become a little stronger. So what? Do you want to live your third life? It would be funny if you ended up in the body of a Custodian. Although it is unlikely, your soul is not strong enough for that.
- What the hell, what... you... you...
- I have granted you immortality, why are you not happy? Die as much as you want! Rejoice!
- I don't give a damn about such immortality! Kill me, just kill me! I don't want to go through hell over and over again!
- You'll get used to it. Besides, you might get lucky and end up in the body of a resident of some peaceful world. You'll work in a factory, start a family and die long before another war comes to your home. Or you'll end up in the body of a criminal, who'll be turned into a servitor... Or in the body of a Slaanesh cultist, all of whose holes are in use... yeah, I don't even know what's worse for you. Although, you know, it all depends on your point of view and current life experience. You'll get used to that too. And you'll become even stronger, because your memory doesn't disappear, moreover, particles of knowledge from the person whose body you end up in are added to it. Can you imagine what opportunities this opens up for you?
And Tzeentch laughed again, and then I blinked and my body was carried away by a vortex of the warp.
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