In a pitch-black alley, the ground was covered in filthy water. A battered "corpse" that had been lying in a pool of blood for a long time suddenly stirred, its finger twitching.
It was Jimmy, the drunkard who had been taken out and dealt with by the Fierce Shark gang earlier. Surprisingly, he was now slowly getting back on his feet as if nothing had happened.
"Damn it, thankfully I had the holy relic bestowed by the Lord protecting me."
Jimmy no longer looked as arrogant as before; he was clearly a stray dog filled with lingering fear. He touched the purple crystal hanging around his neck, which had shrunk from the size of a quail egg to a grain of rice, his expression filled with relief.
"Otherwise, I would have really died."
The Fierce Shark gang was notoriously brutal. Jimmy had been stabbed several times, and each stab had pierced his body.
The situation just now was due to the power unleashed by this purple crystal, which slowly healed the injuries inflicted by the Fierce Shark gang, giving Jimmy a new lease on life.
However, something was strange. Why did Jimmy feel so dizzy, as if he might collapse into the sewage pond again at any second? If he hadn't been leaning on the wall, he would have truly fainted.
His eyelids grew heavier and heavier until he closed his eyes and lost consciousness. But instead of falling to the ground due to gravity, he eerily floated in the air. Soon, the necklace Jimmy considered his lifeline also floated in the air, taken from his neck, and slowly drifted into the hands of a person who had appeared in the alley at some unknown point.
Kenmyo Isayama looked at the pendant in his hand.
"As expected, it's a Psyker artifact. I've found you, Tossak-Rome."
Earlier, Kenmyo Isayama had noticed something was off about this guy, so he immediately stopped the enraged Elena, playing the long game.
Who would have thought this scoundrel, in his dying throes, would still utter words like the Wild Horse Gang replacing the Fierce Shark gang, right under their noses?
He was stabbed several times on the spot.
Elena, on the other hand, looked at the Psyker necklace in Makonos's hand with a very cold expression. She showed an indignant look.
"Damn traitor!"
Tossak-Rome, male, an Inquisitor of the Inquisition, served for over four hundred years, executed four hundred twenty-eight thousand nine hundred heretics, and dismantled eight thousand four hundred fifty non-Imperial sanctioned cults.
He was finally assigned to a certain (???) mission. Something happened during the mission, and he ended up personally killing two Battle Sisters and six acolytes. Those two Battle Sisters were Elena's senior, who had always taken great care of her, so revenge was absolutely necessary.
When this intelligence reached Inquisitor Lord Horst-Eisenholm via secret report, he was enraged. He then dispatched Inquisitor Macarnus-Elfman, Kenmyo Isayama's disguised form, to execute this traitor before his betrayal caused further complications for the entire Inquisition.
Tossak-Rome was also an experienced Psyker trained by the Imperial system. He specialized in using his Psyker abilities in combat to absorb the enemy's life force and then channel it back into himself, a Psyker spell that accelerated his recovery from injuries.
In other words, the crystal's working principle was actually to devour Jimmy's own life force, and then, when injured, to channel this life force back to heal the wounds.
Kenmyo Isayama shook his head helplessly. Being sold out and still counting money for others—that was the true effect of this strange Psyker artifact.
However, for some reason, the power of this Psyker ability had increased. The former Tossak-Rome could not achieve such a refined level.
→
Kenmyo Isayama recalled his main mission, "Defiled Sanctity." So, was there a Chaos God's blessing involved here?
When the unlucky Jimmy slowly woke up from his sleep, he found his limbs tightly bound to a chair with thick, sturdy restraints.
In front of him were five intensely hot lamps. "Dong!" Five consecutive sounds echoed as the darkness in the room was completely dispelled. The bright lights were so blinding that he couldn't open his eyes, and at the same time, the temperature was gradually rising.
"I've been kidnapped?"
Jimmy realized this and immediately began to struggle desperately, but it was useless.
Because this involved the reputation of the Inquisition, in the end, this entire incident had to be buried, no matter what. That's right, what Kenmyo Isayama intended to do was to completely wipe out all the underground gangs in Ashley.
But now, Kenmyo Isayama needed to know from Jimmy what special circumstances allowed the Wild Horse Gang to receive the help of an Inquisitor, and even to be assisted in reaching the top of Ashley, becoming the king of this underground world.
These lights were used to assist Kenmyo Isayama in his interrogation. Because Elena was present, he could not use Psyker spells that the original Macarnus-Elfman would not know, especially any spells related to Kenmyo Isayama's unseen Mentor, Ahriman.
Typically, when the Inquisition handled cases, it was to instill fear. The fear in the interrogated person was key to breaking the prisoner's strong mental defenses, making them confess what Kenmyo Isayama wanted.
However, Kenmyo Isayama didn't even need to say much. This Jimmy, already scared out of his wits, voluntarily revealed everything.
"I'm just an ordinary gang member, a patrol member for the 'Wild Horse Gang' every day."
Jimmy knew that his words had attracted the attention of the Fierce Shark gang, so he didn't hesitate to extensively betray his gang's intelligence.
"But I know!"
"Actually, our 'Wild Horse Gang's' real business extends to several red-light districts in the mid-levels. All the well-known establishments are run by our 'Wild Horse Gang'."
"That second-in-command, I don't know where he came from, but the Boss just told us subordinates that he would be the second-in-command from now on."
These were genuine gang secrets, which Jimmy had only overheard by chance from those higher-ups.
Only then did Jimmy realize that their "Wild Horse Gang's" dirty business had actually reached the mid-levels, the most populated and densely packed area of the Hive World.
That was the mid-levels of the Hive World.
It was a place where countless diligent ordinary people lived. They didn't have strong willpower; they just wanted to survive. But despair would always weigh on people's hearts, and at such times, spiritual solace was needed.
"Well, well, business has reached the mid-levels."
Kenmyo Isayama immediately identified the problem. The terrifying entity called the Lord of Pleasure, its name itself already symbolized many things—Slaanesh.
Kenmyo Isayama also understood why Tossak-Rome did not support the Fierce Shark but instead supported the "Wild Horse Gang."
The birth of "Slaanesh," the youngest Warp god, stemmed from the Eldar's unchecked indulgence of their desires over ten thousand years. If all ordinary people in the mid-levels were plunged into indulgence, it would be equivalent to activating the Lord of Pleasure's ritual.
The entire Adelie Hive World would be destroyed by this terrifying Slaanesh's influence.