Under the weight of the orbital bombardment, rocks melted and the planetary shield flickered more and more often, letting through one projectile after another. The blow was so unexpected that many people simply did not have time to run to shelters and buildings collapsed right on their heads. The palace also got it, from the vaults of which heavy debris fell down on the nobles.
- You're alive⁈ Answer! - the bird chirped, manifesting right in front of me. - I knew it was a bad idea! I'm not Tzeentch, I can't channel that much power through you, and I do it so roughly that it harms your body!
"Everything's fine," I said, after which blood began to pour from my mouth.
Everything around me was covered in crystal. I barely managed to protect the witnesses, who were almost crushed by a piece of debris. However, thanks to the crystal dome, they and Kara survived. However, because of this, I could no longer escape from the trap. The inquisitors were also shackled, but they were already trying to get out, and there were plenty of other soldiers. My execution was not cancelled.
And yet no one fired at me, moreover, the high nobility also survived thanks to the Knight who reacted. Bedivere's son quickly took over his father's car and covered the judges with his powerful shoulders. Galahad was already giving orders, one by one the Knights were sent to their positions, while the high headquarters began to quickly implement countermeasures. The enemy attacked quickly, but no one doubted that with such power, a landing force would soon arrive here, which would have to take Camelot in three hours or even faster.
- Mister Mordred! - Kara immediately ran up to my cage, unable to do anything, but really wanting to.
"Evacuate. I'll sort this out myself," I replied, while the bird tried to somehow heal my body using the warp.
But time after time, both she and I made great concessions to Tzeentch. He could do anything to me anyway, but he drowned in pleasure, forcing me to ask and beg for strength. Apparently, this is a lesson in humility, because one way or another I am a servant, and a servant must be obedient. And the bird arrived here on the same terms, because it was a creation of Tzeentch, like everything that appeared on the territory of his domain.
"No, I'm not going anywhere without you," Kara said, but then a shadow hovered over her.
Turning around, she saw Sir Bedivere, who was already holding his sword, sparkling with a force field. An artifact from ancient worlds, it was passed from hand to hand over centuries and millennia. This weapon could cut almost anything, the force field destroyed the armor, after which the already incredibly sharp and durable blade pierced the flesh.
With one movement he threw Kara aside like a rag doll, after which the blade flashed and the bars of the cage flew apart, following my shackles. The jeweler's blows did not hurt me, which is why my face was filled with incomprehension.
- There are enough enemies for everyone today. Die for Camelot and your name will be cleared posthumously. Go, - he said with a grimace, after which he shouted loudly to the soldiers: - WHAT ARE YOU STANDING FOR? RUN TO THE FOURTH BATTERY!!! THE ENEMY IS ALREADY RUNNING TOWARDS US!!! AND YOU, GIRL, GOT UP AND RAN TO THE SHELTER WITH OTHER CIVILIANS!!! THERE IS NO PLACE FOR WOMEN IN WAR!!!
I didn't need a second invitation and immediately ran, praying that Lancelot or anyone else who didn't care about Bedivere's decision wouldn't shoot me in the back. After all, Bedivere wasn't more important than the knight's code, he didn't care about it and did everything for Camelot, so he let me go, wanting me to become a tool and kill as many enemies as possible. Why execute a magician who was ready to die for Camelot? For some, the word "code" was enough, but someone, like Bedivere, thought differently.
However, I did not run far, because the second salvo from orbit was even more powerful and there were even more gaps in the planetary shield. The Palace was already taking shells on its stone walls, towers were collapsing and anti-aircraft guns were being suppressed. However, several Knights had already managed to regroup, as the units were coming to their senses. Camelot began to snap back and shoot down everything that flew to the ground.
- PREPARE NUCLEAR WEAPONS!!! THIS IS MY ORDER AND I DON'T CARE THAT FOR THIS WE NEED TO GATHER A COUNCIL AND GET THE KING'S APPROVAL!!! THERE IS NO TIME, THE KING IS DEAD!!! EXECUTE!!! - Galahad screamed in rage, also deciding to spit on some of the rules of the knight's code.
The knights received almost no damage, because they had their own armor and ion shields. In addition, some of them were already covering the nobility, and also escorting people to shelters. However, I fell behind the main mass and after a volley lost my balance, falling to the ground. But at least I didn't die, after which I got up and ran to the main exit.
And at that moment, a terrible roar was heard, and then a rumble and dust rose over all of Camelot. Through the giant passage in which one of the Knights froze, I saw a giant spider-like machine land right in the city. It was at least forty meters high and crushed buildings with its paws. At that moment, I saw a red dot, which a moment later became a beam.
A powerful laser weapon, which could even be mounted on a spaceship, melted the Knight standing in the passage like butter. The hot metal dripped right onto the people, who spontaneously ignited, and the passage itself began to collapse due to the temperature difference. Then new explosions sounded and the ceiling began to completely collapse.
Debris was falling everywhere, I was running from side to side, trying to find cover, but at some point my fluttering was stopped by a shell. It flew like a bullet and stuck into the ground, after which two seconds passed and an explosion was heard. The fragments did not hurt me, as there were not many of them in general, but the shock wave... I was thirty meters from the shell, but still flew about twenty meters, and my legs were broken.
"Everything is bad," the bird chirped, and now it was the only one I heard. "Please don't die."
- What difference does it make? Well, I'll die, what's the point of mumbling... - I drawled, feeling how pleasant hands cooled my soul, luring me into embraces full of peace. - At least I'll take a rest... I'm already fed up, to be honest. It's hard to do all this, being a student was much easier...
- If you fail the task, you will die.
- Yeah, Tzeentch never lies.
- Not this time! I've seen him just throw away thousands of souls that broke in the process. And yours will break if you die!
— They didn't break last time.
— That time everything was different.
I continued to ignore the bird's words, moreover, now I began to have suspicions. Tzeentch was clearly playing some kind of game and was trying to influence me through her. Even if the bird didn't wish me any harm, she could have become a victim of Tzeentch's intrigue. And... I have to be honest, the bird was also a demon and couldn't be trusted.
However, suddenly the calm was broken by someone's heavy gaze. Something was looking at me and I felt uneasy. In addition, because of this gaze, the remnant of Mordred's soul suddenly became active. Suddenly his confidence began to grow, and I suddenly felt that I was losing control. Mordred suddenly began to dominate, to displace me and against my will returned to consciousness.
Then he stood up completely. His broken legs ached and every step tore his consciousness apart with pain, but he confidently hobbled forward. And suddenly I saw where we were going.
"No-o-o..." I drawled, horrified at what Tzeentch had planned.
In the corner of the east wing, where I ran to escape the collapse, in the very corner stood the Knight of Morgana's Bane sadly. With his legs bent, he leaned slightly to the side, leaning his shoulder on the wall. He was crushed by a piece of debris, which was huge, but such a colossus could easily throw him off. However, Morgana's Bane did not have a pilot.
After losing the duel with the Red Knight, it remained there. It was slowly being repaired, and a new clan was being sought that could take over such a formidable machine. However, they did not manage to find a candidate, and the hole through it still remained gaping.
And the Machine truly felt sadness, watching other Knights and their pilots go to war. After so many defeats, the cup of bitterness was drained to the bottom, and she was not even taken to the last battle. Knights were created for one purpose - to win and die in incredibly harsh battles. This was the meaning of existence, and death in a hellish battle - the apotheosis of the Knight. And "Morgana's Curse" was deprived of all this.
Mordred seemed to feel this pain, because he himself had gone through the same thing. He was unnecessary, abandoned, doomed to watch other nobles achieve heights and bask in the rays of glory. He wanted to satisfy his complexes, just like the Machine, which no longer cared who would control it. If only not to die under the rubble like a piece of scrap metal.
"No!" I shouted, but my voice only sounded in my mind.
Mordred did not let me regain control and, under the laughter of Tzeentch, he sat down on the Throne Mechanicum. Immediately, the cables in the crystal began to shine, repairing the damage inside the cabin. The needles pierced right into the central nervous system and the metal armor became my second skin. The sensations of the machine were added to my own sensations inside the cabin. Because of this, my consciousness began to tear apart.
Tzeentch continued to laugh as the Machine began to crush me with its will. It did not want to obey, it wanted to rush into battle immediately and did not ask, but demanded this from the pilot. Whether this was the reason for possible damage or whether this was the norm for the Throne Mechanicum, it is difficult to say, because the technology was very old. In addition, the Knights themselves were usually heavily modernized by the pilots, taking the Machine further and further from the original intent of the creators from Mars.
However, suddenly all of Mordred's will began to wane, and the Machine began to weaken due to the influence of the warp crystal. Slowly I regained control of my body, but I could no longer leave the cabin. Either the needles were jammed, or the Machine did not allow me to stand up, or I simply did not know what exactly to press to get out of the Throne of the Mechanicum.
One way or another, I took the first step. The ground shook and the servos hummed, leaning on the wall I kept my balance and tried to digest two streams of information at once. My eyes simultaneously saw both the cabin and what the Knight's eyes saw. I felt the pain of my own broken legs and felt the slabs cracking under the Knight. I had to learn to walk from scratch, to keep my balance, however... there was nothing super difficult and my gait became more and more confident.
"You remind me of your grandfather," came the hum of the Machine, remembering every pilot.
The plasma reactor was pulsing in time with my heartbeat. We were becoming one and although I was able to walk almost evenly, I understood that although the adaptation was going quickly, to reveal the full potential of this masterpiece of military thought would require years of training. After all, only after the Machine begins to feel like your own body will you understand how powerful it is and how much can be done with its help.
I walked confidently back to the main hall where the Knights were shooting. But suddenly there was a series of explosions and the wall to my left collapsed. The shrapnel damaged the ion shield, but I had already turned and looked straight into the breach. The enemy had landed a huge force, fighters were flying overhead, small spacecraft capable of entering the atmosphere were closing in for pinpoint fire, and even tanks had already been delivered by barges. Fighting was taking place right on the streets of Camelot, while the clouds of the warp were gathering in the sky, trying to harm both us and the xenos.
Suddenly the barrage of fire from orbit died down and for a moment the defenders of Camelot were able to exhale, feverishly preparing for the continuation of the hell. No one understood why the enemy had stopped and even the giant spider had stopped shooting. However, a moment later a voice was heard across the entire planet, broadcast both on our frequencies and from the loudspeakers of all the xenos equipment and ships.
— CITIZENS OF ALBA!!! — the xenos' words sounded with a terrible hissing accent, but they sounded in a language understandable to humans. — YOU HAVE A CHOICE!!! SLAVERY OR DEATH!!! OUR FORCES WILL DESTROY ANY THREAT AND SUBJECT YOU, EVEN IF YOU THROW ALL YOUR FORCES INTO THE FIGHT AND USE EVERY CHILD!!! RESISTANCE IS POINTLESS!!! SURRENDER AND ACCEPT YOUR FATE OR THE LIVING WILL ENVY THE DEAD!!! RANGDA IS INVINCIBLE!!!
And looking closely at my enemies, I suddenly saw that they all differed in size, number of limbs, and so on. They were different types of xenos, and they had only one thing in common - collars. The slave army was thrown into hell by the first wave. Many of their shuttles were shot down, but the invaders did not care. They still had many slaves, and as soon as the shell famine began, the best units would defeat even the Knights.
Many worlds had been subjugated in this way by Rangda, an empire whose might did not merely lay claim to a single system or sector. It sought to conquer the entire galaxy. And once the Eldar had fallen, despite all the dangers and horrors, they rushed forward, seeing an opportunity that needed only to be seized. Humanity had to fall and submit.
"Either them or us," Galahad said somewhere in the underground shelter, confidently removing the fuses and turning the key.
For the whole of Alba, the choice was made by one person. It is hard to imagine what Galahad felt at that moment and what heaviness he felt. However, it would not be wrong to say that between slavery and death, the citizens of Alba would choose death. The known enemies of the xenos, sorcerers and soulless - all of them had to be destroyed. And if it is impossible to destroy them, then everything must be done to inflict maximum damage on them. Such a doctrine was passed on to Alba along with the codex, any sacred scripture, fairy tales and textbooks. Everyone knew this.
And the gates of hell opened, and weapons stored since the Dark Age immediately flew out. Some of them rushed straight into space, and some missiles with smaller warheads flew straight at the spider. Several kilotons exploded right above the spider and the shock wave demolished the buildings closest to it, lifting a mushroom into the sky. The battle immediately continued, in which soldiers put on gas masks and began to crush the enemy.
The knights also rushed into the attack, breaking the backs of tank units and showering the spider with discharged shields with volleys of the heaviest weapons. The Rangdan command only laughed. They easily destroyed the Alba fleet and this only spoke of the colossal superiority of technology. And this means that the confrontation with Camelot, and with the entire planet, is only a matter of time. Even a warp storm will not change this, because for Rangda this was far from the first contact with the warp.
They were simultaneously conducting several assault operations, including an attack on the capital. The Dark Prince, born from the sins of the Eldar, had set his sights on this world. But Rangda had no intention of avoiding battle with him, on the contrary, she strove to. Even if the losses were high, each battle with an unknown enemy was a valuable experience for them. After all, the Eye of Terror would not go away, which meant they would have to adapt and learn to fight the threat on the path to galactic domination.
"It's still the past, isn't it?" I asked, remembering both Tzeentch's old words and new ones, and the medallion, and Tzeentch's attempt to dig into some long-past events, in the details of which the outcome of everything lay.
- Yes. Tzeentch has Mordred's soul, - the bird chirped. - He wants to know something, and has passed the past of several thousand souls through it. Many have already died. Their souls were torn apart.
— How does this work? Are we… just in a memory? How can we be in danger in a simulation created by Tzeentch?
- I think it's more complicated than that. And don't forget that Tzeentch couldn't get what he wanted on his own. And if a god couldn't do something...
I continued to stand in the doorway, looking through the Knight's eyes at Camelot burning in flames. I was thinking only about one thing. What if we really are in the past and then... then I can change everything? No, definitely not, because otherwise Tzeentch would be all-powerful. It's stupid and illogical. But... what if there is some way, perhaps unknown to Tzeentch, but still existing.
Change everything... go back to the starting point and correct my own mistakes. Mordred thought in the context of his home world. And I thought in the context of mine, giving birth to a hope that would later bring only more pain.
"You can't die. It's time to go," the bird added, worried that I would fail the other candidates.
I wasn't sure I wanted to continue. After all, true death might be my only chance to end it all and remove the collar of Tzeentch.
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