Horatio leaned against the door, his back to it, as a swarm of people rushed out.
It wasn't that these people were stupid; normally, those in danger wouldn't move in the opposite direction like the two of them. It was more normal for the search to focus on the vehicle's perimeter.
"Are you done yet?" Horatio felt like he had daggers in his back, his breathing heavy: "They're regrouping, and I'm afraid they're going to search the monastery."
'98%...'
'99%...'
[99%, 99%.]
[Why is it still 99%?]
The Female Hunter-Duke stared at the Thinker's screen, which remained stuck at 99%, feeling anxious but not knowing what to do.
"It's stuck..." She tried using several retry codes, but none of them could make the Thinker's 'brain' turn.
[Could this girl be an Untouchable? Otherwise, why is she like a machine soul killer?]
Untouchables are also known as soulless ones. If Psykers are the positive pole, then soulless ones are the negative pole.
The stronger an Untouchable is, the stronger their power to counteract psychic abilities, but their aura will also be more unsettling, and even machine souls will reject them.
Upon closer thought, the Female Hunter-Duke's aura had indeed been unlikable since Horatio first met her.
"Excuse me." Horatio strode forward, his iron fist raised high.
Bang! The Thinker's wetware box, filled with life-sustaining fluid, shook violently.
Horatio slammed his iron fist onto the Thinker Array's processing center. The screen immediately turned red, displaying several error messages, but soon, these errors disappeared one after another.
'++Transfer Complete++'
The ancestral machine soul awakening technique never goes out of style!
Click— The storage board popped out of its slot. Farida immediately pulled out the storage board and walked over to Horatio.
"Let's go."
Thump thump—
Someone was knocking on the door outside.
"Hey, the Chief Priest wants you guys to..."
Seeing only one person outside, Horatio forcefully opened the door with overwhelming momentum, giving the other party no time to react. He grabbed the man by the collar with one hand and plunged a knife into his throat with the other.
"Ugh ah! Cough gag!"
The knife went in and out, splattering blood all over the wall.
'+ Soulfire: 4 / 20 +'
The smell of blood made Horatio uncomfortable. He looked at the dripping dagger, wondering if he had exceeded the sum of all the KDs he had accumulated over several lifetimes in just a few hours.
"We shouldn't stay here long; they'll find the body soon."
"Let's go."
The two carefully made their way to a three-way intersection. After the recent information shock, Farida seemed a bit distracted.
Suddenly, her wrist was grabbed by Horatio, who pulled her into a dark, narrow passage.
Farida's heart tightened, and she instinctively tried to break free and draw her gun, but then she saw Horatio with furrowed brows and a serious expression.
"Shh!"
Horatio pressed against the wall, listening intently.
"The mailroom guy is dead! Search them out! We need to see them alive or their bodies! The Chief Priest will never let them go!" A man's voice faintly drifted over.
Horatio heard the voice fade into the distance and cautiously peeked out. A large patrol team walked past.
"It's safe for now. Where do we go next?"
Farida walked ahead of Horatio, using her augur to scan the internal structure.
"We need to move faster. After this row of restrooms, ahead is the Organ Corridor leading to the upper levels. I'll lead the way."
"That's very kind of you."
"Don't think about playing any tricks behind me. My tactical analyzer has 'eyes' at the back and can see everything clearly."
"..."
Horatio said nothing more.
Well, being wary is a good thing; he didn't think a naive sweet girl could survive long in the position of a Hunter-Duke vigilante.
Just a short distance after they started walking, a restroom door suddenly opened outwards, blocking their path. The Female Hunter-Duke immediately raised her gun.
"Phew~ Comfortable."
A man with a gun walked out, not even having properly pulled up his pants.
The Female Hunter-Duke was caught off guard and met him face to face. In a moment of surprise and agitation, she pulled the trigger before even aiming at his head, shooting him through the neck.
[Shooting the neck won't incapacitate someone with one shot!]
Horatio quickly aimed for the head and pulled the trigger, delivering a follow-up shot.
The man's eyes instantly lost their light, and he fell sideways.
Even though Horatio reacted as quickly as he could, the man's convulsing finger, already on the trigger, still reflexively pulled it before he hit the ground.
A gunshot echoed in the narrow corridor, announcing the arrival of battle.
Horatio patted the Female Hunter-Duke's shoulder, using hand signals to communicate tactics. The two then crisscrossed, advancing in a cross-pattern.
Soon, the footsteps ahead became denser, and he could already hear the enemy shouting from a distance.
"Lost lambs, False Emperor believers! If you obediently lay down your weapons, I promise you will enjoy the blessings of God! The utmost pleasure in the world! If not..."
The man's voice wasn't like the Chief Priest's, and it seemed he thought the Female Hunter-Duke was pushing Horatio forward.
"I will pull out your ribs, spine, and tailbone, one by one, to make whips, and I will flog your superstitions, making you feel the utmost pain before you die!"
Horatio peeked out from a diagonal corner. He saw a tall, thin Gentleman, dressed in an exquisite khaki swallowtail suit, wearing a gold-embroidered top hat, and a butterfly mask on his face, hiding behind cover, shouting with a sinister and arrogant expression through a sound array system.
This person seemed to be a minor boss, someone with a bit of status.
It was usually hard to associate such a well-dressed Gentleman with the Lower Hive, but if he was a Slaanesh worshiper, then everything made sense.
The Imperium was not short of these heartless rich people, who, despite their privileged lives, were bored enough to find amusement in the suffering of the poor.
Horatio assessed the current situation.
They were outnumbered. How could they divide and conquer the enemies before being trapped by them?
Horatio pondered for a moment.
Right! Use information asymmetry!
They didn't know that he, the death row inmate, and the Adeptus Arbites specialist had formed a united front.
A light gleamed in his blue eyes.
[+ Miss Hood, would you be willing to act with me? +]
[+ What? +]
The Female Hunter-Duke knelt, ready for action, her mind highly focused on the upcoming direct confrontation, only to be interrupted by his call.
[It's an emergency, and he's talking about acting...]
[Does he want to pretend to be an Evil Cultist? Feign conversion, and then regret it later? Tsk, if he dares to think it, I dare to kill him!]
Farida grew angrier the more she thought about it. Her beautiful almond eyes glared resentfully at Horatio, who was across from her, and she included his position in her alert zone.
[+ I want to... +]
Farida impatiently listened to Horatio explain his plan, her fingertip already on the comms' off button.
But soon, her tightly furrowed brows slowly relaxed as Horatio spoke.
[What this guy is saying... doesn't seem impossible...?]
"I'm giving you one last chance!" The Gentleman shouted impatiently.
His Evil Cultists had already aimed their guns at the dark corridor corner.
"Sir! I don't want to die! I've subdued this cop! Hurry! I can't hold her down!" A timid young voice came from the alley ahead.
"Good!" The Gentleman was overjoyed, clapping his hands excitedly, completely disregarding his carefully maintained dignified image.
"Go! The ones at the front, hurry and provide support!"
A group of Evil Cultists emerged from behind cover, guns in hand, and walked into the alley.
As their figures were illuminated by the searchlight on the wall opposite the corner, Horatio quickly maneuvered backward and instructed the Female Hunter-Duke to let them enter the corner before shooting.
The Gentleman, full of self-satisfaction, stood with his hands on his hips, watching his subordinates enter the alley corner.
Soon, the dark alley was lit by the muzzle flashes of gunfire.
At first, the Gentleman was startled, not understanding the situation.
"Sir! That female cop is out of control, save me! She's going to kill me!" Horatio feigned a scream, giving him another shot of adrenaline.
Indeed, upon hearing this, the Gentleman slapped his thigh and couldn't sit still.
"That's a valuable sacrifice! Hurry! You good-for-nothing idiots, bring him out to me! If you can't capture the woman, kill her!"
Except for the guards protecting the Gentleman, everyone else swarmed forward, pouring into the alley.
Boom! The sound of a grenade exploding echoed from the alley, followed by even more intense gunfire.
The Gentleman panted heavily, nervously biting his cravat.
After a long while, everything seemed to have settled.
A vigilante holding a troublesome prisoner, facing so many people, would surely be captured or killed by now.
"Where's the female cop?"
"Dead." The young man's voice came from inside, but the Gentleman didn't detect the indifference in his tone.
The man stood up, clicking his tongue and sighing: "What a shame. The photos showed such a prime noble girl. I had planned to compete with the Chief Priest to see who would be the first to..."
Just as he was about to adjust his cravat, the lace white cloth slipped from his collar because he had pulled it too hard.
Crack! Thud.
The man sat on the ground with a thud, his eyes filled with terror and confusion.
If he hadn't prepared to bend down to pick it up, the bullet that shot out from the darkness would have blown a large hole in his head.
Soon, the man felt a burning, sharp pain on his cheek. He tremblingly reached up to touch it, and the pain became incredibly intense.
When he brought his hand back to his eyes, it was covered in fresh blood. Judging by the uneven texture he felt earlier, he had probably scraped off a chunk of flesh.
A flashbang was thrown out.
"Ah! Ah!" The Gentleman cried out in panic, his face pale, as if it wasn't a person but a ghost that had appeared in the darkness.
"How is this possible! How is this possible!" He couldn't believe what he was seeing.
They were two fully armed warriors, well-trained, moving in perfect coordination, firing in controlled bursts, and providing covering fire.
His surrounding guards were no match for the two. Many were killed and fell to the ground without firing a single shot, as easily as highly trained special forces eliminating petty thugs robbing a gas station.
As a great noble from a prominent naval family in Abyss Port, how could that young girl team up with a death row inmate?!
Brainwashing! It must be brainwashing!
How could that death row kid cooperate so well with a cop?
This is impossible!
If he hadn't seen the information sent by the insider, he would have every reason to believe Horatio Cochrane was an undercover agent sent by the Adeptus Arbites.
The situation had completely exceeded his expectations. The Gentleman scrambled up the spiral staircase, soiling himself, not even bothering to pick up his luxurious wool hat that had fallen off.
Bang! Thud.
As the last armed individual fell, Horatio changed his magazine, while the Female Hunter-Duke wanted to pursue the fleeing guy.
"Do not pursue a cornered foe, Miss Hood." Horatio, seeing that the person had disappeared into the spiral staircase, stopped her, and at the same time, checked the Soulfire progress.
'+ Soulfire: 15 / 20 +'
"Why?" Farida looked puzzled: "Now is a good opportunity for us to push all the way to the top of the tower!"
"Trust me, the number of people upstairs is five or six times more than this group, and there's a super big guy waiting for us. There's no chance of winning if we go up."
Horatio dared to say this because he had just used a Precognition Shard again and saw enemies several times their number, as well as a massive, steel-armored Ogryn ape-man.
Horatio had seen these big guys in the game Darktide. They were legally recognized abhumans of the Imperium, generally not very intelligent, but incredibly strong.
And the one he saw in the shard was even larger than any he had seen in the game.
"Then what do you suggest we do next?" Farida frowned, looking as if to say, 'If you stop me, then you figure it out.'