kingnovel Chapter 247 Awakening
Chapter 247 Awakening
Howard finished his speech, but no one responded. The Eldar were still pondering what Howard had said, as were the nuns. Howard knew they would need some time to process his message, so he didn't rush and instead whistled.
The song he whistled was "Master Mirror", a soundtrack from a video game he had played in the past. He had practiced whistling a version of it just to show off.
Howard now feels that he is extremely awesome.
But the next question from the nun brought Howard back to his original form.
"But how do you know this?" asked the nun.
It was a very reasonable question, but it was like a small thorn that pierced Howard's ever-expanding heart. The air inside slowly overflowed from the gap, and Howard's originally expanding heart finally deflated.
When the nun saw that Howard did not answer immediately, she thought that Howard did not want to answer the question, and this time, she did not ask any further questions.
But Howard didn't notice the change in the nun, and he blinked.
Yeah, that's how I knew this.
I read it in a book... in a book... in a book...
Howard's whistle gradually faded.
Playing with calves!
Howard slapped his forehead in frustration, because after the nun asked him this, he realized that all the remarks he had just made were summarized from various books he had read in the past, and these books were not all rigorous works, but also included many popular literary works.
After all, it is impossible for anyone to actually conduct any experiments on fate in reality.
In other words, he was using the tropes from novels, comics, and movies to point fingers at the fate of a race.
"Um, um... Miss Mei..." Howard, realizing the problem, tried to make amends, but Mei was still lost in thought, so Howard could only increase his voice and continue to shout, "Sister! Aunt! Auntie!"
Mei didn't understand why this human's attitude suddenly changed so quickly, so she looked a little confused.
"I, I, I... everything I just said was nonsense. You... you... don't take it seriously!"
"The high priestess once gave me the same teaching. I asked her how we should face this, and she said something similar to you. She said fate is the devil's gambling table. When you try to peek into fate, you join the devil's gamble, and the devil never loses, so the best way to deal with it is to stay away from it."
Howard felt relieved to hear this answer. It seemed he had thought too highly of himself. The story of the king he had told was actually described by a term: Greek tragedy, the self-fulfilling power of fate.
Although it is called a Greek tragedy, this type of story is not unique to a certain city-state. In reality, stories with similar elements have been independently born in various civilizations. In other words, it is not difficult for a civilization to give birth to such a story or theory.
In the setting, the history of the Eldar is much longer and their culture is more dazzling than in the real world. There is no reason why such stories can be created in the real world but not in the Warhammer universe. This universe is not the kind of illiterate universe where one can shock the audience by reciting a few ancient poems or easily defeat the great scholars in debates with modern theories.
"High priest? As far as I know, there is only one high priest in the Death Army." But after breathing a sigh of relief, Howard recalled an extraordinary existence that appeared in Mei's words just now.
"You know her?" Mei was also a little surprised.
"I don't know her, but I've heard a little about her deeds... If you haven't elected a new high priest, then the high priest we are talking about should be the same one." Howard replied.
He really didn't expect that this bean sprout could be related to the High Priest of the Death Army. The High Priest of the Death Army, Iphrenee, was the leader of the Death Army and currently an ally of the Empire. She had signed a written covenant with the Empire's Regent Guilliman.
In addition to being the Regent of the Empire, Guilliman is also the descendant of the Emperor of Mankind. The reason why Howard was so determined to go to Terra was to meet the Emperor of Mankind.
"Heh... heh..." Howard laughed dryly to himself after figuring out this relationship. Although the Death Army was considered the elite of the Eldar and was relatively rare in number, not every member could talk to the high priest. According to Howard's original expectation, May's brother, the prophet named Charandi, knew Ivrene, but Howard could never trust the prophet, so he never mentioned this matter.
I didn't expect it to end up like this.
"Destiny, isn't it magical?" Howard stopped smiling after noticing that Mei and Gloria were both looking at him, and gave a few incoherent explanations.
"Although your high priest has pointed this out, your people still seem to rush to the gambling table one after another." Howard changed the subject again.
"The chips on the gambling table are too tempting." Mei just gave a neutral explanation, without praising or criticizing the tribesmen who entered the gambling game.
Howard whistled and also made no comment.
"We came to this planet to search for an object that holds the fate of our race, but we don't know how it exists. It could be a fragment, a spell, or even a living being." Mei finally began to share the information she had. Howard and the nun subconsciously sat up straight and listened attentively. "That object has existed deep within this planet since the distant past, forgotten and sealed. We only recently discovered its existence."
"We have only one mission: to obtain this object at all costs. The worst-case scenario is to destroy it. We must not let it fall into the hands of foreigners." Mei's eyes gleamed in the flames. She turned to Howard and said, "But Mr. Howard, you've completely disrupted our plans. We didn't want to get involved in your war with the Oaks, but you've used some drastic measures to drag us into this conflict."
"Thank you very much." Howard scratched his head embarrassedly, "But I didn't have a better idea at the time. If I didn't force you out, we would have died. Besides, you said you weren't sure what that thing was. Maybe that 'thing' was me."
"And whether you come out or not is ultimately your decision," Howard said. "If you really don't value me, you can just let me die. So, please don't put all the blame on me. But I can assure you that your act of saving me is definitely worth it."
Because if I die, Freya and even Slaanesh will be out, and these demons will launch a special attack on you Eldar. No matter what plans you have, it will be useless even if Ivrenee comes in person.
"We won't abandon you. Once your blood is shed, we will definitely ensure your safety. It's just..." Mei glanced at Gloria at this point, "It's just that at that time, the safety of Miss Gloria and other humans was not within our consideration."
What May hadn't told Howard was that before he shot himself in the head, an Eldar sniper had already trained his sights on him from the shadows. The Eldar's original plan was to fire a special bullet to induce the human into a state of suspended animation. Given the current state of the battle, a single human corpse would be a liability to the entire human army. If nothing unexpected happened, the human's "corpse" would be abandoned. Then, the Eldar's most elite assassins and stealth masters would silently infiltrate the chaotic battlefield and retrieve the soulless being, whose blood flowed with the power of Isha.
However, the laser shot by this human at his own head in advance made this plan come to nothing. Even if Isha was powerful, the elves did not dare to gamble that this human could recover from the serious injury of losing half of his brain, so the subsequent events happened.
So after May first came into contact with Howard, her respect and a little fear were real, because only those who participated in the whole process would know the logic behind this human's seemingly crazy behavior.
Oh--
May's answer also made it easy for Howard to reverse the Eldar's previous plan. So it seemed that he should have shot himself in the head earlier, because the sooner he shot, the sooner the Eldar would come out, and fewer people would die on the human side.
Gloria had a blank expression on her face as she listened to this. Perhaps it was because she managed her facial expressions well, or perhaps it was because she didn't understand what May and Howard were saying and was in a daze.
"Perhaps you are indeed the one we're looking for, but perhaps not. We haven't fully explored this planet yet, so we must strive for everything possible while remaining skeptical." Mei said, then turned to the nun, "Miss Gloria, we certainly didn't initially consider collaborating with you, but when we did, it was with sincerity. We hope there will be no more unnecessary hatred and misunderstandings between us. All our actions are driven by our own interests."
"We? Does the 'we' you're talking about include humans?" Although Howard didn't really care about these specific definitions, he guessed that the nun cared a lot, so he asked on her behalf.
"All of us, the Eldar and the humans, the Ark and the Empire, please believe me, this is the best way." Mei answered firmly.
"Okay, but I have two questions about what you said," Howard said.
Mei: "Please speak."
Howard: "First, according to you, the object you're looking for has been here for a long time, but you haven't discovered it. So why did you suddenly discover it at this critical juncture? Second, since this object concerns the fate of your race, why doesn't your high priest personally take action?"
Mei was silent for a long time, and finally just shook her head: "I'm sorry, I can't tell you either of these two questions."
"That's fine with me." Howard sat up straight and moved back, meaning that he was withdrawing from this conversation and would watch your performance next.
May finished sharing her information, but the nun remained silent. Howard hadn't expected to get any useful information from this crazy woman, so he assumed she had no information to exchange. He didn't force her. He stood up, patted his butt, and said, "Ladies! Time is precious. If there's nothing more to say, we should act."
"I..." But after Howard stood up and mobilized them, the nun finally spoke, "If what you said is true, then I seem to remember something that is not quite right."