With a ventilation shaft, could the exit be far away?
If push came to shove, couldn’t they just smash the ventilation shaft open to make an exit?
“Great!” Lynn said excitedly, lowering his voice.
But Cecilia’s expression turned somewhat grave.
She seemed to have heard something.
But she didn’t jump to conclusions, only saying, “Let’s go over and take a look first.” “What’s wrong?” Lynn looked at her.
Cecilia said gravely, “I’m not sure.
We’ll see when we get there.” So they walked along the passage toward that direction.
…
The further they walked…
Lynn started to notice something was wrong too.
…Why did this place look more and more familiar the further they walked?
Holy crap, isn’t this the way to the Chaos cultist camp?
They continued forward along the passage.
The wind grew stronger, and the air grew fresher, but the stone walls nearby also grew increasingly familiar.
Lynn even saw that very low stone crevice he had squeezed through.
…Holy crap, you’ve got to be kidding me.
Sad.
They followed the passage, twisting and turning for a long time, and finally rounded a corner.
Then Cecilia stopped.
Lynn almost bumped into her back, but thankfully, he stopped in time.
He poked his head out, following Cecilia’s gaze forward.
Sure enough, before them was that dark, heavy red light again.
Ahead was a very, very large cavern space.
That cave was truly super, super large, probably a thousand square meters in size.
The cave roof was as high as a cathedral’s dome, and the stone walls bore dark red veins, like some kind of mineral.
The cave floor was smooth, artificially worn down to a flat surface, as smooth as a giant whetstone.
Those dark red torches were lit on the cave walls, and there was a stone altar in the center.
Lynn’s breathing stopped for a second.
This place looked like a replica of the Chaos cultist camp cave he had found right after waking up, just many times larger.
Some were sitting in the corners, some were leaning against the stone walls, and some were pacing back and forth in front of the gate in the center of the cave, holding rusty knives or those red-glowing psychic weapons…
they were all cultists.
They all wore those blood-red robes, evidently belonging to the same group.
Some were eating, some were muttering something under their breath, and some were resting with their eyes closed, looking entirely at home.
Dark red psychic light emanated from several focusers, illuminating the entire cave in a bloody red.
This place…
This must be the cultists’ main lair.
…He never expected that following the wind currents all the way would lead them right to the cultists’ main lair.
The wind brushed past their ears, blowing straight backward.
The wind passed through the massive cave, and they both saw that there was a passage at the back of this cave.
None of the other caves had wind; the wind was blowing precisely from that passage.
Sigh, in other words, the cultists’ main lair was inevitably situated right on the exit’s ventilation path.
Otherwise, lighting so many torches in a place with no air circulation would just end up suffocating themselves.
Good news: the exit is found.
Bad news: the exit is right behind the cultists’ main lair.
Those cultists were bunched up at the entrance.
This cave only had one exit, and there was no way to bypass them.
To get out, they absolutely had to break through the Chaos cultists’ encirclement.
Cecilia slowly, slowly crouched down against the rock wall.
Lynn hurriedly crouched down as well, waiting to see if Cecilia had any ideas.
Cecilia’s vertical pupils narrowed into almost invisible slits in the dark red light.
Her lips were pressed tight, and Lynn saw her eyes darting from left to right, top to bottom, counting how many cultists were in the cave.
…A lot.
A whole lot.
Moreover, among these cultists were Psykers, along with many psychic weapons.
The psychic weapons were the ones that had shot red light at Lynn earlier, instantly triggering his Thirty Days invulnerability.
You have to understand that the Thirty Days HP lock protection only triggers when receiving a certain level of fatal damage.
If Lynn didn’t have Thirty Days, that one hit of red light would have been enough to end his life.
After finishing her count, Cecilia closed her eyes.
Too many.
And too many Psykers.
“Emperor, have mercy on us.” She had seen many desperate situations, but she had never faced this kind of desperation after losing her weapons, armor, and companions.
Cecilia calmed herself for a long time, finally gritted her teeth, and opened her eyes.
She looked at Lynn, this young boy who had never seen a battlefield, and asked, “Are you afraid?” Lynn was taken aback for a moment.
He thought about it.
Afraid.
Of course he was afraid.
He was afraid of rusty knives, afraid of red-glowing psychic weapons, afraid of being captured and sacrificed to the Blood God, afraid of pain, afraid of being chopped, afraid of being burned, and afraid of dying.
There was nothing taboo about it; it was human nature not to want to die.
So he nodded and answered honestly, “I’m afraid, Sister.” Cecilia closed her eyes again.
She couldn’t leave Lynn here either.
Then she didn’t speak again.
She turned her head back, looking at the passage behind that cave, watching the shadows of the cultists swaying in the dark red light.
Her lips moved slightly, probably praying, praying to the Emperor.
Lynn didn’t know what she prayed for, but immediately after, he saw her back become straighter than before, her shoulders steadier, and her breathing slower, deeper, and heavier.
“The Emperor is with me,” she said.
Swearing upon the honor of a Sister of Battle, a Sister of Battle would absolutely never abandon a single civilian.
Cecilia reached out and placed her hand on Lynn’s shoulder, pressing down so his shoulder sank.
Then she spoke, her voice heavy: “Lynn, follow me in a moment.
I’ll go in front.” Lynn nodded.
“If a fight breaks out, stand back; don’t rush forward.
When I’m tied down, if they haven’t noticed you, run immediately.
If someone targets you, come back to find me, understand?” Cecilia warned him gravely.
Lynn was just about to nod reflexively, but upon realizing what she meant, his expression changed drastically.
“Okay…
Ah?
Ah?
No, no, no…” Wasn’t this just Cecilia going to draw away the enemies and letting him run?
Even though an upstanding 21st-century youth like him was a useless little weakling, he couldn’t just let his companion go to her death while he ran away himself.
“Now is not the time for sentimentality; this is the only way—” …
Before they could even agree on how to break out, a cultist—seemingly with sharper intuition—suddenly sensed their gaze and raised his head.
The dark red light fell on that face, revealing a pair of cloudy, red eyes that looked like they were soaked in blood, looking straight at them as they peeked from outside the cave.
Oh no!
The cultists noticed them!
Cecilia and Lynn’s expressions changed drastically at the same time.
That cultist confirmed he saw them.
“There’s someone over there——!!!” the cultist shouted.
The voice sliced through the silence like a rusty knife, and instantly, all the cultists looked in the direction he pointed, straight at them.
The cultists sprang up from the ground, grabbed their knives, raised their red-glowing psychic weapons, and charged toward their direction.
Without a word, Cecilia grabbed Lynn, turned around, and ran.
She had planned to break out, but she hadn’t planned to do it when every single cultist had noticed them.
Before the cultists discovered them, she could observe from the dark, wait, look for an opportunity, pick a suitable breakthrough point when the cultists weren’t paying attention, and charge out with the minimal cost.
Now that the cultists had all found them, there was no opportunity left.
She couldn’t fend off so many cultists alone, let alone with Lynn behind her.
There was no other choice; right now, all they could do was run.
Lynn booked it, desperately running after Cecilia.
The cultists’ shouts surged from behind them like a swarm of hornets.
“Someone’s there!
Intruders!” “Looks like a Sister of Battle and a Psyker!” “Don’t let them escape!” “Catch them!
Offer them to the Blood God!” …
Cecilia was very glad she met Lynn.
If it were just her, encountering these Chaos cultists unprepared after starving for so long, she definitely wouldn’t have been able to run fast.
Thaniel_a_goodchild.