Cecilia’s vertical pupils widened completely, sharp and bright in the darkness like two copper stars.
She gripped the dagger tighter.
The improperly wiped blood on the blade emanated a metallic stench that was nauseating in this cramped space.
Cecilia’s other hand gripped Lynn’s tightly.
Lynn felt his own hand trembling, and it was taking the Sister’s hand along with it.
He had turned off the flashlight long ago.
Now, the entire cave was pitch black like an overturned pot; nothing could be seen.
A sliver of red light was cast into the cave from outside.
They could hear two cultists standing outside the entrance, trying to squeeze in.
Those two cultists stood there for a few seconds, then their conversation drifted a bit further away, and their footsteps retreated slightly.
“Go back and find someone; find a skinny one.” “Right, get a small guy over here.
It’s too narrow inside; we can’t get in——” The builds of these two cultists were too large, and they were turning back to find a smaller, weaker companion.
Lynn’s scalp tingled.
There were indeed thinner individuals among the cultists.
Once they squeezed in, the cave was only so big and had no other exits.
It would be like catching a turtle in a jar; it would be completely over.
If they were going to get out, this was their only chance.
Lynn turned his head to look at Cecilia.
The Sister quietly leaned against the stone wall ahead, her breathing very light, so light it was almost inaudible.
She didn’t speak, but she held his hand incredibly tightly.
Her hand was ice-cold from blood loss.
How much time was left, and was there any way out?
…There was no way.
At least Lynn couldn’t think of one.
Cecilia was a mortal; she had no power armor, no bolter, and had sustained fairly severe injuries.
Even a Sister of Battle couldn’t hold the line in such a disadvantageous situation.
…No, actually, there was one last way.
Lynn took a deep breath, “Sister.” “Hm?” Cecilia, still completely focused on the movements outside the cave, replied absentmindedly.
Lynn whispered, “I’ll go draw them away.
You stay here.
While they’re chasing me, you take the exit, find reinforcements, and come back to save me after you find them, okay?” Cecilia sharply whipped her head back.
In the dark, Lynn couldn’t see her vertical pupils, but he could feel two gazes stabbing into his face like two knives.
Cecilia was silent for three seconds—three seconds that felt as long as a century.
Then she spoke through gritted teeth, a resolute tone squeezed out from between them: “No.
I will go draw the Chaos cultists away; you run out and find reinforcements.” There was absolutely no justification for a Sister of Battle to abandon a civilian and run away herself.
If she let Lynn draw the pursuers away for her here while she escaped alone, she would never be able to hold her head high again in this life.
Warhammer 40k has distinct class barriers; theoretically, civilians and Astra Militarum guardsmen must drop to one knee when seeing Astartes and Adepta Sororitas.
But more than a class difference, it is a responsibility.
Astartes and Adepta Sororitas must shoulder the responsibility of protecting mortals.
But Lynn wasn’t intimidated by her words.
He had already run through all the possibilities in his mind and had decided what he was going to do next.
Lynn whispered, “It’s alright, Sister.
Actually, I hid one more thing from you.” “What?” Cecilia didn’t move.
“I have another psychic ability, which is super-strong recovery; if I get injured, it will heal on its own.
As long as they don’t capture me, I can hold out under pursuit from any enemy for over twenty standard Terran days,” Lynn said cautiously.
Actually, it was 30 days.
But to be conservative, he figured he’d just say over twenty days.
He didn’t want to explain things like the entry gacha system; it was too complicated to explain clearly on the spot, and they didn’t have time.
In this situation, they could only have Lynn stay behind.
If Cecilia were the one to stay behind—setting aside whether Lynn could successfully get out and find reinforcements—the key issue was that Cecilia had no light, and she didn’t have Thirty Days.
She couldn’t see the traps, ambushes, and pursuers in the dark, nor could she rapidly heal her injuries; there was no way she could hold out for long under the pursuit of cultists.
Retreating to the Hive City wasn’t an option either.
The Hive City’s load-bearing structures had failed, making climbing upward impossible.
Moreover, there were no supplies inside the Hive City; as long as the cultists guarded the Hive City’s entrance, Cecilia would be cornered and starved to death inside.
So it had to be Lynn who stayed behind.
With Thirty Days plus a flashlight, and the ability to draw a new card in a few days, he could hold out for a very long time.
Truthfully, Lynn was still afraid; his hand was trembling non-stop.
Holding his hand, Cecilia felt it very clearly.
She was almost crushed by guilt.
Lynn was a pampered civilian who had never seen war, and she was a Sister of Battle, yet she needed a young civilian boy to draw away pursuers for her so she could survive.
In a daze, Lynn somehow felt the same way as when the super Raven Guard were sabotaged by the traitor legion and mutated; the Raven Lord had to strangle them with his own hands one by one, while the super Raven Guard paradoxically comforted the Raven Lord.
The super Raven Guard under Corvus Corax, Primarch of the Raven Guard Legion, were sabotaged by the traitor Alpha Legion, who injected a Chaos corruption virus into their gene-seed, causing the super Raven Guard to mutate, growing fangs and claws.
In the end, they nearly lost their minds, turning into giant, monstrous raptors.
They wanted to die as humans.
Corax personally dealt with them one by one.
As he strangled the mutated Raven Guard one by one, the Raven Guard affectionately nuzzled up to him, comforting him: It’s okay, Father; this is not your fault.
…So this is what willing sacrifice for a comrade feels like.
So this is the hatred toward cultists.
Cecilia looked at him, feeling extremely unbearable.
Lynn knew what she was thinking.
He adjusted the light slightly brighter, shining it on his own face so Cecilia could see his eyes.
He was a twenty-year-old college student who had never experienced war—with clear eyes, perhaps holding fear, but also extremely resolute.
“Sister, I will try my hardest to survive until you bring reinforcements back.
You try your hardest to find reinforcements.
I will try my hardest to live for twenty or thirty days; when you come back, I will definitely still be alive.” Cecilia didn’t speak.
The footsteps of the cultists echoed from down the passage again; their time was running out.
Cecilia was silent for a long time.
She also knew this was their last option.
Cecilia’s voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible.
“Supplies.
Take all the supplies with you.” Lynn hurriedly said, “No, you need to eat too.” “I’ll take three days’ worth.” “Sister——” “I’ll take three days’ worth.” The Sister’s voice was as hard as iron, leaving no room for negotiation.
“One day’s worth of supplies can last me up to seven days.
I will definitely find reinforcements within twenty days.
If I can’t, I will die on the road, and I won’t need food for the next day.” Lynn opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but swallowed it back down.
He saw Cecilia’s eyes glistening in the darkness.
He didn’t know if they were tears, and he didn’t dare to ask, because Sisters of Battle are not allowed to shed tears in battle.
Lynn opened the backpack and took out the items inside to redistribute them: dry rations, protein blocks, and waterskins.
He secretly divided the items into two portions, pushing the larger portion toward Cecilia and keeping the smaller one for himself.
But Cecilia didn’t take those things.
She only pulled out a portion from the pile that an ordinary person could eat for three days: three pieces of dry ration, three protein blocks, and two waterskins.
She packed these things into a small cloth bag Lynn had previously swiped from the cultists, tied it to her waist, and pushed all the rest back in front of Lynn.
“These are all yours.” “Sister, this isn’t right——” Cecilia only said, “Take it.
I will definitely come back.” Lynn looked at the pile of supplies, then at the deflated little cloth bag at Cecilia’s waist, and his nose stung a little.
Cecilia was the first good person Lynn had met in this massive cesspool of Warhammer.
Even if this world was completely rotten, there were still some people holding on.
In the 41st Millennium, these people who held on were the reason the Emperor still sat upon that throne.
He wasn’t an idiot; he knew who was good.
Cecilia completely tilted him to the side of humanity, rendering him irreconcilable with Chaos.
He stuffed the supplies back into the backpack one by one, strapped it on, tucked the steel pipe at his waist, straightened his helmet, and took a few deep breaths to lower his heart rate from one hundred and twenty to a hundred.
Cecilia gripped his hand together with the dagger tightly.
“When you run, don’t stop, don’t look back, and wait for me to come.” (T/N: do note that Adepta Sororitas are more like an organizational name, as Adepta Sororitas is the High Gothic name for the entire all‑female sisterhood attached to the Ecclesiarchy (Adeptus Ministorum).
It includes both militant and non‑militant orders.
Within the Adepta Sororitas, the Orders Militant are the actual frontline warriors, and these are what people properly mean by “Sisters of Battle.” The sisterhood also has non‑combatant branches like the Orders Hospitaller (medics), Orders Dialogous (linguists/lexicographers), and Orders Famulous (diplomats and advisors), who are Adepta Sororitas but not “Sisters of Battle” in the strict sense.
TL;DR: All Sisters of Battle are Adepta Sororitas, but not all Adepta Sororitas are Sisters of Battle.
Thaniel_a_goodchild.