This Is Our Warhammer Journey

“But we still found a pattern—these nobles usually form secret societies indulging in pleasure, and they tend to focus on humans with exceptionally heightened senses, using them as sacrifices for the Warp-spawned abominations.”

It was visible to the naked eye—the moment he heard the word “sacrifice,” sheer terror erupted in the Governor’s eyes.

“You have to understand, the senses of the Eldar far surpass the limits of humanity.”

Rameses said meaningfully.

Aglaea caught on quickly and played along smoothly.

“Based on previous data, such sacrifices are guaranteed to attract the attention of the elite.”

“Then I suppose the Inquisitors wouldn’t refuse such bait?”

“Of course.”

“Ugh—ughugh!”

He slammed the back of his head against the chains with all his strength, creating faint clanking sounds—the loudest noise he could manage.

After deliberately leaving him to stew for a while, Romulus signaled with his eyes, and Arthur finally tore off the restraints from the Governor.

“I’ll talk—ask me anything, cough cough, I’ll tell you everything—”

The Governor sucked in every molecule of air he could muster with the fastest breath of his life and shouted in Low Gothic at the top of his lungs. Even as searing pain stabbed through his lungs and blood sprayed from his throat, he didn’t pause for a second.

“Just don’t hand me over to the cultists of the Thirsty Lady! I’ll do anything for you!”

He was certain now—that soul-crushing intimidation earlier had absolutely come from a servant of the Thirsty Lady. These people truly knew what the Dark Eldar feared and had the power to actually deliver him into her hands.

“Please, I’m begging you!”

To be sacrificed to Slaanesh and dragged into the Palace of Pleasures—anything but that!

Tears streamed down his face.

“I’ll do anything.”

We still liked you better when you were all arrogant and untamed.

Everyone around looked confused.

No one could understand why a Dark Eldar who didn’t flinch under torture and wasn’t afraid of death would be so terrified of the Cult of Excess.

“If you’ve got questions, just ask.”

Romulus said as he stepped aside.

They knew nothing about the situation in the Pierrd Sub-sector, and even if they wanted to interrogate, they didn’t have a clear direction. Better to let the “local” ask first.

“Thank you, my lord.”

Aglaea first recorded in her parchment that the Dark Eldar feared the dark god they referred to as the Thirsty Lady. Then she stepped forward—only to smack right into Tyberos’ gauntlet.

She hadn’t even noticed when the giant had come to stand next to her.

“......”

And only now did she realize—that line wasn’t directed at her.

“Apologies, my lord.”

Aglaea backed away in a fluster.

Any of them who could take down over five hundred Dark Eldar with just a bit more than a hundred of their own men, without a single casualty, was someone she couldn’t afford to provoke.

“......”

The group exchanged glances.

This Inquisitor was kinda entertaining.

This kind of academic, hot-blooded rookie—especially one who dares to butt heads with the Black Templars on someone else’s ship, without even a fleet of her own—was really rare.

“You can ask your questions first.”

Tyberos paused for a moment, then spoke.

He had come on this trip just to get some gear swapped out from the Mechanicus. Picking up Romulus and the others was a bonus. He didn’t know much about the internal affairs of the Imperium, and the Silent Glaze was a Devouring Sharks secret—not something to be shared casually.

Thinking of the earlier interrogation, he added:

“But you need to keep him alive.”

“Of course, my lord.”

Aglaea did want to keep some of the Inquisition’s secrets, but realistically, that wasn’t going to happen.

So she took out her little notebook and got straight to it.

“Who hired you, xenos?”

“He called himself the Seeker.”

Hearing that, Aglaea knew this was a solid lead.

The Seeker was the alias used by her teacher while operating outside.

“Where did you meet?”

“Inside what you call the Ghoul Stars. Specifically, the Black Spire of Blood and Skulls. I’ll need a star map to mark the coordinates.”

“This one?”

The Inquisitor pulled her servo-skull over and displayed the star sector coordinates.

“That’s right.”

“Your specific mission?”

“To intercept a Mechanicus Ark headed to that planet. The Seeker clearly stated that after losing the naval battle, we had to force our way onto the Ark. That would stop the fleet from reaching Pierrd.”

Kaul’s implant couldn’t help but go into overload.

He never expected that a plan he’d kept hidden for tens of thousands of years would be exposed by someone he’d never even heard of.

He glanced at the transmigrators and recalled the Emperor’s radiance upon them, then let out a breath of relief.

It had to be the guidance of the Omnissiah.

“What were you promised in return?”

“The hunt. The Seeker promised to concentrate the entire Pierrd Sub-sector’s population onto the main planet, to hold the grandest slaughter feast, and let us hunt and enslave at will. He bribed six cabals, including the Flayed Skulls. I am a Governor of one of the Flayed Skull’s hunting fleets.”

The Dark Eldar relied on consuming other beings’ souls to sustain themselves. The population of an entire sub-sector was an unimaginable treasure trove to them.

Of course, according to the Inquisition’s knowledge, souls had another use.

The hand recording the interrogation trembled.

Aglaea’s face didn’t light up with the joy of discovering the truth—instead, it paled visibly.

“What did he do during all this? And what did you do?”

She continued pressing.

“The Seeker gave us coordinates for the Imperial Navy in the sector and fed them false intelligence, allowing us to wipe them out completely. He dealt with the fleets of other factions. After that, we raided to confuse the enemy.”

“Details.”

“I don’t know.”

Aglaea stared silently at the Governor.

“I really don’t know.”

The Governor was on the verge of tears.

“Inquisitor Aglaea.”

Romulus spoke.

“May I interrupt for a moment?”

“Please, my lord.”

Aglaea answered respectfully.

“We encountered a strike cruiser that had been attacked by heretics during a warp drift incident. Inside the ship, within the Gellar field, we found this.”

Romulus directly sent the recorded footage from that time to the Inquisitor. It included the psyker who had acted as a Chaos teleportation device, as well as the runes etched on his back.

He had already prepared this material in advance.

“M-My lord, may I ask—where did this strike cruiser depart from?”

Aglaea stared at the Chaos runes on the cultist’s back, identical to the ones she had seen while combing through her teacher’s database. Her lips began to tremble uncontrollably.

Romulus looked toward Sister Arabella.

“It departed from the tidal planet of Titania, made a stop at the Eternal Hunt Watch Outpost, then encountered a Dark Eldar xenos assault in the Pierrd Sub-sector—specifically in the Death System of Manst-3. Afterward, a Chaos contamination broke out in the Navigator’s Sanctum, and the warship was dragged into the Warp.”

The Canoness stated calmly, then began marking the route and timestamps on the star sector projection based on her memory.

Aglaea quickly pulled out the paper files she had on her, beginning to cross-reference.

As the data matched point by point, her gaze grew more and more blank.

Chaos.

That old man really got tainted by Chaos.

“...It matches. All of it matches.”

She kept repeating the same phrase.

She missed a breath and almost fainted.

Only one word echoed in her mind.

It’s over!