本章概述：

????????????戰(zhàn)斗修女被事實(shí)證明不是帝皇的意志的存在拯救。

????????????In which a Sister of Battle is saved by what turns out is?not?the Will of the Emperor.

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正文：

敲擊聲在我耳邊響起。

是一聲心跳。

我抬頭看向一打圍著我的獸人之一的猙獰面目，它兇惡地獰笑著舉起手中坑坑洼洼的巨斧，我意識(shí)到這是我的最后一聲心跳，

牢騷的笑聲在我周圍響起，我把爆彈槍緊貼在胸前，緊盯著即將由綠皮降下的殘忍，血腥的死亡。我抱緊我珍貴的武器，祈禱它能與我共死而非讓那個(gè)年輕的機(jī)魂飽受某個(gè)獸人技霸的奴役。

“帝皇庇佑，”我低聲啜泣，綠皮高舉起斧頭，隨后以令人痛苦的遲鈍落下。

“帝皇——”

鮮血撒在我的臉上，在一只綠皮斷臂從我身邊掠過時(shí)像從水管里噴出來一樣打濕了我的前額。疑惑的獸人傻看著我，明顯地不解于為什么我沒被它這一擊劈成兩段，又緩慢地看向它手臂曾經(jīng)在的地方。

那只手臂恰好被在手肘以上截?cái)?，血從駭人的斷面上奔涌而出。獸人看起來幾乎沒明白發(fā)生了什么，用不存在的手伸向我卻只發(fā)現(xiàn)血從那只被截?cái)嗟氖滞罄锏纬觥?/p>

“啥玩意兒？”這是它在一陣咔嚓聲響起前發(fā)出的唯一聲音，隨后獸人就被利落地切成了一打碎塊，在我身上灑下了更多的粘液。

我眨了眨眼，在某個(gè)影像從我眼前閃過時(shí)和其它獸人一樣震驚。金屬割開金屬的聲音充斥著我的耳朵，隨即又是更多的咔嚓聲，切割皮革聲，和肢體爆裂聲。

血和旋轉(zhuǎn)的刀刃在我的視線前抽搐痙攣，我根本無法看清何為來者，可它正似刀刃上反射的月光一般穿過獸人集群。

那光芒閃爍之處均伴隨著獸人的死亡，而且它們死得迅速到無暇發(fā)出吼叫。只有一團(tuán)混雜不清的，空氣和金屬的噼啪聲，和動(dòng)脈血噴濺的噗哧聲，好似春天在修道院旁生長的樹木的花瓣一樣散落成碎片。

我站了起來，毫不在意身邊的獸人，在原地轉(zhuǎn)身以求追上那個(gè)身影。我從眼角的余光看到一個(gè)暴怒的獸人揮舞著斧頭沖向我，試圖將我攔腰斬?cái)唷?/p>

我沒做任何動(dòng)作，因?yàn)槲倚牡椎哪程幾屛抑牢也恍枰?。那斧頭在被切塊前沒能抵近離我一臂的距離，而它的獸人主人在半個(gè)呼吸間也步了后塵。

在那個(gè)瞬間，我覺得我看清了。

一道蒼白的肉體，漆黑的護(hù)甲，和日出般的長發(fā)組成的閃電。冰紫色的眼睛，像極了家鄉(xiāng)的花朵，在極短的一瞬間對(duì)上了我的目光，我心底的某物似乎恢復(fù)了原狀，雖然我說不出是什么。

我只知曉我看到的一切，以及那美麗的紫藤色的眼睛也看到了我。

我的心跳得像滑過平靜湖面的石子，隨后又消失不見，更多的獸人死在石子留下的尾流中。

死亡如圣風(fēng)般刮過廣場(chǎng)，我不斷地在原地轉(zhuǎn)身，以求看到它們，徒勞地試圖捕捉這個(gè)人影，這個(gè)繪畫家，在安菲特里亞的皮膚上凈化綠皮寄生蟲時(shí)留下的另一個(gè)瞬間。

我走神了，走神得太過了，盡管我的附近已經(jīng)沒有獸人，但我忘記了其中一些還記得該如何正確地使用它們粗糙的爆彈槍。

武器的開火聲撕裂了廣場(chǎng)，我隨著被質(zhì)量反應(yīng)彈藥命中而猛得打轉(zhuǎn)。射擊的角度很差，而沖擊力則被動(dòng)力甲的弧度破壞，使得爆彈旋轉(zhuǎn)著在離我?guī)字傅奈恢靡ǖ梦覠o法呼吸，痛苦地倒在地上，還濺了我一身的金屬碎片。

我咳嗽著吐出鮮血，蜷縮起來以保護(hù)肯定已經(jīng)斷掉的幾根肋骨。我希望這些血不意味著穿孔，畢竟我可能還得等好幾天才能得到恰當(dāng)?shù)淖o(hù)理。

一陣高昂，悅耳，完全是報(bào)復(fù)性的吶喊響了起來，令我的骨骼咔咔作響，視線一時(shí)扭曲，我抬頭看到那個(gè)之前射擊我的獸人捂著頭痛哭地咕噥著，就在…….

就在那個(gè)人影像泰拉的金色天鷹般橫掃而過前，她好美。

她的皮膚蒼白，她在繞著獸人優(yōu)雅地周旋時(shí)的動(dòng)作如同舞動(dòng)在水面上的光線一樣充盈著我的視線。她鞭子一樣的武器——僅由連在一起的一截截刀片貼在彎曲的劍柄上構(gòu)成——在她身側(cè)疾馳著劈開這個(gè)獸人，如同它落成一地尸塊前壓根不存在一樣。

當(dāng)我蜷縮在地上吐血時(shí)，我意識(shí)到它是最后一個(gè)。人影終于停止了動(dòng)作，在她這么做的同時(shí)我終于能清楚地看到她占據(jù)了我腹部右下方的視野（此處翻譯存疑）。

“異形，”我血淋淋的嘴唇嘶嘶地出聲。

不是隨便什么異形，而是一個(gè)艾達(dá)靈族。古老，不朽，狡詐得難以形容，靈族說謊就如其他種族呼吸一般，通過扭曲詞句和含義以配合他們難以理解的外星議題。

她肯定已經(jīng)聽到我了，因?yàn)樗谖彝鲁鲞@個(gè)詞時(shí)便轉(zhuǎn)身面對(duì)我。她幾乎是全裸的，我不由得臉紅起來。她的胸甲被切割到幾乎稱不上這個(gè)名字，其所聲稱的遠(yuǎn)比實(shí)際覆蓋住的要多。她腰部以下的矜持只限于窄到不能再窄的一塊布料和一件短披風(fēng)長度的長條衣物，流淌著靈族文字的布料在她的雙腿前后之間飄動(dòng)。

綴有利刃的前臂甲和脛甲包住了她的左側(cè)的手臂和腿的肘部和膝部以下，在右側(cè)則直達(dá)肩膀和臀部，她的紅色長發(fā)如傾瀉的火焰般柔順地環(huán)繞著臉和后背。

難以置信，她一滴血都沒沾到。

靈族緩慢地靠近，即便我不知道她為什么救下了我，我現(xiàn)在卻比在被獸人包圍時(shí)更加確信，自己死期將至。

我把爆彈槍磁鎖起來，拔出已經(jīng)豁口的戰(zhàn)斗刀向她揮舞，令我們之間的距離時(shí)長時(shí)短。

“滾開，女巫！“我痛罵著，搖搖晃晃地站起來卻失敗了，一頭跪在地上?！拔也粫?huì)……我不是……”

我喘息著，氣息小股小股地涌入，我的視野扭曲著，她則像我靠近，用她那嘶嘶作響的曲折的外星語言講話。

“帝皇護(hù)佑著我，異形女巫！”我顫抖著舉起刀，明白這對(duì)于一個(gè)能在片刻間殲滅整個(gè)連的獸人的存在來說只是種可笑的防御手段。

她面無表情地看了我一會(huì)兒，又甩了甩武器以清理掉上面的殘留物，將之盤在腰間鎖住，又把手伸向我。

我愣愣地看著她的手。

“什……什么?”我越過手看向她?！拔以撛趺醋觥?/p>

“你現(xiàn)在在地上，”靈族用輕柔的哥特語說，“我正向你伸出援助之手。”

“我……你什么？”

她一動(dòng)不動(dòng)地站在那里伸出手，我壓低了刀刃。這一定是個(gè)把戲，但目的何在？我不是個(gè)有用的工具，我已經(jīng)半死不活。她不需要靠把戲來殺我，事實(shí)上，她本可以直接擊翻我再踩上我的喉嚨，而我對(duì)此什么也做不了。

靈族對(duì)著我瞇起眼睛，隨后走進(jìn)了幾步，跪下來把一只手放在我的臉頰上。

她幾乎是輕柔地托我的臉頰，金屬的冷冽令我顫抖，她轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)我的頭，同時(shí)用她那超自然的人外眼球凝視著我的眼睛。

“腦震蕩，”過了片刻她說到，“此外你也受傷了，不要?jiǎng)印！?/p>

她暫時(shí)退后，在手套下暗藏的小口袋里翻找著，隨后抽出了一塊深紅色的寶石，重新跪在我的身邊，把它貼上我的額頭。

在我能反抗前，她發(fā)出一陣細(xì)微的顫音，我隨后感覺自己的身體在一陣近乎劇烈的痙攣中自行恢復(fù)。片刻后我感覺精神煥發(fā)，思緒比過去幾天來更加專注和敏銳，就好像我剛吃完一頓飯，然后好好休息了一晚一樣。

她把寶石收回它來的地方，又站起身來，再次伸出手。

“好點(diǎn)了？”靈族問道，我呆滯地點(diǎn)點(diǎn)頭。

我盯了她伸出的手臂一會(huì)兒，然后用力地咽了口唾沫，伸出胳膊搭上她的手。她以驚人的力量接過去并把我拉起來，而我更驚訝地意識(shí)到她到底有多高。

她就像一個(gè)并非被糟糕地拉長的人類。她的手臂，雙腿，和軀干很苗條，被纖細(xì)的肌肉牽拉起來。她的臉有著蒼白而優(yōu)雅的曲線，她的眼睛……神皇寬恕我，但她的眼睛太美了。

“過來，Cre'yth，”她從我身邊走過時(shí)以抑揚(yáng)頓挫的古怪口氣輕快地說到，點(diǎn)頭讓我跟上?！矮F人會(huì)被戰(zhàn)斗的聲響吸引，它們很快就會(huì)包圍我們?！?/p>

她走過我身邊，沒再說別的什么，我盯了她幾秒，思考起我的選項(xiàng)。

這個(gè)靈族沒有威脅我，沒有誆騙我，沒有試圖操縱我，在我們短暫的互動(dòng)中也沒有對(duì)我多說什么。不僅如此，她似乎還耗費(fèi)了某種巫術(shù)來治愈我，不過從寶石立刻失去了光澤來看我只得假設(shè)這件事不可重復(fù)。

現(xiàn)在她要離開還……什么？

提議讓我同去？

“我們準(zhǔn)備去那棟樓，Cre'yth，”她指向一座被其它更大的尖頂建筑簇?fù)碇妮^小的一個(gè)，“那里已經(jīng)被開辟過，又很小，因此目前較不可能有綠皮出沒?！?/p>

我這才意識(shí)到自己正跟著她，隨著脊背間的一陣戰(zhàn)栗，我停了下來。

“你對(duì)我做了什么？”我厲聲問道，手伸向腰間的戰(zhàn)斗刀，盡管我知道這毫無用處，“我……我是修女會(huì)的神圣姐妹，帝皇之女，你別想刺探我的思想，女巫！”

她轉(zhuǎn)過身來，像是饒有興致地打量著我。

“女巫，你如此稱呼我，”她輕笑起來，溫暖又嘶啞的聲音讓我內(nèi)心癢癢的。

“精確的，但也是錯(cuò)誤的，畢竟我知道你的意思是什么，Cre'yth，我并不是此等力量的持有者?！?/p>

“你們種族都與亞空間有染，靈族，”我尖銳地指控到，并從她身旁后退一步，她皺起了眉頭。

“再說一遍，你講得既錯(cuò)也對(duì)，但無論如何我們都得離開這里，除非你想加入你在獸人鍋里的同胞之列，”她輕蔑地指出，我的心隨即猛地攥緊。

“你看到我的姐妹被——”這個(gè)念頭哽住了我，我曾覺得她們最好已經(jīng)身死，可……

“姐妹？”她歪了歪頭，隨后以一種古怪的人類姿態(tài)聳了聳肩，“我不知道她們是否是你說姐妹，但她們是人類，而人類對(duì)我來說長得都差不多?！?/p>

盡管這已經(jīng)夠糟糕的。我還是稍感安慰，這個(gè)靈族見到的可能不是我的修女姐妹，而是安菲特里亞的平民。當(dāng)然，得知帝國的忠仆正被可怖的綠皮拿來果腹本不應(yīng)該好些，但可恥的是我不得不承認(rèn)這并不一樣。

“我……我知道了，”我輕聲嘆道，“不過，我不能相信你們這一類，靈族……你們骨子里是騙子和操縱者，你會(huì)背叛我，帝國信條如此告之?！?/p>

“如果我是任何其他的靈族，我會(huì)贊同你所說的，”她回答道，我被她的贊同打得措手不及，“但我來著只是為了一個(gè)單純的目的?！?/p>

“那是什么，靈族？”我加重語氣，但她明顯沒有咬上我確實(shí)很幼稚的魚餌。

取而代之的是，她以一種直擊我內(nèi)心深處的表情看著我。并非因?yàn)樗峭庑侨?，而是因?yàn)檫@表情非常非常的…….人性化。她看上去空洞，破碎，以及……

孤獨(dú)？

“我是來尋死的，”她的回答簡明扼要。

?

原文：

A beat thumped in my ears.

A heartbeat.

My final heartbeats, I realised, as I stared up into the bestial face of an Ork, one of the dozens that were surrounding me, while it smiled its mean, low smile, and raised the crude, pitted axe that it carried.

Low, grumbling laughter surrounded me, and I clutched my bolter to my chest as I stared up at the brutal and bloody death that was about to descend on me at the hands of a Greenskin. I hugged the precious weapon to me and prayed it would be destroyed with me rather than the young spirit being forced to suffer brutalisation by some Orkish Mek.?

“The Emperor protects,” I sobbed quietly as the Greenskin’s axe rose up, then started to descend with what felt like aching slowness.

“The Emperor-”

Gore sprayed my face and drenched my front like it had been shot from a hose as the Greenskin’s severed arm went hurtling past me. The Ork in question stared dumbly at me, apparently confused as to why I hadn’t been split in half by its strike, then slowly looked over to the stump where its arm had once been.

It had been severed just above the elbow, and blood was gouting from the horrific wound. The Ork barely seemed to register it, and reached for me with its free hand only to find blood dripping from the severed wrist it found there.

“Wut?” Was the only noise it made before a snap filled the air and the Ork was neatly split into a dozen pieces, spraying me with yet more viscera.

I blinked, as stunned as the rest of the Orks as a figure flickered past my vision. The sound of metal shearing through metal filled my ears, followed by more snaps and the sounds of ripping leather, and explosions of body parts.

Blood and spiraling blades twitched and spasmed past my vision and it was impossible to keep an eye on whatever it was, but it was moving through the Ork horde like moonlight reflecting from the edge of a knife.

Wherever that light flashed, Orks died, and they died so quickly that they didn’t even have time to scream or bellow. There was just mass sounds of confusion, snaps of air and metal, and the spitting noise of arterial spray as they fell to scattering pieces like the spring petals of the trees that grew near the Order Abbey.

I stood, heedless of the Orks around me, turning and spinning in place as I tried to track the figure. From the corner of my eye I saw an enraged Ork turn to me and swing its axe, intent on splitting me at the waist.

I didn’t move because, somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I didn’t have to. The weapon didn’t get within a handspan of me before the axe was sliced to pieces, and its Orkish wielder followed suit half a breath later.

At that moment I think I saw it.

A flash of pale flesh, dark armor, and long hair like a burning sunrise. Eyes of icy purple, so much like the flowers of home, met mine for the briefest of moments, and something in my heart seemed to right itself, although I couldn’t say what.

All I knew was what I saw, and that those beautiful Wisteria eyes saw me too.

My heart beat like a stone skipping across a placid pool, and then they were gone, and more Orks died in their wake.

Death swept through the plaza like a holy wind, and I kept turning and spinning in place, trying to watch them, trying in vain to catch another brief sight of the figure, the painter, as they cleansed the Greenskin parasite from the skin of Amphitria.

I was distracted, too distracted, and although there were no Orks?near?me I had forgotten that some of them still recalled how to use their crude bolters properly.

The bark of the weapon split the plaza and I spun in place as the mass-reactive round slammed into me. The angle of the shot was poor, and the impact was spoiled by the curvature of my powered armor sending the round spinning away to detonate a few fingers from me, knocking me breathless and aching to the ground and peppering me with fragmented metal.

I coughed and spat blood, curling in on myself to protect what were surely several cracked ribs. I hoped the blood didn’t mean I’d punctured anything because I was likely days away from a proper medicae.

A high, melodic, and utterly?vengeful?scream filled the air, rattling my bones and twisting my vision for a moment as I looked up to see the Ork who had shot me clutching its head and grunting in pain before-

The figure swept down like the Golden Eagle of Terra, and she was beautiful.

Pale skin, and movements like light dancing on water filled my eyes as she spun gracefully around the Ork. Her weapon, like a whip, only made up of linked and segmented blades and attached to a curving sword handle spun with her, splitting through the Ork like he wasn’t even there until it fell to pieces in a swelter of gore.

He was the last, I realised as I lay curled up on the ground spitting blood. The figure finally arrested her movements and, as she did, I finally got a good look at her sending the bottom right out of my stomach.

“Xeno,” I hissed through bloody lips.

Not just any Xeno either, but an Eldar. Ancient, immortal, and unspeakably devious, the Eldar lied as most races breathed, twisting words and meanings to suit their unfathomable alien agenda.

She must have heard me because she turned to face me the moment the word left my lips.

She was almost naked and I flushed in spite of myself. Her cuirass was slashed such that it barely deserved the name, suggesting far more than it covered. Her modesty below her waist was preserved only by the narrowest piece of fabric and a long, black, tabard-like length of cloth that fell and fluttered between her legs on both sides and bore Eldar script flowing across it.

Bladed vambraces and greaves covered her arms and legs up to her elbows and knees on her left side, and up to her shoulder and hip on her right, and her long red hair fell a smooth, waterfall of fire around her face and back.

And impossibly, she was utterly free of blood.

The Eldar approached slowly, and although I had no idea why she had saved me, I was even more certain now than I had been when I was surrounded by Orks, that I was about to die.

I maglocked my bolter, pulled my chipped combat knife, and brandished it at her, swinging the short, notched length between us.

“Begone, witch!” I spat as I tried to stagger to my feet, failed, and dropped to my knees, “I will not… I am not…”

I gasped, my breath was coming in short waves, and my vision swam, and she approached me speaking in her sibilant, twisting alien tongue.

“The Emperor protects me, xeno witch!” I shakily held up the knife, knowing it was a laughable defense against something capable of annihilating a company’s worth of Orks in the span of a few moments.

She regarded me impassively for a few moments, then shook her weapon a few times to clear it of any remains, coiled it around her waist, locked it there, and extended her hand to me.

I stared at it dumbly.

“W-What?” I looked past it up to her. “What am I supposed to-”

“You are on the ground,” the Eldar said in softly accented gothic. “I am offering you a hand up.”

“I’m… you what?”

I lowered my blade as she stood unmoving with her hand outstretched. This had to be a trick, but what was the point? I wasn’t a useful tool, I was half dead. She didn’t need to trick me to kill me, in fact, she could probably just knock me over and step on my throat, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

The Eldar narrowed her eyes at me, then stepped closer, knelt, and put a hand on my cheek.

I shivered at the coolness of the metal as she cradled my cheek almost gently, turning my head this way and that as she stared into my eyes with those unearthly, alien orbs of hers.

“Concussed,” she said after a moment, “you are wounded as well, do not move.”

She stepped away for a moment and fished through a small pocket concealed within her gauntlets, and drew out a tiny shard of some rich red gemstone, knelt by me again, and pressed it to my head.

Before I could protest, she let out a small, trilling note, and I felt my body seem to realign with itself with an almost violent jerk of motion. The moment passed and I was left feeling invigorated, my mind felt focused and sharper than it had in days as if I’d just eaten a full meal and followed it up with a good night’s rest.

She stowed the gem back from wherever it had come, stood again, and extended her hand once more.

“Better?” the Eldar asked, and I nodded dully.

I stared at the proffered limb for a moment before swallowing hard, reaching out, and putting my hand in hers. She took it with surprising strength and hauled me to my feet, and I was further surprised to realise how tall she was.

She was like a human had been stretched, but not poorly. Her arms, legs, and torso were willowy and corded with lean muscle. Her face was a study in pale, graceful curves, and her eyes…

God-Emperor forgive me, but her eyes were so beautiful.

“Come,?Cre’yth,” she spoke with that curiously lilted accent of hers as she stepped past me, nodding for me to follow. “Orks are drawn to the sounds of battle, and will be among us shortly.”

She walked past me without another word, and I stared after her for several seconds as I considered my options.

The Eldar hadn’t threatened me, hadn’t lied to me, hadn’t attempted to manipulate me, nor had she spoken more than tersely to me over our short interaction. More than that, she had expended what appeared to be some kind of witchery to heal me, but from the way the gem had lost its luster immediately after I could only assume it wasn’t something that could be done again.

Now she was leaving and… what?

Offering for me to come with her?

“We make for that building,?Cre’yth,” she gestured towards a lesser spire that was crowded by some of the larger ones. “It is subdued and small, and so less likely to be infested with Orks for now.”

I realised, belatedly, that I was following her, and halted as a shiver went down my spine.

“What did you do to me?” I snapped, my hand going to the combat knife at my waist even knowing it would be less than useless. “I… I am a sacred sister of the Adeptus Sororitas, a Daughter of the Emperor, and you will not worm into my mind, witch!”

She turned and regarded me with something like amusement.

“Wych, you call me,” she chuckled, and it was a warm, throaty sound tickled at my mind. “Accurate, but also wrong, for I know what it is you mean,?Cre’yth, and I am no wielder of such powers.”

“All your kind truck with the Warp, Eldar,” I accused pointedly, taking a step back from her, and she frowned.

“Once more, you are wrong and right, but either way we must leave here unless you wish to join your fellows in the Orkish cookpots,” she remarked dismissively, and my heart wrenched.

You saw my sisters being-” I choked on the notion, I had thought it better they were dead but the…

“Sisters?” she cocked her head, then shrugged in a curiously human gesture. “I do not know if they were your sisters, but they were human, and humans look much alike to me.”

As terrible as it was, I felt a measure of comfort that the ones the Eldar had seen may not have been my fellow Sororitas, but civilians of Amphitria. Of course, it ought to have been no better to know that the faithful of the Imperium were filling the bellies of the monstrous Greenskins, but to my shame I had to admit that it was different.

“I… I see,” I breathed out a quiet sigh, “still, I cannot trust your kind, Eldar… you are liars and manipulators to your cores, and you will betray me, so sayeth the Imperial Creed.”

“Were I any other Aeldari, I would agree with you,” she replied, and I felt wrong-footed at her agreement, “but I am here for a singular purpose.”

“And what is that, Eldar?” I stressed the word, but she didn’t rise to my, admittedly childish, bait.

Instead she turned to regard me with an expression that struck me to my core. It wasn’t because it was alien, it was because it was so very, very… human. She looked empty, broken, and…

Lonely?

“I am here to die,” she said simply.