"The corruption hasn't been fully purged yet."
After finishing off Kye, Qin Mo turned and headed in a new direction.
Yaoen, puzzled, followed closely behind, wondering if there could be yet another demon hidden within the fortress.
"Yaoen," Qin Mo suddenly called out as they walked.
Yaoen immediately hurried to his side. "I'm here."
"What you just saw was a demon," Qin Mo explained as he strode forward. "Demons are entities from the Warp… or as some call it, the High Heavens. What they are called doesn't really matter to you."
"They're difficult to kill, but not impossible."
Qin Mo then began recounting various examples for Yaoen. He spoke of the demon in the Thousand Sons' story, whose fragmented body could no longer return to the material universe unless all the pieces were gathered. He also touched upon demon hosts, explaining that a demon's host doesn't always resemble the demon itself. Some hosts may even share a soul with the demon... It was clear that Qin Mo wanted Yaoen to understand as much as possible.
However, Qin Mo withheld one piece of information: the method of using a demon's true name against it. On the one hand, true names are incredibly difficult to discover; on the other, Qin Mo didn't know a single true name. Besides, even if one knew a demon's true name, reciting it would take time. Once, a Grey Knight took over an hour reciting a true name during a battle, and anyone else would have been slain by the demon long before.
Listening to all of this, Yaoen's face beneath his helm displayed an array of emotions—terror, bewilderment, astonishment. "I always thought demons were just something adults used to scare children," Yaoen marveled. "I used to frighten my own child, telling her demons would come for her if she misbehaved."
"Is your child also an Untouchable?" Qin Mo suddenly asked.
The gene for Untouchables was notoriously difficult to pass on. The Imperium had even attempted cloning experiments to mass-produce them, but all had failed.
"She is," Yaoen nodded. "Many people despise her, even though she's just a baby."
Qin Mo gave a brief nod, refraining from discussing Yaoen's family any further. He wouldn't drag Yaoen's entire family into the fray—they had already done enough for him as the new governor.
"In any case, this won't be the last time you encounter a demon. You'll face many more in the future, and I can't be everywhere at once. I need you."
Hearing Qin Mo's words, Yaoen nodded seriously and began to ponder. Unable to suppress his thoughts, Yaoen finally asked, "May I think aloud and ask a question?"
"You may," Qin Mo replied.
"The demons come from the Warp, or the High Heavens," Yaoen began. "If they exist, does that mean there are... perhaps evil gods they worship as well?"
Qin Mo responded without hesitation. "Of course. Those dark gods wield insidious power, corrupting mortals through their desires. The more radiant a soul appears in the Warp, the more likely it is to attract the attention of the dark gods, driving the individual to madness."
"You've heard of the Champion of Khorne incident," Qin Mo continued. "The gladiator known as Hammer, who was once a good man, became corrupted. After that, he began killing indiscriminately—not for pleasure, but simply to weed out the weak."
"And remember David, the one you dealt with earlier? He was corrupted too."
Qin Mo's revelations, though spoken in a calm tone, only deepened Yaoen's terror. These were truths Yaoen had never known. Yet, he wasn't afraid of the demons themselves; in fact, he felt it was a holy war. What terrified him was the idea of being corrupted himself.
The thought of a good man turning bloodthirsty out of nowhere was far more frightening than facing any demon.
Seeing Yaoen's fear, Qin Mo reassured him. "Everyone in this galaxy is at risk of corruption, except for me and your family. You're an Untouchable, a soulless one. If even you could be corrupted, we'd all be doomed."
"That's a relief! Haha," Yaoen laughed, instantly feeling lighter.
"That demon was summoned by a mortal. I can feel it. Someone must have performed a ritual and gathered the materials needed to bring it forth. Let's find whoever summoned it and burn everything they used."
"Yes, sir!"
…
In a room adjacent to the summoning site where Kye had been called forth, a sorcerer lay chained to an iron bed.
His body had been mutilated beyond recognition, yet he remained conscious, the drugs heightening his senses while keeping him alert. The pain was so intense that it would have driven any normal man mad, yet the sorcerer's skinless face bore a wide grin.
He had tricked Arken, coaxing him into sacrificing his beloved daughter. Watching Arken's hesitation, his inner turmoil before the act, and his agony and guilt afterward brought the sorcerer immense pleasure. Far from feeling broken, he felt a deep sense of accomplishment.
The door was suddenly torn open, and Qin Mo and Yaoen entered the room.
Seeing the two strangers, the sorcerer's first instinct wasn't to beg for mercy or tremble in fear. Instead, he eagerly shared his twisted joy with them.
"Hahaha... You know, the governor loved his daughter dearly. A wandering trader once brought him an ancient relic of technology that granted eternal youth. But there was only one, and the governor gave it to his daughter without hesitation."
"When I made him sacrifice her... oh, how he struggled! Hahaha! What a masterpiece. Truly my finest work! *Cough cough*!"
As the sorcerer relished his sick triumph, his body trembled, rattling the chains that connected his bones to the bed. His excitement caused him to tug on the chains, and the pain from his wounds made him cough violently.
Hearing his vile laughter, Qin Mo stepped forward and shattered the sorcerer's jaw with a punch. "I don't care about your little rebellion against the governor. Tell me—where are the items you used to summon the demon?"
Qin Mo twisted the sorcerer's flesh, restoring his mouth so he could speak.
But the sorcerer only laughed more, spouting incomprehensible gibberish that made no sense to Qin Mo.
Already having little patience for psykers, Qin Mo's tolerance plummeted to its limit.
Though the sorcerer's words were madness, Qin Mo realized something was amiss. He couldn't sense the summoning materials. It was strange—unless all the items used to summon the demon came from the material universe... but how could that be?