40K x AOT: Warden of Sorrows

Trillions upon trillions of light years away, the vestage of what looked like an armored machine floated motionlessly. As it floated away In the endless void of space, reality began to morph. From within it, a horde of monstrous creatures burst out, completely devouring the Space Marines figure and traveling out into even further reaches of the cosmos.

.....

"Nonsense, how would a stranger know of things only we know of?" Across from the fat man, an elderly man in a black robe with intricate white designs slammed his fist on the table with an angry expression.

"This is NOT the time to be so relaxed! This 'outsider' has told me of his knowledge about titans being innthw walls! There's clearly a rat amongst us!" The high priest concluded.

The fat clergyman across from him squinted his eyes and sighed.

"Fine, I'll have an investigation conducted, but you need to try to figure out what else he knows and how he knows it! He's been quite the pest in the last 2 years! I'd love to see his execution myself." He spoke slyly.

"Why the hell must I keep communicating with that heretic!? Just make something up and have him arrested! I'm sure he cares about his image even if he is a war machine, he wouldn't kill the Military Police!" The priest argued.

Beads of sweat began rolling down his face at the thought of trying to deceive that animal. Just talkin in his presence felt like a task in and of itself!

"Because we need EVIDENCE you imbecile! Leave this place, we're done here! I'll run the internal investigation and you just get information from him. End. Of. Discussion!" He got up and marched oved to the door of his office to leave.

Opening the door, he felt fear only a God could give a man as he looked into the face of death!

"C-C-Ca-Captian Levi! Wh-What buisness do you have here?" He cleared his throat and fixed his posture, rembering who was the higher if the two.

"I received a notice to meet with you. Grand Advisor Armoda." The underlying anger in his tone was like a knife at thw throat of the clergyman. He guilty as if he was trying to absord the sweat back into his skin.

From behind them, the high priest got up and tried to leave, averting his gaze from Levi, but ultimately his eyes went down and he felt the grip of death around his heart, skipping a beat before he quickly ran away.

Seeing this, the Grand Advisor grumbled and clenched his fist.

"Now you listen here..." He mustered all his courage in those words and continued.

"You better not say a single thing about what you've heard today or I will have your head presented to the people on a golden platter for treason! Is this order understood, Levi?"

The soldier looked at the man before him with a warped view. This thing was no man, but something of pure FILTH.

His brain swarmed with thoughts as his eyes sharpened on the man.

How many of him hold place in high society?

How many know the truth?

What about the King?

How many things are they hiding?

Titans in the walls?

Why? How? Since when?

And finally a question for himself.

'What have I actually been fighting for all this time?' With this question his expression grew tense, what the clergyman looked at wasn't the face of a man but a demon!

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT ORDER, CAPTAIN LEVI!?" He intensified and grabbed Levi by his collar.

"I understand it clearly now. I won't say a word." Levi pulled back from the man and moved the hand around his collar before walking away.

As he moved through the building, guards and maids alike kept away from him as they saw the crazed look in his usually blank expression.

Further away, atop a high pillar on the church house, Cloudius watched the High Priest running back towards the church with a face of anxiety and desperation.

He laughed wondering what happened for him to be in such a state, but he had a well thought out guess of what happened.

"Back so soon, heretic?" He rhetorically asked the priest with a smirk.

He looked around and grit his teeth when he saw Cloudius atop his place of purity.

"You get down from there you lunatic! A-And did you just claim me of heresy!? You've spoken nothing but heresy in my ear since I met you! Now come and face judgment!!" He bellowed while poknting accusingly.

Cloudius dropped down from the building, his Godly figure standing before the man and looking down at him like an ant.

"You speak of judgment, but you're no judgment." He said pushing the man stumbling back. He continued while advancing on him slowly.

"You're no soldier. You're no apostle. You're no angel! What are you? Who are you to speak so readily of judgment!? You. Are. Nothing. Just a misguided and uninformed fool. A fool on a worthless planet in an even more worthless part of space. By the Emperor's name, I am The Hammer! I Am Judgment!"

Before he knew it, his hand was firmly wrapped around the man's neck and his teary eyes begged for him to stop.

He rembered his plan, his goals and his duty. He dropped the heretic and inwardly asled the Emperor why he bestowed such a grad task upon him that completely went against what he was made for.

"Today isn't your day, priest of lies." Cloudius said. He had more important things to do and land to ready for the beginning of his operation.

The priest had his roll like all things in life. Cloudius needed patience and so he waited.

.....

A few weeks would pass and the physical exams along with intelligence exams were done for all those who wanted to join the trainees this year. The event was jeld in high regards as many were there, a new record for the kingdom.

Of course this was largly because of Cloudius, but at the same time The damages of wall Maria had been improved to the point of being able to house people again.

Now this wasn't to say it was perfect. There was still much cleaning work to be done and much work tfix everything up, but there was a new program for those that wanted ownership of the land there.

Each person that was approved by this program was loaned one acre of land to cultivate and build upon. However, they had to grow crops or maintain cattle on the land.

Their product would get bout from them at a set price which also included their tax payment for the land. They were expected to keep the land in that condition for 5 years and once that term is over they wouldn't have to farm or herd cattle and would simply be paying land taxes.

Of course this brought in many people as they were basically being given a free generational hustle aling with the land. However, life wasn't so easy.

The aristocrat's would buy up the majority of that land and have their servants work on it. This led to many refugees and low class citizens to seek out work as farmers or shepherds whilst being paid by their employers.

Over the following months, the kingdom seemed to be improving in its way of life albeit by a small margin. Alas, corrupted roots don't grow such wonderful fruits. It takes an experienced lot to spot the corrupted areas and snip them away or completely pull it from the root up.

Deeper into the land within wall Rose, there was a castle within a forested area. It was nearly completely destroyed, but there were signs of construction and repair.

Levi pulled around a wagon filled with the stones laying around and he dropped them off into the piles he had made along the area of the dilapidated walls.

On the other hand, Cloudius used his power to make the rocks hold their form as he used a laser beam to smelt them into each other. Although it was a crude fix at the moment, he would worry about improvements later down then line.

In the two months that they've been fixing this castle up they've gotten only 1 of the two desteoyed walls done. Within the walls, there were a multitude of steaminf corpes. Fresh corpses from titans that appeared from the ground and from the surrounding area.

Of course they wrre taken care of for miles in every direction.

The two men silently worked, only being fueled by their conviction and duty. A duty they both have shared since day one. The duty to rid humanity of abominations and to bring humanity into a new frontier of life/keep chaos from corrupting them.

After a while, Levi stopped and drank from his water bottle. Doing so, he eyed Cloudius with wonder.

"What disturbs you of my being?" He asked while he continued to repair the wall in a qickened pace.

"What exactly are you? Or rather, how were you made? It's as if, you were made to be the ideal human." Levi inqured as he picked his wagon back up and tossed in more stones.

"That I do not know. I remember not the time before I became a Neaophyte. For as long as I can remember I've always been this way. Although my strength and power weren't always this great, I found myself unlocking new aspects of myself and new...functions of my being." He explained.

"So just how much of you is human?"

"Ha! Nothing, me and my brethren come from the Emperor himself as great as any patriarch! I am the vessel of the Emperor's will! I Am His Hammer!" He chanted with vigor.

For a bit there was silence. Only the sound of the laser functioning from time to time and the sound of stone colliding together.

"Do you think we could ever get to that phase? Having the form of technology you weild?" Cloudius looked back at Levi and squinted. This man.

This feeble and very killable man didn't seem to hold any curiosity in the way of becoming an astartes even after hearing and see what Cloudius could do.

"You'd never live to see it. I would focus on the more immediate future if I were you." He replied.

"And how long will you live, 'sir knight'?"

"Who knows? Leaste I have a glorious death at the hands of chaos, I could become an eternal existence. I have brethren that have lived since the Great Heresy of Horus."

"Huh? Who's Horus?"

"Well now I have to go all the way back to the beginning."

"We have time."

"Haah. So, before chapters were a thing, the Emperor had 19 sons..."

As the day continued, Levi would become completely immersed in the world Cloudius had come from while also being certain of never wanting to visit such a place.

During their chatter the two began to learn more of each other. Levi learned more about the guy who wore the armor and Cloudius learned more about the guy who was hailed as Humanities Strongest Soldier.

The two gained a stronger sense of respect towards each other and in turn steeled themselves to prepare for the future they would have to form.

....

Elsewhere, a green eyed boy was performing push-ups with a piece of bread in his mouth outside of an orphanage home. Not too far away, a girl with a red scarf was running around the yard in laps while a blonde kid read a rather thick book off to the side.

A fire was lit in their eyes and this year was the start of everything to come!

...

Heyya! 2k word chaotersince i missed yesterday! Hope you guys enjoy! Cya Tomorrow!