Eroking
patreon
Chapter 84: Let Them Die
🕑 Added 2025-08-12 13:43:13 +0000 UTCChapter 84: Let Them Die
The daemon weapon cheered as the leader's flesh began to disintegrate. Chunks of his body, still clinging to their armor, crawled up the blade of the daemon weapon and fused with the second-in-command's body, covering his Indomitus-pattern Terminator armor with a new layer of living flesh.
"Power! The power is surging!" the second-in-command roared with delight. He then grabbed a Chaos-tainted Inquisitorial stormtrooper and stabbed him as well.
SQUELCH—
He ripped open the mortal's body. A rain of blood fell on his face as the flesh on his own body grew anew. In the areas his ceramite armor could not cover, a dark carapace seeped out, filling every gap.
"Haaaah—" The second-in-command took a deep breath, feeling the surging power within him. "Finally, I no longer have to hold back."
Before him, the other members of the warband, inspired by his example, turned their gazes to their own comrades. They too had been unable to endure it any longer, watching those who had embraced the daemonic grow stronger while they themselves retreated from one battle after another.
What they wanted was power! The power to crush those old nightmares under their feet! They didn't want to run anymore.
And if that meant turning to Chaos, so be it.
"We can wait no longer! We must share these offerings!" the second-in-command roared, his nine mouths beginning to spew a decadent, hypnotic sound.
An emotion quickly spread among every member of the Terminator company, then resonated. They trampled the bones of the Inquisitorial stormtroopers and began to attack the Grand Inquisitor at the core of the ritual.
A bloody infighting began once more. In the Empyrean, the Lord of Change let out a cunning laugh. A force that should have collapsed in on itself was now united under a single goal, while the other side, facing the same threat, was filled with their own selfish schemes. Such a dramatic conflict was truly interesting.
"Are all these Chaos worshippers idiots?" Ramesses asked, his face a mask of astonishment as he lit a daemon-sky-lantern to serve as a scrying eye. How could these Chaos forces not even reach a consensus during a battle? They were being pushed back to their last line of defense, and they were still fighting among themselves?
"What's wrong?" Romulus asked, remotely monitoring the battle.
Arthur slowed the charging troops. The hot air from behind them washed over him, charring the paint on his armor.
"They're infighting," Ramesses reported. "Who knows what they're thinking, but this is our chance." He directly tore open a Warp-vortex, similar to a vortex weapon, erasing the wall in front of them along with the constructs within. He then shielded his nearby comrades with his own psychic power.
A strange light flickered in his eyes. He seemed to have noticed something, his expression gradually growing grim. Every moment of delay was only strengthening the forces of Chaos.
"Go, now!"
The black-clad Avengers leapt into the crater together. Ramesses then used the weakened point in the Warp in this area to initiate a teleport, flinging the entire team tens of kilometers away to the Computation Cogitatorum.
Without a stable defensive formation, the attackers, the moment they touched solid ground, had seized the initiative.
As the rad-weapons disintegrated their comrades into pools of rotten flesh, the Word Bearers, who had been busy slaughtering and fighting over sacrifices, finally came to their senses.
"Come, Dreadwing!" the second-in-command roared, rising fearlessly, his flesh sprouting cannons. "I am not what I once was—"
Before he could finish, a psychic blast tore through the Warp-power surrounding him, lifting his massive, near-Dreadnought-sized body into the air.
The knight charged forward. His blade pierced the man's original skull, then forcefully carved a massive gash along the fragile bone seam. Ramesses teleported to give the Exterminator squads a clear line of fire. Taking advantage of Arthur's breach in the monster's flesh, another psychic blast, this one accompanied by a repulsive force, was poured into it.
Flesh and blood splattered. All that was left on the spot was a mutated skeleton with its mouth agape.
The two of them pressed forward together, a trail of radioactive beams and phosphex streams following in their wake. In front of them, the Word Bearer Terminators instinctively dodged, exposing their comrades who were raising their guns behind them to the baptism of fire.
How could such an enemy stand against them?
Wrath! Only the wrath of vengeance will annihilate you!
Welcome to purgatory.
An iron boot crushed the brittle bones of a Word Bearer.
Traitor.
"Breach the interior!" Having swiftly annihilated the Word Bearers, the Avengers plunged into the interior of the Computation Cogitatorum.
Thanks to the Word Bearers' slaughter, the old Inquisitor's honor guard had little resistance left.
"Welcome, warriors of the Imperium," the old Inquisitor said from behind a psychic barrier, a few fallen Word Bearer Terminators at his side. He seemed to have everything under control.
Ramesses had the newly spawned Glaive fire a shot. The volkite torrent was instantly absorbed, then refracted, piercing through the Glaive.
"Arthur," Ramesses hissed. The black knight charged forward without hesitation.
VMMM—
Arthur poured all his weight into the point of his blade, which then sank into the barrier.
CRACK—
The barrier's automatic repulsion activated, but it passed through the knight, as if the two did not exist on the same plane of reality. Arthur pressed forward against the immense pressure.
"Diocletian! In the name of the Ordo Originatus, I hereby confiscate all that you possess as a Hand of the Emperor!" Aglaia shouted the moment she saw "The Seeker," unhesitatingly producing a sigil and activating it in the unique manner of her Ordo. Within it was a part of "The Seeker's" soul. To place a part of one's soul into a sigil upon first entering the Ordo was a ritual every member of the Ordo Originatus had to undergo.
SQUELCH!
"The Seeker's" body visibly erupted in a fountain of blood.
The black knight's figure shot forward, advancing slowly but unstoppably.
"Damn you! You found the real sigil?" "The Seeker" cursed under his breath. He then noticed the knight closing in on him, step by step, like an emotionless puppet, a killing machine whose sole purpose was to slay him. The barrier, formed from the痛苦 emotions of a trillion souls, was like it didn't even exist, pushed aside by the black knight.
He was at a complete loss.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?! You've ruined the future of the Imperium! I saw Armageddon fall into the flames of war twice! The Beast will rise again!"
"I saw the Orpheus Sector devoured! The ancient dead are awakening!"
"I saw Cadia destroyed, a great rift tearing the galaxy in two, the Imperium's domain reduced by half—" he roared.
"I have spent countless ages to find this holy place! I can know the way to rewrite these tragedies! I was going to sacrifice myself! I was going to leave this glory to you, my most prized student!"
"How could you do this?!"
Aglaia was unmoved. She wouldn't believe a single word of the old bastard's crap! She had seen enough of Chaos's rotten tricks recently. She was never going to get involved with Chaos in this lifetime.
Seeing that his persuasion had failed, "The Seeker" turned to the Astartes. "Astartes! If you do not wish to become traitors to the Imperium a second time, let me complete this calculation! Let me use the fuel rendered from the citizens of the Imperium to win a bright future for it!"
The knight was getting closer. The tip of his blade was now touching his neck.
"No, you can't kill me! The ritual will be destroyed! The minions of the Chaos Gods will take this world!" "The Seeker" tried to retreat, but the barrier formed from countless souls was his cage.
"Kill him!" Arthur commanded himself.
The black sword swept across.
"I—"
The head fell.
ROOOOAR!!!
At almost the same instant, the four great gods of the Empyrean let out a roar, their claws all reaching for this planet.
(End of Chapter)
