Chapter 99: The Dawn Finally Comes!
The Hive Fleet's offensive came at the perfect time.
It was exactly when the ritual had been intercepted by the transmigrators, who were forcibly trading souls for the Legion of the Damned.
It was exactly when the fight between Karna and the Hive Tyrant was at its most intense, as Titans battled amidst the steel and Skitarii fought a desperate struggle against the swarm in crater-filled defensive lines.
But before they could even catch their breath, another blade, accompanied by a boundless city wall of flesh, surged towards them.
SWISH!
A blood-stained spear cut through flesh. The flames that rose from his wrath twisted the air. Through the slightly distorted light, Karna, who was still fiercely battling the Hive Tyrant, saw that the space before him was filled with enemies.
A dense, endless sea of enemies.
At the same instant, the Skitarii at the feet of the Titans also spotted the enemy. The astonishment lasted for a fraction of a second, and then the ice-cold, gear-like discipline of the Adeptus Mechanicus prevented them from breaking. Instead, they focused even more intently on slaughtering their foes.
"Burn! Perish!"
The flames of wrath soared. A thick jet of fire pierced through the enemy ranks, leaving a trail of magma. The fire, like a tide swallowing a beach, rolled on until it crashed against a reef.
"ROAR!"
At the very front of the swarm, a Norn Emissary had already charged forward. It was a terrifying behemoth.
With a swat of his spear, Karna knocked aside the Hive Tyrant, then fluidly caught the Norn Emissary's cleaving blow.
Cold, brutal, hungry!
Karna clearly felt the will behind this power. The brutal insect swung its massive blade and slammed it down.
For the first time, the crimson angel chose to retreat.
The martial arts that had been inscribed onto his body along with the endless wrath told him that no matter how angry he was, he had to retreat. Only by retreating could he seize the chance to win.
But the Norn Emissary would absolutely not give its opponent this chance. It had sacrificed its synapse-node capabilities, lost those psychic powers, in exchange for the ultimate in close-combat prowess.
And on top of that, it had the Hive Tyrant to help encircle him.
Karna was forced to kite, to pull back, even as the fury of battle burned his arms through his blood-stained spear. He was restraining the Black Rage.
Thump, thump, thump—
A Carnifex broke through the blockade of fire and charged straight for the sluggish humans.
CRUNCH!
A human body, already weighing several hundred kilograms after mechanical modification, was sent flying. The Carnifex spat a volley of bio-spines from its mouth, destroying a Skitarii combat-automata.
The endless swarm began to break through the Skitarii's blockade, climbing onto the Titan's body, gnawing at its cables, trying to devour the enemy within.
This was the Hive Fleet. Every time you thought you had victory in your grasp, it could produce more, stronger enemies to drag you into despair.
The Hive Fleet looked greedily at the angel before it.
It would devour the angel's genes and spawn an even more powerful hunter!
"Haha." The angel laughed and raised his spear. The battle would continue. It was as if the bloody struggle would never end until his own blood ran dry.
The Hive Tyrant was the first to roar and charge forward.
SQUELCH!
Several figures, moving at extreme speed, flashed past.
It was Tyberos and Orlando. In an instant, they had broken through the Hive Tyrant's already failing defenses and had kicked the behemoth out of the dueling ring that no longer belonged to it.
The Astartes all found their opponents amidst the cannon fire, ready to end their lives even at the cost of their own.
BOOM!
Countless artillery shells flew through the air. This was the fire from the Cadians, accurately covering the Norn Emissary, stripping the carapace from the beast, which was not protected by any ritual.
"For our tomorrow!"
It was the countless crusade soldiers. They surged against the Hive Fleet, their sergeants carrying their banners forward.
One man, shot in the chest, fell. He was a worker from the underhive.
Another picked up the banner and continued forward. He was a scavenger from the bottom-hive.
Another pushed aside a corpse and carried the banner forward. He was a once-respectable merchant from the Upper Hive.
They used their lives to build a wall, to rescue the Titan Helios from the swarm's encirclement.
They were coming.
The steel in the distance, with a rumbling sound, was getting closer.
They were coming.
BOOM!
The Titan, its crew now regrouped, fired again. This shot finally shattered the Hierophant's skull.
And behind that crimson stream of fire, the iron tide arrived.
Again, and again!
Are these creatures not afraid of death? What are their emotional brains even for?!
The Hive Mind, for a rare moment, showed an emotion of exasperation. The Norn Emissary tore through the covering fire, wanting to break into the damned crowd. The burning carapace on its head split at its two horns, becoming three streams of fire.
It was, literally, fuming with rage!
"THUMP!"
The angel landed again, blocking the Norn Emissary's path.
And the heavy armored units, under Romulus's command, continued to fire without pause.
Melta-weapons, streams of volcano cannon fire, overloaded plasma—all licked at the two combatants locked in their melee. The energy-laden damage stripped the flesh from the Norn Emissary, shattered its joints. But on the angel's body, on the body beneath that brilliant light, it only scraped the armor and scorched the skin.
More and more people arrived on the battlefield, pointing their weapons at the enemy.
The behemoth that had been so fearsome a moment ago was now like a fragile reef being battered by a great wave. With every moment it was engulfed, it was on the verge of breaking!
"Hahaha!"
Karna, with a crazed smile, with the help of the endless cannon fire, plunged his blood-stained spear into the Norn Emissary's skull.
The Norn Emissary had traded its synapse-node abilities and its damaging psychic powers for unparalleled physical prowess and resistance. But now.
Now that the burning spear had pierced its body.
When the angel's great wrath had ignited an endless flame, when the tip of his spear had finally broken its defenses.
"Come, burn with me! Walk with me into death!"
BOOM—
With a roar from the Empyrean, as if it had suddenly reached a critical point, the Norn Emissary completely burst into flames. Countless sparks swirled around it, like moths to a flame.
Karna held on tightly to his spear, his eyes fixed on the enemy that was gradually dissipating in the flames. The Blood God's fire was also scorching his body, trying to drag him directly into Khorne's embrace.
The Blood God was destined to be disappointed. When the flames burned out, the Norn Emissary's body was gone without a trace.
Karna fell from the sky, almost numb to the pain in his body. He just looked at his own hands. The armor had been vaporized, the flesh was gone. The charred bones of his hands were drifting in the wind, giving him the illusion that they no longer belonged to him.
But now, it was all over.
The enemy had turned to ash, and he was still alive.
And—
The angel looked at the crowd below, at the people who had torn through a sea of Tyranids just to get to his side, and let out a faint smile.
I was never fighting alone.
"Angel!"
A furious meteor streaked across the sky. Ka'Bandha, having finally broken free from Kairos, beat his wings and arrived.
He had witnessed the angel's fearlessness, his sacrifice, the great wrathful flame that had burned the enemy to nothing. This made Ka'Bandha beat his wings with excitement, and he couldn't help but remember a time ten thousand years ago.
Yes, this is how it all began.
He watched the exhausted angel fall from the sky. He watched the satisfied smile on the angel's face at the moment of the enemy's defeat.
That smile.
Ka'Bandha gripped his axe, already imagining the eternal war the two of them would wage on the Blood God's plains after the angel's ascension.
That damned smile!
SMACK!
A pair of ethereal blue claws grabbed the flying Ka'Bandha, stopping him in his tracks.
Kairos, having just emerged from a teleportation spell, used his metal-sorcery. The armor on Ka'Bandha's body began to melt, to gnaw at the Bloodthirster's body.
Behind him, a jagged rift opened, its spinning claws about to swallow them both.
Thank the heavens. The angel had allowed him to see the present again. He had finally stopped the Blood God's plot. Since the Lord of Change's plan had brought him here, Kairos would not let the Blood God get his way.
"NO!!!"
A crowd of people surged forward. Astartes, Sisters of Battle, Ecclesiarchy priests, Imperial civilians.
In the final moment of his vision, Ka'Bandha saw countless people rushing towards the direction of the angel's fall. In that instant, his joy was annihilated, and a boundless fury surged into his mind.
At least, let me grab the angel's hand!
He reached out in vain, but Kairos's self-destructive spell held him fast. Ka'Bandha could only watch as he was slowly swallowed up, slowly returned to the Warp, slowly pulled away! Pulled away by the two-headed blue eagle.
"TZEENTCH!!!"
"Ritual protection complete. Lord of Change討伐 complete," Arthur's voice came through. "Yes, the area defense can be handled by the Legion of the Damned."
In the distance, Arthur stepped on the scorching ground, the head of a daemon falling at his side, dissipating in the hot wind.
"Yes, the Legion of the Damned is completely safe. The initial version of the Stormcast project is complete. The ritual needs to be maintained. I will continue to report on the research progress. Okay, I'll have him compile a basic manual on Warp-knowledge."
He was reporting the results to Romulus.
For Romulus, Ramesses's rambling was a lot of hot air, and his tone was too high-flown. Compared to listening to that guy raise his blood pressure with his research data, a short, direct assurance from his best friend was much more comforting.
At Arthur's side was Ramesses, who had run away again after taking down the Greater Daemon and had just returned to the real universe, leading his retinue and the Legion of the Damned-possessed Inquisitor Aglaia.
"Okay, seal the passage to sector NE-6. We are proceeding there now."
They glanced from a distance at the angel, who was now surrounded by a crowd, then turned and, with the burning soldiers, stepped into the rift the sorcerer had opened, heading for their next battlefield.
Yes, the war would continue.
The transmigrators' repeated efforts had only managed to tip the scales back from the brink. The enemies would not just vanish into thin air. They still existed. The road to victory was still long, and humanity still had to bleed.
But, as the people turned the tide again and again, as humanity ground the enemy's attacks into dust time and time again—
A miracle.
A most wondrous and epic coincidence was about to manifest.
As the people continued to shed their blood to fight for survival.
As the angel, supported by the masses, once again became a soaring banner.
As the knight and the sorcerer, with their nameless company, departed for the next battlefield.
As Commander Romulus once again integrated the information, preparing to face the Hive Fleet's counter-attack with his new forces.
As a communication from beyond the stars suddenly rang out.
"This is the Black Templars. This is the Eternal Crusader. I am High Marshal Helbrecht. Respond if you receive."
"This is the Claw of Law. I am Chapter Master Aelon Laseus of the Nemesis Chapter."
"This is the Blade of Vengeance. I am First Captain Pedro Kantor of the Crimson Fists."
"This is the Blade of Ruin. I am High Chaplain Thulsa Kane of the Executioners."
"..."
One fully open audio transmission after another came through the joint fleet's comms. Even the signal receivers on the hive's surface could pick them up. One Imperial identification code after another was authenticated. The gravity sensors were constantly reporting that warships were entering the Pierdra system from the Mandeville Point.
It was the fleet of the Imperium of Man.
Everyone held their breath. In the command center, almost all eyes were on the commander who had allowed humanity to hold on until now.
Romulus looked at the fleets pouring into the star system. His hand relaxed, then tightened. He took a deep breath.
He suddenly understood that feeling.
The feeling of the scattered branches of humanity in the Age of Strife, struggling under the fire of the xenos, when they saw countless starships, broadcasting the banner of humanity, enter their system.
That voice seemed to say.
Our fleets will blot out the suns, no matter how many suns there are in the sky.
That voice seemed to say to all of humanity.
The dawn has finally come!
"This is Joint Fleet Command, Romulus," he replied, opening the communication link.
"Lord Romulus—" High Marshal Helbrecht was continuously receiving the combat logs from the crusade fleet. A light of reverence climbed into his eyes.
"Give us your orders!"
(End of Chapter)