Chapter 334: Destroy the Evil Li Nuo! |
The eyes of the Imperium of Man and the Palu Empire were focused on the site of the ascension. Everyone had forgotten an ignorable role—Alpharius.
Granite-5.
This planet had already fallen. Demons and Chaos Orks ran rampant, and everywhere was filled with a thick, impenetrable despair and dead silence.
Rustle...
Sand and gravel slipped, and shallow footprints appeared on the soft sand dunes.
Alpharius turned on his stealth field, walking soundlessly through the desolate wilderness.
Granite-5 was beyond saving. Its orbital towers and numerous aviation facilities had fallen under the control of demons and Chaos Orks.
Alpharius was traveling on foot toward an Ork landing pad where the defenses were relatively weak.
He intended to find an opportunity there to leave this planet.
The sound of a venomous snake flicking its tongue was like a maraca gently shaking.
Alpharius stopped and looked warily toward the source of the noise, discovering that a figure had appeared there at some unknown point.
"A lizardman?" Alpharius narrowed his eyes, feeling somewhat surprised.
Having lived for so many years, this was his first time knowing that lizardmen existed in this world, and one had actually appeared on Granite-5.
Was this a coincidence?
As the lizardman's inverted-triangle eyes looked over, Alpharius knew the other party's appearance was no coincidence.
This lizardman had come for him.
"Who are you?" Alpharius asked in a low voice while keeping his stealth field active and turning on his external speakers.
His voice was masked by the wind, but the lizardman heard it clearly.
"As you can see, I am a lizardman."
"Hmph, stop acting mysterious. If you want to leave this planet, follow me quietly and don't cause trouble. Otherwise, please leave."
Alpharius weighed the Heavy Bolter in his hand, considering whether to give the other party a shot so this xenos wouldn't expose his whereabouts.
"This is our second meeting, Alpharius. When we met last time, you weren't nearly this hostile."
"Second meeting?" Alpharius dug through his memories, but did not remember such a thing.
The lizardman chuckled.
"Oh, didn't your great Emperor tell you about the sub-universe?"
Alpharius frowned. "Sub-universe? What is that?"
He raised his gun muzzle, resting his finger on the trigger.
Alpharius felt as if he were being corrupted by chaos, and instinctively assumed an offensive stance.
"You'd best explain yourself clearly. My bullets don't have eyes."
The lizardman dropped its smile, and a teasing look appeared in its eyes.
It raised its left hand and traced its fingertips through the air.
Clatter...
The Heavy Bolter turned into countless grains of sand and slipped through his fingers.
Alpharius watched in shock as his weapon vanished into thin air.
"I think you can listen to me seriously now." The lizardman clasped its hands behind its back and strolled toward Alpharius. "Let me tell you the truth of the matter. You are Alpharius, master of the Alpha Legion, the Emperor's twentieth son. But as you can see, you do not command a Space Marine legion, and merely carry out dirty and dark espionage missions as the Emperor's secret agent. Pathetic, isn't it? The culprit behind all this is not your Emperor, but a transmigrator named 'Li Nuo'..."
The lizardman slowly recounted the entire story of "Li Nuo's" transmigration.
The story it told was identical to the "transmigration process" presented to Li Nuo by the Emperor and the Book of Destiny.
The narrative logic and detail descriptions were very well done, but obviously, Alpharius would not believe the other party so easily.
"A very nice story. Unfortunately for me, the story you tell is no different from a fairy tale, and lacks conviction."
Alpharius drew another Heavy Bolter from his lower back.
Clatter...
The second gun followed in the footsteps of the first, blending with the yellow sand on the ground.
The lizardman lowered its spellcasting left hand, resumed its stance with both hands clasped behind its back, and spoke unhurriedly.
"I know you don't believe me, Alpharius, but that's fine. I will convince you. Just as I said, Li Nuo occupied a portion of your twin brother's Warp essence, and thus can freely transfer his consciousness between different Orks. Using this as a foundation, he established an Ork empire named 'Palu'."
"I don't have a twin brother," Alpharius could not help interrupting, immediately feeling his throat tighten so he could no longer make a sound.
The lizardman continued speaking.
"The bad news is that Li Nuo is using that portion of Warp essence to become the True God of the Palu Orks. You may never be able to snatch that portion of Warp essence back.
"The good news is that I happen to have a portion of Omegon's Warp essence in my hands. It can grant you... heh heh heh..."
The lizardman let out a sinister laugh that made one's hair stand on end.
"It can grant you the ability to possess demons. You heard right, the ability to possess demons. You can freely transfer your consciousness between demons, just like Li Nuo, and build a demon empire. How about it? Interested? As long as you nod, this portion of Warp essence is yours."
The tightening sensation on his throat vanished, and Alpharius recovered his ability to speak.
"If you have such powerful Warp essence, why don't you use it yourself? I am loyal to the Imperium and loyal to the Emperor. Even if you really have Warp essence capable of controlling demons in your hands, I would never use it..."
"Heh." The lizardman flashed forward. The fingertips of its right hand pierced through the armor on Alpharius's chest, stabbing into his torso before bursting out his back with a squelch.
Thump, thump... A scarlet heart beat within the lizardman's right hand.
Only then did Alpharius realize he had been attacked, yet he could not move at all.
The lizardman withdrew its right arm from inside the other party's body and, right in front of Alpharius, crushed the heart in its hand.
Foul blood splattered out and dirtied his visor. Alpharius's field of vision blurred, and intense dizziness and cold invaded his brain and body.
His breathing grew heavy. "You... you..."
"Too weak, Alpharius. Like this, how could you help the God-Emperor defeat the mighty Palu Empire?"
While speaking in a graceful tone, the lizardman sliced through the void with its fingertip and took out a slimy, foul-smelling thing wreathed in black mist from a Dimensional Pocket.
Aligning it with the hole in Alpharius's chest, it pushed and pressed hard. With a squelch, the black entity was forcibly squeezed into Alpharius's chest cavity, becoming his new heart.
"Properly feel the joy of controlling and enslaving demons."
The lizardman pulled out its right hand, brought its fingertips to its mouth, and extended a slender tongue to savor Alpharius's blood as if intoxicated.
It turned and walked away like it was taking a leisurely stroll, its figure gradually fading.
Clutching his chest, Alpharius felt a powerful and evil force seizing his body and hammering his head.
On the verge of losing consciousness, he fell to the ground and stretched his right hand toward the lizardman's back.
"Why... why..."
Without turning its head, the lizardman raised its right hand and waved behind itself.
"There aren't that many whys. I just feel it's more amusing this way. I look forward to more demon varieties appearing; only then will this world be interesting enough."
The lizardman vanished.
Alpharius's head tilted, and he fell unconscious.
After half an hour, Alpharius slowly woke up.
He immediately touched his chest, discovering to his surprise that his body and armor were restored to normal, as if everything that happened earlier had just been a dream.
Yet inside his chest cavity, that unusual heartbeat rhythm told him a heart that did not belong to him, possessing immense might, was beating inside his body.
"Controlling... demons..." Alpharius supported himself on the ground and stood up. "Utterly absurd."
He instinctively reached for where his weapons were kept, but grasped empty air.
His primary weapon and backup weapon had already been crushed into dust by the lizardman.
Alpharius looked at his completely empty palms, curling and opening his fingers as he tried to find a handy weapon.
As if responding to his desire, psionic energy ripples flowing like a trickle poured out from his chest cavity and gathered toward his palm.
Alpharius's pupils shrank slightly.
In his palm, he saw a cluster of black mist.
This gas transformed into an arrow symbol, pointing at several dark dots not far away.
The scanning module of his visor told Alpharius those were several demons wandering the wilderness—the lowest-grade kind that did not even have fixed outlines. They grew into whatever they ate, looking abhorrent.
"Controlling... demons."
Alpharius narrowed his eyes, feeling a stir in his heart.
The black arrow in his palm shot out, entering the body of a certain low-grade demon in the blink of an eye.
The next instant, Alpharius's eyes glazed over as he stood blankly in place, while that low-grade demon shuddered, its eyes overflowing with shock and joy!
He really could control demons!
...
...
Imperial Palace of Terra, the Golden Throne.
Four primarchs met with the God-Emperor and learned the truth of the sub-universe, as well as the true origin of their enemy—"Li Nuo".
The God-Emperor formed a golden avatar, walked away from the throne, and came before the holographic sand table to share the battle plan he had devised with his four sons.
"The Palu Orks used Warp shadow technology to lock down that star system, cutting off any possibility of us reaching the target location via Warp navigation. Your legions can only rush to the battlefield through the Webway."
The God-Emperor pointed a psionic energy beam at the green area on the holographic sand table.
"No fewer than one hundred billion Orks are gathered here, but the vast majority of Orks are merely drudges contributing faith energy for the evil Li Nuo, possessing no combat capability. The enemies you will face are the more than ten million Palu Ork regular troops locking down the Webway exit. They possess nearly one thousand warships, one hundred and ten of which are battleships. The Palu Orks' regular forces consist primarily of armored Orks equipped with Gauss Weapons and personal defense fields, with individual combat strength equal to the mortal elites of the Solar Auxilia."
More than ten million Orks with combat strength equal to Solar Auxilia elites sounded like a huge number, but in front of the Imperium of Man, it was not worth mentioning at all.
The Palu Orks holding out until now was entirely because they controlled the Webway exit, allowing them to concentrate these more than ten million Ork warriors and lock down the Imperium of Man's sole direction of attack.
If it were changed to another location, such as a small star system in the galaxy, these more than ten million Ork warriors would definitely be scattered during combat. Their fighting strength would drop drastically, leaving them unqualified to even fill the teeth of the Space Marine legions.
"Father, I will lead the Inner Circle warriors to carve a bloody path for the Imperium," Lion El'Jonson said, his golden short hair shining alongside the golden avatar of the God-Emperor.
"No, Lion, the duty of taking the vanguard belongs to none other than us Space Wolves," Leman Russ immediately followed up.
"We crossed blows with the elites of the Palu Orks, and understand these greenskins better than you do. Trust me, the Space Wolves will open a path forward for the Imperium's warriors at the fastest possible speed."
Russ patted his chest and let out a muffled growl.
"The wolves do not fear sacrifice! It's settled, leave the pathfinding work to us!"
Everyone looked toward the God-Emperor, who gave them a slight nod, settling the choice of vanguard right then.
The God-Emperor enlarged the green area, displaying dozens of bloated warships on the holographic sand table as he introduced them.
"These are the Palu Orks' ecological ships, engineering ships, and Warp shadow ships. Your primary attack targets are the ecological ships. There is no need to eliminate them; just paralyze the life-support systems aboard the ships, and Li Nuo's evil ascension plan will be aborted. Then you can take your time dealing with this pack of sin-filled creatures..."
This discussion lasted several hours.
Later that same day, four Space Marine legions totaling over fifty thousand Space Marines entered the Webway through the Golden Gate, setting foot on the expedition outside the galaxy.
To stop Li Nuo from becoming a god, the God-Emperor spared no expense.
Alongside the fifty thousand Space Marines followed twenty-five million mortal soldiers. The scale of the fleet was unprecedentedly massive, with three hundred battleships alone.
Facing such behemoths, the Eldar fleet dared not jump around or show the slightest neglect even though they mastered Webway navigation technology.
Elina personally stepped out, leading the Harlequin Troupe to welcome the four primarchs and guide the Imperium of Man's fleet toward Li Nuo's ascension location.
The convenience of Webway navigation was displayed to the fullest at this moment.
Facing the Webway gate, the tech-priests of the legions were almost dumbstruck. The logic circuits inside their brains ran at high speed, yet they remained unable to crack the technology behind the Webway gate.
The Augur Array scanning the Webway parameters ran under high load, and the Cogitator Array responsible for reverse-engineering the Webway technology surged with dense static noise.
All technical personnel across the entire fleet were immersed in Webway technology. Even those warriors who did not understand technology sighed with emotion again and again, fantasizing about the wonderful scenes after the Imperium mastered the Webway.
"Everyone, we are about to arrive at the terminus, and combat will break out next."
Elina spoke in front of the sand table.
"The last time the Eldar fleet engaged the Palu Orks was six hours ago. The Palu Orks launched a surging counterattack against us, and we suffered heavy losses, forcing us to fully retreat to the Webway space near the terminus station to reorganize. Later, when launching a fierce assault on the Webway gate, the Eldar fleet will strike from the flank..."
Before she finished speaking, Leman Russ waved his hand and interrupted Elina.
"No need. The Space Wolves will handle everything. After passing through that space ahead, it's the Webway gate leading to the ascension site, right? Since that's the case, we don't need to waste time here anymore. Let's start the attack right now."
Elina hesitated to speak, ultimately choosing to yield to the human Imperium fleet with its numerous personnel.
Leman Russ returned to his flagship and led the Space Wolves' fleet in launching a charge.
The fleets of the Dark Angels, Raven Guard, and Blood Angels fell half a beat behind, following closely after the Space Wolves to charge toward the Webway gate at the terminus station.
Yet strangely, not a single Palu Ork appeared along the way.
Near the Webway gate, there was a deathly silence.
