Chapter 142: A Genuine Progeny of the Lion |
Pitter-patter.
A light rain had begun to fall from the skies of Optus at some unknown point.
The continuous drizzle slightly obscured their vision, the water sliding down the edges of their armor. Romulus controlled a body to lean closer to Arthur.
"Are you going in first, or should I initiate a teleportation strike?"
"No rush. Share your line of sight with me first."
Just as Romulus was rubbing his hands together in anticipation, eager to lead the Deathwing Knights in a teleportation assault and drag every last one of these wandering stray cats who were currently scratching at each other back by the scruff of their necks, Arthur tapped his own helmet and offered the reminder.
"Hmm?"
Romulus voiced his confusion, but he followed Arthur's gaze down toward the two forces below.
"?"
How did you manage to incite a rebellion among several of the Fallen Angels so quickly?
"I do not need to incite a rebellion,"
Arthur explained, then tilted his head to gesture at the group playing dead on the ground.
"As long as I appropriately reveal my presence to a fraction of them, and as long as I prove that I am also a Fallen Angel, there will simultaneously be those who come to kill me, those who watch from the sidelines, and those who attempt to establish contact with me."
Finally, he added a concluding thought.
"That is just how the Dark Angels operate."
Especially when they lack a leader.
"..."
What an utterly bizarre Legion.
Romulus refocused his attention onto the two forces.
Well, it was more like several forces now.
Not long after Kai had finished delivering his pre-battle declaration, a combat knife was suddenly plunged into the back of a Fallen Angel.
As that Fallen Angel collapsed without a single sound, the assailant yanked the combat knife free and lunged straight at Kai.
But Kai had been on high alert. He took a swift step back to evade the thrust, then used the base of his blade to parry a vicious downward slash.
His hands sank under the weight of the blow, and his ankles pressed slightly deeper into the muddy water. Kai locked his eyes onto the enemy's weapon, deftly flicking the combat knife away into the air. Relying on his towering physique—which was significantly larger than that of an ordinary Space Marine—he unleashed a brutal forward kick.
Thud!
The kick connected solidly, sending the ambushing Fallen Angel flying backward and kicking up a massive spray of muddy water.
"Traitor!"
Kai charged forward, his primal instincts urging him to swing his sword and sever the Fallen Angel's head from its shoulders.
Two hands clamped down on his arm. A Space Marine clad in a crimson tabard struggled slightly as he pulled Kai's hand back.
"Lohr!"
Kai growled.
He did not follow through with his attack, for Lohr had once saved his life.
"That is enough."
Knight Sergeant Evka dragged out the downed Fallen Angel and removed his helmet.
He was still breathing; the combat knife had only neutralized his mobility.
Shing—
Kai silently sheathed his sword, then cast his gaze over the rioting ranks.
Roughly thirty individuals had already descended into a chaotic melee. Kai could barely distinguish that they were likely divided between the Moderates and the Radicals, the latter being the faction he belonged to.
One side advocated for the unification of all Fallen Angels, while the other sought the utter annihilation of any Fallen Angel outside their own ranks.
As for what exactly they intended to accomplish in the grand scheme of things, Kai himself could not fathom.
Damn it all.
Kai unconsciously clenched his fists. Things were never this utterly convoluted when fighting Chaos warbands.
He finally understood where those surface-dwelling Fallen Angels had received the intelligence to prepare for battle.
The skirmish raged on, though the vast majority merely watched in stark silence.
Without the use of firearms, a brawl of this magnitude would find it rather difficult to actually claim a Space Marine's life.
"...You all stay here and handle this."
Looking at the indecisive centrists, Kai decisively gathered a squad and departed.
This coalition centered around the relic cruiser had existed for many years. Their internal hierarchy had been shattered and restructured countless times, resulting in a tremendously complex roster. It was not just the Hexagrammaton; there were also various Orders and myriad divisions of the Inner Circle.
Everyone had banded tightly together for the solitary hope of washing away their disgrace, and in doing so, they had managed to learn a few things they would never have cared about in the past.
Chief among them was restraint.
On the other side, the situation was much the same.
One faction believed they should purge the troublemakers who had come knocking, and then figure out a way to flee this planet. The other argued that they needed to actively pursue the hope of cleansing their dishonor, insisting that constantly running from the past was not a viable solution.
And those were merely the two factions operating out in the open!
It could not be ruled out that others harboring alternative agendas were simply waiting to fish in troubled waters.
Everyone wanted to seize the ultimate authority. Everyone wanted to bend their brothers to their own will.
A riot instigated by a mere handful of individuals had incited several waves of intense power struggles, effectively paralyzing both squads in the ensuing chaos.
The rain pooled into heavy curtains. Distant, chaotic shouts and the sharp ringing of clashing blades drifted to their ears.
Some continued to rush headlong into the fray, some slipped away in absolute secrecy, and others seamlessly infiltrated the opposing ranks. Faint, shadowy gazes were cast from the periphery, making it impossible to discern exactly who was watching from the dark.
"Magnificent."
Having successfully commandeered the Fallen Angels' perspective to take in the entire spectacle, Romulus offered a heartfelt sigh of admiration.
How was it that every single Dark Angel was more eccentric than the last? Just where exactly had the Lion dug up these bizarre Adeptus Astartes?
Following that, he asked in genuine confusion.
"Was the Lion's gene-seed actually spiked with something?"
This kind of operation, where six people somehow managed to form eleven different private groups, was simply far too abstract.
"Remaining loyal to one's own choices is also a form of loyalty."
Arthur delivered the deadpan joke without batting an eye, then slowly rose to his feet.
"I will handle the squad command. I will take care of these three over here, as well as the high-value unit over there. I am leaving the rest to you."
The situation had not fully escalated just yet, but fatalities were only a matter of time. Expecting this band of lunatics to voluntarily back down when victory was completely out of reach was utterly impossible.
"Understood. Remember to plant the teleport homer first."
"Yeah."
Arthur's eyes tracked their movements. The moment Kai and his two companions had put several hundred meters between themselves and the chaotic throng, Arthur abruptly took a massive step forward.
Thud, thud, thud!
Sharp blades cleaved through the air, shearing through the falling rain.
Heavy footsteps sent violent tremors through the muddy water. Lohr viciously yanked Kai and Evka—who were positioned at the very front of the squad—backward, narrowly evading the initial wave of assaults.
In response, Crimson Whisper leveled a long-barreled rifle, sending a bolt screaming into the phantom lurking within the rain.
Bang!
The deafening gunshot completely drowned out the sickening sound of a blade biting into flesh. The sheer recoil of the heavy weapon forced the shooter's body a full step backward. The electromagnetically propelled slug slammed into the wreckage of an ancient xenos structure, blowing a massive, jagged crater into its surface.
Kai instantly fell into a combat stance. But as his dark pupils swept the surrounding area, he froze in utter disbelief.
There was absolutely no trace of the enemy. The only evidence was the fresh blood pooling outward through the muddy puddles. Several Fallen Angels had pitched forward into the dirt, lying rigidly still like cold statues of steel.
"Are they dead?"
His iron sabatons crushed an animal skeleton that had been washed up by the mud. Kai felt a deep, instinctual sense of unease creeping into his marrow.
It was the suffocating dread of being targeted as prey by a vastly superior organism—a terror that seeped straight from his genetic code.
"They are still alive."
Evka replied quickly.
The squad's vital sign monitors had not flatlined, indicating that the men were still breathing but had completely lost their mobility.
Under the protective overwatch of his companions, Evka swiftly crouched down to examine the wounded members.
"These are sword wounds. All of them were dispatched in a single strike. Kai, you are the most proficient with a blade."
"It wasn't Corswain."
Kai ground his teeth and declared, "He is not this strong."
Taking down four Dark Angels in the blink of an eye—and moving so fast that none of the three could even track him—if a monster like that existed within the Legion, there was absolutely no way they would have forgotten about it.
"Then who is it—"
Lohr blurted out, losing his composure.
Although Kai always loved to boast that he was the greatest swordsman second only to the Master of the Legion, the truth was that very few within the Legion could actually best him.
Corswain was one of them.
"I don't know!"
Kai shot back irritably.
In their collective memory, following the Rangdan Xenocides, there was only a single person who surpassed Corswain's martial prowess.
"What about the others? Contact them, quickly!"
Lohr barked at Evka.
"I am trying. There is complete radio silence across the board."
Evka said sternly.
He had already cycled through more than twenty private frequencies, but not a single one would connect.
Weren't they usually incredibly talkative? They had enough cipher codes to pack an entire warehouse, yet right now, they could not manage a single squeak.
"I cannot reach Zabriel either!"
"No transmissions at all? Not even a distress signal of an ambush?"
Kai pressed, refusing to give up hope.
"Nothing."
The trio immediately fell into a tense silence, having already concluded that it was highly probable they were not getting out of here alive.
"...This is my fault."
Kai whispered.
"Now is not the time to be debating who is right and who is wrong."
Lohr stared intently at the curtain of rain before them.
With practiced synchronicity, the three warriors stood back-to-back, swiftly rallying the remnants of their squad into a tight defensive circle. Their eyes continuously scoured their surroundings.
The downpour grew increasingly violent, throwing up a dense haze that severely compromised their vision and made everything look surreal.
The second wave of the assault stubbornly refused to arrive.
Swish—
The razor-thin sound of a blade slicing through the rain once again reached their ears. Instinctively, they took half a step back.
A Fallen Angel flawlessly parried the incoming strike, finally affording him the precious fraction of a second needed to look up at the Terminator standing before him.
Smash!
The Terminator moved with a speed that defied all logic. Snatching the Fallen Angel's chainsword mid-swing, the behemoth drove a devastating punch straight into his visor.
The Fallen Angel attempted to fight back, but was instantaneously restrained by a second Deathwing Terminator. The motive systems of the Destiny-pattern armor erupted with terrifying force, violently ripping the Fallen Angel's power pack clean off.
Then, in a brilliant flash of teleportation light, they completely vanished from sight.
'Deathwing!'
Everyone's pupils dilated in extreme tension, desperately trying to perfectly memorize the vague silhouette illuminated by that fleeting light.
The bone-white armor was deeply unfamiliar to them, but they all recognized the heraldry emblazoned upon the pauldrons.
"What do we do?"
Lohr lowered the muzzle of his gun. Rainwater slid down the heated barrel, continually emitting a hissing veil of steam.
To brazenly endure their concentrated crossfire and forcibly abduct one of their own—a profound sense of sheer powerlessness took root in their hearts.
"What do we do?"
Evka repeated the question, then hissed a curse. "How the hell am I supposed to know?"
They were veterans of a hundred battles and had certainly encountered enemies far more treacherous than this before. They possessed the necessary experience, but right now, they utterly lacked the resources they had once enjoyed.
Fleet bombardment support, the technological backing of the Ironwing, the potent auxiliary of archaeotech relics, and the ultimate safety net provided by their Primarch—
They had absolutely none of it!
As the warriors spiraled into a state of hyper-vigilance, the unmistakable crunch of approaching footsteps immediately snapped their heads up.
The light was extraordinarily dim, but they could barely make out a hulking figure steadily advancing toward them.
It was vastly larger than any ordinary Space Marine.
"!"
Without a single second of hesitation, Kai charged forward and viciously swung his greatsword.
Clang!
Greatsword violently crashed against greatsword.
Squelch!
A sudden, agonizing sting beneath his ribs caused his eyes to widen in shock.
'When did that happen?'
The shield channeled all of its kinetic force straight into the enemy's chest. The resulting inertia shoved the two "embracing" warriors backward, and gravity aggressively yanked them down into the mud.
Everything transpired in a mere fraction of a second. Raindrops, mixed with the howling wind, crackled and popped against his ears. Kai could only watch helplessly as the towering knight pinned him down. Before he could even muster a reaction, his back made bone-jarring contact with the earth.
Crash!
His body of steel smashed a massive crater straight into the ground, sending a tidal wave of mud flying in all directions. Kai opened his mouth and violently vomited a torrential amount of blood.
His crushed armor crumpled as if it were made of fragile paper. His fused, plate-like ribs were shattered into a thousand jagged fragments, inflicting catastrophic trauma to his internal organs and his heart. The sheer agony instantly forced his brain into a blank state of shock.
That imposing figure was like an apex predator casually strolling through the rain, effortlessly tackling and slaughtering him without breaking a sweat.
From within the heavy curtain of rain, an incalculable number of Deathwing Terminators silently closed the encirclement around them.
That was the very last sight Kai ever saw.