The Emperor’s Angel of Death

“Servant of the Warp, accept your judgment!”

“Dog of the False Emperor! What's there to be so proud of!”

As Bakhram's blade approached, the Chaos Sorcerer fell backward, the disruption field crackling with arcs of energy. Hot blood flowed quickly from the wound where the sorcerer desperately waved his arm in an attempt to parry, only to have it severed. Bakhram pressed forward, plunging his sword deep into the enemy's chest.

Even so, the sorcerer struggled for a while before finally ceasing to writhe. He lay there, blood gurgling from his throat, his arms twisted into a grotesque mess.

Bakhram seemed to see the other's soul gradually extinguished, going to face judgment.

Even like this, a sly grin still hung on his face.

Just then, the psychic shadow enveloping the battle robot squad began to dissipate, and these war machines began to awaken.

But Bakhram did not relax. He turned his head, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield, towards a massive gate, and then said over the comm-channel:

“Attention, something's coming.”

Then, the gate slowly opened.

At first, Bakhram thought it was a tank, but after it rumbled closer, he realized it wasn't 'just' a tank, nor was it a war machine or a bio-mechanical construct, but a profane embodiment.

Some unknown force had welded a twisted Leman Russ tank onto a pair of huge mechanical legs, making it almost as tall as a Sentinel walker. Exhaust fumes spewed from the monster's back like spears, belching thick black smoke. Metal, crystal, and grime forcibly fused the various parts together. A huge battle cannon sat atop a turret full of spikes and fangs, and the front of the vehicle featured a leering demonic face, constantly spewing flames and smoke.

“Omnissiah, such desecration!!”

Suna's voice burned with almost volcanic rage. This was a blatant insult to the sacred machine.

“Destroy it!!”

The servitors all turned towards the newly emerged enemy, aiming at the thing's viewing slits and connection points, trying to stop it.

Grenade launchers, arc rifles, bolters, lascannons – for a moment, Bakhram felt as if his surroundings were as bright as day, only seeing the muzzles light up with fire.

But when the smoke cleared, there was hardly any dent on the thing's armor, dark energy swirling around it.

“Keep firing!”

Missiles flew overhead, the monster surrounded by plasma fire, but still to no effect. Then its huge main gun fired.

Bakhram grabbed Suna's arm in advance, dragging him away, and the massive shockwave caused both of them to fall to the ground.

A large crater appeared where Suna had been standing, and dozens of servitors within a radius of several dozen meters vanished without a trace. At the same time, the demon tank's other secondary weapons also began firing. Autocannons and heavy bolters sprayed out a storm of metal, engulfing the servitors and battle robots, tearing them apart.

“Father Suna! Command the battle robots to cover me!”

But after Bakhram made his decision, the reactivated battle robots immediately unleashed all their firepower. Missiles, plasma, and bullets rained down on the huge demon tank, but because there were many other daemon engines and enemies around, only a small number of battle robots were able to concentrate their fire.

As the monster shuddered under the barrage, Bakhram rushed forward, wanting to use the Grey Matter to suppress the dark energies protecting the enemy.

But obviously, something that had been burned once wasn't likely to be burned a second time.

Two scorpion-like daemon engines suddenly burst out from the torn-up floor, and then their tail-mounted las-weapons swept towards Bakhram. Although he dodged them, the lasers cut through the floor, creating a huge chasm that blocked his path.

At the same time, the demon tank also pointed its gun at him.

Just as Bakhram's life was hanging by a thread, an invisible ripple swept through the air, slamming deep into the demon tank's armor, causing its legs to stagger, as if suddenly burdened by a great mountain.

And the two scorpion daemon engines were each struck by two spiral beams of light, exploding directly into piles of scrap.

Bakhram turned his head, almost shouting with excitement.

After the smoke, ash, and blood mist, stood three huge machines. The large bipedal war machines had relatively slender waists, their bodies barrel-shaped, painted in silver-gray with golden trim. Two crossed swords were cast on the front armor, and scriptures fluttering from heat hung on either side of the chest. The two exhaust pipes on their backs emitted hot vapor. Their left hands were equipped with still-glowing conversion beam cannons, and their right hands were huge power claws. The victory cries echoed from the helmet's communicators. Hundreds of armed servants bearing the armory's insignia, two red-armored Tech-Marines, and Forge Master Roghris, wielding a forge axe, also loomed in the smoke.

The armory's Dreadnought squadron had finally arrived on the battlefield.

“Kill the heretics!”

“Destroy the great enemy!”

“For the Emperor!”

The three Dreadnoughts roared and began to run. They piloted ancient Contemptor Dreadnoughts, allowing them to quickly approach the enemy at a considerable speed. At the same time, more furious beams of light shot towards the teetering daemon engine.

The daemon engine was struck powerless to retaliate, staggering backward. Two of its legs were broken, and the remaining two could not support its body.

Some Chaos Space Marines and smaller daemon engines tried to block them, but most of the bullets they fired were deflected by the Contemptor Dreadnoughts' protection fields, and the few that weren't ricocheted off the heavy alloy armor. And when the howling war engines came before them, the power claws flashing with electricity easily tore open their bodies and threw them aside, or simply knocked them down.

When the first Dreadnought rushed in front of the demon tank, a scream issued from its shattered face, and then the Dreadnought thrust its power claw into the opponent's armor and activated the gravity gun built into it.

In the blink of an eye, the huge demon tank seemed to collapse inward, shrinking violently, the barrel bent, the armor broken, and finally turning into a mass of indistinguishable metal junk.

With the armory's intervention, the enemy finally collapsed. The battle robot squad also resumed operations. Although six units were lost, they still retained a strong deterrent force. And at this time, the assault force in front, led by Soshyan, also crushed the last resistance of the Red Corsairs.

After that, they spent nearly an hour traversing the winding passages to reach the end, where there was a thick door, as wide as the corridor, and made of a single piece of reinforced alloy. It seemed to belong to the bridge door of a warship, which was known to be the strongest place on a ship.

Then the Tech-Marines began to deploy melta bombs. Soshyan said over the comm-channel:

“After the door opens, charge straight in. Don't hesitate. Kill any enemies you see.”

After speaking, he noticed the faint rustling nearby, and immediately realized it was the movement of those strange silver threadworms, so he walked to the side near the wall, staring at the wall.