The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Chapter 2686: Assassin and Wraith (Part 2)

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Under the gaze of the assassins, the silent killing machines raised their slender legs and moved forward in unison, striding purposefully through the corridor like a group of metal puppets controlled by a single master.

The mottled metal bodies, the humanoid skulls, the eerie green light emanating from their chests and eye sockets, and the unsettling weapons in their hands—Macardi recognized what was approaching immediately.

"Necron Warriors! They are awakening! Upward, find a passage upward!"

The assassins leaped onto the walls in unison, using their claws, sharp enough to cut through metal, to grip the symbols on the black walls, quickly climbing upward.

At that moment, the Necron Warriors raised their guns, and the muzzles flashed, firing beams of eerie green light, like a deadly dance of destruction.

Despite the assassins' agility and efforts to dodge the shots, there wasn't much cover on the walls.

A sharp pain echoed in Macardi's mind—the echo of a fallen comrade. An assassin was hit, a Gauss blast instantly tearing a hole in his chest, and he fell silently.

But they didn't stop.

"Above! There's a passage there!"

One of them was the first to spot a square entrance, half the height of a man, likely used for small machines to enter and exit, but they couldn't afford to be picky. They immediately exerted force with their arms, squeezing in one after another before they were engulfed by Gauss energy.

Once inside, they didn't even have time to breathe, as the enemy would likely follow, so they could only desperately crawl onward.

Thanks to their long experience climbing in ducts, the assassins felt no claustrophobia or discomfort despite being in a passage where they couldn't turn around; in fact, they moved even faster than on flat ground.

Macardi had imagined the world behind the black gate, but when he actually saw it, he was still shocked—

They crawled down the passage, jumping without hesitation from the exit onto a small platform, concealing their presence, and blending completely into the shadows with their black cloaks.

Looking out, every assassin's mind was filled with awe.

"God, what kind of civilization is this?"

"We must report this to the Bishop."

"But our current discoveries are not enough to achieve the objective."

About a kilometer ahead of them, a massive black pyramid rose from the bare rock ground. The sides of the pyramid looked extremely smooth, so much so that Macardi felt a strange urge to touch it, to see if it was as frictionless as it appeared.

In addition, the air around it was filled with floating, blurred runes, both alien and incomprehensible.

Macardi took out a camera and began recording.

But seemingly disturbed by the device in his hand, the pyramid suddenly reacted. A steady and peculiar green light appeared on the originally smooth wall.

Initially, nothing happened, but then several figures appeared beside the alien spectacle.

The whole process was unheralded: one second there was nothing there, and the next, things popped into existence. These humanoid skeletons were made of living metal, painted everywhere except for the bright green emblem on their chest, looking like fired porcelain figurines. Each of them carried a bladed rifle, with green fire burning on it like their eyes.

Soon, these things appeared in batches, quickly turning into a phalanx of hundreds of metal Necrons, chilling all the assassins to the bone.

"Damn, there are so many of them."

"They also use some kind of teleportation technology. I guess their real nest is under this pyramid."

"But how do we get in?"

"No, we know nothing about their technology. Forcing our way in will only expose us."

"First, identify their commander or leader."

Finding the commander of the Necrons quickly became the consensus among all the assassins. This was their tactical instinct. But before Macardi did that, he put all the recorded images and his written records into a modified servo-skull and released it. It would return along the route they came from, because it was smeared with saliva from the clan leader, which could give it some degree of stealth, preventing it from being scanned by machines and devices.

At the same time that Macardi sent away the servo-skull, another figure appeared next to the teleportation portal. Its metal face was expressionless, its features sharp, its body draped in ornate decorations and alien writing, holding a strange staff with deadly energy crackling on it. On closer inspection, the metal cloak behind it was actually many metal beetles writhing and churning.

"That's the one!"

Macardi immediately recorded the other party's image. However, a ghostly insect-like object suddenly rose from the black wall above them, radiating an emerald-colored halo, as if solidifying from a ghostly wind. Its cold green compound eyes stared at the assassins gathered below.

But before the Tomb Wraith could act, all the assassins raised their guns and fired—their survival instincts alerted them to the threat above.

With the sound of tearing air, most of the bullets passed through the ethereal form without causing substantial damage, only scratching out a few sparks on the metal shell.

"Scatter!"

Macardi drew his second gun, a modified bolt pistol, and continued firing. This gun was originally a valuable item in the warehouse, prepared to be sent to the commissar academy in Orpheus, but it disappeared after a theft and fell into Macardi's hands. The weapon was extremely powerful, spitting out bullets at the enemy with a "crunching" sound.

The Tomb Wraith twisted in the air, ignoring all the bullets fired at it, and then, in a moment of approach, extended its segmented tail.

The monster turned from phantom to solid, its tail cleaving an assassin from shoulder to hip, spraying blood into a scarlet cloud.

The rest of the squad scattered and were forced to the ground, after which they desperately poured fire into the floating construct.

The Wraith raised its bladed limbs and pounced on Macardi. The assassin dodged nimbly, hitting the Wraith from the side with a fresh volley of heavy bolter rounds. Several claws fell off in a cloud of green energy. The Wraith rolled and twisted in a burst of noise, flashing into solidity.

Having lost its main means of defense, it frantically swung its whip-like tail, carving deep wounds into the ground.

At this moment, a precise shot from an assassin's plasma pistol struck the head directly, blowing away half of its head and stunning it, revealing emerald-like dazzling energy within.

Macardi stepped forward, closing the distance, and shot the other's remaining head.

But the assassins did not stop, because the appearance of this thing already indicated one thing: they were exposed—