The Emperor’s Angel of Death

“Shadow Devour!”

The Daemon Prince flew into the air, raised his daemon sword, the space behind him shimmering with faint light, midnight blue light surrounding the daemon, and then energy-filled cracks appeared in the air.

“Come on!”

Val’Ghul retracted his laughter, took half a step back, and gripped the double-bladed scepter in his hand.

The Count of Faces’ daemon sword swayed, one moment a hundred meters away, the next above Val’Ghul's head, like a black cloud enveloping the Flayer King. As he swung the daemon sword down, the blade transformed into a screaming wave of energy, filled with countless struggling faces. This attack even nullified Val’Ghul's Shadow Amulet.

Instantly, the Flayer King felt as if a hundred mouths filled with sharp teeth were tearing at his body, countless teeth grinding against the living metal. The corrosive aura from the warp caused his entire being to burn.

He swung his scepter, cutting through the surrounding tendrils of darkness, but the Count of Faces’ claws had already struck him.

With a violent crash, the Flayer King was sent flying hundreds of meters until he crashed into a collapsed statue.

“Hahaha!”

Just as the Count of Faces was laughing wildly, a massive scythe suddenly appeared behind him.

“What!”

The moment he turned around, Val’Ghul, materialized from nothing, let out a ferocious laugh.

“You shall be a sacrifice to my master!”

With that, he swung down the blood-soaked scythe transformed from his scepter, beheading the Count of Faces—this weapon, tainted by the Flayer Shrine, had become an extremely bloodthirsty entity, capable of tearing all life force from its enemies, including warp energy.

As Val’Ghul landed, the Count of Faces’ massive headless corpse crashed down.

“Warriors! Destroy all enemies you see!”

Just as Val’Ghul raised his scythe and let out a white noise shriek, oily black raindrops fell on him.

Val’Ghul looked up in confusion, and then another drop fell on his face. He flicked up a drop with his claw, only to find that the liquid seemed to be some kind of wriggling, tiny life form.

Moreover, there was none around, it seemed to only fall on him. The rustling black rain finally gathered at his feet, forming a pool.

Then, the surface of the black water began to churn and boil, forming a shape similar to a flower bud.

“What—”

Val’Ghul felt his footing soften, and his entire body sank down. At the same time, a strange rhythm still floated in the air, as if someone was chanting some incomprehensible spell.

Soon, the Flayer King was surrounded by a blooming black lotus. He tried to activate the Dark Shroud to escape, but found it useless. He had no choice but to activate the Time Hourglass, but it was still useless.

At this time, the surrounding Flayers seemed unaware of what was happening, still fighting, but some Wraithblades had already looked up in surprise.

“The Heart-Eater King has made his move!”

Val’Ghul also looked up and saw a dark black hand reaching towards him.

“This is…”

But just as the large hand was about to touch the black lotus, a scarlet whirlwind swept in, instantly shattering the black lotus and taking Val’Ghul aside, causing the black hand to miss.

“Hmm?”

From a distant place, a questioning yet angry voice came.

“Since the main player is here, why not show yourself?”

Soon, a golden chariot crafted from countless treasures rose from the Black Citadel, its four corners bound by four daemons of different attributes, the swaying curtains vaguely revealing a towering figure sitting within.

In response, the scarlet whirlwind condensed into a face high in the sky, the face of an ordinary Flayer, but with a human-like expression, making it even more bizarre.

“What a wonderful soul, filthy, ugly, suitable for the dinner table.”

“Oh?”

Facing Sochoyan's provocation, Q’aronnej merely replied calmly:

“The galaxy is filled with countless living beings, there are countless souls, why must you go against us?”

In fact, Q’aronnej had wanted to personally deal with Val’Ghul long ago, but he had never done so, because he suspected that this thing was not the real commander and manipulator of this attack. Although he didn’t know much about the Necrons, he had heard of Flayers. Logically speaking, even the Necrons would find it difficult to control such things, but today these Flayers seemed chaotic but were actually well-organized, and even had a fleet, which meant they were not ordinary Flayers.

Moreover, during the battle, he faintly felt a force spying. Although he had performed many divinations, he didn’t know who the opponent was, but the omens indicated that there was indeed a powerful mastermind behind the scenes.

This was why he had been slow to act. On the one hand, he had to sit in the Black Citadel, maintaining the stability of the psychic core of the City of Screams, which was related to the stability of those Daemon Princes, Daemon Engines, and even the summoned daemons. On the other hand, he wanted to see if the mastermind would show himself. At the same time, he urgently summoned several Tzeentch daemons for a temporary cram session, mainly to learn about the Necrons and the origin of these inexplicable Flayers.

But a strange situation occurred. Those Tzeentch daemons, who claimed to be omniscient, were hesitant about the origin of these Flayers, only saying that they came from a fallen Necron dynasty, without saying where they came from. The key information such as their organization, strength, and leader could not be said. Q’aronnej even guessed whether Magnus was playing tricks, after all, this petty Daemon Primarch had been trying to make trouble for him.

However, those guys also said something useful, such as the Flayers being related to a C’tan. Q’aronnej knew about the C’tan, although he had never seen one, but Manclaw had encountered one. According to the Daemon Prince's description, these things were still very powerful in the material universe. At that time, he was forced to “transfer” after fighting that one for a while.

And this Flayer C’tan was even more special. According to the Tzeentch daemons, this C’tan was completely destroyed by the Necrons in an ancient war. The Flayer Curse was the curse the C’tan placed on the Necrons when it died.

At the same time, once a Necron was infected with the Flayer Curse, they would lose their sanity and mind, and could no longer fight as an army, becoming complete beasts.

But the current situation was obviously not the case. These Flayers not only had organization, but also commanders, tactics, heavy equipment, and air force…

Then, according to logical deduction, the commander behind this inexplicable Flayer army was likely a C’tan, and also a C’tan that was rumored to have been completely destroyed.