The Emperor’s Angel of Death

While the fierce battle raged in the void, inside the Dragon's Nest, a structure resembling a small city, the usual splendor and the pirates' boisterous shouts and curses were gone. The air was thick with smoke, heat, roars, screams, curses, and agonizing cries.

Like a miniature version of the ancient Fall, former comrades turned against each other, tearing apart the bonds that held them together. Once ignited, the flames of slaughter could not be extinguished.

A Raider gunboat, trailing smoke, crashed through a dome, destroying a series of transfer pipes, towers, and walkways before plummeting onto the shimmering crystal floor. It also smashed into a ring of nearby buildings, setting the artificially cultivated plants ablaze.

Finally, it shattered into pieces in a vast space, the Kabalite Warriors aboard the gunboat flung out for hundreds of meters like broken rag dolls, their bodies twisted into grotesque shapes.

But this was just one barely noticeable corner of the intense battle.

The enormous plaza, over five kilometers in diameter, was filled with Eldar engaged in fierce combat. Some Kabalite Warriors even used the wreckage to create defensive positions. Skirmishers from other nearby breach points fought in the upper walkways and the transport pipes below. The pirates operated in small groups, trying to consolidate their forces, but the recent betrayal made it difficult for them to trust anyone.

Various anti-gravity bikes also engaged in duels on the towers and shimmering boulevards. In the distance, the roar of engines echoed through the tunnels and corridors connecting the domes.

Salannea led her main force, locked in fierce combat with the black-armored Kabalite Trueborn elites amidst the spiritbone trees burning on both sides of the boulevard, but now she was burning with anxiety, not intending to linger here.

Her real target was the magnificent archway at the end of the plaza.

This was a secret known only to the Pirate Prince's lineage. When the Dragon's Nest was discovered as a secret base, the defenders inside were already dead. The Webway archway connecting to the [Second Cradle] (the Screaming Vortex) naval base showed strange signs. Terrible screams came from within, and twisted, formless things were constantly trying to break through the veil of the Webway entrance. So Salannea's ancestor decisively ordered the Webway gate sealed and forbade his descendants from ever opening it.

Originally, this was just a minor matter. Most Webway gates were abandoned or sealed after the Fall, and many Craftworlds had similar sealed gates.

However, this one in the Dragon's Nest was relatively special. Because it was a military facility, this Webway archway was a unique 'wormhole gate'—an ancient concept. Generally, the size of a Webway archway determined the size of objects that could enter and exit the Webway. This was why some large Craftworlds could only glide in real space, because the number of giant Webway archways was too small.

While the archway in the Dragon's Nest was not very large, it had a unique ability to 'compress' and 'enlarge' beings passing through it in an instant. This meant that large ships or other things could easily pass through it into the Webway, but conversely, warp entities of immense size and number could also 'gush out' through it, on a scale no smaller than the Gate of Khaine that ruptured in Commorragh.

Basically, it could be understood as a stable warp rift.

Therefore, if something went wrong with it, the entire Dragon's Nest, and even the surrounding area, would be overrun, and it might even create huge trouble in space.

For many years, the successive Pirate Princes of the Void Dragon Corsair had guarded this secret closely. The area where the archway was located was also strictly sealed off, and no one was allowed to enter or exit. Even all the Wraithguard in the pirate fleet were stationed here for defense.

But as time went on, this secret could not be concealed forever, at least Vect knew about it.

So he gave Valossian a secret order.

If the Dragon's Nest was destined to be uncontrollable, then destroy it.

Logically speaking, it would not be easy for a Commorrite, who did not understand psychic powers, to tamper with an unfamiliar, sealed Webway archway, but Vect was no fool. He spent time learning the technology and cultural knowledge of the ancient empire. He had a plan for how to break the seal long ago.

"Stop him!"

Salannea stood on a dead Pain Engine, pointing her command sword at the overflowing psychic aura in the distance, constantly firing her pistol at it. Not long ago, she had personally killed her cousin, the leader of the Shadowseers who had betrayed her, which meant that she had completely let go and no longer cared about family ties.

In the distant sky, through the broken dome that had been sealed with bone and gore, the silhouettes of the Commorragh fleet and the Royal Court fleet in their decisive battle could be seen.

Kanneli stood not far away, with five Wraithguard firing beside her, and she also looked anxiously at the distance.

On the steps in front of the archway, seven emaciated figures wearing unique head coverings knelt on the ground, chained to each other. Valossian was directing the Bloodbrides to activate the last prism-like device.

Those seven people were Astropaths that Vect had specially arranged to plunder from the Imperium, and he had also injected them with drugs that enhanced their psychic powers, so that their psychic energy would explode to several times its original strength in a short period of time. And when the Astropaths' psychic powers went berserk, with the help of a device he had specially borrowed from the Bloodbrides, the seal on the Webway would be 'blown open'.

"Valossian! Are you crazy!"

Salannea shouted anxiously. She then wanted to launch a charge, but the dense barrage of splinter cannons and beams forced her to jump off the Pain Engine and dodge the fire.

Hearing Salannea's words, Valossian's pale face, illuminated by the psychic aura, showed a mocking smile.

"Since you refuse to kneel at the feet of the Supreme Overlord, then enjoy the caress of the hungry god! Hahaha!"

Salannea glared at him for a while, then issued orders to her Khournate squad.

"Children of Khaine... follow me! Even if we die, we must stop him! Otherwise, the entire Dragon's Nest is finished!"

But Kanneli grabbed her hand.

"Don't be impulsive! The enemy has deployed heavy weapons, and those Wyches have not participated in the battle, they are all waiting for you! We need to gather more people first."

At this moment, a whistling sound came from above the crowd. A group of Scourges swept in, their shredders emitting ear-piercing shrieks, leaving deep marks around Salannea's team. Several pirates were unable to dodge and were instantly turned into pieces of flesh spraying blood.

In response, the Wraithguard concentrated their fire on the Scourges that came into range, instantly shooting down five of them. They died like birds with broken wings before they fell.