After all, the so-called Custodes, the Astartes, the Sister of Battle, even the Living Saints—their portion of the entire Imperium’s strength was but the smaller share.
Ninety-nine percent of that power came from the Mechanicus and the Astra Militarum.
Just as now, with the fighting in the hive growing so fierce, the main body of forces was still mortals.
This was true on the side of Chaos and on the side of the Imperium alike.
So upon hearing the Sector Governor’s words, the Great sage of the Mechanicus likewise rose slowly to his feet at this moment and gave a nod.
“Sacred machines, march to war—let the wrath of the Omnissiah burn the heretics to ash!!!”
BOOM!!!
As the Archmagos’s command came down, the Planetary Defense Force troops upon the battlefield almost simultaneously let out a piercing, explosive cry.
For they discovered that in this very instant, the radiation levels across the entire battlefield had begun to soar at a frightening rate.
Then three Warhound Titans, each more than ten meters tall and crowned with void shields, charged step by step toward the battlefield with the aid of the well-equipped Frateris Militia.
Their immense firepower incinerated every cultist, and that overwhelming firepower even forced the World Eaters, who had been frenziedly lopping off heads upon the battlefield, to temporarily withdraw.
“For the Emperor!!!”
As the three Warhound Titans and the Mechanicus’s Frateris Militia joined the battle, the situation underwent an enormous reversal in an instant.
The Imperial side, too, saw its morale surge at this moment, and the Planetary Defense Force swiftly kept pace, almost in the blink of an eye driving back the main force of cultists that had pushed into the hive.
“Dogs of the Corpse Emperor—move faster!!!”
It was just then that the eyes of that World Eaters lord flickered with a mad light, and he turned to look at the Chaos sorcerer behind him.
At this moment a vast ritual array was gradually taking shape, countless men being slain in rhythmic cadence.
Mountains of skulls began to pile up, and the flowing blood gathered into rivers.
“Great Blood God, I shall offer up to you eighty-eight million, eight hundred and eighty thousand skulls—let your power descend upon us!!!”
Their World Eaters warband possessed no Titan units, but that was no great problem.
The power of the Dark Gods of Chaos was not something a few Titans could resist, and so they intended to carry out a sacrifice of sufficient weight.
Let these eighty million skulls and the souls of their owners become fodder for the Blood God, that he might descend into the mortal world.
BOOM!!!
Sure enough, in the very next instant, the entire sky was smothered in blood-red.
At the same time, out upon the wastelands, the Mortal Champion of Nurgle who had earlier come face to face with Heydrich also wore a look of terror, for he discovered that his connection to that Garden of Plenty had at this moment been severed.
The blood-red radiance shrouded the heavens, and this too made the faces of Heydrich and the others, who had only just departed the Tomb World, change drastically.
“This power—could it be……..”
Seeing this terrifying ripple, Heydrich’s expression grew grave.
For he had a bad feeling, since it was quite obvious that the scale of this sacrifice was rather enormous.
It might even draw out the Bloodthirsters of Khorne—and if that were truly the case, then things would be troublesome.
Upon the battlefield, the vast Warp ripples took form directly, and a rift was torn open.
Then a towering existence with twin wings sprouting from its back came striding out, and with its appearance— all the cultists of Khorne grew even more frenzied at this moment, their power likewise gaining an enormous boost in a short span of time.
A cultist who could once have been slain by a single las-bolt now, under the reinforcement of Khorne’s blessing, had to be struck repeatedly in succession before he could be brought down.
And besides that Bloodthirster of Khorne, there were countless Bloodletters of Khorne as well, and in this very instant the whole of Kuent was shrouded in blood-red radiance.
“This is bad—it’s a Greater Daemon.
Everyone, into defensive posture; cease attacking outward.
Governor, I must go to the front line in person.
Right now the whole of Hive City Kuent is in dire peril.”
At this point the Archmagos of the Mechanicus could no longer sit here at his leisure; the appearance of a Bloodthirster meant the intensity of this war had risen directly by a whole tier.
If left unchecked, it was not impossible that this place would be ground into an Apocalypse-grade war.
And so the Archmagos now had to go to the front line in person—these three Warhound Titans were the most core strength of all Kuent, and absolutely could not be destroyed by Khorne.
“Scum of the Lord of Plague—everyone, charge!!!”
At the same time, the Bloodthirster of Khorne who had only just walked out of the Warp paid no heed to the hive before it, but instead turned its gaze toward the green-covered land to the rear.
That was the power of Nurgle.
Its master had reached no pact with the Lord of Plague.
So in its eyes, compared to the humans before it who would sooner or later be its own anyway, the Nurgle host that contended with it for souls was the greatest enemy.
And so at this moment the Bloodthirster of Khorne did not charge straight into the battlefield, but instead rushed toward the Poxwalkers to the rear.
That colossal axe wreathed in blood-flame dragged a scorched-black furrow across the wastelands, and every downward stroke flung up dozens of fragments of rotting corpses, roaring with savage delight into the Warp—a sound like a volcanic eruption surging up from deep within the crust, setting the entire under-hive of Kuent trembling and humming.
The Bloodletters following close behind, like a tide of red, dyed the wastelands crimson, trampling the already-formed sea of plague-blossoms into slurry, the cloying sweet stench of rot violently overlaid by the reek of blood.
In an instant the wastelands became a hell of fist-to-flesh slaughter, two utterly different colors and styles of Chaos power crashing together.
At the same time, out upon the wastelands, the Mortal Champion of Nurgle too had gathered a great host of Nurgle cultists here.
“My brothers, my kin.
Now the voice of the Grandfather has drifted far from me; I must once again listen to those melodies.
Now I shall offer up myself for this warm family of ours; I will let my soul reverberate upon the Empyrean.
O Grandfather, please take pity upon me……..”
Gazing at his family gathered here, a devout light shone upon the face of the Mortal Champion of Nurgle.
He would cast his own soul into the Warp, that the power of Nurgle might once more descend upon this place; he would win for his family a sliver of a way out.
He was Nurgle’s finest child, and he would offer himself to Nurgle first of all.
“Sevenfold curse, sevenfold plague, sevenfold festering, sevenfold rot, sevenfold mutation, sevenfold despair, sevenfold blessing—praise the plague!!!”
As the final roar rang out, this Mortal Champion of Nurgle felt his very soul being drawn out.
He would sacrifice seventy million people to the Grandfather, and he himself would be the first object of sacrifice.
But it was just then that a rotting great hand reached out from within the Warp, slowly caressing the head of this Mortal Champion of Nurgle.
“Grandfather!!!”
In that moment the latter felt as though he had attained ultimate bliss—it was Nurgle’s loving caress.
And his soul passed directly into the garden, bathed by countless sweet dews.
At the same time, his flesh in the material universe was collapsing, being remade, decomposing, recombining.
While the bodies of the tens of millions of his followers swiftly withered, their souls turning to fodder that flowed directly into him.
At the same time, Nurgle’s vast blessing once more tore open that blood-red sky—so much so that even that World Eaters lord revealed a look of shock and envy.
That was his ultimate goal.
He offered up every skull to the Blood God for one thing only: to win its favor, to become that undying, immortal existence…..
A Daemon Prince!!!
But no matter how he envied, it was of no use, for the rite of daemonic ascension was already complete.
A colossal existence came striding out from within, and it was, plainly to behold….
A Daemon Prince of Nurgle.
____
👻🔥P- Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Path of Elation in Warhammer 40K
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