“Haha!
So that’s how it is!” It saw violent soul fluctuations inside every mortal’s spear, far beyond the range of human souls.
They were the soul-light of psychic beings.
Those people were insane!
They had bound captured Daemon Overlords to their spears, worked witchcraft upon them, and then used the soul-shock of the dying Daemon Overlords to trigger massive psychic explosions!
It was the soul-explosions of those high-ranking Daemon Overlords that had canceled out its sorcery, not merely the effort of a single ant!
“Mere ants!” Having seen through Zelo’s little trick, the Great Sorcerer Lord Tragern laughed.
It raised its hand, intending to directly manipulate and sacrifice the Daemon souls imprisoned on the spears of these human soldiers.
As a loyal Sorcerer in Grandfather Syllax’s service, it had the authority to command these Overlords directly.
?!
A distinct burning sensation flared at the other end of the link.
Its manipulation had failed!
Zelo had used psychic power to sever its control over those Overlords!
How could this be?!
Yet the Gale-Breaker Squad was still charging, rushing straight toward it like a blade aimed at the heart.
They pressed forward recklessly, as though insane.
Some warriors were slowed by attacks from the flanks, falling out of formation and sinking into the mire, but the squad bearing down on it only picked up speed!
Swinging its scepter and raising its voice in incantation, it tried again to command the souls of those Overlords imprisoned by the mortals.
But those souls had long since been enveloped by the power of the rebel army’s leader, Zelo.
The Great Sorcerer Lord Tragern felt a rare surge of irritation and unease.
It hastily ordered the lesser Sorcerers and puppet armies around it to charge forward and stop them.
Against the vast Daemonic Legions, the Gale-Breaker Squad looked pitifully fragile, yet the formation of these disciplined knights kept shifting.
They sent riders plunging into the enemy ranks to fight, detonating on the brink of death to clear a path for the squad behind them.
A straight path, aimed directly at the Great Sorcerer Lord Tragern.
No!
This was wrong.
This was not right!
These slaves!
These frail creatures, worthless in a fight!
No hardened hide to withstand attacks, no sharp fangs, no claws capable of piercing their foes, slaves whose kind barely ever showed any talent for witchcraft!
It should not be like this!
They were ants the Great Sorcerer Lord Tragern could crush with a casual gesture!
Their only value lay in the blessings their suffering could draw from the Immaterium!
Not like this!
Daring to charge at it!
Daring to rebel against it!
The Great Sorcerer Lord Tragern’s face twisted.
Beam after beam of psychic light gathered at the tip of its scepter, then hammered madly into the Gale-Breaker Squad.
Countless Daemonic Legions surged forward as well, trying to slow the Gale-Breaker Squad’s advance.
From the skies above, the Broken-Wing Skystalkers dove down.
They managed to drag one warrior from his warhorse and lift him high into the air.
But before they could drop him, the knight took his own life.
The soul-tremor of his passing became the fuse, igniting the soul of the Daemon Overlord on his spear.
A brilliant explosion bloomed on the horizon.
Chunks of flesh rained down, splattering upon his comrades’ armor.
No one broke and begged for mercy.
Instead, it ignited an even more fanatical roar from those men.
“Even ants have an ant’s will!” The Great Sorcerer Lord Tragern remained unfazed, until they broke through the foremost defensive line and scattered its puppet army.
Immediately after, the lines held by the lesser Sorcerers collapsed as well, for a Sorcerer’s soul blazed more brightly, and the chain explosions set off by their deaths triggered an even greater rout.
This was the first time Tragern had encountered such tactics.
Before this, the human forces had always fought conservatively.
They relied on coordination and firepower to win, or skulked like rats in the palace sewers, surviving through guerrilla warfare.
Having never seen this before, it did not yet understand, did not grasp what was about to happen.
Even as some hidden corner of its reason dimly sensed a certain dread, it refused to accept it.
Until those last five men, five ants, five knights, charged before it.
They were close to it now, close enough, mere steps from the main altar.
They had burst forth from the blood of their comrades, bearing the mission to break the gale.
Each of their souls blazed with dazzling brilliance at that moment, and their eyes burned with fanatical madness.
Every one of them had a name.
In the final moment of its life, the Great Sorcerer Lord Tragern was still shrieking incantations, but the knights were faster, for there was only one chance.
Their roars drowned out the Great Sorcerer Lord Tragern’s chanting.
Someone shouted, “Give me back my daughter!” Someone shouted, “Mother!
I’m coming to you!” Someone shouted, “Kill!” Another shouted, “Be worthy of Zelo’s name!” And one simply roared.
Those roars and shouts mingled together, transforming into something of pure fury.
They surged forward, impatient to tear the Great Sorcerer Lord Tragern to shreds.
In that moment, for once, Tragern felt something like fear.
A minute earlier, it had still been the Sorcerer favored by Grandfather Syllax, still racking its brains over how to thwart Zelo’s schemes.
Yet death came howling like a gale, with the force of a mountain behind it.
Those five ants, no, five slaves, hurled themselves forward, the resolve to kill it burning in every pair of eyes.
This was something it had never experienced before.
Its slaves had never looked at it like this.
Slaves fell to their knees.
They fled, wailed, and begged bitterly.
Even if someone wanted to resist, they would weep and sob under extreme torture.
But those people charged at it, every one of them roaring.
Some called out names, none of which Tragern recognized or remembered.
There had been no need to remember a few ants.
Now, a few ants were going to kill it.
This truth made Tragern tremble, made it panic.
It only had time to raise a psychic shield around itself, but those five had clearly been trained by Zelo.
They knew how to chain their explosions so they could shatter the shield.
They could strike straight at the soul, could take life itself.
“Feel our pain!
Slaver!” At that final moment, someone shouted those words.
!!!!!
A colossal explosion erupted above the main altar.
The psychic detonation struck as if a star had slammed into the ground.
The already turbulent currents within the Immaterium surged even more violently, spraying outward like a billion shimmering droplets.
For a moment, a vast and eerie radiance illuminated the wilds.
Zelo’s eyes reflected the psychic explosion gushing like a fountain, and deeper within his gaze, he glimpsed an even vaster river of psychic energy.
The river flowed slowly toward the palace complex behind them, the dwelling place where the Slaver lord made its home.
A tremor ran through Zelo’s soul.
He could always perceive the emotions of crowds in a hazy way.
He never knew whether this was a curse or a blessing.
Perhaps it was a good thing.
It allowed him to hear the whispers of the multitude.
The resolve and agony of the Gale-Breaker Squad in the moment of their deaths reached Zelo through some psychic means.
They were whispering to him now.
They said, “Zelo, run.
Get moving.
Kill the source of our suffering for us.” Zelo did not let the pain show, even though every life lost pierced his heart, even though next time he would still unhesitatingly choose the most suitable people to spend their lives opening the path.
He simply smiled, sincerely hoping to console the fallen souls with the joy of approaching victory.
“Faster!
Let us end the tyrant’s reign!” Psychic power granted him an omen.
In some unseen way, Zelo believed that this time, they could sever the head of the Daemon Lord Syllax.
At the same time, in the heavens above the rebel army, within the Stoll System.
In a hidden corner of the star system, psychic energy began to ripple.
A vast fleet, unprecedented in scale, seemed already to have set this very place as the destination of its Warp jump.