Warhammer: I don't want to become a stinky can!

Page 284

"throat!"

Another violent metallic clang rang out, but it was far less earth-shattering than it had been expected. The flames burning around Skabrand began to die down—the first sign of their approach.

Skabrand let out a sharp, angry shout. It felt the Blood God's will begin to drift away from it again. Had it committed some crime that displeased the Blood God once more?!

Enraged, the Great Demon raised his axe and struck the white-armored warrior once more. Even though the warrior was furious, his unsteady legs told the Blood Drinker that he could not withstand another blow. With just one more strike, it would take back his head and regain the favor of the Blood God!

"Clang! Clang!!"

Two heavy projectiles directly deflected Skabrand's downward swing of his double axes, and the Great Demon was astonished to find that his battle axes, which should have been unstoppable, had deviated from their course—no, how could this be?!

Its chaotic mind still cannot discover or understand that its source of power is diminishing.

"Scarbrand!!!"

A high-pitched, angry shout came from the layers of snow and wind, violently tearing through the howling wind.

The Blood God soldiers that had been crawling out of the Blood Plains began to wither, and their limbs that had not crawled out fell limply back into the pool of blood, dying under the encroachment of darkness.

Skabrand stared in horror at the Blood God Demon Army on the battlefield... fleeing?!

The Skullbusters screamed as they threw down their Hellblades and shoved each other toward the Blood Drinkers. The Overlords, meanwhile, were harvesting the lives of their comrades at top speed, trying to return to the Blood God's domain before the darkness fell. Even the Flesh Hounds that were overseeing the battle were rushing away from that ominous area, but when they were far enough away, the Blood God angrily snapped their heads.

Skabrand couldn't comprehend what was happening before it. Confused, it put down its two axes and stared at the darkness rapidly moving toward it, feeling the Blood God's grace drifting further and further away.

How... how is it possible?

"Skabrand! Come here!! Fight me!!!"

The monster called out its name precisely, its roar filled with fierce anger, but Skabrand could not feel the fighting spirit from the enemy as usual. No, this is not right, this is not right!

It gasped for breath, gripping its twin axes tightly. Its foul breath turned into a bloody mist in the cold. It should rush forward, it should raise its twin axes, it should cut off the enemy's head, and prove to the Blood God that it was His loyal servant!

Skabrand roared in vain at the Blood God, but its god abandoned it once again—no, no, no, no, Skabrand suddenly realized that this was not the same punishment as before.

Even after it struck Khorne with its axe, the Blood God would inflict constant, perceptible pain upon it, but now it seemed as if even the pain was imperceptible.

"My Lord!!! Blood God!!!"

It roared again, but no response came.

[Terra Time 00:16:53]

Countless servants of the Blood God swept past the Blood Drinker without a second thought, and Skabrand took a step back, its hoof sinking into the cold pool of blood.

It spread its arms and roared angrily, but it felt its voice growing weaker and weaker as darkness rushed straight toward it, and its comrades beside it turned into pus and blood.

Skabrand looked up, its mouth agape in a foolish manner, and raised its two axes.

To meet the enemy.

The flames extinguished in the Blood Drinker's pupils, reflecting the full moon's glow on the black scythe. Hades leaped, tearing through the storm, his dark cloak fluttering, and the obituary shot straight towards the Great Demon's head—

Eight bloodhounds suddenly sprang up from the pool of blood behind Skabrand, but they weren't aiming at Hades; the hounds' sharp teeth charged precisely at Skabrand!

In the final moments before Skabrand was enveloped in utter darkness, it felt a familiar sense of exile.

The next moment, eight bloodhounds, far more robust than ordinary flesh-and-blood hounds, vanished forever into the darkness after a whimper.

Hades landed heavily, splashing blood everywhere.

He silently watched the direction the demon army fled in, then spat on the ground.

"coward."

He muttered.

The next moment, any Blood God servants who were still within his sight and tried to escape had their heads blown off.

Blood rained down, like colorful firecrackers exploding at the prelude to a banquet.

Yes, there is a code.

Chapter 342 Using a borrowed knife to kill

[Terra Time 00:25:08]

The blizzard paused for a moment, and Hades seized the opportunity to begin reporting the positions of the fleet anchored in orbit.

Hades and his party had just arrived by making a forced landing in the midst of a blizzard, which made their landing point slightly inaccurate. Hades had originally aimed the airdrop pod at Skabrand's head.

One minute after Hades arrived in the area with Cahn's group, the team that had crash-landed with Hades barely caught up with Hades's pace.

More and more meteors fell from the horizon, and the hatch slammed to the ground with a thud as gas rushed in. Knights from the Order of Silence joined the battle.

Some stormbirds began to circle tentatively above the formation. The fierce blizzard was sure to make it difficult for these pilots to survive, but their presence was still necessary. They needed to provide better visibility for the ground troops and the necessary fire support.

Although long-range fire support was not very effective against the Khwarazmian army.

Kahn leaned against a pile of skulls, half-supported, his breathing hissing from his helmet, the frozen frost crunching on his breastplate; his arms were probably broken.

As the rage in his head subsided, Kahn did his best to direct the World Eaters to land and form ranks, sharing with his brothers the characteristics of the enemy they had previously discovered.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the snow as the Master of the Silent Order approached him.

"Sorry, I'm late."

Kahn shook his head haphazardly. Damn it, he wished he could take off his helmet to breathe, but it was too cold outside, and he would freeze to death without it.

"Sir, the advance team always suffers heavy losses. Your support is the fastest I've ever seen."

Before landing heavy weapons or Primarchs, the Legion usually sends out squads to scout ahead and ensure there are no specific ambushes in the area.

Kahn swayed away from the pile of skulls supporting him, and the power armor began injecting him with a drug.

"I only hope we're not too late, sir. If the situation is correct, please allow the army to continue its advance; time is precious."

Hades turned his head and glanced at the main force that was still assembling.

"Can you continue, Kahn?"

Kahn coughed and chuckled.

“My lord, even if I, Kahn, die, I will die on this land. No World Eater will retreat on the road to finding his father.”

Hades glanced at him briefly, and Kahn felt as if he had been seen through. For a moment, Kahn even began to fear that Hades would force him to go back—he had seen this kind of "self-proclaimed benevolent" official before.

But Hades spoke.

“Alright, Kahn, but the army will not stay for you, even if you are now the chief leader of the legion.”

Kahn readily nodded.

“If necessary, my lord, I will hand over command of the World Eaters to Centurion Margo. The veteran knows how to command the World Eaters. If he also dies... I will give command to you.”

Hades smiled, and he walked forward, preparing to move on.

"If I die too, who will take command, Kahn?"

Kahn paused for a moment, then quickly caught up with Hades.

How could such a being possibly die?

Kahn laughed rudely.

"...At that time, there will be no more command authority, sir."

Hades nodded, his expression turning serious again. A ranger knight was kneeling before the Lord of the Silent Order.

Hades skillfully stepped into his vehicle, the engine roared to life, and the massive mech slowly rose to its feet. Blood dripped from the black armor, and Hades' gaze was fixed on the thick blood mist in the distance.

Skabrand has appeared, so is Angron really still intact?

"Then let's set off."

--------------

[Terra Time 03:18:29]

Kahn readily removed his helmet, and semi-dried vomit and blood trickled down his neck. He breathed in the humid, warm air, feeling a needle-like warmth pricking his frozen, bruised chest.

After a three-hour forced march, the army arrived at the area shrouded in blood mist, where the temperature began to rise due to the influence of the lava in the rift valley.

The air force that had previously provided the army with high-altitude visibility was now completely useless, and Hades ordered them to retreat and hover over the ice source to maintain communication between the ground and the planet's orbit.

The strong smell of blood assaulted his nostrils, and Kahn gagged again. The Silent Sister beside him cast a concerned glance at him, but he waved his hand to indicate that he was alright.

The forced march we just did was... absolutely insane.

The blizzard formed a solid barrier before the advancing army, from which countless monstrous figures emerged, filled with unbelievable madness.

Behind each monster seemed to be an invisible wall covered with chainsaws. Kahn watched as the heel of a crimson monster that had taken a step back vanished in the next instant, leaving only a gruesome wound. The monster, suddenly losing its balance, collapsed and instantly turned into a pile of minced meat.

But most of the monsters were filled with an indomitable fighting spirit, and apart from their heads and blood, their brains were clearly incapable of thinking or understanding anything else.

The crimson army swept towards them amidst a towering storm.

Seeing all this, Kahn felt his blood run cold.

Can they still move forward?

But at the forefront of the army, the black knights charged forward with unwavering resolve. They stood at the tip of the storm, raising their swords high, tearing through the storm to disperse the enemy forces behind them and relieve pressure.

The Lord of the Order of Silence stood silently atop the Knights, his head bowed. Darkness gathered around him, and the howling crimson waves visibly dimmed and weakened as they passed him.

He is like a flag that stands forever, and also like a tombstone that never speaks.

The enemy troops charging straight at them were also torn apart by the ranger knights. They tried to bypass the knights to attack the warriors behind them, but the engines roared angrily, and their attempts to bypass them only resulted in them being scattered even more when they reached the battlefield behind.

This greatly relieved the pressure on the rear army, but even so, the Devourers and Soulless Ones were still locked in fierce battle.

During the battle, the thermal insulation system of Kahn's power armor was completely destroyed. His broken bones were dislocated several times, his helmet was filled with semi-dried liquid, and blood kept flowing out. This slowed down the Eighth Company Commander's pace. Several times he felt that he was about to fall, but he continued to move forward and never retreated!

Finally, he arrived.

At this moment, Kahn was already at the rear of the entire army, and command had long been handed over to Margo. There were only a few World Eaters around him, and the World Eaters with boiling battle intent had already rushed to the front. Around him were Soulless Ones responsible for cleaning up the rear.

Kahn looked up at Hades, who was at the very front of the procession, his figure already close to the deep black and crimson pyramid through the mist. The Lord of the Silent Order still stood firmly atop the knights.

Father, we've arrived.

Kahn thought to himself, listening to the crunching of bone fragments in his lungs with each breath, and then everything went black.

The last second he remembered was the soulless beings crowding around him, which made him feel even more nauseous.

------------

[Terra Time 03:23:17]

Hades silently dismounted from his knight, with Margo the World Eater waiting for him nearby.

Hades didn't ask how Kahn was doing; time was of the essence, finding Angron was the priority.

But in reality, the closer the army got to the blood mist, the more Hades felt a strange sense of familiarity.

He seemed to have had this faint feeling somewhere before.

Hades took a deep breath and first used the detector to scan the entire regular dark reddish-brown building, but he immediately found that the Empire's equipment could not identify what the building was.

Okay, now Hades can confirm that there are definitely bombs planted here. It remains to be seen whether Khorne planted the same bombs as Tzeentch.

Having come this far, there's absolutely no going back.

Hades summoned the mechs to his side. Large vehicles such as knights could not enter the building; only Space Marines and mortal troops could enter.

The gates opened automatically before them, and Hades and Margo led their troops into the Bloody Corridor.

In the dim light, blood smeared every corner they could see, making it impossible to discern its original texture, and the thick smell of blood further clouded their senses.

Faintly, angry roars came from the depths of the corridor, and Hades heard the sudden pause in breathing of the World Eater Margo beside him.

It seems they've found Angron.

However, just as Hades stepped into the pyramid-shaped building, silver, red, and green lightning began to slowly illuminate from deep underground.

Khorne burst into laughter.

That's all for today, 5k today. I'll work on building up my drafts.

Chapter 343 Respect for Rock, Respect for the World Devourer

He wasn't completely broken; his blood was still flowing.

----------------