Above the spire, the overlord walked down from the top, his shimmering green war scythe giving off a merciless glow.
Hades gazed silently at the overlord of the Necrons, gripping the death shroud in his hand.
His Null Field was useless against these soulless undead.
Hades took a deep breath, concentrating his energy,
While also holding out his scythe-wielding hand, pointing towards that vague place,
"I can fight you, but you must remove the death marks."
Every minute, the death marks would precisely claim the life of a space marine, these assassins with abilities beyond mod were weapons the overlords disdained.
If they respected their opponent, they would not deploy death marks.
"If you want to fight me, then the death marks are a sign of disgrace."
Hades stared silently at the other side, unsure if they could listen, as that overlord was muttering to himself, half-mad.
And if Khasoreth insisted on using the death marks against Hades, he would be lowering his own status by default in the fight with Hades.
Sure enough, Khasoreth casually held up his hand and snapped his fingers. The green lights that almost never missed disappeared.
"Mewling cattle."
Khasoreth said disdainfully,
"Now come forward and fight me."
The massive legions of the undead automatically parted around their overlord, forming an empty area, but they continued advancing, gauss rifles aimed at the remaining space marines.
[Dantioch, the rest is up to you.]
Hades sighed. Although they were about to face massive legions of Necrons, the defensive fortifications set up in advance and dismantled resurrection nodes had already minimized the pressure on them as much as possible.
Faint shouts came from the channel, the frenzied warriors of the Cult Mechanicus reinforcements were also rushing over recklessly to provide assistance.
Compared to the Iron Warriors, it was unexpected that the protectors of the Machine Cult were more proactive.
Hades jumped out of the trench and walked towards the center of the city step by step. The Necron warriors who had been quite enthusiastic towards him earlier were now ignoring him.
As Hades got closer to the city center, that strange feeling became more pronounced. The dense cluster of black stones whispered to him, humming and resonating.
His brain itched.
Hades shook his head. This felt very similar to his Null Field, but also vaguely different, but now was not the time to dwell on such things.
Finally he arrived, facing Khasoreth on the other side, who raised his war scythe and made a solemn gesture, perhaps some kind of etiquette.
Hades didn't think too much of it and imitated the gesture.
Khasoreth let out a scornful huff.
It didn't matter. Hades just wanted to buy some time, waiting for the Iron Warriors' aerial support and those frenzied hunter marines to reach the battlefield.
Hades took up a combat stance—
Khasoreth's war scythe slashed right at him!
The deathless technology would absorb energy from the thin atmosphere to power itself, while also rapidly lowering the surrounding temperature. Fine ice crystals began crawling over Hades' armor, then splashed through the air with Hades' swift movements.
The clash of metal rang out. The power on the other side was tremendously astonishing, not to mention the thrumming heavy energy shield. Hades had no choice but to rely on agile evasion to respond.
The good news was that Khasoreth's techniques and fluidity were not as amazing as Hades had imagined.
For a time, Hades and Khasoreth's silhouettes were tangled up amidst the Necron legion.
Too fast!
Khasoreth realized in shock that this flesh creature had unleashed a speed completely disproportionate to his burly physique!
Among the best Immortals warriors Khasoreth had seen (even those modified), very few could achieve this level of ability!
These lowly flesh creatures could actually reach such strength?!
Even with multi-threaded drives, the pathways now struggled to shake off Hades' entanglement. This guy clung to Khasoreth's sacred armor like a stubborn scarab beetle!
For a while, Hades and Khasoreth were locked in a stalemate—
On the other side, Dantioch led the mixed legions of Death Guards and Iron Warriors to intercept the Necrons. Thanks to the cramped, uneven terrain blasted out by Hades, the attacking Necrons were dispersed by the obstacles, which greatly relieved the pressure on them.
As he fired his shots, Dantioch kept a corner of his eye on Hades' side, only to see the Death Guards' characteristic white and green flickering with afterimages through the air!
Every blow Khasoreth swung out was easily dodged!
This was very different from the attacking methods Dantioch had previously seen and heard about for Death Guards, who tended to weather their opponents' blows, taking light injuries to inflict heavier ones.
But Hades evaded every single attack!
Hang in there, Hades! Seeing the massive scythe in the overlord's hands that was clearly unlike the other Necrons, Dantioch realized that if it landed a blow on Hades, unimaginable consequences would follow.
Information came through the air - the Iron Warriors' aerial forces were about to seize temporary air supremacy over this area.
It was welcome news, but Dantioch stared at the blurry silhouette and felt there was no way to inform Hades of this good news without disturbing them.
On the other side, Hades had entered a state of extreme focus, each of his blows fiercer, heavier, deadlier.
After a heavy blow, the blackstone ground under Khasoreth's feet was loosened, and the overlord's bulky figure swayed slightly—
What a good chance!
Hades made a follow-up slash, charging straight for Khasoreth's neck!
"No!"
A scream seemed to pierce space-time itself. Nas struggled to climb out of a resurrection node on the verge of collapse. It witnessed the king about to be—
No, no no!
"Attack! Attack!"
At the critical moment, Nas breached the limits imposed on its authority! It directly issued an order to the death marks on the ground!
A green beam of light shot straight towards Hades. Time seemed to slow down as Hades watched the green light speeding towards his skull.
But this laser beam did not change what had already happened. Khasoreth's head spiralled through the air
While Hades, still swinging down with his scythe, desperately sped up, trying to dodge it. He lifted up his heavy death shroud to block, the green light grazing the scythe handle and partially striking the right side of Hades' head.
His helmet disintegrated instantly, blood spraying outward.
His consciousness started going hazy, gradually losing subjective control of his body.
Hades clenched his teeth tightly, trying to maintain control of his own body as blood overflowed from his mouth.
The droning of the blackstones grew louder, brain itching.
Conscious fading. Damn, why was his life flashing before his eyes
Stop, stop!
Words like Barbarus, the fourteenth legion, Mars, words of the ancients flashed through his mind—
Hades' brain exploded with a boom.
It was as if chains shattered open, the golden cage began peeling away, and everything once imprisoned descended.
Hades gazed blearily at the black and green enemy before him as the truth from the peak of Mount Barbarus returned to his mind.
That which shrouded life and souls
"Cough!"
Hades coughed up a mouthful of blood as his Null Field boiled over, and the blackstones of the entire necropolis trembled in response.
"Run away. Run!!!"
He shouted towards Dantioch's side, but Hades knew they would not understand his meaning.
Hades dealt Khasoreth a quick scythe blow, then started running like a rabid dog, run, run!
He had to at least get the Death Guards and Iron Warriors out of the range of his own Null Field!
His consciousness was precarious, teetering on the edge. Hades stubbornly resisted closing his eyes, but the blackstones' whispers spoke to him, and the familiar resonance quickly engulfed him like the tides
With his head heavily wounded by the death mark, all he could see ahead were colored blobs, but soon even those faded into large chunks of black and white
Nas got up from the ruins, quickly arriving at the scene. He raised his axe towards that disrespectful figure who had offended the king.
Even if the king's consciousness and mind remained, Khasoreth would revive once more in the deepest underground tomb.
But this alien's actions had clearly trampled Nas' bottom line.
Nas' thought processes trembled.
As the king's blade, it ought to shred this alien.
However, Hades with blurred sight charged straight towards Nas!
Nas was greatly shocked, but it dodged in time and seized the opportunity to swing its axe at Hades—
This was the last straw to break the camel's back.
Hades clutched his throat and fell to his knees, swallowed up by the endless abyss of his Null Field.
—Null Field eruption—
And the Necron structures of blackstone began resonating with Hades' erupting Null Field! The Null Field rippled out layer by layer, directly blanketing the entire area!
The world turned black and white, distorted by the void.
Nas stared dumbfounded at everything happening.
Among the towering blackstone buildings, a creature the size of a man floated in midair. The blackstones responded to his call. Green lightning densely coiled around him as endless soulvoid surrounded him, forming a hollow chaos.
He roared, he wailed, he was in fragments.
Huge bolts of lightning twisted out from the blackstone structures, trampling the legions of the undead underfoot like ants.
The star gods—it was the star gods!!!
Nas wanted the resurrection nodes below ground to manifest, but the green lightning tore through everything.
The green shockwaves also blasted the Death Guards and Iron Warriors apart, flinging them outside the range of the Null Field.
Black, white, grey, distorted images flashed across the sky.
No living being with a soul could gaze straight at him.
In the distance, those frenzied warriors charging towards the main forces of the undead now trembled as they pointed towards that black city,
Many had already stopped their charge despite the Necrons around them, falling to their knees as they started worshipping in that direction.
It was an incomprehensible entity. Their souls quaked!
Omnissiah!!!
In the Death Guard fleet high above in space, Jin stared motionlessly at the last visual feed from Hades' armor. His whole body stiffened.
[He's a god! I knew it!]
Tech-Priest Kirkland's voice roared from the logic engine.
[Praise the Omnissiah!!!]
Irregular data came in. Perturabo, fully focused on commanding the void battle, glanced over.
Sensors malfunctioning?
A massive black dot had formed at the target location, a pure, unadulterated black.
Meanwhile, the rapid assault troops he had deployed earlier were mostly on the outer perimeter of the target, with a minority showing loss of signal, which Perturabo took to mean they were already dead.
Although Perturabo was puzzled by the data on those assault troops—most showed unconsciousness—the good news was he could now bombard the target location.
The defensive structures around the target had already been destroyed by a Death Guard, and the Iron Warriors had just seized air supremacy over this region.
What else was there to hesitate over?
Perturabo decisively issued an order for large-scale bombardment. The ammunition carried by the Iron Warriors was enough to blanket the entire area.
High up in the skies, between the cloud layers and yellow sands, the Iron Warriors' ordnance began pouring down.
Perturabo did not spend too much time on this matter, returning his gaze to the void battle at hand, which required more of his computation.
Compared to the petty skirmishing on the ground, this was what needed his attention more.