Chereads / Gods of the Mortal World / Chapter 235 - Chapter 235: "Take My Axe"

Chapter 235 - Chapter 235: "Take My Axe"

[Combat Protocol Activated.]

[Mission Objective: Annihilate all detectable organic entities within range.]

All the Iron Warriors who had stood unmoved under the assault now straightened, unleashing their firepower upon the advancing foes. Bolts of energy sliced through the void, spanning the distance between Iron Warriors and Chaos Space Marines in an instant. Those struck saw both their armor and flesh pierced, residual energy arcing across their cells and causing flesh to disintegrate within the armor. In the first two seconds of combat, Abaddon lost a squad of Terminators, and over thirty of Sorax's marines lay dead. Typhus's forces fared best; only those struck fatally succumbed, while the others continued despite grievous wounds, as the energy merely corroded a few tumors within.

The Iron Warriors were resilient, their metal shells polished by bombarding rounds, their bodies vulnerable only to plasma weapons, though even those proved limited in effect. The Chaos Marines quickly realized that only power weapons could bring down these iron titans, prompting them to close the gap with their foes. Soon, hand-to-hand combat erupted.

"Typhus!"

Abaddon plunged Horus' Claw into the core of an Iron Warrior, his eyes catching Typhus on the periphery. Typhus stood back, gripping his scythe but avoiding the fray, observing from a safe distance. Hearing Abaddon's enraged shout, Typhus coolly drove his scythe through an approaching Iron Warrior.

"I am recording," he muttered, stepping on the fallen warrior's shell for a closer look. "These Iron Warriors are truly unbound, with no Tech-priests accompanying them. They are genuinely autonomous."

Typhus's remark seemed trivial, yet Abaddon grasped its import. In the Imperium, abominable intelligences like Iron Warriors were forbidden, while the Mechanicum's war machines—similar in appearance but requiring Tech-priests for control—were tolerated. Without such overseers, these Iron Warriors stood in blatant defiance of Imperial law, and if word spread, the Tyron Cluster would face severe consequences. Typhus's observations might not hold immediate value, but they could prove crucial in the future.

Abaddon continued his carnage, his combat prowess on full display as he slaughtered each Iron Warrior in sight, wielding weapons of immense lethality. Horus' Claw, once wielded by Abaddon's gene-sire, Horus, and the Daemonblade Drach'nyen—an entity so potent even the Emperor could not destroy it—were now at his disposal, symbols of his status as Chaos Warmaster.

Within minutes, the last of the Iron Warriors lay defeated at his feet.

"A pity," he muttered, stepping on the remains of a shattered Iron Warrior. "These relics of an ancient age are irreplaceable. If they were mine, I would never waste them in such meaningless deaths."

Typhus gave a nod of agreement. The Iron Warriors were relics of humanity's golden age, growing ever rarer and more revered as humanity waned. During the Great Crusade, when legions faced warlords and factions who commanded Iron Warriors, they could expect brutal attrition, with casualties reaching a hundred or even a thousand to one.

As Abaddon recalled the Iron Warriors' formidable power, he noted that thirty of his own men had been torn apart in the melee.

"Look there," Typhus tapped Abaddon's shoulder, directing his gaze skyward.

One of the celestial satellites above began to glow with a yellowish light. During their last skirmish in the Cadian System, a crimson glow had signaled the Light Spear's firing sequence; this yellow light indicated the impending discharge of the Arc Lightning. The one drawback of these weapons was their lengthy charging time, though their devastating power offset this limitation. Whether Light Spear or Arc Lightning, either could bring an entire fleet to its knees in an instant.

Though he could not predict the future, Abaddon knew that an arc strike would obliterate hundreds of troop transports, scuttling any hope of a planetary assault. He turned to Sorax, intent on asking about the ritual, just as Sorax glanced back at him.

"In truth, the ritual completed the moment we boarded," Sorax said, a slight smile playing on his lips. "We have demonstrated courage and valor to the Blood God."

At these words, Abaddon felt a shudder in his heart, as though some vast presence had taken notice of him. Typhus, Sorax, and Abaddon's chosen warriors all felt the same inexplicable sensation.

An immense gaze swept across the system, observing everything within its reach. Its hatred and fury fixed on the foul sorcerer defiling Cadia, where a shard of the Crystal Realm had already begun to seep onto the planet's surface. Fortunately, the taint of the Crystal Realm was receding, and in time, it would be cleansed. On Cadia, mortal soldiers fought amid the shadows of terror, yet though they quaked at the sight of daemons, they stood firm, refusing to abandon their posts, resisting with desperate bravery. Only a few broke, fleeing when the creatures struck from behind. Pleased with their courage, the gaze momentarily granted them strength and endurance before shifting focus.

An armada of transports ferried countless mortal soldiers, Titans, and Space Marines toward the Iron Planet, intent on a battle that would soak the land in blood. Though its delight was tainted with anger, the gaze foresaw that these transports would be destroyed in a single blast of energy before the ground assault could even begin. Seething, it resolved to intervene.

Like a burning star manifest, it raised an immense axe and brought it crashing down upon the charging arrays of the weapon grid. In an instant, the satellite's energy shields shattered, an entire ridge of Arc Lightning cannons was cleaved into a canyon, and the satellite itself began plummeting toward the planet. The Iron Warriors redirected planetary energy to the shields, diverting all power save for life support. The satellite struck the shield barrier and rebounded, spiraling toward Cadia.

Desperately, the Iron Warriors recalibrated planetary energy, using gravitational devices to pull the satellite back before it collided with Cadia. They diverted all power to the colossal material printer, tapping the planet's reserves to repair the extensive damage. Such printers were seldom activated, as they consumed over eighty percent of the power grid, but within an hour they could mend even catastrophic injuries to the satellites.

Now crippled, the satellite could no longer rotate under its own power, relying instead on the gravitational devices to restore its momentum. Until the satellite was fully repaired, the remaining celestial satellite would be unable to draw energy from the planetary core and would be forced to operate on its own reserves just to sustain its rotation.

Related Books

Popular novel hashtag