Tzeentch:?

"Blood for the Blood God!"

It was the sound of an axe blade cleaving steel.

"For the glory of Macragge!"

That was the sound of a sharp blade sinking into flesh, followed by a heavy object hitting the ground.

Splat~

Blood sprayed everywhere. As the headless heretic's corpse knelt on the ground and toppled helplessly forward, increasingly fanatical roars rose all around.

"Blood for the Blood God! Blood for the Blood God!"

The heretics' blasphemous chants continuously assaulted Cypheris's ears as he silently watched another heretic leap into the duel pit before him.

He did not attack first.

He was waiting for the stakes of this duel.

"There is nothing left. You have won it all, warrior."

The nearly three-meter-tall Khorne warrior drew his twin axes. Their chainblades began to spin, throwing sparks.

Eight skulls, eight pairs of sacrifices, and a warrior who had endured eight trials—the Blood God's domain had already opened its gates to him.

He could sense the eight lakes of blood within the endless Scarlet Wasteland boiling for him. The Blood God had long prepared eight wars capable of elevating him.

The desire to harvest this warrior's skull and let his blood flow over himself echoed in his heart.

"Now, I will take all of it, along with your life!"

The traitor's voice was like thunder. Like the Power Pack fused with his body and violently spewing flames outward, it embodied the warrior's boundless might.

He was in peak condition.

Cypheris clearly remembered those axe blades striking from behind, tearing apart comrades who had still been resisting the Orks.

There was still a gash left by a comrade on the blood-and-flesh-smeared front plate of that Cataphractii Terminator armor.

And the head of that comrade was impaled upon a spike extending from this traitor's back—the enemy who had wounded him.

Cypheris remained silent. He did not rage against the injustice before him, for he knew traitors possessed no honor to speak of.

Dragging his heavy armor, he raised the chipped sword once more.

"For the glory of Macragge!"

It was a bloody Arena, filled with the roars of brave warriors.

Severed limbs lay everywhere. Frenzied Void Rats dragged scraps of ruined tissue into the passages. A Deathwatch warrior's corpse had been pierced from directly below through to the crown of his head and mounted on a high frame as a railing. Viscous matter that appeared to be a mixture of brain tissue and blood coated the surrounding steel like spiderwebs spreading through a jungle.

A thick stench of blood rushed at them. Scarlet Warp miasma had dyed the entire bottom of the generator crimson.

At the center of the Arena, an Apothecary wearing a white helmet struggled bitterly.

At his side, eight Chaos Space Marine corpses lay scattered across the Arena.

He was badly wounded. The Power Pack on his back had long been torn away, and a massive gash split his chest open. Both hearts inside had been shattered.

His opponent was a fully armed Khorne warrior, nearly as tall as Arthur.

At first glance, Arthur noticed the Cataphractii Terminator in the center of the battlefield, fighting the severely damaged Mk7 Space Marine one-on-one with an energy shield active.

The Sisters who had already caught up with the group watched the scene, explosive fury blazing in their eyes.

"Restrain yourselves, Sisters. Encirclement formation!"

The Canoness gave a low command. The twenty-six Sisters of Battle swiftly dispersed and began seeking ambush positions.

"Doesn't the Blood God value honorable duels?"

Casually tossing out the question, Arthur's figure flashed, and he plunged into the Arena as if teleporting.

Anger could not solve problems, but slaughter could.

He would kill every last thing that dared use an evil ritual to challenge his values. He would show no mercy.

"The Blood God does not care where the blood comes from."

Romulus looked at the miserable scene in the duel pit and gently shook his head. Then he remotely commanded the Ultramarines to unleash their firepower while activating the loudspeakers.

"Seal the passages. Kill them all. Let no one escape."

The Ultramarines surrounding the duel pit moved with perfect uniformity. One hand disengaged the safety and held down the trigger, while the other arm pressed forcefully against the upper side of the gun, reducing recoil to nearly nothing. The Sisters of Battle switched to melta weapons, using explosions to seal every possible escape route below.

Gunfire and explosions instantly replaced the Chaos heretics' fanatical howls. The many Chaos Space Marines who had just been gathered around the piles of corpses were riddled with dense Bolter fire the moment they drew their blasphemous weapons.

The heretics' struggle was as meaningless as the utterly destroyed ritual within the duel pit.

Bang!

Arthur descended from the sky and cleanly planted a loyalty plasma shot against the Khorne Terminator's forehead.

But the Blood God's blessing allowed him to withstand that all-piercing plasma. The Khorne Terminator merely leaned back to shed the impact, then used his heavy armored bracer to forcibly knock aside the Power Sword thrusting toward his head. Whirling his twin axes, he hacked at Arthur.

A skilled opponent.

This was the first enemy capable of lasting a single exchange against Arthur.

Arthur's expression grew slightly solemn, and his focus sharpened further.

His blade blocked the strike from the right. He raised his shield to deflect the feint toward it, which was actually a thrown axe flying toward the Apothecary to complete the ritual. Arthur drove forward, sending the Khorne Terminator stumbling.

"False Emperor's dog, you..."

Ignoring the Khorne warrior's furious roar, Arthur disarmed him after throwing him off balance. His longsword, still locked against the blessed axe blade, slipped free. Freed from suppression, Arthur closed in and threw a punch, his Plasteel-encased fist smashing heavily into the Khorne warrior's already mutated head.

Splat!

The twisted head was blasted away by the punch. A torrent of blood sprayed from the severed neck, while that blasphemous body seemed not to have realized its brain was dead and remained in its hacking posture.

Only then did Arthur step back, catching the Power Sword before it touched the ground and letting the axe blade scrape past his breastplate.

By the time he completed that movement, Romulus and the others' firepower had also torn apart every living thing nearby.

Even Space Marines had no chance to resist a sudden barrage of saturating firepower.

The scarlet mist thinned.

Fury! Fury!

Within the domain where blood flowed forever, endless fury flowed through the God of Slaughter's heart.

A duel—a bloody duel—had been destroyed.

Right beneath His gaze.

He had gained neither the warrior's skull nor the servant who could have brought Him more skulls. The power He had projected vanished completely with the servant's death. He had gotten nothing and even lost His investment.

Who was it?!

Khorne gazed toward that region. He could see the followers of the cursed one, and he could see the corpses of His servants, yet no matter what He did, he could not see the figure that had taken His skulls.

Damn it. Such a scheme was enough to irritate even a god.

"Tzeentch!"

A faint azure image flashed through His thoughts. Seated upon the Brass Throne, the Blood God unleashed a soul-shaking roar.

Since He could not find the culprit, then the Deceiver who loved concealing the truth would pay the price!

Only slaughter could solve problems!

As the Blood God's roar rang out, the Brass Great Bell of the Scarlet Wasteland began to toll. Molten metal became a surging flood, crushing skulls as it flowed into the eternally operating Slaughter Forge.

Steel Bulls, Blood Shrines, and countless constructs forged from Chaos machinery and souls of slaughter began charging forth from the Skull Tower.

Even the exceptionally viscous Crimson River, nourished by eternal war and slaughter, thinned somewhat. The countless Butchers across the wasteland stopped their blades and looked toward the Lord of Slaughter seated upon the Brass Throne, flames of longing burning in their eyes.

"Blood for the Blood God!"

The Blood God's fury never faded, and the Blood God's weapons never rested.

There was only one reason an eternal duel could be halted.

A greater war!

"Skulls for the Skull Throne!!!"

Beneath layers upon layers of blood-red sky, fully armed warriors erupted into fanatical roars.

When the eighth bell toll faded, the Brass Horn resounded throughout the Blood God's domain.

Eight hundred and eighty-eight Greater Daemons of Khorne led their demonic armies toward the azure Infinite Maze.

"?"

And when burning iron hooves shattered the kaleidoscopic walls of the maze, the shifting, formless thing seated atop a dried-up well finally opened its countless eyes.

"Change."

It murmured, boundless ecstasy hidden within the clacking of innumerable lips and teeth.

As though the Khorne Demons ravaging His domain at that moment were a heavenly army come to rescue Him.

"Hehehe, a war that was never foreseen!"