Forge Fiend

Canto, who previously felt victory was within his grasp, discovered that his soldiers were being eliminated like chopped vegetables by these strange warriors of the Mongert Dynasty.

He angrily pulled the power sword from his waist and chopped off the head of a soldier who was reporting the battle situation to him.

Seeing this scene, all the officers on the bridge no longer dared to say another word, and all lowered their heads in fear.

"No one is allowed to spread these rumors! How could Space Marines help a Rogue Trader? Those are just some pieces of trash that look similar! Finish them off for me, absolutely do not let these fellows' plan succeed."

He roared and gave orders to all the soldiers who could still be mobilized.

"Flesh, how fragile it is. Humans, how pathetic you are! You should embrace the truth! Weren't the cybernetic implants I replaced for you easy to use?"

Just when everyone dared not say another word, a tech-priest wearing a red robe slowly paced over to Canto's side.

How heretical were the remarks this priest had just uttered? Fragile flesh could be understood, but humans pathetic?!

"Zesta? I harbor you on my ship to do that heretical research, not for you to come and mock me!"

"I know. This is an equal trade. I provide you with a stronger physique, I provide weapons for your armed soldiers, and my mechanics have conquered one unknown world after another for you, earning countless benefits. Without me, could your dynasty's strength really develop to this point today?"

As Canto spoke, he looked at his own body. Beneath the luxurious Rogue Trader attire, a large number of cybernetic modifications already covered his body. Warhammer humans had a high acceptance rate for implants, and there was no shortage of people with implants all over their bodies.

Yet a degree like Canto's present state was also quite rare. Aside from the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus, most people still used implants as a means to strengthen themselves. A normal flesh-and-blood body remained more important to people, and physical pleasures were still something most people could not abandon.

Yet Canto found that after this heretical priest modified him, he became increasingly addicted to the thrill brought by this enhancement of power.

Moreover, Zesta was right; the dynasty's ability to develop to its current situation truly could not do without the Zesta before him.

"I have detected uncalculatable variables. The flesh of your subordinates, which can no longer play a role, is unable to protect you anymore. You should heed the call of truth and ignore those hollow creeds."

"Shut up! Zesta, the soldiers of my dynasty can definitely stop these fellows!"

The surrounding crew members looked at their increasingly frantic Rogue Trader, not knowing what exactly they were thinking in their hearts. They only knew that Canto was becoming more and more extreme.

"There are too many misunderstandings filled within your primitive thoughts, but I believe you will be corrected very soon."

"But what if others find out? What if the Inquisition finds out? The dynasty will be completely destroyed."

Zesta leaned into Canto's ear and whispered.

"Flesh is a consumable material. You can completely wait until victory is achieved to thoroughly purge the people on this ship. As long as they all die, no one will find out, and you will still be that lofty Rogue Trader."

Canto still hesitated, but a violent tremor interrupted their conversation.

"Lord Canto! The engine deck has been breached!"

Damon and his Rangers charged all the way into the engine room of the Tyrant. The enemy's counterattack could not be described as anything less than resolute, but when two companies of Rangers converged, the counterattack launched by opponents using their lives was of no avail.

Damon, wearing Adamantium combat suit painted in black, went straight to the front every time the enemy's firepower blocked the pace of the advance, hard-eating the other side's firepower to destroy the opposing firepower points.

He was even fine halfway through taking a plasma and a melta hit from the tech-priest inside. Two medics simultaneously repaired his flesh and his combat suit.

After taking out everyone on the engine deck, the Rangers concentrated their fire on the plasma engine, completely crippling the warship's conventional propulsion system.

The huge Tyrant completely stalled and floated in the dark void.

"No! Zesta! Let those blasphemous things make their move! I want every single one of them to die!!"

"Congratulations, Canto. You are already getting closer and closer to the truth. These erroneous variables that have entered this warship will soon be completely eliminated!"

The forge workshop inside the Tyrant—this compartment sealed to prevent all other crew members from entering—opened its doors.

The scorching steam inside the workshop drifted accordingly into the corridors of the warship.

And the steam carried a rich sulfur smell.

If one looked inward from the outside, the scene inside the workshop was constantly shifting between reality and illusion.

Fully armed tech-priests walked out of the workshop.

Their equipment looked exceptionally refined, and their cybernetic eyes were filled with Chaos corruption. Zesta had corrupted the tech-priests on this warship without anyone knowing when.

And deep within this workshop, two huge mechanical creations stirred.

Blood-red metal armor.

The mechanical dead things with beastman-like forms actually possessed life!

They shook their massive metal heads, and their sharp teeth directly devoured the metal beside them, chewing it without difficulty and swallowing it into their stomachs. As this metal was consumed, two huge Hades six-barrel autocannons on both sides of their bodies also began to spin.

The warp furnaces within their bodies, constantly radiating the smell of sulfur, injected a steady stream of energy into their blasphemous bodies.

No wonder the lower-deck laborers on this ship had also constantly experienced disappearances. It was precisely Zesta who had brought them into this workshop, using the soul furnace to devour their flesh and souls in order to forge mechanical creations like the Forge Fiend.

And Canto had covered up these actions for them.

The corrupted tech-priests and the Forge Fiends walked out of the workshop. Distinguishing neither friend nor foe, the sailors organizing defense inside the Tyrant never expected that Chaos corruption would appear within their own warship.

Yet the focus of their defense was on the front, and absolutely no one guarded against the threat from behind.

The autocannons on the Forge Fiends' arms began to fire. When the scorching phosphor shells contacted flesh, they not only shattered the bodies of these sailors, but also burned their souls, and the wails emitted by these souls seemed to transform into the strength of the Forge Fiends.

Treading over a ground of severed limbs and broken bodies, they headed toward the enemies who had breached the warship.

Meanwhile, Ghost Norris had also entered the warship.

They did not choose to confront the enemy head-on. Relying on the stealth characteristics of his combat suit, he bypassed position after position. The mission Gao Yi gave him was firmly engraved in his heart; his target was not these ordinary enemies, but the opponent's bridge.

Norris's movement did not make a single sound, but the internal structure of the warship was far too complex, and trying to find the location of the bridge from the breakthrough point was not a simple matter.

At that moment, a lone crew member also appeared in front of him.

Norris stared closely at the crew member before him, then activated his psionic power. The next second, the crew member's gaze also glazed over.

This was precisely one of the psionic powers of the Ghost Operative: Mind Charm and Control.

"Tell me! The location of the bridge!"

Following Norris's inquiry, this crew member directly revealed the way to get there in every detail. After obtaining the answer he wanted, Norris directly finished off the opponent with a psionic glaive.

Yet just as he was about to press forward, a surge of psionic fluctuation immediately caught his attention.

"This evil psionic energy... Chaos corruption exists within this warship?!"