"Luna would be our final battle. The Thunder Warriors would never break their oath."
Ushotan gripped the greatsword in his hand tightly.
He raised his head and looked toward the distant battlefield.
Muttering to himself inwardly.
He had long anticipated such an ending.
He had heard certain rumors before.
The Emperor was creating new warriors in a secret laboratory in the Himalayas.
They would replace the unstable Thunder Warriors and become the main force of the Great Crusade.
He had once harbored illusions, but now even those pitiful illusions had been ruthlessly shattered by reality.
"For Unity."
"For Unity."
The roars of other Thunder Warriors echoed over the comms.
Ushotan cast aside the thoughts in his mind.
With his guards, he advanced swiftly under the cover of smoke and violent explosions, charging toward the enemy's next line of defense.
Roaring artillery fire struck the ground, throwing scorched earth high into the air.
The vast battlefield was filled with a storm of bullets and shells, torrents of ammunition forming iron serpents that coiled into the sky.
Straight energy beams vanished in an instant, while dense explosive rounds fell like an overwhelming hailstorm.
Warplanes swept through the air, stirring the slowly rising clouds of smoke.
Countless war machines and infantry formations merged into an unstoppable tidal wave and surged forward.
The Thunder Warriors were the crest of that destructive wave.
Thousands of warriors clad in bronze armor charged at the forefront, tearing apart the monsters unleashed by the Gene Cult and destroying gun emplacements and shield generators along the way.
The Thunder Warriors cast off the reason that restrained their savage nature.
They embraced eternal rage and unleashed their fury to their hearts' content in this war.
One brutal melee after another erupted, bloody and merciless.
The Thunder Warriors attacked the Gene Cult with utmost ferocity, smashing through line after line of defenses.
When they reached the final defensive line, the Gene Cult unleashed even more terrifying monsters.
They were horrific Slaughter Weapons that only a deranged artist could have conceived.
Enormous in size, fused from machinery and flesh, hideous and terrifying.
Vizula fell in battle.
Those dreadful monsters tore open his armor with their sharp claws.
When Ushotan cut down the enemies blocking his path and found Vizula, he was leaning against a ruined wall.
One hand was pressed tightly against his abdomen to stop what was inside from spilling out.
"Brother." Ushotan knelt beside Vizula and called to him.
Vizula opened his eyes and smiled.
"Sorry, but I have to go on ahead."
"You know, I've always wondered about something. Did he ever care about us? Or were we tools to him from beginning to end?"
Ushotan fell silent. He could not answer that question.
The Emperor had once fought side by side with them and painted a picture of a prosperous age after unification.
Yet now, He was also the one who had chosen to abandon them.
"Forget it. It doesn't matter anymore."
Vizula grinned, revealing a relieved smile.
He trembled as he released his final breath.
Then, everything ended.
His eyes closed forever.
Vizula had once doubted the Emperor and accused Him of betraying the Thunder Warriors.
Yet in the end, he still died for the Emperor.
Roar!
A horrifying sound rang out.
The monsters released by the Gene Cult closed in on the Thunder Warriors.
The surviving guards formed a fighting circle around Ushotan.
Ushotan rose to his feet, gripping his greatsword tightly as leaping arcs of electricity wrapped around its heavy blade.
His heart was heavy.
As the leader of the legion, he knew full well how much harm the Thunder Warriors' loss of control could bring to the Empire.
From a ruler's perspective, abandoning them was a very wise decision.
But Ushotan's emotions still could not accept that the Emperor would cast them aside.
"For Unity."
Ushotan roared, venting his fury at those monsters.
He charged into the enemy like a crazed beast.
The guards charged alongside him.
The gene monsters of flesh and machinery also pounced at them.
They attacked with claws and tails studded with sharp spikes.
A brutal melee erupted.
The monsters were hunted down one after another, and the guards around Ushotan fell one after another as well.
In the end, only he remained.
Blood stained his robe and armor red, and blood dripped from the war sword in his hand.
Only a few of the strongest monsters remained.
They possessed eight mechanical legs like spiders, covered in thick steel carapaces.
Countless eyes glowed red, and their sharp limbs were as deadly as power weapons.
"Come, beasts."
Ushotan shouted.
The monsters made rustling sounds as they moved.
When they pounced, Ushotan let go of the last of his reason.
Consumed by fury, he fell into memories.
He saw the battle on the Antarctic Plains.
Atomic weapons fell from the sky like rain.
Under the Emperor's leadership, they launched an assault on the enemy.
Then he found himself on Mount Yarala, where he saw his fallen comrades raising lightning banners and roaring with their fists thrust high.
"Unity."
"Unity."
Ushotan became lost in those illusory memories.
Unable to tell what was real and what was false.
Only his longing for victory and honor drove him to keep swinging his weapon, cutting down every living thing around him.
This was the Thunder Warriors' greatest flaw: they became trapped in memories of war, unable to distinguish reality from dreams.
Many innocent people had died because of it.
But now, Ushotan was the only one on the battlefield. He could unleash his rage without restraint.
Lost in his dream, he fought the terrifying monsters with madness.
When the final monster was beheaded and collapsed to the ground, Ushotan too had reached his limit and fell to his knees helplessly.
His battle armor was shattered, and his robe was drenched in blood.
This battle had inflicted extremely severe wounds upon him.
Even the most skilled physicians could not save him.
The roar of engines sounded.
Transport craft descended like raindrops.
Amid the hiss of high-pressure gas, their hatches slowly opened.
Warriors clad in gray armor stepped out in perfect unison. They stood silently amid the raging snow, like statues.
An "I" marked their breastplates, while their right pauldrons bore the emblem of a winged sword.
These men were incarnations of destruction, shaped in humanity's image and granted dreadful, powerful weapons.
Ushotan raised his head and looked at the gray-armored warriors.
He knew these must be the new warriors the Emperor had created to replace the Thunder Warriors.
They were as tall as the Thunder Warriors, but even deadlier.
A golden shuttle landed beside Ushotan.
A golden figure stepped out from its cabin.
It was the Emperor.
He walked to Ushotan's side and placed a hand on his shoulder, his gaze inscrutable.
"Did you care about us?" Ushotan looked up at the one he had sworn loyalty to, his life rapidly ebbing away. "Or were we merely tools from beginning to end?"
"No," said the Emperor. "You were heroes of the Human Empire, not tools."
"It is only that you were unsuited for the Great Crusade, and there was no way for you to retire and return to civilian life. You were born for war; perhaps ending in war is the best conclusion."
"The Empire will forever remember your sacrifices. Every Imperial citizen will know of the Thunder Warriors' achievements and glory."
Hearing the Emperor's promise, Ushotan smiled and cried out his oath one final time.
"For Unity."
As the words fell, he breathed his last.
"Gather their bodies. After the war, build a monument on Luna. We must ensure that the Empire's citizens forever remember that the Thunder Warriors were heroes of the Empire."
The Emperor instructed the attendants beside him.
"This could be considered a good ending, I suppose. At least they did not die at the hands of the Adeptus Custodes and the First Legion."
Raven, standing on the Emperor's shoulder, looked at the dead Ushotan and sighed inwardly.
Origin power continued to flow into his body.
His talent allowed him to devour the overflowing origin power by changing the universe's predetermined fate.
Changing the Super God Universe could grant him origin power.
Naturally, changes to the Warhammer universe could grant him origin power as well.
After dealing with Ushotan, the Emperor turned to look at the Gene Cult's final line of defense.
Towering gun turrets, endless bunkers, interlocking heavy firepower, impregnable shields, and countless hideous monsters of flesh and machinery formed an unbreakable defensive line.
Even the Thunder Warriors who had unified Terra had failed to breach it. Instead, they had shattered themselves against that line, bringing their glorious lives to an end.
"Leave Luna, Tyrant. Do not add to the meaningless casualties."
A woman's voice rang out.
The projection of the Gene Witch appeared before the Emperor.
The Emperor said, "Your stubborn resistance is utter folly. Humanity's rise cannot be stopped. Join us or be destroyed."
"You are too arrogant, Tyrant. If you persist, this newborn Empire is destined to bleed out its last drop on Luna. Activate the celestial weapons. Let ice and snow descend."
The moon had been the first extraterrestrial world humanity set foot upon.
To alter its frigid environment, its former inhabitants had built atmospheric controllers.
These advanced creations had originally been meant to improve human life.
Now, the Gene Witches used them as weapons against the newborn Empire created by the Emperor.
As beams of light shot into the thin sky.
The surrounding temperature plummeted, and snow began to whirl down from the heavens.
"If you continue, you will only bring about your own destruction. We still have enough trump cards to fight you."
The Gene Witch looked at the Emperor and issued her threat.
"You should consider this an honor." The Emperor held out his hand. A snowflake landed on it and melted in an instant.
"You will witness their first battle."
"Attack. Slaughter all who resist."
The instant the Emperor gave the order, the lenses of those gray-armored warriors' helmets lit up.
They marched forward in orderly steps and began a new slaughter.
"Astartes? Is that the First Legion?"
Raven recognized the gray-armored warriors.
They were the Emperor's Angels of Death.
The Human Empire's trump card for conquering the galaxy.
Luna's fall was inevitable.
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