A New Demon, Papatyr

The mortal had once had a happy, fulfilling family. But during the recent break, he had fallen asleep and had a terrible nightmare.

His wife and children, who had already evacuated to the agricultural district, were suddenly knocked to the ground by rotting corpses and bitten until their bodies became masses of rotten flesh.

The corpses followed one after another toward the place where he was.

Then, after the battle in which he had been caught up ended, he was lucky enough to survive.

From a third-person perspective, he watched his former self, still brimming with happiness, go to welcome his wife and children home.

But what greeted him was the familiar, gaping maws of his wife and children.

He despaired. He grew furious. At the same time, he was afraid. Though he clearly held a weapon in his hands, he did not dare shoot at his wife and children.

Until he watched those gaping maws bite into him, tearing at him just as the corpses had torn into his children and wife.

They ripped flesh and organs from his body. In the end, he became one of the corpses.

Then a drop pod fell from the sky and slammed into the ground. The Imperial Angels emerged from it and, without hesitation, raised their bolters and calmly sent the entire family on their way with three shots.

Watching his wife and children's bodies explode apart, he suddenly realized that the third-person perspective had become first-person. He had returned to his own body within the dream.

The bolter rounds flying toward him seemed to have been struck by a slowing spell, becoming incredibly sluggish. Yet in his eyes, they gradually grew larger. He wanted to move, to dodge, but no matter what he did, he could not.

In the end, he watched as the bolter rounds shot precisely into his body and exploded.

After that, he awoke from the nightmare.

He was afraid, but he was furious too. Why had these Imperial Angels not come when they were suffering? Why had they waited until his whole family had endured such misery before arriving, then sent them all away without a care, just as the noble lords of the upper hive casually dismissed beggars?

He hated them.

Looking at his own hands, he saw the eight fingers he had left after the battle. He wanted to tear all of this apart. He wanted revenge.

Looking at the Astartes with their backs turned to him, he gritted his teeth, raised his M35m-Galaxy Pattern Short Lasgun, aimed at the head of one of them, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

A laser beam struck the back of the Astartes' helmet head-on.

The sudden, utterly ineffective attack made the Astartes freeze for a moment. Then he abruptly turned around and saw a soldier holding a smoking lasgun.

It was the soldier who had just had the nightmare.

"Damn it." Realizing what had happened, the Astartes cursed under his breath and immediately fired a bolter round.

But an invisible wall stopped the round in front of the soldier.

Seeing that the bolter was useless, he drew the Combat Dagger from his waist, charged forward, and plunged it through the mortal's heart.

The sight shocked every mortal present.

The Combat Dagger was slowly pulled free. The mortal soldier knelt on the ground with lifeless eyes as blood flowed from his chest and spread into a pool beneath him.

The Astartes shook the blood from the dagger, then turned around and continued guarding his battle post.

The other mortal soldiers said nothing at the sight. Most of them had witnessed the soldier attacking the Imperial Angel just moments earlier.

Clearly, Chaos had already corrupted him.

One of the soldiers approached with his weapon raised, preparing to fire another shot.

But in the next second.

The fallen mortal soldier's chest suddenly split open. A tiny warp vortex appeared inside the torn-open rib cage.

In an instant, a huge, bright-red clawed arm made entirely of muscle reached out, seized the mortal who had come to fire another shot, and crushed him into pulp.

Hearing the commotion behind him, Gers turned his head. A red demon with two horns and vicious fangs had already forced its two-meter-tall upper body out of the fallen soldier's chest.

The bolter swung around without hesitation, and its thunderous roar began immediately.

The other Battle-Brothers also turned at once when they heard the noise. The instant they saw the demon, their pupils contracted, and they joined the battle.

Another Greater Daemon had appeared. Judging by its strength and build, it was even more powerful than the demon aboard the ship earlier.

"Roar!"

With a furious roar, every mortal nearby immediately covered their ears and fell to their knees, their eyes filling with blood.

The next second, those mortals collapsed where they stood. Their blood began flowing toward the demon like tiny snakes possessed of life.

Countless bolter rounds struck the demon, but they merely embedded themselves in the surface of its skin. They did not even explode.

Meanwhile, within a few short seconds, the blood slowly formed the shape of the Arabic numeral "8," with the corpses at its center.

The instant the two streams of blood touched at the curves of the figure eight, a psychic shockwave erupted and smashed through the entire defensive position.

Even the Genestealers charging in were blown away in large numbers. Their advance came to an abrupt halt.

At the center, a gigantic warp portal suddenly appeared.

The demon, already two meters tall from the waist up alone, closed its eyes in arrogant satisfaction. It spread the flesh wings extending more than ten meters from its back and slowly floated into the air.

Its height of six meters filled everyone present with terrifying pressure.

The next second, a succession of roars rang out from within the warp portal.

Then a demon with curved horns and a beast's head slowly walked out.

The beastlike face usually showed little emotion, but everyone present could sense its excitement at that moment.

Its heavily muscled body, face covered in sharp bone spurs, and deep-set eye sockets blazing with blood-red flames all revealed its identity.

A Bloodletter.

The Bloodletter rested its Hellblade on its shoulder and looked at everyone present with provocation and arrogance.

Next, a canine creature with tough scales, hide, and blade-sharp claws and fangs leaped out of the warp portal.

A Flesh Hound.

No one had expected Khorne to join the fray as well. Quan Tiehua was the first to open fire. He held down the trigger without releasing it, emptied the bolter's magazine within seconds, threw the bolter aside, drew the plasma pistol at his waist, and fired continuously at the Bloodletter.

At the same time, he drew the Chainsword from his waist, pressed the activation switch, and charged forward.

The Bloodletter roared excitedly at the sight, then used the Hellblade to block the plasma pistol shots as it charged ahead.

The two sides immediately swung their weapons and collided, sending sparks flying in every direction.

The Flesh Hound leaped into the air from behind and to Quan Tiehua's side, biting toward his head.

But then the sound of bolter fire rang out. The Flesh Hound was struck by a bolter round and sent flying sideways.