Blood God Avatar

On the Shattered Planet.

Lu Jin looked around.

Brass and lava were everywhere.

The Fierce Angels hadn't died here. At the instant the upheaval occurred, the Chapter Master had probably awakened and teleported everyone away with psychic powers.

Everyone except Lu Jin.

Lu Jin guessed Ninos hadn't abandoned him. Just moments ago, amid a field of pale light, he'd seen Ninos's soul reaching out to him. Yet the next moment, he'd still ended up back where he started.

Lu Jin got to his feet and collected his thoughts.

He could guess what had happened.

Ahriman had wanted to use Ninos as ritual material to summon a daemon army, primarily to summon that two-headed bird daemon.

The two-headed daemon was named Karlos. He was Tzeentch's Herald, the Weaver of Fate.

But Ahriman's plan had gone horribly wrong—because Khorne, the Chaos God, had struck this planet with his Battle Axe and stopped the ritual.

That enormous axe that had shattered the planet just now had to be Khorne's work. No other being could have pulled off such a feat.

"Ch... Chapter Master... he... he... his... soul... he... can't wake..."

A broken voice sounded in Lu Jin's ear.

It was Onaas's voice.

But it vanished in an instant.

When Lu Jin looked around, he found that the surroundings had changed completely. He'd been cut off from the real world.

The sky had turned crimson.

The landmasses formed a giant eye gazing down at the ground.

All the Tzeentch Daemons from before had become skulls scattered across the ground.

The wind howled.

Lu Jin saw the windblown dust gather in front of him, forming two weapons.

They were the Battle Axe and Warhammer that Ahriman had turned into dust, though both weapons seemed to have changed somewhat.

Lava rivers like spiderwebs covered the axe head and the hammer's face.

Countless tiny skulls were embedded in the handles of the two heavy weapons.

When Lu Jin looked at the Battle Axe, he saw the people he'd killed begging him for mercy inside it... Both the mortals and the Space Marines he'd killed were there.

The Greenskins he'd killed were the only ones missing.

Lu Jin realized that the people inside weren't decorations. They crawled among the skulls on the handle, knelt facing him, and writhed in endless torment, bound by glowing-hot brass chains as they raised their heads and begged for his forgiveness.

He could even hear the people he'd killed pleading for mercy.

Lu Jin turned to the Warhammer.

There were also living souls among the skulls on its handle, but they weren't people he'd killed. They were the dead he'd saved or watched over.

Damian's family, the Fierce Angels' Apothecary, and some of the crew...

They wandered in groups among the skulls.

Lu Jin abruptly reached out and grabbed the Warhammer, holding it up to examine it. Then he realized that the people among the skulls on both weapons' handles were souls.

Their souls hadn't been extinguished in the Warp. They were trapped inside the two weapons, though their circumstances were different.

The weapons had to have been forged by Khorne.

And the souls inside them had to have been imprisoned there by Khorne as well.

Whether they suffered eternal torment in the Battle Axe or wandered as restless spirits in the Warhammer, they could find no peace.

"Release the souls in the Warhammer! Let them rest!"

Lu Jin roared at the giant crimson eye in the sky.

His shout echoed across the plains of brass and skulls.

The next moment, molten brass flowed from the giant eye like bloody tears. It dripped to the ground and gradually took shape as a warrior clad in crimson armor.

The warrior stood before Lu Jin, wielding a long-handled Battle Axe.

"You're Khorne's Avatar?"

Lu Jin immediately guessed who he was. Then he glanced at the wandering souls in the Warhammer, his expression growing increasingly ferocious. With a roar, he charged at Khorne's Avatar, gripping both weapons.

"Let them rest!"

Lu Jin swung the Warhammer.

In response, his opponent reversed the two-handed Battle Axe and struck him with its haft.

It was a simple move.

But Lu Jin felt that no words could describe its precision and brilliance. The trajectory of his opponent's hands made him feel... as though the move could become any move at all. With the perfect application of force and angle, it would inevitably fulfill its wielder's intent.

The blow smashed into Lu Jin's helmet. It shattered, blood ran from his forehead, and he was sent flying before crashing to the ground.

After landing, Lu Jin got back up, raised the two weapons he hadn't let go of when they'd been knocked away, and charged Khorne's Avatar again.

Khorne's Avatar struck Lu Jin down once more.

"You... I..."

A voice came from beneath the crimson helmet. After several changes, Lu Jin finally understood it.

"How dare you challenge me? Because you're immortal?"

Before the words were out, Lu Jin was kicked eight meters away and rolled eight times across the ground.

"That probably isn't immortality, or resurrection." Khorne's Avatar planted his Battle Axe on the ground. "You steal life force through killing. If you don't use it right away, it's stored for emergencies."

Only when Khorne's Avatar mentioned his special ability did Lu Jin stop attacking.

Once he realized that his power wasn't immortality or resurrection, but a reserve of life force that would run out if he used it up...

Lu Jin suddenly felt even more excited.

Blood surged through him, and his face twisted into a snarl. A thrill born of enduring pressure and facing desperation began to stir within him.

Adrenaline made him ignore the pain Khorne's Avatar had inflicted.

"Therefore..." Khorne's Avatar raised a hand. The Battle Axe in his grasp transformed into a spear. "Killing you will be easier than killing a chicken!"

"Then come kill me!" Lu Jin charged at him of his own accord.

"Commendable courage!" Khorne's Avatar roared in praise as he sent Lu Jin flying. Then he paced from side to side, taunting him.

Lu Jin got up and charged again.

This happened more than twenty times in a row, always with the same result: Lu Jin was sent flying, though Khorne's Avatar used a different move each time.

A few times, Lu Jin was pierced through the neck by the spear or had his head chopped off by the Battle Axe. But he spent life force to get back up and charged again.

When Lu Jin got up once more and roared as he charged, Khorne's Avatar knocked him down with a shoulder check, then laid the axe against his neck.

Lu Jin still tried to get up. Khorne's Avatar transformed the Battle Axe into two swords, pinned both of Lu Jin's arms to the ground, and planted a foot on his chest.

"How dare you show no gratitude for my gift?!"

A voice came from beneath Khorne's Avatar's helmet.

"I could have done this..."

Khorne's Avatar picked up Lu Jin's Warhammer and gestured for him to look.

Damian's family, wandering inside the hammer's handle; the crew members who had died when the Greenskins rampaged; the crewman who'd guided him, only to be shot to pieces by Aels, the Lone Wolf; the Apothecary... They were no longer wandering. Brass chains now clung to their bodies.

The brass chains gradually glowed red-hot. They screamed in excruciating agony, then lowered their heads to look at Lu Jin, who couldn't move, and begged him to end their suffering.

Lu Jin grimaced in pain and tried to wrench his arms free from the swords, but the two swords turned directly into chains and bound him completely.

"You think falling into another god's hands and becoming their plaything is rest?"

"This is rest!"

As Khorne's Avatar spoke, the dead inside the Warhammer were freed from their chains and torment. They rose blankly and wandered among the endless skulls.

The Avatar picked up the Battle Axe and examined the tormented souls inside it. "I torment your enemies. That, too, is a gift."

After he spoke, the Avatar looked down at Lu Jin. "Choose. My chosen champion or my enemy? Life or death?"

"I want to duel you," Lu Jin growled. "Not some mockery of a fight—a duel to the death."

Khorne's Avatar slowly raised his head, but the eight crimson eyes on his helmet remained fixed on Lu Jin.

"If I lose, I die. I mean a death where I'm completely erased—not the kind where I become one of your pawns." The words ground out between Lu Jin's teeth. "If I win... give me the Bronze Throne to sit on. You'll be my chosen champion, my servant."

Lu Jin couldn't imagine how he might win, so he'd made up a victory condition. His tone was almost joking.

Khorne's Avatar fell silent for eight seconds.

Suddenly, a deep laugh echoed across the entire landmass.

Khorne's Avatar began to tremble. He tossed the Warhammer and Battle Axe aside, clenched his fists until they creaked, and growled beneath his helmet. "Mm... Most courageous... Most courageous!"

The chains binding Lu Jin vanished.

Khorne's Avatar raised both hands and looked up at the sky.

"Your courage is admirable, but you are unworthy!"

The Avatar crumbled into ash and scattered.

Lu Jin got up and looked at his arms. He could see the ground through the two wounds that pierced them.

The injuries also affected his hands, making it difficult to grasp anything.

Suddenly, the ground shook.

Lava poured down from the sky and gathered into an army.

It was Khorne's army.

A red-skinned Daemon with slightly slender limbs appeared, its tongue lolling as it wielded a flaming sword. It was one of Khorne's Bloodletters.

These Daemons appeared differently from the Tzeentch Daemons. They seemed to have marched here. They stood in compact formations, each one perhaps restless, but never straying from its unit.

A Daemon nearly five meters tall emerged from the center of more than a hundred formations and came to the front. Its hooves scraped the ground as it let out a restless growl.

It was a Bloodthirster, a Khorne Greater Daemon.

Judging by its weapons, Lu Jin recognized it as a Greater Daemon named Skarbrand.

The two sides were eight hundred and eighty-eight meters apart.

At a rough glance, Lu Jin estimated there were around ten thousand Daemons.

"Bloodshed!!!!"

A roar rang down from the sky.

Lu Jin stared at the Daemon army with steely resolve. A second later, he gritted his teeth and stood up.

The device Little Damian had invented sprang into action. Its mechanical arms reached behind him and pulled out the two chains on either side of his power pack, where they had been used to hang heavy weapons.

Lu Jin walked over to the Warhammer and Battle Axe and picked them up.

A horn blared across the Skull Plains. The formations in Khorne's army began to advance in orderly ranks.

"Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the skull throne!"

"Cut off that mortal's head and offer it to the Blood God!"

Skarbrand furiously swung both axes and charged forward with a roar.

"Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the skull throne!"

"Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the skull throne!"

As the Bloodletters advanced in unison, they pounded their sword hilts against their chests, making a thunderous noise as they roared.

Lu Jin stood still, staring coldly at the Daemon army. Then he raised his left hand.

The mechanical arm wrapped one chain around Lu Jin's left hand and the Chainaxe, fastening them together.

Lu Jin raised his right hand. The mechanical arm fastened it to the Warhammer.

Once both weapons were secured, Lu Jin raised them high and strode toward the Daemon army. "Blood God's lackeys, come and meet your deaths!"

When the two sides were eighty-eight meters apart, the Daemon army suddenly charged.

Lu Jin charged too.

The Daemons of Khorne let out ear-splitting roars.

Lu Jin roared as well.

A few seconds later, the two sides clashed.

Lu Jin fought his way into the central formation, swinging the Battle Axe and Warhammer to kill several Bloodletters in succession. Then the Daemons surrounding him stabbed him until he bristled with swords.

The Bloodletters fell. Lu Jin opened his eyes, leapt to his feet, and plunged back into the fight.

After this cycle repeated several times, his wounds had healed completely. His weapons moved so fast that it looked as if he were wielding a pair of sticks.

After dozens of Bloodletters fell, Lu Jin had cut through an entire formation.

Roaring, Lu Jin charged toward the next formation.

He killed more than a dozen Bloodletters with successive swings, shattering countless swords. But the surrounding Daemons closed in around him, forcing him to fight inside a ring of enemies.

As he fought, Lu Jin continued to sense what was happening to him.

He was certain that as long as there were corpses around him, he could keep fighting forever.

The only things here that could truly kill him were psychic powers, Khorne himself, or Skarbrand killing him dozens or hundreds of times in a row.

After who knew how long, his armor had been hacked away until only his groin guard, part of his right arm armor, and his gauntlets remained.

The ground trembled. A larger Daemon commander dropped from the sky, ran forward a couple of steps, and kicked out.

The moment Lu Jin saw the move, he realized that the Daemon before him was a Khorne Greater Daemon—a Bloodthirster, a higher-tier Daemon named "Skarbrand."

As he thought this, he flew like a cannonball and slammed into the ground.

He had just tried to get up when Skarbrand caught up and kicked him away again.

By the time Lu Jin finally figured out how to adjust his body in midair and land steadily, he swung both weapons at Skarbrand as it charged him. Then the Bloodletters closed in behind him, and one drove a sword into his back.

Skarbrand followed by hacking its axe into Lu Jin's chest. It lifted him up and roared at the sky.

"Blood for the..."

A Battle Axe fell from the sky and smashed Skarbrand to pieces.

Lu Jin got up again. As he fought the Bloodletters, he realized that Khorne had punished Skarbrand—for ganging up on him instead of dueling him.