On the other side.
The Adepta Sororitas Marshal and Iruvius arrived before Lu Jin in a transport aircraft.
Iruvius had been paralyzed by scrapcode, so his most trusted apprentice had pushed him there in a wheelchair.
Lu Jin stood where he was, staring blankly at the two of them amid the watching crowd and the rumble of artillery.
Word of the Lord of Valor's arrival had already spread.
Now, every faction in the hive had to win Lu Jin over to its side.
"Iruvius used scrapcode to invade my mind."
"Iruvius has been fighting passively. If I can't win, this hive will fall into the hands of the Genestealers."
The two tried to win Lu Jin over by reasoning with him.
Lu Jin stood there, dazed, without reacting at all.
He was focused on listening to Lion's voice coming through the communicator.
The Primarch shared what he had learned. Lyleth, who was helping Manros search for the relic, said, "The Harlequins will help humanity, just as the Veil Walker said. Their candor with the Primarch at the Council was the first step toward helping us."
Lu Jin heard it all.
A flurry of thoughts erupted in his mind.
Four hundred million people in the hive were dead—all because two Adeptus Mechanicus high-ranking officials had been feuding.
They hadn't even been the targets. They'd simply been caught in the crossfire.
Even someone as powerful as Tywin had died without knowing why.
"You must—"
Iruvius was still talking.
They couldn't hear the voices on the Saturn Terminator's communication channel.
And what interrupted the Tech-Priest's speech wasn't Lu Jin's rebuke, accusation, or roar. It was a swift, decisive act of murder.
Lu Jin split Iruvius's head open with an axe, exposing the mass of implants inside to the air.
The Adepta Sororitas Marshal's