Surrender

The slaughter continued.

Lu Jin had lost count of how many Daemons he'd killed.

He was gradually growing numb.

He swung both weapons, hacking and killing.

A Bloodletter leaped out of nowhere and ran him through. He turned and hacked the Bloodletter to death.

The cycle repeated.

After he'd fought his way through one formation after another, Lu Jin looked up amid the slaughter and saw a towering brass throne ahead. A crimson figure sat upon it.

"Submit to me and accept my blessing!"

The figure's voice pressed every Bloodletter to the ground.

The shock wave and crushing pressure also forced Lu Jin down.

He braced himself against the pressure, planting both weapons on the ground as he struggled to his feet. "Fight me, or kill me—or make me your chosen!"

A Battle Axe came crashing down from the sky. Daemons flew everywhere like raindrops, and Lu Jin's corpse was one of them.

When he awoke, Lu Jin realized that Khorne really could kill him, since Khorne's power ultimately came from the psychic power of the Warp.

But Khorne simply refused to strike the killing blow.

"Submit!"

The roar echoed across the Skull Plains.

"You be my chosen!"

Lu Jin roared back.

The slaughter continued.

Then Lu Jin suddenly heard a voice.

"Slaughter Demon Legion, face the Blood God."

He'd heard that voice before.

"Submit!"

Khorne roared again.

"You be my chosen!"

"Submit!"

"You be my..."

Khorne swung his axe once more, then rose from the Bronze Throne and pointed at Lu Jin. "Submit!"

Lu Jin pushed himself up from the ground, faced Khorne, and raised his Chainaxe, pointing it straight at the Blood God.

"You want me to submit? You think you're worthy?"

"You want me as your chosen, killing the old, the weak, women, and children just like your lackeys, all to pad your kill count?"

"Slaughter and atrocities aren't true courage!"

"I'd rather die than become a mindless killing machine!"

As he roared his reply, Lu Jin raised both weapons high.

He could just about imagine what a version of himself who'd submitted to Khorne might do:

Before he was as strong as a Space Marine, he'd hunt down the weak. Like any Mortal who worshipped Khorne, if he couldn't collect Space Marine skulls, he'd make do with something else...

The thought alone made Lu Jin sick.

Khorne settled back onto the Bronze Throne.

The Bloodletters closed in again.

After another bout of slaughter, Khorne suddenly spoke. "If you refuse to submit, I'll slaughter everyone you fight for."

"Threatening the weak because you can't beat them?"

Lu Jin hacked a Bloodletter to death and pointed his Battle Axe at Khorne.

"Coward among cowards!"

"You..."

A Battle Axe cut off Lu Jin's next words, driving them back down his throat.

The entire landmass began to crack apart.

The Bloodletters howled under the Blood God's furious assault.

Their howls twisted into a single echoing phrase: "You cannot die!"

Everything warped before Lu Jin's eyes.

Then he was hurled away, flying among the stars.

Two warships emerged from a rift torn open in the Warp.

After slowing to a stop, a gunship flew out of the hangar deck of one of the warships and weaved through an asteroid belt.

Its radar scanned the belt.

When a red dot appeared on the radar, the pilot steered the gunship toward it.

The pilot rose from the seat and looked around.

There was nothing in the void but asteroids.

Just as the pilot sat back down, a frozen corpse drifted past the cockpit window.

"It's him!"

The three-eyed Navigator rushed into the cabin and ordered the pilot, "Retrieve him!"

A gravitic beam shot from the gunship, caught the corpse, and dragged it back into the cabin.

The Red Corsair Apothecary crouched inside. As soon as the hatch closed, he hurried over to check the body's vital signs.

The Navigator ran into the cabin, holding his breath, though his breathing grew heavier by the moment.

"Lu Jin is actually alive." The Apothecary looked up at the Navigator.

The latter slumped to the floor.

The gunship headed back and entered the Cruiser's hangar deck.

The deck was packed with people.

As the Red Corsair Apothecary rushed out of the cabin with Lu Jin on his back, he shouted, "Make way! He needs to get to the Medicae!"

The crowd had already cleared a path.

The Red Corsair Apothecary broke into a run with Lu Jin on his back. When he spotted the Fierce Angels at the very back of the crowd, they immediately gathered around him. They didn't block his way; instead, they ran alongside him toward the Medicae.

Huron was already in the Medicae. He watched as the Apothecary laid Lu Jin on the bed beside Aels.

"I need to run some tests right away." The Apothecary frantically searched for medicines and equipment.

"Save him first!" The Fierce Angels rushed into the Medicae.

When one of them saw the Apothecary take out a scalpel, he clenched his fists and roared, "You try dissecting my battle-brother and see what happens!"

Just then, Lu Jin abruptly woke up. He drew in a deep breath, sat up, and instinctively swung his arms.

Once he saw what was around him, he gradually calmed down.

"What happened to you?" Huron came over and asked. "We found you twenty-nine light-years from the system where we'd last seen you. If the Navigator hadn't been able to locate you, you'd have become void debris."

Lu Jin recalled Khorne's final axe strike and realized he'd been sent flying.

And he'd flown a very long way.

It was like Constantine XI, who'd been blasted dozens of light-years away by an Urban Cannon. The difference was that Lu Jin had people who wanted him back, and they had faster-than-light travel, so they could retrieve him.

Lu Jin didn't answer. He looked at Huron. "How's Ninos?"

Huron was at a loss for words.

Lu Jin turned to the Fierce Angels. They all lowered their heads.

Realizing that Ninos was probably dead, Lu Jin lowered his head and sat in silence for a long time.

Suddenly, eight Mortals entered the Medicae, carrying over a Warhammer and a Battle Axe.

Lu Jin looked up at the two weapons. He heard screams coming from inside them and saw aimless spirits wandering through the Warhammer...

One of the spirits raised his head from the pile of skulls and looked up at Lu Jin.

It was Ninos...

But in the next instant, everything Lu Jin had seen vanished. The two weapons looked just as they had before.

"These are the weapons we recovered," one of the Mortals said.

Lu Jin hesitated, then accepted the two weapons.

Though Khorne had corrupted them, he couldn't abandon them. The spirits of those connected to him were still inside.

"Chapter Master Ninos..." Lu Jin got off the medical bed.

Accompanied by sixteen Fierce Angels, Lu Jin went to a cabin aboard Huron's flagship.

Ninos's body lay there, along with the Fierce Angels' Legion Relic, a Sceptre.

Lu Jin walked over in silence.

"It's only been a few days since all of you were captured. It feels like yesterday that he was teaching me to shoot, guiding my hands."

The Fierce Angels all fell silent.

"Did he leave any last words?" Lu Jin turned and asked.

"He said a few things about how he would soon be at rest." One of them stepped forward. "He said half his soul had been sacrificed to the enemy and that it couldn't possibly endure. His death was certain. The Chapter will choose a new Chapter Master, but only if you don't want to lead us."

Another added, "The Sceptre will belong to you. The Chapter Master said it was to thank you for everything you've done."

"He also said he was sorry. He thought he could handle your augmentation surgery, but he failed... He asked us to apologize to you on his behalf."

Lu Jin stepped forward and picked up the Sceptre, studying it closely.

He pictured Ninos standing beside him, leaning on the Sceptre.

"The Chapter Master also said that he sealed a part of his soul inside the Sceptre. That part of his soul can only cast psychic spells."

Lu Jin fell silent again.

A full ten minutes passed before he finally spoke. "Choose a Chapter Master."

"But..."

"I'm not leaving right away!" Lu Jin suddenly snapped. "I know, I know... Just stop wasting time and choose a Chapter Master. I won't abandon you."

The Fierce Angels saluted, turned, and left, closing the cabin door behind them.

Lu Jin took a deep breath and sat on the floor.

"Fuck."

He cursed, set down the Warhammer and Battle Axe, and pressed a hand to his forehead.

The past came flooding back.

From two solar months spent as an Ammunition Slave, to life aboard the Fierce Angels' Cruiser, to coming here to Huron, and then everything that had happened over the last two days...

His thoughts were a tangled mess.

Lu Jin shook his head and picked up the Warhammer.

In his hands, it once again became covered in skulls and lines of molten lava. He watched the spirits inside it, Ninos among them, wander aimlessly from beneath the hammerhead to the middle of the haft.

At least the half of Ninos's soul that Ahriman had sacrificed hadn't fallen into Tzeentch's hands.

Lu Jin picked up the Battle Axe as well and weighed the two weapons in his hands.

They'd once been incredibly heavy to him, but now they felt as light as a pair of chopsticks.

Lu Jin took stock of himself.

After forcing himself to picture the changes in his body, he figured his strength was now "31."

More than three times the baseline strength of a Space Marine.

He'd killed more Bloodletters than Greenskins, but each Bloodletter had only increased his strength by about 0.02—barely more than a Mortal.

Lu Jin suspected that this was because Bloodletters weren't physical beings...

Also, while killing Bloodletters, his wounds healed even more slowly than they had when he'd been killing Mortal soldiers.

His strength seemed less "sensitive" to things connected to the Warp.

Then again, when Bena the Inquisitor had transported him earlier, he hadn't regressed under the influence of Blanks. He'd still been able to hear that strange voice. That proved his strength truly didn't come from a blessing of Chaos.

After thinking it over, Lu Jin set down the weapons and stopped thinking. He sat on the floor and rested, recovering from his mental exhaustion.