The Time of Cleansing

Outside the Audience Hall.

A hundred Space Marines were sealing off every entrance and exit.

They were the elite of a single company.

Their captain wore Terminator armor and personally led the operation.

"We understand your intentions, and we are willing to carry them out. But you need to give us time to prepare, rather than having us rush out immediately and act like a pack of lunatics without absolute certainty."

The captain was speaking with the Inquisitor over the comm channel.

He had brought a slave with him.

She was the governor's personal attendant, raised by the governor's family since childhood and absolutely loyal.

The slave attendant could not hear what the Angel of the Emperor beside her was saying. She only knew what duty had been assigned to her.

When the captain stopped and pointed toward the entrance leading into the Audience Hall, the slave respectfully performed the Aquila Salute and walked out.

The slave saw Lu Jin and the Fierce Angels who had risen from their seats.

Lu Jin held his weapon and stared at the slave.

"The armor you were looking for has been found. The governor asked me to take you there," the slave said.

Lu Jin's gaze was full of contempt and mockery.

By now, he knew that Manros was a massive slave kingdom. Everyone except the nobility was a slave... though ordinary people here should not even have been called slaves, because they were unlike the slaves Lu Jin knew. The slaves here did not merely work; they were toys, prey, and consumables for satisfying every sort of desire.

This slave could suffer horrors beyond description at any moment, just like anyone else, yet she chose to faithfully carry out her master's orders.

"But I suggest you don't go."

The slave suddenly added.

She raised her head and examined Lu Jin's face.

It was exactly like the portrait, only less ferocious.

"Because some lackeys want to kill you."

The moment she finished speaking, a Bolter round blasted apart the slave's upper body.

The Fierce Angels had already sought cover the instant the slave emerged.

Only Lu Jin remained where he stood. After a brief pause, he stepped over the slave's corpse, charged at the wall, and smashed through the marble with his Warhammer.

Amid the rubble, Lu Jin saw the captain.

Before the other Space Marines could react, Lu Jin killed those blocking his path with hammer and axe, then charged toward the captain with a roar.

The captain wielded a Warhammer as well and struck at the same time.

The Power Hammer shattered Lu Jin's breastplate and destroyed the core mechanisms connecting its components, sending parts of his armor scattering across the ground.

At the same time, Lu Jin's Warhammer struck the captain.

They hit each other simultaneously, were hurled away simultaneously, and crashed through two walls simultaneously.

After smashing through the wall, the captain landed in the garden outside the rear entrance of the Audience Hall. He tried to rise, only to see his spine protruding from his chest.

Bolter fire thundered without pause.

Then, through the smoke and dust at the breach in the wall, Lu Jin emerged with his Warhammer raised.

The captain's experience allowed him to assess the situation immediately.

After they had struck each other, been thrown through the walls, and landed one in the garden and one in the hall, their warriors had begun exchanging fire.

But for some reason, Lu Jin seemed completely unaffected after taking that hammer blow. Ignoring all other enemies, he had charged straight through the breach toward the "ringleader."

The captain saw that Lu Jin's upper armor had been shattered until only the armor on his left arm remained. His powerful muscles were exposed, while only his leg armor and groin guard could still be called intact.

But all he could do was think and watch.

Lu Jin charged up to him, spun sharply, and amid the roar of the Chainaxe, the captain's head flew up before falling to the ground.

Within the Battle Axe, the soul of the Mercy Angels Chapter Master condensed inside it. Chains bound him as magma roasted his soul, which had been seized by Khorne's divine power, drawing a soul-rending scream from him.

"AAAAAH!!!!"

Lu Jin roared as he hurled his weapon away, then threw the captain's corpse after it.

Among the Space Marines exchanging fire with the Fierce Angels inside the breach, some were smashed apart by the Warhammer and Battle Axe that had torn through the wall, while others were knocked down beneath their own captain's corpse.

One of them, directly facing the breach at the rear entrance, had just raised his gun to return fire when he saw Lu Jin charging in along the trails cut through the smoke by the two weapons. Then Lu Jin's swinging fist shattered his helmet and skull.

As the Space Marine's corpse fell before him, Lu Jin rolled across the ground, scooped up the Warhammer and Battle Axe beside two corpses, and began moving through the entire corridor, killing as he went.

"Loyalty is glory!"

The Mercy Emissaries raised their battle cry.

"No Honor!"

The Fierce Angels answered with their own battle cry.

The Space Marines who had not faced Lu Jin directly, instead exchanging fire with the Fierce Angels, saw those fewer than twenty men suddenly throw smoke grenades. Then they discarded their Bolters, drew Chainaxes, Chainswords, and other melee weapons, and charged forward at a speed so unbelievable it was horrifying.

One Fierce Angel after another smashed through walls or rushed in through doorways, joining the Mercy Emissaries in a bloody battle.

No matter what, no one could eliminate a Fierce Angel one-on-one in close combat.

Chainaxes roared.

The sounds of armor shattering and flesh being ripped apart by chainsaws filled the air without end.

Hive City Mortal soldiers surrounded the entire Audience Hall at this moment. Listening to the horrifying sounds within, they waited uneasily for the victor of the slaughter to emerge.

The noise quickly subsided.

The Fierce Angels stripped ammunition and grenades from the corpses in the corridor.

Lu Jin faced the last Mercy Emissary.

"You're a new face." The Space Marine gripped his Warhammer tightly. "When my Legion worked with the Inquisitor to lure and kill hundreds of Fierce Angels before, I never saw anyone like you."

"Well, you see me now."

Lu Jin charged at the Space Marine. With his left hand, he drove the axe into the man's shoulder armor, then released the haft. Gripping the Warhammer with both hands, he shattered the man's knees. The instant the man dropped to his knees, Lu Jin's left fist shot out violently.

Jenos, who was picking up a grenade, heard something crack. Looking up, he saw the head of the enemy kneeling with his back to him get punched one hundred and eighty degrees around by the Chapter Master, facing him directly.

All one hundred Mercy Emissaries died on the spot.

The Fierce Angels suffered no losses.

Lu Jin had simply been too ferocious, weaving back and forth as though no one could stop him. The enemy either swarmed him and were cut down by axe and hammer, or were easily defeated by the Fierce Angels in close combat.

Including Lu Jin, the Fierce Angels numbered only sixteen.

But the non-elites had died, the elites had died, and even the elite among the elites had died. Those left were ruthless figures who could not possibly be defeated one-on-one in close combat and could easily fight several enemies at once. Like Jenos, each possessed their own special talents.

A moment later.

More than a thousand Mortal guards held their breath and stared at the exit of the Audience Hall.

A burly Space Marine drenched in blood, carrying a Battle Axe and Warhammer, emerged from the exit. Fifteen red-armored Space Marines followed behind him on both sides.

Lu Jin stopped.

On his shoulder, the mechanical arm once designed for him by a young companion held a Sceptre. The psychic barrier released by the Sceptre enveloped everyone.

"It really is the man from the portrait..."

"The prophecy is real... it's real..."

The guards who had never seen Lu Jin before whispered among themselves.

A second later, an officer arrived behind the wall of guards carrying a hololithic projector. The device released an image.

An Inquisitor appeared alongside more than a hundred kneeling crewmen.

At the sight of the Inquisitor's face, Kao and the others gritted their teeth.

He was the mastermind behind the trap that had slaughtered the Fierce Angels years ago, causing ninety-nine percent of them to die at the hands of the Imperium.

"You freaks." The man held a Bolter sized for a Mortal in one hand, aiming it at the crewmen. "Why can't you just die?!"

Lu Jin was thinking.

By now, he could guess what had happened.

The Inquisitor had pursued the Fierce Angels Legion here. Then, after discovering Lu Jin's portrait on Manros, he believed Lu Jin had some connection to this world and would return, so he waited for him.

The Space Marines of the Mercy Emissaries had been brought here by the Inquisitor.

And then... resistance had been brewing across the planet.

That was why the Manrosans had plastered Lu Jin's portrait everywhere.

"Surrender and sit down to talk with me, or else I'll..." Before the Inquisitor could finish, he shot one of the crewmen dead.

He had captured every crewman who had gone out to conduct business.

Lu Jin once again faced the dilemma he had encountered during the Little Damian incident.

Only this time, no Inquisitor named Bena would appear. The only Inquisitor was an enemy.

"Believe that I will avenge you." Lu Jin spoke to the hololithic image. "I will hunt them to the ends of the universe, until this Inquisitor and the Legion he brought are butchered to the last man."

With that, Lu Jin raised his weapons and charged at the guards before him.

A statue of the Emperor stood before the Audience Hall, its eyes closed as well.

And beneath the Emperor's statue, another slaughter began.

The lower hive and Underhive of Manros Hive City.

Every Imperial world had churches.

People remained inside their homes behind tightly shut doors and windows.

In places unknown to Lu Jin, the Planetary Defense Force stationed in the lower hive and Underhive had locked down every residential district and patrolled the streets.

It seemed as though nothing would happen in the lower hive or Underhive, but an undercurrent stirred beneath the forcibly maintained calm.

Inside every ramshackle home, families knelt before a portrait with their heads lowered in prayer.

The Lu Jin in the portrait wore a fierce expression, his eyes tightly shut.

People already knew that the Fierce Angels Legion had arrived on Manros, but they did not know what had happened, or was happening, at the spire. They knew nothing of the Inquisitor's conspiracy either.

They only knew that according to the prophecy, Lu Jin would arrive, and then a reckoning would begin.

Inside an inconspicuous shack.

A husband and wife knelt before the portrait with their four children.

"Those... re... Rebel Army... when will they act?" the woman asked.

"I don't know." The man shook his head, staring fixedly at the portrait. "But according to that prophecy, when the time comes, then..."

A sudden change choked off the rest of his words.

Before the family's eyes, Lu Jin in the portrait slowly opened his eyes.

Their daughter had not been paying attention to the portrait before, but when she looked up now, she saw that Lu Jin's eyes had opened.

And he had done more than open his eyes. She saw Lu Jin in the portrait standing on a terrified guard, whose twisted expression of terror and agony was deeply horrifying.

"The guard captain who killed Uncle's family!" the daughter shouted, pointing at the corpse in the portrait. "He was killed!"

Such supernatural phenomena were not uncommon on Manros, which lay relatively close to the Maelstrom.

It was not just this family.

Throughout the entire Hive City, everyone looking at the portraits at that moment discovered the change.

Lu Jin in the portraits had opened his eyes, and corpses had appeared beneath his feet. The dead were guards who had killed their loved ones.

Each person had a different Blood Feud, so each saw something different.

At this moment, Lu Jin and the others at the spire had already slaughtered their way through the guards' defensive line and were preparing to search for the Inquisitor. Naturally, while searching, they would also do what they wanted to do.

Boom—

An explosion suddenly reached the shack.

The husband and wife looked out the window and saw explosions erupting from the military barracks in the residential district.

That was a sign that the Rebel Army had begun to act.

Before Lu Jin's arrival, people brought together by the symbol of his portrait had fallen silent. Now, after the events described in the prophecy had appeared, they began to move.

Lu Jin had not even known these people existed. He had not known that Carly had given his portrait to the locals of Manros.

But most locals had always regarded Lu Jin as a spiritual symbol.

The family in the shack waited anxiously.

The guards in the streets soon withdrew. Rebel Army soldiers carrying crude weapons, red strips of cloth tied around their bodies, appeared in the family's sight and began distributing weapons.

Along with the weapons entering every home came the widely circulated psychic prophecy.

[The Emperor closes his eyes and saves no one; Lu Jin opens his eyes to slaughter beasts.]