Fu Qinghai's Death

It was the ancient warrior Hiller.

That ancient warrior who spoke briefly and never wasted words, the one who always stepped forward to support his comrades at critical moments...

Gult held the gravely wounded Vlahos in his arms, his eyes bloodshot as he watched this cruel scene.

A veteran who had served and fought for the Emperor for over a thousand years, his body smashed to pieces, still unable to rest. Now he had to be placed in a life-support sarcophagus to serve the Imperium of Man one last time.

What loyalty!

And such a diligent, battle-hardened veteran had been dragged from his sarcophagus by the minions of a Warp Daemon just before his death.

What blasphemy!

Fu Qinghai grimaced in discomfort.

He had only just dealt with one Chaos Terminator.

And now the Helbrute was back on its feet.

They said falling to Chaos made you three times stronger.

Possessed Marines really were much stronger than ordinary Space Marines.

But this Chaos-corrupted Dreadnought was surely more than three times as strong as an ordinary one.

The Helbrute was still holding Hiller's mangled remains aloft, howling at the sky.

This frenzied beast of Khorne had completely lost what little reason it had left. Only the urge to kill remained, and an inhuman voice from the Warp bellowed through its mutated throat—

"Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for the Skull Throne!"

A surviving Word Bearer heard this classic hymn praising the Chaos God Khorne. Excited, he stood up from the trench and joined the Helbrute in its furious bellowing.

Then the Helbrute smacked him away with its whip.

Fu Qinghai saw the whole thing.

The rumors were true. A Chaos-corrupted war machine daemon like a Helbrute had no reason at all. On the battlefield, it couldn't tell friend from foe; it only knew how to kill. The followers of Chaos just had to deploy it at the right moment, then sit back and watch it slaughter everything in sight.

Fu Qinghai bent down and picked up the double-bladed Power Axe that had belonged to the bald Word Bearer. He fixed his gaze on the distant Helbrute, his expression grave.

How were they supposed to fight this battle?

Fu Qinghai racked his brain, but found no answer.

He turned and saw Gult, his face full of grief and rage, along with the few surviving Ultramarines.

They were all exhausted and covered in wounds.

He saw the Howling Banshee standing proudly on the scorched earth, the Power Scimitar in her hand still dripping with blood.

Two Word Bearers lay dead at her feet.

Gult and the Ultramarines all looked toward Fu Qinghai. The blazing flames of vengeance in their eyes told him what they had chosen.

"Qingshan."

Gult's voice was restrained, but it carried the resolve to die fighting today.

The slender Aeldari girl, clad in close-fitting bone-white armor, also looked at Fu Qinghai.

Though her grotesque mask hid her face, Fu Qinghai thought he could read her eyes beneath the red lenses.

A fearless determination to face death.

Fu Qinghai looked at them and gently shook his head.

He didn't want to die yet.

His life as a reincarnator had only just begun. He wasn't willing to die on this barren, godforsaken planet.

The Helbrute was already bellowing as it charged toward them in great strides.

Fu Qinghai crouched and pulled an electronic component from the collar armor beside the bald Word Bearer's neck. He pressed a few buttons, then tossed it to the Howling Banshee.

The Aeldari girl raised a hand and caught it. She looked at the electronic component in her palm, then glanced at Fu Qinghai in confusion.

Fu Qinghai pointed to his ear.

The girl lifted her mask, revealing for a fleeting moment her stunningly beautiful jawline, then hooked the electronic component over her ear.

After the girl put her mask back on, Fu Qinghai hefted the Double-bladed Axe and turned to face the Helbrute.

"This is the public channel. Hey, can you hear me?"

Fu Qinghai's voice crackled through the comms with a faint trace of interference.

"I can."

The Aeldari girl's voice was as cool and clear as ever, like two ice cubes clinking together.

"I haven't had a chance to ask. What's your name?"

The Helbrute was drawing closer.

"Salamanderuslan."

The ground trembled, and grit bounced into the air.

"Okay, Salamanderuslan. Follow my lead from now on."

The stench of blood from the Warp hit them as the Helbrute charged.

Just before he faced the massive creature charging at him, Fu Qinghai suddenly turned and shouted:

"Gult, cover me, then get Vlahos out of here! Go, now! I can handle it!"

Boom! A plasma beam roared toward them.

Fu Qinghai had been ready. He slid his foot out and dropped into a trench, dodging the devastating beam.

The Ultramarines' bullets came flying too, clanging against the Helbrute's armor.

But the Helbrute paid no attention to the Ultramarines in the distance. It stayed on Fu Qinghai's trail, whipping at him again and again with its Power Whip.

As Fu Qinghai fled hurriedly through the trenches and ditches, he glanced at the Helbrute's rear flank, which had been burned by the twin Melta Cannons of the Contemptor Dreadnought.

The armor plating and structure there had been burned, twisted, and blackened. Yet perhaps the Helbrute's existence and actions pleased Khorne, because more blood-red, fleshy growths had sprouted to cover the scorched cavity in its back.

The evil flesh wrapped around the machine, swelling and contracting.

That was what made Chaos Daemons so difficult to deal with. The Warp had the power to twist reality.

"Fall back as you fight. Don't engage it head-on,"

Fu Qinghai said over the comms.

"We'll gradually draw it toward the stern... Watch out!"

As Fu Qinghai dodged and laid out their tactics, the Helbrute suddenly swept its Power Whip toward the Howling Banshee.

After seeing her dodge it by the narrowest of margins, Fu Qinghai hurriedly hacked at the Helbrute's lower legs with his axe, drawing its attention back to him.

The two of them fought as they retreated, soon nearing the stern of the transport ship Bloody Worm.

The other Ultramarines were still attacking from a distance, but the Helbrute was fixated on the two in front of it, ignoring everyone else.

Whenever the Howling Banshee spotted an opening, she fired her Shuriken Pistol at the pilot's head in the center. The Helbrute had to use one of its arms, the one mounted with a Plasma Cannon, to block the annoying Monofilament Discs.

When they were almost at the stern, Fu Qinghai gripped the axe handle with both hands and hurled it with all his strength. The Double-bladed Axe spun toward the Helbrute.

Then Fu Qinghai turned around and ducked into the ship without even looking to see whether his attack had hit.

Was he running away?

"Hold on, Sara! I need two minutes!"

Fu Qinghai's voice came over the comms.

The Aeldari girl gritted her teeth. Instead of fleeing with him, she raised her Shuriken Pistol and fired again, deliberately drawing the Helbrute's attention.

After slipping through a hatch, Fu Qinghai sprinted through the transport ship's interior passageways.

As he ran, he looked around for something.

"Engine control room, engine control room..."

Fu Qinghai searched with his eyes, muttering under his breath.

"Found it!"

Looking down the passage, where Word Bearers and Ultramarines lay dead in heaps, Fu Qinghai spotted the sign for the engine control room.

He stepped over the corpses and blood and entered the engine control room.

"Damn it."

Fu Qinghai saw the room's equipment smashed and strewn everywhere, and punched the bulkhead.

The Ultramarines had destroyed this engine control room with explosives.

Without hesitation, Fu Qinghai turned and left to look for another one.

The transport ship had three groups of sub-light engines, with nine nozzles in total. In theory, three engine control rooms were needed to operate them.

Fu Qinghai thought to himself.

Hopefully, Vlahos's Ultramarines hadn't been efficient enough to destroy all three of the Bloody Worm's engine control rooms.

Back then, they'd risked their lives to destroy the engine control rooms. Now, their hope of turning the tide rested on them.

Fate really was ironic.

Fu Qinghai ran to another engine control room.

There were no signs of fighting here.

Fu Qinghai plunged inside.

Great! The equipment was intact.

The room was empty. There were no Servitor slaves or crew members operating anything.

But Fu Qinghai wasn't stumped. He quickly walked up to the equipment, and the mechanical arms on his back unfolded and rose.

A mechanical tendril extended from the pincers of one arm and plugged into the equipment's connection port.

Fu Qinghai had to seize control of this Logis Engine within a minute!

Killing intent flickered in Fu Qinghai's eyes as the "Tony Stark Electronic Soul Backup" in his mind boiled with activity.

Outside the transport ship.

A slender bone-white figure was darting around a Chaos Dreadnought, dodging left and right.

Her close-fitting armor outlined the lithe, agile curves of her body. Her chest was rising and falling slightly.

Clearly, dodging the attacks of a Helbrute with all her attention was no easy task. The Aeldari girl, Salamandruslan, was already struggling to catch her breath.

The Helbrute roared and lashed out with its Power Whip again!

Salamandruslan hurriedly twisted aside.

But the tip of the Power Whip grazed the bone-white armor at her waist.

The instant the Power Field struck, the bone-white armor hardened. The field failed to tear through her waist, but the immense force behind the blow sent her flying.

Salamandruslan heard the Spirit Stone embedded in her bone armor crack.

She knew that the soul of a departed kinswoman had taken that blow for her.

Thud! The Howling Banshee slammed into a rock.

She staggered to her feet.

Her legs felt as heavy as lead, and even the slender Power Scimitar in her hand seemed as hard to wield as a Power Hammer.

The Aeldari girl felt she couldn't hold on much longer.

Just then, Fu Qinghai's voice suddenly rang out over the comms:

"Sara, now! Get behind the three engine nozzles to your left!"

Salamandruslan's spirits lifted. She quickly jumped backward to evade the attack, then ran toward the spot Fu Qinghai had indicated.

The three circular engine nozzles formed a triangle. Each one was large enough to fit an Astartes in Terminator Armor, and the three stacked nozzles stood taller than the Helbrute.

The Helbrute followed with a sinister grin.

Fu Qinghai was in the engine control room and couldn't see what was happening at the stern. When he heard an out-of-breath voice come back through the comms, he immediately shouted, "What now?"

"I'm going to count to three. Hit the deck immediately!"

"One."

"Two."

The Helbrute struck the Aeldari girl again as she prepared to unleash a Psychic Scream, knocking her helmet to the ground.

"Three!"

Salamandruslan dropped flat on the ground.

If Fu Qinghai had tricked her, the Helbrute would tear her to pieces the next second while she lay there, unable to dodge.

Whoosh—

Blazing white flames blasted from all three circular engine nozzles.

The huge Helbrute was instantly swallowed by the flames.

"Rrraagh—"

A howl of pain from the Warp rang out. The Helbrute, standing in the flames from the engine nozzles, was visible only as a hazy, hulking shadow.

Inside the engine control room, Fu Qinghai pushed the engines to maximum output.

Salamandruslan quickly rolled away, avoiding the scorching heat of the exhaust.

Fu Qinghai held the engines at full power, maintaining an output only sustainable for a short time when a spacecraft accelerated at maximum thrust.

The blazing white flames continued to pour out.

They kept pouring.

They didn't let up for a long time.

Until the nozzles overheated and automatically shut down to cool.

At last.

The white flames and exhaust slowly faded away.

A withered, charred, carbonized figure stood upright.

It stood motionless behind the three engine nozzles.

"Ha..." The Aeldari girl, still lying prone, let out a long breath.

Standing quietly in the engine control room, Fu Qinghai listened intently to the Aeldari girl's labored breathing over the comms.

"How are you, Sara?" he asked.

"It's dead."

Fu Qinghai could hear the joy of having survived against the odds beneath the Aeldari girl's feigned calm.

Fu Qinghai was happy, too, now that they'd killed the Helbrute.

They'd won!

Fu Qinghai's eyes were full of laughter.

The corners of his mouth curled up of their own accord.

Lost in the joy of victory, he didn't notice.

Outside the hatch behind him, a woman in a black robe had silently appeared, a long, staff-shaped bundle strapped to her back.

Infected by his teammate's joy,

Fu Qinghai grinned foolishly.

Suddenly, he sensed something was wrong.

He spun around.

"Thk!"

A black longsword plunged deep into his chest.

"Ugh... ngh..."

Staring blankly at what was happening, Fu Qinghai slowly sank to his knees.

He clutched the blade buried halfway in his chest with both hands, and a torrent of bloody froth poured uncontrollably from his mouth.

Before him stood a pale-skinned woman with a hood over her head, deep-set eyes, a pointed chin, and a high nose bridge. She held the sword by its hilt and smiled at Fu Qinghai.

"You... how... can you..."

Fu Qinghai struggled to raise his eyes and look at the woman in black.

Smiling, the woman twisted the hilt in her pale hands with all her strength.

"Ah... ngh..."

Fu Qinghai thought he could hear his heart valves being shredded.

"Wow, I can feel it—the sound of a heart breaking. This feeling... it's so beautiful."

The woman spoke in flawless British English.

Thick blood spilled uncontrollably from Fu Qinghai's mouth and nostrils.

"Confused, aren't you? Wondering why this ancient melee weapon—with no Power Field and no serrations—could pierce the indestructible Plasteel plates of your Power Armor?"

The woman asked with a soft laugh.

"I've been waiting a long time for this chance."

The woman continued.

"I've been watching you from the shadows for a long time."

"You're strong. Very strong."

"If you're an NPC from the story, then you must be a very important character among the Loyalists. If you're a Reincarnator like me, a player, then you must be a powerful, high-level player on The Emperor's side."

"Either way, if I kill you and earn enough Assimilation Points, then even if I fail the story mission, it'll be worth it. Ha ha~"

"This is how I play the Reincarnation World. Before you breathe your last, make sure you remember this..."

The woman lifted a lock of her black, wavy hair and leaned close to Fu Qinghai's ear, whispering:

"Remember this sword. Remember my name..."

"Alicia the Heartbreaker."

"Oh, I forgot to answer the biggest question on your mind as you die—this sword is a Valyrian Steel Sword."

"Its name..."

"Is Heartbreaker!"