A month after the Molanssen Alliance assault ended.
At the summit of the Himalayas.
Large numbers of intelligent transport vehicles traveled between the mountaintop and the foot of the mountain, constructing enormous and magnificent buildings.
The Emperor stood on an open stretch of ground.
Malcador leaned on his scepter at the Emperor's side.
Before them stood an Adeptus Custodes kneeling on one knee, with Captain-General Valdor standing beside him.
Beside the two superhuman warriors, an Imperial Army soldier in Power Armor stood weakly.
The mortal's left arm was gone, and his left shoulder had been shattered. Shreds of flesh and bone were mixed with fragments of Power Armor.
He was covered in wounds. Blood mixed with fluid from the Power Armor's hydraulic components, staining broad swathes of its surface.
Yet astonishingly, the mortal was still standing, letting out only faint breaths.
No one spoke.
Silence hung over the scene.
Soon, a flash appeared atop the Himalayas. Amid the light produced by teleportation technology, Qin Mo and Taranis, commander of the Thunder Warriors, arrived from thousands of miles away.
The moment he arrived, Qin Mo looked at the mortal soldier under his command, then shifted his gaze to the Adeptus Custodes kneeling on one knee.
When Qin Mo looked toward Valdor, the Captain-General gave an almost imperceptible shrug.
Qin Mo had not come specifically to deal with this matter, but for something more important. Still, he would naturally handle this along the way.
"Gell," Qin Mo said. "Tell me what you know."
The soldier, whose left arm was missing and whose left shoulder was shattered, immediately began recounting what had happened. "That Adeptus Custodes and I were carrying out an infiltration mission into the Achamanid Empire. A child discovered him. He decided to kill the child, and I tried to stop