25. One-Day War (III)

Roboute Guilliman felt he was falling. Falling endlessly, without stopping.

He seemed to be dreaming, yet he didn't. Roboute Guilliman tried to find the truth in this eerie feeling, like a veil veiling his face, but his remaining sane sanity couldn't do so; the dreamlike illusions kept assaulting him. In the end, he almost believed he had returned to Macragge.

The city streets were bustling with traffic; to the left was a university, and to the right a museum. The scent of the forest, along with the sound of clear springs cascading from the mountain peaks, reached his ears. The sky was azure, and birds flew slowly in formation.

The white clouds leisurely overlook the multitude of living beings; everything is so beautiful, everything is so...

--Roboute Guilliman suddenly opened his eyes.

He gasped for breath; the air was foul, sour, and filled with the stench of blood. He saw corpses, countless corpses. Scattered and mutilated, blood pooled along the veins of the rough rocks, making it look almost as if the stones themselves were bleeding.

Roboute Guilliman stared blankly at the scene, his extraordinary mind in complete disarray. It took him several seconds to realize where he was.

He gripped the Hand of Dominion, beginning to think and check his ammunition. The result was destined to be disappointing: the bullets in the Boltgun attached to the Hand of Dominion were all gone, and his Sincere Short Sword and Arbitrator's Boltgun were also missing.

Based on the current situation, he is currently underground in Harkosus III, and he and his First Chapter have been attacked—by these Xenos.

No, that's not right.

He frowned: What about my previous memories?

Where did I crash-land, and how did I end up fighting these Xenos? When and how did I run out of bullets, and where did I lose my sword and gun?

The thought process continued for some time, but Roboute Guilliman came to no conclusion.

He took a slow, deep breath, and then, almost suddenly, a sharp pain struck him. It rose from his mind like a fog carrying knives, rampaging and tangling all his thoughts into a chaotic mess.

Roboute Guilliman tensed his muscles uncontrollably, leaned against the rock wall, and continued to take deep breaths. However, with each breath, the pain intensified. In desperation, he tried to hold his breath—but the pain did not subside at all.

It caused his vision to deteriorate, and his lips to tremble uncontrollably as if in spasms. Finally, after an unknown amount of time, the terrible pain finally subsided.

Roboute Guilliman shook his head weakly; a sharp, stabbing pain still throbbed in his temples, but it was much better than the agonizing sensation he had just experienced.

He subconsciously licked his dry lips, and a sticky, metallic taste of blood came to his tongue.

"Am I bleeding?" He frowned, not caring too much. He regained his ability to think, and without hesitation, he began to use his talent again. In a few seconds, he had arranged everything he knew in his mind and listed it out one by one.

First and foremost, I am on Harkosus III, that much is certain. My First Chapter and I are attacking here, seeking to reclaim this planet and bring it back into the Imperium.

We succeeded. After a well-prepared bombardment, the successor to the Harkosus III surrendered to us. Then, the ground cracked open. The attack...

Come down.

Then what?

That was it. Roboute Guilliman searched his memory thoroughly, but he still couldn't recall what happened after the fall.

He looked down at his armor. The precision-engineered Power Armour was in excellent condition. Apart from the missing helmet and the excessive bloodstains, his Power Armour was completely undamaged.

This means that he didn't fall from a great height, at least not high enough to exceed the protection of his Power Armour. Therefore, it's impossible that he lost his memory due to a concussion.

What exactly happened? He frowned and began searching the pile of corpses. The Xenos all appeared to have been killed by him; their deaths were extremely gruesome. They were either torn apart by explosive bombs or pulverized by the Hand of Dominion.

Roboute Guilliman observed them carefully, and eventually he came to the conclusion that these underground Xenos were no different from savages.

Their weapons are crude stone spears, and they wear almost no clothing. Most of the Xenos have pale blue skin and slender limbs, eighteen eyes on their foreheads, and two vertical whiskers on their lower jaws that protect their teeth.

Besides these ordinary Xenos, Roboute Guilliman also saw some monsters that were almost like nightmares incarnate.

Yes, monsters. He had to use that word to describe those things; he couldn't find a better adjective.

There were three in total, all with numerous long, thin limbs like arthropods, their pale blue skin layered and wrinkled. Roboute Guilliman endured it, and tried punching one of them; he felt a surprising toughness.

They had many heads, densely packed at the front of their bodies. Above these heads was a huge, gaping mouth, full of fangs, and inside was a dried, murky liquid.

They were all dead, but they died perfectly intact, with no wounds on their bodies, as strange as natural deaths.

Roboute Guilliman kept this in mind, then left the cave without looking back. The underground was gloomy and dark, but that couldn't stop a Primarch from seeing what he wanted to see.

He moved cautiously, making no sound in the darkness. He had undergone many kinds of combat training, some even more extreme and arduous than this. Moreover, he couldn't be the only victim of the ground collapse; the Ultramarines would surely gather and fight the Xenos.

He will hear the voices of his children, and then he will rush over—he will get through this difficult time with them.

With this hope in mind, his solo journey continued for some time. He crossed foul-smelling underground rivers, passed through empty caverns once inhabited by Xenos, and finally, he heard a sound.

It drifted in on the foul, filthy wind, carrying with it Roboute Guilliman's all-too-familiar war cry.

"For Macragge!"

Roboute Guilliman's eyes narrowed, and he immediately rushed in that direction.

--

Marius Gage brandished his sword, his roar never ceasing—he had long since completed the data analysis and theoretical deductions, and he and his brothers knew exactly what they were going to do in this filthy, stinking underground.

They had to fight, and fighting itself didn't require much rationality. Just keep the anger going. Just like now, the First Chapter Master was unleashing his fury without reservation, standing at the forefront of the battle line like some kind of terrifying incarnation, wielding violence.

Each swing of his sword killed a Xenos, decapitating it or cutting it in two. The Power Sword was invincible even against technologically advanced enemies, let alone these savage Xenos who were barely clothed.

"This is the price you paid for my survival," Gage murmured to himself, waving his hands, and the sword dance was born once more.

This skill was always deadly, and he quickly plunged deep into the Xenos swarm. They stabbed his Power Armour with rough stone spears, causing only minor damage to the paint.

Gage sneered and roared a challenge at them. His sixty-two brothers followed closely behind him, and the squad had grown much larger and its firepower more than doubled— Phosphex flames relentlessly burned the Xenos.

They screamed and retreated, waving their arms and rolling on the ground, trying to extinguish it. But their actions only spread the flames, and the acrid smell of burning accompanied the pungent odor of the flamethrower, while the fighting brothers who were using the flamethrowers just kept roaring.

He was furious. They were all— Ultramarines have their limits of patience; they had been fighting underground for three hours.

Seven and a half hours have passed since the start of the battle, half the day has gone by, time relentlessly ticking away, and they have found absolutely no trace of the Primarch. Who can tolerate this? No one can.

After the initial inquiry, no one asked Marius Gage about it again. They acted as if they didn't care at all, but if they didn't care, why wouldn't they dare to mention it even once?

"For Macragge!" Gage roared, swinging his sword. His voice collided and echoed between the rock walls, becoming distorted, sounding like the most terrible, most demented voice a person who had lost their original mind could utter.

Gage was certainly aware of this, but he forced himself to forget the desolation in the roar.

He had only one desire: to kill.

You didn't kill me, and now I've come to find my Primarch, but I'm going to wipe you all out!

Charge, charge, charge. He charged relentlessly, slashing his sword to kill one Xenos after another. He smashed a Xenos's chest with his shoulder, then twisted his wrist and smashed a hideous head with the counterweight at the end of his sword hilt.

Gage's face was covered in blood; he had been injured and poisoned not long ago. But now he acted as if none of it had happened, only killing. Killing without stopping.

Until a voice rang out from above him.

"For Macragge!"

--Gage instinctively looked up.

That voice—he knew it all too well—it was Roboute Guilliman's voice!

It's him!

Marius Gage almost burst into tears as he saw their Primarch emerge from the darkness, cobalt blue and opulent gold gleaming on his armor, its colors untouched by blood, just as darkness itself could not obscure Roboute Guilliman. He appeared, he killed, and then they triumphed.

"Primarch." Gage sheathed his sword, his voice hoarse, almost choked with emotion. "We finally—"

"--Well done, soldier. What's your name?" Roboute Guilliman smiled at him, looking at Gage with a completely unfamiliar gaze, and asked.

He was gentle and spoke with fervor, just as he always did after every battle; he had used this tone to soothe them countless times.

But this time, Marius Gage felt as if he had fallen into an abyss.

"A soldier?" Roboute Guilliman raised an eyebrow. "What's wrong, Apothecary? Come here, there's a soldier who needs your help!"

One more chapter.