Reunited

After crawling out of the pipe, Lin Fan was attacked by the daemons guarding the area near the D1347 passage. A hulking, green, obese giant grabbed Lin Fan's head with a hand covered in yellow pus and maggots, then tossed him into its gaping, rotten, toothless maw, which was crawling with even more flesh-eating maggots. Once swallowed, Lin Fan felt sick, but his gear somehow didn't melt into scrap in the corrosive stomach acid that could dissolve any mortal creature.

Lin Fan drew his Chainsword and hacked wildly in roughly the right direction. Its rapidly spinning teeth tore through the daemon's yellow-white stomach. He could even hear the daemon that had eaten him howling in pain. As stomach acid began bubbling and gurgling through a hole, Lin Fan realized he was almost out. He redoubled his efforts, stabbing and hacking until he carved a huge gash in the giant daemon's belly. Stomach acid, maggots, and the rotten dark green blood from its veins sprayed across the deck.

Lin Fan crawled out through the wound and fell to the floor.

Looking closely, he saw that the dead fatso who had eaten him was actually a Great Unclean One of Nurgle. It lay on the ground, groaning after Lin Fan had gutted it.

A Great Unclean One's appearance: this one was the Rain Father.

"Ahhh~ I ate something I shouldn't have~~ Cough, cough~~ It hurts so much."

Listening to the giant lump of rotten flesh whine in its disgusting voice, Lin Fan felt waves of nausea. The stench coming off the Great Unclean One was enough to make any mortal who got close rot instantly and break out in boils, but it only made Lin Fan a little uncomfortable. It reminded him of the smell of an outhouse in winter when he was a child. Still, he had to admit that the daemon's phlegmy voice was what disgusted him most.

Every time the Great Unclean One breathed or spoke, Lin Fan felt as if he had phlegm in his own throat, and he instinctively cleared it. He noticed the Nurglings gathered around the Great Unclean One's feet watching him with sly, frightened eyes.

"Scared? Good. I don't have time to waste on you."

Lin Fan ran up to the Great Unclean One's face and pulled out the crude Aquila hanging around his neck.

The Great Unclean One had still been groaning, but when its beady eyes caught sight of the Aquila statue bestowed upon Lin Fan by The Emperor, it panicked. It struggled to push itself up with its hands, trying to flee. But Lin Fan wasn't about to let it get away. He hurled the Aquila straight at the daemon. Like a scorching iron ball plunged into solidified butter, the statue rapidly vaporized and melted the Great Unclean One's body. Carrying the sincere faith of billions of believers, the Aquila was like an eraser belonging to The Emperor, wiping the Warp's horrors away without a trace.

"Grandfather! Save me!" The Great Unclean One could only call out to its Grandfather one last time before it was completely burned to ash. There was no green gush of gore, nor any strange sparks. The Great Unclean One, which had only just squeezed through the rift, was purified by the power of faith and could never be reborn.

When the noisy Nurglings saw the Great Unclean One die, they scattered like mice that had spotted a cat, squeezing into pipe valves and crevices, vanishing to who knew where.

Lin Fan looked at the pile of black ash left after the Great Unclean One had burned away and finally felt a little better. After all, a heap of rotting flesh crawling with maggots and pus had been a truly horrifying sight.

As he continued through the slime-covered corridors, Lin Fan's urge to sleep grew stronger and stronger, just like when he had killed the two Black Legion warriors. He had to close the rift before he passed out. Otherwise, Lin Fan had no idea whether he would be torn to pieces by daemons in his sleep.

As Lin Fan pressed on, he began to hear continuous bursts of Bolter fire and angry roars in the distance.

"So there are still people alive and fighting?"

Lin Fan didn't dare waste any more time. He broke into a run, heading toward the gunfire.

After turning several corners, Lin Fan saw the Space Wolves warriors fighting daemons pouring endlessly out of the rift through a hole blasted in the wall. The Space Wolves were holding the daemons back with alternating Bolter fire, but their firepower was still far too thin to stem the tide surging from the Great Rift, which had already grown to more than ten meters tall.

The Space Marines were pinned in place, unable to push through and disrupt the ritual.

Lin Fan hurried toward the Space Marines with his sword in hand. His Chainsword swept like an efficient razor, sending every daemon that tried to stop him back where it came from.

"My lord, we have a reinforcement."

"What? Reinforcements?"

Bennett Wolfclaw looked toward the other end of the wide passage. A Guardsman, soaked from head to toe in blood, was approaching them, swinging his Chainsword with speed and power. Even a melee master like Bennett Wolfclaw had to admire him.

"Fine swordsmanship. I never expected the Astra Militarum to have a warrior like this. Kaiserd, cover that lad."

At the order, the Grey Hunter swung the muzzle of his Heavy Bolter toward Lin Fan and provided covering fire. The hail of bullets cleared a wide swath through the tightly packed daemons blocking Lin Fan's path.

Lin Fan seized the precious opportunity, picked up speed, and rushed across the open ground cleared by the Bolter fire.

Under the Space Marines' superhuman covering fire, Lin Fan successfully joined their tactical formation.

"Greetings, my lord! Soap, captain of the 3rd Company, 37th Kasare Regiment, reporting for duty!"

"Good, warrior. Right now, every fighter is precious. Are you a survivor from the lower decks?"

"No, my lord. I was stationed at the C0 Gate. I received orders to come seal the rift."

Bennett turned to look at Lin Fan, inwardly praising his courage and peerless skill. Who could say how a Guardsman like him had fought his way through all those daemons to reach them?

"But we can't close that rift anymore." Bennett sighed as he crushed the skull of a daemon charging at him.

Before Lin Fan arrived, Bennett and his brothers had already managed to break into the chamber along the D1347 passage. The rift had been much smaller then, barely four or five meters tall. Daemons had been pouring out of it nonstop, but they were still easy enough for Bennett and his men to handle. No matter how many poured through, they still had to squeeze out one by one.

Under the Heavy Bolter's suppressive fire, not a single daemon could make it more than a few meters from the rift. Most had their heads torn apart by the merciless hail of bullets as soon as they poked them out. Protected by their covering fire, Bennett and his men had quickly used their bombs and grenades to destroy the room's Flesh Runes.

The Flesh Runes, infused with the power of the Warp, seemed to come alive, shuddering and shrieking as Bennett and his men destroyed them. They had thought the rift would lose the runes' support and close completely once they destroyed the last living rune, but then something unexpected happened.

Several bolts of blue lightning surged from the dead Flesh Runes and struck the rift just as it was about to close. The lightning gave the rift renewed strength, and it abruptly expanded from four or five meters to more than ten. The number of daemons pouring out multiplied several times over, so many that even the Heavy Bolter could no longer hold back their charge.

Forced back step by step by the pressing daemons, the Space Marine squad had no choice but to use their firepower to stop them advancing through the narrow passage. But they were trapped there, unable to break out. Once their ammunition ran out, they would have to face the daemons in direct combat. Bennett had no doubt that his men would be worn down by the endless charge and killed, and that the Flame, carrying hundreds of thousands of people, would become their tomb.