The Truth, Nothing More
Meanwhile, 100,000 Ultramarines are sweeping them away.
Cato Sicarius beheaded a Hive Tyrant with a single sword strike, panting heavily as he gazed at the blue figure in the distance tearing apart the last Hive Ship.
"Oh shit..."
He muttered to himself, a hint of complexity in his voice. "This guy... he's even more formidable than me now."
Malum Kaido glanced at him and said, "He was stronger than you anyway."
Cato glared at him. "Can't you speak properly?"
Malum shrugged. "I'm just telling the truth."
Cato opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but found that he really couldn't refute it.
He looked at the Titus in the distance, which had already torn apart the Hive Ship and was turning towards its next target, and a complex emotion welled up in his heart—an emotion containing competition, envy, and a trace of... admiration that he himself was unwilling to admit.
"Never mind."
He muttered to himself, raising his sword again. "They're all Father's sons anyway. Does it matter who's stronger?"
Marum smiled.
There was a rare warmth in that smile.
"That's right."
Twenty minutes later, the battle was completely over.
There is not a single living Tyranids creature left on the entire battlefield.
The shattered remains floated in the void, stretching for tens of thousands of kilometers, like a ring of stars composed of biological matter.
Those wreckages will float here for a very long time, until they are captured by gravity, broken down by stellar radiation, or accidentally stumbled upon by some unlucky passing fleet.
But in any case, they will no longer threaten anyone.
Titus hovered in the void, silently observing all of this.
There wasn't a single scratch on his body.
His eyes remained calm as still water.
His breathing remained as steady as ever.
It was as if the twenty minutes of frenzied slaughter just now were nothing more than a stroll for him.
Cheers from the Ultramarines could be heard over the communication channel.
"Long live the Emperor!"
"Long live the Primarch!"
"Long live Company Commander Titus!"
The cheers rose in waves, like thunder formed from the battle cries of 100,000 people.
Titus listened quietly, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Then he raised his head and looked in that distant direction—that was Terra, where the Golden Throne was located, where Guilliman was sitting at that moment.
He spoke softly, a voice only he could hear. "Thank you, Father."
In the distance, in the grand hall of Terra, Guilliman slowly withdrew his Psionic Energy.
A satisfied smile played on his lips.
"Well done, my son."
He murmured to himself, then closed his eyes again and continued dealing with the mountain of Imperium affairs.
On the Macragge's Honour, the Ultramarines who had not yet engaged in battle were looking out the portholes at the floating battlefield, at the returning Titus, and at the orderly retreat of their 100,000 brothers.
A young Ultramarines asked the veteran beside him in a low voice, "Is that... Company Commander Titus?"
The veteran nodded, a complex light flickering in his eyes. "Yes."
"He..."
The young soldier carefully chose his words: "Has he always been this strong?"
The veteran was silent for a moment, then smiled.
There was a profound understanding of the ways of the world in that smile.
"No."
He said, "He was already very strong. But after today—"
He paused, gazing at the blue figure slowly approaching the warship. "He's stronger now."
The young soldier nodded thoughtfully.
His gaze followed the approaching figure, the presence still enveloped in golden light, and the one who was becoming a legend.
In the hangar of the Macragge's Honour, Titus slowly descended.
The moment his feet touched the deck, the golden light slowly receded and returned to his body.
All around, countless Ultramarines were already lined up and waiting.
The way they looked at him was as if they were looking at some sacred being—it was worship, awe, and heartfelt submission.
Titus's gaze swept over them.
Then he spoke.
The voice was calm, yet it echoed throughout the hangar, "The battle is over."
He paused, then said, "But the war has only just begun."
His gaze was fixed on the distant starry sky, on the Imperium Nihilus, and on the countless worlds still being ravaged by Chaos, Xenos, and swarms of insects.
"Our father gave us strength. Our father gave us a mission. Our father gave us—"
A slight smile played on his lips, "Glory."
He raised the Power Fist in his hands, which were still covered with the remains of countless Tyranids creatures. "For the Emperor!"
One hundred thousand Ultramarines shouted in unison, "For the Emperor!"
The sound exploded in the hangar, echoed throughout the Macragge's Honour, and burned in the hearts of every Ultramarines.
In the distance, in the grand hall of Terra, Guilliman slightly opened his eyes, a smile playing on his lips.
He said softly, "Good boy."
Then, he once again sank into the endless affairs of government.
In the void, on that battlefield where countless Tyranids remains floated, a tiny creature eked out a living.
That was a Neurothrope —one of the weakest and most inconspicuous creatures in the swarm.
It hid inside the corpse of a Hive Tyrant, sustaining its last breath by feeding on the corpse's biomass.
Its Psionic Energy perception clearly "saw" everything that had just happened.
I saw those 100,000 blue Ynnead.
I saw that terrifying being shrouded in golden light.
I witnessed how that being tore apart the Hive Ship one by one, how it wiped out the Zerg swarms one by one, how it became something incomprehensible, insurmountable, and impossible to exist...
Before the Neurothrope was discovered and crushed by the Ultramarines ' cleanup crew, only one thought remained: How... how did this universe even manage to raise something like this...?
Then, it disappeared too.
The battlefield fell completely silent.
Only the floating wreckage remains, like tombstones, silently recounting everything that once happened here.
In the distance, the Macragge's Honour slowly turned, heading towards the next battlefield, towards the next target, towards that endless war and glory.
Behind it, that void was forever changed.
It's not because of the extra wreckage.
Rather, it was because a Hive Fleet Leviathan once encountered its most stern father here.