Aboard the Conqueror, Angron stood motionless after Liam's psyker power struck him.
Knowing their father's temperament all too well, the World Eaters immediately grew agitated and tried to approach him to wake him.
But Valens's overwhelming psyker power and exquisite swordsmanship proved an insurmountable barrier. Every World Eater who tried to approach Angron was finely minced.
The Alliance's anti-psyker technology and Khorne's Chaos blessings had now reached a delicate balance on the battlefield.
In this region of realspace near the Maelstrom itself, the Khorne Daemon Army was weakened by the reality veil, then further constrained by the anti-psyker field. Most of its Chaos traits, such as resistance to psyker powers and ranged attacks, had ceased to function.
Conversely, the Alliance's anti-psyker field did not reduce them to weaklings inferior even to ordinary Astra Militarum soldiers. They still retained considerable fighting strength.
The Khorne Warband still fought better than ordinary Astartes, and Greater Daemons could still go head-to-head with Chimeras and even Leman Russ Tanks.
Had these been Imperial troops facing a Khorne Daemon Army this powerful that could also resurrect endlessly, their only options would have been to pray for the Emperor's epiphany or fight to the death.
But they were facing Valens, the Alliance's strongest fighter after Huron.
In sheer reserves of psyker power, he might have fallen short of Liam, whose soul was unusual. But in his mastery of that power and the combat strength he gained from it, he remained the undisputed number one.
After all, Liam was essentially a civilian official and an excellent psychologist. He rarely went to the front lines.
Even in the early days, when personnel shortages forced him to accompany the Astral Claws Chapter, he served to draw enemy attention and control the battlefield. He rarely fought the Enemy of Humanity on