The Safe

The gravity cargo elevator to the upper levels rumbled as it rose.

This time, the car was packed with Rampant Servitors reeking of machine oil and blood.

They still stood silently with their heads lowered, like steel statues awaiting orders. Only the occasional flicker of their red augmetic eyes revealed the madness suppressed within them.

Li Wei leaned against a corner of the elevator, using this brief respite to check his equipment.

The Hellgun was fully charged.

The Chainsword had plenty of fuel.

And...

He reached into the inner pocket against his chest and felt the cold metal Data-slate—the one engraved with the Inquisition's emblem.

Looking at the little thing that had nearly gotten them killed ten thousand times over, Li Wei recalled the moment a few hours ago, just before they had left for the banquet.

[Flashback: One Hour Before Departure · Purification Courtyard Dressing Room]

At the time, Aurelia had just helped him straighten out that damned tight formal outfit. She suddenly turned, walked to the desk, opened the drawer secured by three locks, and took out the Data-slate.

"Take it." Aurelia tossed the USB drive to Li Wei.

Li Wei froze for a moment, then caught it in a fluster. "Are you insane? Taking this thing to the governor's banquet? The security scanners at the entrance will scream like alarms!"

"The security scanners can't detect it. Because you're there." Aurelia said coldly, "You're a Pariah. Your bio-magnetic field interferes with every detection device around you, including psychic scans and electronic security gates. To them, you're a moving blur of static."

She looked at Li Wei, a trace of helpless clarity in her eyes. "Besides, I don't trust my office. That maid had been hiding there for three years and I never noticed. Who knows whether my drawers have surveillance devices or teleportation traps installed in them?"

She pointed at Li Wei's chest. "In this Hive City full of eyes, you're the only one who is completely 'black.' You're the safest safe."

"If we die at the banquet, it's better for this thing to rot with you than fall into Valorian's hands—or the bugs'."

[Back to the Present]

"The safest safe..." Li Wei gave a self-mocking laugh and tucked the Data-slate away again.

"Put bluntly, it means even if I die, I have to take someone down with me."

Though he complained aloud, he knew Aurelia was right. It was precisely because he carried this thing that they now held the final bargaining chip against anyone.

"What are you thinking about?" Aurelia's voice came from beside him. She had changed into a set of light carapace armor and carried the Fire Axe still stained with blood. She seemed particularly fond of the weapon as she stood beside the Servitor ranks.

"I'm thinking about how we should start this fire." Li Wei gathered his thoughts, his gaze sharpening.

The elevator's floor display flickered.

L-15: Upper Noble District - Maintenance Passage.

"Valorian thinks we're dead. The bugs think we were smashed into pulp." Li Wei looked at Aurelia. "That's our only advantage. The information gap."

"We can't charge straight into the banquet hall. It must already be surrounded by the bugs' army."

Aurelia nodded. She was exceptionally professional when it came to tactics. "We need to cut off their command system. Or... let everyone know what's happening here."

"The Astropathic Beacon?" Li Wei asked.

He knew a little about it. Every Hive City had a beacon used to transmit psychic signals beyond the stars.

As long as they lit it, even if they could not send a detailed message, it would draw the Imperium's attention.

"The beacon is at the very top of the spire. Too far away." Aurelia shook her head and pointed downward. "But there's a closer way."

"The Hive City Broadcasting Center." A ruthless gleam flashed in Aurelia's eyes. "It's on this level. It's where they broadcast the governor's speeches and brainwashing propaganda throughout the Hive City." "As long as we seize it and broadcast the contents of that Data-slate—the infection list, and Valorian's conspiracy—directly on every channel..."

"Then things will get lively." Li Wei's eyes lit up. This move was called flipping the table, plus edition.

Once the broadcast went out, the Bottom Hive gangs, the mid-level workers, the Adeptus Arbites, and even the noble private troops still watching from the sidelines would all learn that the upper levels had been occupied by xenos.

By then, the riots caused by mass panic would be enough to give the Genestealer cult a serious headache.

And it would definitely draw the attention of an Inquisition Exterminatus—but before that, the chaos would be enough for Li Wei to slip away in the confusion.

"Let's do it." Li Wei pulled the Hellgun's charging handle, listening to the hum of its high-energy battery warming up.

Ding.

The elevator arrived.

"Ready, Your Majesty?" Li Wei looked back at the restless steel monsters behind him.

He released his "Pariah" aura once more, but this time not to suppress them.

It was to guide them.

Like a master loosening the leash on vicious dogs, he relaxed that faint thread of pressure.

The Servitors instantly grew agitated, low growls of bloodlust rumbling from their throats.

"The door's open." Li Wei kicked the elevator's grated door open.

Outside lay a broad corridor in the noble district.

More than a dozen traitorous Guardsmen on patrol stared in surprise at the cargo elevator that had suddenly arrived.

"What the..." One soldier had barely opened his mouth.

"Kill!!" Li Wei gave the order and shot forward like a cheetah, his Chainsword roaring to life in his hand.

But he was not the first to charge.

The instant he gave the command, hundreds of Rampant Servitors that had been holding back for far too long surged past him with roaring fury, like a breached flood of steel!

"For the Emperor! For the flesh!"

Boom! The dozen Guardsmen did not even have time to raise their weapons before the steel flood swallowed them whole.

It was true, absolute crushing force.

The Ogryn Servitors' Power Claws tore people in half, while chainsaw Servitors sawed through barricades and the people behind them together.

Blood, screams, severed limbs.

The corridor instantly became a slaughterhouse.

Li Wei walked behind them, Hellgun raised, picking off the stragglers with precise shots.

Bzzzt—crack! A high-temperature laser beam pierced the throat of a Guardsman trying to raise the alarm.

"So this is your tactic?" Aurelia followed with her axe, raising a brow as she watched the slaughter before them. "Simple and brutal."

"I'm a man who values efficiency." Li Wei stepped over a corpse and tore a grenade from the Guardsman's belt.

"Besides, since we're here to cause trouble, the bigger the commotion, the better."

He pointed at the door at the far end of the corridor marked "Broadcasting Center."

"There."

"Let's go tell everyone in the Hive City a ghost story."

But at that moment, Li Wei suddenly stopped.

That familiar, bone-chilling feeling of being watched washed over him again.

And this time, it was even more intense than it had been in Valorian's office.

The corridor lights began to flicker, dimming and brightening. The temperature in the air plummeted, and purple slime began to seep from the walls.

"Careful." Li Wei abruptly raised a hand, signaling the Servitor horde to halt.

"Something big is coming."

At the end of the corridor, the Broadcasting Center's door slowly opened.

A figure stepped out.

It was not an ordinary Hybrid.

It was a monster wearing tattered Psyker robes, with an enormously swollen head and a body floating in midair.

It held a staff made of spinal bones, while purple psychic flames burned in its eyes.

Genestealer Cult—Psyker Overseer.

"Soulless..." The monster did not open its mouth, yet apart from Li Wei, who was immune, a voice exploded directly inside everyone's minds.

Aurelia groaned and clutched her nose as blood began to flow.

The few Servitors closest to it, despite having no sense of pain, had their heads blown apart on the spot by the immense psychic shockwave.

"Your existence is a blasphemy against the sacred void." The Psyker Overseer raised its staff, and purple lightning gathered in the air.

"I will tear your soul from its shell and offer it to the Children of the Stars."

Li Wei looked at the charlatan floating in the air.

Not only was he unafraid, he revealed a savage grin.

He turned to Aurelia. "Cover your ears." "Why?" Aurelia asked through the pain in her head.

"Because I'm about to start singing."

Li Wei took a deep breath, tossed aside the Hellgun, and drew his Chainsword.

Instead of dodging, he charged straight at the Psyker Overseer!

You use magic?

I'm immune to magic!

And not only am I immune to magic, I can drain your mana bar dry!

"Come on, big-head!" Li Wei roared as he charged into the purple lightning storm.

"Let's see whether your skull is harder, or my chainsaw!"