Sister!

Lin En was no longer as fast as Cecilia, the Battle Sister.

Every so often, Cecilia pulled Lin En along, dragging him with her.

When Lin En could no longer run, Cecilia half-dragged and half-pulled him into the passage they had come through.

The cultists' screams echoed off the stone walls of the passage, amplified into chaotic disorder. They came from everywhere, like countless bats flitting wildly through the darkness.

Suddenly, red light from the cultists surged in from the other end of the passage, illuminating its contours and revealing what lay both ahead and behind.

—The cultists had blocked the other end of the passage. They were surrounded.

The cultists charged out after them.

Cecilia pulled Lin En behind her and began fighting them alone.

Cecilia's foot struck one cultist squarely in the chest. Before he could react, his entire body went flying and slammed into the second person behind him. The two of them rolled together into a heap.

Lin En pulled out his dagger and was just about to join in. He lowered his head to look at his dagger, then glanced at Cecilia's steel pipe. Suddenly, he felt that using a dagger was doing the weapon's power a bit of an injustice.

Knowing one's own limits.JPG.

"Sister!" Taking advantage of an opening, Lin En swiftly shoved the dagger into Cecilia's hand.

Cecilia did not turn around, but her hand seemed to have eyes of its own. She swept it backward and gripped the dagger's hilt firmly.

Then she shoved the section of steel pipe toward Lin En. Lin En took it and began wildly beating at the cultists as well.

With the dagger in hand, Cecilia was like a tiger with wings.

The surrounding air rang constantly with the cultists' screams and the sounds of blades cutting into flesh.

Lin En did not dare look too closely. He simply swung the pipe wildly at everything around him.

That was because Cecilia was being wounded while eliminating the cultists.

Cecilia had no equipment now.

Although she had a dagger, a dagger was simply too weak against so many cultists—especially so many psyker cultists.

The cultists' assault faltered when they realized that no matter how hard they hit, the two of them would not die. The woman wielded the dagger as if it had grown from her hand, and every strike was lethal.

So they had the psykers among the Chaos cultists make their move.

The psykers raised their staves. The red light Lin En knew all too well flew from them, densely blanketing Cecilia.

Cecilia twisted sideways to dodge, but there was simply too much red light. One beam grazed her left arm and exploded into a cluster of dark-red sparks against her upper arm.

Cecilia grunted, gritted her teeth, and held tightly to the dagger, continuing to watch the group of cultists warily.

Fighting psykers was truly disgusting, especially when they had guards and could not be reached.

Cecilia was not an Astartes-enhanced warrior. No matter how powerful she was, she was still only a mortal, and without equipment, her combat ability was greatly reduced.

When facing Chaos psykers protected by a large number of cultists, she was outmatched as well.

Cecilia was struck by another beam of red light. This time, it was more serious than the last, and a trace of blood appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"Yes—!" The cultists cheered and screamed, shouting praise to the Blood God.

Lin En was of little use at a time like this. All he could do was wave the steel pipe around wildly, beating back the cultists around him.

The psykers stood in the middle of the cultists. Lin En could not force his way in, and neither could Cecilia.

At that moment, Lin En wished he were an Astartes. Astartes were enhanced warriors with two hearts, three lungs, and immense strength. Faced with a situation like this, they would not need to run at all—they could tear open a cultist's skull with their bare hands.

"Blood God! Blood God! Blood God!"

"Kill her! Kill her!"

"Sacrifice! Sacrifice!"

The shouts and screams grew louder and louder. Dark-red light flashed frenziedly. Cecilia's teeth were nearly ground to pieces, and then she suddenly charged toward the group of cultists.

The cultists' screams jammed for an instant. They had not expected the woman to charge straight at them.

Was she trying to throw her life away?

They instinctively took a step back, afraid that this Battle Sister intended to fight them to the death.

That single step created a precious opening in the tight encirclement.

"Run!" Cecilia suddenly shouted at Lin En.

Lin En did not hesitate. He immediately obeyed Cecilia's order and ran outward.

Cecilia also broke out and followed behind him.

The cultists' screams erupted behind them. Hundreds of cultists, worked into a frenzy, pursued them.

Lin En ran with all his strength. This time, he was the one leading Cecilia in their escape.

The two of them fought their way out of the cultists' encirclement and began desperately fleeing for their lives.

Oh, this is bad. We absolutely have to get out. With hundreds or even thousands of cultists, getting surrounded again would make breaking through truly difficult.

Lin En turned left, then left again, and then left once more.

He vaguely remembered running this way before. In any case, he had no idea where he was on the map, so he stopped worrying about intersections and kept turning left, specifically burrowing into the dark, narrow passages.

However.

Only taking narrow passages would occasionally backfire.

For example, the cave's network extended like blood vessels, and many narrow passages actually ended in dead ends.

Lin En squeezed through the end of an especially narrow passage, only to discover that it led to a small cavern. There was no road ahead. It was a dead end.

Fortunately, a jutting rock outside the small cavern's entrance blocked the view. No one would notice that there was a cavern here without looking carefully.

Lin En turned around and reached out, just about to tell Cecilia not to come in.

But it was already too late.

Cecilia had already arrived. She grabbed Lin En's hand and squeezed inside as well.

In the cramped little cavern, the two of them stared at each other.

The pursuing soldiers' voices were right at their heels.

The cultists' footsteps came from outside the passage.

There were many of them. Their footsteps were chaotic and heavy, mixed with the cultists' hoarse, panting voices.

"They're gone... Both of them are gone..."

"Search! Search the caves one by one! They can't have gotten far!"

"The Blood God wants their blood! If we can't find them, the Blood God will take ours!"

"Keep searching!"

The footsteps drew closer and closer.

They were surrounded.

The cultists were searching the caves one by one. They would be searching this one soon.

Cecilia's hand was very cold.

Her arm had been injured earlier.

It was still trembling now.

But her other hand remained tightly wrapped around the dagger, its blade pointed outward toward the cavern entrance.

Cecilia turned her head and listened carefully to the movements of the pursuers outside.

Only then did Lin En realize that it was his own hand trembling, not Cecilia.

"..." He felt a little ashamed.

In the darkness, they listened to the cultists' footsteps and to them moving back and forth through the passage, searching the caves one by one. Whenever they found nothing, they shouted, "Empty," and continued forward.

Lin En heard them speaking.

"This cave—has it been searched?"

"Yes, it's empty!"

"What about this one?"

"Not yet. Go take a look!"

The cultists' footsteps drew closer and closer.

Until—

They stopped right outside the cavern where the two of them were hiding.