Charge! Whoever Backs Down Isn't Human!

The Leviathan Hive Fleet came, blotting out the stars.

The void beyond Vitellia had held an ordinary starfield. Then a boundless shadow rose and stained the entire sea of stars black.

The shadow rolled in from afar like an unstoppable wall. No one could see where it ended. They only knew it had swallowed every star.

As soon as the Hive Fleet arrived, the Shadow in the Warp engulfed the entire system, severing Astropathic Communication and blocking jumps through the Warp.

Physical drives were unaffected, however. Human ships could still maneuver and fight within the system at sublight speed.

Lin En stood on the bridge, watching the approaching Leviathan Hive Fleet with a cold expression.

The shadow swept in from deep space like a mountain range.

Several Navigators and Librarians on the bridge clutched their heads. A few Astartes who could sense psychic power also staggered.

The Hive Consciousness's psychic power was immense. The Bio-ships had yet to come into view, but the crushing pressure had already arrived.

Facing the Hive Fleet was even worse than facing the corruption of the Warp. Tens of billions of hungry minds opened their mouths beside their ears at once, hissing, panting, and drooling.

Disgusting.

Lin En frowned and activated his halo.

Golden Light erupted with him at its center, expanding furiously in every direction.

A halo with a nine-kilometer radius spanned eighteen kilometers, like an enormous star suddenly kindling in deep space.

The eighteen-kilometer halo blazed with Golden Light, radiant and sacred, yet every bit as domineering as the Hive Fleet. It slammed head-on into the Shadow in the Warp.

Everyone within the halo felt the weight lift from their chest the instant it appeared.

At last, they could breathe. The sickening pressure on their souls had been torn open, and the darkness