Is This Heaven?

"Hmph." A contemptuous snort came from inside the Blood Angel's helmet.

This amount of firepower was completely insignificant to an Astartes.

With a "bzzzt," the Astartes warrior activated the Chainsword in his hand.

A row of teeth along the massive blade began spinning wildly, its roar deafening.

The beast trapped within the metal had awakened, its teeth tearing at the air.

Some of the nearby cultists instinctively took a step back.

But it was already too late.

The Astartes crashed into the cultists' formation.

Like a snowplow charging through a drift.

The Emperor's Angel swept his sword out, sending several cultists flying at once, their limbs torn apart.

Wherever the Chainsword passed, bone masks shattered, dark red robes were ripped to shreds, and corpses littered the ground.

The Blood Angel cut them down as easily as slicing vegetables. Mere mortals had no power to resist him.

At times, he even crushed cultists' heads with his bare hands, like popping tomatoes.

"..." Cecilia had witnessed plenty of battles: Battle Sisters fighting Khorne Daemons during the Ophelia Crusade, Krieg battling vast Greenskin Ork armies at the sector's edge, Inquisition agents hunting down alien monstrosities.

But she still had to admit that among all levels of warriors, the Astartes stood at the very top in combat efficiency.

Astartes were weapons of slaughter created by the Emperor for war.

Cultist corpses had already begun piling up at the cave entrance. Those who came later had to step over their own people's bodies just to reach the Astartes, only to quickly become part of the pile themselves.

Perhaps only the legendary Primarchs could be stronger than an Astartes.

The cultists tried to organize a counterattack. The red-robed priest shrieked several commands, and a group of elite Tech-Guard wielding power weapons circled in from the flank, intending to ambush the Astartes from behind while he faced the enemy head-on.

But a Blood Angel warrior tempered by countless battles could hardly be dealt with by such a mere ambush.

A sweeping strike followed by a thrust; after the thrust, he reversed his grip to block an attack from the side, then slammed his shoulder into an ambusher, sending him flying and knocking down an entire row behind him.

The Astartes turned, the lenses of his red helmet locking onto the red-robed priest.

He raised his Chainsword and pointed it at the priest. A calm, deep declaration of war sounded from his helmet: "In the name of Sanguinius, this place shall suffer no desecration—!"

The red-robed priest panicked.

He raised his staff and chanted an incomprehensible spell. The Warp Crystal at its tip began flashing violently, dark red light churning inside it.

The Blood Angel warrior changed the direction of his charge.

Like a bulldozer, he crushed through the cultists blocking his path, his Chainsword harvesting countless lives.

Those bone-masked believers were like paper before him. One slash and they fell apart; one graze and they were flung away; one step and their bones shattered. Nothing could stop him for even a second.

The red-robed priest frantically swung his staff, pointing the crystal at the charging Astartes.

A thick beam of dark red psychic energy erupted from the crystal's tip and shot straight at the Astartes' breastplate.

The Astartes raised his left hand and blocked the psychic beam with the psychic shield mounted on his arm.

With a flick of his backhand, he deflected the energy into the nearby rock wall, blasting a crater the size of a washbasin into it.

Then he had already reached the red-robed priest.

The blade came down.

One strike.

The red-robed priest was effortlessly cut in two, as though sliced through tofu.

The staff meant to block the blade snapped in half. The Warp Crystal flew away, clattering onto the rubble-strewn ground. It flashed once more, then dimmed.

With the red-robed priest dead, the remaining cultists' organization instantly collapsed.

The cultists screamed as they fled back the way they had come.

The Astartes did not pursue. He stood at the entrance to the fissure with sword in hand, dark red liquid dripping from its blade.

The Chainsword's teeth gradually stopped spinning.

Then he turned and gestured for Cecilia and Iron Hammer to advance.

The passage entrance was clear.

Cecilia hurried over, with Iron Hammer close behind.

A horrifying sea of corpses and blood lay scattered across the passage entrance.

Wind blew through the cave mouth, carrying the stench of blood straight at them.

But with the Emperor's Angel at their side, they felt remarkably safe.

"Thank you, Emperor's Angel!" Cecilia said gratefully.

Then they ran into the cave.

Lin En was alive! He had to be alive!

Iron Hammer had brought his full set of equipment. His four mechanical arms held lamps and scanners, while his Night Vision Goggles were turned to maximum power as he carefully searched the cave walls for marks.

If Lin En had gone anywhere, he would definitely have left a mark.

As they neared the fissure, he looked up and spotted a man-made carving on an inconspicuous patch of rock beside the entrance.

It was that kind of writing from Lin En that he could not understand!

Found it!!! He knew Lin En would leave a marker!!!!

"Look around! He must be nearby!!!" Iron Hammer shouted.

They quickly found an unobtrusive entrance between the rocks.

Iron Hammer strode to the crack and shone his searchlight inside, discovering faint signs of airflow.

He had to be in here!!!

Cecilia squeezed up to the crack as well and removed her helmet.

She took a deep breath and shouted into the depths of the fissure, "Lin En—"

Her voice carried far.

It bounced back and forth through the crack several times, yet still traveled deep into the cave.

Then they heard an incredibly familiar, vigorous voice rise from deep within the fissure.

"Heyyyyyy!!!!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming!!! I knew you'd come for me!!!"

The rustling sound of clothing scraping against stone drew closer and closer.

A ball of white light lit up deep within the fissure.

Illuminating a figure squeezing out sideways.

Lin En poked his head out of the crack.

His hair was a complete mess, his face streaked with dust, but his eyes shone as though every glimmer of light from the underground river had reflected into them.

"Brothers and sisters, I missed you all so much—!!!"

********

Inside the fissure, Lin En heard Cecilia and Iron Hammer's voices and shot upright like a dying man recovering from illness!

He hurriedly answered, then began squeezing his way out.

Sis, sis, sis, I'm coming, sis, sis, sis.

But the moment he squeezed out of the gap, before he could even catch his breath, he was greeted by the sight of the Blood Angel Astartes warrior displaying his overwhelming might.

Those cultists who had just fled inside had called for even more reinforcements.

The Emperor's Angel was slaughtering enemies in every direction.

—Holy shit!!!

Blood! Angel!!!

Lin En froze in place, half his body still clinging to the crack, mouth hanging open as he stared at a living, breathing Blood Angel standing before him.

No exaggeration, Lin En was a diehard fan of the Blood Angels, okay? He had an entire cabinet filled with Blood Angels boarding squads from Darktide, Sanguinary Guard, Redeemer Dreadnoughts, Apothecaries, Chaplains, and Underworld Terminators.

He had bought three models of the Great Angel's massive wings: one for display, one to play with, and one sealed away at the bottom of a box in case it went out of print and he could never buy it again.

As a veteran Warhammer fan who had been obsessed with angels even before crossing over, the Blood Angels' status in his heart was unshakable.

There were countless Adeptus Astartes Chapters, but if someone forced him to name a few favorites, the Blood Angels would absolutely rank in the top three.

The other two spots rotated depending on his mood, but the Blood Angels' place never budged.

Wow!! His miniatures had come alive!!!!

Hehe.

The blood-red Power Armor's shoulder plates were as broad as two shields, embedded with golden holy-wing insignias.

A jeweled drop of blood rested amid angelic wings, a ruby from Baal still dazzling even in the dim light.

The Astartes stood around two and a half meters tall. Even Battle Sister Cecilia looked tall in her Power Armor, but standing beside him, she looked no different from an ordinary person.

Before the Astartes, bodies lay scattered all over the passage... forget it, there were too many to count.

They stretched from the direction of the cave entrance all the way to his feet, carpeting the entire ground.

Lin En kept his head poking out of the crack and made a meaningless sound: "Wah—"

Wah—

Was this heaven—