They Actually Made It Happen

Iron Hammer's mechanical eye focused as far as it could, and he spoke rapidly over the comms: "Directly above the altar, between eleven and twelve o'clock."

They all looked toward the direction Iron Hammer had indicated.

Sure enough, directly above the altar, close to the rock wall at the top of the cavern, there was a crack roughly two meters long. Its edges were blurry and warped, as if a gash had been torn open in reality itself.

Dark-red light seeped from the crack. It seemed they had actually managed to establish contact with Khorne's Blood Wastes.

This is bad. They actually made it happen.

The crack was not very large yet.

But if they let it keep expanding—

If these Chaos Cultists truly opened a Warp portal through their sacrifice and summoned a daemon army, the consequences would be unimaginable.

They had to stop them.

Although Warp Rifts created by ordinary sacrifices were not permanently stable like the Eye of Terror, even a temporarily opened Warp Rift was terrifying.

The scale of a Warp entity's invasion depended on the size of the rift.

If this rift expanded beyond five meters, it would be large enough for a Khorne Greater Daemon to pass through. After that, it would continue expanding on its own.

No, are these cultists' brains actually damaged? Nobody volunteered to be sacrificed, so they decided to sacrifice themselves too?

Tyrennius lowered his body, his gaze fixed on the ever-shifting Warp Rift above the cavern. "If they complete the sacrifice and open a Warp portal on this planet, a daemon army will pour out and quickly engulf this entire star system."

Lin En knew exactly what that scene would look like.

Warhammer 40,000 had depicted countless hellscapes of Warp daemon invasions. The Imperium of Man was a cesspit, while the Warp turned that cesspit into hell.

People were always asking whether humanity as a whole would live better if everyone turned to Chaos.

Would they? Look at those Space Marines who turned to Chaos. Don't they already tell you the answer?

They were still Astartes, after all.

Ordinary people would only mutate even more severely, becoming completely indescribable lumps of flesh.

By then, the human race would have vanished, leaving behind only servants of Chaos.

People always said the Imperium was terrible, but without the Imperium, humanity would be pathetically weak compared to any alien species. They would be the dregs of the galaxy—prey, living sacrifices, without dignity or a future, enslaved and consumed. That was true darkness.

Cecilia pulled back the bolt of her Bolter. "For the Imperium. We're going all in."

Iron Hammer clenched the bomb tightly, while Tyrennius turned and ordered Lin En and Iron Hammer to stand by where they were.

He and the Battle Sister prepared for combat at the same time, ready to risk their lives to destroy the Warp Rift created by the Chaos Cultists.

"Now." Tyrennius activated his Chainsword. The huge, blood-red figure clad in Power Armor rose to his feet. "The Battle Sister and I will break through. You—"

He had not finished speaking.

Lin En's Danger Sense suddenly exploded.

It was as if a hammer from beyond the heavens had smashed into his brain. An enemy signal had gone from zero to full intensity in a fraction of a second. The source was unbelievably close—right beside them.

"Side—"

Lin En was horrified and had not even managed to issue a warning when the rock wall exploded.

The rock wall to their right burst apart, sending rubble spraying in every direction like buckshot.

A fist-sized stone grazed Iron Hammer's ear and smashed against the wall, shattering into dust. Iron Hammer was so frightened that he pressed himself tightly against the rock.

Before the smoke had even cleared, something enormous crashed through the shattered wall.

It was roughly three meters tall, though calling it tall was a stretch.

Its body had no fixed shape. It looked like an extremely Lovecraftian mass of writhing tentacles.

Seven or eight tentacles of varying thickness extended from different parts of its body, and each one ended in something different. Its body looked like a wax statue that had melted halfway. Its lower jaw drooped to its chest, its eye sockets were pitch-black, and two dim green glows burned deep within them.

A Chaos Spawn.

Lin En completed the identification within a fraction of a second of seeing it and quickly backed away.

A monster formed when a mortal was overfilled with the power of Chaos.

The cultists treated Chaos's blessings as gifts, but Chaos had never honored its side of a bargain.

Some followers could not withstand the Warp energy injected into their bodies. Their bodies and minds collapsed together, their genetic sequences kneaded into a lump by the power of Chaos like crumpled wastepaper. In the end, they became things like this—a lump of rotting flesh driven by Chaotic energy. A Chaos Spawn.

A mindless engine of destruction. It did not tire, feel pain, or stop. Unless it was killed completely, it would fight forever.

It had crashed straight out of the rock wall.

Who knew how it had silently approached to within such a short distance of them? Perhaps the way it moved through the cracks in the rock did not obey the logic of three-dimensional space at all.

The Astartes was the most conspicuous target.

The Chaos Spawn burst through the wall, its tentacles already lashing toward Tyrennius.

Three of its thickest tentacles slammed toward Tyrennius from different angles.

Tyrennius reacted quickly as well. The instant the tentacles appeared, he began turning and swept his Chainsword upward to block.

The teeth collided with the bony hooks, spraying a sheet of sparks.

But the Chaos Spawn had many tentacles.

Under Warhammer tabletop rules, a Chaos Spawn cost twenty-three to twenty-five points each, while an Astartes cost fifteen to seventeen.

The Spawn completely overwhelmed the Astartes in strength, toughness, and wounds.

Normally, if a Chaos Spawn encountered a lone Astartes one-on-one, the Spawn would most likely tear the Astartes apart within two or three turns.

One tentacle shot out from an oblique angle and slammed solidly into the hilt of the Chainsword in Tyrennius's hand.

The Chainsword's teeth were still turning, but the hilt emitted an awful metallic screech as it twisted under the impact.

Lin En clearly saw the connection between the hilt and blade cave inward. At least two of the energy conduits inside had probably snapped. Blue arcs leaked from the cracks, flashing several times in the dim cavern.

Then they went out.

The teeth grated and screeched intermittently for a few moments before coming to a complete stop.

The impact drove Tyrennius half a step back, his Ceramite boots carving two shallow furrows through the rubble.

He lowered his head and glanced at the Chainsword.

The hilt and blade had parted company. The Chainsword was no longer usable.

He flung the Chainsword aside. It landed on the ground near Lin En and Iron Hammer with a dull thud.

He extended a hand toward Cecilia. "Power Sword!"

Cecilia drew the sword the moment he reached out and threw it forcefully toward Tyrennius.

Tyrennius caught the Power Sword in one hand and activated it. Its energy field hummed to life.

The blade was covered in an electric-blue glow, allowing it to inflict limited but effective damage on the Chaos Spawn.

The Power Sword, however, had previously been carried down by Iron Hammer for use by a Combat Servitor.

Its size, intended for a Combat Servitor, was somewhat too large for a human, yet too small for an Astartes.

It was still better than nothing.