Kabanha's Favorite Little Angel

The hoof stretched out through the spatial rift and stepped onto the altar.

The Chaos runes on the altar's surface seemed to ignite, roaring to life.

Two curved horns extended from the rift.

Ah~ The atmosphere of the real world.

A shock wave spread from where the hoof landed, sending the burning remains of the sorcerers around the altar flying and knocking down a large number of the bone-faced believers kneeling around the perimeter.

Then the daemon's entire body squeezed through the rift.

Four meters tall, perhaps even higher.

It looked like an upright-walking goat. Its blood-red skin was covered in heavy brass plate armor, whose edges bristled with barbs hung with dried blood and scraps of flesh.

Two reverse-jointed beast legs supported its mountain-like body, while a chain made of linked skulls wrapped around its waist.

Blood God believers' medium-level sacrifice (mass slaughter of believers, a blood sacrifice of a hundred people, or accumulated resentment from battlefield slaughter), summoned creature: Skull Vanguard.

This was also the daemon most likely to be summoned when the Blood God Church seriously sacrificed a Warp Rift.

Fortunately, it was at least not U'zul the Skulltaker and his Brass Bull Legion, summoned through a city-level, insane sacrifice.

Otherwise, the few of them might as well not bother fighting. What the hell would be the point?

The Skull Vanguard was also known as the Khorne Vanguard. Its head was a goat-shaped daemon skull, its skin blood-red, with two thick, curved horns jutting from its forehead. Its eyes were two burning brass-colored pupils, with the horizontal irises of a goat.

The goat's expression naturally looked like it was smiling, but it only made it look terrifying.

Its right hand gripped a massive axe. The blade was serrated, every tooth sharp and gleaming, capable of hacking apart an Astartes' Power Armor.

With its appearance, all the cultists who were still alive rolled on the ground and screamed madly.

The power radiating from the daemon had driven them insane.

Lin En clenched his fists, gritting his teeth.

Who knew what these sick-brained cultists were after? Every day, they acted like a bunch of idiots.

Either they sacrificed themselves or watched the daemon go insane. Happy now? Serves you right! Serves you right!!!

In an instant, he dredged up every description of the Skull Vanguard from the Warhammer 40,000 lore books in his mind.

Skull Vanguard, Khorne Vanguard, Bloodletter Legion Commander.

Khorne's rage, growing stronger the longer it fought.

Daemon regeneration, infinite self-healing.

Pain immunity, with daemon brass armor at the level of Terminators.

A Warp entity empowered by Khorne's divine might. Immortal, and capable of only being banished back to the Warp.

The Rune Axe could cleave through Power Armor in a single blow. It was imbued with Khorne's flames and soul attacks. Wounds it inflicted could not heal and would continue bleeding.

That problem was not too serious, though. The biggest problem was the Khorne Vanguard's mastery of decapitation. The chance of severing someone's head with one strike was extremely high.

Once the head was gone, there was no need to worry about whether the bleeding would continue.

Damn.

Generally speaking, a Khorne Vanguard could hack an ordinary Astartes to death in two minutes.

It never tired, never rested, and was bound by nothing. Its only thought was to kill everything, then offer the skulls of the dead to Khorne.

The Skull Vanguard was Khorne's most commonly used frontline general. It was no nameless low-level cannon fodder, but an existence that required a Chapter Master, Company Champion, Librarian, or Dreadnought to defeat.

Ah!!!! Tyrennius couldn't beat it!!!!

Lin En frantically shook the system, asking whether it had any way to help.

The system said it did not handle matters like this.

Damn, he had just finished drawing a card. It would be a while before the next draw, so he could not count on the system.

Fortunately, the one in front of them was merely an unnamed Khorne Vanguard.

If a famous general had come, they would not even have been able to play.

The first thing the Khorne Vanguard did after stepping out of the rift was lower its head and glance at the burning remains of the sorcerers who had sacrificed themselves beside its feet.

A trace of consciousness remained in the sorcerers' eye sockets. Their lips moved as they said something:

"Blood God, accept... accept me. Grant me... your favor..."

The Khorne Vanguard bared its teeth.

Then it raised its hoof and stomped down.

The crisp cracking sound was like a watermelon being crushed underfoot.

The Khorne Vanguard grinned and ground its hoof against the ground.

Blood spread out and dripped into the cracks in the magma beneath its foot, sizzling as it burned.

The Khorne Vanguard raised its head, its fiery eyes sweeping across the chaotic mass of cultists.

All this stuff was boring. The interesting things were...

It looked toward the corpses covering the ground outside the cavern entrance, then at the Holy Chainsword radiating Golden Light in Tyrennius's hands, and finally stopped on Tyrennius's blood-red Power Armor.

"Well, well. Aren't you the little angels Lord Kabanha likes best?"

"Blood for the Blood God—skulls for the Brass Throne—"

The Khorne Vanguard smiled, then raised its massive axe. A layer of crimson flames ignited along the blade as it charged toward Tyrennius.

As it lunged, the air boomed, compressed by the sonic boom.

That was fucking terrifying.

The gale it kicked up sent the scattered bone-mask fragments and empty shell casings on the ground flying into the air.

The massive axe rose above its head, the crimson flames along its blade stretching into a burning comet.

Tyrennius did not dodge. He gripped the greatsword in both hands and stood ready.

Of course he would not dodge. Three ordinary human companions stood behind him. If he retreated even one step, Lin En and the others would be exposed to the Skull Vanguard's attack range.

He might not be able to defeat the Skull Vanguard, but he absolutely would not retreat.

Axe and sword collided.

The golden greatsword blazed with Golden Light.

Two thunderclaps exploded at the same point. The shock wave burst outward from the collision. Tyrennius's shoulder armor sank, and his Ceramite boots carved two trenches through the rubble before he came to a stop.

But the great chainsword was fine.

Normally, one blow from a Khorne Vanguard's Rune Axe would have been enough to sever an Astartes' standard equipment.

But the great chainsword was now the Holy Light version—the Emperor-Blessed Great Chainsword!!!

Lin En and the other two were all staggered backward several steps by the shock wave, only stopping when their backs struck the cavern wall.

A battle at this level was far beyond what ordinary people could handle.

Tyrennius swung the great chainsword in retaliation. Golden Light and crimson flames savagely tore into each other at the center of the collision.

The chainsword's teeth spun furiously. Each tooth imbued with Holy Light viciously ripped apart the Chaos energy wrapped around the axe blade.

Today, it was the Emperor's chosen champion. Even if it could not win, it still had to fight.

The Khorne Vanguard, however, possessed the strength of a bull. Every blow from its massive axe made the arms of the Blood Angels' Power Armor tremble at their limit.

"Blood for the Blood God, skulls for the Skull Throne!" the Khorne Vanguard shouted arrogantly.

Tyrennius's voice came from inside his helmet, still firm and steady—far too calm for someone wrestling a Greater Daemon of Khorne: "In the name of the Blood of Sanguinius, this place shall not be profaned!"

Metal rang against metal.

Golden and red light tore into each other once more.

The Skull Vanguard was a frontline general of the Khorne Blood Host in the material world, its most commonly used vanguard commander.

Chaos Spawn could only be considered the Skull Vanguard's underlings.

This was not something a single Astartes could handle, nor something a few ordinary people like them could handle.

Cecilia and the others fired at the Skull Vanguard from around the corner, helping Tyrennius, but the bullets from ordinary Bolters could not even leave a scratch on the Skull Vanguard's brass armor. Even when they struck its body, they were of limited use. Making it suffer the slightest skin abrasion already counted as an extraordinary performance.

They were completely useless.

Lin En was beginning to scratch his head.

So this was a Chaos Daemon.

He had thought of things too simply before.

In fact, things had been incredibly difficult for him ever since he crossed over to this world.

If Chaos were that easy to fight, the Guard Army of the Imperium of Man would not be dying by the thousands every second.

Could he really save this impossibly difficult world??? He always felt that if he went out to make his way alone, he would die before accomplishing anything.

Tyrennius fought bitterly against the Skull Vanguard with his golden great chainsword imbued with Holy Light.

Every move was a gamble with his life.

Only the chainsword was imbued with Holy Light. His armor was not. If the Rune Axe struck him even once, his Ceramite armor most likely would not withstand a massive axe of that level.

If someone like Dante or Calgar were here, they could definitely defeat the Skull Vanguard. Titus or Kaido could do it as well.

But Tyrennius was ultimately just an unnamed Blood Angel in the original work.

The Skull Vanguard stepped forward.

Its massive axe swept horizontally from the right, tearing through the air with a sharp shriek.

Tyrennius leaned backward and dodged the blade, but the Skull Vanguard immediately followed with a kick, driving its hoof into his breastplate.

Tyrennius flew backward and slammed into a massive stalactite.

"Crash, crash, crash!!" The stalactite broke in half, and rubble crashed down over him.

He stubbornly raised his head and stared at the Skull Vanguard. He had not fallen. He knelt on one knee, the Holy Chainsword planted diagonally in the ground to support him.

"!!!!" Iron Hammer promptly threw out the bombs, tossing two concussion grenades beneath the Skull Vanguard's feet.

"Boomm!!!" The concussion grenades exploded.

Of course, this amount of explosive force could not kill the Skull Vanguard, but the dust it kicked up temporarily blocked its vision.

Tyrennius used the opportunity to stand.

Several scratches and dents now marred his blood-red Power Armor. The spot in the center of his breastplate where the daemon's hoof had struck was caved in, but he stood without the slightest hesitation.

Anyone who retreated from a daemon was no son of Sanguinius.

He raised the Holy Chainsword again, adjusted his grip, tightened his hold on the hilt, and faced the Skull Vanguard once more.

The Skull Vanguard swept away the dust. Its copper-colored eyes locked onto the red-armored warrior who had still not fallen.

Delighted to find that its prey had not fled, it bared its teeth and released a roar that sounded almost gleeful.

Hack, hack, hack.

It liked this brave opponent—