Perhaps It Should Be Called a Miracle

With a thunderous boom in the distance, the last stone blocking the passage was finally smashed apart by the Khorne Vanguard.

Tyrennius told them to hurry into the Hive City and hide, so his sacrifice would not be in vain.

He said, "Go!"

The Sister and Iron Hammer forcibly dragged Lin En behind the barricade, their eyes red.

It was dark and cold behind the barricade. Iron Hammer's hand was still trembling as he shoved Lin En farther against the wall, afraid he would rush out.

At the end of the tunnel, the door sealing the passage exploded apart, and the Khorne Vanguard's rune axe thrust through.

Smoke billowed.

A foul wind carrying the stench of sulfur and rust poured through the blasted opening.

Lin En crouched between Cecilia and Iron Hammer, held down tightly by the Sister and Iron Hammer as he peered outside from the edge of the barricade's steel plating.

Behind the opening, a red, backward-jointed hoof crushed the last stone blocking the way before stepping onto the Hive City's floor.

The smell of dust instantly filled the air.

The Khorne Vanguard rose from the smoke. Its four-meter-tall, blood-red body propped the shattered doorframe open as loose stones pattered down.

The blood bubbling from the wound on its shoulder was like lava or sulfuric acid, corrosive enough to hiss and burn smoking pits into the floor wherever it dripped.

The Khorne Vanguard leisurely lowered its head and swept its gaze across the bottom-level hall of the Hive City, then glanced at the half-collapsed stairwell nearby.

Tch. What a pile of broken trash.

Then it turned its goatlike pupils, burning with brass-colored flames, straight ahead. There was only one person standing there.

With its great axe resting on its shoulder, it bared its teeth and spoke with eager interest: "Ah—why is Kabanha's little darling the only one here?"

Its tone dragged on, slow and sticky. "Where are the other three? Let me guess. They're hiding, aren't they?"

Those little rats are good at hiding.

Once it caught them, it would strip off their skin.

Tyrennius stood before it without the slightest fear. Holding a Bolter, he fired in quick succession, killing several lesser daemons beside the Khorne Vanguard.

The heads of several Bloodletters on the Khorne Vanguard's right exploded into bloody mist. They let out shrill screams before collapsing.

Never mind. They're probably just hiding. I'll deal with Kabanha's little darling first.

The Khorne Vanguard raised its axe horizontally. It did not look at the dead subordinates, only at Tyrennius's expression, slowly stretching its mouth as wide as possible. Its brass-colored, serrated teeth reflected in Tyrennius's visor as it snarled, "Your opponent is me."

Tyrennius did not retreat even half a step.

He tossed his empty Bolter aside.

The weapon struck the metal floor and bounced twice with heavy, muffled clangs before rolling away and coming to a stop.

Tyrennius tightened both hands around the Holy Light Greatsword and took his opening stance. His shoulder armor sank, his knees bent slightly, and through the golden flames his visor locked onto the Bloodthirster's burning eyes. "Unclean thing, go back to the darkness!"

Then the blood-red Power Armor transformed in midair into a blood-gold afterimage and charged the Khorne Vanguard.

At that moment, his shadow merged with his father's, just as Sanguinius had leaped toward the rebel flagship all those years ago, advancing without hesitation.

Sanguinius's wings were white wings. The dignity and lives of ordinary people could not be trampled upon.

The children of Sanguinius had no cowards among them—!!!

Keeping his father's promise, holding up the sky for the people.

The Holy Light Greatsword traced a dazzling arc.

The Bloodthirster laughed wildly and swung its axe to meet it.

Sword and axe collided once again, and golden flames and blood-red light erupted across the bottom level of the Hive City in a searing shock wave.

Lin En pressed his face hard against the barricade's steel plating, watching Tyrennius charge the Khorne Vanguard.

Tyrennius... could he still win?

Even though he knew this was an extremely rare possibility, what if...?

Lin En was filled with hope, but the Sister and Iron Hammer were not nearly so optimistic.

They both turned their heads away.

Hidden behind the barricades in the Hive City's ruins, they listened to the sounds of Tyrennius battling the daemon and clenched their fists tightly.

"Lin En, don't go out." The Sister held her Bolter in her hand, its muzzle pointed down and her finger resting outside the trigger guard. Her Power Armor pressed against the steel beam inside the barricade, trembling faintly with every impact outside.

She stared unblinkingly at the outside and spoke softly into Lin En's ear. "If Tyrennius loses, I'll be next to go out. If I lose, Iron Hammer will go next. Lin En, you're too useful to the Imperium. Don't go out."

Lin En could only be held tightly by the Sister, his mouth covered, and pinned behind the barricade in disbelief.

Through a gap in the barricade, he watched golden light and crimson flames alternate as they played across the two combatants.

The Chainsword's teeth tore shrill screams through the air, while the great axe smashed into the ground.

The muffled impacts of the metal floor being cleaved apart rang like a great bell, shaking dust loose from the barricade's steel plating.

The daemon general's wild laughter never stopped. Mixed within it was another, much smaller sound.

Blood struck the floor, one drop at a time.

Iron Hammer's lips moved as he counted the time.

Ten minutes. Six hundred seconds.

Those six hundred seconds were actually quite long.

Tyrennius fought the Khorne Vanguard alone in front of the passage, preventing even a single daemon from passing through.

Miraculously, he held out for ten minutes. He even lasted fifteen.

Bearing wounds across half his body and wielding a sword with a countdown, he blocked the only passage on the Hive City's bottom level.

Behind him were the mortal companions hiding in the barricade.

He did not even have the Black Rage.

In the end, the Khorne Vanguard simply could not kill this insect, and it flew into a rage, entering a berserk state.

Rage surged, and the Khorne Vanguard entered a berserk state.

Pain was completely overwhelmed by fury, and its strength briefly surged to a level approaching that of a Greater Daemon.

Even with the Holy Light Greatsword in hand, Tyrennius could not withstand this axe blow.

The difference in strength was simply too great.

Only then did the blow knock the greatsword from Tyrennius's hands, the axe burying itself in his chest.

It truly could not understand why an Astartes with a shattered breastplate, a crippled left arm, and fifteen minutes of bleeding was still standing.

Tyrennius stood before it without taking a single step back.

The axe blade knocked the greatsword aside and did not stop. It continued downward, biting into the Ceramite as the entire left side of Tyrennius's breastplate was cleaved open.

The axe blade entered through his chest and emerged from his back.

Astartes blood ran down the axe blade, dripped onto the daemon's fingers, and flowed onto the metal floor.

Tyrennius was impaled on the rune axe's tip, both legs hanging in the air, his toes off the ground.

He had lost.

The Holy Light Greatsword remained in his hand, swaying weakly a few times.

He looked as if he were already dead, merely still gripping the greatsword out of inertia.

The Khorne Vanguard laughed arrogantly and even lifted Tyrennius into the air.

"Kabanha's little darling, how amusing!"

The four-meter-tall daemon general raised the impaled Astartes as if he were a battle standard torn to pieces.

It was showing off. It wanted everyone to see, wanted the cultists hiding in the ruins to witness it. Skull for the Skull Throne—this Blood Angel was an offering to the Blood God, a tribute displayed at the highest place, the most brilliant trophy on the Blood God's banner of victory!

Cecilia's fingers clenched into a fist, hard enough to crush her knuckles.

She released Lin En, tightened her grip on her Bolter, and prepared to be the next to charge out—

But who could have expected that, just as the daemon lifted Tyrennius into the air, the Blood Angel would suddenly rally with a final burst of strength?

That limp, dangling hand suddenly clenched!

—The greatsword fiercely swept back in a horizontal slash.

Amid the Khorne Vanguard's smug, arrogant laughter, dazzling golden light swept across its neck.

The wild laughter abruptly stopped.

—The Holy Light Greatsword slashed back, its blade cutting horizontally between the brass armor plates and scales, severing its neck without the slightest resistance.

The two horizontal pupils burning with brass-colored flames froze in disbelief.

The daemon's head, crowned by two curved horns, slid from its shoulders.

Every wisp of lingering blood mist around the severed neck was instantly engulfed and burned away by the golden flames of holy light.

Having been cut down by the Account-Deletion Sword, it could no longer return to the Warp.

The four-meter-tall, blood-red body collapsed sideways like a falling mountain.

Tyrennius fell to the ground with it.

When he landed, he was kneeling on one knee, using the greatsword to support his body firmly.

The golden greatsword was still burning.

But no voice came from beneath his helmet.

The red light in his visor went out.

...Tyrennius, squad leader of the fifth five-man squad of the Blood Angels, had single-handedly killed a Khorne Vanguard that ordinary Astartes could never have defeated.