Scythe Battle

30. Scythe Battle

Barbarus, Northern Mountains, Alien Lord Nac'Lare's domain, mountainside.

Now.

.

The gloomy sky pressed down, thick poisonous gas flowing slowly around the warriors like a tangible river.

Mortarion swung his war scythe, the iron chain wrapped around its lower shaft clattering loudly.

The blade flashed, peerless in its white gleam. Every swing of the scythe sent up a bloody storm.

Countless chunks of corpses piled up at his feet. Blackish-yellow pus slowly flowed from great wounds, gradually soaking into the earth beneath him.

Nearby, the five guards led by Calas Typhon were also fighting fiercely with their scythes.

Countless aliens and countless puppets raised their weapons, shoving, howling, and charging forward, only to be torn to pieces by the scythes.

A little farther away, Hades was also sweeping his scythe through the enemy.

He compressed the Null Field to within five meters of himself and charged straight into the dense puppet horde, slaughtering with his scythe. He spun the weapon, dancing the dance of dead souls among the puppets like a wild dancer.

Whenever the high-ranking puppets angrily tried to rush over and engage him, the suddenly intensified Null Field would slam them to the ground, temporarily robbing them of their fighting strength.

Some were even crushed to their knees by the surging pressure, trembling uncontrollably.

Every turn of his scythe reaped a swath of lives.

Hades wielded his scythe as if he never tired. His experiences in the south had tempered him deeply; this warrior had long since learned how to take enemy lives more efficiently and precisely in battle.

Only a swift, precise death was the final mercy I could grant my enemies!

When the black mass of puppets had dwindled to only a few fleeing desperately into the distance, they lowered their scythes in unspoken agreement.

Hazniel, Mortarion's guard, took a gun from his back and aimed at the scattered fleeing puppets.

Several shots rang out, and the puppets fell.

At this moment, if someone looked upward from the foot of the mountain, they would see a road made of piled puppet corpses, like a twisted, winding earthworm, tirelessly wriggling its way toward higher ground.

"Things are going pretty smoothly, I think."

Hazniel's voice was the first to break the silence.

"Do not let your guard down. This has only just begun."

Mortarion's heavy voice rang out from within his armor.

As if in answer to Mortarion's words, Hades's voice sounded from a place somewhat farther away, a place none of them could "see or perceive."

"Dodge!!! The sky!!"

In response to Hades's warning, faint crimson light flickered through the churning poisonous mist overhead.

The seven hurriedly ran toward the nearest defensive checkpoint as countless tiny sparks rained down around them.

The Primarch's towering body raced across the mountain terrain. Mortarion even scooped up Murnau with one hand when he stumbled while running and nearly fell.

.

When blood-red fireballs roared down from the sky, revealing their vicious faces—

—the creatures on the ground also roared out their fury.

"Fire!!!"

Death Guard Morag stood beside a cannon, his war scythe pointed directly at the fiery sea of blood above the mountainside.

The artillery that had been deployed in advance on the flat ground at the foot of the mountain began to roar. Countless bright-yellow shells shrieked as they violently tore through the poison fog that filled the sky.

That brilliant yellow pierced through layers of mist and stabbed toward the heavens!

Shrieking shells, let out our deafening battle cry!

As Mortarion dragged the rearguard Hades into the checkpoint bunker, the foremost yellow shell struck the blood-red fire. They tore into each other and exploded in midair, bright blossoms bursting open as fragments scattered and shrieked down toward the ground.

.

After the first bright flower bloomed—

a hundred flowers began competing for spring.

The sky lit up.

.

Alien Lord Nac'Lare unleashed all the artillery fire it had left, but the cunning creature had never expected that the once-insignificant humans had also mastered the technology to improve and manufacture cannons.

Heh, arrogant alien.

Today was the day of your death!

When the roaring sky quieted and the trembling earth settled, the group climbing the mountain crawled out of the checkpoint bunker, which had been battered into a ragged wreck by the fragments.

Across the ground plowed by the shattered artillery fire, countless mangled corpses burned fiercely. Even those wearing sealed breathing systems could smell the pungent stench of the dead.

The flames burned quietly.

"Good thing we managed to get the artillery in place, even if we had to work through the night."

Hades's somewhat relaxed voice sounded.

Before this, the Death Guard, who had just captured the flat ground at the foot of the mountain, had suddenly received news from the old base in the rear.

Faint golden light had appeared amid the poisonous gas that never dispersed at Barbarus's equator.

Then, an envoy claiming to have come from Terra had arrived.

He claimed that he had come seeking an old friend and was currently waiting at the old base.

.

Mortarion immediately changed the plan to reach the summit and attack the mountain three days later. He decided that they would begin climbing as soon as the night had passed.

For this, Calas Typhon and Mortarion had an argument.

Calas Typhon believed that the Death Guard, having just completed the battle on the plains, needed R&R. Moreover, attempting the climb that day would mean the heavy artillery could not be fully deployed.

But Mortarion insisted on reaching the summit immediately.

That so-called envoy from Terra.

A wave of panic rose in Mortarion's heart. This could not be a good thing.

Mortarion had once questioned what exactly he was.

A baby who had fallen from the sky—where had Mortarion come from?

During Mortarion and Calas Typhon's dispute,

Hades joined in as well.

Yet Hades, who usually advocated caution, acted completely out of character and supported Mortarion's plan.

"Give me one night. We don't need to deploy everything. We only need to select the key stretches most likely to come under attack and set up artillery accordingly."

The next day, the Death Guard guards, after a brief R&R, and Mortarion saw the cannons laid out below the mountain beneath simple camouflage,

as well as Hades, with hair like a bird's nest and dark circles under his eyes.

.

Mortarion looked up at the sky. The heavens, which had just been bright and glittering, had now fallen silent again, while the poisonous mist surged and churned swiftly.

It seemed Hades's advance prediction and deployment had played a crucial role this time.

". Well done, Hades."

Hades shrugged, his armor clacking as it shifted.

"We should keep moving upward."

He raised his head. The mountain road ahead wound toward the summit.

.

Just as a block of ice could feel the blazing heat of the sun, Hades could vaguely sense that golden power at the foot of the mountain.

What Hades had to do now was simple.

Assist Mortarion in killing his adoptive father. If they succeeded, then one bargaining chip for Mortarion's future betrayal would be removed.

Even if they failed, the Emperor would eventually come to the rescue. They were unlikely to die.

Hades knew that in a game where he might not win, but would never lose—

he generally liked to take a gamble.

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