Saladin's resistance, like a candle about to burn out, finally began to crumble beneath the crushing pressure of Lorgar's hands, into which he had poured all his will, his oath, and even his bodily agony.
The sand-colored psychic energy on his twin blades flickered wildly, flaring and fading as it fought a furious battle of attrition against the blazing golden Purifying Flame on the Greatsword, giving off a dying shriek as it approached collapse.
The metal floor beneath his feet cracked and sank inch by inch. He was forced steadily backward, and the terrible wound across his abdomen tore wider under the strain. Blood gushed out like a spring, leaving a horrifying trail behind him.
The balance of power was collapsing.
Saladin clenched his teeth, veins bulging in his neck. His pale face twisted with searing pain and exhaustion, and the defiant ferocity in his golden eyes began to give way to madness and despair as he approached the end.
He tried to summon his nearly depleted Sand Psychic Energy again, but the invisible Force Field emanating from the Cross in Hercules's hands continued to purify and suppress the surrounding area. His psychic energy flowed with agonizing sluggishness, as though trapped in solidified amber.
As the final feather fell, the scales of victory tipped decisively.
"For the Emperor!!!"
A roar like a volcanic eruption, accompanied by heavy, thunderous footsteps, crashed through the hall's entrance into this killing ground of surging energy!
It was Hercules!
He had finally broken through the traitors' successive lines of resistance on the perimeter and charged over the wreckage and ashes like a moving mountain.
The ten-meter-tall sacred Cross on his shoulder now shone with an unprecedented intensity of pure white light. Its invisible Force Field of absolute psychic purification surged outward from him like tangible