"For the Emperor! For knowledge!"
A defiant, grief-stricken roar rang out from the Librarians' formation.
Several thick Enslaver tentacles had wrapped around Tarko, an apprentice Librarian, and purplish-red psychic power was invading his body.
There was no fear in the young warrior's eyes, only resolve.
He abandoned his Psychic Barrier and slammed his palms together. The psychic power remaining within him erupted like ignited explosives.
Psyfire poured from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, instantly engulfing both him and the Enslaver wrapped around him.
The flames rose, illuminating the grief-stricken faces of Karion and the other Librarians, briefly driving back the shadows spreading through one corner of the Bridge.
Tarko had bought them a moment's respite with his life.
But that respite was all too brief.
A cold, ravenous will, powerful enough to suffocate them, swept violently through the entire Battle Barge like a tangible tide.
The three Flesh Portals in the astropathic chamber abruptly swelled and twisted. What emerged was no longer an ordinary Enslaver two or three meters tall, but a gigantic specimen.
It hovered in midair, retaining its distinctive pear-shaped, tick-like silhouette, but its body had grown several times larger, standing nearly ten meters tall.
The white carapace covering its body was no longer merely pale. It had taken on an eerie dark-red hue, as though soaked in blood that had since dried.
A foul psychic radiance flowed across the Overlord Enslaver's carapace.
It let out a soundless roar, its massive body vanishing from the astropathic chamber in an instant and appearing on the Bridge through psychic teleportation.
More than a dozen thick tentacles flailed wildly, every sweep trailing nauseating psychic ripples.
"No!"
Karion's eyes widened in anguish. The Psychic Barrier he and the other six Librarians had strained every nerve to maintain was forcibly tainted and