The Splendor of That Shot

Nykona opened fire.

The Raven's Lament's weapon bloomed with the flames of death once more. A heavy bolt accelerated within the barrel, its internal jets continuing to propel it in a spiral after it left the muzzle.

It should have been stopped harmlessly by Kor Phaeron's psychic shield, but Nykona saw the shield's weakness—the one and only flaw.

In the Raven Guard's eyes, the world became points and lines in an instant, and where those points and lines intersected lay the weaknesses. Psychic power was not without flaws; it still had vulnerable points, if one possessed eyes sharp enough to perceive them.

Absolute skill gave the bolt absolute stability, while Nykona's eyes, capable of seeing the points of death, guided that perfectly stable bolt toward its target.

The bolt exploded at its intended point, and the violent psychic shock sent Kor Phaeron reeling in pain.

It caused only the slightest lapse, but even a gap of less than a hundredth of a second gave Guilliman an opportunity.

Before the ritual dagger could cut his throat, Guilliman forced out a sentence.

"You made a mistake."

Kor Phaeron had yet to respond when a shrill tearing sound rang out the next second.

Like fingernails scraping across a blackboard, a blade grating against bone, or a full water skin being ripped apart, a massive Lightning Claw burst out through Kor Phaeron's chest.

"You did not kill me immediately."

Guilliman continued with difficulty. He slowly rose to his feet and lifted Kor Phaeron with the Lightning Claw in his hand. His power systems had not yet recovered, so the primarch drove his weapon with sheer, terrifying physical strength.

The Lightning Claw pierced his power armor, tore through Kor Phaeron's incomplete reinforced bones and muscles. This Word Bearer had not undergone the full augmentation procedures, which made his body even more fragile.

Kor Phaeron howled. One of his hearts was mercilessly shredded by the Lightning Claw's thrust. The agony of its destruction made his nerves snap at once. He convulsed instinctively, throwing his head back as black blood spilled from his mouth.

His mind was blank. Death was incomparably close.

The Word Bearers commander's miserable state immediately distracted the other Word Bearers. Solot Chur had lost focus for only a millisecond before Hill's electromagnetic greatsword sliced away half his helmet. The blade severed skull and brain tissue, leaving nearly his entire brain exposed to the air.

His only remaining eye turned toward the darkness. The ghost in the shadows was watching him.

Just as he had watched from the darkness when he betrayed Luciel before.

Nykona fired again. He did not miss. The bolt destroyed the remaining half of Chur's head, reducing everything to flying ash.

Hill broke through to the primarch's side. Guilliman pulled out the Lightning Claw, along with one of Kor Phaeron's hearts.

"My lord!"

Kor Phaeron's broken body hit the deck with a dull thud. Black blood flowed everywhere, yet he was still cackling hoarsely and vomiting foul filth.

"Leave me. Destroy the system!"

Hill charged toward the control platform guarded by the Word Bearers. A row of brass-colored data engines hummed lowly; they were precisely what had physically prevented Calth from reclaiming the Orbital Platform.

The red-helmeted warrior drew a deep breath. He drove his electromagnetic greatsword forward and shattered every one of those data engines.

That blow also shattered the shackles within the data realm. Aboard the starship, Lox watched as the physical restrictions that had been constraining the Cogitator's capabilities abruptly broke apart.

"Do it."

Every last unit of the starship's artificial intelligence's processing power surged forth. Wielding the killing code created by the Senior Tech-priest in his final moments, it launched an assault upon the captured Weapon Array.

Within the Universal Museum on the surface, the Senior Tech-priest Tauren observed the changes in the data through that transmitter. Calth's mind-space, on the brink of collapse, was rebuilding, and every authority was being reset.

She watched as the killing code created by Hurst drove out the corrupted data. Code tainted by the so-called Eightfold Path turned to ash before the killing code.

"This machine is only an intermediary. It is part of something far more powerful."

Tauren merged with the machine, and her neural pulses sensed a powerful mind mobilizing that data and code at an unimaginable speed.

There was no doubt about it. This was a living, breathing Abominable Intelligence.

Unlike other Adeptus Mechanicus sages who encountered an Abominable Intelligence, she did not panic. She simply joined its offensive and helped deal with the collapsing arrays.

In orbit, the Weapon Arrays that had been continuously unleashing devastating weapons upon the sun came to a halt. Commands from Calth overwrote their programming.

The Weapon Arrays began to turn. Hundreds upon thousands of targets were locked on in an instant, and the perfect firing plans calculated by the Cogitator were immediately carried out.

Once the Weapon Arrays returned to the loyalists' side, the scales of Calth's battle had already tipped completely toward the Ultramarines.

Ship-killing lances erupted from the sky. The dazzling beams tore through dust and clouds almost in the blink of an eye, their light more blinding than any star as they carried out surgical strikes.

Whether Word Bearers fortifications, enemy Titans, or heavy vehicles, every Word Bearer and cultist still launching attacks was turned to gas beneath the lances descending from above.

Not even Titans could possibly resist power on such a level. Ground forces had always entered the field only after the navy determined the outcome.

Under the Cogitator's processing power, every servo-skull, camera probe, and network-capable device across Calth became its eyes and ears. It accurately determined which locations belonged to the Word Bearers and which belonged to the Ultramarines and their auxiliary forces.

Under those absolutely precise strikes, the Imperium's troops suffered little damage. Only some had their eardrums injured by the violent shockwaves, or temporarily lost their sight after witnessing a lance burst at close range.

The negative pressure caused by the orbital bombardment threw the atmosphere into utter chaos. Turbulent currents swept up dust and formed raging vortices.

The warriors still on the surface kept their heads down in their fortifications and shelters. Cold mechanical voices issued constant warnings through every functioning speaker, ordering everyone to stay where they were and not run about.

Scorching dust rushed into their faces. When the warriors curiously crawled out of their trenches, everything on the ground had already vanished.

The Word Bearers seemed as though they had never come at all. The land was quieter than ever before.

After destroying the ground targets, the Weapon Arrays turned once more. Calth's strongest line of defense finally launched its counterattack against the Word Bearers space fleet.

The Word Bearers capital ships engaged in space combat against the Ultramarines fleet were struck by gigantic weapons from orbit. Lances and missiles destroyed great numbers of Word Bearers warships. Those swaggering slaughterers became blinding fireballs, and all life within them was vaporized by flame.

The scene in space was visible from the main control room. Through the porthole, Guilliman watched the Weapon Arrays' powerful beams cut through space, leaving long streaks of light across the stars.

The enemy fleet was burning. Under the dual assault of the Orbital Platform and the Ultramarines' remaining fleet, the Word Bearers were collapsing into rout.

"You have failed. The Word Bearers did not kill the Ultramarines."

Guilliman looked down at Kor Phaeron, who struggled in a pool of blood, but then turned his gaze toward Calth's sun.

"You... you are wrong. The outcome was decided long ago. Calth is finished, hahaha..."

Kor Phaeron nearly coughed out his lungs. Veridian's star had been tormented beyond measure. Even though the Weapon Arrays had stopped their attack, the star could never return to what it once was. Its light was blinding and ugly, and its unbalanced nuclear reactions were turning it into a deadly supernova.

"Guilliman, I return your own words to you—you should have killed me immediately!"

Kor Phaeron suddenly roared. His blood-soaked, ruined body released immense psychic power once more. Frost appeared from nothing and spread across the ground, gathering into a strange ring. The Word Bearer vanished abruptly before the Lord of the Ultramarines.

"He escaped! Everyone, return to Macragge's Honour immediately! He must have fled back to his own warship. He has nowhere else to go!"

Guilliman's heart was filled with regret. He had only gravely wounded Kor Phaeron, rather than completely crushing his skull.

In this contest, both sides had made the mistake of underestimating their opponent.