Under Omegon's almost prescient command, the team fought its way toward the core of the Brood Nest. Eli stayed close behind Alpharius, tasked with watching the mortals and keeping them from scattering in sheer panic. As a mortal without any supernatural abilities, Eli's only lifeline in this hell was the ratlike survival instinct he had honed in Terra's sewers.
"Something feels wrong, Al." Eli warily watched the slime dripping overhead as he spoke quietly to the Primarch beside him. "These bugs... they're too quiet."
Alpharius nodded, his expression beneath his faceplate unusually grave. "They're retreating in an organized fashion. This isn't the instinct of lesser beasts. Some highly intelligent creature is directing their tactics."
Omegon, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped.
They had reached an enormous underground cavern. The space was astonishingly vast, its walls covered in translucent cocoons of flesh, with half-digested biological remains dimly visible inside.
And at the very center of the cavern sprawled a huge, bloated, horrifying amalgamation of countless pale tentacles and nauseating lumps of flesh.
The Slaugth xenos leader.
It had no eyes, yet seemed to be watching them all. A powerful surge of psychic power, cold and brimming with utter malice, swept through the entire cavern like an invisible storm.
"Found you." A bloodthirsty gleam flashed in Omegon's eyes. Every muscle in his body tensed as he prepared to launch a lethal assault.
But at that very instant, the xenos leader's "mouth," pieced together from countless scraps of flesh, released a shrill hiss that resembled human mockery.
[Arrogant... lumps of meat...]
A psychic voice exploded directly inside everyone's minds, sending agonizing pain through their brains.
[You thought... your calculations... were flawless?]
Omegon's pupils abruptly contracted.
BOOOOM!!!
With a deafening roar of splintering rock, the ground beneath their feet suddenly collapsed without warning!