He leaped and swung his blade.
A body enhanced by Hundredfold Amplification, and the thinking of over a hundred million Orks after that hundredfold boost.
In a stillness where time seemed to stop, Sith became a human cannonball.
Then, to the Zoanthrope's disbelief, his saber sliced through its extremely fragile body.
Great quantities of fluid glowing a dim blue splashed from the enormous head, and Daviro, who had been held suspended in midair, suddenly dropped to the ground.
A piercing shriek rang out on the level of the soul. The endless Genestealers that had merely been milling around outside all gave a mournful cry, then finally crossed the boundary and charged at Sith with even greater frenzy.
The veterans immediately opened fire in response, but Daviro, deepest inside their formation, stared at Sith before the Zoanthrope's enormous corpse with unmistakable disbelief in his eyes.
And it was not just Sith, but also those veterans of a thousand battles pouring terrifyingly accurate fire outward.
Because even Daviro had experienced an instant of hesitation, retreat, and even fear before the Zoanthrope's psychic attack!
Yet Daviro had clearly seen the Zoanthrope attack Sith and his veterans more than once. No matter how it used its powers, Sith and his soldiers had shown no reaction whatsoever!
Instead, they had looked at the Zoanthrope with a little puzzlement, wondering why it insisted on coming over to die when it clearly had no ability to fight in close combat!
Daviro could accept one or two mortals with wills as firm as steel.
He was not someone who believed Astartes were inherently above mortals, so he could accept that powerful individuals existed among them.
What he could not accept was that, on a battlefield he had happened to visit, a band of mortal troops he had happened to acquire were, every last one of them, superhumans with wills of steel!
After all, even across an entire sector, gathering a hundred or so individuals whose wills were strong enough to completely ignore psychic attacks was all but impossible.
And now he, Daviro, had actually encountered that impossibility!
Seeing Daviro slumped on one knee, staring at him in astonishment, Sith had yet to realize just how extraordinary this was.
After all, as far as Sith was concerned, those questions earlier had simply been questions.
Instead, he was puzzled by Daviro's reaction.
But this was no time to ask. Sith raised his gun and fired a bolt past Daviro's ear, blasting apart the head of a hybrid Genestealer creeping up behind him for a sneak attack.
Then, seeing the explosion bring a little focus back to Daviro's eyes, Sith said helplessly:
"My lord, if we don't leave now, all the intelligence we've gathered will go to waste!"
Reminded by Sith not to forget their mission, Daviro finally steadied himself.
He gave Sith a long look and, with a hint of frustration Sith found inexplicable, finally returned his attention to the mission.
"We can return. The Genestealer infestation of Vigilus is far worse than we imagined."
Daviro rose as he spoke, loaded a fresh magazine into his bolter, and took his Chainsword in hand as well.
Outside their perimeter, boundless Genestealers charged furiously through the gunfire.
Relying on their endless numbers and fearlessness in the face of death, they steadily compressed the area held by Sith's veterans.
The web of fire shrank and shrank, until a steel giant with his helmet removed and a Chainsword in hand suddenly leaped into the Genestealer tide with a downward slash.
The veterans gaped, while Sith walked from behind them to the very front, carrying his sidearm and saber.
Turning to face the veterans watching him, Sith likewise loaded a full magazine:
"Now, let's kill our way back!"
The fighting in the Upper Hive continued, and after the "rebels" suddenly let out a mournful cry in unison, their offensive grew even fiercer.
The 101st Regiment, which had barely been holding them off, began to be driven back toward the tower's summit by the endless fanatical "rebels."
Brunok watched the frenzied tide of enemies before him. Although no word had arrived yet, everyone still looked toward the elevator.
Time ticked by, and the Genestealers before them had gone completely berserk.
Their attacks were endless, despite the soldiers at the front frantically pulling their triggers, despite the artillery crews behind them pouring out barrages for all they were worth.
Still, the 101st Regiment continued its slow, helpless retreat.
Only when an electronic transmission from Ana suddenly came through Brunok's headset did his eyes widen, and he finally turned to give the order:
"Everyone, fall back to the tower's summit!"
"The passages?"
"If we can't close them, then blow them all down!"
Brunok's orders were carried out immediately. Transformed by the bloody fighting up to this point, the soldiers began coordinating an orderly withdrawal.
The artillery crews also intensified their fire, covering their forces' retreat with barrages.
Violent explosions rang out from several passages that could not be closed in an orderly fashion. Amid the collapse of heavy steel, each passage was completely blocked.
Only after every passage had been closed or collapsed did the soldiers returning from the bloody fighting lean against the walls behind them, panting as they rested.
Brunok and Ana were already standing before the elevator, watching its rapid ascent.
Soon, as the gears began to slow, the spacious elevator car returned to the safety of the tower's summit.
But at the sight of the ascending elevator, the excited soldiers who had just finished their bloody battle and felt themselves growing stronger instantly fell silent.
The elevator, built from thick Plasteel, was now riddled with breaches. Alongside marks from gunfire and shelling, dense scores like claw wounds covered its entire surface.
And with almost the entire elevator soaked in blood, what returned ahead of Sith was an overwhelming reek of gore.
The soldiers exchanged glances. Faced with such a terrifying sight, they even began slowly raising their weapons.
Then the elevator doors opened, and layers upon layers of dead Aberrants, packed together like piles of dead fish, tumbled out with a crash.
The soldiers raised their weapons in alarm, but behind the Aberrants were not more enemies. Instead, Sith stood covered in wounds atop a mountain of corpses filling the entire elevator, with over seventy veterans behind him.
Seeing the corpses piled beneath these killing fiends' feet, and the blades Sith and his men had hacked blunt and curled, even Brunok could not help swallowing hard.
No one dared speak. Only when Sith climbed down from the towering corpses did the dense ranks of battle-tested new recruits behind Brunok part, making way for these "legends" who had fought until they had strength left only to breathe.
Sith walked to the open ground in front of headquarters.
Faced with the large barrel of clean water prepared in advance, Sith plunged his head straight into it.
Blood and filth instantly spread through the clear water. The underwater world was utterly quiet, and the coolness instantly eased the heat of the continuous fighting.
Only after several full minutes did Sith raise his head again, life finally restored to his eyes. Yet none of the surrounding soldiers were paying him any attention. Instead, they were all looking up at the sky.
Sith paused and followed their gazes. Then what he saw left him slightly stunned as well.
Across the deep blue sky, the Imperial Navy filled the heavens!
Ships glittered beneath the star, like a river of stars winding around the planet's orbit.
Endless drop pods streaked across the sky like meteors. After a burst of harsh static, an impassioned voice came from the radio beside him.
"Soldiers of the Imperium, rejoice!"
"The God-Emperor has sent his angel, Calgar, Chapter Master of the Ultramarines Chapter, to the skies above you."
"Every Hive City on Vigilus is now under the Imperium's absolute control. Only a few feeble Xenos remain, hiding in the deserts..."
The announcer's sonorous voice continued alongside the music. Hearing those words, Sith believed that the Hive City inhabitants and defenders still within safe zones, under a total information blackout, would surely erupt in earthshaking cheers at such propaganda.
But Sith was not in a safe zone. In his ears was the Departmento Munitorum's rosy propaganda, while before his eyes, on the monitor, hundreds of millions of howling Genestealers stood just one wall away.
Even at the foot of the Hive City, an ever-growing tide of Orks was tearing apart humanity's last defensive lines in the wilderness amid an earthshaking great Waaagh.
The rosy words in their ears and the reality before their eyes brought Sith and everyone at the tower's summit an overwhelming sense of absurdity.
The crowd watched the fleet in silence. Only Sith watched the fleet overhead proclaim victory while bringing annihilating lances of light down upon Hive Cities that had fallen completely!
In the distance, pillars of light pierced the heavens. Beside him, Daviro frantically sent signals to his superiors.
Sith withdrew his gaze from the grandeur and awe, looking only at the clear water before him again.
Ignoring the clamor outside, Sith buried his head in it once more.
Within the clear water, Sith's world was filled with "peace."
Outside the clear water, the chaotic war for Vigilus had finally, officially begun!