The instant Cassius finished speaking, the temperature in the warehouse seemed to drop another few degrees.
By all rights, Lynn should have been terrified, trembling, trying to explain himself or beg for mercy.
Just like any mortal whose secret had been exposed by a Space Marine.
Strangely, however, Cassius saw none of the expected reactions on Lynn's face.
No fear, no panic, not even the stiffness of someone trying to hide something.
Lynn simply stood there, his head slightly raised, meeting those gray eyes of Cassius's that could have driven a Hive City thug to a mental breakdown.
An utterly unruffled expression appeared on his face.
Beneath that calm, there also seemed to lurk a faint, indecipherable weariness, along with a certain relief at having made up his mind.
Something's wrong.
Cassius's combat instincts-that intuition tempered by three hundred years of blood and fire, countless brushes with death-
Sounded the alarm within a hundredth of a second.
This mortal's reaction lay completely outside the bounds of logical deduction.
No fear? When facing an Astartes who had uncovered his deepest secret and held the power of life and death over him?
Unless...
Unless he had anticipated this moment long ago and prepared for it.
0.1 milliseconds!
That was the fastest possible reaction time for Cassius, who had undergone nineteen inhuman surgeries.
The time required to convert nerve signals into muscular movement had been compressed to a span so brief that humans could not comprehend it.
His right hand abruptly tightened around the haft of the Power Axe at his waist.
0.5 milliseconds!
The Power Axe's engine ignited, its energy field humming to life as blue arcs of destruction lit up along the blade's edge.
Cassius's body was like a taut steel cable, his leg muscles, assisted by his Power Armour, gathering enough force to shatter a concrete floor underfoot.
0.7 milliseconds.
His gaze locked firmly onto Lynn's neck, one of the most vulnerable and lethal points on a human body.
This axe blow would sweep out at a perfect diagonal angle, avoiding any possible armour.
It would directly sever the cervical spine and major blood vessels, ensuring instant death and leaving no chance to resist or cry out.
0.9 milliseconds.
The Power Axe began to move.
Cassius's shoulder drove his arm, and the adamantium-forged axe blade tore through the air with a piercing shriek, cleaving straight toward Lynn, who stood five meters away!
This strike, swift as lightning and heavy as a landslide, was a killing technique honed through years of training and countless refinements by a Sons of Medusa warrior.
Never mind a mortal-even a fully armed Ogryn would have been cleanly split in two by this axe blow.
And yet.
At the very last instant, just as the blade was about to touch the skin on the side of Lynn's neck, its searing energy field already curling his bristling hairs!
Something suddenly changed!
Time seemed to be "stretched" by some invisible force.
No, not time itself, but the way Cassius "perceived" time had been forcibly distorted.
He "saw" his axe blade inching toward Lynn's neck at an extraordinarily slow speed.
He "heard" the hum of the Power Axe's engine drawn out into a low, strange moan.
He could even "feel" every contraction of his muscle fibers, every movement of his Power Armour's joints, becoming sluggish and heavy.
Then-"Humm...!"
An indescribable "resonance," seemingly sounding directly from the deepest reaches of the soul.
Like ripples stirred by a stone dropped into a still pool, it burst outward with Lynn at its center!
It was not sound, not light, not a fluctuation in any physical sense.
It was a more fundamental "disturbance," one that touched the foundations of existence.
Cassius froze completely.
He was not restrained by an external force; the Power Axe still roared, and his Power Armour still functioned.
Rather, his "consciousness," his "control" over his own body, had been forcibly "overridden" by some higher-order power.
This was utterly beyond his understanding. Surely only the Master of Mankind could possess such tremendous power!?
Immediately afterward, from the depths of Lynn's terrifyingly calm eyes.
Several translucent "Psychic Power chains," covered in eerily flickering runes, suddenly shot out like living venomous snakes!
These chains were not physical. They passed straight through Cassius's Power Armour, his flesh, and his bones, like ghosts that ignored all physical barriers, and sank deep into the very core of his consciousness.
"Aaargh!!!"
Cassius let out a low, suppressed roar of pain.
It was not physical pain, although wherever the chains coiled, his nerve endings felt as though they were being repeatedly pierced by red-hot iron spikes.
Rather, it was a deeper tearing sensation, one that touched the very essence of his soul.
He "felt" a crack being forcibly "pried open" in his cold, rational mind, which operated like precision machinery.
Some foreign, unfamiliar "protocol," carrying a pink air of romantic ambiguity yet incomparably overbearing.
Psychic Power was surging madly along the channels formed by the chains, taking root and attempting to alter his core consciousness.
[System notification: Interactable high-value target detected-Sons of Medusa Sergeant Cassius (male). Meets side quest binding requirements.] [Warning: Target's resistance is extremely strong!] [Forcibly initiate the "I Want to Fall in Love Even in the 41st Millennium!" side quest romance protocol?]
"Initiate!" Lynn roared.
The instant the words left his mouth, Lynn paid a terrible price as well.
"Pfft!"
He violently spat out a mouthful of blood, the bright red spray tracing an arc through the air before splashing onto the rusty metal floor.
Immediately afterward, thin trickles of blood began seeping from his eyes, nose, and ears as well.
A savage headache felt like countless red-hot steel needles stirring inside his skull. His vision repeatedly darkened, flickering static and distorted patches of color appearing at its edges.
This was the "backlash" of forcibly binding a target with an exceptionally firm will and formidable strength.
Lynn's knees buckled, and he nearly collapsed to the floor, but he clenched his teeth and used his last ounce of strength to drop onto one knee, supporting himself so he did not fall completely.
Until he saw that familiar character interface.
[Option D: The Canned Sergeant of Iron-Blooded Logic] [Target]: Sons of Medusa Chapter Sergeant · Cassius (male) [Tags]: #[Practicality Above All]#, #[Logic Processor]#, #[Mechanism]# [Initial affection]: -15 (Same-kind faction grants twenty affection points by default; currently believes you may be a heretic) [Romance tips]: Efficiency is virtue: Demonstrate your irreplaceable "intelligence-gathering efficiency" and "battlefield cleanup value." Logic above dogma: His acceptance of "pragmatism" outweighs his adherence to rigid commandments. Limited cooperation: Any relationship he accepts must be a "temporary tactical agreement" with clear objectives, distinct boundaries, and ultimate controllability. "Gift" preferences: Reports of exceptionally high operational efficiency, rare battlefield data, or rare mechanical components capable of improving the squad's combat effectiveness (must comply with Adeptus Mechanicus standards). [Danger rating]: ★★★★★★
He lifted his blood-covered face and looked at Cassius, who stood frozen in place, bound by Psychic Power chains, his gray eyes churning with fury, confusion, and disbelief.
Lynn bared his teeth in a bloody, crazed smile.
"It... worked..."
He gasped, his voice as hoarse as a worn-out bellows.
Meanwhile, Cassius could not understand what had happened at all.
Heretical sorcery? Chaos corruption? Psychic Power enslavement?
In his three hundred years of combat experience, he had never encountered an attack so bizarre, so "illogical"!