No one had time to lament the bloody scene; in the Imperium, it was commonplace.
Just as the net stabilized itself and the Shadow in the Warp made contact with the steps again along the silk threads, a burst of purple light surged in Guyu's eyes.
"Certainly!"
With a low, cold shout, the extremely compressed, untouchable area spread outwards along the silk net.
The spiral staircase, which had been twisting and turning, seemed to have been paused. The frantic pull of gravity suddenly returned to normal, and the upside-down order was restored.
Everyone landed steadily on the solid brick steps, and the solid feel under their feet gave many veterans a sense of having escaped death.
"Go! Charge downhill!"
Without uttering a single wasted word, Guyu retracted her four arms and withdrew the Psychic Power threads back into her body, leaving only the remains of three Aberrant silently embedded in the netting in mid-air.
Everyone was racing against time; no one looked back.
The Vanguard soldiers, armed with Boltgun, frantically ran down the spiral staircase, following the figure of the Genestealer.
The combat boots clattered loudly on the bricks, and everyone was holding their breath, wanting nothing more than to escape this damned spiral corridor as quickly as possible.
Even seasoned veterans who have seen countless battles and hellish scenes felt a lingering shadow of fear over the endless spiraling staircase.
This is no passageway; it's a gallows woven by the devil.
The sprint lasted for nearly ten minutes.
When the endless brick and stone corridors finally gave way to a spacious underground hall at the edge of the field of vision, it was time to finally see the light.
Everyone slowed their pace and gasped for breath.
The hall was eerily empty, the floor was covered with blasphemous blue runes, and twisted flesh and blood ornaments hung on the walls.
The Chaos energy in the air was so dense that it was almost tangible.
Quiet.
A deathly silence.
But beneath this silence lurked a deadly threat.
Thump! Thump!
Heavy footsteps echoed simultaneously from the shadows on both sides of the hall, causing the ground to tremble with each step.
Two enormous beasts slowly emerged from the darkness, taking huge strides.
They were nearly five meters tall, covered in thick, rusted armor, with deep roars emanating from the Daemon Engine on their chests, and blue, malevolent flames spewing out from the gaps in their armor.
The massive mechanical claw gleamed coldly, while the Melta Cannon on the other arm flashed a dangerous red light.
Helbrute.
A creation of the Chaos Daemon Engine, a battlefield behemoth comparable to the Imperium's Dreadnought.
They have no reason, no tactics, and charge recklessly driven by the instinct to kill. Yet their solid armor thickness and destructive power are enough to make any infantry unit shudder.
The two Helbrute started almost simultaneously, their heavy bodies bursting with speed disproportionate to their size, charging towards the center of the group from the left and right sides.
They chose the timing to be extremely cunning.
The team had just survived two crashes, all three Aberrant had perished, and their Psychic Power was severely depleted, putting them at their weakest point.
If they were to hit us squarely, our already small force would be scattered and unable to mount any meaningful resistance.
"I'll stop it!"
Peter's roar exploded from inside the mech.
Having lost the Chainsword in its right arm, the Armiger Knight mech only has the Ion Storm Shield in its left hand still functioning.
Without hesitation, he yanked the control stick, and the mech, its smoking body billowing forward, strode forward, forcefully blocking the path of the Helbrute on the left.
"Bang!!!"
The giant metal claw collided violently with the Ion Shield, and a blinding arc of electricity exploded instantly.
Peter groaned and coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The warning lights in the cockpit were flashing wildly, and most of the hydraulic lines of the entire robotic arm had burst.
The mech was slid backward several meters after the impact, carving two deep furrows in the ground.
"Come on, you Chaos scum!" Peter eyes red, gritting his teeth as he withstood the pressure.
Although the light from the Ion Shield was flashing intensely, it did not shatter.
He knew he couldn't hold out for long, but as long as he could hold off one of them, that would be enough.
But no one could stop the other Helbrute.
It roared and charged into the center of the formation, its Melta Cannon firing a single shot that blasted a charred crater in the ground.
Several Vanguard soldiers of the vanguard who were unable to dodge were thrown into the air by the heat wave and slammed heavily against the wall.
"Spread out and flank!"
The captain roared out the order.
The acolytes spread out in groups of three, Boltgun at the Helbrute's joints and head.
The Purestrain Genestealer moved swiftly in the shadows, its sharp claws constantly slashing at the tubes in the Helbrute's legs.
They did not seek to destroy the behemoth, but only to restrain its movements, buying the bishop and Guyu some breathing room.
Guyu did not move.
She stood at the center of the group, her purple eyes darting around, her gaze not falling on the rampaging Helbrute, but fixed on the dark dome above the hall.
There's something there.
Something faster and deadlier than the Helbrute.
The dark figure that had just broken the mecha's arm and knocked them down had not yet appeared.
A sharp screech shattered the silence of the hall.
A ghostly blue afterimage swooped down from the dome, moving so fast that it became just a blurry streak of light.
The veteran soldiers of the Vanguard only felt a blur before their eyes, unable to even aim, as the strong wind was already stinging their cheeks.
Guyu saw it clearly.
This is the Heldrake that just attacked them.
Like the Helbrute, these are elite aerial units belonging to the Daemon Engine, creations of a twisted fusion of machinery and flesh.
A metal skeleton supports bat-like wings, and fel-energy flames flow beneath large, mirror-like scales.
The head was a gigantic mechanical dragon's head, spewing hellfire capable of melting Adamantium.
In the Chaos Fleet, these aerial hunters have always been a nightmare for infantry.
Its target was Guyu, who stood at the center of the group and whose Psychic Power fluctuations were the strongest.
In its view, this four-armed woman was the biggest threat among the group.
Once she is killed, the remaining ants are nothing but lambs to the slaughter.
"Boom!"
The Heldrake spewed out a pillar of ghostly blue fire several meters wide, pouring it down on Guyu.
Wherever the pillar of fire passed, the air was burned and distorted.
Guyu swayed slightly, narrowly avoiding the attack.
The pillar of fire plowed across the ground beside her, instantly melting a scorched, bubbling crater.
The dragon missed its first attack, then flapped its wings and used the momentum of its dive to skim across the ground, its sharp wing blades slicing towards Guyu's neck.
Its speed is so fast that ordinary people cannot react at all.
But in Guyu's eyes, its movements were no different from slow motion.
Therefore, she had already predicted its flight trajectory.
Just as the dragon's right wing was about to strike her, a thread of Psychic Power, as thin as a hair, suddenly taut and blocked its flight path.
The Heldrake's reaction was far beyond expectations; just as the silk threads were about to touch the right-wing armor...
It actually managed to twist its body during the high-speed dive, raising its left wing and tilting the entire fuselage several degrees to the right, barely avoiding being cut by the wire.
A hint of human mockery flashed across the deep blue dragon's eye.
It seemed to mock the futile attack.