By then, Cassius had long since neared his limit.
The golden light flickered in his eye sockets, his body trembled constantly, and the muscles beneath his armour had already become completely necrotic.
Only his unwavering will and the Emperor's blessing kept him moving.
With every step, copious amounts of blood dripped through the gaps in his armour, landing on the ground with a steady drip.
But to Rena, that sound was like a death knell pronouncing her sentence.
His hollow eye sockets "stared" at Rena, and that golden flame still rose from his clenched right fist.
He repeated a single word, his voice hoarse and broken.
"Revenge, revenge..."
Rena kept dragging her ruined body backward, her sharp Rending Claws carving deep grooves in the fungal mat.
Her only thought now was to pray that death would come a little more slowly.
To pray that this judge from hell would stop walking.
But Cassius never stopped. He advanced step by step, golden flames dancing around him.
They drove back the surrounding darkness and sealed off Rena's last shred of hope.
At last, Cassius reached Rena.
He slowly raised his fist, wreathed in the golden flames of vengeance, and the golden light illuminated Rena's despairing face.
At that moment, judgment upon the xenos finally arrived.
At that very instant, a familiar voice suddenly rang out in Cassius's mind.
"System, initiate forced Dialogue!"
In an instant, that overwhelmingly domineering force invaded his consciousness again, forcibly suppressing the golden flames and the will for vengeance within him.
The strange power spread through his entire mind like a tide, attempting to seize control of his body.
Even the God-Emperor's blessing began to slowly fade at that moment, its golden light dimming at a visible rate.
Defiance erupted in Cassius's mind. He wanted to roar, to resist.
He was only one final step away!
"Aah!!!"
The combined backlash from the intense emotional upheaval and the blessing made Lynn, a short distance behind Cassius, suddenly shudder.
He felt his mental power drain away in an instant.
Then a metallic sweetness rose in his throat, and he violently spat out a great mouthful of blood.
It splashed onto the charred fungal mat, blooming into a blood-red flower.
His mind went blank, darkness swam before his eyes, and his body pitched forward uncontrollably.
In the last second before he lost consciousness, he forced out both hands to brace himself against the ground through sheer remaining determination.
His fingertips dug desperately into the crevices of the fungal mat, barely keeping him from collapsing.
At the same moment, an almost identical thought arose in both Lynn's and Cassius's minds.
Lynn/Cassius: I can't fall yet. I still have a powerful enemy to deal with/Rena is still waiting for me. How can I... fall here!
The two sides entered a silent yet fiercely intense tug-of-war of mind and will.
Blood kept flowing from Lynn's eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, running down his cheeks and dripping onto the ground.
The heavy blood loss left him dizzy, and his consciousness gradually blurred.
His body trembled more and more violently, and the hands braced against the ground began to weaken.
Meanwhile, in Cassius's hollow eye sockets, the nearly extinguished golden flames seemed about to ignite again.
Faint ripples of golden light also seemed to rise across his battered Terminator Armour.
He was about to break free!
Squish!
Just as Lynn was about to lose consciousness completely and his mental defenses were on the verge of collapse.
A crisp sound of flesh being pierced suddenly rang out.
Rena seized that fleeting opportunity, enduring the agony of the golden flames burning her.
Using the last of her strength, she swung her sharp Rending Claws and drove them viciously through Cassius's chest.
The Rending Claws easily pierced his ruined Power Armour, entering through his back and emerging from his chest, covered in warm blood and shattered organs.
As Rena gave them a forceful twist.
Under the combined blows of the system's suppression and the complete destruction of his body, the last golden light on Cassius went out entirely.
The light in his eye sockets instantly dimmed as well.
He had finally lost.
Rena withdrew her Rending Claws, and Cassius's body slammed to the ground like a heap of rotten flesh, never moving again.
But his will, modified and conditioned over so many years, was finally set free at that moment.
His consciousness had not yet dissipated completely. He could vaguely sense Alpha dragging its massive, ruined body slowly toward Lynn.
He could also sense the dying Lynn struggling to crawl toward Alpha, every movement exhausting all his strength.
Suddenly, he recalled the sensation that the mysterious power emanating from Lynn had given him earlier.
It had not actually been a vicious emotion such as hostility or murderous intent.
Instead, it had been something wondrous and shy, carrying a hint of longing, mixed with an indescribable sense of inferiority.
The feeling was utterly foreign to Cassius, yet vaguely familiar.
It seemed that three hundred years ago, at the Trus Fortress Monastery, he had felt a similar flutter as he watched Alisa bandage his wounds.
At that moment, Cassius understood.
So the relationship between this Anomalous Node Alpha and the heretic Lynn was actually like that...
In this man-eating universe, defiled by evil gods and filled with slaughter and despair.
That word had long since been twisted by the forces of Chaos and rejected by the faithful of the Imperium.
Yet as Lynn and Rena drew closer to each other, each concerned for the other, Cassius still could not help, deep within his heart.
Offering his heartfelt blessing to these two souls walking in darkness.
As death approached, Alisa's figure appeared in Cassius's mind once again.
Three hundred years of service among the Astartes and countless brutal battles had long since robbed him of any clear recollection of Alisa's appearance.
But in his memories, that girl with the scarred face, who always bandaged his wounds with such tender concern.
Was forever so beautiful, so warm-the only light he treasured in this dark universe.
Before this iron-blooded warrior lost consciousness completely, the corners of his blood-filled mouth unmistakably curved upward a little.
Meanwhile, Lynn finally crawled to Rena's side and used the last of his strength to grasp her blood-covered Rending Claws.
The subtle sensation of contact eased his taut nerves a little.
Then an irresistible wave of drowsiness swept over him, almost swallowing him completely.
Just then, the system's cold notification sounded in his mind:
[The bound target of the side quest (Cassius) has been confirmed dead. Binding terminated.]
The moment he heard the notification, the weight hanging over Lynn's heart finally lifted, and his tense body relaxed completely.
At last, it's over.
He murmured inwardly, then his vision went black, and he fell into a deep sleep.
But his hand still held Rena's Rending Claws tightly.