Phelps ' headless body stood frozen in place, the warhammer in his hand clattering to the ground.
Immediately afterwards, a heart-pounding thud came from my chest.
"Watch out! He's about to explode!"
Dominic's expression changed, and he immediately withdrew and retreated, raising his arm to protect his face with his shoulder armor.
The six Celestial Lions Terminator simultaneously deployed their shield fields, forming a solid shield wall.
"Boom!!"
A muffled explosion rang out.
Phelps's body exploded from the inside, like a balloon filled with putrid liquid.
Dark green pus, rusted armor plates, and rotting pieces of flesh and blood splattered everywhere, carrying a pungent stench that swept across the surrounding area.
Normally, just a touch of this flesh and blood, tainted with the Nurgle plague, would be enough to cause a mortal to rot and die within minutes, and even Power Armour would be rapidly corroded.
But this time is different.
All the splattered flesh and pus, upon touching the edge of the pale silver, untouchable zone, melted away rapidly with the Warp plague energy they contained, like ice and snow meeting the sun.
The deadly curse vanished, and the corrupting activity was extinguished.
What remained was nothing but ordinary, filthy rotting flesh and filthy blood.
They slammed into the Terminator's shield field with a crackling sound, splashing up pools of dark green grime, but no longer possessing any corrosive power.
Even the nauseating stench lacked the soul-crushing filth.
The passageway gradually returned to silence.
The only sounds were the faint gurgling of pus slowly flowing through the cracks in the deck and the heavy breathing of the crowd.
Dominic lowered his arm guard, looked at Phelps's mangled body on the ground, and then at the remains of the nineteen Death Guard had committed suicide around him. For a moment, he was in a daze.
A Chaos invasion that nearly destroyed the entire Gemstone, and which had prepared him for certain death, ended in such an absurd and dramatic way?
He even had a sense of unreality.
But the next second, his nerves tensed up again.
There are two left on the field.
Barlow and Coren.
Two Death Guard are still conscious.
Dominic did not lower his Power Sword, and the six Celestial Lions Terminator maintained their formation, their guns still pointed at the two.
The Sisters of Silence's force field steadily enveloped the entire area without the slightest relaxation.
Nobody knows what these two traitors will do next.
Barlow, leaning on his Power Axe, was panting heavily.
Every breath carried the smell of rust and rotting flesh.
He looked down at Phelps's decapitated body, then at the remains of his nineteen companions around him, and suddenly chuckled softly.
The laughter grew louder and more desolate, eventually turning into a blood-curdling, agonizing laugh.
"Ten thousand years, a full ten thousand years..." He shook his head, his voice full of self-mockery.
"After going around in circles, it was actually the Blanks who brought us back to our senses."
Coren slowly lowered the Power Hammer.
His left leg could no longer support him, and he knelt on one knee, using the hammer handle to brace himself against the deck to keep from falling.
He raised his head, his eyes beneath the hood looking at Dominic. In his cloudy, dark brown eyes, there was no murderous intent, only endless weariness and vicissitudes.
"Don't be nervous, kid." His voice was terribly hoarse.
"If we wanted to take action, we wouldn't have helped you restrain him earlier."
With that, he released his grip, letting the Power Hammer crash to the ground with a thud.
Barlow also released his grip, resting the Power Axe diagonally on his shoulder, no longer assuming an attack stance.
"We... we never intended to betray the Emperor." Barlow's voice lowered, as if he were speaking to Dominic, or perhaps to himself.
"During the Great Crusade, our XIV Legion was always at the forefront, braving the most toxic planets and the most dangerous battlefields without complaint."
"We are not afraid of death, we are not afraid of hardship, we are not afraid of poison gas that can melt armor."
"Because we know we are fighting for the Emperor, fighting for humanity."
Coren picked up the conversation, his tone slightly dazed:
"Back then, the entire legion was proud to be called the ' Death Guard '."
"We thought we'd keep fighting like this forever, until we died on some unknown planet, buried in alien soil."
"Until... that plague."
He didn't say anything more.
Typhus's betrayal, the Primarch's corruption, the Legion's downfall...
All the suffering and struggle turned into a heavy sigh.
"Caught in the torrent of history, many things are beyond our control," Barlow said calmly, looking at Dominic.
"If that tragedy hadn't happened, perhaps... we could still be fighting side by side."
Dominic remained silent.
He looked at the two hunched, rust-covered veterans before him, and at the clarity and weariness that had faded from their eyes after the madness, and felt a mix of emotions.
Do I hate it? Of course I hate it.
They are traitors to Chaos, enemies of the Imperium, their hands stained with the blood of countless humans.
But looking at them now, and listening to them talk about the glory of the Great Crusade, he couldn't bring himself to utter those righteous and stern rebukes.
a thousand years.
From humanity's most glorious era of Great Crusade to this dark and desperate forty-first millennium.
They were once the Emperor's angels, but now they have become monsters that everyone wants to kill.
This in itself is a tragedy.
He lowered the tip of his Power Sword, but did not completely sheathe it.
The six Celestial Lions Terminator behind him remained in combat stance, showing no sign of relaxation.
Vigilance is a soldier's instinct.
"What is your purpose in coming to Brevis this time?" Dominic asked, his voice calm and unreadable.
Barlow and Coren exchanged a glance.
"You think we came all the way from the depths of the Warp just to corrupt a battleship?" Coren smirked, revealing an ugly smile.
" Phelps brought us here for two reasons."
"First, the St. Garus Knight House that corrupted Brevis."
" The Rust Plague excels at corrupting mechs and Machine Spirit. A complete Knight House can create a very useful Rust Hounds fighting force for the Plague God."
Dominic's heart sank.
The St. Garus Family.
As expected, it matched what was happening on the ground.
"The second thing," Barlow continued, his tone becoming more serious.
"On the planet Brevis, there lies something that drifted out of the Warp."
"He was very interested; the oracle Phelps received instructed him to bring it back at all costs."
"What is it?" Dominic immediately asked.
"It should be a fragment of a spell from Great Conspirator."
"A fragment of magic?" Dominic frowned.
"It's normal that you haven't heard of it," Barlow said slowly.
"Legend Great Conspirator, and in ancient times he was severely injured by the combined forces of three other evil gods."
His body shattered into countless pieces, scattered across every corner of the river of time and space.
"Each of these fragments contains His essence and power, capable of transforming into all sorts of incredible spells, objects, and even knowledge."
Whoever obtains it will wield a portion of the power of the Lord of Change.
Coren added, " Phelps has never seen the actual object either; he only knows that the fragment ended up in Brevis and has been guarded by a certain family for generations."
He didn't know its exact form or where it was hidden.
Dominic's heart skipped a beat.
The St. Garus Family.
Protected for generations.
Fragments.
A name instantly flashed into his mind—STC.