The hateful flames formed by the inferno weapon lit up a vast region of the Warp.
Even outside the Chaos domain of the infernal fortress, one could clearly feel that wave of destruction crashing straight at them.
Those Chaos daemons who had been howling as they rushed toward the infernal fortress, eager to tear the Grey Knights apart, stopped dead in their tracks.
None of them dared go any farther.
Never before had they faced such a lethal threat within the Warp itself.
The aura of fear spread.
As the giant mushroom cloud formed by the inferno weapon gradually dimmed, the Chaos daemons finally got a clear look at what remained of the infernal fortress' Chaos domain.
"Blood God..."
The Khorne Chaos Lord's pupils shook violently. He could not help but gasp at the destructive power of that hateful weapon, which had gone far beyond anything he had imagined.
The infernal fortress, several kilometers high and like a small continent, had collapsed into ruins. The Chaos daemons within had suffered catastrophic losses.
The few remaining daemons were barely clinging to life, wailing in pain amid the rubble.
Countless cries echoed out, sending a chill through the Chaos beings.
The Savior's thunderous wrath had descended into the Warp, direct and merciless.
In the past, even if Chaos daemons feared the Savior, deep down they still clung to a bit of hope.
That being's threat mostly existed in the material galaxy and could not affect the Warp too deeply.
No matter how terrifying he was, they only needed to finish their burning, slaughtering, and looting, then flee back into the Warp.
But the scene before them completely shattered that illusion.
The Savior's threat had extended into the Warp itself. He could now strike their Chaos domains directly.
That meant nowhere would ever be safe again.
The Chaos daemons stood there in silence, looking at one another. Every heart felt heavy, and breathing became difficult.
It was as if an invisible hand had closed around their hearts.
"The daemon-hunters may already have exhausted their weapon. We can still destroy them and avenge the Duke of Sadism!"
The Khorne Chaos Lord drew a deep breath and stared at the Grey Knights' position within what remained of the Chaos territory.
They had gathered here and witnessed with their own eyes how the Grey Knights, using the power bestowed by the Savior, had destroyed the infernal fortress.
They could not simply slink away now.
That would be cowardice, shame, and dishonor.
His words stirred the daemons a little, but still none of them spoke up to agree to the attack. They remained hesitant and uneasy.
The Khorne Chaos Lord looked at the shrinking Chaos daemons and grew even more indignant.
"Since when did the beings of Chaos grow so afraid of humanity? Who exactly is the master of the Warp?"
Now that humans had set foot in Chaos territory, if they, the beings of Chaos, did nothing in response, would they not only be feeding humanity's arrogance?
Would Chaos beings have to avoid humans from now on?
"You pitiful cowards. If none of you dare attack, then I will be the vanguard. Follow me, and avenge the Duke of Sadism!"
So saying, the Khorne Chaos Lord tightened his grip on his burning greataxe, flames surging.
He had once been human. He had hated humanity's cowardice and weakness, hated the way humans trembled before daemonic threats, and that was why he had embraced Chaos.
By doing so, he had become stronger, fearless, and free to slaughter as he pleased.
Yet now, times had changed. Chaos daemons had begun to fear humans.
How absurd.
This Khorne Chaos Lord, once born human, cared more than any daemon about the growth and future of Chaos within the Warp.
He did not want to see such a thing happen. Daemons absolutely could not bow in humiliation beneath humanity's threat.
He chose to stand forth and retaliate against the Grey Knights, to preserve the killing terror of Chaos. Humanity had to tremble beneath the havoc of daemons.
Under his influence, the daemons' fear of the Savior, the Devourer of Daemons, eased somewhat.
After all, that had only been a projection, and the Grey Knights had already used that hateful weapon. Perhaps they had no way of launching another strike.
Yet before the Khorne Chaos Lord could lead the daemonic host in a charge, a new change appeared in the ruins of the infernal fortress.
"Prince of Pleasure, save me!"
The Duke of Sadism wailed as he fell from the sky and slammed onto the Grey Knights' position.
He had never imagined the Savior's strike would be so terrifying.
A single attack had destroyed the infernal fortress and nearly annihilated the daemons in this domain.
At last, the Duke of Sadism had seen the Savior's true terror, and boundless regret filled his heart.
The moment he saw the Savior's projection, he should have fled far away from the infernal fortress and never returned.
But now, he had no such chance.
The Duke of Sadism had been hideously wounded by the inferno weapon, losing nearly half his body, which was now covered in dreadful corrosive wounds.
The pain was unimaginable.
This Chaos Lord, who had once delighted in tormenting humans, was now suffering the greatest torture a daemon could endure. The agony created by the inferno weapon was far more terrible than any implement of torment.
It was as though the damage and pain would continue forever, eternal and incurable, with no end.
The Duke of Sadism was terrified beyond measure. Using his maimed tentacles, he clawed across the ground, trying to crawl away from the area.
He screamed for help, begging the Prince of Pleasure he worshipped to save him, but nothing happened.
In truth, the Chaos Gods had committed all their attention to the coming attack against Terra. There was no possibility that they would spare any concern for this area, nor did they want to attract the attention of the Cursed One and the Savior.
To the daemons, that meant the Prince of Pleasure had abandoned his follower, refusing even the slightest response.
That only deepened the terror and despair of the Duke of Sadism and the other Chaos beings.
Thud.
"Chaos heretic, you are not escaping."
Corwin stepped forward and used his master-crafted runic spear to pin the Duke of Sadism to the ground.
Sorcerous runes spread outward. No matter how the thing struggled, it could not break free.
His gaze was cold.
"This is His Majesty the Savior's thunderous wrath. This is the judgment that being has delivered upon you!"
"No, I beg his forgiveness. Savior, I will do anything for you!"
In terror, the Duke of Sadism babbled incoherently, staring only at the half-body projection of the Savior overhead and desperately pleading for mercy.
There was none of his earlier arrogance left. He only wanted the pain to end, and if possible, to save his own life.
"The Duke of Sadism, or perhaps I should call you the Lord of Impalement.
Whatever you are, it no longer matters, because you will not be forgiven."
That was Corwin's answer.
He pulled out his master-crafted runic spear, frowned as he shook the filthy blood from it, then looked toward the spear held by the Grey Knights Justicar nearby.
The Grey Knight immediately understood what was coming. A flash of heartache crossed his face, but he still awkwardly offered up his treasured weapon to the Grand Master.
Corwin took the Justicar's spear and impaled the bound Duke of Sadism upon it, just as the daemon had once done to human beings.
That Chaos Lord had inflicted too much suffering on humanity to be allowed a quick death.
He would instead be taken into the galaxy and subjected to a far harsher judgment, a public execution ritual that would last thirteen days.
This Duke of Sadism, who had ravaged human worlds again and again, was now skewered and hung beneath the Savior's banner by the Grey Knights.
That too was a form of warning.
Corwin then turned to look toward the distant Chaos daemons floating in the void. He had already noticed the gathering horde.
The other Grey Knights turned as well, all of them staring at the daemons massing in the distance.
They were waiting for something.
It was an astonishing sight. The Grey Knights were facing an enemy force more than ten times greater than their own, yet they still stood calm and upright.
In the past, such a thing would have been impossible.
Back then, forget continuing the fight, even retreating would have been extraordinarily difficult.
It usually heralded the destruction of the entire company and perhaps even the fall of a Grand Master.
The Grey Knights might be daemon-hunters, but fighting Chaos daemons still cost them dearly.
A few years earlier, the Grey Knights as a whole had been in terrible condition.
The First Brotherhood had been heavily mauled. The Second Brotherhood had lost its Grand Master along with half its fleet. The Fourth Brotherhood's Grand Master had vanished into the Warp. The Fifth Brotherhood's Dreadnoughts had suffered severe losses. The Sixth Brotherhood had lost two-thirds of its personnel. The Eighth Brotherhood could not recruit enough new blood and had resorted to snatching recruits wherever it could.
They had been hanging by a thread.
But that had been before.
Now, with the Imperium's revival, the Grey Knights had recovered and expanded at great speed.
Their enhancement processes had been further optimized, and psyker recruits were no longer scarce.
The Grey Knights had grown from a half-ruined force of fewer than a thousand into more than three thousand strong.
And their numbers were still rising, making them stronger than ever before.
Encircled by Chaos daemons, the Grey Knights of the Seventh Brotherhood stood even straighter, as if they intended to wipe them all out.
They knew the Savior was behind them, and that more fire support could be called down at any time.
It could truly be said that the Grey Knights had never stood so tall.
Perhaps this was what real daemon-hunters, the Emperor's spear, were supposed to be.
At the same time, the Savior's projection in the sky also turned, guided by the Warp machine, to look toward the distant daemons.
It was full of pressure.
In the void, the Chaos daemons stared at the Savior's projection and at the Duke of Sadism howling beneath the banner, and silence spread through the ranks.
They remembered the horrifying destruction of the infernal fortress and lived in fear that the Savior's projection might raise its hand and point toward them next.
If that happened, another barrage from that hateful weapon might come crashing down.
More importantly, the Chaos daemons realized one thing:
The Chaos Gods might not be willing to favor this domain anymore.
They might receive no blessing, no reinforcement, no support at all.
The daemons looked at one another, then all at once turned and fled, terrified that if they were too slow, the Savior would mark them and bring destruction down upon their own Chaos domains.
They had only come to the infernal fortress to watch the show. Why risk their lives?
What if that being dropped one of those hateful weapons onto their own territory? Wouldn't that be the end of them?
The Khorne Chaos Lord turned around and found nothing behind him. Not a single other Chaos Lord remained.
The daemons had all scattered, leaving him standing alone.
He froze.
"Disgrace... disgrace and sorrow. None of you deserve to be called daemons!"
This human-born Khorne Chaos Lord's voice shook. The burning greataxe in his hand trembled as well.
It was not just anger.
It was fear.
He realized that if he stayed here any longer, the only possible outcome was that he would end up like the Duke of Sadism, impaled and hung beneath the Savior's banner.
Alone before the Grey Knights and the gaze of the Savior's projection, the Khorne Chaos Lord found himself trapped between advance and retreat.
He had already lost the courage to charge, but he also did not want to flee in panic like the rest of the cowards.
"Humans, you survive only by luck. But the destruction of the gods will come in the end!"
Grinding his teeth, the Khorne Chaos Lord threw down that harsh threat.
Then he hoisted his axe and swaggered away.
But everyone could see it for what it was.
He had lost his nerve.
His huge daemonic body was shaking the entire time. He was almost unable to control it, clearly terrified that the Grey Knights might come after him.
"No need to bother with him."
Watching the figure of the departing Khorne Chaos Lord, Corwin had no interest in pursuing him at all.
It would have been a waste of ammunition.
He could see that the heretic, that traitorous human-turncoat, was nothing more than bluster hiding weakness. He was no serious threat.
Otherwise, he would never have ended up in such a pathetic state.
The man did not even bear a real mark of the Blood God. It had clearly been painted onto himself. He had never truly been acknowledged by the Brass Citadel.
He was just hiding behind borrowed prestige.
"Sergeants, recover all the machinery. The forging divisions need the data from these devices."
Corwin turned and issued the order.
They had already dealt with the Duke of Sadism and successfully operated the Warp machine to call down fire support on the infernal fortress.
The mission had been completely successful. There was no reason to remain here and invite unnecessary complications.
Yet very soon, a special intelligence report reached him.
A recon sergeant had detected a strange daemon world, one filled with roaring machinery.
He had sensed threat and ill omen from it. Perhaps it was worth scouting further.
But before Corwin could make a decision, the situation changed again.
The seers received a psychic message from afar, and it was an order that could not be refused.
Kaldor Draigo, Supreme Grand Master of the Grey Knights, had reappeared on Titan after a hundred years.
The Supreme Grand Master was the strongest being among the Grey Knights. He had even defeated the Daemon Primarch Mortarion by means of sorcery and the utterance of his true name.
Because he was too powerful, the Chaos daemons had feared him and laid a curse upon him, trapping him forever in the Warp, walking through Chaos and slaughtering daemonic hordes.
Only with the coming of the Great Rift had he occasionally been able to briefly communicate with the other Grand Masters and elders, or appear in moments of crisis to save Brotherhood members in dire peril.
But now, Supreme Grand Master Kaldor Draigo had returned.
And he had returned physically, appearing in person at the Grey Knights' headquarters on Titan.
"Savior above, perhaps the Grey Knights can develop still further now!"
Hearing the seer's report, Corwin was delighted.
Once the Supreme Grand Master returned, the Grey Knights would surely become more united, and their strength would greatly increase.
But when Corwin heard the next part of the report, he froze on the spot.
The first order issued by Supreme Grand Master Kaldor Draigo upon his return was this:
All Grey Knights were to cease all operations and return to Titan. No exceptions.
Anyone who refused would be treated as a traitor.
The reason the Supreme Grand Master had summoned every Grey Knight was this:
The Emperor's prophecy had come true. He would now activate the legendary decree that had lain sealed for ten thousand years:
The Terminus Decree.
At those words, Corwin felt his heart tremble.
That meant...
The time had come for the Grey Knights to carry out their final mission!
(End of Chapter)
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