A heavy weapons team of Stormtroopers immediately established a crossfire point at the corner of the passage.
The heavy Bolters they carried roared deafeningly, and the shockwaves from the explosions caused the concrete walls to shed dust, with tiny fragments raining down on their ballistic helmets, making a dense tapping sound.
When the squad kicked open the last gate and rushed into the ritual hall, the scene before them made even these battle-hardened veterans hold their breath.
The air was filled with a heavy smell of blood, mixed with a strange, eerie spice scent that smelled like rotten roses steeped in rust.
"The Emperor above…" The new recruit in the team's voice trembled, his Bolter almost slipping from his grasp.
On his tactical goggles, the vital signs monitor showed his heart rate instantly skyrocketing into the danger zone.
"Steady! Firm up your faith, soldiers!" Twilight barked, her multi-spectral vision device rapidly scanning the entire hall: "Maintain vigilance all around!"
She shouted loudly, forcefully stabilizing the wavering morale of the troops.
But the sight before them was still shocking.
Eighty-eight nobles in lavish attire were suspended upside down by chains, forming a ring of corpses; their pale faces were frozen in terror, and ritual daggers in their chests were still dripping blood, collecting into small streams on the ground.
The eight-pointed star array outlined with quicksilver on the ground was greedily devouring the flowing blood; seven of the Score had already lit up with an eerie blood-red glow, and the last one was slowly filling, as if some terrifying entity was about to awaken.
"Sir!" The comms officer reported urgently, with clear tension in his voice, "Energy readings are still climbing! Psionic index has already breached the safety threshold!"
On Twilight's tactical display, psionic alarms flashed wildly, the blinding red light making half of her bionic face appear like a demon.
"Only this one remains, it must be destroyed!" Twilight ordered loudly, her voice filled with unquestionable resolve and determination, as well as rage at the blasphemous acts of the Emperor's enemies.
The heavy weapons specialist immediately stepped forward, his meltagun spewing a dazzling beam.
The black-robed priest presiding over the ritual didn't even have time to turn around before he, along with half of the obsidian altar, was vaporized into a distorted silhouette, his scream instantly evaporated by the high temperature.
The scorching heat wave caused the surrounding blood runes to curl and blacken, and the air was filled with the foul stench of burnt flesh.
Several team members couldn't help but cough, their tactical mask's filtration system issuing an overload warning, indicating toxic gas concentration exceeded limits.
"Purification team, act immediately!" Twilight decisively ordered: "Not a single trace of Chaos energy can remain!"
The Defense Force's flamethrowers immediately responded, the scorching promethium flames, like golden whips of judgment, completely incinerated the remaining blood-red runes into charcoal.
In the flames, those twisted symbols emitted eerie shrieks, struggling as if alive before turning to ash.
"Reporting, sir!" An NCO checked the scanner, his voice finally a bit relieved: "All psionic readings have dropped."
Twilight let out a long breath, but her gaze remained alert.
She noticed a few more bodies in the corner still twitching eerily and immediately added a few Bolter shots.
"Don't relax, continue to search the entire area!" She ordered: "Comms officer, immediately contact command and report the situation. Prepare purification agents, every inch of this ground needs to be disinfected."
"Yes, sir!" The team members responded in unison, quickly dispersing to carry out subsequent actions.
Illuminated by the promethium flames, their figures cast long shadows on the wall, like the Emperor's sword of judgment, forever pointing at the dark corners of Chaos.
—
At this moment, in the Upperhive of the Hive City, the eight-pointed star array, cut off from its energy supply, flickered violently like a dying beast struggling.
The runes drawn with blood convulsed and twisted in the energy disorder, and the viscous blood began to boil and evaporate, forming a crimson mist in the air.
Suddenly, a blinding blood-red light burst forth from the array's core, snapping with a "clang" like a string stretched to its limit.
The sound was eerily shrill, like the desperate screams of millions of souls at once, shattering the glass windows of surrounding buildings.
The energy connections between the runes broke one after another like dominoes, and the entire array disintegrated in a violent energy backlash.
In the sky, the shadow that was about to completely obscure the stellar light began to fluctuate violently.
The dark edge of the eclipse, as if pulled by an unseen hand, slowly contracted at a visible speed.
Golden sunlight pierced through the thick clouds like a sharp sword, reflecting dazzling light spots on the metal surfaces of the Hive City.
The gloom of the entire Upperhive lightened, and the birds corrupted by Chaos energy suddenly fell into a collective frenzy.
Their deformed wings twitched violently, black pus oozing from their feathers, emitting heart-wrenching wails.
Hundreds of thousands of mutated birds fell from the sky like dumplings, splattering into smoking black sludge on the streets.
Fetid black blood sizzled on the gilded pavement, corroding honeycomb-like holes into the meticulously laid floor tiles.
The moment the Upperhive ritual was destroyed, Tzanazte in the Bottom Nest's grotto suddenly arched his body, trembling violently as if struck by lightning.
His colossal Daemon Prince body convulsed and twisted in agony, his jagged spine protruding segment by segment, letting out a heart-wrenching roar of pain.
This roar, mixed with Warp energy fluctuations, caused the stalactites on the grotto ceiling to break off and fall.
Viscous black blood continuously oozed from between the dark red scales of his nascent demon body; this putrid blood, reeking of sulfur, snaked down along the scale patterns.
The flesh and blood of his right arm melted and peeled away like wax under high heat, revealing stark white bone—this was the energy backlash caused by the interruption of the Upperhive ritual.
The dripping putrid blood corroded hissing pits into the rocky ground, emitting plumes of black smoke with a pungent sulfurous smell, staining the surrounding air a sickly grayish-black.
Due to the eclipse not reaching its peak, which caused the ritual to be interrupted, Tzanazte was unable to fully merge with Aaliyah's body.
This fatal flaw created a violent rejection reaction between the Daemon Prince's soul and the host's physical body.
Part of his power failed to completely integrate with the host, leading to a clear defect in his control over this new body, like a precise machine missing several crucial gears.
This also caused this nascent Daemon Prince body to exhibit eerie feminine characteristics; the curves of the waist and hips still retained Aaliyah's graceful contours from life, and in her every movement, a hint of her former elegance was faintly visible, as if reminding him of who this body once belonged to.
However, her face was completely twisted and deformed—three curved horns protruded from her forehead, like a distorted crown; her lips were torn to her ears, revealing two rows of jagged fangs, each tooth inscribed with blasphemous runes.
Most terrifying were her eyes; in the ink-black pupils, only two points of crimson light flickered, like windows to the abyss.
However, his movements were sometimes as fluid as the wind, displaying the majesty befitting a Daemon Prince; at other times, he would suddenly freeze for several seconds, like an uncoordinated marionette tangled in strings.
This unstable state made his every action dangerously unpredictable.
This was clear evidence that Tzanazte's possession was successful but he had not gained complete control of the body.
Even so, to mortal warriors, this incomplete Daemon Prince was still a despairingly powerful entity—even incomplete demonic power had long surpassed the limits attainable by humans.
A casual swing of his claws could tear through hardened steel armor, and a single gaze could cause an ordinary person's mind to collapse.
In this dark grotto, he was the embodiment of death.
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