Piercing psychic alarms and mandatory security protocol notifications spread through the command chain of the eternal crusade almost simultaneously with the astropath's terrifying transformation.
On Osiris' sensor array and Sigismund's tactical display, the Astropath Spire's icon instantly turned from the green representing safety to a flashing scarlet indicating extreme threat.
Without any communication, both understood what had happened—the worst-case scenario had arrived.
Sigismund's reaction was lightning-fast.
He immediately issued top-priority orders via an encrypted channel to the Templar Knights squad stationed near the Spire.
A squad of fully armed Black Templar Space Marines, moving with well-drilled combat steps, arrived at the grand and heavy doors of the astropath Spire without delay.
The design of the Spire now highlighted its ruthless practicality.
It was not merely a luxurious residence granting the astropath privilege and privacy, nor was it solely an isolation zone established out of fear of mutants.
Now, it had become a critical barrier protecting the entire warship from the spread of internal Chaos corruption.
This gate, forged from adamantium and reinforced ceramic steel, and inscribed with faint warding runes, was desperately fulfilling its final and most crucial duty—temporarily sealing the nascent, malevolent entity within.
However, the crashing sounds and energy roars from within the gate clearly indicated that this barrier could not last.
The fallen astropath—or rather, the entity that had possessed his body—was thoroughly infused with surging Chaos evil energy.
He was no longer the struggling old man, but a twisted, powerful monster filled with the desire for destruction.
Each impact against the gate was accompanied by the grating groan of metal and the violent flickering of energy runes, with tiny, ominous green-glowing cracks even beginning to appear on the door panels.
The sounds from behind the door were no longer human screams, but a blasphemous cacophony of bird-like shrieks and demonic growls.
The Black Templar Warriors silently formed a defensive formation before the gate, boltguns cocked, chainswords roaring.
They knew that once this door was breached and the monster surged into the ship's internal passages, the consequences would be unimaginable.
They had to end this Chaos creation here, even at the cost of their lives.
A tense atmosphere solidified in the corridor, every second feeling like an eternity.
Just as the Black Templar Warriors completed their defensive formation, boltgun hammers cocked, and chainsword teeth began to spin at high speed—
The heavy doors of the astropath spire shattered completely from the inside out in a deafening explosion! It wasn't pushed open, but utterly annihilated by an indescribable shockwave, a blend of tangible energy and pure malice.
Flying metal fragments, as if pulled by an invisible force, eerily hovered in mid-air, then were twisted and melted by an even greater power.
The entity that stepped out from the breach caused even the battle-hardened, devout Black Templar Warriors to feel a tremor at the soul level.
It was a hunched, bird-headed, human-bodied monster, but the sheer oppressive presence it exuded far surpassed the scope of ordinary Chaos creations.
Around its body swirled visible, ever-shifting halos of evil energy, and its unfurled wings were not solid, but composed of twisted Warp energy and fragmented feather illusions.
Most mind-shattering was that its body—from its neck to its wing membranes, and down to its limbs covered in blue-purple scales—was densely covered with eyeballs of various shapes and sizes.
These eyes spun madly, their pupils reflecting different, blasphemous, and terrifying visions of reality.
Simply meeting the gaze of a few of those countless eyes, an unspeakable spiritual pollution surged forth like a tangible tide.
The Warriors felt countless cold, viscous gazes penetrate their power armor, directly branding their souls.
Blasphemous whispers did not travel through the air, but sounded directly within their craniums, becoming an unshakeable noise.
More terrifying still, fragments of grotesque knowledge, alien to the real universe, were forcibly squeezing into their consciousness.
At the moment one warrior at the forefront locked eyes with a bloodshot giant eye, thick, pale blue downy fur, emanating a faint psychic glow, visibly sprouted from the shoulder joint of his power armor!
This terrifying mutation occurred in an instant, proving the nature of the entity before them—this was a Chaos Greater Daemon, a truly terrifying entity from the depths of the Warp, far beyond what ordinary weapons could contend with.
The Chaos Greater Daemon let out a howl, a mix of bird-like shrieks and abyssal echoes, and with a fierce flap of its eye-covered wings, the suspended metal fragments shot towards the Black Templars' line like a storm of rain.
The battle erupted instantly, in the desperate throes of absolute disadvantage.
The Black Templars' defense line, forged with iron will, was as fragile as paper before the Chaos Greater Daemon's unparalleled power.
They roared the names of the Emperor and Dorn, bolter rounds rained down, chainswords arced in desperate defiance, yet all of this posed almost no substantial threat to the blasphemous entity.
The Greater Daemon merely waved its wings, made of energy and illusion, and the surging Chaos evil energy detonated bolter rounds mid-air, the resulting shockwaves even knocking several warriors flying.
With a casual swipe of its claws, master-crafted power armor was torn like thin tin, and the body within was shattered along with it.
One warrior roared and charged, his chainsword cleaving down, only to spark against the creature's scaled limb before its blade was easily caught, and both warrior and sword were crushed into a twisted mixture of metal and flesh.
In just a few breaths, several more loyal warriors fell in pools of blood, their sacrifice failing to even slow the Greater Daemon's advance.
The remaining Black Templars were forced to retreat step by step, utilizing the corridor's structure for a desperate resistance.
The roar of boltguns, the snarl of chainswords, and the warriors' shouts intertwined, yet could not mask the soul-freezing shrieks and blasphemous whispers emanating from the bird-headed monster.
The air was thick with the scent of blood, ozone, and the sickly sweet decay characteristic of Warp energy.
The defense line was collapsing.
Once this Greater Daemon breached into the ship's more expansive internal areas, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Just as the remaining Black Templar Warriors were about to be driven to desperation, and the Chaos Greater Daemon's blasphemous claws were about to tear through the last line of defense—
Heavy and swift footsteps, like a war drum, echoed from the end of the passage.
A dark figure, like lightning tearing through shadows, suddenly burst into the battlefield.
It was Sigismund, the High Marshal of the Black Templars, arriving on the battlefield at the critical moment.
Just as the remaining Black Templar Warriors were about to be driven to desperation, and the Chaos Greater Daemon's blasphemous claws were about to tear through the last line of defense—
Heavy, swift footsteps echoed from the end of the passage.
Sigismund's figure, like a blade tearing through shadows, abruptly plunged into the battlefield.
He didn't hesitate, nor did he even let out a battle cry; the Power Sword in his hand seemed to come alive, erupting with an unprecedented, blazing light.
Facing the Chaos Greater Daemon's incoming claw, powerful enough to shatter Leman Russ armor, Sigismund displayed the demeanor of the Imperium's foremost swordmaster.
He chose not to meet it head-on, but instead glided sideways with steps precise to the millimeter, allowing his Power Sword to trace a simple, deadly arc, aimed directly at the Greater Daemon's wrist joint.
This strike forced the monster to retract its attack, and the rhythm of the battle was instantly broken.
"Regroup!" Sigismund's voice, cold as iron, came through his helmet: "Flank it, and do not look into its eyes!"
His arrival immediately changed the tide of battle.
The Power Sword danced in his hand, transforming into an unbroken curtain of light, surprisingly fighting the Chaos Greater Daemon to a standstill.
Each of Sigismund's sword swings precisely targeted the Greater Daemon's weak points, and his masterful swordsmanship even subtly suppressed the terrifying entity, forcing it to emit angry shrieks.
However, even one as strong as Sigismund, facing such a terrifying entity from the depths of the Warp, showed a lack of experience.
He could contend with it and even gain the upper hand with his extraordinary martial prowess, but he didn't know how to utterly destroy this blasphemous existence.
Although each of his slashes left wounds on the opponent, those wounds were almost instantly repaired by writhing flesh and Warp energy.
Just as the battle reached a stalemate, Osiris' massive mechanical body finally arrived on the battlefield.
He was a step slower than Sigismund, but the item he carried immediately drew everyone's attention—it was a triangular stone pillar, glowing with a strange, phosphorescent green light.
Embedded in the center of the pillar was a spherical orb covered in glowing green patterns, now emitting a peculiar energy field.
The moment this energy field spread, the Chaos Greater Daemon let out a painful shriek.
The Warp energy halo around him visibly dimmed, and his constantly rotating eyeballs momentarily froze.
Even more surprisingly, the abnormal mutation on the nearby Black Templar Warrior, who had developed light blue fuzz on his body, began to slowly recede!
Under the suppression of the psychic-draining energy field, the Chaos Greater Daemon's power rapidly waned, and his movements became sluggish.
Sigismund's offensive immediately grew sharper, his Power Sword repeatedly slicing through the Greater Daemon's defenses, leaving bone-deep wounds on him.
But even so, those wounds continued to heal at a visible rate.
"This thing can't kill it!" Sigismund roared amidst the fierce clash, his blade once again tearing through the Greater Daemon's wing, but the wound began to close in an instant.
Osiris' synthesized voice calmly sounded in the gaps between weapon clashes and blasphemous shrieks: "The psychic-draining field can only temporarily suppress its regeneration and Warp connection."
His massive mechanical arm did not raise a weapon; instead, he precisely retrieved a special bolt shell, slightly larger than standard, with complex geometric patterns engraved on its casing and a faint, eerie glow, from a hidden storage compartment on his chest.
He did not use it himself, but handed it to a Black Templar Warrior beside him who, though his armor was damaged, was still agile.
"Use this," Osiris' instruction was concise and clear, "Aim for its core."
Though Sigismund was in fierce combat, his excellent combat awareness instantly grasped Osiris' actions and intentions.
Without needing verbal communication, his sword stance abruptly changed; the curtain of light unleashed by "Emperor's Wrath" became denser and more oppressive, a series of exquisitely precise slashes and thrusts, like a woven web of death, forcefully pinning and blocking all of the Chaos Greater Daemon's attention and counterattack routes directly in front of him.
Just as the Greater Daemon exposed a brief weakness due to Sigismund's fierce assault, the instructed Black Templar Warrior had already raised his gun, aimed, and fired.
The specialized bolt shell followed an unusually trajectory, silently embedding itself into the Greater Daemon's eye-covered chest.
There was no violent explosion.
Instead, where it struck, an unnatural, dark ripple erupted, as if absorbing light.
The Chaos Greater Daemon let out a twisted, distorted wail; his massive body, constructed of Warp energy and malice, began to violently tremble and contort, like a glitching holographic image.
The Warp energy comprising his existence became extremely unstable, and the terrifying bird-headed monster form furiously flickered and disintegrated between solid and ethereal states.
In this brief moment, deep within the constantly twisting, almost dissolving blasphemous form, a blurry but faintly discernible, withered human silhouette belonging to the old astropath emerged, like a drowning person.
How could Sigismund miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity?
His movements were as fast as lightning; his Power Sword, imbued with the resolute will to purify all, traced a cold arc of light—
As the blade swept through, the twisted head, still wailing, caught between a bird's head and a human's, was severed.
Sigismund slightly adjusted his breathing, and his power armor's servo system emitted a faint depressurization hiss.
He looked at Osiris, pointed to the twisted remnants on the ground that were gradually dissipating, and asked in a deep voice: "What was that bullet you used?"
Osiris' synthesized voice calmly responded: "A specialized ammunition targeting Warp entities. The core contains the ash of an untouchable. This is one of the results of my research during the Great Heresy on how to effectively counter Warp threats."
Sigismund immediately realized the value of this ammunition, especially when facing terrifying entities like the Chaos Greater Daemon.
"The Black Templars need this weapon," he stated firmly, not as a request.
"The manufacturing process for the ammunition itself isn't complex; the key lies in the material," Osiris explained. "Untouchables themselves are extremely rare, and suitable individuals are even more so. I only coincidentally acquired one, eventually producing about two hundred such special bolt shells."
Sigismund looked at the shattered astropath spire door, his gaze solemn: "Our journey ahead will likely be in great need of it."
Osiris said nothing more. His mechanical hand reached into his storage space again, retrieving a metal magazine neatly lined with twenty special bolt shells glowing with an eerie light, and handed it to Sigismund. "Use them cautiously."
Sigismund took the magazine and securely stowed it away.
Then, his gaze once again turned to the twisted breach in the astropath spire, his brows furrowed.
Losing the astropath meant the eternal crusade had lost its eyes and compass in the Warp.
"We must immediately exit the Warp," he decided. "Blindly navigating without finding a new astropath would be suicide."