Nearly forty thousand years later, it once again set foot on the soil of Terra.
It was a Bloodthirster, a Greater Daemon born of war and slaughter, born from an ancient and brutal war on Terra.
It was a battlefield filled with mud, trenches, corpses, artillery fire, and pain—a brutal meat grinder.
It was the Somme River, it was over 1.2 million corpses, it was an endless war meat grinder, it was dark rage, constantly craving to slaughter more lives, caring only for the flow of blood.
It emerged from the Blood God's domain and, along with seven other Greater Daemons, gained the opportunity to lead eight daemon armies to ravage Terra.
Finally, in the long years since the abhorrent Astronomican was lit, the Somme River had never again ravaged the land that birthed it.
Now, it could finally bring war back to Terra.
However, the daemon army led by the Somme River encountered an obstacle.
Mortals, a group of mortals wielding ridiculous blades, blocked the breach in the Eternal Wall.
Those mortals seemed to be masters of swordsmanship, fending off the daemons with just toy-like short swords.
Not only the Somme River, but the other seven directions were also blocked.
This made the other seven Greater Daemons anxious; they even personally charged the mortals.
But even they, as Greater Daemons, fought evenly with the mortals, to the point where the Somme River's Bloodthirster colleagues could only cover the embarrassing situation by roaring louder and louder.
But the Somme River was different; the Somme River was observing and waiting.
The Somme River was born from a long and stalemated battle, where humans shed tens of thousands, even millions, of lives in trenches for a few meters of frontline change.
The Somme River was very patient, extremely patient. It launched seven attacks, and all seven failed to break through the defense line constructed by these mortals.
Finally, on the eighth attempt, the Somme River noticed their flaw.
A toy sword in a mortal's hand lost its luster, turning gray, and then that mortal hastily retreated, with others quickly filling the void.
The Somme River narrowed its eyes; it understood, it had discovered it.
The Somme River joined the war, its chainaxe, adorned with countless skulls, heavily cleaving down upon those mortal Astra Militarum.
They wielded those glowing little short swords to block the Somme River.
But as the Somme River had guessed, the power in those short swords was basically at its limit, turning gray one after another.
It bared its teeth in a ferocious grin, ready to begin harvesting lives — — — — — —
Bang!!!!!!
A powerful Psyker power hammer descended from the sky. The Somme River, like a top violently struck by a supersonic whip, tumbled and spun on the ground, flying seventy to eighty meters away before barely coming to a stop.
It raised its head in a daze, looking at the uniformed woman in mid-air, who was emitting intense Psyker flame light all over her body.
Reyna was panting heavily, her Psyker power rapidly depleting.
The power of the Denkōmaru had limits, and now the Denkōmaru on all eight fronts had basically run out of power.
But what made Reyna feel unbearable was that after they had held out for so long, some of the Astra Militarum units on Terra still hadn't completed their retreat?!
Was this training volume too damn poor? Not being able to march over a hundred kilometers in a day, and they call themselves Astra Militarum?!
Among the Centenarian Corps who once followed the Emperor in battle, many had, over time, decayed into uselessness.
If this were Cadia, Reyna would drag every single one of them to run laps around the planet's equator! Stragglers would be shot on sight!
But the problem now was that Reyna and the Cadian 184th Regiment were held in place.
Other Astra Militarum units were retreating, the Astartes were too few to fill such a vast front, and the Cadia 184th Regiment had to hold the front line, otherwise the retreat would turn into a rout.
Reyna once again cursed the mothers of those useless individuals.
She had to quickly run back and forth between the various fronts; just a moment ago, she had ripped off the head of a Bloodthirster.
Now, her Psyker potential was also almost at its lowest point.
Just then, Reyna suddenly saw the sky burning, as if meteor-like drop pods ignited the atmosphere, smashing directly into the battlefield, into the daemon army.
Reinforcements!?
Astartes?!
Which Chapter?!
Chapters near Terra... the Imperial Fists were heavily damaged in the Cadia War, and the forces they could still deploy were already on the battlefield.
Were there other, such large-scale Space Marine forces near Terra?!
Just then, the steaming drop pods opened one by one on the battlefield.
Scorching Psyker lightning pierced the void, and magnificent chants echoed ceaselessly. The daemons let out sharp wails.
Astartes in silver-gray power armor emerged from the drop pods, like a group of demon-slaying heavenly generals forged from mercury.
Any daemon that approached them would be burned by the scorching Psyker power.
Simply by standing on the battlefield, they established a defensive line amidst the daemon's offensive.
"Commander Reyna, I've called for reinforcements."
The voice of Shield-Captain Valerian of the Custodian Guard sounded over the comms.
But Reyna's eye twitched involuntarily.