Torrential blood rain poured over the battlefield. Shield-Captain Valerian's spear, named intellect, pierced through the crimson raindrops, striking the crimson flesh of Somme River, which was entangled in barbed wire.
But Valerian's hand did not feel the satisfying sensation of cutting through flesh.
The barbed wire tightly bound intellect, completely ignoring the crackling decomposition field on the spearhead, preventing Valerian's spear from advancing an inch.
The barbed wire seemed to possess a peculiar power not belonging to the material universe, as if in the eyes of countless people, this barbed wire was unbreakable, and any attack launched against it was meaningless, only increasing the death toll.
Somme River, Valerian now knew the name of this Greater Daemon.
The Grey Knights had identified this Greater Daemon, born nearly thirty thousand years ago amidst humanity's cruel wars.
But Somme River was not its true name; Somme River was merely a designation.
The name of this bloody Greater Daemon was written upon the corpses of nearly one million two hundred thousand deceased. The shredded flesh of those one million two hundred thousand people, torn apart by the Battle of Somme River, formed its body.
The names of those one million two hundred thousand departed souls were its true name, and many of those names had long been forgotten.
Even the Grey Knights, through prophecy and historical exploration, could not fully reconstruct them, thus unable to weaken Somme River by chanting its true name.
This was also why Somme River dared to reveal its existence to humanity; he was certain that even the Grey Knights could not target him.
But...
The figures of the Sisters of Silence approached Valerian like ghosts. Their anti-psyker field wrapped around Somme River's body like a shadow.
Somme River let out a painful roar, and the power of the barbed wire on his body weakened significantly.
Valerian swung intellect, and the decomposition field on the spearhead exploded, cutting off a large piece of crimson flesh.
"We are complete," Valerian murmured.
After ten thousand years, the Custodes and the Sisters of Silence fought side-by-side once more.
In just a moment of combat, Valerian understood what crucial advantage these soulless sisters would bring to the Custodes.
In confronting daemons, individual Custodes were far inferior to the Grey Knights; only with the Sisters of Silence were they truly complete.
The combat tactics, only existing in training, of fighting alongside the Sisters of Silence were now employed by Valerian, almost as if ingrained in his instinct.
Somme River let out a savage roar. His wings, a mixture of metal and flesh, sprayed shellfire towards Valerian.
Mortars, cannons, machine guns, grenades, brass bullets... all sorts of crude and primitive weapons were aimed at Valerian.
"Purge the daemon!!"
The battle cry of the Grey Knights rang out. Grey Knight Inquisitor Alkun, wielding a warhammer, stood before Valerian.
psyker power surged from his body like lightning, weaving into a shield that blocked the incoming artillery fire.
"Ugh ahhhhhh—" Alkun, an psyker, couldn't help but retch.
Most of the Sisters of Silence's anti-psyker power was directed at Somme River, but their very presence would suppress psyker and Warp phenomena.
All Grey Knights were psyker, and naturally, they were also affected to some extent. However, the Grey Knights were still relatively fine; after all, they still possessed strong Astartes bodies and could endure these negative effects.
But...
"Ugh ah!!!!" Regimental Commander Reyna of the Cadian 184th Regiment seemed to be throwing up everything she had ever eaten in her previous life.
The vomit, mixed with bread and ink, pooled at her feet.
Perhaps it was an illusion, but Valerian felt that Regimental Commander Reyna's eyes had become clearer from all the vomiting, as if she had purged all the knowledge from her mind.
Regimental Commander Reyna had expended too much psyker power and was unable to resist the discomfort caused by the Sisters of Silence's anti-psyker effect.
Although the Sisters of Silence brought some negative effects, their assistance was indispensable on the current battlefield.
War, a brutal war was being waged before the Imperial Palace.
Humans would experience fear, fatigue, and exhaustion in war.
But the Blood God's army of the unliving would not.
The more intense the war, the stronger these daemons, who craved war, became.
And the only ones who could strip them of the benefits war brought were the Sisters of Silence.
The only problem was that in the presence of the Sisters of Silence, only the Custodes could maintain full combat effectiveness.
Mortals, Astartes, and psyker would, without exception, be affected by the Sisters of Silence's anti-psyker field.
Only the Custodes, only the Custodes were the perfect comrades for the Sisters of Silence.
But currently, only Valerian was fighting at Lion's Gate.
He looked towards Lion's Gate with a glimmer of hope, hoping they could break free from their shackles.
But the gate did not open; there was only silence behind Lion's Gate.
Valerian was disappointed, then turned and clashed with the chainaxe in Somme River's hand.
The sound of axe and spear colliding echoed in the void, like gigantic bronze bells—
No, not just the sound of weapons clashing, but also footsteps.
Valerian turned back with surprise. He saw that the gate had opened.
Lion's Gate, crimson interwoven with gold, opened towards the blood-soaked battlefield, opening to this world.
"By the authority granted to the High Lord Council by the Emperor, with the consent of six of the twelve High Lords, the agreement signed between former Custodes Marshal Constantin Valdor and Imperial Commander Roboute Guilliman, Rogal Dorn, and the High Lords, commonly known as the 'Restriction Order,' is hereby revoked immediately."
"Ten thousand years of restriction ends here. The Custodes shall be free to operate within the Imperial Palace, Terra, and anywhere in the galaxy where they are needed."
Tieron's hoarse shout rang out from the towering walls above Lion's Gate. To deliver the news to the Custodes as quickly as possible, he directly used the loudspeakers on the wall to announce the lifting of the 'Restriction Order':
"In the name of Imperial Chancellor Tieron and the High Lord Council, may our decrees be a manifestation of the imperial will."
Tieron was answered only by the sound of golden and stone footsteps colliding.
The army, confined within the Imperial Palace for ten thousand years, poured out from Lion's Gate. Phalanxes of red, gold, and black shone brightly in the blood rain. The light of their spears could not be obscured by the smoke of war.
Since the Webway War ten thousand years ago, never had such a large force of Custodes gathered in one place.
Golden battle standards flew across the blood-red sky. The Aquila gripping lightning, a symbol that had not faded in ten thousand years, was exactly as Valerian had heard in legends and history, as if an army from ten thousand years ago stood before him, as fresh as new, never having left the battlefield.
Valerian saw Custodes Commander Trajan Valoris standing in the formation, leading the charge, his Watcher's Axe burning fiercely, shattering the daemonic tide of crimson blood.
He saw the Allarus Terminators, hard, solid, and shining like new stars, crushing the bloodthirsty Khorne unliving like a golden city wall.
He also saw the towering figures of the Galatus Dreadnoughts, those revered deceased ones, spewing hot fire and steam, carrying out their ancient and long slaughter with sword and shield.
The symbol of the double-headed eagle stood like steel in every part of the battlefield. Blade Champions, wielding greatswords, charged at Greater daemons. Shield-Captains engaged Bloodthirsters in close combat.
The Blood God's crimson tide clashed with the Emperor's golden legion. Fury churned the blood rain into a vortex. Pure gold swords tore apart brass beasts.
Two Allarus Terminators and a Blade Champion stood beside Valerian. They fought alongside the Sisters of Silence, just as they had ten thousand years ago, crushing towards the Bloodthirster Somme River.
Fight, fight, and still fight. Valerian had never fought so exhilaratingly. He cut, crushed, and overwhelmed the daemon's blood and flesh.
He let out a deafening battle cry, for the first time in his life, almost lost in this moment.
This was not just battle, slaughter; this was also glory.
Glory that Valerian had only heard of from veterans, read about in records, and seen in hypnosis. The fragmented glory of ten thousand years ago reappeared and became real in this moment.
He watched with his own eyes as Marshal Trajan Valoris personally executed a Greater Daemon with the Watcher's Axe, and then he himself plunged his spear, named intellect, into the neck of the Greater Daemon Somme River.
The Ten Thousand marched in war, charging at the Emperor, at humanity, at the great enemy of the Custodes, unleashing ten thousand years of accumulated wrath.
We have returned.
Valerian thought so, yet he did not notice, did not notice that the sky of Terra had quietly changed.
The crimson clouds tore apart, and the crimson blood rain came down even more fiercely than before, almost smashing onto the ground and reality.
Fierce madness raged over Terra, raged over this planet that had been coveted by the God of War since the birth of humanity.
The Blood God was the first Chaos God to realize humanity's potential. He knew what an excellent species humans were, and how many cruel wars they would wage over long ages.
The Blood God favored humanity, the Blood God favored Terra, and the Blood God had coveted Terra for tens of thousands of years.
For a moment, if the Custodes had looked up, they would have seen the sky transform into a gigantic, horned, burning face.
That face was as vast as a planet, its iron-covered eyes filled with malice and a lust for slaughter.
Reyna had thrown up all the memory bread she had eaten before the battle, and with it, all the knowledge about Terra and the Imperial Palace vanished from her mind.
This, surprisingly, made Reyna feel a bit comfortable. That knowledge had remained in Reyna's mind like undigested food, making her feel burdened.
Now she felt refreshed and invigorated. Her perception of the Warp had become clearer, and the psyker power within her was rapidly recovering—
Reyna's body suddenly trembled. She felt a gaze, a gaze from the Warp, a gaze filled with blood, slaughter, and madness.
That gaze made Reyna's head ache intensely, and her body trembled uncontrollably. That gaze was not directed at her, but at all of Terra, at the Imperial Palace...
"Saint Doraemon above, God-Emperor above," Reyna's tongue stammered as if tied in knots.
She saw the boundaries of reality thinning, and endless sounds of slaughter came from the Blood God's domain.
"I have forgiven!"
"Kill for me!"
Deafening battle cries came, and blood surged like a tide.
On the battlefield, even the Custodes watched this scene with dread.
A meteor burning with blood-like flames fell from high in the sky, and a roar like eighty-eight million brass war drums playing in unison erupted.
Eight terrifying horns unfurled menacingly, and the two battleaxes named Slaughter and Carnage let out the wails of the vanquished.
It was slaughter, it was destruction, it was the Blood God's greatest champion.
It had once destroyed the first ring of Slaanesh's palace, it had once killed Nurgle's magnificent plague Leviathan, it had once slaughtered countless enemies for the Blood God, offering countless victories and skulls to the Blood God.
But it ultimately betrayed the Blood God, seduced by Tzeentch, ambushing the Blood God and cleaving a rift in the Blood God's armor.
The Blood God, enraged, cast it from the highest point of the Brass Fortress, and it flew through the Warp for eight days and eight nights before landing.
Its consciousness was burned away during this process, leaving only an endless desire for slaughter.
Its wings were shattered during the fall, forever unable to soar again in the crimson sky.
Its body was severely wounded, and the arm wielding the blood axe was no longer as powerful as before.
It was exiled, punished, and stripped of the title of Chief Greater Daemon.
And today, to bring slaughter to Terra, the Blood God forgave its betrayal and cowardice.
Terrifying blood-wings, like a thousand burning stars, unfurled before Lion's Gate. Blood rain poured from the fleshy wings, and those broken wings were now restored to their original state.
After an unknown span of ages, Khorne's first Chief Greater Daemon was reborn.
Skarbrand had returned.
Valerian simply couldn't comprehend what was happening; even the extraordinary mind of a Custodian could not grasp the battle unfolding before him.
Blood, blood flowed everywhere on the battlefield, filling the entire field, even submerging Valerian's ankles.
He saw the Greater Daemon descend from the burning sky, its damaged wings spread, its broken single eye open, its scarred arms wielding two monstrous battle-axes.
Its flesh was torn, its head bleeding, its skull exposed, its horns broken, like a wounded daemon, like one being tortured.
But in the next moment, as if the blood-soaked battlefield nourished him, as if the Blood God's blessing healed him,
The scars on his body instantly vanished, and its broken wings were restored.
Blood continuously flowed from its wings, which were large enough to cover the sky; eight thousand eight hundred planets burning with war were reflected on its dark, fleshy wings, showering the entire battlefield with a downpour of fire and blood.
Mortals turned to ash in the flames; even Astartes clad in ceramite power armor could not directly withstand this fiery rain of blood.
Then, this behemoth charged, its two monstrous, beast-tooth-like axes cutting through the bloody rain, lunging into the battle lines.
Whether human or daemon, anyone who blocked its path would be deprived of life by its twin axes.
The Sisters of Silence tried to restrain this monstrous Greater Daemon with their anti-Warp powers, but instead, their skulls were severed by the Greater Daemon's swinging blades.
A Galatus Dreadnought, accompanied by eight Allarus Terminators, charged, but this Greater Daemon split open the Dreadnought's armor with just eight strikes, crushing the shattered body within, while the skulls of those eight Terminators now hung from the Greater Daemon's waist.
Even Tribune Italaeus fell beneath the roaring axes of this Greater Daemon; before those two monstrous blood axes, their proudly worn adamantium power armor was as fragile as parchment.
The Greater Daemon roared forth, and Grey Knight Alkun shouted his name: Skarbrand.
Khorne's former Chief Greater Daemon, now forgiven by Khorne, a bloody god of slaughter blessed by Khorne.
Skarbrand took a heavy step, and a flood surged through the sea of blood, his giant axes whistling forth with the blood tide.
A Sister of Silence was merely grazed by an axe and immediately burst into flames, screaming as she burned to ashes.
He was a terrifying engine of slaughter, with lead water, distilled from the smoke of battle, flowing through his veins, his heart burning with the fuel of massacre, continuously pumping unending malice into his muscles; he was almost impossible to stop.
But Valerian chose to confront the impossible.
Behind him followed three Sisters of Silence, while Grey Knight Alkun attacked from his side.
The two, one on the left, one on the right, one golden, one grey, two creations of the Emperor simultaneously attacked Skarbrand.
Upon nearing Skarbrand, Valerian felt the horror of this behemoth even more clearly.
He felt as if he wasn't facing a physical enemy, but a living volcano, a living volcano constantly spewing the fires of hell.
And Valerian was horrified to realize that this behemoth had no intellect whatsoever; simply by approaching him, Valerian could feel that every corner of its will contained nothing but utter slaughter and rage.
The Blood God had restored his body, granted him his former power, and even bestowed new blessings upon him,
But it had not restored his sanity; all the Blood God left him was rage.
Perhaps it was an illusion, or perhaps Valerian's mind truly saw the terrifying sights in the Warp.
He saw superimposed on Skarbrand was a terrifying entity clad in blood-soaked brass armor, with a monstrous face like a bloodthirsty hound.
The will of the Blood God was attached to Skarbrand; Skarbrand was merely a vessel for the Blood God's will.
But, but Valerian and Grey Knight Alkun still gathered their courage and charged forward.
Valerian couldn't know how Alkun mustered his courage.
But Valerian felt that one reason he had the courage to wield his spear was... this was too damn humiliating.
He simply could not accept that the first battle after the Custodes' return would end in such a crushing defeat.
He could already imagine how the Astartes and mortals would view the Custodes after the war.
Disappointment? Disgust? Thinking the Emperor's guards were just this?
No! The Custodes must never be reduced to such a state!
Valerian would rather charge to his death than face such a future.
Either he protects the honor of the Custodes, or let him die.
Valerian heard the sound of an axe cleaving ceramite; the axe named Slaughter cleaved Grey Knight Alkun's ceramite power armor.
But powerful Psyker energy and blood gushed out from the silver-grey power armor, turning into roaring, rampaging lightning, converging on Alkun's warhammer.
The whistling warhammer shot out heavily, smashing into Skarbrand's face; the daemon-slaying runes burned Skarbrand's thick, crimson skin, but did not truly inflict any harm on Skarbrand.
It only slowed his axe, which was aimed at Valerian, for a single instant, just an instant.
But strangely, though they had never communicated, Valerian miraculously understood Alkun's purpose.
That Grey Knight, with a desperate strike and all his Psyker power, bought Valerian a momentary opportunity, just this one instant.
A surge of power, a furious rage and courage, suddenly welled up within Valerian for some unknown reason.
He let out a roar, seizing the brief opportunity created by Grey Knight Alkun, and leaped towards Skarbrand's head.
Valerian aimed for the patch of skin on Skarbrand's head that had been thinned by the Grey Knight's Psyker power; the spear named intellect plunged into it.
Blood flowed out; the spear pierced Skarbrand's skin and flesh, but struck against the harder skull; the strong recoil almost made Valerian drop it.
Then, he felt an icy pain in his left rib, and heard the sound of the intellect spearhead breaking.
The axe named Carnage shattered the auramite armor, sending Valerian, holding the broken spear, flying like a rag doll, crashing heavily into the pool of blood on the ground.
Not far from him was Grey Knight Alkun.
To Valerian's gratitude to the Emperor, although Alkun had a fractured skull, his power armor split in half, and his internal organs exposed to the air, he was still alive.
At this moment, the shadow of death loomed over Valerian, but his heavily wounded body moved almost imperceptibly slowly.
Valerian's long training assured him: he could not dodge this axe.
Bang!!
A Psyker power hammer slammed heavily into Skarbrand's head, striking the wound Valerian had just inflicted.
The intellect spearhead, broken inside Skarbrand's head, then tore open Skarbrand's scalp, exposing his pale skull to the air.
Skarbrand let out a furious roar, his movements slowing just a bit.
But Valerian seized the opportunity, grabbing the severely wounded Grey Knight Alkun and dodging Skarbrand's axe.
Then Valerian saw who had launched the attack.
Reyna was breathing heavily, standing before Skarbrand in her grey-green Cadian uniform.
Reyna felt dizzy; she herself couldn't explain where she had squeezed out that powerful Psyker energy.
That Psyker power, filled with rage, killing intent, and courage, seemed to have suddenly surged within her.
Just as Reyna mustered her courage, intending to face Skarbrand with her seemingly frail mortal body.
Reyna could only believe this was a blessing from the Emperor and Saint Doraemon.
Khorne blessed Valerian, Alkun, and Reyna, granting them power.
The Blood God admired courage, admired rage, admired the will to fight.
He favored Grey Knight Alkun, who struck a desperate blow, trading blood for blood; He granted her power.
He favored Custodian Valerian, who was angry at his own inaction, protecting honor with death; He granted him power.
He even favored the psyker Reyna.
As a mortal, with her Psyker power exhausted, yet still enraged, still filled with hatred for daemons, still full of courage,
And Khorne liked her understanding of Psyker power, so Khorne granted her power.
Even though all three of them were enemies of the Blood God, the Blood God still admired their courage, granted them blessings, and...
And granted them death in battle.
The Blood God would not feel pity; the Blood God merely lamented why such souls did not belong to him.
Skarbrand raised his twin axes, named Carnage and Slaughter.
Reyna, her uniform soaked with blood, her face grimy, silently watched this scene.
She felt no fear, only a sense of calm, a gentle tranquility, as if it were a summons, as if it were a fated outcome.
She suddenly thought of her mother, that devout follower of the Emperor.
She surely wouldn't have expected that her daughter, born in a hive city, would one day die beneath a Greater Daemon's axe to protect the Terra Imperial Palace.
If she knew, "Would you be proud of me?" Reyna asked softly.
No one answered, but Reyna held her head high.
She remembered the question she and Alexander had once discussed in the hive city: "Can maternal love be greater than faith?"
Reyna suddenly understood: the Emperor loves humanity, just as humanity loves the Emperor.
The Emperor is humanity; the Emperor's love for humanity is inherently humanity's love for humanity; devout faith and sincere maternal love are one and the same, because all beings will return to the Emperor.
Reyna looked at Skarbrand, at the axe rushing towards her.
"The Emperor above..."
Reyna whispered softly, praying softly:
"Saint Doraemon above..."
"Please save..."
*******
Deep within the Palace, the Brown-haired boy raised his head somewhat confusedly; he sensed that the portion of power he had allocated to Alexander was flowing.
He vaguely heard a voice, a voice coming from Alexander's four-dimensional pocket.
"Parenting materials added."
"Parenting program: Child Behavior Correction Re-education progress: 88%."
"Child Behavior Correction Re-education, initially completed."
********
A wind like that from the wild west swept across the blood-soaked battlefield; in the distance, the faint sound of cowbells rang out.
A scarf moved with the wind, a cowboy hat was pressed onto a head by fingers wrapped in a flower string.
Between Skarbrand and Reyna, the sound of a revolver spinning suddenly rang out.