[At the same time, in the void, another battle just as fierce is underway.]
[The Black Legion's fortress-ship, the Will of Eternity, is under heavy fire from the Imperial Fists' void fortress, the the Phalanx.]
[Deeper into the engagement, the massive Ark Mechanicus fleet under Archmagos Belisarius Cawl pushes into the heart of the battle, unloading what feels like an endless spread of weapons from every hull.]
[Beams of laser light wide enough to blot out half the void, and spears of brilliant, punishing light, lance out from the Imperial ships and slam into the Will of Eternity's already failing void shields.]
[Around Cadia, Black Legion ships that cannot withstand the combined firepower of the the Phalanx and the loyalist fleet start coming apart, torn into vast, burning wrecks.]
[In the end, the Will of Eternity's void shields give out entirely, and the fortress-ship joins the wreckage tumbling silently through the cold of the void battlefield.]
[On the surface of Cadia, the fighting only gets worse.]
[Several combat squads from the Imperial Fists Third Company, alongside a force of the Legion of the Damned wreathed in eerie, burning light, are teleported straight into the heart of the ground war.]
[Leading them is a towering figure carrying a frost-rimed great axe, heavy shoulder plates gleaming under the smoke.]
[The moment they land, they tear into every enemy in sight without pause.]
[For the Legion of the Damned, entirely unconcerned with their own losses, this battlefield might as well have been built for them.]
[But something strange happens.]
[As the tall axe-bearer charges into the horde of Chaos daemons and sweeps them aside with each swing of the frost axe, something changes.]
[The Khorne daemons that had been swarming him abruptly turn their weapons on their own side, hurling themselves at nearby Chaos daemons and Chaos Astartes instead.]
[Even caught between the loyalists on one side and their own allies on the other, the Khorne daemons show no sign of coming back to themselves.]
[Elsewhere, in another corner of the ruined battlefield.]
[Around the smoking wreck of a downed cruiser, an already battered squad of Dark Angels from the Fourth Company takes another mauling.]
[Just as the Chaos Astartes and cultists close in for the kill, a company of Sisters of Battle from the Order of Our Martyred Lady arrives out of nowhere, hitting the attackers hard.]
[Behind the Sisters, power weapons crackling with disruption fields and bolters roaring, something else moves.]
[A tall figure in a white hood, a bandaged greatsword slung across his power backpack, slips past at a speed that should not be possible, vanishing into the ring of cultists and daemons as if he was never there at all.]
[Boom. Boom. Boom.]
[A furious roar tears out of you, loud enough to fill the inside of the skull helm.]
[Still holding your line of flight, you drop hard toward the ground, dodging a wall of searing las-fire.]
[Without hesitating, you trigger Shadow Step, and the vibranium armor, still stained with daemon blood, answers.]
[Your whole frame, still airborne, dissolves into drifting shadow.]
[You come out of it with the Blood Scythe in one hand and Forgebreaker in the other, and like something made of darkness itself, you throw yourself at the Daemon Prince Urkanthos in a relentless, frenzied assault.]
[The instant one of your magnetic boots touches ground, you swing everything you have into the Blood Scythe.]
[Urkanthos wheels to meet it, raising the daemon weapon in his own hand for a basic parry and counter.]
[A spearhead cuts the air behind him, close and impossibly sharp, whistling as it comes.]
[The Custodian's guardian spear, faster than the eye can follow, punches straight through the thick plate of Urkanthos's breastplate.]
[Before the Daemon Prince, caught flat-footed by the Custodian's strike, can even finish the roar building in his throat.]
[Your Blood Scythe is already buried diagonally through his tall frame from the shoulder down, cutting straight through black Terminator plate and Chaos-warped flesh alike.]
[Boom.]
[Forgebreaker follows a heartbeat later, lightning wreathing the head, and takes Urkanthos's skull apart entirely.]
[In just a handful of exchanges, Urkanthos, one of Abaddon's chosen champions and a newly ascended Daemon Prince, falls.]
[Boom!]
[A deafening roar rolls in from the direction of the Imperial lines, sharp enough to turn your skull helm toward it on its own.]
[Through your visor you see it. Cadia's last standing defensive position, the outer wall of the Kasr Kraf, is coming apart.]
[Nearby, a pack of monstrous Chaos beasts, moving in step with waves of cultists and daemons, wipes out a company of the Novamarines Chapter along with a mass of mortal defenders in a single instant.]
[If not for the sudden arrival of a far larger force, the Cadian Whiteshields and the Kasrkin breaking through from inside the lines, it would already be over.]
[Their spirit does not waver, whatever it costs them, and in places they are even pushing the enemy back. But it is not enough. Cadia's last stronghold could still fall at any moment.]
[You shake your skull helm hard, still slick with daemon blood.]
[Without hesitating, you raise a vibranium hand, grip tightening on the Blood Scythe, and rally the Astartes still fighting behind you against what is left of Urkanthos's Hounds.]
[Just as you are about to disengage your boots and charge forward, a woman's chant reaches you, somewhere deep beneath your own thoughts.]
[Your gaze sweeps the battlefield until you find it: a warp portal, freshly opened above the fighting, and roughly five companies of Sisters of Battle a few kilometers out.]
[At the same moment, a pair of enormous, pure white wings unfold from a power backpack, and a lithe figure in gleaming gold power armor, styled after a Sister's habit, comes into view, a blazing blade wreathed in golden light in her hand.]
[It is the Emperor's own living miracle on this battlefield, the true Living Saint of the Imperium. Celestine.]