Lucia slowly straightened up, pulling the Chainsword from the chest of the fallen Chaos Space Marine.
Even such a simple action was incredibly difficult for her to complete.
Two penetrating wounds to her waist, a broken left arm, six gunshot wounds to her torso, numerous fractured ribs, severely ruptured organs, a severed right leg, excessive blood loss, a mild concussion, and blindness in her right eye... these injuries would be completely fatal even for a Space Marine with two hearts and three lungs, let alone a mere mortal.
Even if this mortal was a Great Sister of the Order of the Martyr Saintess, it should be no exception.
"...God-Emperor, my duty is not yet done."
Her lips moved, and holding her shattered Holy Relic storm shield and Chainsword, she slowly looked around.
Around her, twenty-two Space Marines from The Blissful Angels Chaos Warband, followers of Slaanesh, surrounded her.
The bodies of Lucia's personal guard, the Sisters of the Pure Angels, lay scattered on the ground, their blood already drained, forming a small pool.
Lucia stood in the middle of the blood pool, facing this desperate disparity in strength.
A taller Chaos Space Marine Captain, clad in terminator armor, stepped out and approached her, drawing the power sword from his waist.
"Let's duel."
From beneath his helmet, a voice reminiscent of a hissing snake came, "Defeat me, and you can live; fail, and offer your loyalty to the lord of pleasure!"
"That rotting corpse on the throne is not worthy of your allegiance. What has he given you besides lies and silence? The lord of pleasure of the Immaterium welcomes all who embrace Him. Only when you join us will you understand how laughable everything you cling to seems to us!"
If it were before, Lucia would have definitely denounced the traitor's absurd words and used her bolter to show him the God-Emperor's wrath.
However, she now had no extra strength to waste.
Lucia calmly positioned her sword and shield, one in front of the other, her eyes filled with terrifying murderous intent.
The Chaos Captain also took up his stance, but his mind was not fully focused on the duel.
After all, the disparity between them was visible to the naked eye. The opponent was tottering, possibly about to collapse at any moment. Her Holy Relic storm shield was covered in blade marks and gaps, likely to fall apart after a few more strikes; the Chainsword in her other hand had stopped spinning and was probably less effective than a monomolecular knife now.
And he himself had been commanding the battle from the rear, still in peak condition, fully armed with terminator armor, a power sword, and an iron halo... With his more than two hundred years of combat experience, even if he stood still and let this False Emperor lackey hack at him, he might still shock her to death, with no possibility of losing!
Now, the Chaos Captain had to consider how to wrap things up afterward.
The losses from this boarding action were simply too great.
His commanded force of three hundred Chaos Space Marines, including elite units like Warp Talons, Chaos Sorcerers, Chaos Space Marine Captains, and Hellbeast, possessed strength sufficient to easily conquer a planet.
Even if the enemy was Battle Sisters, an elite military force second only to Space Marines in the Imperium of Man, it should still have been an easy, readily achievable mission.
But he never expected this Battle Sister Order to be so fierce. Under the command of that Great Sister, they engaged in a brutal struggle with the boarding Chaos Space Marines inside the cruiser, even launching a counter-charge, fighting to the last man, ultimately inflicting extremely astonishing casualties on the warband.
After this battle, he realized that very few Space Marines remained intact.
Achieving such an outrageous casualty ratio, whatever the reason, according to the warband's rules, he would face a fate worse than death upon returning to the ship.
'Fortunately, there's one last way.'
The Chaos Space Marine Captain's gaze fell upon the Great Sister before him.
It is well known that, much like goblins in certain stories, Chaos forces are always eager to corrupt devout Sisters, which greatly pleases the dark gods behind them.
"Capture her, imprison her, corrupt her... Offer her soul to the lord of pleasure, and He will surely bestow upon me a powerful blessing!"
Such a thought arose in the Captain's mind.
Then, when his strength had greatly increased, he would return to the ship, challenge the Chaos Lord of the warband, defeat him, and seize everything he possessed.
By then, he might even become a Chaos Lord himself!
Just as he was envisioning a bright future, Lucia moved.
Her right leg had been severed, yet she pushed off with her left foot, charging towards the Chaos Space Marine Captain like a cannonball, her Chainsword heavily slashing down towards the Captain's head!
"Hmph, full of openings!"
A hint of disdain flashed in the Chaos Space Marine Captain's eyes, and he swung his power sword, delivering an upward slash as swift as lightning.
Seeing the incoming sword strike, Lucia felt no fear; instead, she silently chanted:
"God-Emperor, please witness me!"
She abruptly twisted her foot, making no attempt to parry, simply turning her body slightly to the side.
The power sword, covered in a light blue disintegrating force field, cut through her right arm instantly as if slicing through air, and blood gushed out.
"What's going on? What is she trying to do?"
The Chaos Space Marine Captain was slightly taken aback.
Carried by inertia, the Chainsword from Lucia's severed arm flew out and swept towards his face.
"What good will that do?"
Just as the Chaos Captain expected, the rapidly flying Chainsword heavily impacted the Iron Halo deflection shield he wore. A flash of pale white energy erupted, and though it lasted only for an instant, it successfully obscured his vision.
"Damn it, I was careless!"
His heart tightened, but it was too late to react.
In a flash, Lucia flung away the Holy Relic storm shield, revealing the deadly weapon hidden beneath her forearm.
It was an Exitus Pistol from a Vindicare Assassin of the Officio Assassinorum!
Lucia the Great Sister had obtained this pistol from the corpse of a Vindicare Assassin during a mission to suppress a rebellion.
Afterward, she had a Mechanicus Priest modify it into a miniature launcher, hidden beneath her forearm, never exposed even during the most intense death duels before!
The muzzle flared, and an Exitus round flew from the barrel, tracing a conspicuous straight line through the air, piercing the iron halo, and accurately drilling into the tactical optics of the Terminator helmet, pulverizing the Chaos Captain's brain.
In an instant, the Chaos Space Marine Captain staggered and then crashed to the ground.
The scene fell into a dead silence.
Even the Astartes, with their superior information processing capabilities, had their minds go blank in the face of such an incredible reversal.
However, they quickly recovered.
The sound of bolters being cocked rang out. Lucia stood calmly, silently chanting:
"God-Emperor, my duty is done."
"Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang—"
Gunshots roared, and an overwhelming hail of bolter rounds flew towards Lucia, seemingly about to engulf her.
Lucia, who was closing her eyes, waiting for her soul to return to the Throne, opened them blankly.
What was happening?
Why was there no pain at all?
She weakly opened her eyes, surprised to find that the bolter rounds bounced off her body the moment they made contact, as if an invisible force field was protecting her.
She saw the traitors' forms shifting slightly, all seemingly looking towards the doorway on the other side of the hall.
Lucia also turned her head, and in her eyes, reflected the figure of a young man entering the hall.
The youth appeared unarmed, young, and utterly unremarkable.
Yet, in Lucia's near-death perception, a strange illusion inexplicably arose.
The young man's body was enveloped in a radiant golden light, just like the glow emanating from the Emperor's holy icon that she first saw when she entered the church at the age of twelve, identical.
'...Is this the God-Emperor's messenger?'