"Oh, by the way, I forgot to ask you something. You were smiling so widely after you passed out earlier... What did you see?" Jackal asked.
"What if I told you I met a 'Living Saint'? Would you believe me?" Emrys asked cautiously.
"Believe it? Of course I'd believe it."
Jackal, whom Emrys expected to be surprised, instead looked like he had seen it all before. "Even if you said you saw the Emperor Himself, I'd believe it!"
Given how bizarre this kid's luck was, let alone seeing a Living Saint, he wouldn't be surprised if the Emperor Himself manifested one day!
The last heir of a Rogue Trader dynasty, reduced to a scavenger in the Underhive, then learning a few combat skills and managing to kill a Khorne Chosen—this story, if written into a book, probably wouldn't be believed by anyone!
Yet, it was all true!
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, Jackal would absolutely not have believed it.
"Count yourself lucky, kid... If you weren't a 'Merlin' by name, given your status as a psyker, hmph hmph." Jackal stared at him eerily and said, "When you were unconscious earlier, the Astartes over there would have already chopped off your head."
Emrys couldn't deny this.
He was indeed fortunate to bear the surname 'Merlin'; otherwise, when the Warp rift opened, the immense hidden risk he posed as an Epsilon-level psyker would have been far greater than that of the others!
But even so, he still drew the apprehension of the Watchers Chapter, who feared he might also explode and tear open another rift, which would truly be the end of everything.
"Kid, now is not the time for small talk." The Astra Militarum veteran tossed him a bolter and said, "If you don't want to die, get up and fight!"
Currently, the number of survivors in the entire hive city, including those capable of fighting, was only a few tens of thousands, all holed up in a single manufactorum.
The Astartes were responsible for various chokepoints, with the mortal forces assisting them in filling the remaining gaps, while outside, a vast army of daemons stretched as far as the eye could see—a truly spectacular sight!
"What's the situation now?" Emrys skillfully disengaged the safety, and with the aid of his bio-armor, precisely picked off the Furies in the air, taking a moment to inquire about the battle.
"If we hold on, there's a way." Jackal's left shoulder was wrapped in bandages, red and swollen, clearly indicating a serious injury, but he still fought on, gritting his teeth. "These sons of bitches heretics don't have orbital weapons; as long as we hold out, the higher-ups will definitely find a way to send reinforcements!"
Suddenly, several Flesh Hounds tore through the mortal lines, charging directly towards Emrys with clear intent!
"Bloody Blood God!"
Emrys, already irritated, immediately chambered a round in his bolter and shot the Flesh Hounds a few times, then casually pulled out a frag grenade from Jackal's waist and threw it. "Get down!"
Boom!
The frag grenade blew the Flesh Hounds to smithereens.
Jackal was thrown back a few steps by the blast, touched the blood on his face, and cursed, "Next time, throw it further, you damn nearly took me out too!"
"Impossible, I had it under control!" Emrys had just said this when he saw a bloody line suddenly tear through the dense crowd of cultists in the distance!
Several Khorne Heralds, wielding blood-red greatswords and sporting horns on their heads, engaged several Astartes in a fierce melee with incredibly refined martial skill!
Clang, clang, clang!
For a moment, sword light flashed and sparks flew!
Neither side was mortal, and their skills were honed to an astonishing degree. In just a few moves, Emrys broke out in a cold sweat. He had originally thought that by defeating a Khorne Chosen, he was at least a minor hero.
However, upon witnessing the battle between the Khorne Heralds and the Astartes, he realized how naive he had been!
Their superhuman speed and strength, each collision erupting in deafening clang of metal, and the cultists and even Tzeentch daemons caught in the periphery were shredded into minced meat!
The most terrifying thing was... there wasn't just one Terminator!
There were four of them in total, all deployed and teleported down, two of which were specially modified, armed with twin-linked multi-meltas and storm bolters, using powerful Firepower to halt the daemon advance!
"Where's Galahad?!" Emrys shouted at the top of his lungs.
"He's trying to restore our communication arrays!" Because the battlefield was too chaotic, Jackal could only shout back, "That old man in your family has a Conqueror-class cruiser; as long as he brings it down, we'll be saved!"
Good heavens... a Conqueror-class cruiser?
Emrys gasped. It seemed his family was not so simple after all, to possess such a thing!
On the other side, at the front lines of the battle.
Leon stepped back, his battle-brother filling the gap, and during the reload, he immediately turned to Galahad. "Have the communication arrays been restored?!"
"Almost, lord!"
Galahad was sweating profusely, lamenting that he was the only Tech-Priest left in the entire hive city! If there had been a few more people, it wouldn't have taken so long to repair. The damned Warp storm had directly destroyed the original communication arrays, and repairing them required a lot of time!
Leon frowned deeply. For some reason... he felt increasingly uneasy, as if something terrible was about to happen!
"Commander, 9 o'clock direction, massive Warp fluctuations detected!" Suddenly, the urgent voice of a battle-brother pulled him back to reality.
Click!
Reload complete, Leon immediately took over the position. The augur detected the Warp fluctuation.
In fact, even without the augur, they could clearly see with their naked eyes that something terrifying seemed to be brewing within that hundreds-of-meters-long Warp 'scar'!
A dense, ominous premonition surged into everyone's hearts!
Boom!
Amidst an earth-shattering explosion, torrents of Warp energy surged from the rift, and then, under everyone's gaze, a Strike Cruiser emerged from the rift, its exterior seemingly covered in flesh, adorned with twisted spikes, and inscribed with blasphemous runes!
Where in the hell did that Strike Cruiser come from?!
Emrys' eyes nearly popped out. And judging by the warship's livery, it was one hundred percent another minion of that bastard K, truly an unshakeable evil!
Facts proved Emrys' guess was correct!
The Strike Cruiser, emerging directly from the Warp rift, did not directly crash into them. Instead, a large number of Chaos Terminators poured out of it, clad in power armor twisted by Chaos and covered in flesh, wielding chainswords and bolters, shouting 'Blood for the Blood God, skulls for the Skull Throne'!
Leon's eyes were bloodshot at this sight. "It's Chaos Astartes! Quickly fire a signal flare, call for orbital support!"
He knew very well that with their current forces, it was impossible to withstand a single charge from the Chaos Astartes!
It's over, this has truly turned into a complete mess!
Despair filled Emrys' eyes. "Winnie, oh Winnie, you've truly gotten me into trouble this time. This is simply not a problem I can solve!"
The massive Strike Cruiser did not hover in place after exiting the Warp rift; instead, it sped towards the sky at an extremely fast pace.
This was the most appropriate action!
Otherwise, if it had remained hovering above the surface, the Watchers Chapter Strike Cruiser in orbit would have quickly shown it what a strike from the Emperor felt like!
However, before departing, the Chaos Strike Cruiser directly deployed hundreds of drop pods towards the front line, carrying a large number of troops!
Boom!!!
The sky was ignited, and streaks of meteor-like drop pods, trailing dazzling fire, plummeted towards the front line!
Then, the Chaos Astartes who emerged from them were clad in brass-like, yet severely corroded power armor; the Imperial Aquila emblem on their chests had long been twisted by the power of Chaos, becoming Khorne's bloody skull symbol!
Their weapons were mostly close-combat weapons such as chainswords, power swords, power axes, and chain axes, emitting terrifying roars and howls that shook the surroundings!
"It's the world Eaters!"
After accurately locking onto the enemy with his auspex, Leon's heart immediately sank.
No one knew better than them what kind of Chaos warband that was; its origins could even be traced back to the initial Legions of the Great Crusade era, and its Primarch was Angron, who had fallen to Chaos and been elevated to daemonhood by Khorne!
The Chaos world Eaters Legion was known for its preference for close-quarters combat and its brutal style of collecting enemy skulls; even among the many rebellious Chaos Legions, they were a particularly troublesome type!
But the biggest problem was… the numbers!
The Chaos forces had directly deployed the equivalent of several full Astartes companies, smashing them into the front line.
The already precarious defensive line completely became a 'Maginot' line; the enemy only needed to gather their strength and charge once to easily crush the defenses they had set up!
Even though Leon was already an old veteran, capable of reciting the Astartes Codex by heart and remembering the Primarch's teachings, he couldn't help but curse, "What the hell! Where did all these Chaos Astartes come from?!"
Their rescue mission this time only involved one company, numbering barely a hundred men at most; even counting the mortal auxiliary forces on the Strike Cruiser, it would be impossible to hold back several companies of Chaos Astartes!
Moreover… Leon looked worriedly at the starry sky; the Strike Cruiser had already ascended. If all went as expected… what awaited the company would be a Chaos Astartes boarding action!
"My… lord, do we still have reinforcements?"
Galahad, the Tech-Priest, had participated in the Cadian campaign, so he naturally knew what was coming next; at this moment, he was almost in tears.
Loselle… what a truly blessed place!
Cultists were one thing, Tzeentch and Khorne daemon armies were another for now, but for an entire Chaos Astartes warband to suddenly appear—was this to reenact the Cadian campaign?
"Less talk, keep fixing the comms array!" Leon glared at Galahad; if the timing weren't so inappropriate, he would have slapped him already for asking such idiotic questions!
"Kurs, Roman, Fast, immediately lead your squads to construct defensive positions at the factory's front line!"
Although Leon knew in his heart that their chances of holding out were extremely low, he still had to persevere until the very last moment: "For the Emperor, for the Primarch, never retreat a single step!!!"
At this moment.
Every Astartes already clearly understood.
They would die in battle, die to Chaos, but they would never retreat half a step, never bring shame to the Primarch's face!
"Courage! Glory!"
"Fight to the death, never retreat!!!"
Astartes were, after all, not mortal troops; even on an extremely desperate battlefield, they never lacked the courage to draw their blades and slay the enemy!
The only good news was that no Terminators had been deployed by the enemy yet; otherwise, things would truly be dire.
Leon nervously analyzed the battle situation; he guessed that the world Eaters' intention was likely to use Terminators as an advantage for a boarding action, to quickly capture the Strike Cruiser in orbit.
Therefore, they had to contact command as soon as possible.
"Bring out the meltaguns from the factory!" Leon roared fiercely, "Give these damned Chaos heretics a surprise!"
This factory was originally Loselle's armory; many of its facilities had been severely damaged, but fortunately… what they were best at was repairing simple weapon equipment.
Moreover, with Galahad, the excellent Tech-Priest, helping, several heavy weapons were quickly restored!
"Try to prevent them from getting close!"
Leon issued the order nervously.
This wasn't out of fear of Chaos, but rather to avoid their weaknesses and leverage their strengths; only a madman would engage the world Eaters in close combat!
Although, under the strictures of the Astartes Codex, the Astartes Legions underwent multiple divisions by the Imperium, transforming from their original Legion form into Chapters.
However… the gene-seed of each Chapter, tracing back to its Primarch and the style of its founding Legion, still lingered and deeply influenced the successor Chapters that were split off in various founding eras.
Taking the 'Watchers' Chapter as an example, their gene-seed can be traced back to the Ultramarines Legion, all originating from the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar; the genes ingrained in their very being made them more skilled in politics, administration, and other such endeavors.
Of course, this does not mean that the Ultramarines' gene-seed is not adept at combat; it simply means that compared to other Legions, the Ultramarines leaned more towards these aspects.
After all, it is no exaggeration to say that within the current Imperial territory, the descendants of the Ultramarines are the most numerous, and their gene-seed is also recognized as the most stable, giving them the greatest say; they are truly countless in their blue sons and grandsons.
The sudden arrival of the world Eaters forced the Astartes of the Watchers Chapter to consider withdrawing their mortal auxiliary forces to prevent the line from being instantly torn apart.
Jackal and Emrys, along with the other auxiliary troops, retreated into the factory, responsible for operating the newly repaired equipment, striking at the world Eaters from a distance, and targeting positions attempting to break through the line.
"Kid, it seems… you won't be able to escape."
Jackal looked surprisingly happy, wiping blood from his face as he operated a heavy twin-linked heavy bolter turret, roaring and firing into the distance: "Then die fighting with us!"
"You go die, I'm not dying!"
Emrys wiped sweat from his face, a faint bloody glint in his eyes, veins bulging on his forehead as he snarled, "I will definitely not die! Definitely!!!"
Strike Cruiser?
Good, good, good. Since Khorne isn't playing by the rules, don't blame me for playing dirty!
"System, stop playing dead!"
Emrys roared internally: "Show me how much energy it takes to bring the 'Key of Covenant' over!"
[Traveler, to transfer the 'Key of Covenant' from the Alien universe to the Main universe, three thousand energy units are required.]
"Jackal, where is there a lot of energy here?" Emrys turned fiercely, looking at Jackal beside him.
"What are you going to do?!"
Jackal was unnerved by his crazed gaze.
"Never mind!"
Emrys' heart was bleeding, but he still gritted his teeth: "I'm going to give those Chaos bastards a surprise!"
No more hiding!
If he kept hiding, everyone would be gone!
When people died, nothing else mattered. Besides, backed by a family with a 'Conqueror-class' battleship, what was he afraid of? There were no Inquisitors here anyway!
Although Jackal wasn't sure what this kid was up to again.
But the instinct honed by years on the battlefield told him that this matter... would most likely not be small.
Gulp!
Jackal swallowed, staring at Emrys: "Don't cause me trouble. Our situation is already chaotic enough!"
"You said it yourself, the situation is already chaotic enough, so what's one more of me?" Emrys licked his lips, his eyes full of madness: "It can't get any worse, can it?"
Jackal thought about it carefully, and it seemed he was right!
Since the situation was already so bad, it couldn't possibly get any worse than this, could it?
"Head into the factory. There's a power reactor left by the oil riggers at the core. That thing should meet your standards, right?" Jackal pointed to the factory behind him and said with determination: "Give these sons of bitches, these Chaos scum, a really big show!"
"Alright, just you wait!"
Emrys dropped a sentence and turned to disappear into the factory.
However, his words made Jackal shiver inexplicably, as if a chill had penetrated his bones, making him murmur: "This kid... he wouldn't really cause some big trouble, would he?"
Although he said it out loud, he didn't actually have much hope for Emrys' words in his heart.
After all, no matter how much a hive scavenger could stir things up, how much trouble could he really cause?
"All weapon arrays, fire!!!"
At this moment, Leon's voice came.
Jackal immediately snapped out of his wild thoughts and focused his attention on dealing with the surging Chaos scum, no longer thinking about Emrys' matter.
Back to Emrys, he jumped down from the high gun emplacement in the factory and, relying on the excellent amplification of his bio-armor, charged directly into the depths of the factory.
Along the way, Emrys discovered something.
Many facilities in this factory, including the original weapon arrays, had all been destroyed in advance. Everywhere, he could see the tragic deaths of the oil riggers.
"Indeed... the mastermind is not Urien at all!" His eyes were gloomy as he examined the injuries of several oil riggers, which were clearly caused by Imperium of Man weapons.
So, before the chaos erupted, someone had already sabotaged the forge factory for today, to prevent the resistance from being too strong and causing their plan to fail.
But... who was the saboteur?
Emrys' thoughts were a mess, and he couldn't find any clues for a while, so he could only temporarily put it aside and focus on the immediate predicament.
The mastermind would always reveal himself. He had to find a way to deal with so many Chaos Astartes outside first, otherwise... with only the three Watcher squads and no assistance from the regular Astra Militarum, it would be almost impossible to stop them!
Deep inside the factory's core, three massive power reactors had clearly been damaged and were completely shut down.
"God bless, there must be some!"
Emrys gritted his teeth in frustration, hurried forward, and raised his hand to touch the tall reactor body: "Traveler system, how much energy is inside?"
His biggest concern was that all the energy in the reactors had leaked out due to the damage.
[Detected large power reactor (severely damaged), remaining internal energy: 9700 units]
"Absorb!"
Emrys breathed a slight sigh of relief. As long as the remaining two reactors were similar to this one, he would be able to summon the battleship 'Key of Contract' from the Alien universe to the Main universe!
[Energy replenished: 9700 units]
[Energy replenished: 12000 units]
[Energy replenished: 15000 units]
[Current energy remaining: 36700 units]
"Good!"
Emrys' eyes gleamed; this wave was stable!
With over thirty thousand units of energy as a backup, it was definitely enough for summoning. Next, he just needed to find a suitable location, then summon the 'Key of Contract' and give the petty Khorne a huge surprise!
Pulling out the Mark 5 from his personal space, Emrys caressed the damaged armor, his face full of emotion as he said: "After this is done, I really need to go back and find Tony to give you a good repair."
As he put on the Mark 5 again, a familiar voice came.
"Welcome back, user. Sunday is at your service!"
"Activate stealth mode." Wearing dual armor, Emrys immediately felt much safer. In stealth mode, he quietly slipped out from the side of the factory.
Summoning a battleship was no small matter.
If he did it in front of so many people, he might be mistaken for Chaos scum, so it was best to avoid it if possible.
After escaping the factory's firing range, Emrys immediately activated propulsion mode and flew directly into the clouds.
Fortunately, because of the Chaos Astartes, most of the firepower and attention were drawn away. Although Leon spotted a shadow flying high into the sky, he didn't pay too much attention to it.
Once he flew into the clouds, Emrys confirmed that no one was around before he traversed to the Alien universe.
The next moment.
The Key of Contract, a battleship of the Engineer race from the Alien universe, suddenly appeared in the sky!
"What the hell is that?!"
Jackal's eyes widened as he stared at the strange gray battleship that suddenly appeared in the sky, shaped like two intertwined hands, resembling a key.
"Oh no, is it an alien battleship?!"
Leon, a veteran of many battles, recognized it at a glance. That thing was definitely not an Imperial creation. In fact, anyone could see from the styles that it had nothing to do with the Imperium.
The already tense mood of the Astartes sank to the bottom when they saw such a large alien battleship.
Could it be that Captain Raymond forgot to worship the Primarch and lord Kaldor today?
Otherwise, why were they so unlucky!
First, the damn world Eaters warband, and now an alien battleship appearing out of nowhere. This was truly a case of bad luck opening the door for worse luck, bringing it all the way home!
"You little bastard! Your Grandpa is here!!!"
Emrys, piloting the 'Key of Contract', marked all positions on the star map below, excluding the factory. His face was flushed red with excessive excitement, veins popping from his forehead, as he let out a hearty roar: "Die, die, die, die, die, die, die!!!"
The next moment, the massive, key-shaped battleship aimed its cannons at the Chaos Astartes, daemons, and cultists, letting out an earth-shattering roar!
Boom boom boom boom boom boom... High-energy plasma cannons rained down on Chaos like raindrops!
Azure Energy Cannon, with a diameter of over ten meters, directly struck the positions, instantly raising dozens of meters of smoke and dust. The roar and flames from the explosion instantly annihilated dozens of Chaos Astartes who hadn't even reacted!
"My Emperor..." Jackal's eyes widened in confusion, dumbfounded: "Did I see that wrong? An alien battleship... is actually helping us fight Chaos?"
Leon was also stunned.
Wasn't that an alien battleship? How... it looked like it had a grudge against Chaos? It just kept chasing and attacking them!
The Chaos, including the Astartes of the world Eaters warband, were almost bewildered. Why were they only attacking them and not the Imperium?
Since when did Aliens become 'loyal'?!
But unfortunately, Emrys couldn't hear their roars, and in fact, even if he did, he wouldn't pay attention.
It's you I'm fighting!
Emrys held down the fire button and didn't let go, his eerie laughter echoing throughout the cockpit. If he wasn't afraid of attracting Nurgle again, he would have loved to drop all the black water to let these damn Chaos scum have a taste of the gene virus!
The weapon arrays carried by the Key of Contract were basically designed to deal with universe-level bombardments, so their destructive power was astonishing. With one shot, the Chaos were crying for their daddies and mummies!
The originally dense Chaos army was cleared out in large swaths after just a few rounds of volleys!
"Hahahahahahaha..."
"Awesome! This is so damn awesome!"
Emrys, like a war maniac, piloted the Key of Contract, completely disregarding any threats, just holding down the fire button.
What Chaos Astartes?
If you have the guts, jump into the stratosphere and fight me!
"Incoming high-energy strike detected!"
"Danger! Danger! Danger!"
Suddenly, urgent warning sounds rang out.
Emrys' pupils contracted slightly as he looked at the star map. It was indeed a macro cannon from a world Eaters strike cruiser in orbit!
"Tsk... I only enjoyed it for so long, and it's already over?" Emrys clicked his tongue lightly, but he wasn't surprised.
He had considered blowing up the Chaos battleship with the Key of Contract, but the fact was it was almost impossible. The Key of Contract would most likely be destroyed before it even got close.
Rather than that, it was better to make the most of its remaining power before it was destroyed, to reduce the Chaos' effective strength as much as possible and buy resistance time for the ground forces.
However... Emrys' face showed no fear; instead, he revealed a final hint of madness: "Chaos grandsons, are you ready? Your Grandpa... is here!!!"
Boom!!!
Amidst the roars of the Chaos Astartes, the alien battleship was hit by the macro cannon. Its hull was severely damaged, spewing flames and smoke, and it was teetering.
The Chaos side cheered!
The damn alien was finally destroyed!
However... the next second after their cheers, their voices seemed to get stuck in their throats, because they suddenly discovered that the huge alien battleship was plummeting straight towards them!
"Nooooooo!!!"
The Chaos side immediately wailed across the field.
Emrys grinned sinisterly, piloting the crashing Key of Contract, and slammed into the Chaos side!
"Say your prayer!!!"