Cherreads

Chapter 47 - Chapter 16: The Corrupted Altar

The darkness at the end of the tunnel was swallowed by a massive underground cavern.

The cold, damp air seemed to congeal into something tangible, pressing heavily onto everyone's shoulders. The stench, a mixture of rust, saltpeter, and the rot of unknown creatures, was so thick here that it was nauseating; every breath felt like swallowing the stale air of a tomb.

Directly ahead of the squad stood the source of all the evil in this mine.

An altar.

It stood about ten meters tall, welded together in a twisted fashion from some unrecognizable black alloy that shimmered with a dull metallic luster and countless ghastly white bones. Human skulls, xenos ribs, and even more massive bones of unidentifiable origin formed a blasphemous, hideous structure covered in spikes and sharp horns.

The surface of the altar was engraved with countless pulsing Chaos runes. They writhed like living things, flickering on and off, and from the gaps between the runes, viscous, foul liquid emitting a ghostly green phosphorescence constantly seeped out. As the liquid dripped onto the ground, it made a "hissing" corrosive sound, burning black, smoking pits into the hard rocky floor.

This was the deepest part of the nest.

Terrania's small face was devoid of color. She hid her entire body behind Leticia, her golden eyes filled with fear and disgust, as if just one more glance at that altar would stain her soul.

The Astra Militarum Soldiers gripped their lasguns, their throats bobbing uncontrollably. They were tough men who had crawled out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, but the sight before them exceeded the scope of horror that any mortal could comprehend.

Even Valerius, an Imperial Commissar armed to the teeth with iron-fisted discipline, felt cold sweat seeping from his palms at this moment. He stared fixedly at the altar with his gray eyes; his reason told him that this thing should absolutely not exist in the real universe.

Fogremia stepped forward half a pace, shielding Leticia and Terrania more securely. A look of undisguised disgust, like an artist viewing a crude doodle, appeared on her perfect face.

"It is... ugly to the extreme."

A flash of killing intent passed through her purple pupils.

Just then, the viscous chanting, recited by countless throats, suddenly rose in volume.

A figure slowly turned from the shadows of the altar.

It was an exceptionally tall man, or rather, it had once been a man. His body had long since undergone the most horrific fusion with cold mechanical parts. One arm had been replaced by a rust-covered hydraulic drill, while the other extended into several sharp, metallic, spider-leg-like appendages. His chest cavity had been sliced open, with countless writhing cables entangled with beating, fleshy organs to form a hateful mechanical heart.

He raised his head, and there was no longer any trace of human emotion on that face. His eyes burned with two ghostly green, inhuman flames.

He had been possessed.

A demon from the Subspace was greedily examining the intruders through this broken shell.

"Fresh flesh..."

"Fresh... souls!"

The possessed cult leader let out a shrill roar, a sound that seemed to be a mixture of countless pieces of metal grinding together and the wails of the dying, sharp enough to pierce eardrums.

Following his roar, elite Cultists wielding chainaxes and crude autopistols appeared silently from the shadows around the cavern. The level of corruption on their bodies far exceeded the cannon fodder on the surface, and their eyes shone with the same madness and greed as their leader's.

The encirclement was complete.

Leticia, however, did not even glance at the cannon fodder emerging from the shadows.

Her reaction was terrifyingly calm.

She simply closed her eyes gently.

The moment she closed her eyes, the Authority of [Knowledge] activated.

The entire world instantly deconstructed in her perception, reassembling into a completely different picture.

The form of matter vanished. In its place was a reality composed purely of countless data streams and energy lines.

In her "vision," that ugly altar had turned into a massive black tumor constantly spewing foul energy outward. Countless thin, dark red energy threads representing "corruption" extended from the tumor, connecting to every Cultist present, manipulating their lives and wills like marionettes.

The possessed cult leader was the core host of this tumor. A violent, chaotic, and destructive ghostly green psychic storm was coiled within his body, its energy level far exceeding that of any Space Marine.

"A minor demon... looks like a branch under Slaanesh, a servant of The Spider Mother."

Leticia's consciousness, like the most efficient processor, completed the analysis of all enemies in an instant.

"The altar is the energy source, the demon host is the controller. As long as the altar is destroyed, the power supply to all Cultists can be cut off."

Just as she finished her analysis, a new system notification with a golden border clearly appeared in her consciousness interface.

"Detected high-concentration Chaos pollution source: The blasphemous Spider Mother Altar."

"Detected Chaos minor demon host: Spider Demon Possessed."

"Mission objective updated: Thoroughly purify the altar and the demon host."

"Estimated Warband Points obtainable after complete purification: 3000+"

Three thousand points! A ripple stirred in the lake of Leticia's heart. The rewards for this side quest were far richer than she had imagined. As long as she pulled this off, the ticket money for the Angron dungeon would be more than enough.

"A perfect 'farming spot'." The corners of her mouth curled into a smile that only she could understand—a smile belonging to a player.

However, the Spider Demon coiled within the cult leader did not know that it had already been priced. Its ghostly green flaming pupils bypassed all the Astra Militarum Soldiers, bypassed the steel-willed Political Commissar, and even ignored the powerful aura on Fogremia that made it feel danger.

Its gaze was locked firmly onto Leticia and Terrania, who was hiding behind her. It felt it. Like a traveler in the desert sensing an oasis, like a hungry beast smelling the freshest flesh. The souls of those two girls were so pure, so sweet, so... perfect.

One was like a newborn, brilliant star, full of infinite possibilities. The other was like a sleeping, ancient star, the mass and radiance of whose soul were so vast that it, a minor demon, felt an instinctive trembling and... uncontrollable greed!

As long as it devoured either one of them, it could immediately break through the shackles of a minor demon and become the most favored greater demon under The Spider Mother!

"Sacrifice..."

"Perfect... sacrifice!" The demon host let out a roar of ecstatic, distorted joy.

Its greed overwhelmed its last shred of reason. It abandoned all tactics, abandoned the idea of using the cannon fodder to wear down the enemy; it only wanted to seize those two perfect souls immediately, right now!

It spread its arms, and the mechanical heart in its chest cavity, composed of flesh and cables, began to pulse at a frenzied frequency. Ghostly green psychic energy gushed out from its body like a tsunami, turning into a devastating psychic shockwave that swept indiscriminately across the entire cavern!

"Ahhh!"

"My head! My brain is going to explode!" The Astra Militarum Soldiers standing at the very front were instantly struck by a devastating blow.

This psychic shock acted directly upon their minds. Their senses were stripped away, leaving only countless baring-fanged demonic shadows and blasphemous screams in their minds. The soldiers screamed as they threw away their weapons, rolling on the ground in agony, with black blood flowing from their seven orifices.

Even Valerius, whose will was as hard as steel, felt as if his brain had been smashed by a red-hot iron hammer. He groaned, knelt on one knee, and used his bolt pistol to support himself on the ground, barely managing not to collapse.

However, this psychic shock, which was enough to cause a mortal army to collapse instantly, seemed to hit an invisible wall when it reached Leticia and her group.

Fogremia did not even move; her lavender pupils merely narrowed slightly, and a layer of invisible repulsion field expanded, effortlessly brushing aside all spiritual pollution.

Leticia was completely unharmed; she merely reached out and gently covered Terrania's ears, as if shielding her from annoying noise outside the window.

The psychic shockwave whistled past. On the entire battlefield, apart from the three of them, there was not a single person left standing.

"Hmm?" In the demon host's flaming pupils, confusion appeared for the first time. Its full-force strike was actually... ineffective?

But immediately, this confusion was replaced by even deeper greed. The more powerful the other party was, the more precious their souls proved to be!

The demon host changed its strategy. It let out a sinister laugh, no longer making futile long-range attacks. Its figure instantly became blurred in place, like a projection with a bad signal.

"Teleportation?!" Fogremia's expression changed, and she immediately became vigilant.

However, the demon's target was not any of the three of them. Its figure completely disappeared from where it stood.

When it appeared again, it had ghostly appeared behind the isolated and helpless Imperial Commissar, who was struggling to stand up.

Valerius stiffened, and a deadly chill shot from his spine straight to his crown. He didn't even have time to turn around. A metal claw, shimmering with ghostly green psychic energy and dripping with corrosive liquid, had already silently aimed at his heart from behind!

---------------------------------

I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction so far! If the fanfiction has you hooked and you can't wait to see what happens next, you can unlock 30 or more chapters in advance over on my patreon: patreon.com/FTLGenBen

Also every bit of support means the world to me so if you're loving the ride, don't forget to drop a Power Stone, Thanks.

More Chapters