Once the joint fleet had taken up the positions Lion required, it fell completely silent. Lying in wait and then striking the enemy with a fatal blow was, by sheer coincidence, exactly the sort of tactic both Legions excelled at.
The Night Lords hardly needed explaining. Among the many Legions, they were the most fond of fighting dirty, and it was also the best way to defeat a stronger foe with weaker forces.
Had the timeline continued along its original track, the Dark Angels would naturally have learned what it felt like to suffer a full Night Lords sneak attack.
As for the Dark Angels, while they were not masters of underhanded warfare, they were still a Legion whose combat logic was not all that different from a great hunting cat's. Ambush, then instant explosive violence, was practically standard procedure for them.
In short, for the warriors of both Legions, hunting a target from concealment was exactly their kind of battle.
Fortunately, Erebus did not keep them waiting too long.
Around the ninth standard Terran day, a disturbance in the Warp spread near the Mandeville Point, and reality itself began to twist.
Then, a small fleet surged out through the Warp breach.
They had arrived.
The quarry had appeared.
The appearance of that small fleet electrified everyone. But to avoid alarming the enemy too soon, they still had to wait until the ships fully cleared the Mandeville Point and lost any real chance of escape before attacking.
You had to admit, Erebus had some nerve. Even with the blessings of the Chaos Gods, he still obediently came out through the Mandeville Point like a law-abiding citizen. Ridiculous.
It was like a criminal convoy refusing to take back roads and instead choosing to come straight out through a toll station. Naturally, it got boxed in at the exit.
"Lock onto that battle barge! The most important target of this mission is on that ship!" Bruce barked, staring intently at the Hand of Destiny on the hololithic display.
"Yes, sir!"
The fire-control officer immediately began calculating and fixing the battle barge's flight path.
That warship did not look especially conspicuous within the fleet, but it really was Erebus's flagship—or at least, it was for now. So focusing everything on beating it to death was absolutely the correct move.
Bruce also knew that Erebus actually possessed an Abyss-class super-battleship as another flagship, but since it was not here, there was no need to worry about anything except the Hand of Destiny.
That made things simpler.
On the other side, Erebus's detached fleet made only the briefest preparations before continuing onward.
Because time was short and the mission urgent, it was not a large force. At most, there were only ten ships in total, mostly battle barges, with a few strike cruisers mixed in—and even supply ships.
A fleet like that could still handle itself if it encountered an enemy.
Unfortunately…
The ones watching them were no ordinary opponents.
They were being hunted by the Invincible Reason.
Lion watched the target fleet's every move with killing intent blazing in her eyes. If not for the thin thread of reason still restraining her, she would already have ordered the launch of Cyclonic Torpedoes.
Damn you, Erebus.
Die under a storm of my Cyclonics—your share, and my brothers' as well.
Thirty torpedoes were more than enough to blast you into dust.
…
Completely unaware of what awaited him, Erebus looked at the destination he was about to reach and allowed himself a satisfied smile.
Only one final step remained.
Once he boarded the Vengeful Spirit, the gods would descend with their blessing and grant their favor to that mighty warlord, the Luna Wolf himself.
The Warmaster of the Imperium, the Emperor's most beloved son—what an honor, what a destiny, for him to become a vessel of the Chaos Gods.
"My lord, the route has been set. The coordinates of the Vengeful Spirit have been confirmed," reported one of the daemon sorcerers.
"Good. Increase speed."
"Yes, my lord!"
"It's so quiet…" Erebus sighed in contentment.
There were no troublesome xenos forces nearby either—presumably the Sons of Horus had already cleared the region. But that no longer mattered.
Very soon, he would complete the task entrusted to him by the gods and bring about the greatest transformation humanity—and the whole galaxy—had ever seen.
"My lord, you seem to be in excellent spirits," said one of the Blessed Sons, an Astartes possessed by a daemon.
"Of course. Once this is done, our great undertaking will advance another step. Soon… the Imperium of Man will be elevated. We shall be the ones who push this change forward!" Erebus declared with fervent delight.
The gods themselves would take pride in him.
"Yes…" the Blessed Son murmured, suddenly moved.
We will have our vengeance upon the false god.
The humiliation you inflicted on the Perfect City and upon us will be repaid.
Soon, Erebus's fleet entered the joint fleet's firing range.
Yet both Legions, almost instinctively, refrained from opening fire at once. They waited.
Erebus's ships were advancing in an inverted wedge formation. To achieve the best possible kill ratio, it was better to wait until even the vessels at the rear had fully entered the trap.
Damn it—if you were going to kill them, then kill them all. Why leave little fish alive?
More importantly, to the commanders of the joint fleet, the Chaos sigils already visible across the Word Bearers' ships made the seriousness of the mission impossible to ignore.
These wretched heretics had to die.
"Fire!"
Lion had watched every move of the enemy fleet and, once she confirmed they were entirely within effective range, gave the order.
At the same instant, the guns of both fleets—and indeed, both Legions—unleashed a perfectly synchronized barrage.
An ocean of firepower poured toward the target fleet.
Lance beams struck first, punching clean through the lead cruiser and smashing it apart. Then came the dense macro-cannon bombardment, crossing in an X-pattern that left almost no chance of survival, whether on the outer line or in the center of the formation.
The torpedoes that followed sealed every possible route of escape.
Unless the fleet could somehow flee straight upward or downward, there was no path it could take that would not lead directly into the saturated torpedo barrage.
And by then, Erebus's fleet no longer had any chance of escaping.
The wreckage from the exploding warships had already choked off the route ahead, and no emergency maneuver could possibly break through the kill zone in time.
Worse still, by then the joint fleet had already cast off its disguise, entered full combat mode, and begun closing in.
Erebus was trapped. There was no escape now.
"?!"
"Detected a massive Warp-energy signal!"
"That's wrong!"
A strange Warp-energy fluctuation swept across the fleet.
That saturation strike should have annihilated everything.
And yet one battle barge had miraculously survived.
Impossible.
What in the hell was that void-shield system on that battle barge?
Even more unbelievable to the joint fleet was what happened next: when the torpedoes neared that ship, they began to twist unnaturally, as though some unknown force were pulling them aside.
"Not good! That battle barge is preparing to force an emergency Warp jump!"
"Stop it!"
"Yes, sir!"
Faced with such an absurd situation, the officers of the joint fleet could only grit their teeth in frustration. Who could have expected one ship to survive like this—and in so outrageous a way?
Fortunately, at the critical moment, one slightly delayed torpedo seemed to receive some kind of blessing. It slipped through the surrounding wreckage, ignored the distortion produced by the Warp sorcery, and slammed straight into the rear engines.
The Hand of Destiny's attempt to tear open the Warp was cut off on the spot.
With its engines temporarily disabled, the Hand of Destiny became nothing more than a lamb waiting for slaughter.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter116)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter82)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter144)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 118
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 111
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 80
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 112
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 80
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 74
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 48
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 50
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 47
Uma Musume: From Beginner 42
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