The Great Unclean One looked up.
It saw the axe blade descending from the sky, wreathed in a five-colored spiral of light.
It wanted to dodge.
But the suppression line of the Brothers of Silence and the psychic chains of the Grey Knights successfully restricted it, slowing its movements by one second.
One second.
In a battle of this caliber, that was more than enough to decide life and death.
The blade of the Watcher's Axe struck precisely between the Great Unclean One's brows.
Slicing in from the brow, and straight down.
Through the bridge of the nose, the mouth, the jaw.
Down along the neck, the chest, the abdomen...
Straight down all the way.
The axe blade met no substantial resistance whatsoever.
The disruption field broke down the carrion carapace at the molecular level.
The light of the five traits neutralized all resistance from the putrid psychic energy.
The dark gold psychic energy purified every trace of plague corruption in its path.
This single strike cleaved into the Great Unclean One's head and exited from its crotch.
Slicing its nineteen-meter-tall body cleanly into two perfect halves.
Time seemed to stop at this moment.
Every single sound on the battlefield vanished without a trace.
The Brothers of Silence, the Grey Knights, the muzzles of the Tech-Priests, the gazes of the distant Blood Angels and PDF soldiers...
Everything froze in this single instant.
BOOM!!!
The Great Unclean One's bisected body underwent a total disintegration, starting from the cut.
The rotting flesh liquefied, melting into yellowish-green pus.
The pustules ruptured, thousands of unreleased boils detonating simultaneously, plunging into utter self-destruction.
The bones turned to ash, scattering into the air.
The green blowflies, Nurglings, and plague wyrms parasitizing inside its body panicked and tried to flee.
But the moment they left the host body, under the effect of the anti-psychic field, swaths of them exploded into fetid specks of pus.
Sizzle-sizzle-sizzle-sizzle...
The sound of corrosion was endless.
But the most vital core was the Warp essence within the Great Unclean One's body.
A dense, nauseating streak of yellowish-green spiritual light.
It rose from the center of the disintegrating body, emitting a sizzling sound of corrosion, attempting to shrink back toward the rift that was still spewing Nurgle daemons behind it.
But Paul didn't give it the chance. He knew full well that as long as the essence wasn't destroyed, this Greater Daemon wasn't truly dead.
By this time, the Brothers of Silence Company had already deactivated their anti-psychic fields.
He slowly raised the storm shield on his left arm.
Pouring his full-body psychic energy into the storm shield, the Aquila emblem in the center blazed with a blinding dark gold light.
"In the name of the Emperor—For the glory of the Imperium! The sacred domain of the Imperium permits no filth to remain! By the power bestowed upon me by the Emperor, I execute final judgment and purification upon the heretic who dares invade the sacred Imperium of Man!"
He thrust the storm shield, now brimming with overwhelming dark gold psychic energy, forward.
A fierce aura of dark gold psychic energy extended outward, enveloping that streak of yellowish-green Warp essence spiritual light that was trying to escape.
The five-pointed star in his pupils spun frantically. Led by the traits of Hope and Wisdom, the five major traits began to madly grind away at this sliver of Warp origin spiritual light.
Sizzle-crackle-hiss!!!
The spiritual light violently clashed against the barrier, letting out ear-piercing shrieks.
Ten seconds later.
The spiritual light dissipated completely, leaving only a streak of green smoke, invisible to everyone else, drifting off toward some unknown destination far away.
This unnamed Great Unclean One had been completely purified and annihilated from the physical plane of reality.
It left behind only a thirty-meter-wide scar of pollution, the ground corroded into a dark green, foul-smelling pit sprouting low-lying fungal blooms.
This Great Unclean One of Nurgle, capable of single-handedly destroying a Hive World, had been here for less than two hours.
And under the tactical coordination of the Crimson Dawn's four thousand six hundred superhuman warriors, and by Paul's fatal strike...
It had thoroughly fallen on Aurelian IV.
–
In the center of the battlefield, that golden figure slowly stood straight.
Paul loosened his grip on the axe; the handle of the Watcher's Axe was smeared with yellowish-green pus-blood that was currently dripping down along the blade.
The golden livery of his Aquilon Terminator armor was mottled with foul blood, and the Aquila baton on his pauldron was splattered with disgusting slime.
But he still stood there, in the center of the contaminated zone left behind by the disintegration of a Great Unclean One and the battlefield of the Nurgle daemon tide.
He became the focal point for tens of thousands of gazes.
He had successfully slain a Greater Daemon of Nurgle from the Warp and held the Aru Industrial Zone defensive line that had been tottering on the brink of collapse before the Nurgle daemon tide.
The gaze beneath the golden faceplate swept across the battlefield.
Sweeping over the Nurgle daemons that were still pouring from the rift but had lost their command and fallen into chaos.
Sweeping over the shocked, incredulous faces on the defensive line behind him.
"YEEEAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
"We won!!!"
"Long live the Emperor!!! Glory to the Praetor!!!"
The Crimson Dawn PDF soldiers erupted into deafening cheers.
Many of those hiding within the final defensive fortifications threw away their weapons, hugging each other and weeping. These mortals, who had believed their deaths were certain just an hour ago, now saw the dawn of survival amidst their desperate straits.
Seranaphy Nori stood in place, his power sword thrust into the ground beside him.
The Blood Angels Champion's festering cheek was still oozing pus and blood, and the Red Thirst continued to erode his sanity. But he completely ignored all of that now.
He merely looked at that golden figure, at that Custodes Praetor.
Then, he slowly dropped to one knee.
He slammed his right fist against his left chest.
A Blood Angels salute, directed at someone other than their Primarch.
Behind him, the remaining one hundred-odd Blood Angels warriors followed suit, dropping to their knees in perfect unison.
No words were needed.
This salute was a reverence for absolute martial might. It was gratitude for saving the defensive line, and even more so, an acknowledgment of the Emperor's will manifesting in such a form.
--
Bridge of the Red Tear.
Azkaellon looked at the frozen image on the tactical screen—the golden giant standing amidst the battlefield swarming with Warp heretics.
He remained silent for a moment.
Then, the Sanguinary Guard Commander spoke softly, his voice carrying complex emotions, "Transmit an order to the entire fleet. Send a communication request to the Terra's Glory with the highest honors. The message... The Blood Angels Legion thanks the Praetor for his support. Furthermore, inquire if the Praetor can assist the Blood Angels Legion in purging the remaining heretics in the City of the Holy Anthem."
The bridge officers exchanged glances.
This inquiry was almost tantamount to handing over partial command of the City of the Holy Anthem battlefield to this suddenly appearing Custodes Praetor.
But no one raised any objections.
Because everyone had just witnessed that battle.
To face and slay such a terrifying Warp entity head-on with a non-Primarch physique—such a combat achievement was enough to be written into tactical textbooks across the entire history of the Imperium.
--
Paul slowly exhaled, then raised his left hand and traced the air.
Dark gold psychic energy coalesced into new orders.
[The Warp entity in the Aru Industrial Zone has been purified.]
[All forces, clear the remaining entities and advance to the edge of the rift.]
[Tech-Priest Detachment, prepare to deploy the temporary Warp Rift Sealing Device.]
[Before the next Warp entity squeezes its way out. We are going to close this door.]
The instant the orders were issued, the Crimson Dawn player army mobilized once more.
Astartes warriors charged into the leaderless daemon tide and began an efficient harvest.
The Grey Knights dispersed again, eliminating various mid-tier and elite-tier daemons.
The Brothers of Silence maintained their suppression line, advancing step by step.
Tech-Priests unloaded massive equipment from the transports.
It was a Temporary Warp Rift Stabilizing and Sealing Device, redeemed from the Store for one billion Imperial Coins.
Paul nodded slightly.
He looked up at the sky.
Toward the direction of the City of the Holy Anthem.
Over there, blue-purple pollution clouds were still churning, and the auras of the two Tzeentch Greater Daemons remained potent. Meanwhile, Sanguinius's pale golden psychic energy was fiercely clashing against them.
Sanguinius, please hold on just a little longer, Paul muttered inwardly. Once we close this rift... we'll come help you take out those two.
He tightened his grip on the Watcher's Axe.
The foul blood on the blade slowly evaporated under the effects of the psychic energy.
--
At the same time, in the City of the Holy Anthem hive.
Sanguinius, currently locked in a bitter struggle with the two Tzeentch Greater Daemons, Mist-Weaver and Cinder-Burner, suddenly paused imperceptibly.
The amber-gold slit pupils of the Great Angel turned toward the Aru Industrial Zone.
His psychic senses pierced through layers of space, catching the massive, putrid Warp psychic fluctuation that had abruptly dissipated.
And... another unfamiliar aura.
"The source of corruption in the Aru Industrial Zone... has been purified?" A flash of surprise crossed Sanguinius's eyes. Although Seranaphy was the Champion of his Blood Angels Legion, he absolutely did not possess this level of capability.
"Then... is this the unpredictable entity that drew me here?" Sanguinius murmured to himself.
Then, the corners of his mouth curled into an almost imperceptible smile.
The sword light of the Blade Encarmine in his hand abruptly flared brighter.
"In that case... I should also... speed things up." With a powerful flap of his wings, Sanguinius transformed into a golden flash piercing across the battlefield, diving straight for Mist-Weaver Calidus.