This is the bonus chapter for reaching 1600 Powerstones.
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Paul smiled after listening. "Very useful info. Dealing with a Greater Daemon... becomes much easier once you know its True Name."
He looked at Aetaos, who was hovering mid-air.
Aetaos was watching this scene play out with great interest.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." The voice of tens of millions of mingled pitches echoed from the twenty-meter-tall daemon's maw. "The Ninth Primarch, Sanguinius, the Great Angel, one of the False Emperor's most perfect creations... Truly... a beautiful art of slaughter. And what about you two? The Emperor's lapdog, and this... interesting little toy." The Lord of Change's mouth curled into an eerie smile. "What do you plan to—"
"Heretic." Paul coldly cut it off.
The golden Custodes Praetor took a step forward, pointing the blade of the Watcher's Axe at Aetaos. "You caused the tragedy of the City of the Holy Anthem hive. The fall of billions, the death of hundreds of thousands, the corruption of the entire hive. I, Demetrian Titus, Praetor of the Imperial Custodes' Covert Inquisition," his voice abruptly turned freezing cold, "by order of the Master of Mankind, shall deliver your judgment and punishment. And inflict upon you... an agony you shall never forget for all eternity."
Paul tightened his grip on the axe handle, the azure psychic energy of Pioneering entwining around the blade.
"The Emperor's lapdog..." Aetaos's voice was a blend of tens of millions of pitches, every word carrying a blasphemous whisper. "How could you possibly fathom my strength? How could you comprehend the mighty power of the Changer of Ways? You think that relying on a single Custodian and a little girl holding a toy wand..."
It couldn't finish its sentence.
Because a searing blast of fire over five meters in diameter slammed into its face without any warning!
BOOM!!!
The flames exploded, and a blue-purple psychic shield automatically flared to life, blocking the fire.
It looked down toward the source of the flames.
Helovia stood atop the ruins, both hands tightly gripping the pink crystal wand, the nebula-like energy at its tip spinning frantically.
The little girl's face no longer bore any trace of her previous confusion and struggle. Only the icy resolve in her eyes remained.
"Father..." Helovia said softly. Her voice wasn't loud, yet it clearly echoed across the entire battlefield. "You are already gone. The you right now is nothing but a warp entity... wearing my father's shell. So, I am going to purify you. For the billions of people you killed. And also... to set you free."
Almost simultaneously.
"Grey Knights Squad!" Paul's voice rang out in the regional channel. "Charge Psycannons! Prepare Liturgies of Exorcism! Prepare Mantras of Purification! Bring out all wrist-mounted storm bolters! After firing one volley, immediately switch to Mantra of Purification support!"
"Understood!" the one hundred Grey Knight players responded in unison.
They finally unholstered the heavy weapons from their back mounts that they hadn't yet used: Psycannons.
These were [Standard Grey Knights Psycannons] redeemed from the System Store. Every shell was imbued with pure psychic energy, specifically tailored against Warp daemons.
Twenty Psycannons were braced, their muzzles beginning to gather azure light.
The other eighty Grey Knights raised their wrist-mounted storm bolters. These were modified, triple-barreled bolters mounted on the wrists of their power armor, boasting higher rates of fire and rounds plated with psychic runes.
Azure psychic energy surged from Paul himself as he slowly levitated into the air.
"You Blue Birds and your bullshit..." Paul gripped the Watcher's Axe with both hands, azure psychic energy entwining around the blade. "...is really unending! If we're going to fight, then fight! Where does all this literary garbage come from?! Do you think you're starring in The Self-Cultivation of a Greater Daemon?!"
Aetaos: "...?"
He charged toward Aetaos like a golden bolt of lightning.
Mid-flight, he spoke to Helovia telepathically. "Helovia, in a moment, after I grind down most of its Warp power, I will chant its True Name to restrict it. You attack with everything you have. Use that new knowledge in your mind, use the power of magic. Remember, you are not killing your father. You are setting him free. You are atoning for his sins."
Helovia nodded forcefully.
She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, pink magic circle patterns surfaced deep within her pupils.
It was the knowledge... infused into her mind after the [Magical Girl Transformation Device] bound to her soul. It was magic... belonging to the power system of another universe.
"Flames—" Helovia chanted the unfamiliar incantation, the pink crystal at the tip of her wand abruptly flaring with crimson light. "—take the form of a great beast!"
BOOM!!!
The pillar of fire suddenly transformed, shifting from a simple jet of energy into a giant wolf constructed purely of flames!
The giant wolf was eight meters long, formed entirely of leaping fire. Every step it took left molten footprints on the charred concrete ground.
It tilted its head back and howled at the sky. Though there was no sound, the wave of scorching heat made the Blood Angels a hundred meters away feel a burning pain on their skin.
The giant wolf lunged at Aetaos!
"Interesting!" Aetaos wasn't shocked, but rather delighted, a greedy desire to research simultaneously surfacing in all three pairs of its eyes. "A completely unfamiliar energy system! A completely unknown method of spellcasting! Is this the gift bestowed upon you by the entity backing you, little girl?!"
He raised a hand, and the phantom of the Staff of Cataclysm condensed in his palm.
Although this was only a descending vessel incapable of summoning the true artifact's main body, the simulated authority was still terrifying.
"Then let me see... if your system can withstand the warping of reality!"
Blue-purple psychic energy spewed from the phantom staff, weaving into a massive rune network mid-air.
Wherever that network passed, the fabric of reality began to warp.
The instant the giant fire wolf touched the network, its body began to deform uncontrollably.
Its front half was still wolf-like, but its rear half warped into avian wings, and its tail split into over a dozen tentacles.
This was the authority of Tzeentch: reality warping. Forcibly altering the essence of things, granting them absurd, blasphemous new forms.
But... the inherited knowledge told Helovia that mere distortion could not change the essence of magic.
With a mere thought from Helovia...
The distorted giant fire wolf violently exploded!
Countless fiery fragments splattered toward Aetaos like rain. Every single fragment underwent a secondary transformation in mid-air, morphing into firebirds, fire serpents, fire rain...
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!
A chain of explosions erupted right in front of Aetaos, generating a massive energy storm.
Paul charged right into the center of it, braving the energy aftershocks caused by the explosions, only to find that Helovia had failed to inflict any damage upon Aetaos.
All the explosive energy was firmly blocked by a blue-purple shield projected in front of it.
Gripping the Watcher's Axe imbued with azure psychic energy, he tore through the energy lingering in the air and slashed at Aetaos's neck!
CLANG!!!
His attack did not succeed; the axe blade struck a suddenly generated blue-purple psychic shield.
The shockwave expanded like a ripple, dispelling the residual magical energy within a fifty-meter radius.
The shield's surface surfaced with tens of thousands of ever-changing runes, each one frantically reorganizing.
And Paul channeled his psychic energy to madly bolster the Pioneering trait. Azure psychic energy poured continuously into the axe blade, while Spiral Power and the blade's disruption field exerted their might simultaneously.
Sizzle-crackle-hiss!!!
Runes and psychic energy clashed violently, and the shield's surface began to exhibit slight instability.
But Aetaos was, after all, a Greater Daemon of Tzeentch.
"Time... dilation."
He whispered softly, tapping the phantom of the Staff of Cataclysm.
The flow of time in the space within ten meters of Paul plummeted by 30%!
This was genuine time manipulation, a manifestation of Tzeentch's authority.
Paul's movements, which were incredibly fast under the enhancement of Pioneering psychic energy, visibly slowed down.
"Heh..." Aetaos let out a low chuckle of delight, the phantom of Warp-fire claws condensing on his left arm.
It was a giant claw constructed of pure Warp fire, its five fingers sharp as blades, its surface flowing with profane runes.
A terrifying claw swipe tore toward Paul's chest!
If this claw hit, it wouldn't just tear through the Terminator armor, but Paul's soul as well.
But this was too slow for Paul.
Within Paul's dark gold pupils, the point of the five-pointed star representing the Wisdom trait burst with golden light at this moment!
Time dilation? Sorry, but the ability granted by the Wisdom trait is essentially the observation and manipulation of timelines.
You see my movements slowed by 0.3 seconds, but I've already seen your attack trajectory 1 second into the future.
Paul didn't even attempt to break free from the time dilation, because breaking free from the time dilation of a Tzeentch Greater Daemon amplified by the Warp was too taxing.
He chose to follow the dilated rhythm, executing a seemingly clumsy sidestep.
This sidestep perfectly evaded the tearing of the fire claw.
And his axe blade cut deeper along the crack in Aetaos's profane rune shield.
This timing was exactly at the moment when Aetaos's initial exertion was spent, but his subsequent power had yet to manifest.
CRACK!!!
The profane rune psychic shield shattered completely.
Carrying the disruption field and azure psychic energy, the axe blade continued its momentum, cleaving toward Aetaos's shoulder blade!
But the instant before the axe blade struck, Aetaos's three pairs of eyes blinked simultaneously.
"Psychic... reflection."
Paul's pupils abruptly contracted.
He could feel the psychic energy he had poured into the axe blade... forcibly warped in direction by some power and reflected back.
Furthermore, the reflected psychic energy was mixed with Aetaos's own authority of trickery, becoming even more corrosive!
This situation did not cause Paul's movements to falter in the slightest.
Thus, he didn't choose to tank his own reflected attack. Instead, bolstered by Pioneering psychic energy, he rapidly vacated the area of time dilation.
That psychic attack was flung far away, erupting with a massive boom, blasting a large area of ruins and sending debris flying.
And right at that moment.
"Grey Knights Squad, volley prepared!" a report came over the regional channel.
"Fire," Paul said calmly from a distance.
The next second.
Twenty azure Psycannon beams erupted from the heavy muzzles mounted on the Grey Knights' shoulders!
These weren't ordinary bolters, but psychic weapons specifically tailored against Warp entities. The barrels were inscribed with purification runes, and the ammunition was packed with psychically consecrated materials.
The twenty beams wove into a net of death mid-air, covering all of Aetaos's possible evasion vectors.
Simultaneously, the chanting of Liturgies of Exorcism rang out.
One hundred Grey Knights chanted in unison. The ancient exorcism litanies, amplified by psychic energy, manifested as tangible sonic waves, surging toward Aetaos like a tsunami.
Mantras of Purification followed closely behind, their effect aimed at weakening the daemon's anchor to reality.
And the bolter rounds from the wrist-mounted storm bolters poured down like a torrential downpour!
Aetaos's three pairs of eyes contracted simultaneously.
He raised a hand and generated another powerful profane rune psychic shield, the blue-purple barrier firmly enveloping his entire body.
"Flames... Meteor Shower!"
Helovia's chanting voice came from below.
The little girl had levitated into the air at some point, the pink wand raised high above her head.
The magical knowledge in her mind surged like a spring. Those incantations and spellcasting techniques from another universe were unleashed without reservation at this moment.
"Guided by the stars and moon..." Helovia opened her eyes, pink light shining deep within her pupils. "In the name of hope..."
She raised the wand high, the nebula energy within the pink crystal erupting like a volcano.
BOOM!!!
Within the pink crystal at the tip of the wand, the nebula energy spun to its absolute limit.
The sky above the City of the Holy Anthem hive, shrouded in pollution, suddenly lit up with countless points of light.
These points of light were initially only the size of pinpricks, but they rapidly magnified, accelerated, and ignited...
These points of light swiftly transformed into thousands of flaming meteors!
Trailing long tails of fire, they plummeted like a rain of judgment, with only one target:
Aetaos.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!!!
The meteor shower and Psycannon fire struck simultaneously!
The blue-purple profane rune psychic shield reached its endurance limit by the tenth second after generation, its surface crawling with dense cracks.
By the fifteenth second, the psychic shield completely shattered, and Aetaos's twenty-meter-tall body was entirely swallowed by the exploding magical flames and Psycannon rounds.
"Did it work?" Blood Angels' Second Emperor asked over the regional channel.
"No. These attacks might be enough for a nameless Greater Daemon, but against a powerful Tzeentch Greater Daemon possessing a True Name like Aetaos, it's not enough to defeat it." Paul stared at the center of the explosion, the Wisdom trait in his five-pointed star blaring frantic warnings. "It's not dead yet."
Sure enough, three seconds later, a figure slowly walked out of the explosive smoke and dust.
Although Aetaos looked somewhat battered, it hadn't taken much actual damage. The wound on its left shoulder was torn open, leaking blue-purple blood, and various parts of its body were charred black, but there were no major structural injuries.
Its black-hole-like eyes now burned with frenzied fury.
"You ants... have enraged me..."
Aetaos's voice no longer carried its previous delight and mockery, leaving only pure, unadulterated rage.
"I will tear your souls... to pieces... bit by bit... I will warp your memories... into the most agonizing nightmares... I will make you... beg for death... unable to die..."
Sure enough, its calm precision had dropped after taking damage, but its level of frenzy had escalated.
Blood Angels' Second Emperor's intel was spot-on.
Paul took a deep breath and ordered over the regional channel, "Helovia, continue your ranged suppression. Feel free to use your magical abilities. If you feel your psychic energy drying up, drink the potion in your right pocket to recover. Grey Knights, do not stop the Mantras of Purification. Use your psychic chains and try to bind it as much as possible. After we grind it down a bit more..."
He gripped the Watcher's Axe tightly, the azure psychic energy of Pioneering condensing on the blade once more.
"...I will chant its True Name. In the Warhammer universe, True Names... hold power."
Paul looked at Helovia, his voice echoing directly within the little girl's mind. "In a moment, after I restrict it, I will signal you telepathically. Unleash the knowledge in your mind to your heart's content. Use the strongest magic you can think of. Give your father... his final salvation."
Helovia nodded, her pink hair whipping in the psychic-charged air currents.
After Aetaos reflected psychic damage, Paul immediately adjusted his tactics. He no longer attempted close-quarters melee, instead issuing new orders in the regional channel.
[Regional Channel]
Paul: "All Grey Knights, switch attack modes! Halt the simultaneous Psycannon volley and change to three-stage intermittent covering fire! First squad, aim for the head and wing joints. Second squad, target its lower-limb support points. Third squad, anticipate its evasion trajectories! [Psykers Do Not Die from Gunfire], mobilize your entire squad of Brothers of Silence over here! We deal with this Greater Daemon first!"
[Psykers Do Not Die from Gunfire]: "Understood! One hundred Brothers of Silence are en route, estimated time of arrival is forty-five seconds!"
The tactical adjustment was completed in the blink of an eye.
The twenty Psycannons no longer fired simultaneously, instead splitting into three echelons to fire in rotation. Azure beams bombarded Aetaos's profane rune psychic shield from various angles.
"Tsk... troublesome bugs," Aetaos hovered mid-air, its three pairs of eye phantoms spinning frantically to analyze this sudden shift in tactics.
It continuously tapped out with the phantom of the Staff of Cataclysm in its left hand, layering blue-purple psychic shields in front of itself. Every time a Psycannon beam struck a shield, it blasted away a massive shower of blue-purple energy debris, but the shield would always rapidly regenerate the very next second.
This was the tricky part about Greater Daemons of Tzeentch.
They might not possess the devastating close-quarters destructive power of a Khorne Greater Daemon, nor the nigh-immortal regenerative abilities of a Nurgle Greater Daemon. However, their defense systems were multi-layered and renewable, and they always held strength in reserve to launch a counterattack.
Paul stood atop the ruins, the Watcher's Axe planted in the scorched earth beside him.
Deep within his dark gold pupils, the Wisdom trait within the five-pointed star ran continuously, discerning the patterns in every single one of Aetaos's movements. He was looking for the exact flaw that would maximize the effect of chanting its True Name.
"Flames... Tornado!" Helovia's incantation rang out from below.
The little girl was currently hovering ten meters above the ground, raising the pink wand high over her head. The nebula energy at the tip spun to its absolute limit. What spewed forth was no longer mere fire, but a composite magic infused with storm elements.
Crimson flames and cyan-white air currents intertwined, forming a flaming tornado over fifteen meters in diameter mid-air!
The core temperature of the tornado exceeded eight thousand degrees; the concrete debris it passed over was instantly melted into a glass-like slag. Like a starving behemoth, it roared as it lunged toward Aetaos.
Aetaos didn't even move, merely raising its right hand slightly.
The space directly in front of its palm began to warp. The instant the imposing flaming tornado touched the distorted space, its structure was forcibly altered, as if by an invisible giant hand. The fire and air currents were dismantled and reassembled, ultimately turning into hundreds of palm-sized firebirds that spiraled aimlessly in the air.
"Return." Aetaos flicked a finger.
The hundreds of firebirds reversed direction, swarming toward Helovia like a hive of bees!
"Look out!"
Paul noticed the incoming attack and immediately sprang into action. Under the enhancement of the Pioneering trait, his speed was so immense that he left three golden afterimages in the air.
The first afterimage stepped in front of Helovia, sweeping the Watcher's Axe outward; the azure psychic energy on the blade morphed into a glowing arc barrier.
The second afterimage appeared to Helovia's left, using the Compassion trait to project a psychic shield that wrapped around the little girl's body. If any stray firebirds managed to slip through the defense, it would at least protect her life.
The third afterimage... lunged straight for Aetaos!
"Finally lost your patience?" Aetaos's three pairs of eyes narrowed simultaneously, the corners of its mouth curling into a sinister arc.
This was the exact opening it had been waiting for.
When Paul's third afterimage—which was his true body—charged to within twenty meters, Aetaos abruptly slammed the phantom of the Staff of Cataclysm in its left hand against the ground!
"Time... Cage!"
Blue-purple psychic energy erupted outward from it, instantly forming a time-dilation domain fifty meters in diameter. The flow of time within this domain was forcibly reduced to fifteen percent of its normal rate!
Simultaneously, Aetaos waved the staff in its right hand across its chest, and the phantoms of six Warp-fire claws unfurled from its back. Like a hunting spider, it sealed off every possible evasion route Paul had.
It was a trap.
From warping Helovia's magic to luring Paul into rescuing her, and then abruptly deploying the time cage to coordinate a multi-clawed encirclement... Everything was entirely within Aetaos's calculations.
Or rather, from the very moment it descended into Sacken's vessel, every single step of this battle had already been plotted out on its chessboard of deductions.
This was the combat style of a Tzeentch Greater Daemon. They loathed brute-force brawling. Instead, they reveled in laying multi-layered traps, coaxing their enemies into dead ends, and then pulling the net shut at the most opportune moment.
"It's over, lapdog of the False Emperor."
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Thanks for the powerstones!