Seraphs of the Emperor’s Judgment

Chapter 20: Icy Blood

"Axel? Axel!"

Picking himself up from the ground, the very first thing Soshyan did was search for traces of his Battle Brother. He then found that familiar person amidst a pile of scattered metallic fragments and coagulated internal organs.

"Axel! Brother! Brother!"

Soshyan hurriedly ran over, but received no response whatsoever. When he took off Axel's helmet, he was completely shocked.

This man who once possessed tough facial features had his entire face charred black. His lips were melted and fused together, his ears had turned into swollen lumps of meat hanging from his face, and his eyes had been reduced to two blackened, empty holes, with translucent crystalline lenses still hanging upon them.

Strictly speaking, Axel possessed almost not a single inch of intact skin. In order to protect Soshyan, he had endured the brunt of the impact.

Soshyan finally realized what was going on with Axel's abnormal state earlier.

Even though he was rendered blind and deaf, he was still attacking, intending to drag the final enemy down to hell right up until the moment he fell.

Soshyan wanted to simply gather up his Battle Brother's corpse, but he discovered he had absolutely no means to do so. He could only place the helmet back onto Axel, and then pick up the other party's Chainsword—up until now, he no longer harbored any hope of survival, but before he died, he would use his good friend's sharp blade to kill even more Xenos.

He stood up. Upon this deadly silent Xenos fortress, an eerie current of air abruptly swept past, kicking up a great deal of fine dust.Spaced out by bloodstained footsteps, Soshyan walked resolutely toward the direction the air current originated from. He didn't encounter any enemies along the way, only seeing many intact Necrons collapsed paralyzed upon the ground.

He suddenly realized that these metallic Necrons seemed as if their energy had suddenly been completely drained away by something.

The moment he thought of this, a strange throbbing abruptly transmitted from his twin hearts. Following that, Soshyan only felt something violently surge upward within his throat.

"Ugh—"

Caught off guard, he opened his mouth, allowing that icy breath within his throat to gush out.

From the grille of his helmet, a stream of ash-like blood suddenly sprayed out. Splaying upon the ground, those drops of blood were still emitting cold air.

After vomiting a mouthful of blood, Soshyan immediately felt as if the strength in his entire body had been completely drained. His knees grew weak and he dropped to the ground. It wasn't until he had gasped for breath for over ten seconds that he barely managed to recover a bit of sensation.

He felt as if he had been placed inside an ice cellar for an entire month. His four limbs had become icy and stiff, making it extremely difficult to even move a finger.

It was only then that he noticed his body temperature readings displayed his current core temperature at only 19°C—were it a Mortal, they would have probably frozen to death long ago.

Initially he thought it was because his Power Armor had sustained breaches, causing him to be exposed to the vacuum for too long.

However, when he checked his status, he discovered the situation wasn't that bad—at the very least, it shouldn't have caused him to end up in such a state.

Soshyan forcefully shook his heavy head and exhausted all his strength to stand up from the ground—he still shouldered a mission, he still had to go support the Chapter Master.

Suddenly, he felt his nose actively bleeding. He subconsciously raised a hand wanting to wipe it away, yet the back of his hand only collided right against his icy helmet.

He thus stopped, attempting to catch his breath.

At this moment, a fragment of memory surfaced, akin to the touch of an inexistent ghost.

A bowl of hot meat broth his stomach craved when hungry. A clean blanket his body yearned for when freezing. A warm smile his heart longed for when lonely.

A strange woman opening her arms to him, giving him a kiss on his forehead.

Who...

Was that?

A sobbing child, stumbling to grab hold of a toy, a... Space Marine.

These images persisted, accompanied by a whisper.

It wants you to stop, it wants to seize you, you must banish it and continue walking.

"I am all alone."

In a trance, Soshyan mumbled to an inexistent target.

"I cannot go on... this is meaningless."

You have never been alone. We are all accompanying you, forever.

"I do not understand."

You will understand. Now, walk at once.

Precisely at this time, something slipped out from his gorget. Soshyan watched it gentle sway, suspended from a silver chain, and suddenly felt it was ever so unfamiliar.

This was the only item still remaining to him following his transition from a Mortal into a Space Marine. A silver ring, engraved with an insignia resembling a family crest. Because it once belonged to a Mortal, Soshyan was unable to wear it, only able to hang it upon his body.

But he no longer remembered who it was that had given it to him. Was it that strange woman?

Soshyan raised his head. His eyes were enveloped by an intense golden radiance, to the point it prevented him from even looking at it directly.

Several seconds later, only when his pupils adjusted to such intense light, did he realize that a massive entity was currently ascending high into the sky.

It was an abominable monster roughly approximating humanoid shape, possessing slender, elongated limbs, and wreathed in a liquid energy corona. With easily but a single movement, it could stir up a formidable energy shockwave.

And the first thing it did upon ascending was destroy the World Engine.

Soshyan finally understood where that massive tremor originated from.

Consequently, without a second thought, he began sprinting in the direction where the energy-formed giant was ascending.

"Take cover!"

Wielding a pair of axes, Amulad shouted loudly.

"Everyone take cover—"

But his warning came too late. The mechanism binding the C'tan Shard was torn to shreds in the blink of an eye. The fierce explosive shockwave possessed a might comparable to a Vortex Torpedo.

Within those brief few seconds, this Chapter Master of the Astral Knights Chapter lost consciousness.

The next second, intense cocktails of stimms were pumped into his muscles, and his genetically augmented physiology awoke him almost immediately.

He realized he was lying flat on his back, staring at that starry void. His Power Armor's warning systems were alarming incessantly—the structure of his right pauldron was severely damaged, his right arm armor was bent, and his chest had sustained three penetrating wounds.

His vitals indicated low-level internal bleeding in his right arm and abdominal cavity, but this presented almost zero agony, for it had already been suppressed by the stimms and his augmented nervous system.

Amulad realized there was something obscuring the right occulari of his helmet. He suspected it was blood.

He subsequently sat up, and at the same time, the servos in the damaged areas emitted terrifying grinding sounds.

The Power Armor helmet filtered out the foul smoke, dust, and aerosolized organic matter choking the frigid air, allowing him to breathe smoothly.

He swept a glance around, discovering a massive quantity of unidentifiable internal organs and copious amounts of metallic fragments almost painting every inch of the destroyed ground. Those giant Obelisks were scattered across the ground like pushed-over sandcastles, and almost all of those terrifying war machines were paralyzed as well.

The massive shockwave almost killed everything. Even superhumans like Space Marines found it very difficult to survive unscathed at close range.

However, they had only a single minute's time from activating the Melta Bombs.

One minute was far from enough time to evade.

Just as he stood up, a figure appeared before him, icy green eyes staring at him.

Appearing at the same time was a Gauss Flayer, aiming right at him.

Before that weapon could fire, Amulad lunged forward and shoved it aside. Following that, a beam of light buried itself into the shattered floorpane beside them.

At the same time, Amulad kicked his leg out, stamping squarely onto the Necron's chest. When that Xenos fell backwards, the sounds of snapping and struggling transmitted over.

Amulad realized he was panting heavily, his body flowing with combat hormones and trembling from having been attacked from the blindside. His Bolter had been lost long ago, so he only had his two Power Axes remaining.

Their roaring completely filled this bloody space.

(End of Chapter)