Seraphs of the Emperor’s Judgment

Chapter 21: Necron Overlord

His brothers were dead. Chapter Chaplain Massayak and Master of the Forge Salax lay on either side of him. The former had taken the brunt of the explosion—the right half of his body had become a mass of shattered armor and exposed, bloody organs, while a point-blank Gauss beam had blasted open the Master of the Forge's helmet, spilling the contents of his skull onto the ground.

The shockwave covered a wide area, but there were still Space Marines engaged in a bloody battle with the xenos, and the Necrons were still executing their cold logic—

Annihilate all invaders.

The Necrons also discovered the surviving Chapter Master and immediately surrounded him.

Amulad disemboweled the first one, kicking the sliced wreckage off his axe blade, then howled to vent his fury and hatred.

Then, something choked his throat.

He thought of the heavy burden he carried, and the most crucial person had not yet appeared. So he resisted the urge to rush toward destruction and, in cold silence, decapitated the second Necron.

He would exact vengeance upon them, and 'he' would also exact vengeance upon them.

As he charged into the group of xenos attacking him with blades and Gauss beams, endless hatred burned within his muscles, and he cut them down with brutal, efficient strikes.

He even wanted to tear off his blood-spattered helmet and sink his teeth into the metal of these depraved monsters.But his sense of duty anchored his mind, forcing him to commit himself entirely, telling him to slaughter and hold on until the end.

Using his body as a weapon, when they tried to encircle him, he smashed a pair of Necrons against a support beam, crushing them between ceramite and rock with a resounding snap of fracturing metal.

Amulad was nearly unstoppable, like a blood-mottled spirit of vengeance amidst the swirling dust, every strike accompanied by death.

Cleaving through skulls and severing torsos with crisp crunches, although his jaw remained agonizingly clenched, the roar of his battle axe grew even louder.

Just then, darkness surged from the dust, violently shoving the remaining Necrons aside.

The newcomer's eyes burned like specters in the gloom, exuding the scent of ancient grudges. Its armor was dark gold, carved with numerous ancient runes, and its shoulders were covered by ostentatious armor plating. Behind its head was a fan-shaped cluster of dark green crystals, and the scepter in its hand crackled in the void.

It was the owner of this World Engine, the dynasty Overlord of the Necrons.

This xenos leader charged at him with strength and speed matching Amulad's. Its scepter sliced through the air above, aiming straight for the Space Marine's head.

"Come! Xenos scum!"

Amulad roared furiously, using the axe in his right hand to block and deflect the strike aside. Their weapons trembled and locked together.

The Space Marine turned this deflection into a counter-slash in an attempt to cut open the opponent's stomach, but the Necron Overlord dodged the blow. The battle axe in Amulad's left hand only left a shallow scar on the silver filigree of the other's chest plate.

"Too slow, primitive lesser creature,"

the Necron Overlord mocked, its grating voice transmitting from its jagged vocalizer.

Amulad could not understand this alien's language, so he did not respond. Instead, he mechanically chopped fiercely with his battle axes, aiming for the opponent's abdomen and neck.

But the previous impact had limited his combat ability.

The Necron Overlord evaded these two consecutive strikes, retreated again, and then thrust its scepter forward.

Amulad wanted to step back, but it was already too late; he realized it was drawing him into a trap.

Suddenly, his foot was grabbed by something. It was a half-bodied Necron Warrior that had been hiding among the bloody wreckage littering the ground.

A slight loss of balance from the opponent was all the Necron Overlord needed.

It struck again, fast as lightning, its scepter surging with powerful energy smashing through Amulad's power armor.

The head of the scepter bit deeply, sawing through the left side of Amulad's chest plate in a shower of sparks, splashing a massive amount of blood amidst the violent impact.

The Astral Knights Chapter Master grunted and quickly backed away to dodge the strike, but before he could take two steps, the Necron Overlord lashed out with a kick, bringing him to his knees.

His armor, compromised by the previous blow, was refusing to respond in time. Subsequently, the Necron Overlord withdrew its scepter, preparing to execute the culprit who had almost destroyed its precious World Engine.

"Damn it!"

Accompanied by a furious roar, something grazed Amulad's head and blew through the rune plate adorning the Necron Overlord's chest armor. As the bolt shell detonated inside the Necron Overlord's chest cavity, a massive amount of liquid metal gushed from the hole.

It staggered for a moment, the scepter in its hand still gathering energy.

Driven by an intense sense of crisis, the Necron Overlord turned to face the new threat, its bloody energy scepter emitting blinding sparks.

In the next second, a roaring chainsword met the weapon, and the energy promptly repelled the whirring teeth.

The Necron Overlord transitioned from a half-cleave into a short-range thrust to crush the enemy's flanking chest plate. As expected, it preferred to attack rather than continue defending.

Before his chainsword could chop forward, Soshyan reacted similarly, and the two killers instantly locked together in a deadly embrace.

At this point, Soshyan found his helmet only a few centimeters from the other's head. His black visor looked eerie and non-reflective from the outside, while the Necron Overlord's hateful gaze lay directly opposite.

Then, Soshyan delivered a heavy headbutt.

The Necron Overlord stumbled backward, its skull buzzing. This sudden strike bought Amulad a split second, but that was enough for him to sweep his battle axe across the Necron Overlord's chest plate.

The moment the blade bit down, the Necron Overlord let out a cold roar of fury. Amulad had nearly cleaved through the armor on its chest.

In an instant, the Necron Overlord reacted as it had for every challenger it had ever faced.

It abandoned all defense, withdrew its left hand, grabbed Amulad's wrist, and shifted his opponent's battle axe toward its right side, simultaneously driving its own scepter toward the Space Marine's lower torso.

Trying to parry, Amulad felt his arm convulse in the opponent's grip; the Necron Overlord had used some force to destroy his power armor's servo-motors.

"Urgh—"

The scepter let out a grating sound as it impaled Amulad's stomach, the sigils engraved on its haft flashing with dark light.

Amulad doubled over; his spine had been pierced.

"Bastard!"

Soshyan was continually battering the Necron Overlord's head with his gauntlets during this process, and his chainsword had buried itself into the opponent's body multiple times, yet the entity seemed determined to trade a life for a life.

Finally, with a heavy blow, Soshyan knocked the Necron Overlord aside as it contorted and released its scepter.

The ruler of the ancient dynasty knelt on the ground, emitting a bizarre shriek that sounded like laughter.

Soshyan clenched his teeth and swung a furious horizontal slash, sending its severed head tumbling through the air in an arc amidst spraying liquid metal.