Seraphs of the Emperor’s Judgment

Chapter 215: Whispers

The xenos fell one after another. Their numbers had been halved by the time they closed the distance to the Space Marines, yet they maintained a vigorous offensive momentum, rapidly charging to within a hundred meters of the firing line.

"Scatter fire!"

At Soshyan's command, the warriors fanned out to the left and right, subsequently turning to form a crossfire to hunt down the beasts.

At that moment, the muzzle of Sol's weapon suddenly dipped. A Genestealer lurking in the shadows abruptly leapt from the ground a mere two meters away, lunging straight at him.

The beast slashed at him with the razor-sharp, blade-like claws on its fingers. Sol blocked the strike with his bolter. The creature arched its neck, bypassing his guard, and clamped its jaws firmly onto his pauldron.

Sol could hear the sickening crunch of teeth scraping against ceramite, and simultaneously felt it gouging directly into his shoulder guard.

He did not panic, but instead opened fire with absolute calm.

The concussive impact of the bolter rounds tore the beast apart and blasted it backward. Its roars were filled with agony and fury, its shattered ribs clearly visible through the gaping wound blown cleanly through its torso.

Before it could even charge at Sol again, a bolter round had already pierced straight through its skull.

Simultaneously, another Genestealer landed squarely upon Soshyan.This monster genuinely intended to tear his power armor apart—the claws of a Genestealer were terrifyingly lethal, fully capable of peeling open a Space Marine's armor like an eggshell.

Sol poured firepower directly into the xenos's flank and neck. Its sheer manic frenzy made it incredibly reluctant to die, yet Soshyan subsequently smashed it heavily to the ground with a single punch.

With the rapid approach of the Genestealers, the formation began to tighten like an ever-clenching fist.

The warriors adjusted their lines of fire, beginning to execute the creatures attempting to leap upon them. However, the enemies continued surging forward in a seemingly endless stream, and the thick scent of blood permeating the air continuously attracted even more xenos.

"These xenos were deliberately lured here."

Sol spoke to Soshyan as he reloaded his weapon.

"This is a trap. Their primary target was not us."

"The reason?"

"At least half of the xenos are actively searching for something in the shadows."

Following Sol's reminder, Soshyan noticed that not all the monsters had actually joined the offensive charge. A considerable portion was blindly prowling through the shadows.

"I feel as if they are actively on guard against something."

Soshyan expressed his observation, subsequently drawing his Holy Flame Sword.

Because the Astral Knights had retreated to a relatively narrow mine tunnel entrance, the battle transformed into a chaotic melee. The xenos shoved and pushed against one another, fighting amongst themselves merely to secure an opportunity to attack their prey.

Despite being completely surrounded by a literal wall consisting entirely of fangs and claws, Soshyan displayed absolutely no fear. The Holy Flame Sword howled within his grasp, shredding through muscle and severing bone with every single sweeping strike.

Similarly, Sol also stood at the very forefront of the formation.

He holstered his bolter, gripped his longsword tightly with both hands, and moved wordlessly, his actions executed with the perfect, flawless elegance of an automaton.

The dancing twin blades shredded the monsters' hide and the flesh and bone beneath. Absolutely everything before him shrieked in agony. As he swept forcefully through like a howling gale, a violent waterfall of blood erupted simultaneously from the severed necks of five or six xenos directly ahead, thoroughly drenching the rock walls.

The beasts' heads dangled loosely, held on solely by a remaining strip of hide. Their corpses stood firmly upright for a full five seconds before finally being shoved to the ground by their own kin.

The rest of the squad continuously fired from the rear, eliminating any xenos that slipped through the net.

The ferocious assault finally extinguished the beasts' manic fury, causing the pace of their offensive to drastically slow down.

At this moment, Soshyan suddenly felt something emanate directly from the stone, actively seeping entirely into his consciousness.

For a brief period, he genuinely thought he had clearly heard laughter, but in reality, there were only vicious, drooling beasts directly before his eyes, and blood-curdling roars completely filling his ears. Immediately following that, he fiercely struck back with battle cries and lethal blade strikes.

At this moment, a faint, subtle gasp transmitted distinctly over the vox-channel.

"Leave..."

Soshyan gripped his Holy Flame Sword tightly with both hands, his entire body drenched completely in xenos blood. Staring intently ahead, he felt sudden shock from this abruptly interjecting voice.

This was absolutely not anyone within the squad. Something had maliciously breached their vox-channel.

"Who are you?"

While fiercely demanding an answer, Soshyan swung his sword downward at a highly lethal angle, violently cleaving a lunging xenos heavily to the ground directly before him.

Using the momentum, he then swiftly drew the bolt pistol securely from his thigh, pulling the trigger simultaneously alongside his battle brothers.

Direct-fire bolter rounds smashed viciously into the enemy swarm. The beasts shrieked in pure agony, their voices actively peaking into high-pitched wails before eventually descending into low, guttural gurgles, and finally falling entirely silent.

Their physical corpses were violently blown apart one after another, the shattered remains then violently shoved securely back entirely against their own rapidly advancing kin.

"Leave—"

The voice suddenly pitched higher. At this moment, Sol noticed that the Genestealers had fallen entirely into disarray. A portion of them desperately attempted to turn back, while another portion continued to fiercely charge forward.

"Push them back."

The Astral Knights rapidly shifted their formation entirely into a wedge shape. With Sol firmly leading the charge at the very front, the roles of both sides explicitly reversed. The hunters transformed flawlessly back into predators, exactly like a blunt arrowhead ruthlessly tearing a hole directly through a solid barrier.

Soshyan gazed fiercely into the far distance, discovering that something had continually been violently harassing the Genestealers' rear guard. Xenos were constantly vanishing screaming entirely into the shadows.

"It's right ahead!"

The Astral Knights concentrated their ferocious attacks. Caught mercilessly between two distinct enemies, the Genestealers were instantly plunged securely into absolute confusion.

The wedge formation accelerated its forward push, the relentless hail of firepower never ceasing for even a single moment. Ultimately, the sheer number of xenos began to significantly dwindle. Absolutely no further Genestealers joined the fray, and the surviving stragglers began to falter and pull back.

By the time the squad returned securely to their original position prior to the retreat, the beasts had completely abandoned their pursuit, actively retreating completely in massive droves.

Soshyan could even distinctly hear their fiercely arguing roars.

But very soon, absolutely everything descended effectively back into dead silence.

Within the entirely empty grand hall, purely nothing remained save explicitly for the Astartes' heavily laboured breathing.

"It's gone."

Sol's gaze actively swept fully across the shadows.

"Very fast."

Soshyan walked firmly directly into precisely the shadows, accurately locating exactly those completely mutilated corpses. Their cleanly severed entirely physical cuts were smooth, looking as if they were made by some sort of sharp metal. A faint aura of sorcery lingered around them—Soshyan was now exceedingly sensitive to Warp energy.

But aside from this, he could find absolutely no information whatsoever capable of revealing the killer's true identity.

At this moment, Sol suddenly returned to the mine tunnel, subsequently dragging out a corpse—a relatively fresh human corpse.

It was a dead heretic cultist.

"It might carry certain risks, but it is still better than these xenos."

He placed the corpse firmly on the ground, crouched down, drew the tactical knife directly from his waist, quickly sliced open the scalp, and pried open the skull.

Soshyan instantly understood exactly what the other intended to do.

Among the entire series of specialized organs derived from the Gene-seed, there is one known as the Omophagea.

It is implanted during the eighth phase of augmentation surgery, directly connecting to the brain and the central nervous system completely via the spinal cord and the digestive tract.

This genetic forging explicitly allows the Astartes not only to extract nourishment from virtually all types of organic matter, but also to steal the fundamental memories of their enemies. Simultaneously, nerve clusters safely located exactly within the stomach can successfully extract lingering neural impulses entirely from the digested flesh, seamlessly transmitting them directly into their distinctly superhuman brains, entirely converting them exactly into a certain kind of precognitive vision.

Normally, the raw flesh and blood of a biological organism consumed explicitly by an Astartes is effortlessly converted smoothly into its fundamental sensory experiences, perfectly including its sense of self-existence, surrounding environment, violent struggles and conflicts, sheer starvation and thirst, and exactly the profound crises it inherently faced. It can even vividly sense the distinct approach of natural predators and perfectly identify the specific scent of prey, fully encompassing the exact final, dying moments of the individual's life.

However, the actual reality is profoundly far more complex than naturally imagined. The hidden secrets of flesh and blood are absolutely not easily pierced. Simply consuming raw flesh often merely completely yields the absolute most superficial layers of information.

To successfully acquire far more profoundly complex contents, the absolute optimal choice natively remains strictly the brain.

It can provide an absolutely unique observational perspective to pry into the subject's deeply hidden emotions and explicit memories.