Chapter 625: That

Dong! Dong!

The three‑legged scorpions trample the smooth road at breakneck speed, easily piercing abandoned vehicles, and even the death spirit warriors blocking the way are knocked flying and impaled.

Boom!!

It whistles through the void.

The fastest three‑legged scorpion closes in on an elite's flank and, at a speed imperceptible to mortals, swings its hyper‑phase blade toward the elite.

!!!!

Everything happens so fast that the elite cannot react, but upon sensing his life threatened, his instinct is to raise two light swords to turn and block.

Sizzle!

However, the two sides' strength and equipment are on different tiers; even an elite of a combat race is cut in half by the three‑legged scorpion.

Aaa?! Aaa!!

Seeing comrades who fought alongside them fall on the spot, the remaining elites, unfazed and enraged, shout and launch an even more desperate counter‑attack.

Buzz! Buzz!

In the street, over a dozen red‑glowing energy sword blades dance, creating a "performance" of metal limbs and heads flying wildly.

Among them, two elites launch a surprise attack on the three‑legged scorpion that killed their comrades.

Sizzle!

Sizzle!

But the result is the same: the two elites are cut down one after another.

And within only a few seconds of opening, every elite that plunged into the metal wave was killed in large numbers.

From afar, the Iron‑blood warriors providing fire support, along with the special squad and numerous civilians, can only watch helplessly as their compatriots fall.

If they were merely slow to react, the death spirit warriors—no different from zombies—might survive, but the three‑legged scorpion is a high‑tier unit of a dynasty, with an extremely hard metal body, its own protective field generator, and its hyper‑phase blades are practically a bug.

If we speak only of infantry, the side of the Empire that can utterly crush a metal‑fragmented three‑legged scorpion in close combat must be a battalion veteran equipped with Terminator armor.

After all, in the Battle of Caron Tower, at least three, perhaps more, three‑legged scorpions are needed to replace a man‑eater shark Terminator.

But that was when veterans faced enemies a hundred or a thousand times stronger, and even with imperial intelligence support, they were caught off‑guard the first time they met Space Death Spirits.

Now, a man‑eater shark Terminator versus a three‑legged scorpion: if not surrounded by dozens, a one‑on‑one kill is instant; three versus one wins outright; six versus one is hard; nine versus one makes the shark Terminator retreat (flee).

But this block has no Terminators, and even reservists capable of fighting them are several blocks away, so without external aid, everyone on the scene is doomed to the throne.

Having slain all the elites.

The three three‑legged scorpions emit a faint green glow again, their hollow eyes fixed on the line erected by the special squad.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

During this time, several Iron‑blood warriors, ignoring overheated shoulder cannons, continue long‑range bombardment of the three‑legged scorpions.

Bang… Bang…

But the flashing blue plasma cannon battery either explodes, blocked by the scorpions' protective fields, or is knocked away and detonates among the death spirit warriors.

As for the special squad's laser weapons, at this moment they truly become "flashlights"; even when paired with the Iron‑bloods' shoulder cannon support, they can indeed wear down the scorpions' protective fields.

But by the time they break the scorpions' defenses, they are already dead beneath those three flashing faint‑green hyper‑phase blades.

However…

Whoosh—!

A small airborne cargo pod tears through the sky, roaring as it bursts into the street above, and its cargo bay faces the three three‑legged scorpions poised to surge forward.

Boom!!!!

The cargo pod collides head‑on with them, instantly blowing the already shattered road apart; smoke and debris spray outward, and nearby death spirit warriors are ripped into the air.

?!

Seeing this, the special squads immediately max out the powered armor shields, while civilians quickly take cover behind barriers to avoid stray fragments.

They wait for the commotion to settle a bit.

Bang!

The pod's hatch appears to jam from the forceful landing, then seems to be violently kicked open by a passenger.

Dong! Dong!

The smoke hasn't cleared, and the unique sound of magnetic boots on the ground echoes through the block.

?

Has Astate's support arrived?

With doubt and curiosity, civilians stick their heads out of the cover, looking forward.

The special squad, equipped with visual assistance, spots through their helmet screens a "person" in the smoke, also wearing powered armor and roughly their own height.

Ah?

Not Astate?

Realizing the figure might be an Empire Marine Corps unit, or perhaps a "mortal"-level special forces, the surviving members of the special squad (akin to SWAT) feel a wave of disappointment.

It's not that they look down on "mortals"; rather, when faced with a dire situation they were given hope, only to find the arriving support also leads to death—like thinking you've won a lottery ticket only to discover it's expired—so their spirits truly hit rock bottom.

Yet as the smoke quickly clears, they see clearly the "person" standing beside the cargo pod.

The powered armor bears a Classical Greek style, painted bright silver, and under streetlights and nearby flames it even gives a "bright glittering" visual impression.

At the same time, even though the "person" wears powered armor, it's evident she has near‑perfect curves, and most notably she lacks a helmet, letting her waist‑long golden‑white hair cascade like a waterfall behind her.

???

After seeing the "person's" appearance, the special squad and civilians are startled, feeling she looks familiar—as if they've seen her before—but they can't immediately recall who she is.

However, the "person" has no intention of caring about what the special squad and civilians are thinking.

She notices the three three‑legged scorpions have only been split open by the cargo pod and are straining to rotate their slender scorpion legs, apparently trying to stand up.

Seeing that, the "person" unhurriedly took a battle spear about 2.5 meters long from the drop pod behind them.

Moreover, the spear as a whole was also bright silver, its shaft engraved with exquisite patterns, while the tip resembled a translucent sapphire-blue crystal.

Then, the "person" gripped the crystal spear with their right hand, assumed a light lunge toward the nearest three-legged scorpion, and then raised the right-hand spear…

With a "Rou~——!!!" sound tearing through the air.

Bang!

The defensive stance shattered directly.

Bang! Crash!!

The metallic body was pierced by an extremely violent force and instantly fell apart.

No one could see what happened, nor did anyone see the "person" in bright silver power armor make a throwing motion, and a three-legged scorpion was just smashed apart like that.

Not only that.

When the "person" extended their right hand forward and spread their five fingers, the right arm armor also emitted waves of blue light.

Whoosh~!

The crystal spear that had originally pierced the ground and dug deep underground burst out of the soil, spun once, and returned to the "person's" right hand.

Next, "she" repeated the throwing motion twice—something ordinary people could not perceive—and successfully smashed the other two three-legged scorpions.

After eliminating the biggest threat, "she" did not forget to deal with the metallic zombies that kept piling up.

All that could be seen was "she" swinging the right hand holding the crystal spear backward, then, with a force ordinary people could discern, giving a slight forward flick.

Whoosh!!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It turned out "she" was using the crystal spear as a returning boomerang, directly putting on a true "screen-clearing" performance for the Special Squad behind, the Iron Blood Clan, and all surviving civilians.

From the drop pod crashing down to the streets having no metallic zombies left, the whole process took less than two minutes.

"Wait……"

At that moment, the female office worker who had been hiding behind a low wall, holding a pink competition-style rifle, showed an expression of sudden realization, as if she recognized who that "person" was, and she explained to the person beside her:

"She is the moon goddess Artemis! I saw her in an advertisement while watching TV with my child; it seems she even endorses the Umbrella skincare brand!"

"Artemis?"

"Oh oh, so she's a Greek god."

After hearing the female office worker's words, the surrounding civilians also immediately realized who that "person" was, but their tone showed no great surprise.

After all, Imperial citizens can now rely on *Human Truth* to explain souls and the afterlife, and they know that the Sea of Souls contains entities called demons, which are actually chaotic extradimensional beings; as for divine or non-divine beings, they have lost much of their mystery.

However, Imperial citizens have no way of knowing that Artemis serves as an instructor of the Grey Knights.

If any civilians were to show a relatively reverent attitude, it would be the female office worker who first recognized Artemis's identity, along with some female civilians who enjoy firearms and related competitive matches.

One of them couldn't help but praise: "Tsk tsk, I thought she had a skin-smoothing whitening effect on TV, but in real life she looks even more exquisite."

Another chimed in softly: "That's right, otherwise I heard from my daughter that on gossip forums, some call her the Moon Empress or Imperial Consort, said to have an unclear relationship with the Emperor."

It seems the female civilians are not admiring her as a deity; they simply envy her pretty face and excellent figure.

"Is that true?" the female office worker earlier became even more curious, but upon seeing Artemis walking toward their location, she immediately said: "Keep it down, don't talk about it."

The Emperor's benevolence is evident to all; the various rumors online, the Emperor does not deliberately control them, and if these rumors can make humanity happy and joyful, thereby boosting overall well-being, then to the Emperor this amounts to nothing at all.

Although people know that after death their souls return to the Sea of Souls and thus fear nothing, they are also grateful to have survived the ordeal, so the atmosphere is considerably more relaxed.

But people do not know Artemis's temperament exactly; mainly, in public appearances, that moon goddess rarely shows up (most of the time she is training Grey Knights on Titan).

"."

In fact, regardless of volume, Artemis, who possesses a divine body, hears everything clearly.

As Imperial power keeps expanding, she has already fallen from being second only to OriginalBody-level strength among human forces, gradually declining to mid-high tier.

Even so, as someone capable of serving as the chief instructor of the Grey Knights, she can discipline the newcomers to Titan with just one hand, without needing so-called divine power or artifacts.

Know that those Astate who survive reserve service, stand out among many brothers, and go straight to Titan already possess regimental champion-level strength at a young age.

Therefore, facing three-legged scorpions that can threaten Terminators, it would be strange if Artemis did not give them an instant kill.

Moreover, because she knew in advance that a planet with resurrected necrotic tombs would strongly suppress Spiritual Energy, her brother Hephestus deliberately crafted a purely physical weapon named the "Moonlight Spear" for her.

At the same time, he upgraded her Moonlight Armor so that, even without using Spiritual Energy, she could easily "recover" the Moonlight Spear.

Without paying attention to how people view her or her relationship with the Emperor, Artemis walked slowly to the front of the Special Squad and spoke:

"Escort the on-site civilians together to withdraw to the port of Metropolitan 05 District; according to the timing, that place has already been successfully retaken by the Dark Crow Guard."

"Yes, ma'am."

The Special Squad captain nodded, having no objection to this not-quite-an-order order, after all, their current state cannot continue fighting.

Immediately, the captain turned around, projected through his helmet's external speaker, raised the volume, and said: "Attention all personnel! We need to withdraw to Metropolitan 05 District twelve blocks away! The rearguard will be handled by our Squad 14!"

Upon hearing this, the vast majority of civilians chose to obey the command, spontaneously forming groups of three or pairs to retreat and relocate.

Next, the Special Squad, being more well-trained, took responsibility for covering all angles and alleyways, preparing to wait a short while to confirm no undead were tailing before withdrawing.

No matter how much the internet says the Special Squad's overall strength is at most good for skirmishes, compared to the Marines or even placed before the Imperial Army, it is still considered "trash."

However, compared to civilians who understand military action through games and movies, the Special Squad is still stronger by over a hundredfold.

Don't use your hobby to challenge someone else's expertise; this saying never gets old wherever you put it.

"Ma'am." However, before leaving, the captain raised his hand pointing south and reminded Artemis: "Before the metropolitan area fell completely, our Public Security Bureau once received intel stating that Metropolitan 15 District had appeared sky-covering metallic beetles, but they did not launch indiscriminate attacks on civilians; instead, they adopted a capture-alive approach."

"Capture alive?" Artemis frowned slightly.

"Yes, ma'am." The captain continued reporting to her: "Moreover, our Public Security Bureau dispatched numerous public security officers, as well as the best-equipped Special Squad, to assist the Third Assault Regiment's 3rd Battalion of Kriegl in attempting to rescue the civilians trapped there."

Furthermore, at this moment, the Special Squad designated as 14 had already begun moving, and this captain gave Artemis a salute:

"Then we will withdraw first, ma'am."

"Hmm." Artemis gave a soft acknowledgment.

Seeing the last special squad's figure disappear on the street, she again gazed toward the south where flickering eerie green light shone; her intuition told her that the necromancer's tomb on Morning Star was definitely using human bodies to do something.

(End of Chapter)