Chapter 125: The Corpse-Eating Angel Descended to My Side!

“Card One, the God-Emperor.”

Battle Sister Agilaid watched the little girl from the Underhive named Ye Ruite draw a card from a stack of exquisitely crafted Tarot cards belonging to the Holy Rose Sisters.

The girl had been discovered by Agilaid among the refugee lines from the Underhive.

At the time, the girl was unconsciously using psychic energy to divine for others.

Agilaid knew many were born with some psychic aptitude, though so faint most would never notice it in their lifetimes.

This little girl, Ye Ruite, was one such case—possessing a modest psychic talent, especially in divination.

After confirming the girl’s loyalty and ensuring she had used only the Emperor Tarot for divination, Agilaid took her as her attendant.

This dry, underhive girl studied the Emperor Tarot more deeply than many specialists in the art, and her loyalty was pure.

Most battle sisters despised psykers.

But Ye Ruite’s psychic power was not strong enough to provoke revulsion, and the Holy Rose Order was relatively gentle and pragmatic.

So Agilaid ordered the girl to guide the refugee column and help them evade the growing swarms.

“The Emperor card foretells that hope still lingers in cold darkness.”

Hidden within an upperhive dwelling, Ye Ruite whispered to Agilaid.

Is there still hope?

Agilaid gazed silently out the window, where low-grade tyranid creatures wandered the streets below.

Their group still had thirteen battle sisters and twenty-six acolyte sisters.

If they encountered no greater threat, they could protect these refugees to Melos Port.

There, Melos Port would be Asford’s final safe haven.

After General Drostron ordered the Imperial Guard to begin evacuation, the refugees under protection of the battle sisters also began moving toward Melos Port.

Following the guidance of Zhou Yun’s book, *The Ork’s Guide to Tyranid Biology*, and General Drostron’s judgment,

both the Imperial Guard and the refugees split into small units, evacuating in batches and separate directions.

Because large concentrations of people were a feast for the tyranids, likely drawing concentrated attacks.

In contrast, small units attracted less attention and were far safer.

Agilaid watched the sparse tyranids outside the window.

At least the path ahead was clear—but at the end of the street, a corner turned in another direction.

Agilaid feared an ambush might lie there.

And she was protecting a vital target; she dared not risk too much.

Agilaid looked at the small girl in the arms of the acolyte beside her.

The girl had dry golden hair, closed eyes, tiny freckles on her face, and faint burn scars covering her body—radiating an unadorned purity.

Her name was Liana.

Agilaid thought to herself, grounding her mind.

In Zhou Yun’s tale, this child was the holy maiden chosen by the Emperor.

Agilaid found it hard to believe, yet instinctively felt Zhou Yun had not lied.

Whether or not the girl was truly holy, Agilaid had sworn by the Emperor’s name to protect her, as promised to Zhou Yun.

But staying here was not an option—they would have to advance, risks and all.

Agilaid glanced at the Emperor Tarot card.

It depicted the God-Emperor seated upon the Golden Throne, his hollow eyes fixed upon Agilaid.

Looking upon the Emperor’s face, Agilaid felt inexplicably at peace.

She gave a quiet Eagle Salute and nodded gently to her battle sister companions.

Under the protection of the battle sisters, the refugees surged out of their hiding place.

The low-grade tyranid creatures nearby immediately turned their greedy crimson eyes toward them.

Bolter fire erupted—a knife-worm lunging forward was reduced to bloody shards by Agilaid’s bolter.

“Flamers!!”

At Agilaid’s command, battle sisters armed with promethium flamers stepped to the front of the column.

A roaring sea of searing promethium flame consumed the tyranids attempting to block the refugees, turning them to ash.

“Forward!” Agilaid pointed toward the corner ahead.

The refugee column ran forward under the battle sisters’ protection.

At this pace, they would reach Melos Port today.

Agilaid thought to herself.

Suddenly, she sensed an unnatural tremor in the ground.

A screeching sound tore through the air—four sharp blades lunged toward the refugees. “No!!”

Agilaid roared, raising her bolter and firing.

Bolts exploded against the four blades, sparking violently.

Agilaid immediately raised her chainsword and clashed it against the four biological blades.

Sparks flew through the air—the monstrous creature twisted its body and slammed Agilaid backward with force.

The impact allowed Agilaid to see the full form of the beast.

It stood seven to eight meters tall, with four razor-sharp blades, its body armored in thick chitinous plating.

Screamer Killer!!

Agilaid’s eyes widened in shock—it was a Screamer Killer!!

The most vicious, most terrifying subspecies of tyranid executioners!

The Screamer Killer quickly pulled back from the refugee column.

This was not because it intended to spare them—but because

*Zzzzzt.*

A piercing, monstrous roar, like crackling electricity, erupted from the Screamer Killer’s maw.

Horrifying, dreadful.

“Break formation!!!!” Agilaid bellowed.

She knew what that sound meant—she had read it in Zhou Yun’s *The Ork’s Guide to Tyranid Biology*.

Biological plasma—energy capable of easily destroying a Dreadnought.

Agilaid discarded her bolter; she knew it would do no effective damage to the Screamer Killer.

She gripped her chainsword with both hands and charged through the panicked refugees scattering to either side.

Agilaid faintly saw the plasma gathering within the Screamer Killer’s mouth.

She did not know whether death or victory would reach her first.

!. Read

She thought she heard the acolyte beside her screaming something—but Agilaid’s vision was fixed solely on the Screamer Killer.

She raised her chainsword and lunged toward the beast.

Simultaneously, the plasma erupted from the Screamer Killer’s maw.

A soft footstep sounded.

Agilaid’s body froze mid-air.

The biological plasma hung suspended in mid-air.

Time halted—atoms locked in place, bolter flames frozen, blood arcing through the air.

Everything was like a stage paused by a button.

Agilaid stared in disbelief as the girl with dry golden hair walked slowly past her side.

The girl’s eyes burned with flame, the radiant light igniting her hair, forming an arc behind her head.

Agilaid looked at her, her throat dry as if choked.

Liana—that was the girl’s name, Liana.

Liana slowly extended a finger and gently pointed toward the Screamer Killer.

The Screamer Killer ignited from the atomic level, vanishing into ash in an instant.

“By the Emperor,” Agilaid whispered.

She watched Liana’s body sway slightly, then collapse to the ground.

Time resumed its flow.

A sea of chitin covered all of Asford—gigantic capillary spires rose from the earth like monstrous trees from a nightmare realm.

Beneath the spires bubbled biological pools, thick and churning.

Smaller tyranids dumped biomass gathered from the entire planet into them.

General Drostron stood atop Melos Port, gazing down upon Fudia City, filled only with sorrow.

This was the graveyard of the Asford people—and of the Cadia people.

Of three million Cadia people, fewer than one hundred thirty thousand now stood at Melos Port.

Over two million Cadia people had fallen on the battlefield.

All surviving Asfordians had gathered here at Melos Port.

The tyranids followed—yet General Drostron had preemptively dug a moat around the spaceport, filled it with promethium, and set it ablaze.

The roaring flames now served as a wall, protecting the survivors within.

But General Ro Site knew this wouldn’t last much longer.

He rubbed his long-unshaven stubble, his face filled with exhaustion and pain.

Since Zhou Yun left, the communication devices carried by the Starborne Army were once again disrupted by the Warp Engine, rendering them nearly unusable.

General Ro Site did not know if he could hold out until reinforcements arrived.

The sound of fire scorching the atmosphere erupted; General Ro Site snapped his head up.

Astra Militarum drop pods descended like a rain of fire, tearing through the crimson clouds.

Outside the Viceroy’s palace, beside a collapsed statue of the Emperor,

the creature known as the Worm of the Underworld gripped the statue with its four arms, rising up to gaze at the fiery rain above.

The Hive Mind’s song echoed beside it—a song eternal for eons, a grand symphony of consumption and survival, grand design and myriad strangeness.

This symphony called to the Worm of the Underworld, but it snorted sharply, resisting the Hive Mind’s summons.

Not yet. Not yet. It still had an old grudge to settle.

The Worm of the Underworld shifted its body and vanished in an instant into the shadows of the palace, gone without a trace.

Zhou Yun stood atop a nearby Gao Ta, glancing at the cane pointing toward the Worm of the Underworld, then turned his gaze to the sky.

Drop pods carrying the Blood Angels descended; the Emperor’s Angels of Death had arrived at Asi.

“Wow, these are really ghouls—no, angels descending beside me,” Zhou Yun exclaimed involuntarily.

“You deserve to die. You truly deserve to die,” the winged figure within the white light hissed through clenched teeth.

(End of Chapter)