Chapter 166: The Elytral Guilliman

Is that the Chief Librarian, Mephiston, who looks like a corpse?

Zhou Yun's eyebrows twitched slightly.

Mephiston is one of the Empire's most powerful psykers.

Infiltrations like those by Dici and the others could never slip past Mephiston's psychic senses.

"And, my Lord, the entire Angel's Bastion has undergone massive changes."

Dici adjusted his words and said:

"Battle-Captain Dante issued orders: excavation is underway across a radius of several kilometers around the Angel's Bastion."

"Ancient structures buried for millennia beneath desert sands have been unearthed to house the arriving Angels."

"They even discovered an ancient, sturdy wall—now serving as the new shield of the Angel's Bastion."

Hearing this, Zhou Yun nodded slightly.

He was already aware of this.

As Guilliman had split the old Legions into thousand-man Chapters, the Blood Angels on Baal were no longer enough to fill the Angel's Bastion that once housed the full Legions.

Most of the ancient fortress had been buried under Baal's sands over ten thousand years, leaving only its core region intact.

But as support from daughter Chapters arrived, Battle-Captain Dante ordered the Blood Slaves to excavate the lost sections of the Angel's Bastion once more.

Old bunkers, towers, meeting halls, and walls were rediscovered, expanding the Angel's Bastion's footprint by several kilometers.

It was a fortress strong and vast enough to have once served as the command center of the Angels, and the best possible defense against the Tyranid hordes.

But Zhou Yun suspected that Saint Guilliman's remains still lay within the core region—never buried by the sands.

The old maps should still be usable, allowing Zhou Yun to slip silently into the Angel's Bastion using his Gate of Anywhere.

"We only need a map of the former core region."

Zhou Yun looked at Dici and Old One-Eye and said:

"Or even clues."

After a moment of silence, Dici spoke: "My Lord, we have only been on this planet for about three months."

"But a group of abominations had long since infiltrated Baal, lying dormant in the desert—they likely possess maps of the Angel's Bastion's interior."

Old One-Eye, hearing Dici's words, visibly froze, then asked: "You mean Gene-Stealers?"

"Yes, exactly." Old One-Eye nodded. "These creatures seem to know Baal intimately."

"These bastards once tried to corrupt refugees from Asford, but we had enough knowledge of them to track their trail."

"Yet when the Angels arrived to assist us in surrounding them, those damned mutant monsters vanished into the desert—gone without a trace."

"We suspect these Gene-Stealers infiltrated Baal many years ago and have lain hidden in the desert for over a century, slowly expanding their influence and gathering intelligence on Baal."

"Only recently, as the Tyranids neared, did they grow slightly more active—and we caught them red-handed."

Listening to Dici and Old One-Eye, Zhou Yun rubbed his chin in thought.

Gene-Stealers. Indeed, during the coming Battle of Baal, Gene-Stealers would appear.

They had coordinated with a Lictor to infiltrate the Angel's Bastion, attacked the Blood-Coffin Hall where new recruits were grown as a diversion, and destroyed the Bastion's Void Shield.

Clearly, they possessed considerable knowledge of the Angel's Bastion's interior.

It seemed the Tyranid Hive Fleets had been preparing to invade Baal for a long time—possibly for over a century.

The Gene-Stealers infected by the Tyranids must have been extremely cautious, slipping silently onto Baal and gathering intelligence invaluable to the Hive Fleets.

They must possess maps of the Angel's Bastion's interior.

For Zhou Yun, finding them would not be difficult—he had the Seeker's Staff.

With sufficient information, he could effortlessly locate anyone.

"Tell me everything about these Gene-Stealers hiding on Baal. The more specific, the better."

Zhou Yun looked at Dici and Old One-Eye.

"This goes back to when we first arrived on Baal, before we split off."

Old One-Eye spoke:

"Initially, most refugees from Laxio worshipped Saint Doraemon or Magda the Great Abbess, while a significant portion of the Asford refugees worshipped only Saint Guilliman."

"We thought nothing of it—whether they worshipped Saint Guilliman, Saint Doraemon, the Emperor himself, or Laxio's native faiths, it didn't matter, since their ultimate enemy was the same."

"Unless they worshipped the twisted cult of the Gene-Stealers."

Dici took over from Old One-Eye:

"We remained vigilant against this possibility. My sisters infiltrated the followers of Saint Guilliman and traced them to a small outpost and chapel."

"These Gene-Stealers likely hadn't yet received information from the Hive Fleet about Asford—they didn't understand our capabilities, and underestimated us, the Cult of the Death God's assassins."

"My sisters and I infiltrated their outpost and chapel. We confirmed they did worship Saint Guilliman—but not the Saint Guilliman we know."

Hearing Dici, Zhou Yun raised an eyebrow—he suspected what was coming. Gene-Stealers didn't worship only the Four-Armed God-Emperor; they adapted their heresies to local needs, crafting new twisted faiths.

For example, on Forge Worlds they might develop the Blade Omnisiah; on the Five Hundred Worlds, they might birth Mother-Worm Guilliman.

If they invaded a Daemon World, perhaps they'd invent Mating Slaanesh, Brain-Worm Tzeentch, Horned Khorne, or Dung-Scarab Nurgle.

The winged figure in Bai Guang's corner twitched its wings slightly—he too seemed barely able to contain himself.

"The Saint Guilliman they worship does not have white wings, but four pairs of elytra-like scales, like flies or wasps."

"In their doctrine, Saint Guilliman did not truly sacrifice himself—he merely fell gravely wounded and slumbered within a cocoon."

"When fate arrives, the cocoon containing the Angel shall descend from the heavens, and Saint Guilliman shall awaken, unfolding his scaled wings."

"At that moment, all Gene-Stealers who worship him shall merge into Saint Guilliman's cocoon, achieving eternal bliss alongside the Angel."

Dici paused briefly, then whispered:

"They call their faith… the Elytral Guilliman."

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"The Elytral Guilliman."

Mephiston murmured the name of that blasphemous faith.

The Gene-Stealers, corrupted by genetic taint, twisted the pure veneration of the Archangel into a blasphemous heresy, deceiving Baal's inhabitants and luring them into corruption.

Upon learning of this blasphemous cult, every Blood Angel was consumed by rage.

Here, on Baal—the homeworld of the Father of Genes, the Blood Angels' mother world—these twisted aliens had birthed such a blasphemous sect.

Yet the Blood Angels had never noticed.

But Mephiston understood: this was almost inevitable.

The Hive Fleets had clearly been watching Baal in silence for a long time.

Among these infiltrators were powerful psykers who had evaded the Librarium's detection.

And Baal itself was blanketed in desert—beneath endless sands lay countless caves, tunnels, and ancient ruins.

The Gene-Stealers expanded their influence with extreme caution and slowness, remaining entirely hidden in the desert.

The Blood Angels could never have imagined such blasphemous aliens lurked among them.

Had they not attempted to corrupt refugees from the Underworld System, the Blood Angels might never have discovered this Gene-Stealer cult until the Tyranids descended—let alone located their stronghold.

Yet Mephiston, through the Blasphemous Prophecy of the Eight-Faced One, foresaw that a Lictor would appear in the Gene-Stealers' stronghold—and pinpointed its exact location.

Hidden deep within Baal's desert, beneath a dune in a labyrinthine tunnel system.

These tunnels may have once been a sewer system from tens of thousands of years ago—unknown even to the Blood Angels.

Mephiston stood at the entrance of that tunnel system.

The Eight-Faced One's prophecy not only revealed the Lictor's and the Gene-Stealer cult's location,

but also unveiled the identity of the so-called "Saint Doraemon"—a candidate existing across multiple locations in the Warp.

Mephiston chose to investigate the Gene-Stealers first, for he judged Saint Doraemon far more dangerous.

He still remembered the Eight-Faced One's head exploding before his eyes—that alien sorcerer the Blood Angels had spent three millennia trying to kill, who died instantly merely upon uttering the name "Saint Doraemon."

Even Mephiston, with his psychic power far beyond reason, dared not investigate Him recklessly.

A breeze suddenly stirred, scattering radiation-laced sand against his unique power armor.

His armor was unlike any other—it resembled the exposed muscle tissue of a flayed man, every muscle fiber carved from ceramite.

Mephiston's armor color was darker than the Blood Angels' standard, a deep crimson that pulsed like living blood, shimmering with a bloody sheen under Baal's crimson sun.

But Mephiston was not concerned about exposure.

His Astartes physique, unless disguised as one of those mindless mutants, could not be concealed by any physical means he knew.

So Mephiston employed the Ascendant's psychic power, layering his body with multiple complex layers of cognitive distortion, ensuring the Gene-Stealers would perceive him as one of their own, unnoticed.

Mephiston stepped into the tunnel.

(End of Chapter)