Chapter 194: Even a One-Eyed Red-Skinned Ogryn Should Understand

Bar's sky shimmered, as if countless stars flashed, exploded, and raced through their entire lives in an instant on the crimson heavens.

Dante stood within Angel's Keep, gazing at the ever-explosive light beyond the Void Shield, his expression hidden behind the golden Saint Guilliman mask.

Each explosion was a clash of steel and flesh, as the Saint Blood Angel warships forged from iron and electricity fought against the Leviathan hive fleet grown from flesh.

Biological plasma, plasma, bio-projectiles, macro-cannons, light lances, and torpedoes dotted Bar's sky like starlight.

Beneath these lights, more battles without glow unfolded in the black void.

The battle had lasted long; Bar's sun, shrouded in the hive's shadow, had risen and fallen many times, even the Crimson Scar seeming obscured and blurred by the Hive Mind.

Dante often saw even more brilliant lights explode—like short-lived suns on Bar's crimson sky, appearing and vanishing in a blink.

He could not tell whether those were the flashes of Saint Blood Angel warships exploding or the dying cries of Tyranid warships.

A sorrow filled Dante's heart; the warriors he knew or did not know were fighting in the void.

The fighting there held less hope than on the ground—millions of Tyranid warships filled the stars, countless void beasts roared and tore apart the Saint Blood Angels' space forces.

Not long ago, Zhou Yun had hurriedly emerged from the Holy Sun Vault and handed Dante a copy of *Even a One-Eyed Red-Skinned Ogryn Should Understand the Tyranids*.

According to Zhou Yun, this was a supplement to the earlier *Even an Ogryn Should Understand the Tyranids*, adding several Tyranid lifeforms unseen in the Underworld Campaign and containing nearly complete knowledge of Tyranid fleets.

Its contents confirmed a guess held by Dante and the Saint Blood Angels: that Tyranid hive motherships functioned as biological nodes, much like those on the ground.

For a biological entity as vast and numerous as the Tyranid hive fleet to form a true army, a special individual serving as a neural center must exist.

The hive mother was not only the biological arms factory of the swarm but also the physical vessel of the Hive Mind in the material universe, the core of the entire hive fleet.

Destroying the hive mother would deprive part of the hive fleet of control, turning them into pure void beasts; and once the hive mother was destroyed, pressure on the ground would also lessen.

Zhou Yun had suggested to Dante that they target the hive mother whenever possible, but not attempt to exterminate them utterly.

First, the Saint Blood Angels' current void forces could never achieve such a feat; damaging the hive mother remained the goal, but no reckless full-scale assault was warranted—Zhou Yun estimated at least five digits of node hive motherships existed in the void alone.

Second—Dante quietly steadied himself, looking down at the book in his hands, its cover depicting a red-eyed Ogryn.

The book described several biological entities never before discovered by the Imperium, even their subspecies unknown to the Imperium.

Dante felt fear at the book's descriptions, unable to suppress doubts about their truth.

Had he not known that the Great Doraemon might have opposed the Tyranids for eons and possessed vast experience fighting them, Dante would never have believed it.

Could the Tyranids still conceal such powerful units—and in past battles, had the Imperium never driven them to the point of creating them?

Another star exploded in the void, brighter than any before.

Dante felt as if he sensed the vibration from that warship's destruction, though it lay so far away.

"Blade of Vengeance," Dante whispered.

As if to confirm his suspicion, he saw a streaking meteor slash through Bar's atmosphere, carving a blazing river of fire across the dim sky, splitting half the heavens.

Then the earth trembled; black smoke rose in the distance; the light point representing the Blade of Vengeance vanished from Dante's screens.

That warship—the one that had served as the Saint Blood Angels' flagship since the Red Tear vanished into history—had fallen.

Dante cried out in his heart; it meant the swarm had broken through the void defenses. Dante believed the warriors who perished in the void had fulfilled their duty.

Every warrior sent into the void carried the courage of certain death; the warships' machine spirits, seemingly influenced by the Holy Doraemon, had grown fierce.

In the end, they held back the void swarm for six full days, greatly weakening it—but the pressure on the ground remained dire.

After the meteor of the Blade of Vengeance fell, a rain of fire blanketed the sky, like sulfuric fire sent by gods to punish Bar.

Yet Bar needed no burning heat to become a crimson wasteland; only Angel's Keep remained the world's final bastion.

This fire was not punishment—it was annihilation.

Each firedrop was a spore pod, brimming with Tyranid beasts.

Roars erupted from Angel's Keep; countless defense lasers and anti-air cannons screamed, striking the enemies falling from the sky through the Void Shield.

Bar's sky was vast, and Angel's Keep's cannons, restored to their ten-thousand-year-old glory, were immensely powerful; most of the countless spore pods were destroyed by anti-air fire—but the swarm was endless, and even the few that slipped through could become floods.

The spore pods landed on the crimson desert beyond Angel's Keep; piercing, shrill insect cries rose as countless Tyranid lifeforms poured from the pods, surging like tides toward Angel's Keep.

Burning the Underworld System, deploying Exterminatus to starve the swarm, destroying hive motherships with fleet power, blocking spore pods with anti-air fire—

Each step weakened the Tyranid swarm, yet the Leviathan hive fleet had mobilized such overwhelming force that even after repeated weakening, the swarm remained terrifying.

"This is the final battle."

Dante murmured, lifting his head slightly; his gaze behind the Saint Guilliman mask grew a fraction firmer:

"To the walls. Either death, or victory."

As he spoke, Dante could not help but glance toward the courtyard beneath Gao Ta.

Zhou Yun and Mofusidun stood in the courtyard, also gazing at the endless spore pods falling from the sky.

Their eyes met Dante's; Zhou Yun noticed him, turned, and gave a slight nod.

Then Zhou Yun pulled from nowhere the pink-tinged wooden door, gently pushing it open.

Behind it lay a world of crimson crystal; Zhou Yun and Mofusidun stepped inside.

The Hungering Waters rippled in the moat, faintly shimmering with an almost imperceptible silver, like water—but a terrifying weapon rippled within.

The Water Seller Yugi trembled as he watched; as a water seller, a mortal raised on Bar Two, Yugi had known since childhood to fear this liquid, could not imagine angels had gathered such vast quantities of Hungering Water and placed it beside the sacred Angel's Keep.

This liquid was sentient; it would slip through sand, replicate itself hundreds or thousands of times, hiding in concealment to await the hunt—perhaps requiring millennia to fully eradicate.

Yugi believed the angels were wise; such a dangerous act must have reason. But what enemy could drive the angels to such peril?

He recalled his mother-in-law's final words; the old woman had stared wide-eyed, fiddling with her tarot cards as she died.

"River of Tears, Doraemon, Severed Death, Grey Storm."

Yugi murmured those words; after uttering this prophecy, the old woman had died. Yugi buried her and his wife's remains in the same desert—wondering if he himself would ever have the chance.

He might die here. So might his foolish son.

Yugi looked with some pity at his foolish son beside him, clutching a laser rifle, expression blank as if unaware of his own location.

"You—" Yugi began to speak, but was cut off.

The ground suddenly trembled; a wave of yellow, gray, and purple surged into view on the distant horizon.

A terrifying sound rose—a sharp, malevolent hiss, perfectly engineered to awaken primal fear.

Then Yugi heard the clicking of chitinous carapaces, the piercing shriek of weapons firing, and the roar of plasma tearing through the void.

Before battle, Yugi had received basic training from the Holy Doraemon Church—enough to operate weapons and understand the coming enemy.

But seeing them now, Yugi's legs went weak; he felt his mind could not process what his eyes beheld.

Endless, roaring, shrieking swarms were rushing toward the moat.

"Aaaah!!!" His foolish son screamed, turning and fleeing backward.

"No!!" Yugi spun to grab his son; the Holy Doraemon Church had warned them of the consequences of desertion.

"By the Holy Doraemon's Round Hand!! Get back here!!"

The muzzle of the laser rifle pressed against Yugi's son's forehead; the boy flinched, trembling, shrinking beside Yugi.

"Your son?" Yugi recognized the man holding the rifle—a hideous old face, creased with wrinkles—but Yugi dared not show disrespect.

He was one of the leaders of the Holy Doraemon Church; Yugi knew his name: Luo Ge.

"Crazy?" Luo Ge glanced at Yugi's son.

Yugi could only nod, his body trembling uncontrollably.

"Buddy, you're scared, right?"

Luo Ge raised his voice slightly; Yugi immediately understood he was speaking not just to him, but to all who trembled:

"Believe me, brother—I'm scared too. For decades, I was just a slum rat from a hive city, thinking only of how to survive."

Yugi believed him—he noticed Luo Ge's hand gripping the rifle trembled.

"I only know how to survive!" Luo Ge drew a dry breath. "So I tell you: running won't save you. You'll die at your own people's gun barrels."

"Hold tight your rifles. Across the moat lies the enemy. Defeat them, and you live."

"The angels told me this is only a probing attack. They must not touch the moat."

"So now, buddy! Whether you're from Asi, Laixi, or Bar—just fucking shoot!"

"May the Holy Doraemon guard your fire!"

Yugi's fingers trembled slightly; watching the swarm draw nearer, he roared and pulled the trigger.

Beside him, Luo Ge raised his laser rifle, bellowing as if to drive away his own and others' fear:

"First, grant me blessing, Lady Leina! Second, protect my rifle, Brother Zhou Yun! Third, possess me, Lyne Lu! Fourth, extend your Round Hand, Doraemon! FIRE!!"

(End of Chapter)