Chapter 197: The Name Itself Holds Power

Kabanha had barely spoken the first two syllables of the name Nyos when a primal fear surged through him, as if the name were his natural antithesis.

A bone-chilling pain surged through his body, heat and ice intertwined, eroding his form woven from the Warp's power, seeking to dissolve his existence back into the Warp's ceaseless tides.

He felt a cold, withered gaze fixed upon him—he glimpsed faintly the mummified figure upon the Golden Throne.

Kabanha roared in fury, half his body seared as if by invisible flame, leaving jagged, charred wounds across his flesh.

Mephiston did not understand what had happened, but he felt the Emperor's power—and saw the opening Kabanha had exposed.

The Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels leapt forward, his silver-steel longsword blazing with infernal fire.

In the material realm, the Librarians whose psychic links formed a circle groaned as one; their psychic energy surged into Mephiston's body, forming behind him a shadowy pair of wings.

Kabanha hastily raised his steel whip to block—the whip met the silver blade, and ripples erupted across the Warp at the point of impact.

Both retreated, drawing distance between them.

Kabanha's simian face twisted with rage as he glared at Zhou Yun: "Trickery of the Cursed One!! You mocked me?!"

"That name itself holds power?" Mephiston stared at Kabanha's seared wounds, startled, and turned to Zhou Yun.

He too hesitated to speak the name Nyos aloud.

Zhou Yun smiled faintly, as if mocking Kabanha: "That was one of the Emperor's early names—he used it to seduce women."

Mephiston's expression froze. Kabanha stared, stunned.

That names hold power was common knowledge to anyone familiar with the Warp; many powerful demons' names were avoided by mortals—for instance, Khorne's current Greater Daemon, Angerath, whose name was whispered only by the Ecclesiarchy's Hammer of the Saint or the Grey Knights.

For Warp demons, the Emperor's name too must be avoided—even the title "Emperor," barely a name at all, was rarely uttered; even within the domains of the Four Gods, they dared speak only of "the Cursed One."

Though the Emperor faced immense pressure and most of his power was bound in service, who knew if, upon uttering "Emperor," that mummified corpse upon the Golden Throne might have a sliver of idle energy left to strike you down?

And Nyos, as Zhou Yun claimed, was the Emperor's earliest name, used for forty thousand years, closer to his true name—its power alone, merely spoken, had burned Kabanha.

This was within the Blood God's domain, and only two syllables had been uttered; had it been spoken in the material realm, Kabanha would have been hurled back into the Warp the instant he finished the name.

"Cowardly! Deceitful! Bird-man!" Kabanha cursed, utterly enraged—his roar solidified into tangible flame within the Warp, hurling torrents of burning brimstone at Zhou Yun.

Mephiston instantly raised a psychic field, forming a hazy shield before the infernal flames.

Kabanha let out a deep war cry; drums boomed behind him.

The Bloodletters who followed Kabanha roared, raising their flaming hellblades and charging toward Mephiston and Zhou Yun.

Mephiston roared, his silver-steel blade igniting with a hazy flame as he clashed with the nearest Bloodletter.

His immense psychic force repelled the demon, and as he slashed through the void with his blade,

instantly, the chests of several Bloodletters split open with jagged wounds—their Warp-woven bodies disintegrated on the spot.

Kabanha swung his blazing axe, smashing it against Mephiston's psychic shield.

The shield emitted a sharp, muffled crack—and shattered into azure fragments that dissolved.

Kabanha laughed wildly, swinging his axe straight at Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun merely extended a finger and pointed at Kabanha—his fingertip erupted with a humming force field that instantly engulfed Kabanha's axe, expanding to roughly two meters in width.

Kabanha's arm and axe froze mid-swing, as if time itself had been paused.

Stasis Field!

"What?" Kabanha froze, utterly stunned—he had never imagined this man could summon a Stasis Field with nothing but a finger.

A Stasis Field was fundamentally a spacetime distortion, using immensely complex machinery to briefly disrupt the flow of time within its range, slowing causal progression and stretching a single instant into eternity.

This usually required intricate machinery to achieve!

Zhou Yun lightly tapped a button on a device resembling a remote control.

【Item Name: Mechanicalizer Trial Unit】

【Origin: 22nd Century Earth—Future Department Store】

【Manufactured: 291. 3】

【Function: Aiming this device at any machine allows extraction of its function and transfer to the user's body; each button corresponds to one machine. This is a trial unit released by Future Department Store—transferred machine functions have a time limit; the more complex the function, the shorter its duration.】

【Review: Dear customer, we recommend purchasing the full version for complete service.】

【Value: 6, 00, 00 credits】

This six-million-credit device allowed Zhou Yun to replicate any machine's function, but as a budget trial unit, each replicated ability had a strict time limit—the more complex the function, the shorter its duration, requiring re-replication once expired.

As for the full version—he glanced at its price, higher than a teleporter, and his eyebrow twitched.

Anggron buys the full version! I'll take the trial! So what if the duration's short? When it runs out, I'll just replicate it again!

The Stasis Field was copied from a relic the Tomb Wardens had lost to him—it allowed Zhou Yun to project a two-meter-wide Stasis Field.

Zhou Yun pressed another button on the Mechanicalizer, while still pointing at Kabanha—his palm erupted in blinding blue light.

Leman Russ Eradicator Nova Cannon—copied from the Leman Russ Eradicator tank Zhou Yun had scavenged from the Necropolis battlefield.

Its Nova Cannon fired searing subatomic charges, powerful enough to obliterate entire fortifications in an instant.

The searing subatomic charges roared in Zhou Yun's palm, transforming into a powerful pulse that blasted straight toward Kabanha's face.

As Zhou Yun switched the replicated function, the Stasis Field restraining Kabanha's arm vanished—Kabanha swiftly raised his axe to block.

The subatomic charges detonated across Kabanha's axe in a flash of blue, white, and orange—engulfing most of his body, the charges crawling over his crimson, Warp-woven form.

"ROOOOAR!!" Kabanha violently flapped his wings—his black feathers instantly scattered the lingering charges—and the crimson beast swung his axe and leapt at Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun raised his arm, and torrents of searing subatomic charges screamed forth; Kabanha swung his axe downward, forcibly deflecting the azure bolts, sending them scattering across the sandy ground, triggering a series of explosions.

Kabanha closed the distance in a blink—Zhou Yun leapt upward, his bamboo propeller already attached, lifting him swiftly.

But the Blood God's Bloodletters were no fools—his axe instantly reversed direction, slashing toward Zhou Yun's body—

Blood! Kabanha saw the blade cleave through Zhou Yun's flesh—at last, this bastard bled!

He nearly felt the thrill of Zhou Yun's blood splattering across his skin!

But then Kabanha sensed something wrong—this wasn't the feel of cutting through flesh.

A lump of clay smeared across Kabanha's face—his blade had only sliced through clay, then scraped against a layer of gleaming metal, leaving a scratch but failing to pierce it.

Zhou Yun wore the Ghost Thief DX Suit, then molded a false layer of skin and flesh from clay over his body.

Kabanha had merely cut through the clay—Zhou Yun's body remained untouched.

Zhou Yun seized the moment to fire another shot—but the Mechanicalizer's time limit expired.

He had tested it: chain-sword functions lasted about ten minutes; Nova Cannon functions, two to three minutes; Stasis Field, barely a minute.

But it was enough—he glanced at the Warp Engine in his fourth-dimensional pocket.

The Warp Engine now pulsed like a living thing, countless skulls clustered upon it, dripping thick blood; a Warp rift slowly unfurled across its surface.

Once Zhou Yun and Mephiston exited the Warp, they could replace the rift's exit point with the pocket's interior.

"Mephiston!" Zhou Yun barked, then used his bamboo propeller to rapidly distance himself from Kabanha.

Mephiston nodded slightly—his Vita-Liberator flashed silver, and instantly, the demons around him shattered into dust, blown away by the wind.

Mephiston used psychic enhancement to strengthen his body, leaping backward and giving Zhou Yun a sharp nod.

The Bloodletters roared and surged after them.

Zhou Yun and Mephiston didn't hesitate—they leapt straight into the Warp rift behind them.

The Bloodletters followed, charging in—Kabanha roared, tore the clay from his face, and sprinted toward the rift—

But at the very last moment before entering the rift, Kabanha halted—he sensed something was wrong.

"You two… what exactly are you waiting for?"

(End of Chapter)