Chapter 441: Then, I Shall Offer You My Loyalty!

The butcher's nail on Khaen's skull still hummed, and the demon possessing Khaen had already prostrated himself before Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun stared at Khaen and the demon kneeling on the ground, momentarily stunned.

What's going on with this demon? Why did it surrender so quickly?

And is this the augmented version of Khaen?

How could something this cool just appear?

Zhou Yun's xp system as a Chaos Space Marine enthusiast was instantly activated.

After a brief moment, Zhou Yun swiftly realized the demon's possible identity.

"Are you… Loom?" Zhou Yun asked hesitantly.

Loom was the demon who once possessed Anger Thae; they were among the first bonded warriors, where demons and humans achieved harmony, freely shifting between forms—a model of demon-human symbiosis in Luo Jia's eyes, the future form of humanity.

Zhou Yun guessed the demons who possessed Anger Thae and his companions were the ones the Four Gods had painstakingly selected from the shit pit—the absolute pinnacle of seller's showcase.

The demon possessing Khaen's expression flickered, as if forgetting his own name; only after Zhou Yun's reminder did fragmented memories recall it.

"Yes, my lord, I am Loom, the demon who once possessed Anger Thae—now merely a shattered fragment yearning for vengeance."

Loom spoke to Zhou Yun in a hoarse voice, remembering his name.

So it really is him.

When Zhou Yun learned Abaddon had tasked the Alphas to transport Khaen to Terra, he immediately realized the Avenger foretold by the Emperor was likely Khaen.

Khaen and Erebus shared a blood feud: Erebus had killed Khaen's chain-brother, Anger Thae.

Khaen once nearly hacked Erebus to death with three axe swings, but Erebus escaped using a ritual dagger.

Zhou Yun had previously suspected Khaen was the Avenger, but the Truth-Seeker's verdict had been wrong.

Now it was clear: Khaen and Loom together, man and demon fused, formed the complete Avenger—a crucial link in the Emperor's prophecy, pivotal to the galaxy's fate in the coming era.

Moreover, as Angulon's son, Khaen might fulfill the prophecy: "The Crimson Angel Angulon shall guide humanity's future."

So upon seeing the demon possessing Khaen, Zhou Yun instantly thought of Loom—because Loom and Khaen shared the same hatred.

Zhou Yun pulled out the Truth-Seeker from his fourth-dimensional pocket and performed a direct judgment.

The result was correct: the Avenger was the fusion of Khaen and Loom, man and demon.

A faint smile curled at Zhou Yun's lips.

He gently extended a finger toward Khaen's skull.

At that moment, Khaen was still battling the relentless surge of slaughter-lust and rage pouring from the butcher's nail.

The butcher's nail urged Khaen: Kill. Kill freely. Kill these people before you.

Khaen's reason screamed back: Kill your fucking ass.

Even if you ignore Sanguinius and Saint Doraemon, you can't beat Guilliman!

Khaen wanted nothing more than to rip the butcher's nail from his skull and beat it into the ground.

His reason and rage had reached a stalemate, leaving him utterly paralyzed.

Zhou Yun, finger extended toward Khaen's skull, frowned deeply.

A complete mess—absolute fucking mess.

Ugly cables tangled with Khaen's brain tissue, mixed with grotesque tumors born of Khorne's mutation; Khaen's own brain, eaten away over ten thousand years by the butcher's nail, was now mostly replaced by it.

What made Zhou Yun frown even harder was:

The butcher's nail was psychic technology—even alive, devouring Khaen's soul fragments, casting a faint projection in the Warp, piercing Khaen's very existence on the soul level.

What the hell kind of terrifying artifact is this? How did a feudal world like Nusaria produce something so horrific?

A relic from the Dark Age of Technology? Humans back then were truly terrifying.

This was even a degraded version of the butcher's nail—far weaker than the original embedded in Angulon's skull.

Zhou Yun forcibly, almost brutally, suppressed the butcher's nail's power, resisting its own functions, its malevolent machine-soul, and Khorne's blessing.

After considerable effort, he subdued the nail's functions, freeing Khaen's forge from rage.

Then, Khaen's eyes grew vacant and clear, his mouth spouting meaningless babble like "Aba aba."

Zhou Yun fell silent, then realized: the butcher's nail had replaced most of Khaen's brain functions; shutting it down had turned him into a mental invalid.

He had to reactivate just a sliver of the nail's power, enough to let Khaen's brain function normally without drowning him in rage.

Light slowly returned to Khaen's eyes.

After regaining his sanity, Khaen stared at Robert Guilliman, Sanguinius, and Doraemon standing before him, frozen stiff.

"Khaen, I am glad to see you have restrained your rage and regained some reason and clarity," Sanguinius said gently.

"Lord Sanguinius," Khaen's voice carried complexity and weight.

With reason restored, memories from the Great Crusade flooded his mind, stirring emotions he rarely felt beyond rage.

"Khaen! What are you waiting for!"

Loom urged urgently:

"Man, Saint Doraemon stands right before you—why aren't you swearing loyalty to Saint Doraemon immediately?"

Khaen's body stiffened; he hadn't had normal human interaction in years.

He swiftly, decisively dropped to one knee before Zhou Yun, placing the chain-axe Bloodson—inheritance from Angulon—between himself and Zhou Yun, in a gesture of offering loyalty.

"My lord, my chain-axe is yours to command."

"I beg one thing: fulfill the promise you made on Baal—help me find Erebus's location."

"I crave his head."

Khaen's final words were almost a roar, veins bulging on his face.

"You wish to serve me?" Zhou Yun raised his voice slightly. "What of the Blood God? What of Angulon?"

"I no longer crave the skulls of all. I seek only Erebus's. The Blood God's path is no longer mine."

Khaen whispered:

"As for Angulon, my father… perhaps he died long ago—the day he left Nusaria. What remains is merely a tormented soul trapped in a demon-body forged by the Blood God."

This was what Khaen had realized in recent days, struggling against the butcher's nail with Loom's aid.

Angulon's resistance to the butcher's nail had failed; at that moment, he must have realized his fate in utter despair.

That's why he longed to die on Nusaria's hot sands—as a rebel.

Though the Emperor ultimately rescued him, the original Angulon had already died.

The gene-father of the World Eaters never returned; what came back was merely a body controlled by the butcher's nail.

"If I get the chance, I would rather kill Angulon—end his suffering, let his soul rest upon those hot sands."

Silence, wordless and heavy, enveloped them.

Khaen waited anxiously; he knew what it meant to bargain with gods.

Divine blessings never came without cost—they were both gift and curse.

He had once begged Luo Jia and the Blood God to save his father—but the Blood God gave him…

A flash of pain crossed Khaen's face.

Then, he heard a soft laugh.

"Then rise, Khaen."

"We are allies now—allies united against the same enemy."

"Let us go together and sever Erebus's head—for your Anger Thae, for my unlucky psychic Ogryn, and for countless others—Horus, Loken, and more."

(End of Chapter)