Chapter 580: The Domain of the Spirit-Driving Dead

A cold, merciless welding sound rose as electricity and fire sealed the Hellbeast completely; unbearable darkness swallowed all.

Steel pierced muscle, metal pierced nerves, tentacles lapped at the brain; the soul shattered within this coffin as flesh and metal began to merge.

Abaddon opened his mouth and emitted a silent, piercing scream.

But no one could hear that sound anymore.

Vashthor watched calmly as the Abaddon-class Hellbeast, after wetware implantation, was activated; boundless chaotic demonic energy surged forth and poured into the terrifying machine.

That was the blessing granted to Abaddon by the Chaos Gods, but that was not the key.

Far more important was the blow that Horus delivered when he killed Sanguinius—a blow imbued with the highest power of the gods, directly piercing through time, space, and fate, tearing apart Sanguinius's essence, and continually nourished over millennia by the remembrance of all beings across the galaxy; the power contained in that single blow outnumbered the Chaos Gods' blessing to Abaddon by hundreds or thousands of times.

On the ice moon Krasus, Sanguinius extended a portion of his wound onto Abaddon's body, crushing him utterly and reducing him nearly to a cripple.

Now, Vashthor, through a series of exquisite techniques, had extracted both the power within that wound and Abaddon's divine blessing, channeling them into this Hellbeast, forged from the wisdom of Vashthor and Perturabo.

A sharp, mad scream erupted from the Abaddon Hellbeast; its flesh writhed and mutated instantly, and the terrifying chaotic demonic energy made its already far larger-than-normal frame swell even further.

"Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!!"

A black hurricane howled; the Iron Warriors closest to the Hellbeast were instantly flung backward, their power armor twisted and deformed, their Astartes inside reduced to pulp by the shockwave.

Vashthor trembled his metallic wings and retreated over ten meters in an instant.

But in the blink of an eye, Abaddon swung his modified Fist of Horus straight to Vashthor's face, the razor-sharp claws closing in on his eyes.

Vashthor had no time to defend—

Perturabo moved no slower; his body, like a wall of steel, slammed directly into the Abaddon Hellbeast.

Abaddon staggered backward several steps from the impact.

Yet even so, he still struck out with his unarmed hand, driven by combat instinct, aiming a blow at Perturabo's face.

Perturabo raised a massive steel hand to block it.

A fierce metallic shriek rang from Perturabo's arm.

Vashthor nodded slightly, deeply satisfied.

The power displayed by the Abaddon Hellbeast met his expectations.

Then Vashthor's will surged, piercing into the Hellbeast's body, drilling between steel and flesh.

In an instant, Abaddon's mad, hateful will was crushed beneath Vashthor's control.

This was Vashthor's authority—the power of the Domain of Malicious Artifice.

The Hellbeast, originally created by him, could never defy his will.

Abaddon struggled fiercely for a moment, but to no avail; under Vashthor's command, he retreated to his original position, surrounded by the circle of eight demons.

Vashthor whispered incantations, directly drawn from the Book of Luojia—the enchantment techniques once taught by Luojia to Abaddon and Kayan.

Vashthor directly modified this technique, fusing it with his own.

Under the incantations, the seven demons bound by Vashthor's pact growled low and deep.

Poppy, Penicillin, Huns, Pyramid Scheme, Maxim, Ten Plagues, The Unnameable—seven demons intimately tied to humanity.

Ecstatic Perception, Corrupt Collapse, Heartless Slaughter, Hellstorm, Malicious Artifice, Greedy Dissolution, Unfixed Distortion—seven great domains of the Warp.

The seven demons dissolved nearly simultaneously, merging with the Abaddon Hellbeast, sinking into the positions long prepared for them within its body.

The black stone octagram inscribed on the Hellbeast's torso instantly spewed seven distinct hues of light; black stone could suppress or amplify Warp energy, depending entirely on its polarity.

This creation of the Void Dragon was indeed valuable; Vashthor had installed it on the Hellbeast to suppress the ripples caused by the clashing of the seven domains.

Under Vashthor's control, the Hellbeast slowly crouched and picked up the magic sword emitting a faint blue glow.

It was Delanicon, the demon born from humanity's first murder, sealed by the Emperor and transformed into a magic sword.

He belonged precisely to the Domain of Corrosive Destruction—the domain of the Dark King—and the one currently vacant within the Hellbeast.

The corner of the octagram symbolizing Corrosive Destruction blazed with intense light, as if Delanicon's power and contribution were the greatest among the eight demons.

But Vashthor's awareness swept over him and detected Delanicon was pretending; he was in truth the strongest of the eight demons, far surpassing even Penicillin, the mightiest of the seven Greater Demons.

Yet Delanicon's output was even less than the weakest—Pyramid Scheme and Ten Plagues.

"If you serve me with your full strength, I will find a way to lift the Emperor's binding on you, freeing you from your sword form," Vashthor said to Delanicon.

Delanicon fell silent for half a second.

"Actually, being a sword isn't so bad," he replied to Vashthor.