Chapter 119: Brain Bug

"So, it should, will it be useful?"

The winged figure within the white light spoke with a somewhat wavering gaze,

Zhou Yun could tell that, in fact, he himself was not very certain.

How to fight a squad of Brain Bugs containing Alpha-level Psykers? The result Zhou Yun and the winged figure in the white light discussed was:

Use Warp power to counter Warp power.

This statue of Saint Guilliman, worshipped and venerated in the Underhive for over ten thousand years, the church bricks and stones infused with the Red Fever soil of Baal and the ashes of Martyrs, the unfinished Guilliman Festival, the prayers of the Asford masses and the Astra Militarum to Saint Guilliman...

Use these things to weaken the barrier between reality and the Warp, to ignite a coordinate for the winged figure in the white light leading to the material universe,

allowing him to descend into Asford just as a Chaos Daemon descends into the material universe.

According to the winged figure in the white light,

he had already successfully manifested many times by leveraging the connection with the Blood Angels.

But the problem is that there are simply no Blood Angels in Asford right now.

"So I intend to try entering the material world through my connection with you."

The winged figure in the white light said:

"You have been immersed in my psychic power for a long time, and you yourself are not entirely a being of the material universe; perhaps it can succeed."

"But this will also consume a considerable amount of my power; I will need you to provide me with a sufficiently precise location when the time comes."

"At that time, even if I cannot truly enter the material universe, I can still infuse some of my power into you."

Hearing the words of the winged figure in the white light, Zhou Yun furrowed his brows slightly.

"What should I do?"

"Call me," the winged figure in the white light said. "Call me in a relatively unique and conspicuous way."

"People in the galaxy pray to me at all times; I need to distinguish your voice from among them."

"Tsk." Zhou Yun made two tsking sounds, stroking his chin and beginning to think: "Then I should have them all fight meat, fight chicken, make meatballs."

Zhou Yun pointed to the Battle Sisters and Astra Militarum soldiers praying behind him,

who were beginning to gradually weaken the barrier between reality and the material universe according to the method taught by the winged figure in the white light,

under normal circumstances, this might have been enough,

but in the Hive Cluster covered by Warp shadows, the winged figure in the white light still needed a precise coordinate,

which required Zhou Yun to call out to him together with the Battle Sisters and Astra Militarum, pointing the way for him in the Warp so he could pass through the thick Warp shadows.

If it were a conventional prayer, it would surely be drowned out by the countless prayers echoing across the galaxy,

it must be unique, conspicuous, a prayer that no other life in the galaxy would perform.

Zhou Yun thought for a moment, asked for paper and pen,

he wrote furiously, filling the paper with lines of text, then handed it to an Astra Militarum soldier beside him, gesturing for him to pass this paper around for the praying Astra Militarum and Battle Sisters to read.

The once magnificent church was now half-submerged in shallow water,

the water stains on the gray walls were the record of this shattered church being submerged time and again,

a huge crawler machine moved its body, walking through the splashing water.

Magda Grace, the Grand Sororitas, cursed softly,

cursing the damned Imperial Navy, and cursing the damned Tyranid creatures.

She stood in the shallow water, waving her arms to command a line of mud-splattered crawler vehicles to move forward,

these behemoths were the machines upon which the nomads relied for survival.

Lacio was once a magnificent Temple World; countless churches once covered every corner of this planet, where people prayed amidst the incense of the churches, praising the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang and the Archangel.

Perhaps the blasphemous things in the Empyrean hated the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang and the Archangel, or perhaps it was simply a coincidence,

the toxic binary stars of the Hive Cluster erupted in a flare, melting the glaciers at Lacio's poles,

the entire Lacio should have been submerged by floods, but because Lacio possessed a massive satellite named "Iksioi,"

the floods were drawn by the satellite's gravity, turning into tides that periodically swept across the planet's surface.

Thus the people of Lacio began to migrate; they fled the floods, riding the massive crawler machines to become nomads,

over the long years, they gradually forgot their faith in the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang, instead forming many distinct and different beliefs.

Grand Sororitas Magda Grace came to this tidal planet by order of the Ecclesiarchy, attempting to once again indoctrinate the people here,

but she had never succeeded until recently, when the nomads witnessed her beheading Licart,

this scene was no different from the legend of a saint slaying a chameleon among the nomads, and thus the nomads began to trust Grand Sororitas Magda.

But Grand Sororitas Magda had no time to ponder these things,

she needed to carefully arrange the timing and prepare to face the coming assault of the swarm,

the Battle Sisters would form a line, using themselves as bait to attract the greedy Tyranid creatures, allowing the nomads to retreat.

Grand Sororitas Magda gazed at the sky; the dark clouds above completely obscured the existence of the satellite Iksioi,

those strange, twisted shadows were not formed naturally, but were Tyranid aerial units loitering in the sky. Every time Grand Sororitas Magda looked at this scene, she felt a bit envious that Droste could fight in a place like a Hive City with a ceiling,

where at least they wouldn't have to worry too much about enemies above their heads,

but what Grand Sororitas Magda envied even more was that man named Zhou Yun, who actually possessed the means to truly kill Licart.

Grand Sororitas Magda couldn't help but reach out and touch her left eye,

the newly implanted prosthetic eye in her socket still felt somewhat uncomfortable to her,

Licart had come again; this time, although Grand Sororitas Magda repelled it once more, she had her eye scratched out in the process.

Grand Sororitas Magda adjusted the newly implanted prosthetic eye; the scene it captured showed the Battle Sisters forming an array,

the Tyranid swarm was fierce and terrifying; before them, the remaining Battle Sisters on Lacio and the residents who were completely helpless made no difference,

Grand Sororitas Magda noticed that there were many gaps in the defensive line formed by the Battle Sisters,

But there was no other way; with so few of her own, Sister Superior Magda could only place her hope in the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's protection and the valor of her Battle Sisters.

This was an all-or-nothing plan; if successful, the nomads would gain temporary safety and even have hope of boarding the evacuation fleet.

And if the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang willed it, the Battle Sisters might yet have a chance to board at the last moment.

Sister Superior Magda gazed with her augur eye at the purple tide approaching in the distance.

It was a biological tide composed of Tyranid swarms, and they were about to come to feed.

"Come then, come then," Sister Superior Magda whispered. "May the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang protect us."

Sister Superior Magda clenched the pendant at her chest and prayed softly to the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang.

!. Read

If all this was the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's design, then it must be the best design. She remembered the words spoken by that girl named Xiang Xiang Leina on Asford.

She was a good child, a devout believer; if she survived, Magda truly wished to recruit her into the Battle Sisters.

She hoped that at that time, Droste would not compete with her for the recruit.

Thinking of this, Sister Superior Magda turned back to glance at the crawler convoy that was evacuating.

Then, her pupils contracted, and she nearly stopped breathing.

A portion of the crawlers broke away from the formation, turned around, and drove toward the Battle Sisters' defensive line, filling the gap in the defense.

"No!" Sister Superior Magda could not help but shout. "No, do not do this. You should be leaving."

An old crawler stopped beside Sister Superior Magda.

The leader of the nomads, a withered old man, stepped down with the help of others.

He silently saluted Sister Superior Magda, then spoke in Low Gothic heavily laced with dialect.

As he spoke, he pointed to the satellite in the sky, the water beneath their feet, and the convoy behind them.

Finally, he pointed a finger at himself.

Sister Superior Magda could barely understand his words.

He said:

"This is our moon."

"This is our sea."

"This is our children."

"This is us, fighting alongside you."

The sky ignited.

Countless drop pods began to fall from the sky, more urgent and fierce than the first wave of the swarm.

Looking up from the shattered city, one could already faintly see countless Tyranid warships covering the crimson sky.

Above the clouds, the silhouettes of swarms were everywhere.

The drop pods they cast down were endless, as if a god were hurling burning sulfur from the heavens to destroy that city, that plain, the inhabitants within, and everything growing upon the earth.

But the Cadians were long accustomed to battling malevolent gods.

They ignited artillery fire from the ground, venting their anti-aircraft firepower upon the drop pods in the crimson sky.

The ammunition General Droste had painfully scraped together and stockpiled earlier now came into use; countless drop pods were blasted into fragments by the fire network formed by Hydra and Icarus battery crews before they even touched the ground.

Even those drop pods that broke through the anti-aircraft fire were concentrated upon by ground armor fire under General Droste's skillful command.

Before they could release the xenos passengers from their abdomens, they were torn to pieces by the Cadian armor forces.

Meanwhile, under Xiang Xiang Leina's leadership, the unlicensed psyker forces, long prepared, also came into use.

They wove lines of soul-fire that could not be extinguished, sprinkling them across the battlefield to form a line blocking the swarm.

Zhou Yun stood atop a fortress cast from fallen stone statues, with eighty-seven laser rifles floating beside him, emitting scorching laser beams.

He precisely shot the node creatures hidden within the swarm.

But Zhou Yun was still waiting; he was waiting for the swarm's true trump card.

Zhou Yun observed the drop pods constantly falling from the sky.

Finally, he noticed that at the moment one drop pod was struck by anti-aircraft fire, waves of psychic energy rippled across its surface.

A Hive Mind! It was indeed a Hive Mind! That drop pod contained a Hive Mind!

"It has come."

(End of this chapter)