Chapter 195: One-eyed red-skinned Ogryns should also understand

Baal's sky was flickering. In the dim red sky, it was as if countless stars were flickering, bursting, and walking through the entire life cycle in an instant.

Dante stood in the Angel's Fortress, looking at the constantly bursting sky light outside the Void Shield, hiding his expression behind the golden mask of Sanguinius.

Every explosion was a clash of steel and flesh. The Blood Angels' warships, forged from iron and electricity, were clashing with the Leviathan Hive Fleet grown from flesh and blood.

Bio-plasma, plasma, bio-shells, macro-cannons, lance batteries, and torpedoes turned into starlight, dotting Baal's sky.

And beneath these lights, more lightless battles were taking place in the pitch-black void.

This battle had been going on for a long time. Baal's sun, shrouded in the shadow of the Hive Fleet, had risen and set several times, and even the Scarlet Scar seemed to be covered by the Hive Mind, becoming hazy and unclear.

Dante could often see more brilliant light bursting, like a short-lived sun in Baal's dim red sky, appearing in the blink of an eye and disappearing in the blink of an eye.

He could not tell whether that was the light produced by the bursting of Blood Angels warships or the wailing emitted by Tyranid bio-ships when they died.

A kind of sorrow overflowed in Dante's heart. Those warriors he was familiar with or unfamiliar with were fighting in the void.

The battle there was even more hopeless than on the ground. Millions of Tyranid bio-ships filled the stars, and countless void behemoths roared and tore apart the Blood Angels' space forces.

Not long ago, Zhou Yun rushed out of the Shrine of the Holy Day and stuffed a book, "The Tyranid Biological Encyclopedia That Even One-Eyed Red-Skinned Ogryns Should Understand," into Dante's hands.

According to Zhou Yun, this was a supplementary version to the previous "The Tyranid Biological Encyclopedia That Ogryns Should Understand." It not only added several Tyranid creatures that did not appear in the Underworld campaign but also contained almost complete knowledge of the Tyranid fleet.

The content within verified a guess of Dante and the Blood Angels: that the Hive Motherships within the Tyranids actually played the role of ground node organisms.

For a biological entity with such a huge volume and number as the Tyranid Hive Fleet, if they wanted to form a true army, there must be a special individual acting as the nerve center.

The Hive Mothership was not only the bio-factory of the Hive Fleet but also the host of the Hive Mind in the material universe, the core of the entire Hive Fleet.

As long as the Hive Mothership was destroyed, a part of the Hive Fleet could be made to lose control and turn into pure void beasts. Even after the Hive Mothership was destroyed, the pressure on the ground would also decrease accordingly.

And Zhou Yun made a suggestion to Dante: target the Hive Motherships as much as possible, but do not try to wipe them all out.

For one, the void power currently mastered by the Blood Angels could not do this at all. Destroying the Hive Motherships was still the goal, but they should never risk it completely. According to Zhou Yun's estimate... there were at least five digits of Hive Motherships acting as nodes in the void alone.

Secondly... Dante calmed down slightly and looked at the booklet with a red one-eyed Ogryn drawn on it.

This book recorded several biological individuals that had never been discovered by the Imperium before, and even their subspecies were unheard of by the Imperium.

Dante even felt fear at the descriptions in the booklet, unable to help but doubt their authenticity.

If it were not for knowing that Saint Doraemon might have been fighting against the Tyranid Hive Fleet for a long time and had rich experience in countering the Tyranid Hive Fleet, Dante would really not dare to believe it.

The Tyranid Hive Fleet actually hid such powerful units, and in past battles, the Imperium had never forced the Hive Fleet to the point of needing to manufacture them?

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

Dante seemed to be able to feel the vibration produced when that warship burst, even though they were so far apart...

"Blade of Vengeance," Dante whispered.

As if to verify his guess, he saw a flickering meteor cut through Baal's atmosphere, drawing a scorching burning river of fire in the dim yellow sky, splitting more than half of the sky.

Then, the earth trembled, black smoke rose in the distance, and the light point symbolizing the Blade of Vengeance on the screen beside Dante went out.

That warship, the warship that had served as the Blood Angels' mothership ever since the Red Tear disappeared into the long river of history, had fallen.

Dante let out a cry of sorrow in his heart. This meant that the Hive Fleet had broken through the defenses in the void... Dante believed that those warriors who sacrificed in the void had fulfilled their duties.

Every warrior who went into the void was full of the courage to die, and the machine spirits of the warships also seemed to be influenced by Saint Doraemon, becoming impassioned.

In the end, they blocked the Hive Fleet in the void for a full six days. In these six days, they greatly weakened the Hive Fleet, but the pressure faced on the ground was still not to be underestimated...

Following the meteor brought by the fall of the Blade of Vengeance, there was a rain of fire all over the sky, as if sulfur fire had descended from the gods to punish Baal.

Only Baal did not need the burning of hot fire; it was already a scarlet wasteland. Only the Angel's Fortress was the last bastion in this world.

This fire was not punishment, but destruction.

Every rain of fire was a spore drop pod, loaded with Tyranid beasts.

Roaring sounds erupted from the Angel's Fortress. Countless defensive lasers and anti-aircraft guns whistled, striking the enemies falling in the sky from within the Void Shield.

Baal's sky was so vast, and the anti-aircraft fire of the Angel's Fortress, which Dante had restored to its state of ten thousand years ago, was extremely powerful. Most of those countless drop pods were destroyed by anti-aircraft fire, but the Hive Fleet was endless, and even the fish that slipped through the net were enough to turn into a flood.

The drop pods crashed onto the scarlet desert outside the Angel's Fortress. Sharp, piercing insect chirps sounded, and countless Tyranid creatures were crawling out of the drop pods, gathering into a tide and surging toward the Angel's Fortress.

Burning the entire Underworld star system, using Exterminatus to starve the Hive Fleet, using fleet power to eliminate Hive Motherships, using anti-aircraft fire to intercept drop pods—

Every step was weakening the Tyranid Hive Fleet, but the power mobilized by the Leviathan Hive Fleet this time was so powerful that the Hive Fleet after several weakenings was still terrifying.

"This is the final battle."

Dante muttered to himself, raising his head slightly. The gaze hidden behind the golden mask of Sanguinius became a little firmer:

"Board the walls; either death or victory."

When saying this, Dante could not help but glance at the courtyard beneath the high tower.

Zhou Yun and Mephiston stood in the courtyard, also gazing at the spore drop pods constantly falling in the sky.

The gaze turned toward Dante. Zhou Yun noticed Dante, turned his head to look at him, nodded slightly to Dante in greeting.

Then Zhou Yun took out that red-and-pink wooden door from somewhere. He gently pushed open the wooden door.

Behind the door was a world composed of scarlet crystals. Zhou Yun and Mephiston stepped into it...

The Water of Hunger rippled in the moat. That silver color that was not easily perceptible rippled in the moat, a terrifying weapon like water.

Yu Ji, the water seller, looked at this scene somewhat tremblingly. As a water seller, a mortal who grew up on Baal II, Yu Ji had known to fear this liquid since he was a child. He dared not imagine that the angels had actually collected such a large amount of Water of Hunger and placed it beside the sacred Angel's Fortress.

This liquid possessed intelligence. They would escape along the sand, then self-replicate into hundreds or thousands of copies, hiding in hidden places waiting for hunting. Perhaps it would take thousands of years to completely clear these dangerous liquids.

Yu Ji believed that the angels were all wise, and there must be a reason for making such a dangerous act... But what kind of enemy made the angels make such a dangerous act?

He remembered the prophecy before his mother-in-law died. The old woman stared with wide eyes, still fiddling with the Tarot in her hand before she died...

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

Yu Ji muttered those words. After making this prophecy, the old woman died. Yu Ji buried her and his wife's remains in the same desert... I don't know if Yu Ji himself will still have this opportunity.

He might die here, and his foolish son might too.

Yu Ji looked at his foolish son beside him with some concern. He was holding a laser rifle, his expression so dull that it was as if he didn't know where he was.

"You..." Yu Ji had just wanted to speak when he was interrupted.

The ground suddenly began to tremble. On the horizon outside the moat, a tide interwoven with yellow, gray, and purple appeared on the distant boundary.

A terrifying sound rang out. It was a sinister, sharp roar. This sound seemed to have been carefully designed, perfectly awakening the instinctive fear in people's hearts...

Then Yu Ji heard the clattering of chitinous armor, the firing sound of sharp, chirping weapons, and the roar of plasma tearing through the void.

Before the battle, Yu Ji received simple training from the Church of Saint Doraemon, roughly knowing how to use weapons and understanding the coming enemy.

But when he truly saw it, Yu Ji was still so scared that his legs went weak. He even felt that his brain could not process the scene his eyes were seeing.

Endless roaring and howling Hive Fleet... was rushing toward the moat.

"Ahhh!!!" His foolish son let out a wail, turned his head, and ran toward the back.

"No!!" Yu Ji hurriedly turned his head, wanting to stop his son. Those people from the Church of Saint Doraemon had already told them the consequences of deserting.

"Saint Doraemon's round hands are above!!! Give it back to me!!!"

The muzzle of the laser rifle pressed against the forehead of Yu Ji's son. Yu Ji's son was startled, trembling and shrinking beside Yu Ji.

"Your son?" Yu Ji saw the face of the person holding the gun clearly. It was an ugly old face, with intertwined wrinkles, but Yu Ji dared not be disrespectful.

That was one of the leaders of the Saint Doraemon sect. Yu Ji knew his name... Lage.

"Something wrong with his brain?" Lage said after looking at Yu Ji's son.

Yu Ji only dared to nod, but his body could not help but tremble.

"Buddy, you are afraid, aren't you?"

Lage raised his voice slightly. Yu Ji immediately understood that he was not only talking to himself, but also to everyone who was afraid:

"Believe me, brother, I am also afraid. In the past few decades, I was just a hive thug, only thinking about how to survive all day."

Yu Ji believed this, because he noticed Lage's hand holding the gun was also trembling slightly.

"I only know how to survive!" Lage took a deep breath of dry air and said: "So I want to tell you, running away won't save your life; you will only die at the hands of your own people."

"Hold the gun in your hand tightly. The enemy is on the other side of the moat. As long as you repel them, you can survive!"

"The angels told me that this is just a tentative attack. Don't let them touch the moat..."

"... So, now, buddy! No matter if you are an Ashford person, a Laixi person, or a Baal person, hurry up and fire, damn it!"

"May Saint Doraemon protect your gunfire!"

Yu Ji's fingers trembled slightly. Looking at the Hive Fleet getting closer and closer in the distance, he could not help but roar, roaring and pulling the trigger.

Lage on the side also raised the laser rifle in his hand. He roared loudly, seemingly wanting to drive away the fear in himself and those around him:

"First, please Lady Leina to bless me, second, please brother Zhou Yun to protect my gun, third, please Leman Russ to possess me, and please Doraemon to extend his round hands! Fire!!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 196 =====