Chapter 213

A buzzing field erupted from Zhou Yun's fingers, instantly engulfing most of Khaen's body.

Khaen's movements slowed, as if trapped in a viscous swamp of time, utterly immobilized.

Mechanized Device: Stasis Field.

The ability copied from the tomb guardian's relic took effect, warping time and turning Khaen into a statue frozen mid-motion.

According to the mechanized device's effect, Zhou Yun could hold Khaen captive for at least one minute.

Boom!!!

The entire tomb chamber suddenly shook violently, the Blood God's roar echoing as if in every ear.

The Lord of Red Sands roared in fury, thrusting his body violently out of the warp rift.

Mortis's body emitted agonized moans, blood continuously seeping from beneath his power armor.

Angron's bestial crimson eyes locked onto Zhou Yun, a thick reek of blood surging toward him.

At that moment, Khaen inside the stasis field let out a low, sluggish roar.

Khaen moved—not fast, but he moved.

Zhou Yun's stasis field was copied from a miniaturized relic of the tomb guardian: it generated quickly but had limited range and could not achieve the near-total temporal suspension of a full-scale stasis field.

If a person moved fast enough, they could still move within it. As the Blood God's power seeped further into reality, Khaen's strength intensified.

He growled and burst free from the stasis field, his razor-edged axe slashing straight at Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun flickered away, but Khaen's speed reached its extreme—before Zhou Yun's nerves could react, Khaen's axe slammed into him.

Fortunately, Zhou Yun had dodged slightly; the axe, meant for his skull, struck his shoulder.

A dull metallic slicing sound rang out; Khaen's Bloodreaver vibrated violently, then exploded—the transmission mechanism ruptured, and the blade itself cracked with a sharp snap.

Khaen froze for a moment.

The Bloodreaver had indeed cut through Zhou Yun's silver-white metal, but its transmission mechanism was shattered, and even the blade forged from the Molybdenum Dragon's lower jaw teeth was now riddled with cracks.

What the hell is this silver metal?! It shattered the Bloodreaver's blade?!

Back then, the Primarch Angron used Bloodreaver and Bloodfather to dig through ruins—only the chainsaw transmission mechanism was damaged.

But this silver metal managed to shatter the Molybdenum Dragon's teeth—and over these ten thousand years, Bloodreaver had drunk countless bloods and deaths, growing stronger than ever before.

Yet Khaen did not hesitate. His instinct as a Chosen of Khorne drove him to draw his blade again.

Even if the armor was damaged, without its transmission mechanism, Bloodreaver remained a deadly weapon capable of slicing through flesh.

All he needed to do was strike deeper into the gap he had already opened.

For a normal man, this would be difficult—but for Khaen, Chosen of Khorne, it was effortless.

He violently raised his axe and slashed again toward Zhou Yun's shoulder.

"Khaen!!"

Zhou Yun's voice rose sharply, filled with sincerity, his fingers subtly brushing against the Hot-Set Scoreboard & Robot Director.

Khaen did not pause his motion—he was the Blood God's Chosen, embodiment of rage and slaughter; his axe allowed no hesitation, no force or reason could stop him from claiming skulls.

"Do you want to know where Erebus is?"

"Do you want to kill Erebus to avenge Angral Tae?"

Khaen's axe halted mid-swing.

Got him! Seeing Khaen's axe hang suspended in hesitation, Zhou Yun knew he had succeeded in swaying him.

Angral Tae, the Word Bearers, one of the First-Blessed Sons, an Astartes warrior who coexisted with Chaos demons, was one of Luo Jia's most beloved progeny—a symbol of humanity's coexistence with Chaos, and Khaen's friend.

Yet this Word Bearers warrior fell to Erebus's treachery.

Because in every future Erebus saw, Angral Tae would save Khaen, alter his fate, and prevent him from fully succumbing to Chaos.

After learning of Angral Tae's death from Luo Jia, Khaen challenged Erebus to a Blood Duel in the arena—but Erebus, so terrified of death, escaped through a warp spell at the brink of death, fleeing from Khaen's axe.

Since then, Erebus, who called himself the Hand of Fate, had always avoided Khaen, and Khaen could never find him, protected as he was by the Four Gods.

Zhou Yun's words, amplified by the Hot-Set Scoreboard & Robot Director, radiated sincerity—and he spoke no lie. With the Seeker's Staff, Zhou Yun could indeed locate Erebus; if that failed, he had the Gate of Anywhere and the Truth-or-Lie Oracle—either way, he could track Erebus down.

Khaen's axe hung suspended, and he sensed the truth in Zhou Yun's words.

A flash of ancient hatred crossed Khaen's face; his fury momentarily ceased surging toward Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun seized this moment of hesitation, his fingers swiftly brushing across Khaen's bare arm exposed to the air.

The bare arm was both an imitation of Nusquaria's gladiators and a memorial to Angral Tae.

But now, it had become Khaen's weakness.

Zhou Yun's other hand pressed the button on the mechanized device.

"Thirsting Water."

A whisper sounded; a crackling noise emanated from Zhou Yun's fingertip, and Khaen's bodily fluids were violently extracted—his arm instantly wrinkled and shriveled.

"Damn it!" Khaen roared, the searing pain and numbness in his arm jolting him back to the reality of this life-or-death battle.

His body became a crimson storm, the chainsaw axe slashing with lethal precision toward the tear in Zhou Yun's Pirate DX suit.

But what happened next once again exceeded Khaen's expectations.

Zhou Yun's body dissolved into liquid; Khaen's axe passed through the silver fluid, and all the blood upon it instantly dried.

The ability copied from Thirsting Water allowed Zhou Yun to transform into a liquid weapon composed of nanomachines—his fingers erupted into liquid spines, lashing toward Khaen's exposed arm.

Khaen grunted heavily, his arm shriveled like a corpse in the desert.

Yet Khaen's arm still swung Bloodreaver, its blade nearly hesitating as it slashed toward Zhou Yun's chest.

The Blood God's fury seemed to empower it; Zhou Yun felt a dull, crushing pain in his chest.

As shards of Bloodreaver's shattered blade sprayed out, part of Zhou Yun's Pirate DX suit was sliced open, and tiny droplets of blood trickled forth.

Angron's roar grew clearer; his body was nearly fully emerging into reality.

Mortis lay nearly collapsed; Seth, covered in wounds, stood with the last few Flesh Eaters warriors blocking the Bloodletters and World Eaters.

Kaen abandoned the blood axe whose blade was nearly shattered, raising his plasma pistol high and aiming it at Zhou Yun's chest.

As expected of Kaen, the Chosen of Khorne who once crossed blades with Sigismund and Abaddon.

Zhou Yun pressed the button on the mechanized device once more, and a searing laser gathered at his fingertip,

a defensive laser replicated from within the Fortress of Angels. According to the Fourth-Dimensional Pocket's assessment, this thing was actually designed by Perturabo ten thousand years ago, a gift he had given to the Great Angel before his rebellion, its power strong enough to shoot down Tyranid bioships,

such a laser would be enough to kill Kaen in an instant, but the overflowing energy would also kill the others in the tomb at the same time, even causing the entire tomb to collapse,

under these circumstances, Zhou Yun could only gamble that Saint Guilliman's remains were unharmed, or that they had already been broken like this and being smashed a few more times wouldn't affect the resurrection,

but right now, Zhou Yun couldn't worry about that much anymore——————

it was better than letting Kaen get past him and use the power of Khorne to corrupt the resurrecting Saint Guilliman.

BANG!!!!

Before Zhou Yun could fire that laser, the entire tomb suddenly and inexplicably shook violently,

the plasma pistol in Kaen's hand spat fire, but under the shaking of the entire tomb it did not hit the gap on Zhou Yun's chest, instead grazing past Zhou Yun's cheek.

Dante, while controlling his flight pack to dodge the Norn Emissary's relentless attacks, stared blankly at the scene before him,

the Norn Emissary broke through the wall's defenses, and the Word Bearers Legion and Saint Guilliman joined the battlefield,

Saint Guilliman and Dante, coordinating with the defensive firepower still usable within the Fortress of Angels, temporarily held off one Norn Emissary,

but still one Norn Emissary broke through the defenses like a hot knife through butter, leading a massive swarm pouring into the Fortress of Angels,

Dante saw deep darkness and ravenous hunger in that Norn Emissary's eyes; the Hive Mind was inhabiting that Norn Emissary's body, which was the reason it was so powerful,

their target was obvious: the tomb of Saint Guilliman deep within the Fortress of Angels.

However, just at this moment, a blaze of fierce fire suddenly ignited in Baal's sky,

a fire meteor shot down from Baal I, plunging straight into Baal Primus's atmosphere like a meteor and crashing into the Fortress of Angels,

the entire Fortress of Angels trembled at the moment of impact, and Xiong Xiongliehuo blazed up at the center of the Fortress of Angels,

the Great Daemon of Khorne, Angron, descended upon the Fortress of Angels,

then that Norn Emissary inhabited by the consciousness of the Great Devourer let out a roar and became entangled in combat with Angron, turning the entire Fortress of Angels upside down with continuous tremors.

"Angron! You idiot!!!"

Kaen, having detected the source of this tremor, let out a sharp curse.

The shockwave caused by Angron's crash into the Fortress of Angels was so intense that nearly everyone in the tomb staggered.

Mortarion's already-unsupported body collapsed directly to the ground; Angron's great daemon sword of Slaanesh named Sonnieares swung a cleaving wind, and Mortarion was instantly sent flying like a piece of torn cloth,

without Mortarion's coordination in reality, those white power-armored warriors in the Warp could no longer hold back Angron's steps into reality,

this former Lord of Red Sand, the Slave of Nuceria, entered reality one step earlier than Saint Guilliman.

Kaen also seized this momentary opportunity, suddenly rushing past Zhou Yun and lunging at the time-warp cloth bundle behind Zhou Yun and the Saint Guilliman beneath it————

Zhou Yun violently hurled out a certain instrument, and a stasis field suddenly released, enveloping Kaen,

although the mechanized device's replication effect had ended, Zhou Yun had still been holding onto that holy relic from the Tomb Guardian all along.

"Is that all you fucking know how to do?" Kaen slowly cursed in fury.

Kaen's speed abruptly dropped by a tier, but empowered by the Blood God's power, even the slowing of time could not trap him,

he furiously kicked the Tomb Guardian's holy relic flying, breaking free of the stasis field.

But this time Zhou Yun did not try to stop Kaen again, because Zhou Yun saw that the clock on the time-warp cloth bundle had quietly stopped moving.

"He's finally alive!!" Zhou Yun shouted.

Kaen only saw the time-warp cloth bundle before him slowly bulge upward, then silently dissolve into motes of light and scatter into the air,

sacred radiance enveloped Kaen, and that holy countenance Kaen had seen countless ages ago seemed to be emanating a faint and hazy glow.

"Ten thousand years." A clear voice rang out within the tomb,

Mortarion collapsed in the corner, tears of joy streaming down his face; Sanguinius trembled and fell to his knees; Kaen, for the first time in ten thousand years, recalled the feeling of fear; Angron let out a furious roar; and in the Warp, Jaghatai Khan, who had just lopped off eight Bloodthirster's heads, had the corner of his mouth curl into a smile.

Then

"Ten thousand years. I, Horus Lupercal, have finally returned!"

The air instantly fell silent.

(End of this chapter)