Chapter 244

"It's so cold, cold as the heart of Ferrus after Fulgrim beheaded him, bone-chillingly cold."

An inexplicable sigh suddenly sounded in the wind and snow.

A red-and-pink wooden door inexplicably appeared before Gloster, the captain of the Raptor squad of the Black Legion.

This scion of Konrad Curze retreated abruptly, watching with some bewilderment as the wooden door before him opened slowly.

A mortal wearing thin clothes walked out from it slowly, looking around with great interest.

"Chaos Raptor squad?"

The man raised his eyebrows slightly and said.

"Screech!!!"

Gloster's combat instinct drove him to start acting; a high-frequency screech like a bat came from his mutated throat, blood-colored light burst from his eyes, and he abruptly mobilized the jump pack behind him to pounce on the mortal before him.

The other members of the Raptor squad around also took action one after another; they raised the bolters in their hands and aimed at the mortal before them.

However, something happened that was beyond Gloster's expectations.

He felt a burst of jamming and wailing coming from his jump pack, and the power of the entire pack seemed to be stripped away instantly.

It wasn't just the jump pack; the power armor on his body also suddenly became heavy, as if filled with lead water, as if it had become a cage.

As a Night Lord, Gloster had never felt his movements so sluggish.

Long live! Prime Mover!

The praise of the machine spirit faintly sounded in Gloster's ear.

He noticed that the movements of the other members of the Raptor squad had also become sluggish, even more severely than Gloster's.

Their power armor had betrayed them! Their weapons had also betrayed them!

Gloster emitted a sharp roar, attempting to use his own consciousness to overwhelm the rebellious machine spirit.

However, just at this moment, the mortal shook the pocket on his stomach gently.

In Gloster's stunned eyes, in an instant, over a hundred Astartes wearing scarlet-painted power armor drilled out of that tiny pocket.

There was even a pitch-black Dreadnought squeezed out...

Since being selected to become a Night Lord in the prisons of Nostramo, Gloster felt bewildered and stunned for the first time in his life.

But before he could be stunned for long, that pitch-black Dreadnought charged abruptly before Gloster.

"Night Haunter! Bat! Taste the fist of Kaso!!!"

That Dreadnought raised the iron fist, which was fully half the size of Gloster's body, high with a roar and a bellow.

Gloster wanted to mobilize the jump pack behind him in terror.

However, the jump pack emitted a muffled sound, the smell of burnt circuits surged from it, and what followed was a trail of black smoke...

Bang!!! The Dreadnought's fist smashed down heavily.

Gloster seemed to have returned to Nostramo, becoming that social scum who got slapped in the face on the street.

It was just that this time, the one slapping him was the Dreadnought's power claw—

The Chaos Raptor squad is an assault unit in the Black Legion, equipped with jump packs to descend from the sky and hunt their enemies.

And the Night Lords are especially good at this; they use loudspeakers to emit terrifying sounds to intimidate enemies.

It is said that they, like the World Eaters berserkers or Death Guard plague marines, also worship some kind of Chaos god; some speculate that this Chaos god is not one of Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, or Tzeentch, but another existence unknown to the Imperium of Man.

What Zhou Yun encountered was a Raptor squad composed of Night Lords under Abaddon.

However, they were hard-pressed to pose a threat to Zhou Yun; eighty percent of the Raptor squad's combat power came from the jump pack behind them.

Unless it was the kind that had mutated to the point of merging with the jump pack, Zhou Yun could easily control the machine spirit in the jump pack and cut off their power.

In fact, the vast majority of Astartes enemies didn't need Zhou Yun to take action personally.

He only needed to cut off the power of their power armor, control the machine spirits of their weapons, and then let the one thousand Blood Angels in his pocket drill out to beat them up.

Unless they were deeply mutated, deeply corrupted, or had a will strong enough to instantly overwhelm the machine spirit.

The Blood Angels who drilled out of Zhou Yun's four-dimensional pocket each dragged a Chaos Raptor corpse and drilled back into Zhou Yun's four-dimensional pocket in an orderly manner.

The Death Company Dreadnought "Kaso the Cursed" carried four corpses by himself.

After they all retreated back into Zhou Yun's four-dimensional pocket, Zhou Yun began to look around.

Ice world, low gravity, Black Legion; it seems this is Crassus, the ice moon.

Zhou Yun left Baal by means of the Anywhere Door, guided by Sanguinius's prophecy, and repeatedly entered and exited the Anywhere Door using planet after planet as stepping stones, finally arriving at this cold planet located within the Cadian system.

According to Sanguinius's prophecy, Archmagos Belisarius Cawl and his expedition team were also trekking on this cold planet now.

According to Zhou Yun's memory, it should be Living Saint Celestine who guided them to this planet to search for the hope and salvation in her prophecy.

This hope and salvation is the Aeldari Webway Gate on Crassus, the ice moon.

"There are my scions on this planet."

Sanguinius's voice sounded in Zhou Yun's ear out of thin air; he initiated a psychic communication with Zhou Yun from the four-dimensional pocket:

"It is Karlaen, my 1st Company Captain."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yun was stunned for a moment.

Blood Angels 1st Company Captain Karlaen; Zhou Yun had seen him in the Governor's Palace when he was in Ashford and had even fought side-by-side with him.

But before the Battle of Baal broke out, Dante ordered Karlaen to take half of the 1st Company Terminator warriors to support Cadia.

In the original history, Captain Karlaen should have encountered Khârn's obstruction...

However, due to the influence of Sanguinius's resurrection, Khârn was released to Baal by Khorne, so Captain Karlaen might have arrived in Cadia relatively smoothly, merged with Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's team, and joined the expeditionary army.

Zhou Yun thought for a moment, took out the seeker cane from his four-dimensional pocket, and whispered:

"Belisarius Cawl."

The seeker cane fell accordingly.

The snowstorm still protected the expeditionary army; Xiang Xiang Leina's complexion was a bit pale.

Although she couldn't understand those murmurs in the Warp, they had been whispering in her ear, and the pressure on her spirit was not small.

The expeditionary army was temporarily stationed in a canyon among the snowfield mountains, relying on rocks and fissures to shield themselves from the snowstorm filling the sky, and Xiang Xiang Leina was also able to rest for a short while, looking at the expeditionary army before her.

Now the largest number of people in the expeditionary army is the Cadian 184th Regiment left to Xiang Xiang Leina by General Droste.

Only Ashford descendants remained in the entire regiment; the Cadian soldiers chose to hold on to the last line of defense in Cadia.

Fortunately, the remaining Ashford-descended soldiers had also received sufficient training.

The severe cold of Crassus made their skin frostbitten and black, but it didn't affect their spirit in the slightest.

In addition to the Cadian 184th Regiment, the entire expeditionary army also received Knight support from House Taranis; those massive Knights were the most powerful firepower of the entire expeditionary army.

In addition, there were also Blood Angels 1st Company Captain Karlaen, who had once supported Ashford, and more than forty Terminator elite warriors, as well as a squad of Battle Sisters of the Order of the Martyred Lady.

Marshal Amalrich of the Black Templars and his battle brothers were also once members of the expeditionary army.

However, he chose to stay behind on the Iron Soul to cover the retreat, challenge the Despoiler Abaddon, and buy time for the entire expeditionary army.

May the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang protect his soul.

While pondering, Xiang Xiang Leina cast her gaze toward the three people at the very center of the entire camp.

Living Saint Celestine, who lowered her wings and radiated light, Xiang Xiang Leina had only heard of her in legends and didn't expect to have the honor of witnessing her with her own eyes.

Carrying the seal of the Inquisition and wearing psychic goggles is Inquisitor Greyfax, who was once captured by Trazyn the Infinite and released by that Necron during the Battle of Cadia, but still had Necron nanomachines remaining in her body.

And the most massive one is Archmagos Belisarius Cawl; this Archmagos is said to be a legendary figure of the Great Crusade era, now guarding an unknown holy relic.

These three are the true core of the expeditionary army.

The holy relic guarded by Belisarius Cawl is the target protected by the entire expeditionary army.

And Lord Celestine received the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's revelation, guiding the expeditionary army to this cold planet to search for hope and salvation.

However, Greyfax always carried suspicion toward Celestine; she originally strongly opposed following Celestine's guidance.

But Belisarius Cawl sensed the Necron nanomachines under her flesh; those machines could control Greyfax to a certain extent. Belisarius Cawl used this to overwhelm Greyfax's opinion.

Xiang Xiang Leina realized with some sadness that the entire expeditionary army was not of one mind.

The Knights of House Taranis were loyal to the Adeptus Mechanicus and only followed the Archmagos's command.

The Battle Sisters only trusted the guidance of Saint Celestine.

Xiang Xiang Leina and Captain Karlaen were caught in the middle.

Xiang Xiang Leina believed in the loyalty of this legendary Living Saint Celestine, and Captain Karlaen seemed to think Celestine was similar to the Sanguinor of the Blood Angels.

But at the same time, both were trusted by Greyfax and were considered her allies. Sister Greyfax is an Inquisitor and theoretically has the power to command Xiang Xiang Leina and Captain Karlaen.

This made Xiang Xiang Leina's scalp tingle.

What made Xiang Xiang Leina feel most uncomfortable was that she knew almost nothing about the purpose of the expeditionary army.

She couldn't know from Celestine what the hope and salvation of their trip was.

She couldn't know from Belisarius Cawl where the holy relic would be escorted to.

Xiang Xiang Leina didn't even know what that holy relic was... Xiang Xiang Leina looked slightly at the modified Triaros transport vehicle.

This troop transport was even equipped with fortress-level void shields; what kind of holy relic was worth such protection?

What was the contract that Archmagos Belisarius Cawl had once murmured about?

(End of chapter)