Chapter 249: The Indomitable Flying in the Sky?!

Raccoon dog? Primarch?

Xiang Leina listened to Ge Lei Fa's words, her expression growing slightly strange.

That familiar scent, that familiar style, that blasphemous operation that should have been burned on a Bai Lin pyre from the Great Crusade era until the Fall of Cadia,

even if Xiang Leina used her not-so-smart brain to think about it, this was absolutely Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun! He was on this planet, and had been watching the Expedition all along!

Since when? Since the Expedition first set foot on this planet? Or even earlier?

How did he know the Expedition's movements? Some kind of wondrous device?

Did he know the purpose of the Archmagos Belisarius Cawl?

Why did he only help the Expedition from the shadows? Was he planning to hide in the dark and ambush Abaddon?

A string of thoughts sprang to Xiang Leina's mind, but none of these questions had answers.

Not only Xiang Leina, but Belisarius Cawl, the Archmagos beside her, also seemed to fall into a brief shock.

Until Celestine slowly spoke: "The Machine God is helping us."

"The Machine God again?" Ge Lei Fa's voice grew slightly sharper: "Then why did he steal the appearance of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman?"

"What does Roboute Guilliman have to do with us or the Machine God?"

"I think that is some kind of blasphemous sorcerer cooperating with you——————"

"No!"

Belisarius Cawl's voice suddenly rang out, cold and low,

but everyone present heard anger in it, directed at Ge Lei Fa,

as if he believed Ge Lei Fa's words had insulted the Machine God.

"Archmagos————"

Before Ge Lei Fa could finish speaking, the Archmagos Belisarius Cawl stepped forward, his massive body almost blocking out Ge Lei Fa,

a slender mechanical tentacle suddenly extended from his complex mechanical body, the tip of the tentacle being a sharp needle,

"I will read your memories to see with my own eyes whether that is an abomination or the Machine God."

"." Ge Lei Fa lowered his head almost without hesitation, silently agreeing to the Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's request.

The sharp needle at the end of Belisarius Cawl's mechanical tentacle pierced Ge Lei Fa's nape; Ge Lei Fa did not even grunt.

Data points flickered continuously in the Archmagos's mechanical eyes,

the expression on the remaining half of his face changing constantly,

first suspicion, then seriousness, followed by surprise, and finally turning into piety.

"Without a doubt, the will of the Machine God is within it."

Belisarius Cawl said solemnly:

"But based solely on this memory, I cannot make a more specific judgment."

Ge Lei Fa clenched his teeth slightly,

"Archmagos————"

"Inquisitor."

Before Ge Lei Fa could speak again, he was interrupted by Belisarius Cawl:

"Are you questioning my judgment?"

"Do you think I—the Lord of Creation and servant of the Machine God—am unable to judge the radiance of the Machine God?"

"Inquisitor, when the first Inquisitor had not yet been born, I was already serving the Omnissiah as an apprentice."

"My soul once merged with Azkael Sandini, the designer of the Black Carapace for the Astartes."

"I once conversed in memory with the Omnissiah, whom you call the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang, and accepted the holy work he bestowed upon me."

"I have witnessed with my own eyes the forms of Primarchs Roboute Guilliman, Rogal Dorn, and Jaghatai Khan, and have forged weapons for them."

"And you, an Inquisitor whose body is controlled by alien nanomachines, dare to question my judgment?"

Ge Lei Fa was speechless.

As an Inquisitor, her power was theoretically infinite within the Empire,

but theory is ultimately just theory; there are still a very small number of figures whose power cannot be overruled by an Inquisitor,

and the Archmagos Belisarius Cawl happened to be one of them.

Just as he said, before the first Inquisitor was born, he was already serving the Omnissiah, serving the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang.

Even Ge Lei Fa could not forcibly override him with Inquisitorial power.

Moreover, if she did so, the Expeditionary Force would undoubtedly split.

"Did you not see?"

Belisarius Cawl's tone softened slightly, as if teaching a foolish child:

"Would a normal Dreadnought have such speed? That is undoubtedly the authority of the Primordial Drive; he bestowed powerful drive upon the power armor and weapons of those twenty-two warriors!"

"There is no presence of the Warp within it, only pure, material, reality-universe drive."

Ge Lei Fa was speechless.

She knew what Belisarius Cawl said was correct, and she had not detected the presence of Warp power in that memory either.

But some corruption is always hidden very deep, and this memory might have been modified...

But Ge Lei Fa understood she could only temporarily submit to the Archmagos Belisarius Cawl's decision.

"So, next we——————"

"Advance, of course, continue to advance."

For the third time, Ge Lei Fa was interrupted by Belisarius Cawl before he could finish speaking:

"The Will of the God of Ten Thousand Machines has removed an obstacle for us; how can we stop moving forward?"

Micro-lights flickered in Belisarius Cawl's mechanical eyes,

his tone filled with the longing of a pilgrim.

Ge Lei Fa's face twisted slightly, yet she spoke as calmly as possible: "We cannot continue to advance recklessly."

"The Black Legion already knows our position; charging ahead blindly will only see us fall into a trap, Bai Bai, and be attacked from both front and rear."

"This fortress is good; though it is an alien thing, it is sturdy enough to block the pursuers behind us."

"She is right." Celestine spoke softly to endorse Ge Lei Fa's proposal.

Ge Lei Fa was somewhat surprised that Celestine would support her.

"We need someone to stay here." Celestine continued.

Ge Lei Fa nodded in agreement.

"I will." Captain Kaelen, who had remained silent until now, spoke up,

his hand gripping the Relic of the Blood Angels, the Hammer of Baal, with over forty Blood Angels Terminators following closely behind him.

Everyone knew clearly that staying here held no hope.

Under the Black Legion's absolute numerical superiority, over forty Blood Angels could not hold out indefinitely.

But no one objected, because all in the Expeditionary Force knew they must have someone guard this fortress,

otherwise the pursuing forces behind would, combined with the newly landed Black Legion in front, sandwich the Expeditionary Force.

The Expeditionary Force warriors, excluding Blood Angels Captain Kaelen, conducted a brief rest, then set off into the endless snow sea, following Celestine forward.

Kaelen watched their departing figures vanish into the wind and snow,

his hand tightly gripping the Hammer of Baal in his grasp; a snowflake slowly landed on his face, then melted in the heat rising from the Terminator power armor.

Snow.

Kaelen looked up, gazing at the sky.

When Kaelen was a youth, snow was merely a legend.

In the sky of Baal, let alone snow, even clouds were rarely seen.

He still remembered his excitement as a new recruit, the first time he arrived on another planet and saw snow.

Boundless white covering the entire world, seeming to extend to the world's end, making one forget they were in a universe.

But after two hundred years of service, Kaelen had grown weary of these magnificent sights and instead began to long for the sky of Baal,

that dome faintly tinged orange-yellow, with the two moons of Baal II and Baal I faintly visible, and when night fell, the stars would shimmer beside them.

Kaelen even remembered one night when Chapter Master Dante gazed dreamily at the starry sky, then suddenly pointed at the stars with his hand, reciting the name of every star, just like the knowledgeable elders of the Baal tribes.

He wondered how the sky of Baal was now; was it shrouded by the Hive Fleet, or as always?

Was the Chapter Master still enduring a thousand years of battle?

Had Corbulo found a method to cure the Blood Thirst and the Black Rage?

Was Lord Mephiston still as gloomy as death?

If not for his mission, Kaelen would have preferred to die in the sands of Baal, letting his remains be buried in the scorching gravel.

Kaelen's thoughts were chaotic, yet just then, black dots appeared in the sky above, dense as flies.

Chaos Raptors!

Black Legion units equipped with jump packs.

Kaelen's bionic right eye quickly identified the enemies falling from the sky; clearly, the Black Legion, facing the Eldar fortress which was easy to defend but hard to attack, had chosen an aerial assault.

After all, the anti-air firepower within the fortress had been disabled during the ten thousand years of long ages and the impact of the Dark Prince's birth.

"Blood Angels, prepare yourselves."

Captain Kaelen tightened his grip on the Storm Bolter in his hand and spoke to the forty-plus Blood Angels First Company Astartes Terminators behind him.

"Good." A voice clear as the dawn of Baal sounded behind Kaelen; Kaelen's soul trembled inexplicably.

That voice was absolutely not from one of the forty-plus Terminator warriors following him.

Kaelen had just wanted to turn his head to look behind, but just then, crimson figures suddenly appeared in the snow sea.

Those figures topped with strange small propellers ignored the wind and snow, flying straight up into the sky, their initial speed even faster than jump packs.

What left Kaelen most bewildered was,

he saw a Dreadnought painted black, with a pale yellow propeller on its coffin lid, flying into the sky in a manner that defied He Wu Li Fa, engaging the Chaos Raptors in the air.

"Bat spawn! Watch out for Cassor! Then get the hell down from the sky!"

"Think clearly whose Primarch has wings! The sky is Sanguinius's domain!"

Kaelen stared blankly at the Death Company Dreadnought reaping Chaos Raptors in the sky at extreme speed.

It was the Death Company Dreadnought "Cursed Cassor."

Is this the Black Rage?! By Sanguinius! Damn it, a Dreadnought is flying in the sky!

Kaelen turned his head in bewilderment, looking toward the position where the voice had come from.

He saw a man wearing a cap, with a white pocket on his belly.

Kaelen quickly realized it was the Leon Russ he had seen in Asford, or rather, Zhou Yun.

Zhou Yun smiled slightly, gesturing for Kaelen to look beside himself.

Beside Zhou Yun stood a tall figure draped in a linen robe, his face hidden by a hood.

The figure raised his head slightly, his face partially revealed in the wind and snow.

Kaelen's soul was struck; a great emotion and power surged forth from the Blood of Sanguinius within him.

(End of Chapter)