Chapter 383: My Butt Itches So Much!

Hot, a scorching fire burns,

Why is this hot night so unbearable?

The Primarch has returned; should not these heavy, treacherous, dark nights of nightmare already be over?

Yet why does Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien still feel himself struggling and sinking among demons, burned by the raging fire beneath reality,

curled up and crouching within the blankets, drenched in sweat that soaks through the fabric,

trapped in a dream, trapped in a dream more terrifying than those nightmares of the past few months,

he dreams of the entire Terra burning fiercely in evil fire, all things in the world consumed by blood-red flames,

red faces that are neither human nor non-human emerge from the flames, entering reality, opening their mouths to reveal fangs dripping with blood and writhing tongues, wielding weapons forged of brass to strike at Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien,

Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien feels the blanket covering him also ignited by fire, the entire room burning in a wildfire,

demons beat Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien with pure, barbaric violence, insulting Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien with blasphemous words,

bruises spread across Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien's skin, blood flows unceasingly from the torn flesh,

pain assaults his body, causing him to wail and weep uncontrollably,

"This is just a dream!"

Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien screams in the dream, roars in terror within the dream, yet cannot wake from the dream,

"This is just a dream!"

Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien roars in terror, in pain, struggling.

In the dream of the hot night, Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien saw a hideous, massive red demon, a hybrid of ape and beast, appear at the edge of reality,

that demon bore eight horns, four large and four small, half its face exposing bare bones, wielding bloody chainsaw double-axes, with tattered, hideous wings sprouting from its back, seemingly bearing some severe injury,

that Great Demon took a step, about to slaughter into the realm of reality.

"This is just a dream!" Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien cried out in terror.

Just then, Jackie shook Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien, who was convulsing, awake.

"This is just a dream." Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien, still shaken, clutched tightly the sweat-soaked blanket.

"It is no longer so, my lord."

Jackie's voice carried fear:

"The nightmare has come to reality."

Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien felt a suffocation; he smelled gunpowder, blood, and the metallic scent of brass in the air, saw a red light like pulsating blood spill through the window, heard the clash of weapons and the roar of beasts ringing in his ears,

the air was so hot and dry that he could no longer hide beneath the blanket, for he feared the heat would ignite everything around him,

Jackie pointed fearfully at the window, as if already having a prediction of what lay outside,

"Do not look."

Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien said to Jackie.

But Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien himself stumbled to the window and looked out with terror.

Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien knew of the existence of demons, knew the forbidden names of those great enemies, but had never seen them with his own eyes,

now, Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien witnessed horror with his own eyes,

he thanked the sages for depriving the common masses of the right to know of the existence of demons; he had never understood the wisdom of those great lawgivers so deeply,

the masses are weak; merely seeing this scene with two eyes would plunge one into madness, leaving only terror and screaming in the consciousness,

a rain of blood drenched the entire world, a tide of blood swept across the earth,

red demons, holding crude weapons high, charged at the warriors who blocked the gaps in the Wall of Eternity with their flesh and blood bodies,

then, the sea of blood rose in tides,

splashing blood was the waves of this sea, the surges were flying chunks of flesh and severed limbs, the foam was blurred spray,

in a single instant, the human formation was shattered by the blasphemous abominations from the Warp,

only bone-chilling despair, indescribable fear, and hatred for this vicious scene filled Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien's heart,

but just then, a clear, slightly sacred, indescribable voice flashed past Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien's ear,

was that truly a sound? Or was it actually some illusion? Some pure sensation?

Viceroy Viceroy Tiruien instinctively looked toward the source of the sound, only to see the Inner Sanctum deep within the palace shrouded in a brilliant radiance,

he heard it; the Gate of Eternity had opened,

he heard it; the sacred voice of the Hua Di Huang.

"We cannot hold the Wall of Eternity!!"

Bathed in a torrential rain of blood, Xiang Xiang Leina, clad in Cadia grey-green uniforms, roared while unleashing psychic power upon the Khorne demons, shouting at Shield Guard Captain Valerian:

"The Wall of Eternity has collapsed! The Space Marines are too few, and the Astra Militarum possess only unmodified flesh and blood bodies; they cannot fill so many gaps!!"

"We must narrow the line and retreat to the Lion Gate!"

Valerian fought against a swarm of demons with the relic power spear in his hand,

the Adeptus Custodes are extremely powerful, but this power is limited to the material realm,

the Hua Di Huang did not grant them supernatural powers within the Warp when designing them, so Valerian clearly felt his inability to cope when facing demons,

"No!" Upon hearing Xiang Xiang Leina's proposal, Valerian instinctively refused: "We cannot go to the Lion Gate! Behind the Lion Gate lies the Inner Sanctum!"

"But we cannot possibly hold the Wall of Eternity with so many gaps, nor defend such a vast Outer Palace."

Xiang Xiang Leina suddenly yanked a fragment of the Wall of Eternity from the ground,

the Wall of Eternity was so tall that even a fragment was as large as a small hill; Xiang Xiang Leina, using psychic power to guide it, smashed it heavily forward at those Bloodletters.

She constantly consulted the knowledge in her mind; before joining the battlefield, she had memorized the palace map by eating it as a memory bread,

the walls were too vast, mortals too frail, and the Astartes too few; to hold this palace, at least tens of thousands of Astartes would be required,

Damn it, why does a single Astartes Chapter have only one thousand men? Why can there not be more?!

"The number of these demons is nearly catching up to the Battle of Cadia! And our manpower is far less than at Cadia!"

"Even so, retreating toward the Lion's Gate takes time; someone must stay here to hold firm until the other troops complete their retreat!" Valerian waved his spear, cleaving off the head of a Bloodletter, then turned back to shout at Xiang Xiang Leina.

"The 184th Cadia Regiment will hold here." Xiang Xiang Leina crushed several Steel Bulls with her bare hands and spoke without changing her expression.

"This many demons?" Valerian was shocked by Xiang Xiang Leina's words.

Even the most elite Cadia Shock Troops of the Astra Militarum, even with Xiang Xiang Leina, a top-tier Psyker, even with Astartes fighting alongside them, even if they only needed to hold until the other troops retreated toward the Lion's Gate...

"We are different from you."

"We lack gene-forged bodies, lack the mighty bolters or power spears, lack the ceramite or adamantine power armor, lack minds far beyond mortal capacity."

"We have only rough flak armor, crude lasguns, rigorous training, and..."

"Adamantine courage?" Valerian asked, looking at Xiang Xiang Leina hovering in mid-air.

"Huh?" Xiang Xiang Leina blinked, slightly bewildered: "No, I meant the items granted by Saint Doraemon."

"All Dian Guang Wan Squad!!! Deploy the Famous Sword - Dian Guang Wan!"

Xiang Xiang Leina's voice reached the ears of every soldier of the 184th Cadia Regiment through the communication frequency.

Those soldiers, who had been holding their lasguns high with stern expressions, immediately broke into smiles.

They instantly discarded the lasguns in their hands and drew toy-like short swords from their waists.

To Valerian's utter confusion, those soldiers charged the Khorne demon army wielding these toy short swords, and relying solely on those toys, they engaged several Khorne demons in close combat, fighting to a standstill.

These soldiers temporarily blocked the gaps in the walls, and at the same time, they used the Anywhere Door to go directly to other breaches, briefly halting the entire invasion of the Khorne demon army.

Regardless of how they did it, Valerian understood that he must seize the opportunity created by the soldiers of the 184th Cadia Regiment.

"I will lead the other troops through the underground tunnels used by the Custodes to reach the Lion's Gate."

This was, of course, a violation of the Custodes' internal regulations, but Valerian felt this was not the time to consider such things.

"Hmm?" Valerian suddenly noticed that Xiang Xiang Leina's expression had become somewhat dazed.

"I heard..."

Xiang Xiang Leina murmured as if in a dream:

"I heard... the Gate of Eternity has opened."

"I heard... the sacred voice of the Emperor."

On the other side of the battlefield, Kaela Prinn, the Master of the Astronomican, who was unleashing his psychic power upon the demons, also wore a similar expression.

Bound to the Emperor's psychic power, he too wore an expression similar to Xiang Xiang Leina's.

He looked with joy and emotion toward the Sanctum Imperialis deep within the palace.

He heard that the Gate of Eternity had opened.

He heard that sacred voice of the Emperor.

Deep within the palace, the Sanctum Imperialis.

"Do you know who the most powerful person in the Imperium of Man is?"

"Is it the Master of the Administratum? Is it a representative of the Inquisition? Is it a Primarch?"

"No, it is the Ecclesiarchy Pope."

"You see, even the father of the Primarchs, if he does not believe in the Imperial Cult, would be locked in torture devices and suffer for ten thousand years."

Watching the Gate of Eternity slowly open, Zhou Yun couldn't help but tell a joke in a mocking tone.

"Yes, yes, they even locked the father of the Ultramarines, who did not believe the Emperor was a god, into a stasis field," Sanguinius said, a smile crossing his lips.

"That Pope truly holds immense power, able to make Horus and Fulgrim serve as executioners," Guilliman replied with his cold, strange sense of humor.

Just then, the Gate of Eternity opened with a roaring sound.

Zhou Yun turned his head slightly to look inside, and then... Zhou Yun saw light, heat, rage, and wailing.

The wailing of countless Psykers being drained pierced the veil of reality, transforming into an endless eternal sound that rose up, terrifyingly penetrating Zhou Yun's skin, flesh, and bones, delivering the sound directly to Zhou Yun's ears.

Zhou Yun heard it: the Gate of Eternity has opened.

Zhou Yun heard it: the sacred voice of the Emperor... heard it clearly and distinctly...

"My butt is so itchy."

It doesn't seem so sacred after all.

(End of this chapter)