Chapter 390

Pouring blood rain spilled onto the battlefield. Shield-Captain Valerian's spear, named Wisdom, pierced through the scarlet raindrops, stabbing toward the scarlet flesh of the Somme wrapped in barbed wire.

But Valerian's hand didn't feel the pleasure of cutting through flesh.

The barbed wire tightly entangled Wisdom, completely ignoring the sizzling power field on the spearhead, making Valerian's spearhead unable to advance even a fraction.

Those barbed wires seemed to possess a peculiar power that did not belong to the material universe. It seemed that in the eyes of countless people, this barbed wire was unbreakable, and any attack launched against this barbed wire was meaningless and only added to death.

Somme, Valerian now knew the name of this Greater Daemon.

The Grey Knights identified the identity of this Greater Daemon, a Greater Daemon born nearly thirty thousand years ago in the midst of humanity's cruel war.

But Somme was not its true name; Somme was just a substitute name.

The name of this bloody Greater Daemon was written on the corpses of nearly 1.2 million deceased. The minced meat of those 1.2 million people crushed by the Battle of the Somme formed its body.

The names of those 1.2 million souls were its true name, and many of those names had long been forgotten.

Even the Grey Knights could not fully complete them through prophecy and exploration of history, so they could not weaken the Somme by chanting its true name.

This was also the reason why the Somme dared to show its existence before humanity; it calculated that the Grey Knights couldn't target it either.

But...

The figures of the Sisters of Silence approached Valerian's side like ghosts. Their anti-psychic fields entangled the Somme's body like shadows.

The Somme let out a roar full of pain. The power of the barbed wire on its body weakened by a large margin.

Valerian rotated Wisdom, the power field on the spearhead burst, and a large piece of scarlet flesh was cut off.

"We are complete," Valerian said, almost whispering.

After ten thousand years, the Custodes and the Sisters of Silence fought side-by-side once again.

In just a moment of battle, Valerian realized what kind of important advantage these soulless sisters would bring to the Custodes.

In confronting daemons, the Custodes as individuals were far inferior to the Grey Knights; only when counting the Sisters of Silence were they complete.

The combat methods that only existed in training, fighting side-by-side with the Sisters of Silence, were displayed by Valerian, almost as if they had merged into instinct.

The Somme let out a wild roar. Its wings, mixed with metal and flesh, poured ammunition toward Valerian.

Mortars, artillery, machine guns, grenades, brass bullets... all kinds of rough and primitive weapons aimed at Valerian.

"Purify the daemons!!"

The Grey Knights' war cry rang out. Grey Knight Justicar Alcuin stood in front of Valerian with a warhammer.

The psychic power on his body splashed out like lightning, weaving into a shield to block the artillery fire.

"Ugh—" Alcuin, who was a psyker, couldn't help but let out a dry heave.

The Sisters of Silence's anti-psychic power was mostly used on the Somme, but its existence itself would suppress psychic power and Warp phenomena.

The Grey Knights were all psykers, so naturally, they were also affected... However, the Grey Knights were still okay; they had strong Astartes bodies after all, and could withstand these negative effects.

And...

"Ugh!!!!" Colonel Xiang Xiang Leina of the Cadian 184th Regiment looked like she was about to vomit everything she had eaten in her previous life.

The vomit mixed with bread and ink gathered into a lump at her feet.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but Valerian felt that Colonel Xiang Xiang Leina's eyes became clear after vomiting, as if she had vomited out all the knowledge in her brain.

Colonel Xiang Xiang Leina had consumed too much psychic power and was unable to resist the discomfort brought by the Sisters of Silence's anti-psychic effect.

Although the Sisters of Silence brought some negative effects, the current battlefield could not do without the assistance of the Sisters of Silence.

War, what was happening before the Imperial Palace was a tragic war.

Humans would be afraid, tired, and exhausted in war.

But the Blood God's army of the unborn would not.

The more intense the war, the more powerful these daemons who craved war became.

And the only ones who could eliminate the gains war brought them were the Sisters of Silence.

The only problem was that in front of the Sisters of Silence, the only ones who could maintain complete combat effectiveness were the Custodes.

Mortals, Astartes, and psykers would all be affected by the Sisters of Silence's anti-psychic field without exception.

Only the Custodes, only the Custodes were the Sisters of Silence's perfect comrades-in-arms.

But now, the only Custodian fighting before the Lion's Gate was Valerian.

He looked toward the Lion's Gate with a little hope, hoping that they could break free from the shackles on their bodies.

But the gate didn't open; there was only silence behind the Lion's Gate.

Valerian was disappointed, then turned back and collided with the chain-saw axe in the Somme's hand.

The sound of the axe and spear colliding echoed in the void, like a bronze giant bell—

No, it wasn't just the sound of weapons colliding; there were also footsteps.

Valerian turned his head back with surprise. He saw the gate open.

The Lion's Gate, intertwined with crimson and gold, opened toward the blood-stained battlefield, opened toward this world.

"By the power granted to the High Lords Council by the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang, with the consent of six of the twelve High Lords, the agreement signed by former Custodian Captain-General Constantin Valdor, together with Imperial Commander Roboute Guilliman, Rogal Dorn, and the High Lords, commonly known as the 'Restriction Order,' is hereby abolished."

"The ten-thousand-year restriction ends here. The Custodes will act freely in the Imperial Palace, on Terra, and anywhere in the galaxy that needs them."

Tiruien's desperate roar rang out on the high city wall above the Lion's Gate. To bring this news to the Custodes as quickly as possible, he used the loudspeaker on the city wall to announce the lifting of the "Restriction Order":

"In the name of Imperial Viceroy Tiruien and the High Lords Council, may our decree be the embodiment of the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's will."

The only response to Tiruien was the sound of footsteps of shining gold colliding with stone bricks.

The army that had been confined in the Imperial Palace for ten thousand years surged out from the Lion's Gate. The red, gold, and black phalanxes shone brightly in the blood rain. The light of the spears in their hands could not be covered even by the smoke of war.

Since the Webway War of ten thousand years, there had never been such a scale of Custodes gathered in one place.

The golden battle flag drifted across the blood-colored sky. The Aquila emblem gripping the lightning had not faded in ten thousand years, exactly the same as what Valerian had heard in legends and history, as if the army standing before him was an army from ten thousand years ago, brand new as before, never having left the battlefield.

Valerian saw Captain-General Trajann standing in the formation, leading the way. The Watcher's Axe burned fiercely, shattering the scarlet blood tide of the daemons.

He saw the Allarus Terminators, hard, solid, and dazzling like new stars, crushing the blood-thirsty Khorne unborn like a shining golden wall.

He also saw the towering figures of the Contemptor Dreadnoughts, those revered dead who were spraying scorching fire and steam, carrying out their ancient and long slaughter with sword and shield.

The Aquila emblem stood like steel everywhere on the battlefield. Blade Champions brandished greatswords and rushed toward the Greater Daemons. Shield-Captains engaged in close combat with Bloodthirsters.

The Blood God's scarlet tide collided with the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang's golden legion. Fury stirred the blood rain into a vortex, and pure gold swords tore apart bronze beasts.

Two Allarus Terminators and one Blade Champion stood beside Valerian. They fought alongside the Sisters of Silence, just like ten thousand years ago, crushing toward the Bloodthirster Somme.

Battle, battle, and more battle. Valerian had never fought so happily. He was cutting, crushing, and overwhelming the daemon's blood and flesh.

He let out a deafening war cry. For the first time in his life, he was almost lost in this moment.

This was not just battle and slaughter; this was glory.

The glory that Valerian had only heard from veterans, understood in records, and seen in hypnosis—the glory that was fragmented ten thousand years ago—reappeared and became real at this moment.

He watched with his own eyes as Captain-General Trajann personally executed a Greater Daemon with the Watcher's Axe, and then he personally stabbed the spear named Wisdom into the neck of the Greater Daemon Somme.

The Ten Thousand walked on the battlefield, launching a charge toward the Hua Hua Hua Di Huang, toward humanity, toward the Custodes' great enemy, spilling the anger accumulated over ten thousand years.

We have returned.

Valerian thought so. However, he did not notice, did not notice that Terra's sky had quietly changed.

The scarlet clouds were torn apart, and the scarlet blood rain came more violently than before. The blood rain almost slammed onto the ground and reality.

Fierce madness raged on Terra, raged on this planet that had been eyed by the God of War since the day humanity was born.

The Blood God was the first Chaos God to realize humanity's potential. He knew what an excellent species humanity was, and how many cruel wars they would stir up in the long years.

The Blood God favored humanity, the Blood God favored Terra, and the Blood God had been coveting Terra for tens of thousands of years.

There was such a moment that if the Custodes looked up, they would see the sky turn into a huge, horned, burning long face.

That face was as huge as the planet, and the eyes covered by steel were filled with malice and desire for slaughter.

Xiang Xiang Leina vomited all the memory bread she had eaten before the battle clean. The knowledge about Terra and the Imperial Palace also disappeared from her mind.

This instead made Xiang Xiang Leina feel a bit comfortable. That knowledge was like indigestible food forced into Xiang Xiang Leina's brain, which instead made Xiang Xiang Leina feel it was a burden.

Now she felt refreshed and spirited. Her perception of the Warp also became clear, and the psychic power in her body was recovering rapidly—

Xiang Xiang Leina's body trembled violently. She felt a gaze, a gaze from the Warp, a gaze full of blood, slaughter, and madness.

That gaze made Xiang Xiang Leina's head ache as if it were splitting, and her body couldn't stop trembling. That gaze was not looking at her, but at the entire Terra, looking at the Imperial Palace...

"Saint Doraemon above, God-Hua Hua Hua Di Huang above..." Xiang Xiang Leina's tongue trembled as if it were knotted.

She saw the boundary of reality become thin, and the sound of endless slaughter came from the Blood God's domain.

"I have forgiven!"

"Kill for me!"

The deafening war cry came, and blood surged like a tide.

On the battlefield, even the Custodes looked at this scene with fear.

To say he was handsome, he was indeed handsome enough to be described as beautiful, yet he did not seem beautiful enough to be a god.

Eight horns unfolded, terrifying and hideous. The two battle axes named Slaughter and Carnage let out the wails of the defeated.

It was slaughter, it was destruction, it was the Blood God's greatest champion.

It had destroyed the first ring of Slaanesh's palace, it had killed Nurgle's magnificent Plague Leviathan, it had slaughtered countless enemies for the Blood God, and offered countless victories and skulls to the Blood God.

But it ultimately betrayed the Blood God, was seduced by Tzeentch, ambushed the Blood God, and slashed a crack in the Blood God's armor.

The Blood God was furious, threw it from the highest point of the Huang Tong Citadel, and it flew in the Warp for eight days and eight nights before landing.

Its consciousness was burned out in this process, leaving only endless desire for slaughter.

Its wings were shattered when it fell, forever unable to soar in the scarlet sky again.

Its body was severely damaged, and the arm wielding the blood axe was no longer as powerful as it used to be.

It was exiled, punished, and stripped of the name of Chief Greater Daemon.

And today, in order to bring slaughter to Terra, the Blood God forgave its betrayal and cowardice.

Hideous blood wings composed of a thousand burning stars unfolded before the Lion's Gate. Blood rain spilled from the flesh wings. Those broken wings had already recovered as before.

After unknown years, Khorne's first Chief Greater Daemon was reborn.

Skarbrand had returned.

(End of chapter)