Chapter 435: Who Shall Grant Absolution?

"I am merely a penitent who longs to atone for my sins."

The cold gleam of the Caliban greatsword instantly illuminated the dim cabin as the man in the black robe slowly raised the greatsword, holding it horizontally before him, reflecting his haggard face that seemed to have endured ten thousand years of torment and self-torment, a face covered in stubble, deep and rugged like a knight of the deep forest.

His voice was low, hoarse, and calm, yet beneath that calmness lurked something terrifying, like a mad lion waiting to hunt, crouching in the dark forest, waiting to tear into the flesh and blood of its prey.

At the same time, the black robe, woven as if from shadows, moved without wind; beneath the robe, four emotions—cunning, raging fury, stagnation, and jealousy—seemed to writhe and twist, piercing through his skin and flesh, stabbing into the depths of his soul, blessing him, cursing him, and corrupting his spirit and body.

Xiang Leina had once felt this sensation; on Ice Moon Krassus, facing Abaddon, it was exactly this feeling. The man before her had been blessed simultaneously by the Four Gods; he was the Chosen of the Four Gods. This discovery made Xiang Leina's hair stand on end.

"I am the Deputy Supreme Commander of the First Legion's Dark Angels, the Head of the Fallen Angels, a despicable traitor, and Sir Luthen of the Caliban Knights."

He did not move the sword in his hand, yet the cold gleam of the greatsword pointed at Xiang Leina.

"Who?" Xiang Leina asked, bewildered.

The title of this knight, this man, this perhaps-Astartes, was very long and sounded very important.

But Xiang Leina could not understand: did the Astartes have a position called Deputy Supreme Commander? What were the Fallen Angels? And what was the Caliban Knights?

Facing Xiang Leina's questions, Luthen was stunned; he opened his mouth slightly, moved his tongue several times, and then spat out a sentence:

"You are considered mid-to-high level in the current Empire, aren't you?"

"Have you not read the history of the Great Crusade?"

"I was once the number two figure of the Dark Angels! I raised Lion!"

Facing Luthen's accusation, Xiang Leina felt a momentary pang of guilt.

In fact, Zhou Yun had given Xiang Leina several historical works on the Great Crusade, recently written by the Order of Rational Truth.

But those massive historical tomes gave Xiang Leina a terrible headache.

The simple little stories told by the Ecclesiarchy were more suitable for her.

Of course, guilt was guilt, but Xiang Leina's hand did not slow down in the slightest.

She quickly reached for the potion bottle she had always hidden at her waist.

It was the Siegfried Bathing Solution, which could grant Xiang Leina thirty minutes of immortality.

Xiang Leina did not need to defeat the man named Luthen before her; she only needed to hold out until Zhou Yun—

At some unknown moment, Luthen had already arrived before Xiang Leina; the Caliban greatsword in his hand had long been swung, tearing through Xiang Leina's cloak, severing the belt binding the Siegfried Bathing Solution, and flicking the bottle filled with crimson liquid into the air.

The technique was peerless, savage, powerful, and terrifying, like the fangs of a cold wild lion striking out.

The Siegfried Bathing Solution shattered in mid-air, and the crimson liquid flowed down onto the ground as Bai Bai, not splashing onto Xiang Leina's body.

So fast; it was almost comparable to my lord Ji Li Man, but how could this be possible?

Xiang Leina had no time to think further; her psychic power, unrestrained, blasted out, smashing heavily against the black-robed knight named Luthen.

But Luthen stood like a black boulder amidst a gale, unmoving, unswerving, and unshifted.

"Your psychic power is strong."

"But that is all."

"I have received much from the Gods."

Pain surged from Xiang Leina's side; the Caliban greatsword had once again been swung at some unknown moment, cutting into Xiang Leina's flank, with the momentum to cleave Xiang Leina in two.

Xiang Leina let out a savage low roar; a powerful psychic shockwave struck reality itself, and the massive reactive force slammed Xiang Leina's body backward, saving her from being cut in two by that Caliban greatsword.

"Impressive; you actually dodged."

Luthen sincerely praised Xiang Leina:

"Do you know? The Lion's swordsmanship was taught to him by me since childhood; I was his first swordsmanship instructor."

As he spoke these words, a hint of pride entered Luthen's voice.

Xiang Leina said nothing; ignoring the wound in her abdomen, she relentlessly poured psychic energy at Luthen.

But Luthen merely wielded the blade in his hand with minimal movement, lightly deflecting Xiang Leina's heavy psychic hammer, which was heavy enough to topple a Great Daemon.

"Actually, I am not truly an Astartes; I am too old to undergo all the modifications, having only undergone some enhancement surgeries."

"But you see, as I said, if you can restrain your desires and not be corrupted by your desires themselves, you can master the blessings of the Four Gods and become incomparably powerful."

"I even caught up to Lion; before Caliban was about to be destroyed, I was evenly matched with him."

"Like a father and his excellent child, like one comrade and another comrade, like one relative and another relative."

Luthen chattered on, his words revealing a little, yet terrifying, madness.

Xiang Leina said nothing, simply suddenly pressing her psychic power down upon Luthen.

Luthen lightly deflected it again: "This does not affect me at all—"

Suddenly, the steel plate beneath Luthen's feet collapsed; before he could finish speaking, he plummeted violently into this deep pit.

Xiang Leina panted lightly; all her attacks just now were decoys and Zhang Yan Fa.

The purpose was to buy time for the Machine Spirit of this Retribution-class battleship, forcing the Machine Spirit to exert its utmost strength to create this Kong Dong on her body, causing Luthen to fall directly into the cold void of space.

"You are excellent."

"Is this the ability to communicate directly with the Machine Spirit? Is it a gift from That One? Or simply that the Machine Spirit of this battleship is powerful and docile?"

Shadows spread behind Xiang Leina like mist, and Luthen slowly stepped out from within them:

"Impressive; if I were the old me, perhaps your plan would have succeeded. Pity I have received new help from the Warp."

Pain struck Xiang Leina's back; blood flowed out, and she collapsed onto the ground, as if all strength had been drained from her body.

"This is the Poison of Life," Luthen said, holding a dagger.

Though called a dagger, it was clearly designed for an Astartes; for Luthen, it was nearly a short sword.

"My friend, Typhus of the Fourteenth Legion, gifted this dagger to me—may he be well."

"He claimed that this dagger, named Poison of Life, could kill anything, even a Primarch."

"But I did not use it to harm the Lion; I never killed Lion."

Luthen chattered on, then hung the dagger back at his waist and drew the Caliban greatsword once more.

"It won't hurt much. I won't let you leave a corpse; not even ash will remain, for I know of one who can resurrect the dead."

"Do you have any last words?"

"Traitor."

Xiang Xiang Leina's body grew weak and limp; before her eyes, a gentle, comforting white radiance appeared:

"I saw the light of the twenty-second century. I did what I could."

"My soul shall return to the twenty-second century. What about you?"

"Who will absolve your sins? Traitor?"

Lu Se's expression suddenly turned to fear; the Caliban Greatsword in his hand, brimming with fierce Warp energy, swung down toward Xiang Xiang Leina.

The ash was crushed into even smaller fragments, swept away by the torrent of the Warp and dissipated.

Lu Se's face, cold yet mixed with madness, struck the hull of this Retribution-class Battleship with the greatsword in his hand.

The immense power of the Warp instantly engulfed the ship; the potent corruption directly destroyed the battleship's engines. Combined with the operations of the demons aboard, the ship, like the others surrounding it, began to crash toward the Iron Ring encircling Mars.

Having done all this, Lu Se and those demons vanished once more into the shadows, as if they had never appeared.

The sky was set ablaze; a section of the Iron Ring was struck, ignited, and shattered by countless flashing fire meteors. Fire burned in the void, illuminating nearly half of Mars.

A segment comprising roughly one-sixth of the Iron Ring was directly torn away.

Three sky-ladders plunging straight into the earth could not withstand the immense force and collapsed and disintegrated in turn.

The entire sky of Mars was covered by a great rain of interwoven steel, iron, and fire.

The smaller fragments and damaged Void Ships were first captured by Mars's gravity, pierced the atmosphere, and roared down toward this crimson land.

The workers, overseers, and Forge Priests on Mars cried out in terror.

Just then, a figure wearing a cowboy hat, a revolver at their waist, and a coiled rope of flowers in their hand suddenly appeared on the red-sand-covered ground.

"Nobi-Style Cat's Cradle: Galaxy."

Countless threads sliced across the heavens.

The people of Mars, filled with shock and stupor, watched as those threads layered upon one another, shrouding the entire sky of Mars, catching and wrapping every fragment and shattered starship falling into the Martian atmosphere; in an instant, they hung like a galaxy at the horizon.

At the same time, that broken segment of the Iron Ring could no longer withstand Mars's immense gravity and began to fall toward the atmosphere.

Zhou Yun pushed open a wooden door, red with pink, outside the atmosphere, standing before the raging, burning Iron Ring.

He held a bright red cape in his hand.

The cape was whipped out violently and collided with the Iron Ring crashing into the Martian atmosphere.

The Iron Ring seemed to be repelled by that piece of soft cloth, reversing direction and flying toward the depths of the void.

The myriad beings on Mars who had escaped disaster watched this scene in horror; many had already knelt on the ground and begun to praise the Omnissiah.

Belisarius Dora Cawl, the Archmagos, noticed this scene. Clad in a bright red robe, he quickly stood beneath the metal colossus of Saint Dora A-Me and shouted loudly through the loudspeakers installed within his body:

"Praise! All beings of Mars!"

"This is the miracle wrought by the Primordial Engine: Saint Dora A-Me!"

"Praise! The Chosen of the Machine God!"

"For the Primordial Engine: Saint Dora A-Me has descended upon Mars."

"But you must remember: the Primordial Engine is not a god!"

(End of Chapter)