Chapter 104: In the Name of the Divine Emperor, You Are Conscripted

Yellow sand swirls in vast, desolate antiquity.

Alvin, just returned from the Alien Universe, opened his eyes to a scene like the end of the world.

A furious storm of sand, like a monstrous beast bent on annihilating heaven and earth, had dyed the entire sky a muddy yellow, roaring with deafening fury, advancing toward this place at hundreds of kilometers per hour!

“Warning: Massive storm approaching. Center speed: 785 kilometers per hour. User must evacuate to a safe zone immediately!”

Mark 5 immediately issued the warning.

“Could I be any more unlucky?!”

Before he could utter more lamentations, Alvin realized he had to leave at once.

Otherwise, the storm, nearing eight hundred kilometers per hour, would soon swallow him whole—even wearing two layers of armor didn’t guarantee absolute safety.

Fortunately, the Mark 5’s damage level was barely within acceptable limits; the energy replenished from the Prometheus was more than enough to fly straight back to the Nest City.

After a brief surge of power, Alvin’s bent legs exploded with force, shattering the ground around him like a cannonball, shooting straight into the sky.

Then, the Mark 5 armor spat searing Mach rings, propelling him like a streak of light, slicing through the endless yellow sand.

He flew for about half an hour, closing in on the Nest City’s location.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Suddenly, earth-shaking roars erupted, as if ten thousand cannons fired at once.

Each roar could tear open the heavens, like a furious god screaming, making his heart tremble in unison!

What the hell was happening?

The mounting unease, like an invisible hand, clamped tightly around Alvin’s heart, nearly forcing it into his throat; gripped by a dread premonition, he accelerated.

Soon, he saw the Loser Nest City.

But unlike what he’d imagined, Alvin’s pupils shrank instantly, his face froze as if petrified, and a storm of shock surged within him: “Is that… planetary defense artillery?!”

The entire Loser Nest City was engulfed in flames!

More than half the city burned; violent fire mixed with thick black smoke, like a demon with claws and fangs, forming a vast dark cloud hovering over the city.

Heavy artillery roared deafeningly, frantically pouring out firepower; waves of shells rained down on the front lines, smoke, fire, and explosions composing the entire battlefield, their violent shockwaves making the earth tremble for kilometers around!

Thick smoke, laced with fire and raging winds, seemed ready to ignite the very sky above the city.

Gazing at the burning Nest City, Alvin’s heart sank slowly to its lowest point: “Damn cultists—couldn’t even wait that long?”

Alvin urgently lowered his altitude, avoiding the artillery as much as possible.

After all, the Nest City’s cannons didn’t have eyes—if he got shot down by its own anti-aircraft fire, it’d be downright ridiculous.

“Tsk. With this density of anti-air fire, even getting close is a problem.” Alvin grimaced, watching artillery everywhere and the atmosphere itself ablaze.

If he just flew in like this, he’d be 100% labeled a “cultist” and vaporized by a single shot.

After a moment’s thought, Alvin had a bold idea. He looked at the endless tide of cultists surging from the Lower Nest toward the Middle Nest, and made the Hawk Salute over his chest: “Emperor, protect me—open your eyes and see clearly: I’m not joining the cult, I’m acting out of necessity!”

After urgently praying for protection, Alvin found a secluded, hard-to-spot corner of the battlefield.

Then, using the armor’s stealth mode, he slipped unnoticed into the cultist army, hidden by the smoke and chaos of artillery.

To avoid drawing attention, Alvin removed his Mark 5 armor and stored it in his private space.

Though this carried some risk, wearing the armor would make him a target if noticed by cultists—and that could be far more dangerous.

Of course, Alvin dared to do this only because he still wore a bio-armor underneath.

Infiltrating the cultists was no challenge at all.

Amid the vast, frenzied human tide charging forward like a mass suicide, Alvin was just a drop of spray—utterly invisible.

The biggest problem would be the influence of Chaos sorcery.

Fortunately, Alvin had already ignited the long-stored “Blessed Censer.”

The ashes of a blessed psyker, sanctified by the State Church’s priests, would maximally shield him from Chaos sorcery’s corruption.

“Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!”

“Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!”

“Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!”

Tens of thousands, utterly brainwashed by Chaos sorcery into the cult’s claws, surged like mad toward the Nest City’s gate.

Even as shells rained down like dense rain and countless bullets screamed through the air, forming a dense crossfire net, they could not stop the fervent tide of people.

The human tide surged like a flood, falling in waves like cut wheat, only to be instantly replaced by the endless masses behind; every shell that landed echoed with the Emperor’s roar, blasting entire groups of heretics into blood mist, while the fallen corpses were crushed into thick, sticky sludge underfoot!

With no training, armed only with crude weapons, the cultists sacrificed tens of thousands of lives for every meter they advanced.

The cult intended to use “lives” to fill the gaps in the Planetary Defense Force’s line!

How to put it? This scene was simple: your bullets are finite, but my cannon fodder is endless?

“Didn’t expect the cultists had already breached the Middle Nest?”

Struggling to be swept along with the cultist tide into the Middle Nest, Alvin’s gaze darkened.

In fact, the moment he saw the “Hell Drakes,” he’d already guessed the cultists wouldn’t be slowed.

But he never imagined the battle could be this intense!

Logically, the Nest City housed the Fawu Force, Enforcers, and noble armed forces, while planetary defense troops guarded the exterior.

Even if the Planetary Viceroy’s head was stuffed with feces, how could the cultists have breached the Nest City in just a few days?

Alvin, barely escaped into the Nest City, gasped heavily beside a ruined floor, sweat pouring down his forehead: “Lucky I ran fast—if not, I’d be just another meat paste under those shells!”

This area hadn’t yet been overrun by the cultists, but the distance was close; he could see crowds fleeing deep into the Middle Nest.

Suddenly, a squad of dozens from the Planetary Defense Force surged out from the depths of the Middle Nest.

Then, they blocked every fleeing person—whether young, strong, or elderly.

“Kid, you’re lucky. You’ve been conscripted.”

The senior officer strode forward, not even glancing at him, and tossed him a rusty woodcutter’s rifle: “Now, in the name of the Great Emperor, you’re assigned to Temporary Battalion 177, tasked with defending Sector B-17. Go—you’re now a warrior of the Emperor!”

“???!”

Alvin stood dumbfounded, mouth agape.

Wait—he’d just looked over, and now he was a “warrior of the Emperor”?

Holding the rusty woodcutter’s rifle felt like clutching a burning stick.

At that moment, an elderly man beside him begged the officer with a pleading face: “Officer… I’m old, just an ordinary Middle Nest resident. Could you…?”

Click!

The senior officer drew his pistol and pressed it against the old man’s forehead: “I give you two choices.”

“Either become a warrior of the Emperor, to purge the damned heretics for the Great Emperor.” The officer’s voice was cold, brimming with endless killing intent, like a frosty blade pressed against the crowd’s throats: “Or… I’ll shoot you right now!”

End of the month~ If you haven’t cast your monthly vote yet, please do so—no loss, no regret~

PS: Blackwater won’t appear in the Nest City, and I don’t think it’s stronger than Nurgle—it’s perfectly safe in my private space.