Just as the First Legion Commander of the Thunder Warriors—the man known as the Lightning Knight, Arik Taranis—was about to strike down his enemy and sever his head, a blast of seven-colored radiance erupted beside him, sweeping past like the shockwave of an explosion.
The violent gust that followed roared like a hurricane traveling at several thousand kilometers per hour, kicking up a storm of flying sand and debris.
Caught off guard, even Arik, with all his strength, was nearly blown off his feet.
The vast ranks of mortal auxiliary troops, lacking both power and weight, were far less fortunate.
At least several hundred thousand were swept into the sky amid terrified screams, only to plummet helplessly back down—crashing into the ground like countless blood-soaked scraps of flesh.
The barren and bone-dry land was instantly dotted with blood-red marks.
Faced with such a horrific sight, Arik Taranis dared not hesitate. Shocked and enraged, he immediately tried to use his psychic power to save as many soldiers as he could.
But their numbers were far too great. He could not possibly reach them all.
He could only watch helplessly—as many of those soldiers, some even trained by his own hand, died miserably before his eyes.
The frustration and anger of being unable to save them gnawed at his heart like swarming ants.
When he turned his gaze toward the source of the shockwave, he could barely make out two blurred figures of different colors clashing at a speed far beyond his ability to perceive.
Lightning and flame intertwined—golden light and crimson brilliance swirling around them—making the two combatants appear like battling gods and demons.
Every gesture, every movement, tore mountains and split valleys, sending out wave after wave of tremors and raging winds.
The surrounding mortals, Thunder Warriors, and psykers were thrown stumbling in all directions—some crushed by shockwaves, others simply blown away to their deaths.
In the face of such overwhelming power—enough to reshape the land itself—every nearby existence was no more than a fragile ant, doomed to be crushed if caught in the aftermath.
After only a few glances, Arik Taranis understood with absolute clarity:
he had no qualification to intervene.
If he forced his way in, he would only hinder the Emperor—nothing more.
With no choice, he swallowed his frustration and returned to fighting the enemy before him.
---
Far in the distance, Malcador, cloaked in black robes, watched the scene with a deep frown.
As a high-level psyker who had lived since the Golden Age, his sight surpassed that of Arik Taranis by far.
Yet even he had rarely seen anyone comparable to Julius as he was now.
Powerful enough to dominate even the peak era of the Human Federation—his current psychic strength was on a completely different level from what he displayed over a century ago.
The sheer rate of his growth was… unreasonable.
Recalling certain secrets the Emperor had once shared with him, a chilling thought surfaced in Malcador's mind:
'Could someone from the Warp have intervened?'
Even the Emperor treated some Warp entities with grave caution—Malcador could not ignore the possibility.
Troubled by the thought, he fell into deep contemplation.
As for the Emperor's current situation, he felt little worry.
Among everyone present, only the Emperor and Julius surpassed him. He could clearly judge: the Emperor held the upper hand.
Julius was maintaining the stalemate largely through raw vitality.
Unless something interfered, his defeat was inevitable.
But that assumption didn't last long.
---
Only a few dozen minutes passed before Malcador sensed something wrong.
Julius was… getting stronger—fighting with increasing vigor.
Without hesitation, Malcador acted.
In a flash of psychic light, he traversed hundreds of kilometers, unleashing a spiraling ripple of invisible force from his body.
Julius, who had never expected another opponent as powerful as the Emperor, was caught entirely off guard.
Malcador's psychic strike drilled straight into Julius's mind, briefly blocking blood flow in part of his brain.
The sudden dizziness caused him to stumble—
—and in that instant, he took a full force blow from the Emperor.
A towering pillar of golden flame—tens of meters high—erupted from Julius's body, dyeing half the sky in gold.
Within a heartbeat, one-third of his body was burned away.
And the golden psychic fire showed no signs of stopping—it was still spreading.
Without hesitation and gritting through the agony, Julius severed the burning portion of his body, blood spraying like a fountain.
With his current power, losing more than ninety percent of his body would cripple him beyond recovery.
Thus, compared to wasting vast energy to extinguish the Emperor's psychic flames, he chose to cut his losses immediately.
Yet before he could heal, Malcador had already completed a telepathic exchange with the Emperor—so swiftly it was nearly imperceptible.
In perfect synchrony, the two attacked Julius from opposite sides.
Every strike was meant to kill.
Already at a disadvantage, Julius could no longer keep up—his defense faltered, and he grew increasingly overwhelmed.
Furious yet powerless, he roared inwardly.
The opponents before him had no sense of honor!
The Emperor had ambushed him upon arrival.
Malcador appeared later and struck with another vicious sneak attack.
If not for the strength of the Flesh Mutation Form, he would have died long ago.
But now, even that strength could no longer save him.
In the end, under Julius's eyes full of unwilling rage—
The Emperor's blade severed his head and burned his body to ash.
Malcador caught the head and incinerated it with a burst of searing psychic lightning, reducing it to charcoal.
In the final moment of consciousness, Julius remembered the first time he met the Emperor.
That, too, had begun with a miserable ambush.
'...Damn it… every time it's a sneak attack…'
With this resentful thought, Julius, the Warlord of Terra, met his end—
burned to ashes on the spot.
.....
🔥 Can't wait for the next chapter? Read ahead! 🔥
If you're loving the story, you can unlock 140+ ADVANCE CHAPTERS right now for just $4/month on my Patreon! Not only do you get a massive backlog to binge-read, but you also directly support my daily translation work. ❤️
👇 Grab your early access here:
🔗 [patreon.com/user?u=79514336]
(Or simply search for Translator-Sama on Patreon!)