|3rd POV|
A scream echoes throughout Hive City as a massive, towering creature erupts from underground. Its scream shakes the ground and even destroys some of the buildings around it.
In the distance, Magos Biologis Sora-Tel watches her creation with satisfaction.
She observes as it draws upon the power of the Immaterium, merging with machines, buildings, and even the humans of the hive to form new abominations. However, something catches her attention—something that should not have happened.
Her creation has a limit. It has yet to reach that limit, but she can already see it from her current position.
A limit that should not exist if she had been granted another five years to allow it to mature into a proper Warp entity—one capable of rivaling even the Beloved of the Four Gods.
Unfortunately, the god from whom she borrows power demands its release before it can fully mature. Now, it cannot exceed that limit without external assistance. She will ensure it happens after this hassle is taken care of.
Still, Sora-Tel is confident. The others cannot defeat her creation. She ensured that the people of Atoma Prime received the absolute minimum of resources from the greater Moebian Domain. They do not have the best weapons the Imperium has to offer.
Though she cannot prevent other worlds from sending aid due to the Emperor of Mankind's influence, she can ensure that only the bare minimum arrives—by sabotaging the machines and vehicles responsible for delivery.
As a Heretek—a true Heretek who sold her soul to Nurgle—she no longer cares for the sanctity of machines. They are tools, nothing more. Not vessels of spirits worthy of prayer or reverence. Tools that she can use and discard at her discretion.
Thus, she has no qualms about infecting them with Warp-based viruses—constructs that consume machines or subsume them entirely. She is, after all, the architect behind the Daemon of the Sands—the corruption that claimed most of Tertium's machinery and enabled the Cult of Admonition to seize the hive, leaving her safely entrenched in her main base at Branx Magna.
At least that was the original plan. The plan that allowed one of the high-ranking nobles of the Moebian Domain to attain Daemonhood.
Her thoughts are interrupted by the blare of alarms echoing from the new fortress. The one slowly replacing Tertium. She remembers the name: Sanctuary.
Her synthetic eyes dart as she sees something unexpected—a flying walker emerging from the fortress.
It is unlike any walker she has ever seen.
It is something new.
Something that should not exist.
This is Sutherland—a newly produced walker born from the Chaos Gacha, converted into a functional STC by Kael. The local Adeptus Mechanicus starts to work and puts Tertium's manufactorum to work to create as many Sutherland as possible. They are even cheaper compared to Leman Russ Battle Tanks because of their smaller size.
The Leman Russ Battle Tank is approximately the same size as the Sutherland, measuring around 4 meters in height, but it features a longer body and thicker armor. The Mechanicus modifies the STC to allow the Sutherland to have better armor plating, but even with this modification, it is still cheaper to produce than the battle tank.
Kael has ordered his guardians to train alongside these machines, forming a new unit specialized in mech-based warfare: the Steel Guard. The Mechanicus, in turn, has created the Skitarii Sutherland, Skitarii forces trained to pilot Sutherland units into battle.
The Steel Guard utilizes the base model of Sutherland, whereas the Skitarii Sutherland employs the heavy version of the Sutherland, which features enhanced firepower and additional armor.
And now, both formations are deployed for the first time.
The opening salvo begins with a storm of missiles launched from shoulder-mounted pods. Nearly half of the Sutherland units are equipped with them—and all fire their full payloads.
Explosions thunder across the battlefield.
But Sutherland is not alone.
From the opposite side of the hive, rows of tanks unleash their main armaments.
Leman Russ Battle Tanks fire their battle cannons into the abomination. They are the newly produced Leman Russ Battle Tanks.
It screams in agony, retaliating with beams of sickly green light that scour everything in their path.
One of its eight limbs drags across the hive, tearing through buildings and hurling debris at anything living. Even the cultists lurking in the shadows are not spared by the creature's indiscriminate rampage.
"Fire! Destroy that thing!"
The Imperial Guard and the Planetary Defense Force unleash everything they have. Automated anti-air batteries swivel and engage, pouring fire into the monstrosity.
The tide shifts again as the ground erupts.
A massive surge of sand slams into the abomination—thousands of tons of hardened grit striking with brutal force. It staggers, its attack interrupted just moments before it could annihilate a tank formation to the east.
Kael has arrived.
He draws the creature's attention as others retreat toward the Sanctuary, mobilizing heavier weapons. While Kael engages the abomination head-on, Sergeant Major Marrow issues rapid orders.
"Take one hundred soldiers east! Kill those abominations spawned by that ruinous power!"
They witness the devastation firsthand. Each beam attack carves massive chunks from the hive, leaving behind Warp-tainted residue—liquid corruption that melts anything it touches. Humans exposed to it are infected, transforming into plague bearers if they lack faith in the God-Emperor.
Those with strong minds and unwavering belief fare no better. Their bodies liquefy, then rise again—animated by Nurgle's rot. However, their souls are safe on the side of the Emperor.
Marrow leaves the abomination to Investigator Rannick and Hadron, turning instead to the spreading corruption across Tertium.
He is not alone with this kind of thinking.
A force of forty Salamanders advances through the hive, flamers roaring as they incinerate anything tainted by Nurgle.
Their fire is so intense that it burns away even the lingering Warp residue left behind by the creature's attacks.
"Spread out! Burn the abomination clean! For the Emperor! For Vulkan!"
"Into the fires of battle, unto the anvil of war!"
They move as one—sealing off escape routes, eradicating cultists, and preventing the infected from reaching the Sanctuary.
This allows Kael to focus fully on the creature—a monster that devours everything around it to heal and grow stronger. Buildings, machines, and even humans are consumed by the abomination to heal itself from all the injuries the weapons the others fire upon it.
Kael unleashes a massive wave of white flame, then binds the creature with sand generated by his [Desert Logia], reinforced through [Primordial Earth]. Still, it is not enough.
The abomination heals faster than he can damage it.
Kael prepares to fully engage his boosted gear—but Ddraig stops him.
"No. Don't use my power yet. You won't outpace its regeneration."
Kael summons a massive shield from his inventory, enlarging it with [Enlarge] just in time to block another beam from one of the creature's many mouths. The shield absorbs the impact, allowing Kael to strike again from the flank with his banishing flame.
'Are you sure?'
"Yes. This thing is being fed by that place."
Kael grimace. He knows what Ddraig means.
He is talking about the Immaterium. The place that makes the Satans, Original Satans, from the DxD world grimace in fear.
He smashes through a massive boulder hurled at him, dodging the next two moments later. His Viltrumite physiology holds firm, resisting the diseases saturating the air with Nurgle's corruption.
'Does that mean Nurgle is directly empowering it?'
"Yes. There are anchors—three of them. I can feel three of them, but there may be more. You need teams to board the creature and destroy those anchors. I think three should be enough for you to destroy this thing."
'Understood. Canto, connect me to Marrow. We need strike teams while I keep this thing occupied.'
Canto establishes the link without delay, projecting Kael's image mid-battle.
"Your Holiness! Do you need reinforcements?!"
"No. I need strike teams. Prepare an assault on the anchors feeding this thing ruinous power. These are the things that make it so powerful. They feed this abomination with power from the Immaterium. If they remain, we're finished."
Marrow stiffens, shock flashing across his face—then discipline takes over. His face shifted to a neutral expression a second later.
"I have a list of names, Your Holiness. I shall send the strike team in ten minutes."
"Good. I'll keep it busy until the aircraft deploy them from above. Make sure they complete the mission."
"Yes, sir!"
As the connection cuts, Marrow turns around and walks toward the deployment area. There, he sees two hundred people ready to be deployed.
They are the Rejects.
They are prisoners from Tertium.
This is a project once thought abandoned.
Now trained by the Astra Militarum, they serve as expendable assets—meat shields for the Imperium. They are the assets they do not need to worry about, but also have enough training to survive the first engagement.
Perfect for the task.
"Alright, you sack of shits! The situation's gone to hell! But His Holiness has given us a way out! There are at least three anchors on that abomination's body. Your job is simple—destroy them."
He scans all two hundred of them.
"You'll climb that thing. Tear it apart from the inside. Many of you will die. But you'll die for a righteous cause. And if you survive—you walk free."
His voice hardens.
"Earn your freedom, Rejects. Now move!"
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