"A hideous and broken persistence!" the Rangdan Overlord sneered in utter disdain, its tone thick with loathing.
Wander-Sky's psychic force snapped shut instantly, breaking the ancient wolf's spine and snuffing out the veteran warrior. "It should thank me for granting it release."
The psychic force lashed out in all directions, swatting away the Varagyr Guard, upending the wolf-warriors, and violently crushing several Terminator squads. The Rangdan Overlord had struck with brutal efficiency, reversing the tide of the skirmish in a single instant. The raw pressure was unyielding and tyrannical, something the several hundred warriors could not withstand, leaving only a few Rune Priests struggling bitterly to hold the line.
"Fiends!"
The deep wolf-howl was somewhat raspy, heavy with profound grief.
Seeing his sons butchered before his eyes, Russ's eyes nearly split from fury. Gripping Mjalnar with both hands, he lunged savagely toward Despair-Sky. He knew all too well that the situation had become critical in the extreme; save for himself, no one here could stand against a Rangdan Overlord.
The chainsword's motor roared, its whirring teeth churning the air. Yet the psychic mire surrounding Russ made every step an agonizing struggle, the space growing so viscous it felt almost solid, while warnings blared continuously inside his power armor. The armor, which had absorbed the lifelong devotion of master smiths, was groaning and screeching now, sparks erupting from its joints.
With every stride Russ took, his armored boots left deep craters in the solid plasteel deck plates. The outer casing of his armor was warping, yet he endured with clenched teeth, fighting the Rangdan Overlord while bearing the weight of a world upon his shoulders.
Sparks of nothingness flew in all directions as the colossal chainsword clashed against the psychic blades, unleashing ear-splitting screeches of metal against metal. Despair-Sky stopped evading, grinning maliciously as it wrapped its psychic power around its tentacles to lock horns directly with the human Primarch. Its physical movements were sluggish, yet it utilized psychic blades and long whips to mount continuous attacks from bizarre angles.
But despite appearing to hold the absolute upper hand, Despair-Sky grew increasingly alarmed deep down the longer the duel dragged on. The psychic force had materialized a cage to restrict movement, yet it consistently failed to fully suppress the human Primarch; though its blades were erratic and strange, they could not deliver a decisive, killing blow. This was its limit; it could not defeat a gene-primarch acting entirely on its own.
Their clash caused the bridge to tremble violently, as if pulling at the very foundations of the warship, sending ripples across the entire theater.
Russ gasped heavily, each deep breath accelerating the recovery of his physical strength. His hearts pounded with immense power, fueling his sword strikes with an increasingly lethal edge. Despite being constrained by the psychic cage, the Wolf King's slashes remained as swift as sudden thunder, leaving only trails of residual afterimages to mark his blade's path. His martial art was unrefined, his style wild and brutal, frantically cleaving the surging void before him as a continuous cadence of clashing blades rang out.
He strode forward, parrying every invisible blade and launching counter-attacks from the structural openings. Despair-Sky retreated step by step, its form shifting uneasily, the folds of its brain-mass undulating violently. Restraining such a powerful beast meant its psychic reserves were being consumed faster than they could regenerate; if this continued, it would inevitably face defeat.
"Do you require my aid?"
Wander-Sky swatted away another group of human legionaries. Turning back to see her brother locked in a bitter struggle, she inquired out of growing unease.
Despair-Sky retreated in silence—it was loath to call for help, but the gene-primarch's offensive was already closing in on its absolute limit.
As the Rangdan Overlord's inquiry echoed clearly through the space, the surviving legionaries dragged themselves to their feet, charging the alien entities without a second thought. They held but a single conviction in their minds—pin down the alien masterminds. If the two Rangdan Overlords joined forces, their genetic father would be in mortal peril!
Sensing the shift, Russ astutely detected that the Rangdan Overlord was steadily weakening, his blade on the verge of reaching the foe. Despair-Sky retreated again and again, its mocking, maniacal laughter completely vanished as it fell back to the base of the command dais.
"Leman Russ, your resilience surpasses my expectations."
It finally conceded that it could not defeat Leman Russ alone, lacking even the time required to manipulate molecular structures.
"Strike!" with a resentful hiss, Despair-Sky called out for assistance beyond the duel: "Help me subdue this beast!"
In that split second, Russ also understood that he had to make a choice. With that thought, he decisively abandoned parrying the invisible blade, allowing it to carve through his power armor and plunge into his flesh.
Hmph!
A muffled grunt suppressed his agony as the freezing blade pierced through his biological defenses, twisting the organs within his abdomen. Russ bit through his lip, ignoring the searing pain of his mangled entrails to trade wound for wound, driving his massive sword viciously toward the Rangdan Overlord.
Mjalnar breached the psychic warding, its whirring teeth effortlessly tearing through the dark green brain-mass, scooping out slurry-like neural tissue.
"AAAHHH!!!"
A piercing shriek rang out, drawing the gaze of everyone in the chamber to the duel. The Rangdan Overlord's physical form had sustained severe damage; with its brain tissue torn out, it screamed in raw agony, causing its psychic blade offensive to falter instantly. Russ felt the blade in his abdomen dissipate, and the viscous space around him loosened dramatically.
His golden, feral eyes flashed with a sharp light. Seizing this hard-won opportunity, he slammed down on the chain-throttle, thrusting the chainsword forward as he lunged. But the tip of his blade suddenly gave way as the sensation of hitting a solid form vanished.
A pity————
A wave of regret washed over Russ as he pulled the chainsword back into a defensive guard before him. Just as he was about to deliver a crippling blow to Despair-Sky, the creature was yanked backward by Wander-Sky, pulling it clear of his reach.
"Attack the alien overlords!"
A fierce command rang out as the surviving Wolves seized the opening, launching another volley against the Rangdan Overlords. Countless bolt shells and various energy rays converged upon the only two enemies remaining in the command bridge. In the corner of the bridge, a spherical barrier flickered furiously, solid munitions detonating continuously against it while energy rays were warped and deflected away.
"Accursed Silent Archon!" the psychic fluctuations spat venomously, cursing their kin who were light-years away. Despair-Sky was filled with bitter regret for lending its Shadow-Stalker Reapers to the Silent Archon to provide high-end offensive power. Facing a pack assault now, it found itself somewhat on the defensive.
Wander-Sky propped up her kin, her psychic fluctuations exceedingly grave: "Cast aside your playful thoughts. Our enemy is powerful beyond precedent."
"Capturing Leman Russ is no longer possible. We kill him together!"
"Kill him!" Despair-Sky nodded in agreement, snarling its own demand: "But make him experience the ultimate agony before he dies!"
The Rangdan Overlords reached an accord, their psychic fluctuations surging to an unprecedented intensity. The suffocating pressure clamped down hard on both hearts of every Space Marine present. A shockwave expanded instantly, slamming all ranged munitions straight to the deck!
As the smoke of the explosions cleared, Wander-Sky's dark green brain-mass was covered in protective tentacles, supporting Despair-Sky above her. Their crimson compound eyes were hollow and void-like, resembling intangible black holes, yet flickering with an infinite light of pure hatred.
Russ halted his charge. He was suspended in mid-air by an immense psychic force, his hands still holding Mjalnar aloft. His body trembled violently, warnings blaring across his power armor as the overwhelming psychic pressure began to crush the plating inward. The Pack lay pinned to the deck, blood seeping from the seals of their armor as they struggled slowly under the crushing weight.
In an instant, the psychic might of the two Rangdan Overlords fused into one, completely upending the battlefield.
"Did you truly think you could best us?" Despair-Sky questioned venomously, brain fluid weeping from its wound as its neural tissue slowly knitted back together. Within the bridge, where time and space seemed frozen, no one could voice a reply to its interrogation.
"I want you to watch them die, to feel boundless agony and despair." The malicious voice dripped with the pleasure of retribution as a dark green tentacle pointed toward where the Wolves lay: "Watch them with your eyes wide open!"
As the words fell, a dozen wolf-warriors were hoisted into the air by an invisible force, their limbs forcibly pried apart into a spread-eagle stance.
Crunch——! Crunch——!
A sickening, crushing sound arose as the power armor of the wolf-warriors began to buckle, imploding under an external force pressing inward. Blood gushed from the armor seals, the thick scent of iron stimulating the Wolves' acute olfactory senses. They could do nothing, forced to watch their brothers die a gruesome death before their eyes.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The mangled, deformed wreckage of the armor fell to the deck, the heavy thuds carrying the weight of gore and death, striking the heart of every warrior. The legionaries could not speak; low keening wails escaped their throats, their fists clenching until the gauntlets screeched, powerless against the tragedy unfolding before them.
Russ's frame convulsed as he thrashed violently. He had never been this consumed by fury, desperately yearning to butcher the creatures before him.
"I—— I—— shall tear you—— limb from limb! The Rangdan———— shall have their lineage crushed—— and their species extinguished!"
Ignoring the threat born of absolute fury, Despair-Sky let out a derisive sneer as a second batch of warriors was lifted before Russ's face. "Savor their deaths well."
The legionaries' helms were ripped away so Russ could witness the expressions of agony on his sons' faces. Batch after batch, Russ watched his sons perish before him, his mind suffering a violent assault as silent, negative emotions flooded his soul. He could no longer form coherent words, hot tears streaming from his eyes, unable to accept his sons being subjected to this psychological execution.
"I—— will see—— you die————"
He ground his teeth to splinters, his extreme rage causing the muscles in his face to snap line by line, his clenched hands fracturing the hilt of his weapon. The bridge was filled with a profound agony and hatred, tinged with a chilling shadow.
"The futile barking of a stray dog," Despair-Sky gloated in triumph, hoisting another wolf-warrior and casually tearing away his limbs: "What can you possibly do to me?"
"Once they are all dead, I will take my time with you."
The broken forms of his sons piled high before Russ, the fires of wrath incinerating his sanity, leaving nothing but a absolute, murderous intent born of pure hatred in his eyes. Just as a few more warriors were raised before his face, that very hatred finally consumed Russ's soul————
Crack~
The sound seemed to echo from an abyss. Under the weight of his violent emotional upheaval, a certain shackle appeared to shatter completely.
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Edited chapter 222, renamed the Overlords