Even though the bugs had suddenly pulled back and the surroundings had quieted down…
…that quiet immediately deepened into something even more unnatural. So still it felt as if even the wind had stopped moving.
So still it felt as if the planet's rotation had stopped, too.
And Kain could feel something approaching—something extremely bad.
This sensation was probably the perception that came with entering a Blank state.
In that state, he was even sharper than most psykers—or anything even more sensitive than that.
In fact, if he had no scruples about it, he could push his "Untouchable" constitution even further than a normal Blank ever could.
Because Blanks made other people uncomfortable—dizziness and the like—especially for psykers, a Blank was like a psychic black hole that could swallow them whole.
If he amplified it without restraint, the effect would probably resemble a One Piece-style burst of Conqueror's Haki.
If he let it fully open like that, he could sense movements more clearly—but only if everyone around him was an enemy. Otherwise, he'd be hurting allies for no reason.
So right now, he was holding it down, not intending to affect anyone else.
Even with that restraint, he still picked up abnormal psychic fluctuations drawing closer.
And the bugs had psykers among them, too. This wasn't the same "layer" as the cannon-fodder organisms—this presence was on a completely different level. What was coming was likely something like a Tyranid battlefield command nexus: a dangerous individual.
Hm?
The ground began to tremble faintly. A subtle rumbling was rolling in from far to near.
It looked like thousands upon thousands of heavily armored troops were charging this way.
Then he saw the targets—heavily armored Tyranids, bodies wrapped in thick plating, barreling forward in a savage, straight-line collision.
These things were called Carnifexes. Their job was to smash through everything—enemies and obstacles alike—by sheer mass and brute momentum.
Even the Dreadnought accompanying the Salamanders wouldn't dare take a direct hit from one of these.
However, the danger Kain felt wasn't from the Carnifexes themselves.
It was what followed behind them.
Once these armored behemoths crashed into the line and threw everything into chaos, whatever was tailing them would exploit the confusion and harvest lives.
So, in order to keep them from breaking into the formation, the heavy weapons—precious, with limited ammunition—finally began to roar.
Suddenly, in the dust kicked up by the charge, and in the shadows swallowed by the night, several clusters of cold light flared at once.
Kain dodged his original position without hesitation.
Plasma beams grazed past him—nearly brushing his shoulder—and splashed into several Planetary Defence Force soldiers beside him.
The beam was like an eraser. Most of the limbs of the soldiers caught by it simply vanished, as if rubbed away.
An instant later, the beam struck farther back and erupted in a glare like a newborn star venting heat and light.
And it wasn't just one beam—there were several.
A few seconds later, the sound arrived: a piercing shriek that felt like it would rupture eardrums. It was practically an ultrasonic attack—his goggles cracked from the vibration.
"Screamer-Killers—everyone, heads up!!!"
An Astartes bellowed the warning.
Screamer-Killers were a special mutant strain within the Carnifex bioform.
In battle, they emitted terrifying shrieks, generated by rasping plates in the Carnifex's oesophagus.
Those plates energized the bio-plasma in its gut and discharged it.
On top of that, they could form incandescent balls of bio-plasma using the electrostatic field around their claws, then lob them like artillery into enemy formations.
So Kain saw several blazing plasma orbs vault over the heads of the charging Carnifexes, sailing straight into the isolated force that had pushed in too deep.
At the same time, two beams—briefly lighting the surroundings like daylight—stabbed into two of the Carnifexes.
Limbs that even heavy bolt shells struggled to breach were punched straight through.
Then, as if the beams ignited some bio-plasma reaction inside, one of the monsters swelled like a balloon and burst—flame jetting out and catching nearby things alight.
The other didn't ignite, but the lethal penetrating hit made its body seize, then pitch forward. Its charging momentum carved a deep furrow into the ground as it crashed.
Those death beams had come from the Dreadnought. Judging from the cannon barrel that looked like it was about to melt, it was firing at the absolute edge of overload.
The Planetary Defence Force vehicles' heavy guns also hammered the Carnifexes' heads, finishing off two more.
But that obstacle was quickly smashed aside by more Carnifexes accelerating from the rear—and the variants came into view.
And they were already closing in fast.
And at this moment, the ominous crisis Kain had sensed was so close it felt almost within reach…
It looked like the danger came from these variants. They really were deadly.
But the real—
"UNDERGROUND!!!"
His face changing, he shouted the warning so hard it felt like he'd tear his vocal cords.
The Planetary Defence Force soldiers reacted, panicking and watching the ground.
The Salamanders' side seemed to ignore it.
No—
The Dreadnought hesitated for a beat, as if Kain's warning had made it pause.
In the next instant, one of the Dreadnought's heavy guns loaded a special shell, the muzzle practically pressing into the earth.
Boom!
A wide section of ground bucked. Then the earth began to bulge and swell rapidly, cracking open into jagged fissures—and flames shot skyward.
Before the fire erupted, the Dreadnought and the Astartes around it—including Kain—had already pulled back.
But several Planetary Defence Force soldiers didn't make it out of the blast radius in time.
Then the ground collapsed inward.
Inside was an orange-red glow—flowing light—like the magma layer had been torn open. In truth, the underground had been melted into a molten pit.
And from that "magma," a massive shape staggered up, struggling—a serpent-like Tyranid.
Before it could even thrash twice, the Dreadnought's next round blew apart its limbs.
"A Trygon?"
Trygons were serpent bioforms among the Tyranids—massive heavy-class organisms.
They could travel rapidly underground, carving tunnels with frightening speed. So once you spotted one, the enemy you faced usually wasn't just that single Trygon—there would be forces flooding through the tunnel it had opened.
Sure enough, within the molten "lake," Kain saw plenty of Tyranids. Among them were the same kind that had chased him through the hive city before—Lictors, the ones that loved ambushes and assassination.
"Using the Carnifex charge to mask the movement, then slipping underneath us…"
"That was dangerous. If we'd hesitated even a little, they would've had it!"
"Lawrence, go look after that king."
So Kain—whose warning had mattered—earned himself a "can" assigned to watch him.
But "watching him" didn't mean someone would die to protect him. He knew that much.
Next came the breakthrough—because the situation was still viciously dangerous.
And now, he was less than fifty kilometers from his destination. Close enough to taste it.
If he could reach it, he'd be set—he could ascend to the Star Spirit.
As long as he got within a certain range, he could be teleported directly into the ship.
(End of Chapter)
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