As Gerhard had been fighting, Inquisitor Greyfax swore as she saw Belisarius Cawl hunched, spider-like, over the controls of his auto-reliquary. The Magos' metallic fingers danced across runic keys, his mechadendrites slithering from one socket port to another while the Ynnari and Skitarii stood guard over him.
Librarian Tigurius, who had his psyker powers nullified by Gerhard and the four Sisters of Silence, defended himself using a Bolter as several writhing Khorne Berzerkers charged at him. These Chaos Marines were having just as bad a time as Tigurius and the Grey Knights were, so that at least evened the playing field.
Normally, he would have spoken a string of syllables, using his psychic power and causing the Khorne-worshippers to implode, but that was now clearly no longer possible. He pushed through his great unnerved state and used the bolter instead, killing them, but having a far harder time doing so.
As the three Berzerkers died, though, the life energies left their bodies, but didn't vanish altogether. Ghostly tendrils flickered around the two Ynnari, deepening Inquisitor Greyfax's suspicions of the Eldar as she realised they had, in some way that she did not yet comprehend, been empowered by the stolen life force.
Greyfax pushed herself to her feet again despite the existential crisis she went through as a psyker, intending to dash across the open ground and command Cawl to cease in the name of the Holy Ordos. Whatever it was he was doing, it was clearly heresy in her eyes.
At that moment, a line of autocannon fire stitched along the top of the fallen stone pillar. Explosions of fire and shrapnel burst around the Inquisitor, hurling her from her feet, forcing her to take cover. Greyfax fired back at her attackers, but for the moment, she was pinned in place.
Chapter Master Marneus Calgar, having caught his bearings after Gerhard started to fight, swung his right gauntlet in a punishing arc, hammering it up through his enemy's guard and catching a Chaos Terminator square under the jaw.
The enemy's helm disappeared in a shower of metal and blood, his corpse slamming onto its back with bone-breaking force. Before the traitor even hit the ground, Calgar was already turning on the spot, both gauntlets held out from his body, booming with bolter fire.
The Chapter Master spun in a half-circle, firing rounds into the Black Legionnaires on every side and disembowelling another of them with explosive shells.
Blocking the return swipe of a crackling power mace, Calgar prepared to deliver another titanic blow. Just then, he caught sight of movement at the base of Guilliman's throne; cold horror gripped his chest, and he actually began to sweat.
Calgar watched as the Martian Tech Priest stepped back from his auto-reliquary, looking as if he had just completed a satisfying task. The dome-shaped device hummed forward, unfurling like the petals of a grotesque blooming flower.
Calgar, who was at the wrong angle to see inside, only saw a fleeting glimpse of glowing energies, Cawl's unfurling mechadendrites, clamping pincer limbs, and whirring bone drills that filled him with revulsion and panic.
The auto-reliquary rose and stretched out, enveloping the Primarch's entire body and armour in a peculiar metallic embrace.
At the same moment, Yvraine, the Xenos witch-priestess, lunged with grace only the Aeldari could achieve, evading the flying Bolt shells as she raised her blade high.
"No!" roared Marneus Calgar, finally finding his voice. "I command you to stop! In the Emperor's name, Brother Tigurius, stop them!"
The Chapter Master's distress reached new heights when Tigurius looked directly at him and shook his head. Calgar was uncertain why until he remembered the terrible feeling he had tried to suppress during the fight. None of the psykers could use their powers right now.
But that wasn't the only reason, Tigurius shook his head. In truth, he still trusted his visions and trusted that this was the Emperor's will. Two Living Saints had arrived specifically for this.
"Do it," shouted the Chief Librarian. "And may the Emperor condemn me if you have played me, Xenos."
In desperation, Calgar raised his powerful Bolters and prepared to fire at the female Eldar. However, Yvraine's blade fell with lightning speed, slicing through the cabling that supplied power to Guilliman's stasis field, effectively allowing time to flow for him again and therefore, the wounds he had to 'finish what they started.'
Energies burst out, and from within the closing arms of the auto-reliquary, Calgar heard a rattling sigh that would haunt him until the day he died. It sounded like the life of his father quite literally had left his body after 10,000 years of keeping him in stasis to make sure he wouldn't die.
"What have you done?" he roared at the top of his lungs.
Despair and fury raged through him like a firestorm, even surprising the Khorne Berserkers, whose rage was kind of their thing.
Clenching his fists, Calgar turned on the traitors who had forced this terrible tragedy to occur, and waded back into the fight with indomitable fury. His rage could be felt from across the shrine.
The auto-reliquary engulfed Roboute Guilliman and the throne he sat on, its runic designators and auto-lights flickering on across the surface.
Spurred by the sight, the Black Legionnaires intensified their attack. Roaring war cries, the Black Legion Terminators charged fiercely into their foes and funny enough, Marneus Calgar found himself pushed back, his battle plate cracked by a powerful blow from a power maul.
Despite the onslaught, a group of traitor Terminators surrounded him, allowing their brethren to break away toward the auto-reliquary. Only to suddenly be halted in their steps by a powerful use of [Psychokinesis]. The only one currently capable of using psionics was Gerhard.
The last thing those traitors experienced was over 40 blue-coloured Mana bullets zooming through the air and impacting their bodies, exploding in thankfully contained fire clouds.
Gerhard was multitasking and seemed to know where and when who would most likely be there, making him the best teammate anyone would want on their side, as he covered any weaknesses or blind spots.
Gunfire reverberated inside the shrine as the traitors unleashed their fire upon Cawl's unfolded and definitely working device. Bolts and shells exploded harmlessly against the hardened [Psionic Mana Shields] which Gerhard cast between the throne and the traitors. This made the attacks fail to damage the device behind.
Meanwhile, the last of the Chaos Raptors formed into a single unit and bounded across the shrine, targeting Gerhard and his cursed existence.
Their jump packs howled, and terrifying screams burst from their vox grills. They were met by a very much prepared Gerhard and his group. They jumped towards him, firing their weapons and slicing their power claws through the air, only to be met with dozens of mana ropes and being detained, falling to the ground.
Hestia, Kaelen, Liora and Aleya were there to kill them. They were in perfect formation as they swiped their blades through the traitors' bodies and killed them with each swing, while Gerhard focused on the next obstacle that presented itself. Chaos Obliterators.
Chaos Obliterator – Lv.72
|HP: 28,000/28,000
|MP: 1,200
|A Chaos Space Marine consumed by the Obliterator Virus, transformed into a living fusion of flesh, metal and daemon energy. A walking arsenal capable of generating devastating weaponry at will.
STR: 170
VIT: 190
---
Several Raptors fell, but as it turned out, their actions were merely to distract as Chaos Obliterators stomped forward and opened fire.
Twin-linked Plasma blasts, Multi-meltas and lascannon beams struck the Ultramarine Veterans down, reducing their chests to blackened craters and scattering their helmed heads to ash, before Gerhard could reach them.
That was the problem; he couldn't be everywhere at once, and since he had never fought with so many allies, this was relatively new. He was never caught unprepared or by surprise, but it was still physically impossible to be everywhere at once. Nevertheless, he tried his best.
The Sorcerers leading the attack held their heads as they tried to draw deeply from the energies of the Warp, risking death and damnation in their haste to breach the void Gerhard represented.
The weak lightning they conjured not only proved useless as it fizzled out as it came close to Gerhard, but it also caused their souls to give out and be sucked out of their bodies, finally.
Meanwhile, the last of the Sorcerers ignored his own life as well and charged toward the Primarch's throne, arms raised and voice booming from his vox grill.
As the Sorcerer chanted, the Temple of Correction began to shudder and shake. He went all out, using his own soul as a sacrifice to do damage. Pillars cracked from bottom to top, chunks of marble the size of Drop Pods shearing off and crashing down into the chaos.
Gaping holes opened wide in the floor, but just as they were about to swallow loyalists, a net of blue Mana appeared and latched on to the different pieces, holding the ground somewhat together and preventing any of their forces from falling as the Chaos forces did.
Realising that the Sorcerer was attempting to bring part of the shrine down upon Guilliman's throne, Gerhard cast [Mana Reinforcement], further elevating his stats to ridiculous degrees and disappearing from his spot.
In the blink of an eye, he crossed the vast distance and appeared behind the Sorcerer. The traitor felt time slow down. The temperature dropped to what felt like absolute zero, and his entire life flashed before his eyes. His memories were swallowed by the picoseconds.
The Anathame cut through the air and bisected the Sorcerer long before his brain even processed this information.
Gerhard's attention was pulled by a fresh wave of Khorne Berzerkers who hurled themselves at him with illogical fury. Gerhard brought the Anathame up and parried one incoming chainaxe after another, feeling their energies flowing into him and fuelling his own Mana, and making them weaker.
[Danger Sense]
The Chaos Obliterators had arrived and fired away their weapons at Gerhard, not bothering that their allies were currently engaged with him and in the way.
BOOOOOMMMM--BRROBOOOOMMM--BOBOBOOOMMMM---!!!
A dust cloud rose, and only after a full minute of constant firing did the Obliterators stop.
BOOM--
Suddenly, a long metal chain shot out of the cloud and buried itself into the Obliterator closest to it.
"??"
Then, the entire several tons of creature was pulled in and under the shrieking vox-grills, disappearing into the dust cloud.
BRRRRTTTT---BOOOOOM--!!!
...
As the dust settled, a blue barrier flickered into view, its surface crackling with cyan electricity. This electricity gathered at several points, condensed, and then shot out in dozens of plasma streams, zooming through the air and cleanly penetrating the Obliterators' bodies as if they were made of paper.
[Chaos Obliterator defeated] x4
[+3,200,000 EXP]
[Level up]
...
All across the temple, the forces of the Imperium fought valiantly to hold back their foes. Celestine, who had also been weakened by Gerhard's [Blank] state, continued to hack and slash, spinning and leaping, leaving a trail of slain Black Legionnaires in her wake.
Archmagos Cawl unleashed blasts of searing plasma and ionised energy that ripped through the ranks of Chaos while intoning binharic words to strengthen his allies' weapons and wargear.
Marshal Amalrich, now accompanied by only two remaining Sword Brethren, fought tirelessly atop a heap of Black Legion corpses. He had an inexplicable look on his face as he saw Gerhard and his group waltz through hundreds of the Chaos Space Marines and Daemon engines.
A second wave of Dreadclaw Drop Pods began their descent upon the shrine, flames burning around their hulls as they fell. This was no scattered handful of reinforcements or simply misfortune; it was a pinpoint and planned attack wave of twenty armoured pods, held in reserve by the masters of the Chaos invasion and launched to strike the killing blow.
Heldrakes dived down alongside them, their jaw cannons opening wide and blasting enormous streams of fire at the allies to create a path through the Ultramarines' interceptors and gunships.
More than one plummeting Daemon Engine hurled itself into the defender's fire, self-sacrificing itself to shield the falling Dreadclaws from harm and allowing them to deploy their forces into the shrine.
Thus protected, all twenty pods crashed down through the sundered dome of the Shrine of Guilliman.
As one, the Dreadclaws opened to eject squad after squad of Chaos Space Marines. Several traitor warbands poured into battle, the Talons of the Despoiler deploying en masse to sweep away all resistance in the shrine.
This was a force of combined strength capable of subduing worlds: two hundred superhuman murderers, fresh and ready for battle.
The Black Legion reinforcements struck the Imperial defence like a battering ram. Ultramarine Veterans and Honour Guard fell slowly, but they fell as they were riddled with overwhelming bolt fire that couldn't all be blocked by Gerhard, who was swarmed by close to 100 traitor forces specially prepared for him.
Courageous Loyalist Terminators collapsed, their powerful power armour unable to withstand the relentless onslaught of bolter, melta, and plasma fire that consumed them.
Marneus Calgar roared in defiance as he was overwhelmed by a surging mass of foes that swung, stabbed, and stomped at him. Several times, he found a carpet of blue-coloured [Spinning Mana Arrows] that blocked the light and killed swathes of enemies, giving him breathing room, before he was forced to fight for his life again.
Marshal Amalrich and his brothers charged down the mound of corpses rather than be caught in the open by the enemy's concentrated firepower, determined to take down as many of their tainted kin as they could before meeting their end.
Saint Celestine swooped down upon the mass of heretics, her remaining sister having been shot down from the air by relentless plasma blasts. Even Celestine fought one-handed, her left arm hanging broken at her side. Still, she sang out a hymn to the Emperor, resolved to face death with words of purity and hope on her lips.
She was smart, though, seeing Gerhard and his group as the lone island against the tides of Chaos forces and working her way towards them to support the bloodied and slightly battered Custodes and the heaving and hurt Sisters of Silence.
Gerhard was doing his own thing, focusing on several different things at once, healing his allies and creating pockets of breathing room to fight for them. But it was getting much, and he was increasingly targeted by the Chaos forces.