When the last Psyker Brain-Worm turned into glistening ash in the Librarian's golden flames, the clamor of the entire battlefield came to a momentary standstill.
That mental noise, which had been entrenched deep in everyone's mind like countless steel needles constantly churning, stopped abruptly.
For those Dominion Soldiers on the brink of collapse, this sudden silence was more shocking than the most violent explosion.
They looked up blankly, their hollow eyes gradually regaining a glimmer of spirit.
What did they see?
They saw that the endless black swarm, which had once dragged them into the abyss of despair, had fallen into complete chaos.
Having lost the unified will of the Brain-Worms, these monsters reverted to their most primitive beastly state. They hissed at each other, shoved, and even began to kill one another.
They were no longer an army.
Just a disorganized mess.
"Mop up the remaining enemies."
Sergeant Andre's cold, metallic voice rang clearly across the battlefield through the power armor's vox-caster.
This command, like a thunderclap, awakened all the human soldiers who were still in a daze.
The war was not yet over.
But the scales of victory had completely tipped toward the human side in an irrefutable, crushing manner.
"For the Emperor!"
The first to respond was the Astra Militarum's Political Commissar.
He held his bolter high and let out the first roar of the counteroffensive in a hoarse but fanatical voice.
Next were those Cadia soldiers who had been pulled back from the brink of hell. They endured the intense pain brought by the mental shock, the blood seeping from their facial orifices not yet dry, but in their eyes, the fire of "Loyalty" had been rekindled.
The hum of Lasguns once again joined together.
"For... for the Angels!"
A young Dominion Soldier, looking at those azure giants standing atop the mountain of corpses, let out a shout mixed with awe and fanaticism.
He didn't know who "the Emperor" was.
But he had witnessed a miracle with his own eyes.
This shout was like lighting the fuse of a powder keg.
"Counterattack! Full-line counterattack!"
"For the Dominion! For humanity!"
"Kill these damn bugs!"
The immense courage brought by surviving a disaster and the fanatical worship triggered by witnessing the descent of gods blended into an unprecedented thing called "morale."
The Dominion's army launched a desperate counterattack.
The ensuing battle could no longer be called a battle.
It was a one-sided, foregone massacre.
The Astartes formed the sharpest spearhead. They advanced silently and efficiently.
Every roar of a Bolter meant the total annihilation of an elite insectoid.
Every swing of a Chainsword cleared a path through the swarm paved with shredded meat and green blood.
Behind them were the high-morale Astra Militarum and Dominion Marines. Like a torrent of steel, they followed the footsteps of the demigods, crushing all remaining resistance one by one.
General Varnes stood in the command shuttle, watching the battlefield below without saying a word.
He saw an Ultramarines' armor being slashed by a dying beast's bone scythe.
That attack, which was enough to cut through tank armor, left only an insignificant white scratch on the blue ceramite surface.
And that Ultramarines didn't even look back.
He simply swung his sword backhandedly, splitting the beast's head and half its body in two.
General Varnes's hand was trembling slightly.
He had been proud of his honor as a Dominion soldier all his life. He believed that human wisdom and courage could defeat any enemy.
But today, everything he saw completely overturned his forty years of military faith.
In front of these gods of war called "astartes," the tactics he was proud of and the will he believed in seemed so small and ridiculous.
He wasn't commanding a war.
He was just witnessing a... miracle.
An hour later.
When the last bug's corpse was turned to char by a heavy flamer, this burning land finally welcomed a complete, deathly silence.
The air was filled with a thick, nauseating smell of blood and burning.
Hundreds of thousands of insectoid remains piled up into continuous black hills.
On the scorched earth, magma and green blood flowed, converging into strange streams.
The Ultramarines squad stood on the highest hill of remains, like ten silent statues overlooking hell.
They didn't cheer.
Nor did they rest for a moment.
The Librarian was using pure psychic energy to sense the land, ensuring that no sentient creature survived this purification.
The Apothecary was recovering the Gene-seed of fallen comrades, the Chapter's most precious treasure. Although no astartes had fallen in this battle, this had already become a procedure carved into their bones.
The other warriors were meticulously wiping their weapons and armor with holy oil and clean cloths.
The expressions on their faces were cold and professional, as if what they had just completed was not a bloody battle that decided the fate of a planet, but just an ordinary daily drill.
This indifference that transcended life and death, and the absolute control over war, made all the Dominion Soldiers watching them feel a chill and awe from the depths of their souls.
"All units, return to orbit."
Reinhardt's command reached the ears of every soldier through the command channel.
Landing craft and transport planes descended from the sky, picking up these surviving warriors.
The journey back to the storm was exceptionally quiet.
No one spoke.
The Dominion Soldiers just sat in silence; many didn't even dare to look up at the azure giants sharing the room with them.
They felt like mortals who had intruded into the hall of gods, where even breathing loudly was a form of sacrilege.
...
The bridge of the storm cruiser.
Reinhardt stood before the massive holographic star map, overlooking the completely dead, riddled planet below.
General Varnes stood behind him with a complex expression. He wanted to speak several times but didn't know what to say.
Thanks? Congratulations?
No, these words seemed incredibly pale and ridiculous at this moment.
Two Ultramarines stood like gatekeepers at the entrance of the bridge without saying a word. One of them was the squad commander, Sergeant Andre.
Just by standing there, the tangible pressure made the air on the entire bridge heavy.
"Communications officer."
Reinhardt finally spoke.
His voice broke the suffocating silence.
"Connect to the Dominion High Command. Broadcast the footage from this channel to all ships of the Purification Fleet."
"Yes, Lord commander."
The communications officer's fingers tapped rapidly on the console, his voice trembling slightly with excitement and awe.
A few seconds later.
The figures of General Armitage and a dozen Dominion generals appeared on the bridge's main screen.
Their expressions were serious, with a hint of undisguised urgency. Clearly, they had been waiting for a long time.
"Consultant Reinhardt," General Armitage spoke first, but he quickly noticed the blue giant behind Reinhardt, who stood like a mountain and emitted a terrifying aura. His pupils shrank imperceptibly. "The battle..."
Reinhardt did not answer his question.
He just looked calmly at the people on the screen.
Looking at those Dominion power holders who had once looked down on him with scrutiny and suspicion.
"Generals."
Reinhardt's voice echoed through the PA system on the bridge of the storm, through every ship of the Purification Fleet, and in the heavily guarded meeting room on the planet Iron Wall.
"The battle is over."
"But the purification has just begun."
His words left Armitage and the others stunned.
"Today, you will witness the Emperor's final judgment with your own eyes."
"You will truly understand the meaning of the word 'purification'."
After saying that, he turned around and faced the dead planet.
In his eyes, there was no joy of victory, only a coldness like a ten-thousand-year-old glacier.
He raised his hand and gave an order that could make the entire universe tremble.
"All ships of the First Purge Fleet."
"Target, Nest-7 main planet."
"Execute... Exterminatus."
Exterminatus.
Exterminatus.
This word, which represented the highest level of destruction in the Imperial language, rang out in this universe for the first time through Reinhardt's mouth.
On the bridge, all Dominion officers widened their eyes instantly.
They couldn't believe their ears.
Exterminate a planet?
This... how insane!
But no one dared to question it.
Because they saw those eleven warships representing the pride of the Dominion began to slowly adjust their prows the moment they received the order.
The muzzles of the Macro Cannons, pushed by hydraulic rods, aimed at the defenseless planet.
The energy cores of the Lance arrays began to flash with destructive light.
After witnessing the divine power of the astartes and the battle that overturned their worldview.
Reinhardt's order was equivalent to a divine decree for this fleet.
"Fire."
Reinhardt's voice was as light as a sigh.
But it was the prelude to a planetary funeral song.
The first light came from the prow of the storm.
A thick energy Lance, enough to vaporize an asteroid instantly, lashed out at the planet's atmosphere like God's whip of punishment.
There was no sound.
Only a brilliant Plasma fire cloud, as large as a continent, was instantly ignited.
Then.
Thousands of lights of death came from the entire fleet.
Countless Macro Cannon shells, trailing long tails of flame like a dense meteor shower, smashed into the ground.
Every impact bloomed into a flower of destruction comparable to a nuclear explosion on the surface.
The planet's surface began to disintegrate.
Continental plates were torn and shattered under the unimaginable kinetic impact.
The oceans were instantly evaporated under the high-energy irradiation. The boiling water vapor formed a white storm covering the entire planet.
The crust was pierced.
Crimson, churning magma erupted from the planet's interior, swallowing everything.
This was an ultimate destruction that left no room for anything.
A public execution of a planet, carried out by humans.
"My... God..."
On the bridge of the storm, a young Dominion officer, looking at the hellish scene outside the viewport, his legs gave way and he collapsed to the floor.
He cried.
Not out of fear, nor out of sadness.
But a kind of the most primitive, purest awe produced when a mortal witnesses a god exercising authority.
General Varnes gripped the console in front of him tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.
His body was shaking violently.
He finally understood what Reinhardt meant by "a contest of will."
This was the true will.
A divine will that could decide the life and death of a planet and a civilization at will.
In the face of this will, all his previous persistence and resistance seemed like a joke.
A joke of a mortal who overestimated himself.
And in the far-off meeting room of the High Command on the planet Iron Wall.
Deathly silence.
General Armitage and all the Dominion generals were as if petrified, staring blankly at the planet on the main screen being erased bit by bit.
On their faces was the same expression.
Pale, shocked, and an uncontrollable fear from the depths of their souls.
An elderly general suddenly covered his mouth and rushed out of the meeting room.
From the corridor came the sound of his violent vomiting.
General Armitage's body was swaying slightly.
His red electronic eye was flashing at a frantic frequency, seemingly trying to analyze a reasonable result from the scene before him that exceeded all its calculation logic.
But he failed.
This had exceeded the scope of logic and reason.
This was a pure, unreasonable display of absolute power.
A declaration.
A bloody declaration written with the death of a planet.
It was telling the Dominion, telling everyone in this universe.
For those who are my enemies, there is only one end.
"This is our destiny."
Reinhardt's voice rang out again.
He calmly, like a bystander of history, provided the final footnote for this grand destruction.
"This is the final destination for all non-humans."
"The galaxy belongs to humanity. This is the sacred, unquestionable right bestowed upon us by the Emperor."
"No coexistence, no compromise, no mercy."
"Only pure humanity and the ashes of our enemies."
"This is the Emperor's will."
"This is the truth of the Imperium."
His voice fell.
That planet also welcomed the last moment of its life.
In an unprecedented salvo from all the warships' main guns.
Its already overburdened core completely collapsed.
A violent explosion came from the center of the planet.
The entire planet burst open like a balloon blown to its limit.
Countless burning fragments,Splashing in all directions.
In the place where it once existed, only a huge, constantly twisting wound of spatial tearing remained.
Everything was over.
On the bridge, on the screen, silence.
Everyone looked at that man.
Looking at the demon god standing before the viewport, his back to them, using the destruction of a planet to expound his philosophy.
On the main screen.
General Armitage's weather-beaten, iron-like face, for the first time, showed an undisguisable expression called "submission."
He slowly, slowly, bowed his proud head.
This movement was like a signal.
All the officers behind him, as if their spines had been removed, bowed their heads one by one.
It was a heartfelt, complete, and unreserved surrender.
Not to an ally.
But to a higher-dimensional existence they could not understand, resist, or defeat.
Reinhardt did not look back.
But the fire of the planet's final explosion was clearly reflected in his golden, rippleless eyes.
He knew.
From this moment on.
There would no longer be any Terran Dominion in this universe.
There would only be the first, and most humble, servant of the Imperium of Man.
The seeds of faith had been sown.
And they would use the ashes of this planet as nutrients to take root and sprout in this dark universe.