After a bumpy ride, the convoy came to a halt on a mountain ridge about five kilometers from the industrial zone.
As for why they didn't dare get any closer, it was because their reconnaissance had revealed that a massive battle was currently raging!
Zeke was the first to jump out of the vehicle. Lying prone on the edge of the ridge, he raised his binoculars.
Behind him, the players rapidly spread out to form a defensive perimeter. The Crimson Wind members mounted machine guns on the roofs of the vehicles, pointing the muzzles in every direction from which enemies might approach.
Through Zeke's binoculars, a bizarre and terrifying scene was unfolding over the industrial zone.
The area where the industrial zone used to be was currently enveloped by a semi-transparent barrier.
Flowing across the surface of the barrier were geometric shapes and fragments of language that constantly shattered and reassembled. Just looking at those symbols made one's head throb.
Outside the barrier, the joint forces of the Four Great Factions were locked in a bitter struggle.
"That's a Logic Lockdown Field from the Order of the Omnissian Mind," a player's voice came from behind. He was crouching next to the second vehicle, his eyes glowing with a faint psychic blue light. "A typical countermeasure against Tzeentchian Daemons."
Zeke zoomed in.
The armored forces of the Atens Knight House were launching a charge.
Twelve Knight Armigers painted in a black-and-gold livery advanced with heavy strides, every step leaving deep craters in the wasteland.
They fired a volley from their shoulder-mounted melta-cannons. The blinding white beams slammed into the barrier, but only caused ripples to spread across its surface.
Inside the barrier, the scene was even more horrifying.
Hundreds of Horrors of Tzeentch were leaping through the ruins.
These twisted blue creatures possessed avian talons, reptilian scales, and the compound eyes of insects. Each held weapons coalesced from pure sorcery.
Cackling shrilly, they hurled fire, frost, and lightning at the lines of the joint forces.
Deeper inside, the Herald of Tzeentch—the Changer of Ways summoned by Rayne—had swollen to the height of a three-story building.
It now had seven arms. At the end of each arm was not a hand, but a constantly shifting organ: a tome with flipping pages, a test tube dripping venom, or a tentacle drawing runes in the air.
"Report enemy firepower composition," Zeke lowered his voice.
The voice of the spotter, [T'au-Kun, Here is a Flower Maiden], rang out: "Visual confirmation: The joint forces possess twelve Knight Armigers, Leman Russ tank wreckage... fuck, at least twenty have been blown up, only eight are still moving."
"Roughly thirty Sentinel walkers, and infantry... estimated at seven thousand."
"They can't hold," [Have You Been Loyal Today?] said. "Look at their formation. The Atens Knights are charging the front, while the private soldiers of the Ximans Trade Consortium are slacking off in the rear."
"The Psyker squads of the Conmo Dynasty haven't even deployed; they're hiding in their transport vehicles."
[Betrayers Are Unforgivable] spat on the ground. "Classic teammates."
Just then, a sudden change occurred on the battlefield.
Four self-propelled artillery guns opened fire from the rear positions. These were assets belonging to the Order of the Omnissian Mind, their barrels engraved with binary litanies.
The high-explosive shells arced through the air, but roughly a hundred meters from the barrier, they bizarrely changed direction and flew right back toward the artillery positions!
"Mirror Reflection!" [Have You Been Loyal Today?] exclaimed. "The signature ability of a Herald of Tzeentch! It can warp the causal trajectory of an attack!"
Explosions engulfed the artillery positions.
Three Basilisks were blown to pieces by their own shells. The fourth managed an emergency stop, but its barrel was twisted into a pretzel.
The frontlines of the joint forces began to waver.
Zeke watched as an infantry company belonging to the Atens Knights attempted to fall back, only to be ambushed halfway by Flesh Hounds erupting from beneath the earth.
These Khornate Daemons looked like flayed hounds, with exposed musculature and fangs dripping with corrosive saliva.
In just three bites, they tore through the joints of the soldiers' carapace armor, dragging them out to be eaten alive.
"Khorne's stuff is fierce as always," Zeke muttered. "But this script isn't quite right, is it?"
"Boss, something's wrong," Veteran Driver suddenly spoke up. "Look inside the barrier—"
Zeke swung his binoculars.
The Herald of Tzeentch's seven arms were all pointing simultaneously toward the ridge where they were stationed.
On its main head, three eyes composed of spectral blue flames were staring straight at them from five kilometers away.
"It spotted us."
Every hair on Zeke's body stood on end. "FALL BACK! EVERYONE MOUNT UP!"
Almost exactly as the order was given, a rift tore open at the edge of the barrier.
Twelve Horrors of Tzeentch squeezed their way out.
Instead of charging into the battlefield like the other daemons, they moved with a bizarre, erratic gait, sprinting straight for the ridge!
"Drive! Drive!" Zeke scrambled into the passenger seat. "Veteran, drive like you're hauling illegal freight and the cops are on your tail!"
"You got it!" Veteran Driver slammed the gas pedal. The transport vehicle's engine roared.
The five vehicles executed frantic U-turns on the ridge, kicking up a massive cloud of dust.
In the rearview mirror, the speed of those Horrors was terrifying.
With every step they took, a glowing geometric pattern appeared beneath their feet, and their bodies would instantly blink dozens of meters forward. At this rate, they would catch up in three minutes tops.
"Open fire! Suppressing fire!" Zeke grabbed the vehicle comms.
The machine guns on the roofs roared to life.
The crude heavy machine guns spat tongues of flame, their 20mm black powder bullets tracing visible paths through the air.
But the Horrors merely giggled. The moment before the bullets hit, they twisted sideways—not physically dodging, but briefly phasing their bodies out of reality, letting the bullets pass straight through where they had been.
"Psychic Phase Shift!" a Psyker player yelled from the second vehicle. "Ordinary physical attacks have a hard time hitting them! Use lasers! The extreme heat of las-weapons can disrupt their phase stability!"
"You should've said so earlier!"
[Have You Been Loyal Today?] popped half his body out of the third vehicle's sunroof, gripping a laspistol.
He pulled the trigger repeatedly.
Crimson beams of light tore through the air.
The first shot missed, melting a crater into the ground beside a Horror.
The second shot grazed a Horror's arm just as it was phase-shifting. Its blue scales instantly carbonized, and it let out a piercing shriek.
"It works!" [Have You Been Loyal Today?] grinned.
More las-weapons opened fire.
Players leaned out of windows and sunroofs, firing standard lasguns, laspistols, and even whipping out two Hecate-pattern laser carbines—Chapter assets bought through the Crimson Spirit Chapter gritting their teeth and pooling funds, costing 230 coins each.
The beams of light wove into a net.
After being hit by three consecutive las-beams, one Horror's phasing ability finally collapsed.
Its body solidified, and immediately after, a 20mm bullet struck it dead center in the chest.
Blue scales and twisted flesh exploded outward. The creature collapsed onto the ground, dissolving into a puddle of smoking pus.
[Kill Confirmed: Horror of Tzeentch x1. Estimated Recycling Value: 350 Imperial Coins.]
The game system prompt chimed in the ears of all players.
"Holy shit, they're worth so much! Too bad we can't recycle it right now," [Have You Been Loyal Today?] said regretfully.
Another player spoke up in the regional channel, "Should we turn around and gank them?"
"They're worth so much money! Killing two pays for everything!"
"Killing one is worth three days in the mines!"
"Turn around! Turn around and gank 'em!"
"Gank my ass!" Zeke roared into the regional channel. "Keep retreating! Look behind you!"
More Horrors were pouring out of the barrier.
Not twelve. Thirty, fifty...
And it wasn't just Horrors. There were also Bloodletters—the low-tier daemons of Khorne—wielding flaming great axes, leaving scorch marks on the ground with every step they took.