Emperor's Bane

Chapter 953 The Battle of Comoros

The emperor is not obligated to answer every single one of your questions.

Most of the time, you can only rely on yourself.

Rely on the loyalty in your heart.

And the sharp blade in your hand.

Rely on them to make your contribution to the emperor: instead of praying for miracles to befall you.

If loyalty is only for taking.

Then loyalty becomes meaningless.

……

On the very first day Godfrey joined the Imperial Guard, the Shield Guard captain who was responsible for guiding him had engraved this sentence into his consciousness.

He told Godfrey that this was the first lesson every Guardsman had to learn upon enlistment.

This is a precept, the first guiding principle set for his long service career. It is not the simple brainwashing or indoctrination that is common in reformation, but a more complex and sophisticated spiritual force: the core energy source that drives the [Imperial Guard] killing machine, and their sole purpose in the world.

The Ten Thousand Man Corps was created for this purpose.

Their existence was not for taking: for the emperor had already given them everything.

Their mission did not include thinking: because the emperor's orders were not to be questioned.

The Imperial Guard was a tool, a sharp blade, a consumable of war and a luxury for maintaining rule. It was the most useful file for the emperor to remove obstacles in his path, a gift and a guarantee he left to his descendants: a compromise that had to be made due to the status quo when all other valuable paths had been cut off.

They were not the emperor's best choice; they just happened to be the only choice.

The Wanfu Corps was already well aware of this.

They chose to accept it.

Accept the fate of becoming a tool.

To accept no longer having the dignity and freedom of being a human being.

Accept the path the emperor has chosen for them, and the destined place of their demise.

For Godfrey: although he did not know where the Emperor had chosen for his burial place.

But if possible.

He hoped it wouldn't be Comoros.

Thinking of this, the Shield Guard Company Commander looked towards the pale, lifeless expanse to his left.

There is a real monster there.

But it is already dead.

The blade, named Sentinel Sword, pierced the Comorian beast's iron heart, pinning it to the wall covered in spikes and thorns. Dark blood flowed over the filthy graffiti, finally dripping onto the decapitating sword, which was over a meter long.

He stubbornly maintained his breathing and heartbeat until the moment when all the blood in his body had drained away.

This performance truly lives up to his name: Nightmare.

As the Comoros's most elite killing machines, Nightmare Warriors always instill fear in those who do not know them well.

Those who truly understand them will feel genuine awe for these madmen.

The slender helmets, gleaming with an eerie light, were deliberately sculpted into the shape of dead faces, while the forward-curving black horns and spikes on the armor resembled demons from ancient mythology: when these elites, who had grown up in the midst of infighting, stepped out from the crowd and raised their decapitation swords, only the bravest warriors would dare to face them.

The Imperial Guards were never short of courage.

The Comoros' nightmare is not their nightmare either.

For Godfrey, these killing machines of the Dark City were indeed impressive adversaries: especially when their cold souls vanished before the spear of the Guardians, these alien scum would fall straight down in silence, with astonishing composure, to meet their impending tragic fate.

Compared to these true warriors, the others' performance was rather pathetic.

"..."

Another heartbeat passed, and after confirming that their opponent had been completely devoured by the evil god they feared, the Shield Guard captain sheathed his sentry sword. The Nightmare Warrior's corpse thudded on the blood- and mud-splattered ground. Godfrey absentmindedly kicked him aside so that the corpse wouldn't interfere with the shield in his other hand.

The Imperial Guard is indeed equipped with shields, especially when they need to enter battlefields like the Comoros. The wide battle lines and heavy tasks mean that the Emperor's Guard can only operate in single or small squads. The Dark Eldar's overwhelming numerical superiority and their swarm-style fighting make shields extremely useful in this situation.

It can at least help block the bullets fired from mid-air by the "natural disasters".

Once they blocked the first shot, those winged creatures wouldn't have a chance to fire a second bullet: in order to fly into the sky, these "Calamities" not only specially modified their muscle groups and adrenaline glands, but also completely hollowed out the inside of their bones.

This means that a single bomb that accurately hits the chest or abdomen could easily destroy these arrogant alien scum: their poor balance is simply not enough to withstand such an injury, and their flight speed is not fast enough to escape the sight of the Imperial Guard.

At least for Godfrey, he has proven this with his reliable record: killing a Nightmare Swordsman is more difficult than killing three Scourges.

You need to pierce the chest twice with explosives and then stab it three times with a sharp blade to stop the Nightmare's breathing.

Emperor Above: Fortunately, their numbers are not too large.

In the thirty-six hours since the start of the war, only five Nightmares have encountered Godfrey and fallen to his sword.

Including the one we have now: it's also the strongest one.

He delayed the Imperial Guards for almost half a minute: what a formidable enemy they hadn't seen in a long time.

The Shield Guard Company Commander looked into the distance.

With a dull thud, Nightmare's corpse finally rolled into a much larger mountain of death, the eternal resting place of thousands of sinful souls: Godfrey sheathed his Sentinel Sword, a hint of pride flickering in his icy heart.

He spent only a second admiring his new creation, the result of his and his two colleagues' work over the past fifteen minutes, and the seventy-seventh battle he had experienced in the thirty-six hours since he entered the confiscationable city: he didn't know exactly how much he had gained in these battles, but at least tens of thousands of enemies of the Emperor had been purged.

Before him, a path of flesh and blood stretching out of sight was only a small part of the victory: fifteen minutes was enough time for the three Imperial Guards to wipe out the thousands of alien scum that were surging toward them.

During this time, besides fighting, the most important task for the three Imperial Guards was to guard the narrow passage beneath their feet and behind them the members of the Cult of Mechanism who were throwing themselves into the demolition, excavation and construction work with fanatical enthusiasm.

The guards would not give way until their work was completed.

This was also the mission of most of the Imperial Guards.

At this moment, apart from a very small number of elite soldiers who remained by the Emperor and the Primarchs' side as a general reserve force for any eventuality, most of the Custodians had been assigned to the most critical areas of the front lines by their masters at the very beginning of the Comoros War.

Their mission is to act as a stabilizing force.

Along this vast, desolate region created by the Spider Queen, the Imperial Guard must block the most important passages and intersections, working alongside the Astartes warriors to halt the Eldar's counterattack.

Normally, such a task can be accomplished with just one or two Imperial Guardsmen: even in the eyes of the Emperor or the Spider Queen, deploying two Imperial Guardsmen or twenty Astartes at a crossroads would deter any invading enemies of the Empire.

But for Godfrey, the path beneath his feet required the addition of an extra Shield Guard captain.

This is a typical main street in the upper city of Comoros. It blends narrowness and width, height and lowness in an amazing and unique way. The buildings on both sides are as majestic and magnificent as giants, yet as low as thorns, making it difficult to move. Various passages and secret entrances connect to every unfathomable dark alley, and the other side of the door is a dark and sunless dimensional labyrinth.

Standing on the streets of Comoros, you feel as if you are on top of towers thousands of meters high, as if you could reach out and touch the traces of the dying sun. But countless palaces and skyscrapers also rise above you, stretching as far as the eye can see, as if telling you that you are on the same level as the soil on the ground, trapped in a place farthest from the sun and its light.

One second ago, it felt like I was standing hundreds of meters above the clouds.

The next second, the shifting gaze found itself in the same position as the corpse lying on the ground.

One second ago, the wide, straight avenue and the luxurious and exquisite sculptures on both sides made people feel as if they were in Heroes Square in front of Terra Palace.

The next second, as you turn the corner, the space suddenly narrows to the point where you can't even turn around. The depths of the dark alley swallow your sight and senses, and the Mandela monster, clad in human skin, emerges from the shadows of your blind spot, eager to tear your body apart with its claws covered in rigid runes.

This is a land that cannot be understood.

It is also a land that does not welcome outsiders.

The surface here has long been overdeveloped, with the tops and foundations of buildings extending deep into the twisted network space. The ground, made of unknown materials, is always covered with blood and stains that cannot be removed. Dig deeper and you will find dimensions that no one can explain. The portals that can be seen everywhere on both sides of the road are small and dark, and even their owners cannot say where they lead.

But one thing is certain: behind every portal, a malevolent monster could emerge at any moment. Godfrey has experienced this firsthand many times.

He took out a dimensional bomb from the storage pouch on his shoulder armor and placed it on the nearest spatial rift: three minutes earlier, two snake-man warriors with four arms had emerged from this rift, intending to use their blades to cut off the heads of the Imperial Guards while the Imperial Guards were fighting the Nightmare.

The two clumsy aliens had now been reduced to at least forty unconnected fragments, and the Shield Guard captain had vented some of his fury on them. As he watched the dimensional bomb activate and the small-scale spatial tremors engulf the rift, Godfrey's anger gradually subsided, and he heard someone calling him from behind.

He turned and walked toward his colleagues: this meant he had to cross the entire battlefield he had just passed.

He stepped over thousands of corpses.

The Dark Eldar's surprise attack was indeed successful. Through sheer numbers and spatial rifts, they did manage to separate the three Royal Guards at the outset. However, the course of the battle only demonstrated why the Emperor's Golden Warriors were always confident in fighting one-on-one.

The Shield Guard company commander walked with firm steps, stepping over the corpses of the ragtag soldiers who couldn't even muster a complete set of armor. Some of these men were slaves, some were prisoners, but most were just scum found everywhere in the streets and alleys of Comoros. Their numbers were endless, and the vast majority of the troops in every large-scale surprise attack were these disposable guys: the attack just now was no exception.

Comoros mobilized a total of over a thousand people for a small-scale attack, of which more than 90% were these useless cannon fodder troops.

For every villain taken down, at least ten more would join the frenzy in more distant parts of the city.
The Dark Eldar's innate arrogance and destructive mentality towards foreign races prevent them from carefully considering the risks involved.

The true rulers of this region, having witnessed the power of the Spider Queen and the sheer size of the army the human empire had dispatched, quietly abandoned their plans to reclaim the territory with their elite troops and instead began to recruit these ignorant fools.

When these unsuspecting natives charged at the Imperial Guard's blades, a truly threatening adversary lurked behind them.

The Shield Guard captain's iron boots trod over the vicious creatures known as wolves and mandrakes, who would intervene in the battle against the Imperial Guard in the most despicable ways. The more noble ones were the witch sisters who, drawn by news of the battle, would gather from the arena. The strongest of them could leave a scratch on Godfrey's breastplate before he would swiftly behead him.

But above all that, the most troublesome are the beast tamers and blood minions hiding far behind, driving thousands upon thousands of monsters and twisted creatures into battle against the Imperial Guard: Godfrey has heard reports of extremely heavy losses suffered by the Imperial Guard and the Astartes Company on the other line of defense.

At least four members of the Imperial Guard and a three-digit number of Astartes died in the battle against the Bloodwitch Legion: the vast majority of the casualties pointed to an individual who looked exceptionally old and was surprisingly respected within the Bloodwitch's unruly group, even by the most fanatical Comorian bastards.

He personally commanded the battle.

Tens of thousands of behemoths assembled from muscle and bone, along with warp beasts, breached the Imperial defenses. Twisted Abominations as tall as Primarchs formed a wall of flesh, completely impervious to bombs and fire. Six-eyed Clawed Terrors slashed through the Astartes' armor with their monomolecular blades, devouring their flesh. The Ugul beasts, known as Webway Ghouls, could even bite through the thick armor of Terminator armor. After they succeeded, the Eldar's most beloved Aether Hounds would appear directly through a bizarre phase shift, joining the feast and biting off the Astartes' necks from behind.

Godfrey heard that an entire company of World Eaters had been swallowed up in this wave of beasts and monsters, and behind these monsters followed a fully equipped Comorian army of tens of thousands. However, this wave did not last long after crushing the Empire's first line of defense, because the arrogance of these aliens soon attracted the attention of a Spider Queen in the distance.

Her rage was more terrifying than the combined cruelty of hundreds or thousands of bloodthirsty men.

In a psionic strike that descended from the sky and was wailed by the surviving Bloodlinks as "Destruction," an entire army was almost wiped out. Even the most fanatical Bloodlinks refused to rally their forces again, cursing and never appearing on the battlefield again: because two-thirds of the Bloodlinks present had not escaped the strike.

Their souls, their bodies, and their prized resurrection techniques could not save them.

The only pity is that the unusually strange and aged Bloodbringer is said to have escaped this punishment: he sensed the danger before the Primarch made his move and abandoned his disciples and legions without hesitation.

After that, they disappeared.

Even so, the Dark Eldar army still has no shortage of deadly beings.

"Company commander."

Godfrey walked over to his colleague, who nodded to him in respect, and then respectfully presented him with a royal guard spear.

The shield guard company commander threw this spear during the battle, accurately hitting Mandela, who was trying to attack from behind, 600 meters away: that was the closest they had ever come to losing a man in the battle.

"Can we continue fighting?"

At this moment, another Imperial Guard walked over.

Although it was their first collaboration, the three Imperial Guards present did not say much. They simply checked each other's work and were able to understand most of the situation: Godfrey, as the temporary leader, asked a question and quickly received confirmation from the two beside him.

"can."

"Me too: but there's a problem with the ammunition."

"I have the same problem."

Godfrey nodded.

"Our strategists have all been wiped out in the previous battles."

"Should we borrow some from the Cult of the Machine God?"

"It depends: if they haven't finished their own jobs, it will be difficult to spare any manpower."

"I think they should have finished by now."

One of the Imperial Guards glanced behind them and then gestured for the shield-bearing company commander to look in another direction.

"I know."

Godfrey looked over and saw a huge machine that was burning fiercely.

It was a destroyed anti-gravity cruise ship. The pale blue flames reflected the corpses of at least ten Dark Eldar and several Scourges around it. Small, shattered light spears, blade fins, and serrated dragon bones were scattered all over the ground, and the wails of souls could be faintly heard from within.

A raider airship.

Such a colossal creature was certainly beyond the capabilities of a few Imperial Guards lacking sufficient skills: this was why the Dark Eldar dared to launch an attack.

But they never considered why Godfrey and the others insisted on guarding this narrow passage.

Because behind them, weapons far more lethal than themselves were being prepared in an orderly fashion.

The Shield Guard captain vividly remembered the scene: after he had killed the 326th enemy, a Dark Eldar raider airship, wielding chains and blades, charged towards the three of them from directly above the battlefield.

The driver completely ignored his compatriots, three of whom were already embroiled in the melee, and was solely focused on plundering the greatest possible spoils in the battle.

But almost at the same instant this alien flying vehicle appeared, thousands of meters behind the three Imperial Guards, a powerful stream of energy shot out, like a hunter lying in ambush. The pale blue destructive force accurately struck the unsuspecting raider airship, causing the twisted creation and its master to explode in mid-air, crashing to the ground like a raging fireball.

"It seems these Martians weren't lying."

Even now, recalling that scene makes the Shield Guard Company Commander feel a little better.

"They just assured me that they would finish the final work within two hours."

"But actually, they were a bit faster."

The three guards looked behind them and easily saw things more than ten kilometers away.

There, several tireless mechanical priests were commanding their equally tireless army, focusing intently on the most important part of the war, as instructed by Omnesia.

The towering Comorian buildings and spires, defying all the laws of physics, were being mercilessly crushed, demolished, and leveled one after another in front of the giant machines brought by the Martians. After meticulously searching and examining every possible treasure hidden within them, the mechanical priest returned these millennia-old buildings to their most primitive, raw state without reservation.

Immediately afterwards, relying on these fresh raw materials, the best engineering team in the entire galaxy began to build their own miracle at an astonishing speed: one after another, fixed turrets and automatic turrets rose from the ground, hundreds and thousands of dark muzzles pointing in different directions, easily sealing off an entire area.

All of this is the true means of an emperor.

He never imagined that he could defeat the entire Comoros forces by relying solely on the Imperial Guard and Astartes.

But what if we add steel, gunpowder, and faith?
One after another, artillery emplacements rose from the ground.

One cannonball after another was ready to be fired at any Dark Eldar foolish enough to launch an attack.

Meanwhile, line after line of defense, centered on the locations of the Emperor and the Primarch, are advancing coldly, efficiently, and ruthlessly toward the distant Comoros.

As they armed themselves to the teeth in one place, the Mechanicus forces would continue their advance, armed in more distant areas under the protection of the Imperial Guard and the Astartes: until every piece of land within their sight was destroyed, and every turret and fortress loyal to the Empire was ready.

Until a true steel forest exists between the Emperor's treasures and the Dark Eldar.

A cold and heartless city.

He will stand proudly, he will become the greatest fortress in this galaxy.

To protect the Emperor and the Primal.

Defend the future of humanity.

And based on this.

It devoured the entire Comoros.

(End of this chapter)