Warhammer: Start with a dog.

Chapter 572: Appearing at the right place at the right time
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“Everything created has its place in His eyes, and anything without a place will eventually become nothing.”
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"The only ones I won't doubt and use my power to judge are the Custodians. I only believe that the Custodians will not betray me. - Yes, and everyone else in the galaxy is a suspicious heretic in my eyes. Noble, sacred and charming? That must be some kind of mask to deceive people." - A high-heeled inquisitor wearing a hat

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Just when Malcador was impatient and felt that the pointed-eared teammates who were dragged along in the webway were like some extinct omnivores from ancient Terra, and he couldn't lead them. If he didn't have to go through the process to collect at least four Crone Swords, four of the highest-level Eldar prophets including Eldrad, four of the most powerful Eldar generals, and even four Phoenix Lords with shrines, why didn't the leader of the Howling Banshees, Jaan Zar, the Phoenix Lord, show up? As the leader of the most powerful tribe warriors in the Kane Path, it was really abnormal that she didn't show up here - otherwise who would have the time to lead them so slowly on the road?

The human empire team, left here by "that suspicious human who had been hanging out with the pointy-eared aliens (a certain inquisitor's words)", had an accident as expected under the banner of "don't cause any accidents".

The first to notice the anomaly were the Black Templars.

They are now the most confrontational team with the Inquisitor's team, which is not very common.

Mainly because their power armor identification and the feeling transmitted by the Emperor told them that the old man in front of them was the Imperial Regent, Imperial Chancellor, Saint of the Ecclesiarchy, Hero, Malcador, who had died ten thousand years ago. So they naturally took the orders of the saint as the standard for what the old man said among the Primarchs and the Astartes Legion ten thousand years later.

——As for why they accepted it so smoothly? In addition to the efforts of a person in the throne who couldn't speak but worked hard, the fanatical faith of the Black Templars made it particularly easy for them to accept such things as resurrection after death, the advent of heroes, hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, and revelations, which were actually quite crazy even for the Imperials who played with wetware and servitors. It was much easier for fanatics to accept something from a religious perspective than for the doubtful Inquisitors to accept it.

Therefore, they were among the soldiers who obeyed Malcador's instructions the most before he left. Together with the remaining Sisters of Battle and a handful of Astra Militarum soldiers on the other side, they formed the outermost line of defense for the group. The inner circle was formed by Skitarii, Living Saints, Inquisitors and her men. The heavy vehicles of the Mechanicum in the center were commanded by Archmagus Belisarius Cawl, who personally led the mechas, and vowed to protect the most precious treasures in the huge stasis safe inside.

The reason why a certain Inquisitor did not draw his gun on his friendly forces was mainly because of some strange emotion that was closest to shame and anger - this person who called himself Malcador and the Great Sage Cawl in the team had a conversation in public and grabbed a series of those damn metal space skeleton insect-shaped creations from her body, claiming that these things could control her actions and affect her thinking. Although her own Capek Eagles did not believe this, it undoubtedly made her position and voice in the team temporarily ineffective.

They stood guard within the perimeter Malcador had marked with his staff, but even within that perimeter they could still see, hear, smell and feel anything unusual around them.

This is the other end of the webway gate leading to Belia IV, which is like the entrance of a tunnel leading to a wilderness. That is to say, as long as no one on Belia IV enters through the webway gate, they only need to defend three directions, and even one direction can be used as the rear. To be honest, this is a very good defense point in this place where incredible distortions of reality and illusion or phenomena that violate any common sense of mathematics and physics are happening every minute and every second.

The Inquisitor held her power sword and pistol as she surveyed the surroundings. Even for her, if she extended her psychic powers a little, she would be whipped dizzy by the incomprehensible fractals and other structures around her. Just as she was considering whether she should try again to persuade the Great Sage, who had become alert like a frightened rabbit since arriving here, to take advantage of this rare opportunity to survey the place and see if they could find some effective ways to kill these aliens, the outermost Black Templars had already raised their weapons.

But outside, everything was quiet, with nothing but thick fog drifting in the darkness, and vaguely visible twisting ruins, dust, structures, or the decayed remains of various strange dead who had the misfortune to get lost in the webway over the past eons.

"What?" she shouted, "What did you see?!" At the same time, she tried to extend her psychic power - this was difficult. She could still try within the range defined by the suspicious creature that called itself Malcador, but once she was out of this circle, it would be like entering a humid seabed abyss. Although there was no water, it was just as dark and cold, and it put the same tremendous pressure on the human soul.

No one answered her question, but they all saw the sword brothers in the front draw their weapons and split the void - the void revealed the cut skin, muscles, textures and bizarre internal organs, spurting out colorful blood, and then the severed claws, tentacles, part of the body or half of a bizarre body fell to the ground in pieces.

Along with the distinctive explosion of the Astartes bomb, the sound of another kind of bolter was also heard at the same time. This was the exorcism rune bomb used by the Sisters, and the brave mortals around them were shooting with laser guns. Although not as useful, it at least illuminated the area within nine feet around. This was enough for the Black Templars' superhuman vision enhanced by genetic engineering and their combat reflexes honed by thousands of trials.

Blood or other body fluids splattered everywhere, staining the surface of the power armor of the soldiers in the front row, and then gathered along the edge of the armor and dripped and splashed out.

More gunfire exploded around them and more enemies emerged from the dark, colorful mist.

The pink and blue terrors cackled and leaped around at everyone's feet and waists. Although they were chopped into two or three pieces quickly, the Tzeentch demons rushed up to die even faster. The arsonist terrors played with the flames of witchcraft, spraying them at them, burning out the shape of an invisible protective shield in the air. A new blood of the Black Templar chased a terror with a little impatience, and half of his body stepped out of the invisible and hidden circle. Then, this brave but reckless brother changed in their eyes: half of Astartes' body turned into a newborn baby, and then died immediately - because the skull of half of his head also turned to the size of a baby, and he soon died because the shrunken half of his body could not bear the functions of the normal half.

The demons laughed out loud, and the clerk raised his quill, amused by this dramatic and creative way of dying.

His bolter fell to the ground along with his body, but they had no time to care, because a Lord of Change had seen the opportunity and rushed up from the back row, spreading its huge wings. The bird-like Lord of Change, which had an eye on each feather of its crest, roared triumphantly. The marshal of the Black Templars realized something, and pounced on the body of his newly dead new blood while others were still unable to react.

"Pull him in!" he roared. "His body will form a bridge there!"

The bird's beak of the Lord of Change was already in front of him, and the corpse of the dead was only a millimeter away from it. With an angry hiss and a loud bang, it crashed into the invisible protective wall.

Just as people were about to breathe a sigh of relief, an Astra Militarum soldier pointed at the corpse's arm, which had shrunk to the size of a baby, and screamed: a wisp of demonic fire was rekindled from there.

With a roar, carrying the most holy and pure rage of revenge, the living saint's sword slashed down with the flames of revenge, and then threw the arm far out of the circle.

The devil seemed endless and boundless. At this moment, a minute seemed extremely long, as if it were eternity.

"What's going on? Why are there suddenly so many demons from the transformers? They are rushing here like crazy!" The Inquisitor yelled at the Marshal. She could no longer sit idly by and led her men to join the defensive battle.

"There must be something wrong when things are not normal." The Marshal used his power sword to forcefully block the staff that the Lord of Change extended to him - his blade only left the protective range a little bit and rubbed against the demon's staff, immediately igniting the demon's vicious witchcraft flames and trying to spread towards his gauntlet, but the weapons of the Black Templars were locked on his wrists with iron chains, and he couldn't throw them away for a while.

The Inquisitor drew his gun and fired continuously at the sword, but the sword was as solid as a rock. The jumping flames playfully transformed the bullets into many strangely sweet marshmallows and candies, and the flames were about to burn the marshal's fingertips.

"Put your hands up!" A sharp shout mixed with mechanical and human voices came from behind, and the marshal raised his hand that was locked with the sword blade without hesitation. A finely tuned beam of hot corona gun passed through the middle of the chain, followed by another shot, which knocked the power sword, which had begun to turn into a melted candy stick, into the darkness in the distance, and hit something, making a crisp tinkling sound.

"Good marksmanship, great sage."

"Perhaps. I seldom shoot." Belisarius Cawl muttered in dissatisfaction. "How long are these aliens going to linger at the door? The Webway would be a hundred times more difficult to navigate without their clown troupe leading the way! Staying is a big taboo!"

"What's that sound?" Suddenly, the marshal raised his head. "Did you hear it? Footsteps?"

"...Oh...yes...damn it..." The Great Sage of Domination released all his automatic robots and self-propelled heavy weapons, and pointed their guns and cannons at the darkness that began to flash on one side. "This pace frequency and sound spectrum are the kind of opponents I dislike the most..."

When the recognizable blue-gold power armor of the Thousand Sons was exposed to the light and gleamed, the defenders here roared for vengeance at the heretics and traitors, and the Rubric Warriors advanced silently and in unison. Even when the joints of the armor or the helmet were shattered, there was no sign of blood or shouting, only sand and soil escaping from the holes, until the extent of the damage caused the power armor to loosen and collapse into a heap on the ground.

But the living saint gave them a more alert warning: "Be careful! There are more powerful ones! I feel the presence of His agents!" She spread her wings, and bright light sprinkled from her body. The scent of roses and holy ointment was fragrant, as if ignited by the candlelight and funeral pyre in the temple. The hot wind blew towards a corner of the dark fog, revealing something that had been deliberately hidden behind it.

It's the magic circle and the wizards.

The nine Supreme Sorcerers of the Thousand Sons Exiles gathered together for a rare occasion, only because among them was surrounded by a most powerful wizard who was worthy of being their master. They were either suspended or riding on chariots, or stepping on flying discs formed by demons. It was none other than the nine people and Azek Ahriman in the center, who was once Magnus's chief think tank. He released the scarlet spell to save his brothers, but caused his brothers to turn to ashes, and their souls were eternally imprisoned in the empty nothingness of power armor. He was also the favorite toy and champion of the Lord of Change.

It was obvious that he came prepared and had been eyeing them for a long time.

Humans still know nothing about his motives, but the fact that the Thousand Sons wizards took such great pains to conceal their magic circles and figures is obviously not a good thing.

"A trap! A conspiracy! A ritual!" The Inquisitor, who had studied this kind of depravity most deeply among the crowd, shouted to everyone, "Don't go outside, come back quickly! The demon we just killed must be part of the ritual!"

The Sekhmet Terminators opened fire. What shot out of their guns were not explosive bombs, but fireballs formed by witchcraft. They exploded on the surface of the protective layer and were obviously more powerful than the previous demons. Ripples appeared on the invisible protection, showing some signs of neutralization.

"We can't keep going like this!" The marshal pointed at the Red Letter Soldiers who were moving forward steadily, "They may have a way to get in!"

"Damn it! I knew that the suspicious creature and those pointy ears were not trustworthy! They probably left us here as bait and then slipped away!" The Inquisitor shouted angrily, and at the same time, he shot through the joints of a red letter warrior with a few shots. The body shook silently for a few times and fell to the ground, leaking a little sand and gravel.

"Yes and no." A voice, so powerful ...

"You damned traitor! You sacrificed your own brothers..."

"Wrong!" said the wizard who was once the chief think tank of the Thousand Sons. "I am not serving the dark gods now! I am looking for a solution to make up for my mistakes! Everything has a solution, and I can definitely find an answer and use it to solve the problem caused by the previous question! So, where is she?!"

Following his voice, more figures in ceramic power armor stepped out of the fog. More Rubric Warriors, more Sekhmet Terminators, and more Thousand Sons Wizards surrounded them, leaving no space.

"She's not here."

Suddenly, everyone heard Ahriman say something again.

Some of the nine wizards looked at their master in confusion.

But the Chosen One of the Lord of Change also froze. Suddenly, he put his hands together and made a gesture. The changing webs around him instantly turned into countless crystal silk grids, weaving into a dense crystal net. Even nothingness and time seemed to be trapped in the net.

"Who? You're playing tricks!"

He scolded.

"come out!"

A faint orchid light suddenly lit up.

Humans suddenly discovered that they had a group of companions.

(End of this chapter)