Warhammer 40: Doom

Chapter 66 Defeating All Demons
"Ding! Clang!"

The clanging of weapons was incessant; the two on the stage had been fighting for an hour.

The aftershocks of their battle were terrifying; the tangible ritual arena was cleaved in two by sword and axe blades, and the sky was torn apart.

Without the constraints of the ring, their battles would become a catastrophe, no less devastating than natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions.

The Night Guards retreated far away, no longer paying attention to the battle, and rested to await the outcome.

The scope of the battle between humans and demons exceeded their comprehension and the limits of the material world.

Skabrand gasped for breath, his breath catching in his throat. After an hour of frenzied fighting and over a million full-force attacks, a wave of exhaustion and soreness was seeping from between his muscles.

The demonic power within him gradually subsided and was almost completely worn away.

On the other hand, the young god opposite him had a cold face without a ripple, his chest rose and fell steadily, there was no sweat on his body, and there was no sign of fatigue in his eyes.

Is his stamina inexhaustible?
Skabrand shook his head, hot sweat gushing from the grooves of his skin, cascading to the ground like a lava stream.

For the first time, doubts arose about the demonic body, and once again, the power of rage was summoned, only to be overwhelmed by exhaustion and powerlessness.

Facing Doom is like a battering ram forged in anger and flames crashing into a silent wall built of composure and calm.

With each attack, the flames gradually died down and the anger dissipated, but the high wall remained silent and unyielding.

Even the double axes in his hands lost their ferocity; the cold, sharp blades no longer gleamed, conveying a sense of weariness.

Throughout countless ages, Skabrand had never encountered such an opponent. Even with the suppression of the dimensional rift, his strength was further diminished.

Now it faces a terrifying existence that is physically tireless and mentally inexhaustible.

The bloodthirsty madman was thinking that if the young god were to ascend to godhood in the future, would the endlessly raging Blood God feel just as exhausted when facing him?

Doom remained silent, his lightsaber displaying exquisite swordsmanship as he repeatedly clashed with the demonic weapon, launching a fierce attack on the demon named Skabrand.

He was at his peak condition, but his weapon issued a warning: the fusion battery, which had been in use for hundreds of years, was running out of energy with each collision.

Both sides retreated in tacit agreement. Skabrand gasped for breath, cherishing the hard-won opportunity to catch his breath and recover his strength.

Doom tucked the extinguished dimensional light blade into his waistband and caught the spear that Harlan threw at him.

They strode forward and launched an attack. The demon was already showing signs of weakness. They seized the opportunity to kill it while it was still weak!
He lit the spear blade, and the spear in his hand moved like a dragon and as nimble as a snake. Dimensional light blades swirled before the demon's eyes, dancing into a blue ocean that surged toward it.

Skabrand retreated repeatedly, trying to discern the real blade from the residual light particles of the light gun, and shaking his neck to avoid being shot in the throat.

At this moment, it could only defend itself and had no power to fight back.

In the instant I stepped back, I felt a soreness in my waist, and my movements slowed down slightly, just a tiny bit!

Doom saw the opening the bloodthirsty monster had made, and with a flick of his wrist, the light blade pierced the demon's left armpit, severing its entire arm.

Blood splattered! Skabrand knew it had failed; the bloodthirsty demon within it surged from the wound on its arm, leaving the material realm.

His power was rapidly waning. Doom's attacks came wave after wave, his blades flashing up and down, piercing the steel-hard demon's body and leaving it with gaping holes.

The spear appeared and disappeared unpredictably. The weakened Skabrand, holding an axe in one hand, staggered backward, his body turned to the side.

Doom spun around, the gun shot from his waist, piercing the demon's right shoulder and paralyzing its right arm. The blade emerged from its body without slowing down, becoming lodged inside.

"Screech!" Skabrand screamed shrilly as his right-hand axe slammed into the ground. His body was dragged and spun around, his lower half scraping and bloodied across the ring.

"Humph!"

With a muffled groan, Doom, who had been silent during the duel, gripped the gun and forcefully flung the demon that was mounted on the gun away.

"The Blood God will hunt you down..."

Skabrand crashed to the edge of the ring, recalling how Blood God had flung him off like that, leaving him to fall.

It turned its head on the ground, looking at the young god on the other side of the arena, wanting to say something, but its head was pierced by a spear.

"The words of a demon are worthless." Doom watched the demon disappear, then looked up at the burning blood-red sky, his eyes resolute and silent.

A silent yet sharp inquiry.

He clenched his iron fist, ready, without any joy of victory, but instead questioned the Blood God whether it was time to proceed.

"Heh! Heh! Heh! Heh!"

A loud laugh echoed from the void, and it was clear that the person making the laugh was very pleased.

The burning sky vanished, turning into a rain of blood, and night fell once more, adorned with the magnificent aurora borealis.

The pool of blood on the ground shrank and disappeared completely, as if it had never existed.

As the Blood God ritual ended, the brass and blood color of the arena faded, turning into colorless, pale rock, which then collapsed into gravel.

Doom pulled the spear that had pinned the demon to the ground, feeling the surge of power within him, but his face showed no joy. He looked towards the City of Truth, his eyes filled with even greater worry.

This is a game of the gods, nothing more than a carefully orchestrated performance.

"How are they?" Doom asked without turning his head, his gaze fixed on the distance as he sensed familiar footsteps approaching.

"Excited!" Harlan knew what Doom wanted to ask. The appearance of a god was shaking the Night Watch's worldview.

The Night Watchers have always despised ethereal faith and scoff at the gods and virtual idols at the end of faith.

Just now, a god... or rather, a being as powerful as a god, actually appeared before my eyes.

The impact on traditional thought is tantamount to dropping a powerful nuclear bomb on the ideological barriers guarded in the dark.

“You’re overthinking it.” Harlan smiled, amused by Doom’s worry.

"We are materialists. So what if gods exist? The universe is vast and boundless. There are always things that defy reason."

His gaze suddenly turned serious as he carefully examined Doom from head to toe: "For example, you are also a being beyond the norm."

These words not only dispelled Doom's worries but also made him feel much more at ease.

"Let's move on quickly." Doom's expression, which had eased slightly, turned serious again. "I have a bad feeling. Something might have happened to Ennio."

"I understand!"

Harlan quickly put on his helmet and ordered his troops to prepare for an immediate night march toward the City of Truth via the communications channel.

Doom looked at the mess before him, clenched his fist to feel the power within his body, and felt extremely unsettled.

After killing Skabrand, his strength increased dramatically, and he was confident that he could defeat it within a hundred moves if he tried again.

As Doom watched the Night Guards set off, a sudden sense of fear gripped him.

If there exists a powerful force called "gods," will I one day also be called a "god"?
The amazing abilities within oneself gradually emerge as one grows older, even allowing one to plunder the power of demons. Is one on the path to becoming a god?
What exactly is God?
Doom narrowed his eyes as he thought of the Blood God. He was no ordinary person, and what he saw was naturally different.

Behind that veil of emptiness lies the concrete manifestation of an abstract concept, a conceptual aggregate radiating eternal fury.

A cool breeze swept by, and Doom instinctively shivered.

It wasn't because it was cold at night, but because of the thought that one day I might become that kind of thing, which made me resist.

Shaking off the inexplicable unease, I retrieved the motorcycle that had been blown away by the Blood God ritual from afar and headed to the next battlefield.

Destroy the City of Truth as soon as possible and end this increasingly distorted war.

Doom was unaware that what awaited him was a crossroads of fate, a "small" game orchestrated by the gods.

(This novel has countless plot holes, and I, a newbie, have stumbled upon them all. Well, I'm adjusting, learning, and revising. Thank you all for your valuable feedback; I'm bowing down to you all here!)

(End of this chapter)