Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

"Shut up!" the bishop roared, making no attempt to hide his loathing for the deformity. "He's not pure! Look at what this thing on his body is! A damned eyeball! Do you think eyeballs should be behind ears?"

The veteran clicked his tongue and explained, "That...how could that be? He was perfectly fine yesterday, how could an eyeball grow out today? It's just a tiny slit, you must be mistaken..."

boom!

With a gunshot from the battle nun, the veteran's brains splattered across the trench wall, and then his body fell silent in the mud. Kerry was stunned for a moment, then broke down and howled.

"Why! Why did you do this! Uncle Tok is a good man..."

The battle nun's face remained as ruthless as steel. Under the bishop's orders, she seized Kerry and threw him to the penitent servants, ordering them to impale him on the stake.

Amid Kerry's screams, the bishop shouted, "Knowing that a comrade has been mutated, yet deliberately protecting him, is an even greater crime! Listen up, soldiers, our attack on the traitors has reached its most critical moment. Their counterattack is becoming increasingly fierce, testing our will and piety! The slightest slackening or wishful thinking will lead to annihilation!"

The other soldiers silently accepted the bishop's reprimand, which made Colonel Gerald suddenly feel somewhat uncomfortable.

He watched as Kerry was impaled on the stake and then set ablaze, cursing the bishop in agony.

"What kind of bishop are you! You killed a good man! A good man who was willing to take a bullet for his comrades! A man who would share his food with others even when he was hungry! How dare you call yourself the Emperor's loyal servant?"

The bishop chuckled smugly when he heard Kerry insult him. He pointed his scepter at Kerry and said, "Did you hear that? Fire will reveal the truth of the traitor. This soldier named Kerry has exposed his rebellious nature. If I had discovered it any later, he would have corrupted you all!"

Is this right? It seems right... but something still doesn't feel right.

Colonel Gerald was filled with mixed feelings and hesitated for a long time before daring not to interrupt the bishop's speech.

Finally, the bishop left with his Purity Examiner, and Colonel Gerald watched their retreating figures, speaking softly in a voice his adjutant could hear.

"May...the Savior have mercy on their souls."

The adjutant's eyes widened. He couldn't believe that the word "savior" could come out of Colonel Gerald's mouth. It was a title that Saint Imran had explicitly forbidden. He never believed that the Emperor could be merciful or tolerant. When he looked directly into Colonel Gerald's eyes hidden behind the mask, he immediately understood Colonel Gerald's feelings.

Tommy and Kerry may be guilty, but shouldn't they be given a chance to atone? That would at least allow them to die a glorious death in battle, rather than being executed in disgrace.

Colonel Gerald shook his head, turned and walked forward. He was now beginning to envy the demi-humans next door; they really did follow a very good saint.

Chapter 529: Betrayal, but not a complete judgment.

As the days went by, Colonel Gerald felt his regiment falling apart, with people being mutated every day and then taken away by the Purity Censors.

Because there were too many mutated people, there weren't enough penitent servants to carry the stakes at the stake. So the bishop chose to parade the most severely mutated soldiers through the streets, and the rest were executed on the spot.

The entire position was filled with the acrid smell of burning flesh, and sharp stakes stood on both sides of the trench.

We can't wait any longer... If our regiment is destined to perish, then we should die on the charge, not be executed one by one as potential traitors.

Before Colonel Gerald could give the order, the bishop burst into his command post. He ordered Colonel Gerald to hold the line because he believed that the Mard's loyal servants were in a bad state, full of corruption and depravity. He thought that Colonel Gerald's attack plan would only cause the traitors hidden in their regiment to turn against them during the attack.

“If my soldiers will join the ranks of traitors during the charge, why don’t they choose to betray us now?” Colonel Gerald explained his thoughts to the bishop, suppressing the urge to slam his fist on the table. But the bishop was not convinced and insisted on his own ideas.

When Colonel Gerald tried to say more, the bishop simply raised his head unhappily. The clicking sound of the explosive gun in the combat nun's hand made Colonel Gerald immediately realize that his command authority was no greater than the bishop's.

As part of the Holy War Army, the supreme command of the Mard's Loyalist Order belongs solely to Saint Imam and the bishops he appointed to oversee the war.

Left with no other choice, Colonel Gerald bowed his head to the bishop, a gesture he had performed respectfully many times before, but this time the act of bowing made him feel nauseous.

Those bishops simply didn't understand how war works; couldn't they see that the army's morale was already very low?

Colonel Gerald grumbled inwardly as he watched the bishop leave with his guards. Soon after, a burnt smell drifted down the tunnel into Gerald's command room.

The Mard Loyal Servant Regiment, conscripted from the densely populated Nest City world, was a large infantry regiment. Before they were deployed to the battlefield, as many as 120,000 men were transported there by those hastily modified warships that the ancients looked down upon.

Now, after several fierce battles and the constant purges by the Purifiers, Colonel Gerald saw his regiment's numbers visibly shrinking, and his resentment finally erupted during one of the bishop's radical executions.

Trench Seven was the front line of the Mard's loyalist regiment's defensive position. When cultists in the distance were about to perform some terrifying rituals, the soldiers in Trench Seven were always the first to hear the commotion. Instead of thermal blankets, they were covered with ominous, chaotic light when they went to sleep.

This is why the soldiers stationed in trench number seven have the highest mutation rate, and this probability is now slowly increasing as they remain in the position longer.

Colonel Gerald attempted to resolve the issue by rotating garrisons, but this only left the soldiers assigned to Trench Seven looking utterly dejected. They privately referred to the trench as the "rotten pit of the deformed," believing that no matter how strong or meritorious you were, once your feet touched the seemingly perpetually drying mud, your body would be corroded by the trench.

It is now the seventh week since the trench number seven was dug. As the new day dawned, the mutation rate of the soldiers stationed in this trench suddenly increased, which directly led to serious action by the Purity Inspection Team. Now the bishop wants to destroy this cursed trench and kill all the soldiers stationed in it.

Colonel Gerald rushed there upon hearing the news. There were 5,600 soldiers in Trench No. 7, and he could not bear to see these good young men he had brought from his hometown become charred corpses on stakes.

When he arrived at Trench Seven, the scene there made him gasp. Everywhere were flames left by the Purity Examiners and execution stakes. Large numbers of soldiers who had surrendered their weapons were imprisoned and kneeling on the open ground. No matter how much they begged for mercy or prayed, the battle nuns surrounding them did not waver in the slightest and directly poured the flames into the crowd.

"Ah! Emperor! Have pity on me!"

The soldiers' screams were loud enough to carry across the no man's land to the rebel positions, and Colonel Gerald felt he could hear the rebels laughing at the farce that had occurred to the Mard's loyalist regiment.

Colonel Gerald rushed to the bishop's side and pleaded with his soldiers, "I beg you, Bishop! Though their bodies have changed, their souls remain faithful! Please, do not let them die such a shameful death. Let them become a suicide squad and charge into the enemy's position!"

"Become a suicide squad?" The bishop glared at Colonel Gerald. "The thought of such shameful and despicable aberrants calling out the Emperor's holy name fills me with murderous intent! Are you now going to reissue weapons to these traitors so they can attack us? Colonel Gerald, your thinking is truly weak and pathetic. After this battle, I will certainly recount your performance to Saint Imran."

The bishop's aggressive manner became unbearable for the adjutant standing next to Colonel Gerald. He almost roared at the bishop, "By the Emperor! You damned butcher, who is the traitor? The number of Mard's loyal servants who died at your hands far exceeds those who died at the hands of the rebels. You have wasted the lives of our soldiers and shown contempt for their loyalty and dignity!"

boom!

Colonel Gerald stared wide-eyed at his adjutant's incredulous expression, then swayed and lay motionless on the ground.

The bishop sheathed his ornately decorated pistol and merely stared coldly at Colonel Gerald, making no comment on the lieutenant who had killed him.

"Colonel, your adjutant is also mentally dangerous, which makes me start to doubt your reliability."

Click...

Several guns were aimed at Colonel Gerald and his men. The bishop continued, "Now is the time for you to prove your loyalty and purity. Summon all the soldiers from your regiment who were once stationed here. They have been corrupted and must undergo a ruthless purity examination!"

Colonel Gerald couldn't hear the bishop's voice; he was still shocked by the death of his adjutant. He stiffly raised his head and saw the thick smoke from the burning flesh billowing upwards, forming a cruel smile against the dark sky.

"He shows no mercy, but we have a kind place waiting for you..."

A grumble echoed in his mind. Colonel Gerald's silence made the bishop even more displeased. He raised his hand, ready to execute the colonel and take over command of the Mard's Loyal Servant Corps.

Chapter 530: The Merciful Savior Takes In Heartbroken Imperial Soldiers

Just then, Colonel Gerald roared angrily and lunged forward, punching the bishop in the old, wrinkled face.

"You butcher! You're the traitor! Didn't the Emperor tell you the value of mercy?" Colonel Gerald punched the bishop again and again. For some reason, he felt he had inexhaustible strength. He punched the bishop's face until it was more mangled than a tomato that had fallen to the ground without breaking a sweat.

Colonel Gerald's rebellion served as a catalyst. Along with him, the soldiers, who had long been unable to tolerate the situation any longer, drew their weapons and attacked the Purity Inspectorate. The soldiers who had been kneeling on the ground to receive their punishment also gritted their teeth and roared with a mixture of grievance and anger as they attacked the Purity Inspectors.

Although they had no weapons, they were determined to fight the purifiers to the death!

Trench 7 quickly descended into chaos. The small number of Purity Examiners were overwhelmed by the soldiers, and the combat nun who denounced their depraved behavior was held captive by dozens of men, who then used daggers to stab her piece by piece through the gaps in her power armor, killing her one by one.

What have I done...?

Colonel Gerald stared blankly at the blood-soaked hands and the chaotic trench number seven. Then a soldier approached him, asking nervously what their next move was.

Next step?

The colonel blinked.

What else can I do next...? Of course, I'll confess and wait to die. I attacked the bishop appointed by the saint of Imam and killed his guards as well. This act alone is enough to condemn their group as excommunicated traitors, and even implicate their families and the world.

Now we only have one choice left: the entire regiment must charge into the enemy's position and prove with our deaths that we have not betrayed the Emperor, but rather are dissatisfied with the bishop's wanton actions.

Just as Colonel Gerald was about to give the order, he felt dizzy and his head was filled with increasingly loud and nauseous gurgling sounds.

He blinked hard, but found that his eyes were producing a lot of sticky fluid, making it difficult for him to open and close them cleanly.

An amplified stench of decay lingered in front of his nose, almost causing Colonel Gerald to vomit directly into his mask.

Boom!

Several bolts of lightning flashed across the sky, inexplicably a deep green. This green light briefly enveloped Trench Seven, and Colonel Gerald and his soldiers. In that instant, Colonel Gerald vaguely glimpsed the ultimate destiny of the universe...

"How about we go to Saint Otto? Didn't he say that the Savior is merciful and willing to give people a chance to atone for their sins?"

A soldier's suggestion swept through Colonel Gerald's mind like a gentle breeze, and all the stickiness in his eyes, the stench in his nose, and the mental confusion vanished, making Colonel Gerald wonder if his spasmodic nausea was due to excessive tension.

Yes! The Savior is merciful. The Savior is willing to give sinners a chance to atone. On the battlefield against the traitor, sinners will prove their final worth and then return to the throne with a cleansed soul.

Colonel Gerald immediately turned to the soldier who had made the suggestion, giving a thumbs-up in agreement. "That's right, we still have Saint Otto to rely on! He will surely understand our predicament. We must contact our allies on the neighboring positions now and explain everything that has happened here!"

A few minutes later, several scouts arrived at the 2nd Infantry Regiment's position with Colonel Gerald's orders and a handwritten letter. When the colonel of the 2nd Infantry Regiment learned of their purpose, he immediately realized that this was not a matter he could decide.

He took out the communicator used to contact the fleet and sent the message to the Punisher.

At this moment, Komi was busy in the cargo hold. He believed that the Soul Path could not only play a role in air raids, but also become an efficient means of transporting supplies and personnel.

A specially designed Soul Beacon was launched. Instead of a faint white light, it emitted a yellow light commonly used in engineering construction to guide fighter jets. Soon, a Fury-class interceptor covered with a spirit bone outer layer slowly took off. However, its belly was not filled with bombs, but with a large amount of black stones obtained from the Far Eye Fortress.

"Jack, your flying skills are truly exceptional. Whenever I have a new idea, you're always the first to implement it." Komi patted Jack on the shoulder in praise. Jack scratched his head shyly and pointed to his fighter jet in response.

"Actually, I was able to fly here thanks to Miss Flying Wing. These cargoes slowed down the fighter jet, allowing me to stay in the Soul Path for longer. I even fell asleep in the Soul Path for a while. It was Miss Flying Wing who completed that leg of the journey on her own."

"Oh...is that so?" Gu Jian smiled and glanced at the fighter jet that Jack called the Flying Wing. This thing was starting to remind him more and more of Bennett's Hela.

If Jack's fighter jet could possess a machine spirit, could Bennett be able to find Hela again using a similar method? Komi thought it was worth a try, after all, he had promised Bennett in the past that he would find Hela in the subspace.

Breaking promises can easily lead to betrayal. You never know when those damned gods will tempt your comrades to betray you. Considering Bennett's deep affection for Hela, he would definitely stab himself in the back for her sake.

Komi was thinking of going inside the fighter jet to take a look, but then he noticed that the gate in the distance had opened and a bridge technician was running towards him.

“Sage Otto, you must take a look at this.”

Koji took it and glanced at it. His lips twitched slightly after that.

Is it even possible for such a thing to happen?

Komi then tucked the documents inside his coat, waved goodbye, and left the cargo hold to begin dealing with the 'betrayal' of the Mard Loyal Servants.

On the third day after the incident, the ruthless Saint Imran arrived near the encampment of the Mard Loyal Servant Corps. He was so angry about what had happened that he could not calm down to pray to the Emperor.

He grumbled in his servant-type heavy transport aircraft, saying he would execute the Mard loyalist group and their families, mobilize the state religion to interrogate their hive world, and hold the Second Sub-Infantry Regiment accountable for taking them in.

Imaran dared to make such a statement because he had the support of military force. Accompanying him on other heavy transport planes were 220 combat nuns from the Order of Luhari, the state church, and 50,000 troops on the ground, including war machines such as Chimera armored vehicles and Leman Rustank.

Beep beep beep beep...

The alarm sounded, reminding them that their transport plane was being targeted by anti-aircraft guns. Imaran's expression hardened, realizing that this was Komi's way of putting him in a difficult position. By having the anti-aircraft guns target the transport plane, he was proving that he intended to protect the Mard Loyal Servant Corps!

"Damn Otto... do you really think I'm a pushover you can bully at will?!" Imaran gripped the armrest so tightly his knuckles turned white. "When I was purging traitors and corruption for the Emperor, you weren't even born yet!"

The elder sister was used to Imran's anger. She simply said, "If Saint Otto is going to endorse the Mard's Servants, it will be quite a hassle for us to try them, and we might even have to fight his men. The situation will be very dangerous, and Your Excellency should not get involved in such a perilous situation. I suggest you turn back and let me handle the Mard's Servants' problem."

"No need! There are no cowardly saints under the Emperor's throne. If Otto really wants to discuss the Emperor's profound meaning with me, I'll keep him company to the end!"

Chapter 531: Dealing with Corruption

Five hundred meters outside the Mard Loyalist Regiment's position, Imaran's heavy transport planes landed on the hastily constructed helipad. This helipad had not been paved in any way; the conspicuous ruins and unexploded shells had simply been cleared, and some supply vehicles had driven around it a few times to roughly level the surface.