Warhammer 40k: Melee Warriors

Now, this sentence should be supplemented with the second half: When the Roarer shotguns fire in unison, even the Knight Mech will be knocked to the ground by the rain of bullets and unable to get up!

Now, all that remains between the Savior's army and the Twisted Titans are mountains of corpses, seas of blood, and burning wreckage. The Dorjel garrison has collapsed and is fleeing in all directions for their lives.

Chapter 548: Keep a Calm Mind, Knight.

Watching the Ranger Knight lying on the ground in a sorry state after being riddled with bullets from the Roarer's shotgun, Fei Ling felt a surge of emotions she had never felt before.

Is it a relief to have escaped from the brink of death?

No... this feeling that's growing warmer in my heart isn't so superficial.

Fei Ling took a deep breath, feeling time slow down countless times. In a daze, she could see bullets flying past her and landing on the Ranger Knight. Her hearing was also inexplicably amplified. The shouts of soldiers for victory on the battlefield and the roars of the combat suit pilots for defeating the Ranger Knight all rushed towards her, surrounding her soul.

Fei Ling had never felt her soul so safe, without any fear that the enemy would rush up and tear her to pieces.

Suddenly, Fei Ling understood what the emotions churning in her chest were: the trust that she was not fighting alone, but had reliable allies standing behind her!

Tears welled up in her eyes. Fei Ling wasn't a fragile person who needed to cry to vent her emotions, but at this moment, she couldn't stop the tears from falling in large drops.

She couldn't help but recall the brutal wars of the past, the Pride of Iris running across the battlefield. Even if she fought with all her might to eliminate the enemy, the mortal army accompanying the knight would eventually die, leaving only her and Mawen to ride the knight through a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood to do their last bit of strength for the emperor.

When the fierce battle ended, Felix, exhausted and in excruciating pain, left the Mechanical Throne. She was always troubled and helpless by the weakness and powerlessness of the mortal army. In the baptism of war, Felix's temperament became more and more like that of an ordinary imperial knight, that is, a lack of tolerance and trust for non-knight troops, and the ability to ignore their deaths as indifferently as the military affairs officials who recorded casualty figures.

She couldn't be bothered to ask about the past of the Astral Legion she had saved, because they were destined to die on the battlefield one day, and there wouldn't even be dog tags to verify their identities in the scorching, smoking shell craters.

She couldn't be bothered with the awkward etiquette her junior officers displayed, following the instructions in the weekly report distributed by the military affairs department. She simply told them in a cold voice to fight to the last moment of their lives.

She couldn't be bothered to save the green recruits, who were gaping in awe because they had never seen a knight mech before, from the political commissar's explosive pistol.

Her reluctance to do these things wasn't out of cold-bloodedness, but rather because she had become numb from witnessing too much death.

Is it worthwhile for her to bother remembering those who are harvested inch by inch by the scythe of war, like straw? Even if she did remember them, it would only add to her troubles.

Is it worth her to befriend a soldier as insignificant as a blade of grass? Even if they meet by chance, the vast difference in their thinking will only lead to one terrible conversation after another.

Knights are noble, solitary, and proud—this is what their families taught their knights.

When they passed the achievement ceremony and were qualified to sit on the mechanical throne and communicate with the knight's machine spirit, they had become the elite of the human empire.

Their lives are more precious than many others; even the deaths of tens of thousands of brave and loyal Astral Army soldiers are not as important as the life of a single Knight Pilot.

Fei Ling had some doubts about this statement. She believed that warriors who fought for the emperor were not distinguished by social status, and that everyone equally enjoyed the emperor's blessings.

But as she witnessed how a charge that claimed the lives of tens of thousands could not capture a single fortress, while her knights could tear everything apart in five minutes, she gradually came to understand the meaning of that statement.

In the past, when she sat on the mechanical throne and looked down, all she saw were soldiers' helmets bobbing up and down, crammed together. In that instant, she felt that these soldiers were not human, but rather insects trapped in ill-fitting armor. No one cared about their deaths or injuries, no one expected them to achieve anything; their only purpose seemed to be to highlight the greatness and bravery of these knights.

Just like those lowly people.

In the world owned by her family, the residences of nobles were magnificent castles, and knights of all ranks sometimes stood at the city gates to greet distinguished guests, and sometimes boarded warships for expeditions...

But what lies outside the knight's castle? Unimaginable backwardness and ruin!

The people, dressed only in coarse cloth and short clothes, lived in simple houses made of stone, or even mud and grass. They knew nothing of the stars, much less of the threats facing the human race. Their crude minds only knew how to grow food in fertile soil and mine ore in dark mines, using the most humble work to meet the needs of the knight world.

Those minor nobles who were not qualified to become knights lived a life only slightly better than these commoners, recruiting archers in their small kingdoms and engaging in childish war games.

Filde once sat on the mechanical throne and looked from afar at those people who could be called 'commoners', busy in the golden fields. They were like a clod of earth that could move. When a knight approached from a distance, he would be awed by the knight's majesty and holiness, and then he would bow down and prostrate himself on the ground, worshipping the knight with all his heart.

Knights offered protection, and the common people worshipped them.

Knights destroy enemies, and soldiers worship knights.

Everything should have been like this... until Felix was protected by these soldiers whose lives were as fragile as dust, and supported by those combat suits that were like tattered toys in the eyes of the Knights!

Their valiant efforts proved to Philing that they were not expendable supplies to fill the battlefield, but rather heroes who could contribute tremendous strength to the God Emperor's endless holy war!

Who gave these soldiers the opportunity to prove their worth?

Otto the Saint.

It was Otto the Saint!

He was the kind and humble Saint Otto!

Fei Ling's tears flowed even more, almost blurring her vision, but the biochemical regulator on her eyes then absorbed the excess tears.

At this moment, she fully understood the rules that Saint Otto implemented on the Punisher, which went against the norms of the Empire. These rules were not set on a whim, but were intended to unite the Savior's Army without distinction, so that they could be loyal to the Savior.

For example, soldiers were allowed to express their ideas in combat meetings, and even if they were wrong, they would not be punished by the political commissar. The soldiers' ideas came together, and the political commissar saw that they were not just puppets who could only hold guns and shoot, but warriors who could determine the combat method according to the battlefield situation.

It eliminated the long-standing status gap between the Air Force and the Army, making them different only by their positions, rather than drawing a huge chasm between them that prevented them from understanding each other because of their status.

There was also the promotion of education. Many officials in the empire claimed that ignorance was a valuable quality for maintaining courage, but Saint Otto scoffed at this. He firmly believed that a powerful army must be an army of knowledge, and a bunch of illiterate people who couldn't even write a single word could not serve the God-Emperor...Savior.

Chapter 549: How about I ride a Knight for a bit?

These regulations made the soldiers of the Salvation Army distinctly different from those of other legions.

They don't foolishly wait for orders to come their way before taking action; instead, they use their own understanding to slowly tip the scales of victory in their favor.

The soldiers of the Savior's Army did not regard Fillon, who piloted the knight, as an arrogant and noble nobleman who did not need their support, but as a soldier fighting in the name of the Savior, just like them.

This sense of equality warmed Felix's heart, making her feel elevated because of her knightly status, and like a lonely soul returning to the community.

When she came to her senses, all four Ranger Knights had fallen to her chainsaw sword, and even the squire who had charged at her had been reduced to a burning wreckage by the heavy artillery fire that her combat suit had shielded her from.

Fei Ling blinked, then rallied her spirits and continued forward. This time, however, she did not regard the soldiers around her as dispensable burdens, but as comrades she could entrust her heart to.

Huh? What is this thing?

Koji frowned. He sensed an unprecedented change in the pure white hall. An unusual emotion had suddenly appeared in the once quiet and deathly hall. Koji tried to decipher the nature of this emotion, but failed because it was so faint and weak.

Komi stood there, pondering, trying to figure out why the pure white hall had undergone new changes.

Was it because the number of believers in the Immaculate City was increasing, and their faith prompted the transformation of the Pure White Hall?

Unfortunately, no one could answer Komi's question...

At this moment, the factory trembled once again. The Twisted Titan, which had devoured a large amount of blood energy and was not yet finished, was struggling in the pain of being forcibly activated. Its head, which was made up of more than a thousand cannons, began to disintegrate, and the cannons fell to the ground along with a pile of blood.

Dorjeer was going all out, and Komi's soldiers were also ready to deliver the final blow to this corrupted heart.

An eight-pointed star, symbolizing chaos, rises from the furnace, radiating an ominous light, distorting the space around them, and desecrating the factory's environment.

The mechanical arms that welded the armor, the cargo belts that transported materials, and the mechanical clamps that lifted the heavy vehicle body all became weapons in Dorjeer's death throes. He roared in resentment at the unfinished Twisted Titan and hated the exaggerated combat power of the Saviors' Army, which was far superior to that of other astral legions.

Just as he roared, Koji felt the countless sharp blades surrounding him quietly dissipate. The assassins who had tried to attack him seemed to realize that the current battle situation would not turn in their favor, so they all retreated, preparing to leave the factory to save themselves.

Once again, Filde charged to the front. Although she regarded the soldiers as her comrades, she still had to fulfill the duty of a knight, which was to protect the weak with her chainsaw sword.

She dodged the molten iron pouring from the furnace, sliced ​​through the various mechanical arms blocking her path, and drew closer and closer to the exposed heart of the twisted Titan. She began to lose the distinction between the roar of the engine and the beating of the heart.

On the final high platform, she piloted the Pride of Iris towards the heart, intending to end the chaos on Ironstar with a single blow.

Hehehe...

Although it's not completely finished, it's not something a mere knight like you can kill.

Having already merged with the Twisted Titan, Dojeel gave a mocking smile. He looked down on Filyn's charge in her knight, and then reluctantly revealed his last trump card.

Nothing unusual happened at the factory, but the chaotic energy suddenly surged, a phenomenon that even those without psychic abilities could sense from the tremors in the ground.

Koji was shocked. He watched as Fei Ling was thrown back by the sound of the Twisted Titan's heartbeat, and then was whipped hard by a newly grown muscle bundle, flying hundreds of meters away and crashing into the wreckage, unable to get up.

“Saint Otto…I didn’t want to use this thing, but you’ve left me with no other choice.” Dorjee’s voice echoed through the factory, and then a crystal-clear stone, suspended in mid-air, slowly turned black and shattered.

What is that? It doesn't look like a sacred artifact of the Empire or Chaos; it's more like... something from the Eldar.

That is the Earth Stone used by the Savage Spirit Race to communicate with the Soul of the World!

Komi immediately recognized what Dojeel was using based on his knowledge. Could this world, filled with industrial waste and slag, have actually belonged to the barbaric Elven race in the past? Before being ruled by the human empire, did this place have an ecological environment comparable to paradise?

Dojeel actually possessed such a valuable item. He had just sacrificed the World Soul cultivated by the Savage Spirit Race to this Twisted Titan. What would be the consequences of this action?

The earth split open into canyons thousands of meters deep, and magma beneath the crust surged upwards continuously. As long as this twisted titan that devoured the soul of the world still has any life, this world will fall apart, taking everything on it with it as remnants floating in the void.

Seeing the traitor Dorje so violently flipping the table, Komi couldn't help but curse his insane nature, and at that moment even had the thought of using the trade license to burn him to death.

Just as his hand overcame the twitching sensation from repeatedly using the trade license and was about to reach for it, his gaze fell upon the Pride of Iris amidst the wreckage, and a bold idea suddenly surfaced in his mind.

I once used my soul to forcibly control a massive Eldar ark, propelling it towards the Eye of the Faraway Fortress. Could I then use my soul to control this battered Imperial Knight in battle? Especially since this knight possesses a machine spirit that I defined; it should welcome my arrival with the same fervor as the other machine spirits fluttering around the throne...

Koji's left cheek twitched with excitement. He immediately ran to the side of the Pride of Iris and soon stood beside the knight.

Without stopping, he searched for the location of the knight's cockpit, then forcibly tore open a hole with his sword and crawled inside.

The situation in the cockpit was quite dire. Filyn, on the mechanical throne, had fallen into a coma, with only occasional bursts of electric sparks beside her.

Komi understood that the pilot and the mechanical throne were closely connected, so he did not rashly pull Fillon off the throne. Instead, he grabbed a section of the mechanical throne’s cable and infused his soul into it to directly search for the location of the machine soul.

Come, Machine Spirit... so that I may be spared the burning flames of the trade license, paralyzed in bed for weeks or even months! You will fight alongside me, isn't that a great honor for you?

Koji quickly found something incongruous with the cold equipment and data sea within the knight's body, and he touched and called upon the machine's spirit with his soul.

The knight's soul, which had been dazed by the Twisted Titan's blows, was brought back to its senses by Komi. It instinctively checked the knight's damage, stabilized the chaotic data, and then responded nonchalantly.

"I never expected you to be so mentally resilient. Even I would have taken a long time to recover from that thing's twitch, but you not only didn't faint, you recovered even faster than me." The machine spirit didn't hold back its praise for Fei Ling until it sensed that the uninvited guest, Gu Jian, was in the cockpit.

Hmm! ?

Why is it this eccentric saint? Where's Fei Ling? Has Fei Ling fainted?

Knight Soul was somewhat nervous and irritable. He had expressed his dissatisfaction and complaints about Komi to Feiling many times before, and now being in close contact with Komi made him feel even more disgusted.

Chapter 550: Soul-Controlled Knight

What should I do? What should I do?

Should we throw him out?

But I can't do it now... Ouch... My whole body aches...

Knight Soul was thinking about how to get rid of Komi, while Komi was only thinking about getting Knight Soul to put Feiling down from the mechanical throne so that he could make room to sit on it himself.

Seeing that the machine spirit was pretending to be dead and hadn't moved for a long time, Gu Jian was too lazy to waste any more time. He grabbed Fei Ling with both hands, apologized, prepared some blood to heal her wounds, and then pulled her off the mechanical throne with a burst of strength.

The unconscious Fei Ling didn't even groan during the tearing. The cables that were inserted all over her back broke one by one under Komi's strength, and lightning and blood gushed out from the nerve connection holes.

"Damn it! What are you doing, you bastard?! You're going to kill her!" Knight Soul cursed Komi's reckless actions, but Komi's hands didn't stop moving. He just spoke calmly into the communicator that was roaring in the cockpit.

“If you don’t let her go, I’ll have to do it my own way. That twisted titan is draining the life out of this world, and once it matures, we’ll all die here.”