Chapter 19: This… This Must Be the Emperor’s Mighty Power! (Please Keep Reading)
The majestic walls of Hera Fortress trembled amid the roar of great cannons,
and the air was thick with the acrid stench of ozone, gunpowder, and molten metal.
“Praise the Omnissiah. Praise the Machine God. Praise the Motive Force.”
Tech-Priest Adoli-4556 chanted the benediction prayers over and over in a voice laced with electrical static.
Three servo-skulls circled him like loyal sentinels, emitting low hums.
His duty was to maintain the array of anti-aircraft batteries along Wall Section A01-A15,
ensuring that they could continuously pour the Emperor’s wrath upon the heretics in the sky.
Boom—!
A cannon spat out a scorching, brilliant sphere of plasma.
It tore through the smoke-blackened sky and struck a diving Heldrake, blowing it apart in midair.
Just then, Adoli-4556’s mechanical ocular implant captured a binary fault code popping up from the cannon’s energy interface.
He strode forward at once, deftly extending the mechanical tendrils behind him
and precisely removing a magnetic component that had burned out from overload and was trailing black smoke.
“Overload damage.”
He logged the damage,
then took a new magnetic component from the carriage of the omni-mule following close behind him and began installing it,
all the while muttering obscure binary cant as he performed a ritual to soothe the machine spirit.
A sudden, piercing shriek and the distinctive thunder of an aircraft-mounted boltgun interrupted his movements.
A traitor fighter craft swooped down like a vulture, the weapons beneath its wings spitting deadly tongues of flame.
In just a few seconds, more than twenty soldiers and servitors were shredded apart, severed limbs and coolant splashing everywhere.
With unbelievable agility, Adoli-4556 cut a sorry figure as he rolled into a heavy bunker.
“By cog and wrench, I almost went to meet the Omnissiah.”
Immediately afterward, a deafening explosion erupted where he had been standing moments earlier,
and a scorching blast wave wrapped in metal fragments howled over his head.
When the aftershocks of the explosion subsided and he stepped out of cover again, all that remained before him was a twisted heap of wreckage, still burning.
The anti-aircraft cannon he had just been repairing had been completely destroyed.
“No!!”
Adoli-4556 let out an anguished binary wail, several of his mechanical arms drooping powerlessly.
Witnessing the death of a machine spirit filled him with grief.
“Why are you so upset? Did something happen?”
A voice came from above.
Adoli-4556 looked up and saw an Astartes battle-brother clad in heavy Terminator power armor.
“The… the battery I was responsible for maintaining has been destroyed. I have failed the Omnissiah. I am nothing but waste.”
Adoli-4556’s voice was full of dejection.
The newcomer was none other than Daqi. As he heard the other party’s words, a mission prompt appeared right on cue.
[Mission: Repair the Cannon
Description: On the city wall, you saw a grief-stricken and dejected priest. After speaking with him, you learned that he was mourning a cannon destroyed by the traitors, and you decided to help him.
Reward: 20 EXP, 20 points, Reputation +20]
“Though there’s no special reward, it’s still good to help others.”
Daqi accepted this side quest with great enthusiasm.
He summoned the shop, switched to the construction category, and searched for a suitable item.
Soon, an item whose style was utterly at odds with the Warhammer universe appeared before his eyes.
[Item: Quick-Hand Ashu’s Golden Mallet (1 day). A miraculous golden mallet passed down through the generations of Quick-Hand Ashu’s family, containing mysterious power.
Effect: No matter what it is, a single tap will restore it to its original state.
Evaluation: With this, you’ll never have to fear the Destroyer King causing trouble again!]
“This is the one!”
Daqi chose to exchange for it, and a glittering golden mallet, even somewhat cartoonish in design, appeared in his hand.
Under the gaze of Tech-Priest Adoli-4556, whose expression mixed confusion and curiosity,
Daqi walked up to the pile of still-smoking wreckage, raised the golden mallet that clashed horribly with the battlefield’s aesthetic, and gave it a gentle tap.
Clang!
A clear, pleasant sound rang out, as if it could purify all things.
Immediately afterward, something unbelievable happened—the twisted metal unfolded and reset itself as though time were reversing,
the charred circuits became brand-new, the shattered gun barrel was restored to wholeness, and even the sacred aquila on the cannon’s body shone resplendently.
In the blink of an eye, an anti-aircraft cannon restored to perfect condition, even newer than before, appeared in its original place, as if it had never been destroyed at all.
Adoli-4556’s mechanical ocular implant emitted a series of focusing noises from shock. He was so excited that he became incoherent.
“This… this… this must be the Omnissiah’s mighty power.”
“It is the supreme miracle revealed by the Machine God, gua.”
With a thud, he dropped to his knees and began kowtowing with a clang, clang, clang toward the restored cannon.
His metal forehead struck the ground with dull thuds.
“Praise the Emperor, gua! Gua!”
Several soldiers nearby also shouted excitedly.
[Mission complete. Rewards have been issued.]
Having obtained his reward, Daqi continued on to the next location, assisting the defenders in repairing damaged cannons and walls.
No matter how shattered something was, Daqi only needed to tap it once with the golden mallet in his hand, and it would be restored to its original state.
A captain came over carrying a wheel, and with another clang from Daqi, a brand-new Leman Russ tank was hammered into existence.
This scene delivered a fierce shock to the defenders atop the wall.
They had truly never heard of such an ability or such methods.
Captain Ageman of the First Company, who had just walked out, stared wide-eyed at Daqi’s actions.
He very much wanted to ask Daqi how he had done it,
but Daqi paid him no attention whatsoever, merely keeping his head down as he repaired one thing after another.
Ageman had no choice but to issue an order: no one was to hinder Daqi. He was permitted to enter and leave every fortress and position at will.
The traitors attacking Hera Fortress kept feeling that something was wrong.
No matter how they attacked, the defensive firepower of Hera Fortress did not weaken in the slightest.
Cannons that had clearly been destroyed would be perfectly intact again when they looked back.
For a while, this made them suspect that they had accepted too many blessings from the Chaos Gods,
causing their brains to malfunction and their memories to become confused.
“Oh! Oh! Praise the Emperor!”
Daqi accepted missions while transforming into a repairman, shouting as he worked.
Though it was somewhat cringeworthy, this was an extremely dangerous and oppressive battlefield, and the defenders’ nerves were stretched taut.
An angel of the Emperor capable of repairing anything soon became an embodiment of hope and salvation.
His cries incited an even greater frenzy.
The Ultramar Auxilia and logistics personnel all over the walls began shouting along with him.
“Praise the Emperor!!”
“Praise the Emperor…”
“Praise the Four-Armed God-Emperor!!!”
Bang!!
A boltgun fired, and Ageman blew on the smoking muzzle.
During this period, the Ultramarines had been busy with wars across many regions and had neglected the cleansing work on Macragge. Those Genestealers were beginning to run rampant again.
Every world that had been invaded by the Tyranids could never truly cleanse them all.
Those Genestealers were far too cunning. They would constantly adapt and evolve, thereby perfectly concealing their identities.
Of course, purging the Genestealer pests was merely a small interlude.
The shouting seemed contagious, spreading from one to ten, from ten to a hundred, and in an instant it swept across the entirety of Hera Fortress.
The Emperor—the sole hope of humanity in this purgatorial galaxy.
As the saying went, there could not be two suns in the sky. The Emperor, in all His venerable glory, was the one and only sun in the hearts of mankind. His grace was something humanity could never repay, lifetime after lifetime.
Suddenly, Daqi saw a golden exclamation mark appear at the sanctuary’s location on the minimap.
“Looks like the main storyline should be starting. I need to go take a look.”
Daqi put away the mallet and left with a spring in his step, heading straight for the sanctuary.
At this moment, a confrontation was taking place within the sanctuary.
The furious Calgar had ordered his men to surround Archmagos Cawl, Yvraine, and Thousand Faces.
Amarich and Galain of the Black Templars, as well as Inquisitor Greyfax, also watched them with wary expressions.
The reason was that Archmagos Cawl and the others actually intended to stop the operation of the stasis device that was keeping the Primarch alive, so as to use the power of the Aeldari god of death to resurrect him.