Archmagos Cawl’s body stood six meters tall, and beneath his loose red robes lay a labyrinth of mechanical components.
He looked down from above at Daqi as he walked up to him.
“This nameless warrior, can you tell me…”
Daqi did not want to chat about any of that. He shouted, “Skip. Do you have any quests for me?”
“I would like to know…”
“Skip.”
“…………”
Realizing that the other party would not make small talk with him about anything, Cawl sighed and said, “Then can you escort me to Macragge and save Roboute Guilliman?”
A system screen of light appeared.
【Quest: Escort Archmagos Cawl to Macragge and resurrect the thirteenth Primarch of the Imperium of Man—Roboute Guilliman.
The emergence of the Great Rift has torn the Imperium of Man apart. If measures are not taken in time, human civilization will surely march toward destruction. Please assist Dominus Belisarius Cawl in resurrecting the thirteenth Primarch of the Imperium—Roboute Guilliman.
Quest Rewards: 2000 EXP, 2000 points, Reputation +60, Tinted Goggles *1】
“I will help you save Roboute Guilliman.”
Daqi accepted the quest, then hopped away.
Archmagos Cawl watched Daqi leave, archiving the other party’s actions and words.
Once he was free of this crisis, he would establish a dedicated file and project to analyze every move made by this nameless warrior.
Daqi began exploring everywhere, trying to talk to other NPCs, and opening any chests he saw.
But all he got was plain equipment, without a single special item.
“Looks like special items can only be obtained through quests and the shop.”
Daqi muttered a few words and gave up on continuing to rummage through boxes and cabinets.
He opened his panel and checked his personal information.
The game Warhammer Universe had no levels. The EXP gained from completing quests was used to improve skills and talents.
Skills and talents could be obtained through quests, or by seeking out NPCs to learn from after meeting the prerequisites.
Daqi currently had only one skill.
Stomp Lv1: By striking the ground heavily, create a shockwave that knocks enemies back.
After Daqi finished reading his personal information, he originally wanted to find someone to learn skills from.
For example, swordsmanship, or how to pilot an aircraft well. If he was lucky, it would be even better to learn something like psychic power.
But no one paid him any attention. Everyone was busy fighting the Chaos fleet.
【Detected that the player has nothing to do. Would you like to accelerate the flow of time and skip the tedious plot period?】
A screen of light appeared.
The moment Daqi chose to confirm, everything before his eyes began to change rapidly.
To outsiders, however, this mysterious warrior simply stood there motionless, like a statue.
Even the light of his helmet lenses had vanished, as though he had fallen into slumber.
After learning of Daqi’s abnormal state, Amalrich and the others came over to inspect the situation.
“Looks like he should be a curse-bound warrior.”
As the High Marshal of the Black Templars, Amalrich was naturally experienced and well-informed.
He had once fought shoulder to shoulder with those curse-bound warriors, and had seen what they looked like after breaking away from battle: standing there motionless, feeling like a batch of statues.
Creed frowned. “Curse-bound warriors feel like pure war machines. He looks very intelligent and human.”
“Perhaps he is a special curse-bound warrior,” Emperor’s Champion Gallein offered his opinion.
“It must be the Emperor’s mighty power that sent him to aid us,” Celestine said with a devout expression.
In the void, the slaughter between the fleets still continued.
To prevent the engines of even more warships from overloading and collapsing,
Garadon, the third company captain of the Imperial Fists, had no choice but to slow the Phalanx.
However, reports of ship losses still kept coming in.
The crews had already reached their limits. Many people had not slept since the battle began, relying entirely on chemical drugs that stimulated the mind and brain.
When the gun crew of the Toxla Clavius injected their drugs, their bodies, unable to withstand the long-term injections, all died violently at once. This led to an operational error: a shell slipped loose and exploded.
The destroyer’s entire upper structure detonated, and the vessel drifted thereafter.
The chief psyker of the Hades XII, due to extreme exhaustion, was affected by a daemon’s whispers, causing daemons to use his body to pour madly into reality.
The Whiteshields of the Cadian 29th Regiment quickly organized and repelled the daemons surging into realspace with sustained firepower.
However, Garadon still ordered the Hades XII to leave the fleet on its own and enter quarantine, forbidding anyone aboard the warship from sending messages outward.
Greyfax, in her capacity as an Inquisitor, demanded that Cawl’s Ark Mechanicus carry out a saturation bombardment on the Hades XII and blast it completely into scrap metal.
Some grieved over the sacrifice of the Cadian 29th Regiment and other sons and daughters of Cadia, as well as the many crew members.
But in the face of the lesson of the agricultural transport Pride of Saint Ceryphos, no one dared to question Greyfax’s order.
No one knew whether the daemons had truly been repelled, or whether they had hidden themselves away, waiting for an opportunity to attack other warships.
If the enemy struck when they were entering or exiting the warp, the entire fleet would face utter annihilation.
Perhaps some would question whether an Inquisitor had the right to send so many lives to their deaths. But those who knew the truth understood that an Inquisitor had no authority to let those people live.
Noble mercy would only bring more death and despair.
One hundred and twelve standard Terran hours after fleeing Cadia’s orbit,
the shattered planet of Cadia completely yielded before the evil power of the warp, becoming a dying daemon world.
The evacuation fleet finally arrived in the outer orbit of Crassus, the frigid moon of the gas giant Kasr Holn.
The navigator of the Phalanx brought good news: the warp currents here were stable enough to attempt passage.
“Activate the Geller fields. Warp immediately.” Garadon did not hesitate. A trace of relief appeared on the Imperial Fist’s face.
Yet just when everyone thought they were about to escape with their lives,
Abaddon came, and hellfire came with him.
With the Vengeful Spirit at the lead, the Chaos fleet, bristling with ferocious firepower, emerged from the warp at the very edge of weapons range.
These ships should have been behind the Imperial fleet, but they had used some kind of dark sorcery to enter the warp directly and jump to the side of the Imperial fleet.
Panicked vox signals echoed through the strategic chamber of the Phalanx.
Every captain feared they would be utterly destroyed beneath the enemy’s terrifying barrage.
Yet this Chaos fleet, composed of heavy cruisers and battleships, ignored them and charged straight toward the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet at the very rear, pouring fire onto the ark where Archmagos Cawl was located.
By all rights, at such a great distance, it should have been utterly impossible to break the void shields of the Iron Vengeance.
However, due to the gods’ manipulation of fate,
one shell exploded against the shield at the stern of the Ark Mechanicus, causing the ark’s plasma drive to malfunction and crippling the Ark Mechanicus’s Geller field.
This meant that they could not enter the warp.
Entering the warp without a Geller field was equivalent to a timid, commando-dressed female college student boarding Tokyo Line One; the outcome went without saying.
“No!!”
When Garadon aboard the Phalanx learned of this, panic appeared on his face.
The Ark Mechanicus being unable to warp meant the failure of his evacuation mission.
He had failed to protect Cadia, and now he could not even protect the Archmagos and the other important figures.
However, at this moment, the Phalanx’s warp countdown had already reached the point where it could no longer be aborted.
He could only watch helplessly as numerous Adeptus Mechanicus vessels fell into the encirclement of the Chaos fleet.
“Change course immediately.”
Cawl’s synthetic voice carried fear of failure as he ordered the crew under his command to adjust course at once and flee toward the frozen moon—Crassus.
The Adeptus Mechanicus warships that had not yet entered the warp abandoned their jumps one after another and went to protect the Ark Mechanicus where Cawl was located.
“For the Omnissiah. Today shall be our moment of glory.”
Every captain knew clearly what they would face next.
If they did not enter the warp, they would soon be slaughtered to the last by Abaddon. But to protect the Archmagos, they had no regrets.
The pilots gathered beneath the Emperor’s statue. After once again crying out the oaths of old, they piloted the interceptors that could still fly out from the hangars and went forth to meet the Chaos fleet.
When they charged into the void, they saw dense swarms of Heldrakes and other daemon engines, as well as the Hell Talon fighters that Chaos traitors loved to use most.
This was an aerial battle from which there would be no return.
“For the Omnissiah, for humanity.”
That was the final cry the pilots let out as they plunged into the enemy ranks.