I Am Not God opened his eyes before the cold resurrection monument. As his consciousness returned, one memory stood out above all others, not the terror of the Helbrute, not even the pain of losing his arm.
It was the roar of artillery fire, followed by complete silence. He had spent every point he owned to call down that strike. It was the price of his convictions.
He checked his status quickly. The artillery barrage had drained his points to nearly nothing, but they'd climbed back to just over three thousand through automatic accumulation and small kill rewards.
The dark gray icon of [Recognition of Krieg] still glowed steadily. His duty wasn't finished.
On the tactical map, the area destroyed by artillery showed as a dark red zone: "severe damage but no large-scale hostile units." The black of Chaos had been cleared temporarily. But the red of the Imperium flickered so faintly it might vanish at any moment. This was a vacuum, a death zone soaked in blood and ash, waiting to be reclaimed.
He couldn't give Chaos time to recover. Their summoners and corrupted warriors would regroup quickly. He had to move fast and plant the Imperium's banner on that scorched ground before they returned.
He opened the [Krieg Direct] purchase page again and selected [Line Infantry Package].
3,000 points.
Ten thousand infantry soldiers. Basic equipment.
Maximum sacrifice efficiency.
He pressed confirm. His points vanished.
No drop pods appeared. No engines roared. At a large assembly plaza in the lower hive levels, dark gray lights flickered. When the light faded, thousands of silent gray figures stood in perfect formation.
They wore simple protective coats and iconic gas masks. Their weapons were mismatched, old ballistic rifles, crude laser weapons, bayonets that looked like welded metal bars. They stood without sound or movement, like ten thousand statues awakened from frozen graves.
I Am Not God walked to the front. He gave no speech. Through his command authority, he issued a simple order: "Objective: Mid-levels, sectors B7 through K12. Mission: Establish defensive line and hold. Advance."
Ten thousand Krieg soldiers turned as one and began to march. They moved like a silent gray river flowing toward the upper levels, toward ruins still smoking with embers. Their footsteps echoed through empty corridors like distant thunder.
I Am Not God followed along the formation's flank, stepping back onto that familiar battlefield. Everything had changed. The air reeked of burning chemicals and charred flesh. Beneath his feet lay soft ash and metal wreckage that hadn't cooled. Each step raised black dust.
Twisted metal beams jutted from collapsed concrete. Unidentifiable debris covered the ground. Occasionally he glimpsed half-burned power armor or wall fragments bearing the Imperial eagle or Chaos's eight-pointed star. Silent witnesses to the destruction just unleashed.
The soldiers needed no orders. They began constructing firing positions from rubble, stacking chest-high walls, placing tripwires and observation posts. Their efficiency was startling. Their silence was unnerving. Soon, a rough but functional defensive line began taking shape on the scorched earth.
But just as they finished the basic fortifications, something trembled deep in the ruins.
This wasn't an aftershock from the artillery. It was heavy and violent, filled with hostile energy. Footsteps, accompanied by groaning metal and inhuman roars.
"Alert!" I Am Not God issued the warning immediately.
Every Krieg soldier snapped to combat positions, weapons trained on the source of the sound.
A massive pile of metal wreckage exploded outward. An enormous, deformed creature burst through, five meters tall, radiating thick Chaos corruption.
Its limbs twisted asymmetrically, covered in writhing flesh and metal growths. Exposed bone gleamed with unnatural energy. Multiple eyes rolled madly. Its gaping mouth dripped acid.
The Helbrute. The same one summoned by See You Tomorrow's sacrifice. It had survived the bombardment by feeding on residual Chaos energy in the ruins. Now it sensed the orderly presence of the new defensive line and charged.
A Krieg colonel near the front shouted through his mask: "Helbrute! All units, concentrated fire! Commander, fall back to the second line!"
He meant I Am Not God, who held command authority.
But I Am Not God didn't move. He stared at that monster, the symbol of ultimate Chaos corruption and violence. He looked at the gray soldiers around him, poorly equipped and almost certainly doomed against such an enemy. Something broke inside him.
Retreat? Leave these soldiers who had just followed his orders to march here? Let them face this monster alone while he, their commander, ran?
"No!" His voice cut through the air, trembling with emotion yet clear. "I will not abandon this line!"
The colonel didn't argue. Perhaps infected by his resolve, or perhaps following the Krieg way of fighting to the death, he simply drew his bayonet and fixed it to his rifle with a sharp click. "All units! Fix bayonets! For the Emperor! Stop it!"
"Hoo-rah!" A suppressed battle cry erupted from the reinforcements. Over two thousand Krieg soldiers closest to the beast moved as one, fixing bayonets or gripping crude weapons. No fear. No hesitation. The gray tide surged forward to meet the monster.
The Helbrute roared and charged into the crowd with crushing force. Its claws swung. Flesh flew. Its jaws snapped. Bones shattered. Biological cannons on its back spewed scorching flames, carbonizing soldiers instantly. The Krieg weapons barely scratched its mutated hide.
They could only use bayonets, tools, their own bodies to charge and slow its advance. Death came at a rate of dozens per second. The defensive line turned crimson.
I Am Not God watched a commissar raise a chainsword and charge the beast, only to be crushed into pulp by a massive claw. The chainsword, still spinning, flew aside and clattered to the ground.
Without thinking, I Am Not God rushed forward and grabbed the blood-stained weapon from the gore. The handle felt heavy, still carrying the warmth of the fallen.
He gripped it with both hands and hit the ignition. The chainsword roared to life, its teeth spinning furiously.
"Ahhh!" He charged at one of the Helbrute's legs.
The beast sensed the threat. An appendage swept toward him, its tip glowing bright like a melta gun.
I Am Not God dodged desperately, but the beam grazed his left arm.
Even at 5% pain simulation, an indescribable agony struck him, like his soul was being burned. His left arm vaporized from the shoulder, disappearing. The stump was charred black.
"Ngh... ahhh!" He staggered, nearly collapsing, but his right hand gripped the roaring chainsword. He forced himself upright.
The pain ignited something deeper. Not a game stat. Not a skill bonus. But a flame rising from his will, pure refusal to surrender. He raised his head and looked at the monster crushing all life before it. Fear had vanished from his eyes. Only cold determination remained.
He charged again. With one arm, he swung the chainsword, carving sparking wounds across the beast's limbs. The creature counterattacked madly, claws, fangs, energy blasts. I Am Not God danced between life and death, the chainsword's roar matching his fury.
This was a hopeless battle. A crippled mortal against a war-beast twisted by Chaos.
Yet somehow, he held it. Each dodge came within a hair's breadth of death. Each strike was delivered with everything he had. The chainsword left wounds on the monster's joints, eye-stalks, and energy organs.
He didn't rely on strength or speed. He relied on instinct bordering on perfect awareness, a selfless state where his will merged completely with the weapon. Around him, Krieg corpses piled like mountains. Their sacrifice wasn't meaningless. Their attacks created tiny openings for him.
The battlefield intensity peaked. The air grew thick with blood, char, and the foul stench of Chaos.
Finally, while tearing apart multiple soldiers, the Helbrute exposed the side of its neck.
I Am Not God seized the moment.
He drained his last reserves of strength and leaped from the wreckage of a tank. With his single arm, he swung the roaring chainsword in a full arc.
He channeled everything into this strike, his defiance, his rage, his guilt toward the fallen, and his conviction that humanity should never submit.
"In death!"
The terrible sound of blade teeth sawing through mutated flesh and bone erupted.
"Atonement!"
The chainsword's teeth tore through the final resistance.
The Helbrute's grotesque head, trailing foul blood and bone fragments, separated from its body and crashed to the ground. Its mad eyes went dark.
The headless body swayed and toppled like a felled mountain, striking the earth with a thunderous impact.
[I Am Not God has slain the Helbrute with a chainsword]
I Am Not God fell from midair and landed on one knee in the blood pools. He gasped violently. Pain throbbed from his severed stump. All strength seemed drained. The chainsword's roar gradually died in his hand.
He raised his head. The surviving Krieg soldiers stood silently among mountains of corpses, their gazes behind gas masks focused on him.
He slowly straightened, though swaying. He raised his remaining arm, the blood-stained chainsword angled toward the smoke-filled sky. With his last reserves of strength, he proclaimed once more the conviction that had burst forth in their darkest hour:
"In death... atonement!"
The voice wasn't loud, yet it echoed clearly across this defensive line reclaimed through sacrifice and miracle.
۞۞۞۞
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