"What the fuck is this monster?"
"Is there nothing that can block him?"
At this moment, inside the Blackstone Fortress, Abaddon wore an expression as if he had just eaten shit.
He watched the glowing red green giant rampaging inside—in his mind, he had already hurled countess curses.
The pauldron on his arm had been shattered by a single punch from this guy, and his thick breastplate was smashed to pieces.
Dammit, he had only taken two punches from this guy, yet he was forced to call the stretcher squad to rescue him.
Midway, a Chaos Sorcerer wanted to help, but Abaddon turned him down.
What a joke. A sorcerer could indeed help you, but in all likelihood, they'd slip in some of their own sinister cargo.
In truth, a Chaos Sorcerer of Nurgle could save you, but the price was that after being healed, weird things might start growing out of your hands and feet.
"Warmaster, there's no other way!"
"We can only use sorcery to trap him within endless space!"
"His strength keeps growing. If we release him now, everyone in this entire Blackstone Fortress might not be enough to satisfy his body count!"
The Terminator veteran beside him was also feeling utterly helpless.
The surrounding corpses hadn't even been cleared yet.
The Legion's Apothecaries were currently extracting gene-seed from the dead—while at the same time, countless twisted creations were continuously devouring the Ork corpses.
Without a doubt, this battle was a catastrophic loss for the Black Legion.
The number of Orks that had breached inside wasn't actually that large; compared to the current size of the Black Legion, it was almost small.
Yet, this tiny band of Orks had inflicted heavy casualties on the Black Legion. And as for this green giant with seemingly infinite strength—no method could kill him anymore!
Decapitation, dismemberment—even if he was cut into pieces, he wouldn't die.
Even when his brain was split in two, half a brain could actually grow back into a full person!
Faced with such a perverted regeneration ability, they were truly at their wit's end.
"Just keep him locked up for now. Send people to keep a close eye on this place!"
"I have a feeling that this extremely enraged guy might bring me surprises in the future. For now, leave it like this—I don't want to take another punch from him!"
Abaddon used his right hand to pop his dislocated jaw back into place.
Fucking hell, this thing is an absolute monster among monsters.
No matter how badass you were, one punch from him would shatter you. Even with his father's legacy, he couldn't beat this freak.
"Damned bastards, you don't fight fair!"
"Just wait until I get out! I'm definitely going to use the power of Brother Kong and Brother Meng to show you what it means to 'subdue people with virtue'!"
If Caleb were here, he would definitely say that this Hulk was beyond saving, suffering from severe mental delusion.
In his head, Gork and Mork had already turned into Brother Kong and Brother Meng [Confucius and Mencius], and the power of The Robbery [a pun on the Analects] was still at work inside his mind.
Adjusting his mindset, Abaddon ordered the Crusade Fleet to continue advancing.
The massive ships smashed through the Ork fleet that had already been reduced to ruins.
The battle forts constructed by the Orks were torn into splinters by the main guns of the Blackstone Fortress.
Originally, Abaddon wouldn't have spent so much time, but due to the delay caused by these Orks, the Crusade Fleet had slowed down considerably.
However, for Abaddon, this didn't affect the final outcome. After all, given the Imperium's response speed, by the time he blew up Cadia, the Imperium probably wouldn't even have realized what happened.
At this moment, Abaddon had no idea what he was about to face.
Caleb was merely looking at the chessboard, playing with a chess piece in his hand as he waited for Abaddon.
"Looks like Abaddon has been completely bogged down. What a pity. I hope you eventually choose to deploy onto the planet and meet your dad!"
Caleb chuckled as he waited for the final outcome. This battle wouldn't be too difficult—he had enough points to cook up some real fun for the opponent.
The piece in his hand was none other than Horus. The ultimate filial son of Warhammer 30k would descend upon 40k in the most hilarious way possible.
---
The first drop pod of the Black Crusade Fleet smashed into the fortress of Cadia.
A fierce assault and defense battle thus began.
Even among the vanguard forces, there were many warriors of the Black Legion.
Many among them had been fighting back when the Legion was still called the Lunar Wolves.
Today, they continued to fight, all to slay the False Emperor and avenge their Genetic Father.
Advancing with steady strides, the defensive line held by the Death Korps of Krieg was completely unable to withstand the assault of these veterans.
A tide like a sea of bodies launched a charge toward the Black Legion.
Unfortunately, mortals were mortals after all; they could not contend with the Astartes.
"For the Emperor!"
Several Krieg soldiers tried to act as human bombs to blow up these veterans.
However, their bodies were detonated prematurely by the veterans' bolter fire.
Flames of war raged everywhere—Cadia was about to turn into a meat grinder of lives.
This key Imperial fortress guarding the vicinity of the Eye of Terror was now in precarious peril.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several more Astartes drop pods slammed onto the ground, but this time, those who stepped out were not the Black Legion—they were the infamous Death Guard.
An endless plague brought death to the mortals on this planet—even food sealed inside cans risked being contaminated by this bizarre disease.
Typhus, the true Herald of the Death Guard, was searching intently for something.
In fact, his objective was the same as Abaddon's: to destroy the Blackstone Pylons here and prepare for the final Great Rift.
However, it was obvious that the Blackstone Pylons could isolate psychic detection. To find such things, one likely had to conduct boots-on-the-ground reconnaissance.
And that meant requiring countless warriors to drop down and fill the lines—though for Chaos, that was nothing.
"Typhus!"
Although under normal circumstances Abaddon didn't want to communicate with this monster, right now he indeed needed to cooperate with him.
Without the Red Corsairs, Abaddon's individual strength had indeed grown, but without a powerful partner, he felt lacking in certain aspects.
Thus, by twist of fate, Abaddon found Typhus of the Plague Fleet.
With the help of this Chosen of Nurgle, capturing Cadia would be much easier.
"Gurgle... You called for me simply to find that thing, didn't you? The Gods have already given me revelations; I know what you want to do!"
"In this regard, I will help you—I will release an infinite legion of zombies. As long as we muddy the waters, that thing will be easy to find!"
Abaddon nodded. Talking to a smart person was indeed effortless.
After all, Typhus was someone capable of usurping control over half a legion—he was naturally well aware of these twists and turns.
Soon enough, a scheme reminiscent of Jia Xu's venomous stratagem unfolded.
The Plague Fleet suddenly launched numerous drop pods.
These drop pods were extremely fragile, not meant for dropping warriors or personnel.
They were purely designed to dump the corpses of zombies directly into the fortresses—leaving them to ferment and destroy the Imperial forces' sanitation system.
"Holy shit, interesting!"
Seeing the power of the Lord of Plague, General Kuchi Jarvis, stationed inside the fortress, felt a spark of interest.
He was currently in a meeting, but that didn't mean he couldn't perceive the energy outside.
This life force was far too familiar; although faint, it was enough for a daemon trapped in the materium.
Right now, these two souls in one body were acting—one for the Lord of War, one for the Architect of Fate.
Although the Blackstone Pylons cut them off from Chaos, it didn't mean they would spare the followers of Nurgle.
[Jarvis: Can we move now? I can finally start hacking and slashing!]
[Kuchi: Don't rush, don't rush!]
[Let's take this opportunity to use these plagues to take out the Lord Castellan—then we take over the entire defense line. I have a brilliant spell that can solve everything.]
[When the time comes, I'll pull off a grand move, and you can hack to your heart's content.]
Within their shared soul, those two heads seemed to look at each other at that moment. Both were very satisfied with the upcoming plan and were actively working to execute it.
Inside the fortress, General Kuchi Jarvis, who was mid-meeting, did not report this news upward.
After all, members of the Inquisition were nearby. If he suddenly knew this news out of nowhere, wouldn't they suspect he used psychic sorcery?
Sometimes, gaining power beyond normal mortals would only draw the Inquisition's suspicion.
Even though, for this daemonic vessel, the so-called Inquisition was absolute garbage.
But they had to keep a low profile; before completing the plan, they had to stay low-key.
"Alright!" Lord Castellan Creed, who was presiding over the meeting, stood up. He took a deep drag from the cigar in his mouth, his scarred, menacing face sweeping a glance over the people around him.
"Later, I will go to the soldiers' mess hall to eat!"
"We must hold the Cadian defense line! We absolutely cannot fail!"
"Word came from the Astra Telepathica: the returned Primarch Guilliman is personally leading his Ultramarines Legion to reinforce the front line!"
"We are not isolated and helpless! The Imperium behind us is growing strong!"
After speaking, he waved his hand, ordering the generals below to deploy the defenses.
Among them, the most important was the line deployed by Kuchi Jarvis.
"Kuchi Jarvis!"
"I've heard of you. In countless battles, you've been able to keenly perceive the enemy's movements and wipe them out!"
"This time, I am allocating all available mobile and armored units to you—your task is to encircle and annihilate the enemy as much as possible. If anything unfortunate happens to me, immediately take over my position and command the entire defense line!"
Kuchi Jarvis didn't say a word; he merely nodded in silence and accepted the order.
In everyone's impression, General Kuchi Jarvis was an extremely aloof man. He rarely spoke, but whenever he did, it was usually an order that proved immensely helpful to the battle situation.
At this moment, Caleb , who was closely watching the chessboard, could only laugh and say, "Nonsense! You have a Bloodthirster plus a Lord of Change personally advising you in battle."
"If you can still lose with that, you can only say you're utter trash!"
Caleb could only silently pray for those unlucky bastards, because their Lord Castellan was going to die very soon.
Lord Castellan Creed was indeed a good man who loved his soldiers like his own children.
But when met with a daemon like Kuchi Jarvis who "loved the soldiers" even more, he was still outmatched.
Sure enough—while this Lord General was still sharing a meal with the common grunts below, a plague mysteriously broke out within the ranks.
First, a large group of Imperial Guardsmen experienced nausea and dry heaving, followed by mass breakouts of severe rashes on their bodies as they began to undergo unimaginable mutations.
Supposedly, some soldiers who ate canned Grox meat suffered an even worse fate—mutated Grox actually crawled out of their bodies, dealing a heavy blow to the already precarious force.
"Cough, cough, cough~"
Unfortunately, the Lord General caught it—despite having the best medical care in the Imperium, his mortal frame couldn't withstand a plague of the Warp.
"Holy shit... I ate and lived with the soldiers to boost morale, not to send myself to the grave!"
"It's completely over now—the claws of Chaos have reached into the ranks. If this continues, I won't have the face to meet the Emperor!"
Creed was a pure soldier; he held his post here waiting for the day he would die in battle and return his soul to the Golden Throne.
However, he never felt his life was cheap. He had three personal void-shield defense systems on him; if Chaos cultists wanted to assassinate him, it was basically impossible.
Yet no matter how he calculated, he could never have imagined that a plague from the Warp could be this ferocious.
He had clearly issued orders to strictly monitor the rations in the army.
Yet he still didn't expect the food supply to be contaminated by Nurgle anyway.
Pus-filled sores began to grow on his body—and the Inquisitor beside him had already tightened his grip on his bolt pistol, ready to end the Lord General at the necessary moment.
The surrounding personnel had taken protective measures—and right now, everyone was simply waiting for this Lord General to fully mutate and die.
And it was at this moment that General Kuchi Jarvis stepped up to stand before the Lord Castellan.
From his expression, he remained composed—and his mouth was even mumbling reports of the front-line war situation.
"Lord Castellan, the front line has taken a heavy hit from Chaos Astartes. Among them appeared a batch of severely twisted Chaos Space Marines—their abdomens are split open, growing extra mouths that snap and snarl."
"Even heavy weapons can barely kill them—even after taking a direct hit from a Leman Russ cannon, they can still stand back up!"
"So it really is them!"
Kuchi Jarvis put on an act of being completely in the dark.
After all, as a Lord of Change, Kuchi had a very clear mind. His mortal vessel had never fought against the Death Guard, so he naturally had to act as if he didn't know.
However, it was obvious that the battle-hardened Lord General Creed had dealt with these Herald of Plagues before.
Once these terrible Chaos warriors appeared—often an entire planet would plunge into a dire plague.
His former superior had been taken away by this exact terrible plague, and now, envied by heaven for his talent, he had fallen victim to it as well.
"Cough... Kuchi Jarvis!"
"The upcoming battle might have to be handed over to you. In my final moments of life, I will personally observe your performance. I hope that before I mutate, you can bring back good news!"
The other generals were shocked, as this was equivalent to handing the position of Lord General directly to this seemingly young mortal.
Although this military talent could still issue certain commands for now, it was obvious he could no longer hold the big picture—the plague would slowly destroy him piece by piece.
Right now, this Lord Castellan of Cadia held onto only one thought: to test the young man before him.
This solemn, grave young man seemed devoid of any emotion; even facing a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, his face showed no stir of emotion whatsoever.
His calm and composed command impressed even Creed—though his tactics were sometimes cruel, for the Imperium, that was the choice that best served the God-Emperor's interests.
After a brief meeting, Kuchi Jarvis was appointed as the temporary Lord General.
Yet everyone knew that as soon as Kuchi Jarvis's superior died, the young man before them would become the true, power-wielding Lord General.
At this moment, Kuchi Jarvis felt no sorrow, nor did he speak further—he simply pulled out his pocket watch quietly and glanced at it.
The hands indicated 7 days and 12 hours—leaving 36 hours before his plan was truly complete.
[Kuchi: Your turn!]
The expression on the mortal vessel changed instantly, and soon, a violent aura emanated from his body.
[Jarvis: "Time for the game to begin!"]
[By the way, wouldn't it be more interesting if we chopped off the head of the leader of that Plague Fleet?]
[Kuchi: Everything is going according to plan, and as you know, my plan includes what you want!]
A strange laughter erupted from Kuchi Jarvis's mouth.
The laughter sounded somewhat desolate, yet carried a sense of fulfillment.