The moment the ritual was completed, the entire world froze to a halt.
Light turns to darkness, and darkness turns to blinding day.
A single high note echoed and spread, roaring and drowning out all other sounds.
For a long time a sickly, faint aroma stretched like tendons.
Then the cultists began to float from the ground, blood and smoke spurted from their mouths, and their entire bodies stood up and shook as if being pulled by strings.
Soon, their skin cracked, and something penetrated from the broken flesh, shiny and lubricated by blood.
After a while, the eyes, mouth, and bone spurs were dissolving and changing all over their bodies, as if something unnatural first occupied them, and then gradually transformed into reality on their bodies step by step.
Many soldiers who had never seen such a scene took a step back involuntarily.
Only Soshyan in the middle remains unchanged.
His eyes became cold, indifferent, but with a strong fighting spirit.
Soshyan felt a sound blasting in his head, pulling out his thoughts. He could feel thoughts, doubts and memories popping up like soap bubbles out of his own control, and breaking one after another.
At this moment, he saw the only road paved in front of him - there was only the sword in his hand, only the enemy in front of him, and only the only feeling he could allow to exist.
Pure and shining, like a beacon in the darkness.
Soshyan blinked, and the world returned to normal instantly.
He ran forward. The shield wall formed by the warriors had broken open, and everyone understood that the battle had turned into a wild storm of swords and claws.
A foul stench filled the air as the creatures leaped toward him, claws extending from the ends of their limbs.
Soshyan's sword stabbed at the top of the deforming head, cutting it in half in an instant, letting the blood and pus mist in the air.
Even through the helmet, he could smell the residue inside and that indescribable rancid smell.
The sound of gunfire roared non-stop nearby, and the roars of the creatures also increased as they jumped forward.
Talos threw his sword, and the weapon spun around and around, the activated stance pulling lightning out of its wake.
It struck the nearest beast, and the thing struggled, black cracks spreading across its body.
But the creature did not die, and none of those things died. Instead, they rushed up and surrounded the soldiers, even though everyone kept shooting.
At some point, a large number of insects began to fly in the air. They were disgustingly fat flies. They shrouded everyone's heads like a black mist, and kept going in and out of the bodies of those creatures. out.
From the corner of his eye, Soshiyang caught a glimpse of a bony hook slicing open a warrior's faceplate with one effortless stroke.
Blood and light suddenly flashed in the air.
As Soshyan slashed and charged at the enemy, he turned into an afterimage. He saw something surrounding the soldier's gun-holding arm, something stirring and flickering as if chewing flesh.
The group of creatures crawled forward, blood and a tooth-grinding sound came from the sharp teeth in the distance.
After getting close to the warrior, he struck out with a sword in his backhand, from left to right, as if a scythe had cut through corn.
As he slashed, he felt the vibration from the sword cutting through flesh and bone.
An opening opened before him, and he stepped through it, stepping over the fallen warrior and sweeping his sword back and forth—the creatures roaring at him as they flinched.
He looked down and saw that the opponent's armor was mottled with clotted blood, and red blood bubbles and foam spit out from the gaps in the helmet.
"Get up quickly."
The warrior took Soshyan's arm and pulled him up onto his feet, but still holding the bolter in his hand.
"I'm sorry, Chapter Commander..."
He shook for a while, then shook his whole body, and scattered drops of blood fell down like a dog shaking water from its hair.
The creatures moved away from them, retreating like a tide of corrupted flesh.
The noise of battle and the hum of putrid insects still sang in the air, but for a moment it seemed to come from farther away.
The huge figure that had turned pitch black stood in front of them. As he stepped forward, smoke and dust seemed to peel off from him, and the creatures around him cheered and roared like beasts under restraint.
And when he spoke, his voice sounded like blood covering broken glass.
"Astral Knights, the tyrant really underestimates you. Instead of trembling in your lair and waiting for death, you attack here unexpectedly... But this is meaningless. Death is still waiting for you."
Suddenly, he stopped, then turned around, reaching out and inserting his hand into an open bone box on the altar.
"Shut up, traitor!"
Farzad spat and lunged forward, fresh blood spilling from his wounds as he charged.
Soshyan squinted his eyes, and he noticed something moving in the box, something like a python writhing in black oil.
The Chaos Space Marine's hand wrapped around it, and gray lightning whipped on his arm. As the patterns on the armor began to twist and move, the outline of his body began to turn into a shadow.
Farzad jumped high and brought his ax down.
The next second, Soshyan heard the powerful roar and saw the blood bursting out of Farzad's mouth.
That blow was not clean and elegant, it was the most primitive slash of war - a fatal blow, quick and direct.
The black figure turned around slowly, its shape and outline turned into a shadow due to the rapidity.
After that, something hit Farzad on the chest.
"Well--"
Farzad was shaken back by some unknown force and fell backwards, bending over the rope as if it had been cut.
The Chaos Space Marine sneered and twitched the weapon back - its form shifted and stretched between shapes, solidifying and dissolving, and hissing.
Farzad now lay motionless on the ground, the whispering shadow sucking on his wounds.
Just when that thing struck Farzad again, the burning Holy Flame sword blocked the blow.
White light scattered in the air, and the two weapons grinded against each other.
"Fire and wind tell the tale of your end!"
The Chaos Space Marine roared, and at such a close distance, he was finally able to see the opponent's face clearly.
This is a huge bloated monster, bloated and enlarged by the favor of the god he believes in. Moist filth covered the layers of armor on his armor, and unknown biochemical and mechanical dirt sealed the gaps between the armor.
The ceramite armor covering his torso and legs buckled as the flesh melted and morbidly swelled within, while long copper horns pierced through the holes in the damaged armor.
These copper horns have blood vessels growing on them. They are living creatures to a certain extent, with blood-like promethium liquid flowing on them.
On his shoulders, there were tumors like dead tree trunks, with black maggots and flies constantly moving in and out of them. The reason why he looked like he was wrapped in a black mist was precisely because of these maggots and flies. Flies clung to him.
Each of those flies was as long as a Space Marine's finger, with long, thin, quivering wings.
But unlike the dirty and tattered armor, this man's face was as dry and pale as a corpse, and he looked more like a ghoul - hiding in an undesecrated catacombs covered in dust that had not been touched for centuries. s things.
The bright yellow eyes covered with blood spots were burning with the fire of subspace without any temperature.
Hatred and contempt are constantly arising from this fire.
'Plague Sea Mad Maggot' Copras, the former captain of the Devotee Chapter, fell into the embrace of the Chaos Evil God Nurgle after a journey into the subspace and became a Plague Warrior.
