Chapter Fifty-Four: The Army of Terror and Blood

“By the way, I know a recruitment office director named Loster. If you ever need psychics or any other specialists, you can go to him.” Before Wang Ming left, the Emperor had mentioned a recruitment director to him—if Wang Ming needed psychics or other talents, he could seek him out.

“Loster? That name sounds so familiar,” Wang Ming mused as he heard the Emperor’s words, a strange sense of recognition stirring within him.

Wang Ming departed from the Imperial Sanctum and made his way toward the Lion’s Gate to investigate what was happening there.

For reasons unknown, ever since Wang Ming had met with the Emperor, all his communication devices had fallen into an unnatural silence.

Stepping out of the palace and arriving at the Lion’s Gate, he saw crowds of transmigrators standing atop the city walls, pointing and discussing the scene below.

“What’s going on?” Wang Ming approached, patting one of the transmigrators on the shoulder as he asked.

“Boss, you’re out! Quick, take a look at what’s happening below the walls,” the transmigrator said urgently as he turned to see Wang Ming.

Wang Ming gazed down from the wall, only to see a vast multitude of Imperial civilians gathered beneath the towering fortifications, shouting and protesting.

“What’s the matter? Wasn’t food already distributed?” Wang Ming turned to his companions, unable to comprehend why these Imperial citizens would risk themselves with Chaos when they’d already received food.

“Boss, look over there,” a transmigrator pointed to a corner of the crowd below. In that corner, a group of men and women smeared with fresh blood were brandishing bizarre weapons and performing strange rituals. Their bodies had started to mutate in unnatural ways.

“They’ve already been corrupted by Khorne,” Wang Ming remarked, watching them. They had fallen to the vile powers of Khorne and were conducting a blood sacrifice to the dark gods.

“Order the Astral Army to open fire—they are no longer citizens of the Imperium,” Wang Ming commanded as he watched the frenzied mob below. These individuals had forsaken their citizenship.

They had betrayed the Emperor’s light and become worshippers of the dark gods.

Wang Ming’s order was swiftly executed by the Imperial Guard defending the palace. From atop the towering walls, the soldiers fired their lasguns, unleashing the Emperor’s light upon the Chaos cultists below.

The attack ripped away the last pretense from the cultists. They drew hidden weapons from within the crowd and launched a counterattack against the Imperial Guard atop the wall.

With the cultists fully casting off their disguise, a blood-red warp storm fully coalesced before the Lion’s Gate, and terrible roars echoed forth.

“Brothers, ready your weapons! Khorne’s hellspawn are coming!” Wang Ming called out to the transmigrators.

At his words, all five thousand transmigrators atop the wall activated their power swords and chainswords in unison.

For a moment, the crackle of power fields and the roar of chainswords filled the city wall.

In the warp storm swirling above the Lion’s Gate, the furious howls grew ever louder.

As the first Bloodthirster emerged from the storm, landing upon the sacred ground before the Lion’s Gate, the Second Battle of Terra truly began.

One after another, Khorne’s daemons fell from the warp storm, descending upon Terra, the throne world of the Imperium of Man.

The Bloodthirster looked upon the Lion’s Gate and charged forward, determined to be the first to breach the palace of that man, to offer its blood in supreme glory to the Blood God.

But as it rushed toward the gate, it suddenly saw a group of Space Marines clad in silver power armor, their left pauldrons painted red, charging toward it.

Behind them stood the Custodes, the Sisters of Silence, and the Grey Knights—unwavering.

“Dogs of the false Emperor!” the Bloodthirster bellowed, surging even faster toward the Space Marines. It would use their blood as a sacrifice to the supreme Blood God.

“For the Blood God! Skulls for—”

But before it could even finish its war cry, the swarm of Space Marines crashed into it.

Hundreds of Space Marines overwhelmed it by sheer numbers, forcing it to the ground. Even as it hurled them aside with brute strength, another thousand arrived, pinning it down mercilessly.

A thousand power swords and chainswords hacked at its body, joined soon after by yet more Space Marines.

And so, this unfortunate Bloodthirster became the first casualty of the Second Battle of Terra—its death as humiliating as could be, hacked to pieces by thousands of transmigrators.

Within the ranks, Wang Ming advanced to the front, power halberd in hand, standing with five thousand transmigrators against the coming daemon horde.

“Truly tragic,” Wang Ming murmured, gazing at the Bloodthirster that had been reduced to scraps. It was worth remembering that these invading daemons of Khorne had been selected by Khorne himself—the elite among his legions. Yet this one, so pitiful, hadn’t even had a chance to unleash its true strength before being smashed by the transmigrators’ onslaught.

“Feng Fan! Give our brothers a boost!” Wang Ming shouted to the crowd of transmigrators.

“On it, boss!” a transmigrator named Feng Fan activated the speakers he had just installed atop the wall.

The sacred words of the “Emperor’s True Testament” resounded from the wall, flooding the battlefield in an instant.

“For the Emperor!” Wang Ming raised his power halberd high, pointing it toward the daemon horde of Khorne.

“For the Emperor!” Five thousand transmigrators and the Imperial soldiers behind them roared as one, their battle cries echoing before the Lion’s Gate, clashing with the howls of the daemons.

Their shout for the Emperor also inspired the Imperial Guard soldiers atop the wall, those firing their lasguns at the daemonic horde.

Witnessing the transmigrators battling hell’s demons, their courage soared to the limits of mortal endurance. They too joined the cry, gripping their lasguns tight and aiming them at the forces of Khorne.

The corrupting power of Khorne could no longer sway these Imperial Guard soldiers who had resolved to give their lives for the Emperor.

They would defend the God-Emperor within the palace with their lives. Even if slain by the horrors of hell, they would press forward, anticipating their souls’ glory upon the Golden Throne for their sacrifice.

At the head of the transmigrators, Wang Ming led the charge, plunging into the ranks of Khorne’s daemons, clashing with those abominations from hell.

Behind them, the Custodes, the Sisters of Silence, and the Grey Knights followed into battle, determined to banish these hellspawn back to the abyss.

The words of the “Emperor’s True Testament” rang across the battlefield, the battle cry for the Emperor resounding before the sacred Lion’s Gate, where loyal warriors, under the witness of the Holy Emperor, fought valiantly against the daemons of hell.