Chapter Seventy-Three: The Lord of the Undead

The battle had raged into its fourth month, and after all the transmigrators had grown numb from the ceaseless fighting, Wang Ming finally made a difficult decision: a decapitation strike. But to carry out such an operation, the artillery would have to cease, and most of the transmigrators stationed at the front would need to be withdrawn. Wang Ming worried that with the guns silent and the forces depleted, the remaining transmigrators and the mortal auxiliary troops would be unable to hold the line.

Over these four months, Wang Ming and his companions had deduced that this tomb of the void-born undead belonged to the Menak Dynasty. After all, only the Menak Dynasty could field flayers in such numbers on the battlefield.

"So be it. I’ll lead the First and Second Battalions in. The Third, Fifth, and Sixth, together with the mortal auxiliaries, will hold the line," Wang Ming declared at the front, discussing with several battalion commanders. The booming of the cannons made hearing difficult, but the superhuman hearing of the star warriors ensured every word was clear.

"When we begin the assault, the barrage will briefly cease. To prevent the void-born undead from breaking through during this lull, all heavy weapons on the line must go full throttle. Once we’re inside, resume the artillery fire," he commanded.

The plan was set, and the transmigrators of the First and Second Battalions stood ready. As soon as the guns fell silent, Wang Ming would lead two thousand transmigrators to storm the tomb, behead the undead commander within, and then raze the place to the ground.

Soon, the artillery ceased. As the last shell struck earth and sent dust billowing skyward, Wang Ming led the charge.

With the barrage ended, the void-born undead surged toward the Imperial lines, and Wang Ming’s force met them head-on.

The two armies clashed in the center of the field. In that instant, gauss rays, explosive shells, and incendiary beams streaked freely between the ranks. When a transmigrator’s power armor was hit by a gauss ray, its ceramic-steel plating was reduced to atoms, and the warrior inside was turned to drifting ash.

"Brothers, draw your blades!" Wang Ming shouted, cleaving several undead in two with his golden greatsword.

The transmigrators drew their power swords and rushed into melee. They could not prevail at range—the undead gauss rays tore through their defenses with ease. If this was the case, they might as well meet the undead at close quarters; after all, the basic undead soldiers were no match for star warriors in melee.

Though the living-metal arms of the undead could easily rend human flesh, their programming lacked independent thought, leaving their movements too slow to match the speed of the star warriors.

Power swords were only moderately effective at breaching undead living metal; they could not slice through it as easily as ceramic-steel armor. More force was needed to cleave their metallic bodies.

Soon enough, the shattered remains of undead warriors formed a road of metal fragments behind the transmigrator ranks.

After cutting through swathes of undead, the transmigrators finally reached the tomb’s gate. To call it a gate was misleading—it was a colossal black wall, its surface covered in the mysterious runes of the void-born undead, exuding an oppressive aura of dread.

This wall had risen from the stony wasteland when the undead awakened.

"Hu Jin, bring up the melta charge!" Wang Ming commanded, standing beneath the towering wall, dwarfed even as a primarch.

Hu Jin hurriedly fetched a massive melta charge from a fellow transmigrator and pressed it against the wall.

This charge was the same type the First Engineer Company had once used to breach a layer of the "Imperial Truth." Only after their arrival on Meurs had research on this weapon continued.

With a thunderous blast, a great hole was torn in the black wall—large enough even for Wang Ming to stride through with ease.

The transmigrators rushed into the tomb, breaking into groups of a hundred as they entered, each team fanning out to search for the tomb’s command center.

As soon as the transmigrators entered, the artillery resumed, shells raining down upon the land, shattering the living-metal bodies of the undead.

At that moment, the star warriors’ speed was on full display. They darted through the tomb’s dark corridors, ignoring the undead soldiers they passed, evading attacks with all possible haste, and plunging deeper into the tomb.

Their goal was simple: locate the command echelon of the undead, not waste time battling their rank and file.

Wang Ming himself ran with a hundred transmigrators, his speed as a primarch so great that even the Astartes struggled to keep up.

"Boss, I think we’ve found it. The location is sent to your tactical terminal," came a sudden transmission from a company commander.

Wang Ming halted at once, waving his hand for his team to gather. They all saw the designated location on their terminals.

The dispersed squads converged rapidly on the point marked.

"Is this the undead command center?" Wang Ming gazed at the vast plaza ahead, its surface covered in green runes and a gigantic obelisk of blackstone.

"It should be," Wang Xiaofa answered, watching as a group of undead Lychguard materialized on the square.

The transmigrators charged the plaza as one, engaging the Lychguard. But these were not like the ordinary undead soldiers—their might was far greater.

Yet even so, under the transmigrators’ relentless assault, they too were swiftly destroyed, their living-metal bodies reduced to shards by power swords.

A metallic clatter echoed from the center of the plaza.

"Not bad—your courage and strength have earned my recognition," intoned a figure clad in armor-like plating, emerging slowly from the center. From its bearing and evident intelligence, it was clear this was the lord of the undead tomb.