Roar—!
Hiss—!
The swarm of alien bugs became even more frenzied the moment their Queen appeared.
The zerglings abandoned all tactical maneuvers and launched a suicidal charge purely by overwhelming numbers.
Lurkers extended their scythe-like limbs from the creep, forcing the flame lizards attempting a rescue to retreat.
Flying mantises in the sky began diving indiscriminately, saturating the battlefield with acid projectiles.
In this desperate encirclement, a tactical squad leader suddenly erupted with astonishing willpower.
The left arm of his power armor had been melted by psychic lightning, and the servo system in his right leg was sparking violently, yet he still dragged his broken body forward.
Thump. Thump.
With each step he took, the joints of his Titan armor let out a metallic groan under unbearable strain.
"For the Emperor!"
He roared, his boltgun long since rendered useless, charging ahead with nothing but a power sword.
"Oh?"
The Blade Queen observed this tenacious warrior with interest, deliberately weakening the strength of her psychic lightning. "She" wanted to see how long this giant could last.
Astonishingly, this blood-soaked warrior actually made it in front of "her."
His power sword, carrying the last of its energy field, slashed down and left a shallow scratch on the Queen's bone-like shoulder armor.
Though insignificant, this damage caused the Blade Queen's pupils to constrict—"she" couldn't remember the last time she'd been wounded by a non-psychic being.
"Interesting…"
An emotional ripple appeared in the Blade Queen's voice.
"She" abruptly changed her mind and decided to capture this strong-willed warrior alive. A precise psychic blast struck a weak spot in the captain's helmet, rendering him unconscious in an instant.
Several drones immediately squirmed forward, preparing to drag this precious prize back to the hive for infection and transformation.
The remaining flame lizards watched helplessly as their captain was taken by the swarm, unable to break through the thick encirclement.
The sound of bolt rounds running dry echoed one after another, and energy levels on their power weapons were all dropping to critical.
At this moment of life and death—
"Bugs, do you think the Emperor's descendants are something you can defile?!"
A voice filled with metallic resonance and commanding authority suddenly rang out across the battlefield.
Before the voice even faded, a blinding golden light descended from the sky like a spear of judgment, aimed directly at the Blade Queen's head.
?!
Faced with this sudden attack, the Blade Queen unleashed her full psychic power, forming a shield and dodging sideways at the last possible moment.
BOOM—!!!
The explosion triggered by the golden light vaporized all creep in the area in an instant.
The shockwave hurled countless zerglings into the air, even dislodging several lurkers from beneath the creep.
When the dust settled, a glass-like crater over a hundred meters in diameter had formed at the blast center. The unconscious captain lay at the edge of the crater, seemingly protected by some power that had deliberately steered the explosion away from him.
"…"
The Blade Queen's expression grew grave. "Her" ghostly yellow pupils narrowed, and bone wings fully spread into combat position.
As for the one who had released the golden light, they still remained hidden in the lingering smoke, only a vague silhouette barely visible.
Soon, the tall figure gradually became clear through the haze—
Standing over two meters tall, clad in golden armor reminiscent of ancient Greece, her armor shimmered with a glow like liquid sunlight.
Her golden ponytail swayed gently with psychic pulses, each strand appearing to contain the power of the stars.
A golden spear entwined with divine lightning rested in her hand, its tip causing the air to hum with each subtle tremor.
The Goddess of War—Pallas Athena.
At first sight of her, the flame lizards instantly recognized that this was the goddess Athena, specifically dispatched by the Empire to help them combat the psychics of this universe.
In contrast, the Blade Queen's bone wings trembled with unease.
"Her" once-reliable psychic sense was now clouded as if covered in fog, completely unable to gauge the strength of the opponent before her.
What unsettled "her" even more was that the once-frenzied swarm had begun to retreat instinctively due to "her" hesitation.
Zerglings curled their limbs, flying mantises flew erratically, and even the lurkers quietly withdrew back beneath the creep.
The alien swarm no longer pressed their attack on the flame lizard formation, granting the giants a rare moment to catch their breath.
Athena's gaze swept across the battlefield. When she saw several flame lizards who had fallen unconscious from severe wounds—unable to activate their self-destruction protocols—her golden eyes flashed with icy light.
She didn't attack immediately. Instead, she gently tapped the ground with her spear.
This simple motion triggered a chain reaction—
Centered on the spear tip, the creep within a kilometer radius shriveled and peeled like burning parchment, exposing the scorched earth below and forcing the Blade Queen back, while scorching those alien bugs still unaware of what was happening.
Then—
"Go," Athena said to the flame lizards, her voice imbued with indisputable authority. "Take your brothers and leave this place."
"…"
Hearing this, the surviving hundred or so flame lizards nodded toward Athena, who stood with her back to them, and immediately set into motion, carrying their gravely wounded and unconscious comrades, including the captain who had nearly been captured, and began a cautious retreat in a defensive formation.
Surprisingly, the alien swarm did not pursue—
They seemed cowed by a higher form of pressure, only pacing anxiously in place.
The Blade Queen could finally hold back no longer. Her bone wings suddenly unfurled completely, purple-black psychic arcs crackling violently between the wing membranes.
"She" spread her arms wide, long and razor-sharp fingers radiating suffocating energy, causing the battlefield's air pressure to plummet, thickening the atmosphere itself.
FWEEEEE—!!
With a deafening shriek, a terrifying psychic storm erupted from her core.
The ground cracked like brittle glass, spiderweb fractures racing outward, and the rampant psychic currents morphed into countless tendrils of purple-black energy, surging toward the retreating flame lizard forces with destructive force.
VMMMM—!!
At that critical moment, Athena raised her left hand.
A flawless golden barrier instantly formed, ancient Olympian runes flowing across its surface.
BOOM—!!
The psychic currents struck the shield, unleashing radiant energy ripples, but they could not breach this divine defense.
Shielded by this precious cover, the flame lizards sprinted out of the encirclement at top speed.
Seeing this, Athena's golden eyes flashed with contempt as she spoke to the Blade Queen from a kilometer away:
"That's all you've got?"
Her voice rang out with a divine echo, as if spoken by countless voices in unison. "Looks like the swarm's evolution is still far from complete."
Each syllable sent tremors through the air, causing the surrounding aliens to recoil in pain.
Then Athena gripped her spear tightly in her right hand, and the tip burst forth with light as brilliant as the sun. The ancient runes along the shaft lit up one after another.
Her figure gradually blurred in the golden light, until it became a radiant streak and vanished.
?!!
The Blade Queen's instincts screamed, forcing her into an emergency retreat, her bone wings slicing through the air with a sharp whistle.
But it was still too late—
Squelch
A searing pain tore through her left wing.
Athena had somehow appeared behind her, and the spear of victory, wreathed in holy flames that purified all corruption, left a scorched gash on her once-proud bone wings.
Dark purple ichor poured out of the wound like lava, hissing as it hit the charred earth.
Each drop of blood burned a bowl-sized crater into the ground, releasing toxic violet smoke.
The Blade Queen stumbled back in retreat, her ghostly yellow eyes wide with shock.
This was the first time since "her" coronation as Swarm Queen that she had suffered such a grievous wound.
What shook "her" even more was the golden flame at the wound's edge—it was spreading, visibly devouring her psychic energy.
The supposedly endlessly regenerating tissue of the swarm was utterly inert before this divine flame.
Sensing disaster, the Blade Queen severed her own bone wing to prevent the golden fire from reaching her core.
"So… disappointing."
Athena narrowed her golden eyes slightly, her slender fingers gently tracing the runes on her spear.
The weapon's shaft still shimmered like liquid metal in the moonlight, the ancient Olympian symbols pulsing faintly with her touch.
Though she maintained the dignified demeanor of a deity outwardly, her heart stirred.
Intelligence reports had portrayed this "Blade Queen" as an immense threat—a psychic monarch capable of controlling billions of alien bugs, a world-ending calamity for lesser or even tier-two civilizations.
But this opponent, wounded and visibly shaken, couldn't even compare to Darth Vader after being possessed and corrupted by the Chaos Gods.
At least those warped warp constructs could provide some joy in battle.
Of course, Athena knew the source of her current ease.
A typical Astartes warrior—even a veteran captain or company champion—would've been slain by the Blade Queen's psychic storm.
Even the radiant Custodians and their commanders would've paid a heavy price to defeat an enemy of this level.
But for her…
Athena subtly flexed her wrist, muscle memory drawing her mind to the palace of the main universe, to every dawn and dusk spent there—and the nights of "close conversations" with the Emperor.
The deep, commanding voice of the Master of Mankind still echoed in her ears.
In the gilded meditation hall, the Emperor had personally taught her how to harness her ever-growing psychic torrent. Through their complete "bonding," her very soul had become subtly attuned to His essence.
Now, in terms of precision control over psychic energy, she was not inferior to the skillful "Queen of Heaven," Hera.
As for total psychic reserves?
Even Hera couldn't imagine that, with the Emperor's help, Athena's power had long surpassed conventional limits—perhaps even rivaling that of certain Primarchs.
And in terms of physical might?
Back on Tatooine, she had hurled her spear of victory using sheer strength alone, impaling chaos-corrupted Star Destroyers in low orbit.
The spear's pure psychic energy had completely cleansed the warp corruption from the entire ship.
A gentle breeze swept the battlefield, lifting her golden ponytail.
"Ah…"
Athena let out a soft sigh, and the olive branch patterns on her armor rippled with a subtle glow.
She had hoped this expedition would give her a chance to stretch her limbs—but it turned out that this so-called "primary threat" didn't even deserve her full attention… at least not yet.
Then—
"Is that all you're capable of?"
Athena asked, her voice imbued with the echo of divinity.
"…"
But Sarah Kerrigan, now corrupted and assimilated into the Blade Queen, no longer had the mind to respond to Athena's mockery.
Seeing no reply, Athena suddenly raised her spear high, and radiant golden light surged outward like a tidal wave.
Tens of thousands of alien bugs disintegrated in this sacred light, the creep vanishing like snow under the sun, clearing a vacuum zone across the entire battlefield in an instant.
For the first time, a look of utter horror crossed the Blade Queen's face.
Her psychic sense was screaming in alarm, every cell shouting danger.
This wasn't a battle—it was a one-sided annihilation.
The Swarm Mind signaled retreat, warning that this "golden being" far exceeded anything their current evolutionary stage could handle.
As for Athena, she didn't press her advantage. She simply stood in the center of the battlefield, her golden spear pointed diagonally at the ground.
Her star-powered gaze locked onto the Blade Queen, who stood on alert, while she weighed the Emperor's final instructions.
Her divine senses clearly registered the chaos in the Queen's psychic flow. If she wished, she could end this so-called Swarm Queen right now.
But she didn't.
The Master of Mankind's plan was as precise as clockwork, each gear interlocked.
The Swarm Queen before her had to live—to wreak havoc upon the enemies of humanity.
Athena exhaled softly, the pure psychic energy around her receding just slightly.
"Get out of this world."
Her voice was like thunder from heaven, forcing all alien bugs present to curl up in agony.
"If you dare set foot in human territory again—"
Before the words finished, Athena suddenly spun and hurled her spear.
The golden light streaked across the sky like a reverse meteor, pure psychic power forming spiral halos around the shaft. A Leviathan bioship that had just breached the atmosphere was impaled midair before it could even react.
BOOM. RUMBLE—!!
Armor strong enough to withstand orbital bombardment shredded like paper before divine energy, and the massive ship exploded into a brilliant plasma fireball in the sky.
"That will be your fate."
Roar—!
Before the echo of the war goddess faded, the Blade Queen let out a shrill retreat cry.
The sound was filled with rage and unwillingness, but also a tacit admission that this "golden being" was beyond what the swarm could handle.
The remaining aliens fled like a receding tide. The hive fleet initiated an emergency warp jump, even the bugs deep beneath Mar Sara's surface scrambled out of the hive and fled in panic.
Athena stood silently where she was, her golden armor radiant under the moonlight.
She watched the last of the aliens vanish into orbit, then raised her hand to recall her spear, now drifting beyond the atmosphere.
The battle was truly over.
But Athena knew that in the grander game to come, this was only the beginning.
(End of Chapter)
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