The Tyranids swam through space like schools of fish, encircling the fortress wreckage under the will of Eden's clone body.
He had mobilized his elite Tyranid forces to rescue Guilliman.
There was no helping it. Chaos had blockaded this region, making every Warp jump extremely difficult and dangerously prone to misdirection.
And if he sent a fleet in by conventional means, he would have to smash head-on through most of the Chaos coalition's elite forces. There was no time for that.
The only method Eden could think of was to use the Tyranid Narvhal's gravity corridor to get there.
That mode of travel did not involve the Warp, and the Tyranids' biological force fields could resist Chaos interference.
That was how he could reach the destination so quickly.
Of course, this method was risky and might deviate from the destination, but fortunately, he had succeeded.
Bzzzt!
Eden controlled the four-to-five-meter-tall Bladewing, its chitinous bone wings beating as it accelerated even further.
That was the limit of this body. He had to reach Guilliman quickly and block the fallen primarchs' attacks for him.
At the fortress wreckage.
"Am I truly going to fall here? Is my life going to end in this place...?"
The ground was covered in scars left by fierce battle. Guilliman's armor was nearly shattered, and he lay collapsed on the floor.
He struggled with all his strength, but he could not get up.
A deep unwillingness filled Guilliman's heart, yet he still did not give up. "No. It cannot end like this. I must hold on until Brother Eden arrives!"
The fallen Phoenician Fulgrim approached, his pointed tongue gently licking the blood from his slender sword.
The blood of that loyalist primarch was so delicious.
"Roboute, stop struggling pointlessly. There is no possibility of survival left for you.
"You may kneel and beg for mercy. Perhaps I will grant you a chance to join us..."
Fulgrim spoke this way.
He was savoring the Primarch of the Ultramarines' wretched state and considering how he would humiliate this being afterward.
Mortarion and the others slowly closed in, sealing off every escape route Guilliman had. Magnus, meanwhile, blocked any possible teleportation method on the level of the Warp.
They were very excited.
The Chaos coalition had suffered repeated setbacks in the Sol System, and now, they had finally obtained a small but rare victory, along with a precious trophy:
A loyalist primarch, the former Imperial Regent.
That would strike a blow against the morale of the Imperium and the Savior, giving Chaos a chance to counterattack.
Suddenly, Fulgrim, Mortarion, Magnus, and the other fallen primarchs sensed something and snapped their gazes toward the sky.
Some kind of shadow had affected the Warp energy in this region. That was not a good thing.
They saw a twisted gravitational field. A massive Tyranid hive organism emerged from within it.
After that came Tyranids swimming toward them like a swarm of bees, accompanied by a powerful presence.
???
Fulgrim and the other fallen primarchs were a little stunned. A flicker of disgust crossed their eyes. Not long ago, when they had traveled through the Dark Rift, they had been obstructed by the bugs.
Although they had killed all the Tyranids, they had still been delayed for a considerable amount of time.
And now the Tyranid swarm had caught up again?
They really were persistent.
Without question, this was likely another trick set up by that Savior, the Emperor of the Imperium.
He was controlling the Tyranid swarm in some manner to interfere with them.
"Ignore the bugs. Deal with Roboute first!" Fulgrim shrieked as he realized something.
He smelled conspiracy. The Tyranid swarm had appeared for no reason in the core region of the Chaos coalition, yet its numbers were not enough to resist the Chaos fleet.
That was an extremely terrible decision.
This Tyranid fleet was destined to be annihilated. There was no other possibility. No one would make such a losing bargain.
In that case, the only possible reason the Tyranid swarm had appeared here was to rescue the Lord of Ultramar.
The fallen primarchs understood this and reacted swiftly.
Fulgrim charged toward the fallen Guilliman, the venomous dagger in his hand glinting coldly. He intended to put Guilliman into a slumber, the better to capture him alive.
Mortarion summoned a swarm of rotting flies to cover the void above them and form a plague barrier. Alpharius and the other fallen beings immediately sent signals, directing the Chaos fleet to attack the Tyranid bio-ships in the void.
As for Magnus, he waved his staff and established contact with his sorcerous pyramid to organize a teleportation array.
That would be their path to capture Guilliman and leave this place.
They cooperated with one another, intending to take Guilliman, their trophy, before the Savior's scheme succeeded.
"That is Brother Eden's xenos force. He has come to rescue me!"
When Guilliman saw the Tyranid swarm arrive, excitement surged through his heart. But very soon, he saw Fulgrim's venomous dagger stabbing toward him.
He had no way to dodge. Worse still, his healing agents had already been used up in the previous battle.
Just as the Primarch of the Ultramarines fell into despair, a tall xenos body tore through the plague barrier and abruptly appeared before everyone.
The xenos figure was so fast that it left afterimages in its wake.
Clink.
Fulgrim's venomous dagger stabbed into chitinous carapace. Eden blocked the dangerous strike with his bone wing, standing in front of Guilliman.
Thick venom instantly seeped along the dagger into the clone body, making him feel a little numb.
"Xenos!" Fulgrim grew even angrier when he saw this xenos life-form block his poisoned dagger.
The slender sword in his other hand stabbed toward the creature's head.
Yet before Fulgrim could strike, he saw a cold and ruthless gaze.
It was the stare of an insect, yet it also contained a trace of human emotion.
In an instant, a biological force field spread outward. The slender sword in Fulgrim's hand seemed to stab into some real, tangible barrier and was slowed.
Boom!
Eden violently swept his bone wing and sent Fulgrim flying.
Fulgrim hit the ground face-first and rolled several times. Even the slender sword in his hand flew loose and clattered to the floor.
"Screech, screech.
"You jealous bastard. You still haven't improved at all. Was that pathetic little toxin supposed to help wake me up?"
Eden casually pulled the venomous dagger from his bone wing and tossed it aside. There was a uniquely insectile coldness in his words.
This clone body possessed extremely strong resistance and adaptability. The moment the Chaos toxin took effect, it was weakened by antibodies and adapted to.
That was one of the reasons the Tyranids were so difficult to exterminate. They could always rapidly modify themselves to adapt to their environment.
And after Eden had previously seized the genetic material of the Hive Mind, he had also obtained the Tyranids' racial advantages.
"Brother, I have come to rescue you. These heretic traitors will not get what they want."
Eden turned his head, gave Guilliman a terrifying grin, and raised a thumb, looking as though he had the whole matter under control.
???
Fulgrim stared at the being before him, whose muscles seemed forged from auramite and whose body was covered in sleek chitinous carapace, like some insectoid daemon.
He had to admit that it was an almost perfect life-form, whether in strength or aesthetics.
The fallen Phoenician was a little numb. The Savior looked like this, yet still had the nerve to call Chaos primarchs like them heretics?
With that appearance, the Savior was the real heretic.
Although Fulgrim had thrown himself into Chaos, he was still a humanist. Turning himself into a bug like the Savior had was an outright betrayal of humanity.
Fulgrim glared at the Savior and gritted his teeth. "You turned yourself into an abominable xenos?"
"What do you think? This body is more handsome than yours, isn't it? With my looks, even turning into a bug leaves me this perfect."
Eden did not conceal his identity in the slightest. There was no point anymore.
He had been using all kinds of abilities frequently, and secret powers like these could no longer be hidden. He might as well use them openly.
The moment he opened his mouth, it was a critical hit, stabbing viciously into the fallen Phoenician's heart.
"You are courting death!" Fulgrim completely lost his composure. His serpentine tail snapped, and he lunged over again.
He was indeed a little jealous of the Savior's appearance, especially when the bastard could turn into a bug and still look so ostentatiously perfect.
That man always managed to steal his radiance with his appearance, making Fulgrim, favored child of excess, feel humiliated.
At that moment, the other fallen primarchs coordinated with Fulgrim and charged in from different angles.
Of course, their primary target was still the wounded Guilliman, not the Savior's clone body.
Eden knew this as well. After using his biological psychic force field to block their attacks, he wrapped Guilliman in his bone wings and retreated.
Facing attacks from so many primarchs at once was still somewhat troublesome.
Eden was mainly distressed over his Tyranid clone body. It was still in its juvenile stage before metamorphosis, and it was one of his most precious assets. He had invested an ocean of resources into cultivating it for over a hundred years.
It was many times more valuable than the Armor of Redemption. If it suffered severe damage or was destroyed, the loss would be enormous.
And difficult to recover from.
Fortunately, these fallen primarchs had not realized this. They were merely pursuing him in an attempt to seize Guilliman from his hands.
Of course, killing his clone body, Bladewing, would not be so easy, especially while the swarm was present.
But Eden knew that while Fulgrim and the other fallen primarchs could not kill his clone body, the Dark Emperor could.
He also found Horus's current strength rather troublesome.
Bladewing had yet to be fully cultivated, and without the protection of large numbers of hive motherships, it would be difficult for it to withstand Horus's power, which exceeded biological limits.
Therefore, before Horus arrived, Eden had to run with Brother Guilliman, then mobilize every available force to bombard this place.
As Eden fought Fulgrim and the others, he continued retreating while controlling the swarm to surge toward them and drown them all.
This was the true way to use a Tyranid clone body. He was the creator of the swarm, the will of the swarm!
While he clashed with the fallen primarchs, the Chaos coalition fleet had already begun its attack.
Chaos cannon fire struck toward the fortress wreckage, while the swarm in space formed a biological wall around it, using flesh and blood to block the bombardment.
The swarm currently present in this region was not large enough to face the Chaos fleet head-on.
But they could serve as shields, temporarily blocking Chaos's attacks. Great masses of the swarm were corroded or slain, drifting around the area to form something like a ring of debris.
At the same time, the Chaos fleet continued closing in.
"We need to leave now!" Eden's brow tightened.
Horus's presence was approaching. In the galaxy, perhaps only the Emperor's presence was stronger than that bastard's.
Even Eden felt a little numb.
"The gods really went all in, didn't they? Did they hand Horus everything they had saved for the end? If they had said so earlier, I could have negotiated too. I could have cooperated!"
As Eden sensed that abundant corrupted power and authority, he almost started drooling.
That was high-grade faith-born corrupted power accumulated over countless centuries.
The Chaos Gods had done this to seal the Emperor and prevent the old man from becoming the Dark King. That aligned with Eden's own goals.
Perhaps there was room to talk.
Eden's thoughts flashed rapidly, but he did not hesitate. He pulled Guilliman and flew toward the upper void.
The swarm surrounded the two of them at the center like a tornado. They could not allow the Hive Mind to suffer any harm.
"Coward! Is running away all you know how to do?" Fulgrim's face was full of venom as he broke through the swarm blockade with Mortarion and the others and chased after them.
Yet in the next instant, they were submerged by a fresh wave of Tyranids and trapped in impotent rage.
This was the Tyranids' combat advantage. They could drag any race, any life-form, into a war of attrition.
The swarm could not kill the fallen primarchs, but it could restrict their movement.
Eden and Guilliman rushed out of the fortress wreckage and reached space, heading toward the Tyranid hive bio-ship.
Yet in the next moment, he heard the bio-ship's agonized wail and saw black flames burning.
The enormous Tyranid hive bio-ship died under a terrifying attack, rolling belly-up in space.
That was a hive bio-ship that even a Gloriana-class battleship could not destroy. Even the Æonic Orb might not have been able to kill it in a single strike.
After all, no matter how violent the attack was, a hive bio-ship could use the surrounding swarm to protect itself.
Those high-intensity impacts or extreme temperatures often had not even killed the layers of swarm organisms wrapped around the ship before the innermost layer had already developed resistance.
But this time, the hive bio-ship had encountered an irresistible single-target attack. A powerful individual life-form had broken directly through every biological defensive layer, charged inside, and killed it from within.
"Hiss.
"Horus is this strong now?!"
Eden sucked in a sharp breath. Even though he had been mentally prepared, Horus's strength still surpassed his imagination.
The moment he saw the hive bio-ship die, he immediately changed targets and headed toward the Narvhal's region.
After all, his goal was to use the gravity corridor to leave the core region of the Chaos coalition.
But before Eden could approach, that Narvhal rolled belly-up as well, its head shattered by a corrupted energy attack.
"Savior." Horus, blood flowing over his body, drifted out from the Narvhal's head.
His Chaos presence spread constantly, bringing tremendous pressure. It was terrifying.
"Horus." Eden stopped in midair and stared directly at the Dark Emperor before him.
Boom!
The two figures collided, stirring ripples through space. The shockwave overturned the surrounding swarm.
Eden felt an incomparably immense force crash into him.
His entire body was instantly knocked flying, and much of the chitinous carapace on him shattered.
The instant the two sides clashed, the difference between them was clear.
"Savior, you are nothing special either..."
Horus spoke with a cold smile at the corner of his mouth. Yet in the next moment, he was stunned.
Because the Savior did not bother with him at all. Instead, he used the force of the impact to charge violently in a certain direction. From the swarm in that region, a small Narvhal darted out.
As a precaution, he had hidden that precious guide organism from beginning to end.
"There is more to this world than fighting and killing. Why are you acting like some kind of brute...?"
Eden's mocking voice carried back.
He had no intention of using this clone body to fight Horus. It was too expensive. If Horus broke it, could he afford the compensation?
Of course, he had not meant to mock Horus at a time like this. He just could not help himself, just as Horus could not help stopping to mock him.
Sure enough, after being mocked, Horus roared and rushed after him at even greater speed.
Every swarm organism that blocked his path was torn apart, becoming drifting fleshly wreckage in space.
Horus rapidly caught up with the Savior, but unfortunately, he was ultimately a step too late. The Narvhal was already advancing, and its powerful gravitational field made it difficult for him to keep his balance.
He only managed to tear off a small piece of the Savior clone's bone wing before he was thrown out of the gravitational field.
"Oh, right. I still have a gift for you." On top of the Narvhal's head, Eden turned back to look at him and revealed a slight smile.
After that, he and Guilliman vanished with the Narvhal.
"A gift?"
Horus did not quite understand, but after scanning the surrounding environment, his heart suddenly tightened.
He roared orders for every Chaos fleet group to withdraw from this region immediately.
Because of the pursuit of the Primarch of the Ultramarines and the annihilation of the swarm, the fleet groups in this region had become far too densely packed.
That was extremely dangerous.
Yet in the next moment, the long-prepared bombardment from New Dragonwood arrived.
His roar was drowned out by violent cannon fire. Batch after batch of Chaos fleets turned to ash, while Chaos void-beasts whimpered and died.
The Chaos coalition suffered heavy losses!
...
In the Chaos Temple.
Eden sat upon the throne. He slowly opened his eyes and let out a breath of relief.
At the cost of a batch of Tyranid bio-ships, he had not only successfully retrieved Guilliman, but also bombarded the Chaos coalition's core.
That was still a profitable exchange.
Next, he could organize the battle line, encircle Horus bit by bit, and then completely exterminate those traitors and the armies of Chaos.
In short, not one of them could be allowed to escape.
Yet before he could issue his orders, he received a certain message.
After Eden saw the message, his expression instantly became incomparably grim.
He sighed and shook his head. "When it rains, it pours. The previous plan is completely useless now.
"Contact Horus for me!"
...
A short while later, in the void.
Countless fragments of Chaos wreckage drifted through this region, showing just how terrible the bombardment the Chaos coalition had suffered earlier had been.
The Vengeful Spirit and the other Chaos flagships traveled side by side. They did not appear to have suffered much damage, clearly having been protected by some force.
"What?"
Horus's expression was grave, and he sounded somewhat incredulous. "New Dragonwood has lowered its Chaos shield, and we can conduct sorcerous teleportation now?!"
That meant he and the Chaos primarchs could bring a group of elites and directly strike into New Dragonwood.
It was an unprecedented decapitation opportunity, one sufficient to kill the Savior seated upon the Chaos Throne.
If they succeeded, the Imperium would collapse completely. At the very least, it would be gravely wounded, giving them a chance to develop further.
Yet Horus still had some doubts. He murmured, "The enemy lowers the shield, we make planetfall and decapitate their command..."
This course of battle felt strangely familiar.
(End of Chapter)
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