When Ahriman's psychic lightning exploded in the lower levels of the Hive City, the wave of riots briefly froze.
The eerie blue energy beam, like a divine punishment, split the murky air, tearing open a blinding rift between mountains of discarded machinery and crumbling slum buildings.
Arcs of electricity danced on the damp metal surfaces, instantly carbonizing rioters across a dozen blocks. Their screams were still caught in their throats as their bodies turned into scattered ashes.
From the monitoring screens, the Commanders of the Inquisition forces saw the rioters, who had been surging like a tide, suddenly turn en masse, as if pulled by an invisible hand, frantically rushing towards Ahriman's location.
This abnormal behavior, ironically, exposed the rebellion's command node—a cargo dispatch center that had been converted into a Chaos altar.
"Have the Battle Sisterss advance!" Inquisitor Valens finally seized the opportunity, shouting his order: "All heavy weapons target coordinates 37-82! Repeat, all firepower concentrate on 37-82!"
He turned and roared into the communicator, his voice echoing in the command room, as the Inquisition's suppression operation finally began.
The purification force, composed of Stormtroopers, Battle Sisterss, and Astra Militarum, pushed down from the middle levels of the Hive City. The roar of flamethrowers and heavy Bolters reverberated through the narrow streets, turning the rioters' makeshift defenses into a sea of fire.
The air was thick with the stench of burning flesh and the pungent smell of promethium fuel.
"For the Emperor!" a Battle Sisters shouted as she leaped over cover, her shield protecting her body, breaking directly through the explosives set by the rioters, charging into them amidst the smoke of the explosion.
The rioters retaliated with various homemade automatic guns and improvised explosives; some even detonated pre-planted explosives, attempting to halt the Imperial Army's advance.
One particularly violent explosion overturned an entire section of the metal corridor, burying three Astra Militarum soldiers alive beneath the collapsed rubble.
However, this level of obstruction was truly difficult to withstand the Imperial Army's might. Although the plague involved Astartes, merely the combined elite of Stormtroopers and Battle Sisterss were enough to crush these traitors, who were just ordinary rioters.
After all, this was still the early stage of the rebellion; they had not sacrificed to summon Chaos Demons or Fallen Space Marines. Relying solely on fallen mortals, it was difficult to resist the Imperial elite.
Under the Imperial Army's fierce assault, the outer wall of the dispatch center collapsed with a crash, revealing the desecrated Chaos altar within.
But at this moment, a rift in the Chaos altar expanded in the air, and the Warp's corrupting energy spewed out like pus, corroding the nearby metal structures with a hiss.
The first to crawl out were a group of Bloodletterss, wielding greatswords in their hands, their entire bodies blood-red, looking like the most direct manifestation of hellish demons from ancient legends.
They roared and lunged at the nearest living beings, tearing apart several Blood Oath Society cultists who couldn't escape in time—these pathetic heretics only understood at their death that Chaos never pities its servants.
Ahriman, who had arrived nearby, observed the situation from a high vantage point, and upon noticing the appearance of the Chaos Demons, his brows furrowed beneath his helmet.
"Only Bloodletterss? It seems their ritual isn't complete enough," Ahriman muttered to himself, his tone seemingly disdainful of what these heretics had summoned.
He had originally thought the Blood Oath Society would attempt to summon a more powerful entity, such as a Daemon Prince, or even a Great Daemon.
But these Bloodletterss, while ferocious, were far from enough to overturn an entire Star District. Unless… they had another plan.
Just then, his psychic vision caught an unusual fluctuation emanating from beneath the altar.
That wasn't the pulsation of Chaos energy, but a colder, more mechanical frequency.
Ahriman's pupils suddenly contracted.
"There's something else underground," he warned the Inquisitor via the communicator, simultaneously raising his hand. A psychic blast erupted from his palm, shattering the altar's stone platform.
Amidst the flying debris, a hidden metal passage was revealed below.
From deep within the passage, an ear-piercing sound of grinding metal echoed.
That was not the sound of demons, nor the operation of human machinery.
It was the unique hum of Necrodermis, like millions of metal beetles vibrating their wings simultaneously.
"Damn it, they actually—" Ahriman's words were interrupted by a sudden psychic shriek.
The alarm in his helmet flashed wildly, and the indicator pointed to a location deeper within the Hive City.
"Inquisitor, I need an assault team," Ahriman quickly adjusted his communication channel: "The real threat is elsewhere."
—
Twenty minutes later, Ahriman personally led an elite squad composed of Battle Sisterss and Stormtroopers through the intricate maintenance tunnels of the Hive City's lower levels, launching a surprise attack on a secret heretical gathering point located in the Hive City's depths.
This building, disguised as an abandoned water treatment plant, was actually a thoroughly converted dark chapel, its exterior walls subtly camouflaged, completely imperceptible to the naked eye of ordinary people.
When they used a Thermo-meltdown bomb to blast open the last blast door, a wave of air mixed with putrid flesh, congealed blood, and incense rushed towards them.
The smell of blood was so strong it almost formed a tangible red mist; two Stormtroopers immediately doubled over and gagged due to the sudden physiological reaction.
Ahriman stepped into the abandoned chapel, which had been converted into a Chaos altar, his power boots making an unsettling sound as they trod in sticky blood.
The sight before him made him frown deeply—the walls were covered with blasphemous runes drawn with blood and excrement, and a giant eight-pointed star array was carved into the floor, its edges lined with eight skinned corpses. Each corpse's chest cavity was cut open, with ribs splayed outwards like wings.
Their heads had also been severed and were held in the hands of these corpses.
On the central stone platform lay a disemboweled corpse—that of a Battle Sisters, her power armor violently disassembled, revealing her pale body.
Her heart had been dug out, yet it was still eerily beating, placed in a brass vessel at the top of the altar.
Each contraction of the heart pumped out a stream of black-red blood, flowing along the grooves carved into the altar in eight directions.
"Too late!" Ahriman murmured.
He noticed eight high-ranking members of the Blood Oath Society, clad in red robes, standing around the altar, chanting blasphemous incantations in low voices.
What alarmed him even more was that next to each red-robed cultist stood a tall figure, completely covered in a metallic shell—those were definitely not human.
The instant his words fell, the blood on the altar suddenly boiled, the ground began to tremble violently, and a crimson rift tore open in the air, faintly revealing the distorted scenes churning within.
The heart on the altar suddenly convulsed violently, and a pillar of blood sprayed towards the rift.
Ahriman felt a powerful psychic wave sweep through the entire space. He knew that the true enemy was about to descend.
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 40 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
[patreon.com/TripleCrown07]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"