Inside the command center, Dante observed the battlefield situation.
The sudden activation of the Water of Thirst instantly turned the tide of battle, almost desiccating.
The Tyranid Swarm that had encircled Angel Keep. The mortals and Astartes priests guarding the first line of defense were able to retreat into the second line of defense behind the Void Shield with virtually no losses.
Dante did not attempt to rebuild the first line of defense because the entire focus of that line was the Water of Thirst.
Now, the Water of Thirst had briefly activated, and after devouring many Tyranids, it returned to its former liquid state, forming silver puddles in the sandy areas near Angel Keep.
The Blood Angels did not have much time to recover this Water of Thirst; they could only hope that these scattered puddles in front of Angel Keep would, to some extent, hinder the Tyranids.
The true key to the current battlefield was the second line of defense formed by the Void Shield.
As long as the Void Shield remained standing, the Tyranids would not be able to breach Angel Keep's defenses.
"My Lord." Chief Blood Priest Corbulo approached Dante, bowing his head slightly and whispering, "Mephiston and Lord Alexander have returned."
"They claim that Ka'Bandha has been completely annihilated and will not reappear in the real universe now or in the future."
Upon hearing this, Dante's eyes flickered slightly. A Khorne Greater Daemon had been completely destroyed.
In Dante's understanding, daemons were beings without true life or death; they could only be banished, not killed, and would always return from the Warp one day.
It was precisely for this reason that Ka'Bandha had become the Angel of Bane, plaguing the Blood Angels for ten millennia.
Yet, Saint Doraemon claimed to have completely annihilated Ka'Bandha.
But on second thought, according to Mephiston, Doraemon was a higher-level Warp entity than Ka'Bandha, even approaching the plane of the Four Gods. In terms of the Warp, he was more Warp-like than Ka'Bandha, so it was not surprising that he could completely annihilate Ka'Bandha.
"My Lord, Lord Alexander has gone to the underground of Angel Keep with Mephiston, some Librarians, and Seth."
Corbulo lowered his voice slightly, his tone becoming somewhat grave.
As Chief Blood Priest, he knew exactly what lay beneath Angel Keep.
Various ancient Chapter relics, several Dreadnought warriors who were living relics of the Chapter, alien or heretic prisoners accumulated over ten millennia, various artifacts imbued with blasphemous power, Sanguinius' prophetic scrolls, and even Sanguinius' remains were all beneath Angel Keep.
Although Corbulo was not a Librarian, he possessed powerful psychic perception. He could vaguely sense that a terrifying Warp power lurked within the man named Alexander; that power was even more horrifying than Mephiston's.
Was it truly a good idea to allow such a being into the underground of Angel Keep? What was his purpose?
Corbulo's precognitive abilities even made him vaguely feel that the Blood God in the Warp was paying increasing attention to Baal; a faint bloody aura seemed to appear in the air of Baal.
Dante was clearly wary of him, even sending Seth, the Chapter Master of the Flesh Tearers, to monitor him, yet he still allowed him to act.
Dante noticed Corbulo's doubt but remained silent, looking out the window.
The Scarlet Scar outside the window seemed to become clearer, faintly visible under the dim yellow sky, as if about to drip blood.
Beneath the Scarlet Scar, in the towering Lost Spire, the fallen prisoners cried out in agony and hunger, clamoring for blood.
Dante could vaguely sense that the Blood God's power was strengthening on Baal.
Had Ka'Bandha's death alarmed him? Or had he vaguely perceived the purpose of Alexander and his group? Or was it simply the intensifying war on Baal that attracted him?
As Dante pondered, the sound of the atmosphere burning echoed in the sky again.
He looked up and saw only a rain of fire composed of drop pod spore sacs. The Tyranids launched their second wave of attack.
The Blood Angels' secret dungeon.
Seth had only heard of this place in the oldest legends.
This was the oldest area beneath Angel Keep; it had existed long before the first brick of Angel Keep's above-ground section was laid, and even for countless years before the Archangel descended upon Baal.
Mephiston held aloft a torch made of Ballianium. This rare and uncommon wood was rich in oil, and the flames it emitted when burning were so dazzling, yet they still could not completely dispel the shadows in this tunnel.
The shadows lurking around Seth seemed to writhe like living things, as if some blasphemous, tiny creatures invisible to human eyes were within them.
When Alexander and Mephiston, who stood before Seth, walked past, those shadows seemed to bow to them.
The strangeness of this place made Seth uneasy, but Alexander and Mephiston, who stood in front of him, made Seth even more uncomfortable than the environment.
"Can't you tell me our destination yet?" Seth slowly opened his mouth, feeling a surge of blood churning in his chest.
Alexander paused slightly, turned to look at Seth, then looked at Mephiston and asked, "How much further?"
"Soon. The ancient warrior Brother Maureste is guarding the entrance to the deep tunnels ahead. He will guide us."
Mephiston said softly:
"This dungeon has many peculiar properties; the laws of the material universe do not absolutely apply here."
"My colleagues and I believe that the locations of the passages in the deepest part of the dungeon are not fixed but constantly shifting, and even distance and position become a vague concept within them."
"Only Lord Maureste, the Librarian Dreadnought who perpetually guards it, can discern the passages leading to specific locations."
Alexander nodded slightly. No wonder Mephiston didn't have a map of these underground passages.
Space here was just a vague concept; the anywhere door probably couldn't teleport accurately either.
Seth frowned slightly upon hearing this. The deepest part of this dungeon contained only the most precious or dangerous things collected by the Blood Angels.
Dante had previously been candid with him, informing him of the things in the depths of the secret dungeon.
A damaged Necron Overlord imprisoned in a Static Field, psychic constructs left over from the Old Night era, artificial humans created by Baal's alien creatures, a fragment of Golden Age technology capable of observing other planes, an ancient Dreadnought warrior completely controlled by the Scarlet Thirst during the Great Crusade, and Sanguinius' remains.
Each of them was either extremely valuable or dangerous.
"Are you trying to steal Sanguinius' remains and send them to the temple on Davine?" Seth blurted out.
Mephiston's steps slowed slightly, and Alexander's eye twitched almost imperceptibly.
Horus was corrupted and resurrected in the temple on Davine.
"You—" Alexander's mouth twitched, "Watch what you say, or one day, due to the dual effects of Bloodthirst and Black Rage, you might blow yourself up with a melta bomb in a land raider gunship."
".." Seth frowned, "I'm not that stupid."
"It's not about being stupid or not. Some people even commit suicide by shooting themselves eight times in the back," Alexander said softly.
Alexander actually admired Seth's mouth; his statements carried an unpolished talent and innocence, making Alexander feel that his own words became deliberate.
In the normal timeline, when Robert Guilliman brought the Primaris to the Blood Angels, Seth had uttered two famous quotes that would be passed down through generations:
"Guilliman wants to turn us into Ultramarines in red power armor!"
"If Robert Guilliman wills it... if he is already the Regent, why wouldn't he try to go further and become the Emperor?"
These two explosive statements even startled Dante.
After that, Seth's screentime mysteriously diminished until he eventually disappeared, his whereabouts unknown.
Even in Alexander's previous life, Seth's tabletop rules were inexplicably deleted, making him untraceable. It was hard not to suspect that he had suffered the mighty hand of the Regent. Seth's mouth ultimately harmed him.
Noticing Alexander's strange gaze, Seth frowned slightly, an imperceptible flicker of anger in his eyes.
He felt a constant metallic tang of blood in his nostrils, his fangs subtly pressing against his lips, feeling angry at Alexander's and Mephiston's enigmatic words.
Seth's fingers slightly rested on the reliquary hanging from his waist, and his anger was somewhat suppressed by it.
Not yet, not yet. He had to know their purpose before making the correct judgment.
The end of the passage stopped before a rough, heavy door. The door was carved with strange runes that neither Seth nor Alexander could understand, seemingly possessing some psychic meaning.
Mephiston gently knocked three times on the door with the fiercely burning torch in his hand. A mechanical hum sounded, and the door slowly opened, scraping a shower of sparks across the floor.
A scent of burning wood wafted out from the door, extinguishing the torch in Mephiston's hand. Instantly, shadows enveloped everyone.
The roar of steel echoed. A monument born of war and wisdom, encased in steel and ceramite, forged in the shape of an ornate sarcophagus, stood before them. It was an ancient Astartes warrior, gravely wounded in battles of old.
But his remains had been interred within a Dreadnought sarcophagus, serving in a form of steel and iron.
Placed in the sarcophagus before them was one of Mephiston's predecessors as Chief Librarian, named Brother Maureste, killed by the Eight-Face Weirdo.
Since then, he had perpetually guarded the secret dungeon, never entering stasis, enduring the cold of the Dreadnought sarcophagus through sheer willpower, guarding the Blood Angels' treasury and prison, and even more, guarding the remains of their gene-father.
He was the dungeon's sentinel, its gate, and its key; only he knew how to navigate the depths of the dungeon, how to reach Sanguinius' tomb.
"Mephiston!" Brother Maureste's voice rose, "I didn't expect fate to bring you back so soon."
The Dreadnought warrior slightly shifted his sarcophagus head, his gaze falling upon Alexander.
On the great axe in the Dreadnought warrior's hand, a disintegration field silently ignited.
"Who are you? And why have you and Mephiston come?" Brother Maureste asked in a deep voice.
Instantly, the air became a few shades more silent, and a bloody stench seemed to become increasingly clear.
Alexander knew that the Blood God had gradually become aware of his purpose. Once he entered the passage leading to Sanguinius' tomb, the Blood God's gaze would likely fall upon him immediately.
And he also had to state his purpose to gain the help of the Librarian Dreadnought before him.
"I have come for Sanguinius."