NOVEL NEXT Chapter 117: Chapter 117
Waiting for the enemy to reach a certain point, I gave the order for the Automatons to begin their missile bombardment. Launching three missile pods of rockets into the air, the munitions flew over enemy lines and above the middle of their ranks before detonating. Launching large, five-inch tungsten nails into the enemy forces, nearly a third of their troops died in the initial attack.
"Mylene, you are up!", I shouted.
"Alright!!", Mylene acknowledged, as she finished preparing her spell, "Lightning Bolt!!"
Aiming at the bombardment zone, the lightning arced across the millions of nails around us creating a deadly, high voltage death trap. Watching grunts turn into smoke clouds when hit with electricity, the stronger demons collapsed to the ground as they lost all control of their bodies. Telling Mylene to end her spell, as the rest of us took aim, I waited for the electricity to dissipate before giving the order.
"Send these bastards back to hell, light them up!!", I laughed, obliterating countless enemies with my repulsor gatling gun.
"Hell yeah, eat shit and puke maggot addicts!!!", the Helldivers howled, as their heavy laser cannons roared to life.
'Maybe adding a zombie apocalypse simulation to their training was a bit much…', I thought, doing my best to hold back my laughter.
Wanting to buy time for reinforcements and conserve our strength for the boss, blowing the legion of demons away from a distance was the best choice here. Directing the Automatons to use their high-powered heavy laser cannons on the Barons of Hell and Mancubus, the rest of our ragtag team chipped away at the enemy until only a few dozen units remained.
"Victor, did we accidentally take out the boss during the firefight?", Samus asked, visually scanning the area for large enemy.
"No, we have not killed the boss yet. Believe me, it would have stood out like a sore thumb in that horde.", I remarked, having the drones begin scanning the chamber, "Anyone with a sensor-array, scan the chamber for a large energy source. The boss should have a similar energy signature to normal demons, just magnitudes bigger."
"Uh…it may be about to breach the Materium, possibly.", Mane announced, reviewing the data his subordinate put in front of him, "There is a spatial anomaly a quarter mile to our east that is releasing a large amount of void energy."
Having the Automatons obliterate the remaining enemies, everyone turned to look in the direction Mane indicated. Squinting our eyes, most of us could see a slight visual distortion floating a few feet off the ground. Opening my mouth to request Jarvis and UR-025 scan the anomaly, cracks began to radiate out from the anomaly suggesting it was about to rupture. Readying ourselves for the final boss fight, lights began to flick on all over the chamber.
(Dair)
(Luxion)
"Thank you, Dair and Luxion!", I stated, as the cracks grew larger, "Automatons, fire upon whatever comes out of that breach!"
Watching the space in front of the anomaly begin to bulge, it abruptly ruptured when a massive laser beam cut through it like a knife. Shooting a few feet over our heads, a direct hit from it would have killed most of us as the Holtzman Shields were not capable of resisting that much energy. Skittering out of the breach, an armored Spider Mastermind let out a spine-tingling screech that brought the Eldar to their knees. Screaming in agony, blood began to trickle out of their ears and eyes.
"What the heck?!", Samus gasped, "Why are they the only ones affected by it?"
"Psychic…attack…", Amallyn managed to wheeze, "It is…too strong…"
"That mechanized spider is a psyker?! I have never seen anything about it in any text I have read.", Ionica remarked, as the Automatons began to fire upon it.
"We have never encountered anything like it before.", Mane stated, checking his internal database for any information he had.
Watching the attack slam into its energy shielding, the spider shrugged off the attack and began returning fire with missile pods mounted to its sides. Crushing the missiles with the Force, its attention immediately turned to me. Attempting to break into my mind, it let go of the Eldar giving them a small amount of relief. Feeling the pressure hammering away at my mind, I returned the favor by launching my own psychic attack.
"I will not be so easily overwhelmed. demon!", I spat, hitting it with the same pinpoint attack I used on Palpatine.
Catching it off guard, I punched a hole into its psyche and began trying to subdue it. Rooting around in its mind, glimpses of the creature's past as a Space Marine began flashing before my eyes. Seeing snippets of a voyage into the Warp, run-ins with daemonic fleets, and their eventual fall into an unknown rift in the void, everything that came after was just a jumbled mess of pieced together recollections of events.
"VICTOR!!", Mylene screamed, snapping me out of psychic connection to the demon, "IN FRONT OF YOU!!"
Snapping to attention, I watched as a Marauder was about to bring his Argent Battleaxe down on my head. Smacking it away with my lightsaber, I followed up by knocking him away with a strong Force Push.
"Welcome back to reality, you had us worried there for a moment.", Samus commented, as reinforcements began teleporting in, "What just happened to you?"
"I was trying to subdue the demon psychically and discovered that it used to be a Space Marine at one point.", I remarked, as the spider began moving again, "Its memories are jumbled up, but I am relatively certain he lived Pre-Heresy."
"WHAT?!", Mane spat, looking back at the spider demon, "That used to be an Astarte!?"
"Yes, Tech-Priest, all of us were at one point.", the Marauder spoke, rising to its feet.
Taking a moment to look at his damaged armor, the emblem on his chestplate and pauldron were unfamiliar to me. From what I could see of the internal components, the power armor he wore was also Pre-Heresy. Wanting to confirm my suspicions of their identities, I asked him point blank if they were members of the Eleventh Legion. Surprised by my question, the Marauder confirmed that they were indeed members of that lost legion.
"Our records were scrubbed from Terra's archives, how do you know of us?", the Marauder inquired.
"Well, according to the Emperor of Mankind, I am Klordius Aremus' blood descendant.", I answered, drawing my second lightsaber.
"I see…", the Marauder replied, in a solemn tone, "Our Primarch Varrim and Primarch Klordius were the only two to see what the Imperium of Man was…a blight upon the galaxy and wider universe. While humanity barely eked out an existence, the blind Emperor of Mankind and other Primarchs believed that we should stand alone instead of seeking alternative ways to strengthen our people. We found the power we sought, but when we returned…the Imperium of Man was nothing more than a shell of its former self and the rest of the universe watched it happen without a care."
"What did you expect? The Imperium of Man is full of xenophobes, no nation was going to send help to country that hated half of their population for no reason other than being non-human.", I remarked.
Responding by lunging at me again with his battleaxe at the ready, the two of us clashed sending a shockwave that blew most of the team away. Exchanging a flurry of blows with him, the demon managed to block all my attacks at blistering speeds that were abnormally fast for even an enhanced Space Marine. Scanning him to see if he had additional augments, I was dumbfounded when I discovered the amount of void energy, he had was almost equal to a mid-ranked Greater Daemon.
"Jarvis, deploy the Hulkbuster Mark 44!", I commanded, blasting him away using an emergency charged Unibeam, "Horizon, teleport the Eldar aboard the Endless Horizons for medical treatment!"
"Everyone else, move in to help restrain the spider mech. I have a plan to get rid of both in one go!", I said, as the Eldar were transferred off station.
"Are you sure you do not want help?", Samus inquired, as the others began running off.
"I mean no disrespect, but everyone will only be a hindrance. He is just toying with us right now, his actual strength should be on par with a Great Daemon.", I told her, as the four mobile transport units arrived from the Armory, "Try to seal its movements the best you can, be ready to dive out of the way when I say so."
"Alright, good luck!", Samus remarked, following everyone else.
Opening several hatches on each unit, hundreds of various parts began flying out and attaching themselves to my armor. Keeping a close eye on the marines, as he staggered back to his feet, the Hulkbuster quickly completed its assembly and system check before giving me the green light. Pushing the thrusters to maximum output, I shot toward him ready to vent my accumulated anger from this hellhole on him. Slamming my pile driver fist squarely into his face, the Marauder shot through the air like a bullet before skipping across the floor like a stone.
"I have a plan, I can freeze it in place with ice using magic!", Lucoa suggested.
"I can help you!", Mylene said, with a smile, "Ice Magic is not my forte, but I can use it well enough to be a menace."
"How long do you need?", Samus asked.
"To overpower its strength, give us two minutes.", Lucoa answered, already gathering her dragonic power.
With a set timeframe given, the group joined the soldiers who were at a stalemate with the mech's energy shield. Using brute, physical strength to keep it from moving, they struggled to keep hold of it as there was nothing to grab hold of. Tossing her sword to Samus, Ionica told her to use it to disable its shielding. Thanking her with a nod, Roxanne and Samus leapt over the soldiers to strike at the mech. Grabbing them mid-air, via telekinesis, the two of them let out a cry of pain as the abomination tried to crush them.
"Shit, I forgot it was a psyker!", Ionica spat, grabbing an Energy Sword from a subordinate, "Let them go!!"
Seizing her mid-swing, when it went to crush her, an unknown power suddenly came over her allowing Ionica to break its hold. Letting out a battle cry as she drove the sword into its body, the demonic creature let out a shriek as its shield dropped. Freed from their bindings as well, Roxanne and Samus drove their blades into the monster as well causing it even more pain.
"FIRE MEN!!", the Helldiver Commander shouted, "Do not stop until the monster is dead!!"
Forcing the spider into a retreat, it slowly began backing away toward the slowly closing breach. Believing it was trying to escape; Roxanne told the soldiers to let go and move as Lucoa and Mylene were ready. Getting clear, just as they unloaded their magic on the creature, half of its body began engulfed in several yards of blue ice. Continuing to attack the exposed part of the demon, Samus shouted that it was now or never.
Unloading a wide array of munitions on the Marauder, everything I threw at him failed to penetrate a faint, purple-hued aura that covered his body. Assuming I had to use a Daedric artifact on him to cause any real damage, I retrieved Volendrung from my inventory and gave chase. Magically adapting its shape and size to better fit my current form, the sudden change startled me for a moment as I did not realize it had that ability.
'I wonder what other powers the items have.', I thought, as I slammed the war hammer into his face.
Feeling bones crunch under the force of my blow, his putrid blood began to spray everywhere he sank into the floor. Whipping the hammer around, I engaged the thrusters in my arms and brought the weapon down hard enough to shake the room. Refusing to die like this, he leaped out of the crater like a rabid dog and attempted to grab hold of my armor. Stowing the item back into storage, I teleported behind him and used both hands to grab hold of his head.
"Everyone get out of the way!", I shouted, as the percentage hit one hundred percent.
Spinning on my heels, while the Marauder began tearing my armored arms apart, everyone followed my orders and dove out of my path. Firing the Unibeam immediately, the blast obliterated most of the Marauder's body before punching a hole clean through the Spider Mastermind. Letting out a howl of pain before dying, the Marauder cursed me before I let his head fall into the energy stream. Waiting until I was certain both were gone, I cut power to the Unibeam and let out a sigh of relief.