The Emperor’s Angel of Death

#2174 - Chaos Gate

The Grey Knights' squad advanced through the swaying passages, encountering little resistance as most of the enemy were drawn to the Astral Knights. They soon reached the confirmed location of the warp gate.

It was a triangular space formed by the wreckage of several ships piled together, dominated by a massive gate constructed from corroded metal, bones, and viscous flesh. Mist swirled around it, revealing countless screaming faces within the fog.

As the Grey Knights entered the mist, they were met by their enemies. Hordes of Plague Flies emerged from the fog, their jagged, demonic limbs scything like blades, while the Plaguebearers' rusty, plague-ridden swords swept through the air.

"It seems the puppet master knew we were coming and connected the gate to Nurgle's domain in advance."

The Grey Knights retaliated immediately with their holy bolters, the exorcism-infused rounds striking the daemons, causing them to fall screaming or having their wings severed, spiraling to the ground.

Then, in unison, the Grey Knights activated their crystal power halberds and Nemesis force swords, slamming them into the ground with a unified roar.

With a great tearing sound, as if reality itself was being ripped apart, the mist was dispelled by an invisible gale, revealing the real world around the gate to the Grey Knights once more.

Piles of corpulent flies buzzed across the ochre ground, swirling over murky, stagnant pools of water and clustering among low-hanging, damp 'leaves.' These plants were bulbous, pitted behemoths or hillocks of polyps and tumorous sacs, all oozing spores and glistening with oil.

It was a bizarre, plague-ridden carnival.

"Disperse this filth!"

Under the command of Aidan Perdron, the Grey Knights unleashed the furious psychic power of their pure minds, bolts of lightning and gouts of flame lashing out at the fungus-ridden garden.

Spore sacs exploded, tumors burst.

Hahaha—

Suddenly, the air filled with a viscous, liquid laughter, and a Great Unclean One, covered in pustules, tumors, and sores, 'squeezed' out of the gate, surrounded by a throng of Nurglings.

Its massive, almost neckless head swiveled, its jaundiced eyes fixing on the Grey Knights. Then, its belly, which bore a festering maw, churned and roiled visibly, like a storm about to break—which it was.

In a heaving surge, the Great Unclean One vomited forth a vast 'bounty,' a series of unbearable, foul, and putrid streams that resembled the plague-infested mire spewing from Nurgle's garden itself, accumulating into thick, soft piles of sludge.

"Repel them!"

The Grey Knights raised their halberds, linking their minds together to resist the immense evil. The Emperor's divine gift clashed with the filthy torrent, creating a wave tens of meters high, in which countless daemons could be seen laughing as they rolled and crawled out, as if surfing in a sea of excrement.

Hyperion, wielding his Nemesis force sword, pointed with his left hand, and searing, purifying fire erupted from his fingertips in a fan shape, engulfing the foul wave in silver flames.

The fire spread rapidly as if it had found fuel, igniting hundreds upon hundreds of daemons. As they burned, they raised their arms, reflecting expressions of agony, making it look like a sacred spectacle—a host of damned souls, being torn apart and purified by heavenly fire.

The Great Unclean One angrily ceased its vomiting, and Hyperion's flames subsided, but the daemons did not diminish. They continued to pour out in droves, from chattering Nurglings to rotting toads and mutated Plaguebearers, all manner of twisted creations from Nurgle's garden spilling from the gate.

Yet the Grey Knights were fearless. They ignited their weapons, cutting through the tide of decaying flesh like a blade.

The holy fire-wreathed blades pierced the daemons' bodies as if slicing through tofu. The Grey Knights charged and struck, their armor scorched and wreathed in a cold light, protecting them from decaying claws, tongues, and blades. Little remained in their wake—only piles of butchered, rotten flesh turned to foam.

The Great Unclean One roared in fury, lumbering its swollen body forward, urging more festering daemons to overwhelm the small, silver targets.

The Grey Knights' guns roared, firing into the approaching horde, many of the rotting creatures falling, but this could not slow the corrupting momentum.

Soon, the sounds of battle erupted, the shrill roars of beasts and the thunder of weapons clashing. A Nurgle Beast smashed through the front ranks of Plaguebearers, charging towards Hyperion. Breaker of Blades raised his sword to meet the charge, the Nemesis force sword erupting with pure fire. A series of ferocious blows sent the Nurgle Beast reeling in pain, crushing many Nurglings.

As the Grey Knights fought the swarming daemons, the filthy, hulking Great Unclean One finally lumbered to the front lines, laughing as it swung its skull flail, its writhing body leaving a trench in the ground behind it. A horde of Nurgle Beasts writhed around it, each wheezing breath exhaling a green mist.

"Return to the abyss!"

Brotherhood Champion Aidan Perdron led the Cleansing Squad to face the Great Unclean One directly. Three warriors wielding incinerators immediately pulled the triggers, unleashing a torrent of cerulean flames.

The incinerator was a weapon created specifically for the Grey Knights by the Adeptus Mechanicus on Phobos. It shared many of the same characteristics as the heavy flamers used by other Imperial forces, but it projected psychic fire, a mixture of psychically charged holy promethium and blessed oils. It could bypass any protection granted by psychic powers and sorcery, so the flames appeared cerulean and bright white, hotter than any ordinary flame, and highly effective against daemons. More importantly, if the wielder was a psyker, he could strengthen and guide the flames with his own psychic powers.

Guided by the Cleansing Squad veterans, the flames were not projected in the most common fan shape, but transformed into thin lines that rotated and overlapped, forming a massive vortex of fire, and the Nurgle Beasts screamed and writhed under the scorching flames.

The enraged Great Unclean One immediately released a "loud fart," a cloud of turbid green smoke rising from beneath it, engulfing the flames.

Then, several bolts of lightning struck it, creating large scorched patches, and it screamed in agony.

The rest of the Cleansing Squad fired at the Greater Daemon with weapons called nullifiers. These weapons worked by channeling the user's psychic power, which was not only focused but also amplified. The wielder channeled his psychic power into the weapon's energy storage core—after which, focusing crystals channeled the generated energy into a beam of pure, azure energy pulses that could disrupt the physical form of daemons.