"It's slaughtering the xenos, but it could turn on us at any moment! Requesting backup! Requesting heavy fire support!"
However, just as all the Lamenters braced themselves for a desperate, final stand, Chapter Master Malakim Phoros's voice came through the comms channel.
To everyone's surprise, the Chapter Master's voice was frighteningly calm, carrying a hint of detached indifference as if he had known all along.
"Do not panic, brothers. Maintain your composure."
"Chapter Master? That is a Greater Daemon!"
"I am aware," Phoros replied steadily. "The commander of the Helldivers has already briefed me. Their psykers detected anomalous warp fluctuations; this Greater Daemon was drawn here by the slaughter and the souls of the Drukhari."
In a sense, Joker was telling the truth, merely omitting the crucial step of "who opened the door."
Inside the command room, Joker stood before the holographic map, tracing a circle with his finger around the red blip representing the Greater Daemon and the densely packed Drukhari forces.
On the other end of the comms, Phoros's voice continued, carrying a cold, ruthless resolve: "I have just discussed the containment plan with the Joker commander. Since all civilians have been evacuated, the only ones remaining in this sector are the xenos and the Archenemy—"
The Chapter Master paused, a chilling murderous intent bleeding into his tone: "We do not need to waste ammunition attacking it right now. All units, heed my order: break contact immediately and fall back to the safe zone at maximum speed!"
"But, sir, that Greater Daemon—"
"Let them fight like dogs!" Phoros cut off his subordinate's doubts. "The Strike Cruiser in orbit has already locked onto the coordinates. Once we pull back to a safe distance, we will conduct an orbital bombardment to level everything here to the ground."
"We will reduce this entire sector, along with those Drukhari and that Greater Daemon, to ash."
Hearing this order, the frontline Lamenters froze for a moment, immediately followed by an unprecedented sense of vindication.
For the longest time, they had always been the ones enduring the most horrific enemies with their own flesh and blood under the worst possible conditions. But now, they got to watch two factions of their mortal enemies tear each other apart while they reaped the rewards?
"Understood! All squads retreat! Move, move, move!"
Watching the retreating tide of yellow-armored figures, alongside the players who were running faster than rabbits among them, Blue—who was currently feasting—suddenly felt a chill run down its spine.
Tearing apart an Incubus warrior's armor, it looked up at the sky in confusion.
"Strange... why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
But the thought vanished in a flash, because the group of Drukhari before it, radiating an exquisite aroma born of sheer terror, was simply too enticing.
"Whatever, I'll fill my belly first!"
For these Drukhari, death was not the end, but the beginning of eternal torment inside the maw of "She Who Thirsts." This dread, etched into the very depths of their souls, utterly shattered the cruelty and discipline they so prided themselves on. They screamed, scattering like herded cattle, even opening fire on their own kind to fight over escape routes.
The Archon of the Kabal was currently scrambling in humiliation to board a Raider transport that had just started up. However, to shed weight and speed up its ascent, his loyal Incubi bodyguards didn't hesitate to boot him right in the face.
"No! I am your master! I am—"
Before the Archon could finish his desperate roar, a pastel-purple whip lashed around his ankle. Blue yanked him back elegantly and, like enjoying an appetizer, drove its claws straight through the Archon's chest, vacuuming up his soul amidst absolute despair.
"Truly... delicious."
Blue licked its lips, looking at the scattering, savory snacks before it, its four eyes gleaming with avarice and calculation.
As it methodically dismembered its prey, it began to plot in its mind: after a massacre of this scale, those pointy-eared rats probably wouldn't dare step foot in this sector again for a very long time. In that case, did it really need to keep honoring its pact with that group of mortals called "Helldivers"?
Blue turned its gaze toward the distant, retreating human army.
Though that group of Helldivers was quite boring, this planet still held hundreds of millions of vibrant mortals, not to mention those Space Marines in yellow power armor whose souls were steeped in the rich aroma of tragedy and suffering... If it used the unstable warp properties of the Maelstrom zone to stage a grand sacrifice after eating these Aeldari, it might just be able to drag this entire planet into its master's palace—
Just as the Greater Daemon was seriously contemplating the feasibility of a betrayal, entirely intoxicated by this beautiful vision—BOOM!
A blinding lance strike descended from the heavens, accurately blasting the ground less than ten meters from its side.
The terrifying heat instantly vaporized the rock. A massive shockwave wrapped in molten lava sent Blue's massive frame flying, tumbling miserably across the ground several times before stopping, its ornate ornaments shattered across the dirt.
"Who?!"
Snapping out of it, Blue glared at the sky in fury. The atmosphere had been torn open, and countless lances rained down like swords of divine retribution. Closely following them was a dense, meteor-shower-like volley of macro-cannon shells, dragging long trails of afterburners that blanketed the entire combat zone.
"Damn it! I haven't finished eating yet!" Blue stamped its feet and cursed in a fit of rage, instantly realizing what was happening. "You humans are shameless enough! You couldn't even wait a few minutes?!"
It had originally thought itself the treacherous hunter, never expecting the other side to have even less of a baseline, denying it even its final moments of feeding and flipping the table entirely!
Seeing that the destructive strike was about to blanket the entire field, Blue threw all elegance and taste out the window. Transforming into a purple gale, it darted at extreme speed through the explosive fire, no longer chewing carefully but opening its gaping maw to frantically gorge itself on any living Drukhari soul within its line of sight.
A bite was a bite!
RUMBLE—!!!
A salvo of tactical nuclear strikes and macro-cannons finally engulfed the area completely. In the final instant before the world-ending mushroom cloud rose and its physical form was thoroughly incinerated, Blue channeled the last of its psychic power. Filled with endless venom, it broadcasted its roar across the entire battlefield via the Warp:
"Helldivers! This is not what we agreed on! You betrayed me—!!!"
Inside the temporary command headquarters.
Chapter Master Phoros, who had just withdrawn from the front lines and was still caked in the scent of gunpowder, walked through the main doors. That shrill, resentment-filled psychic shriek pierced through layers of armor, echoing in his mind.
Phoros paused in his tracks, turning his head in slight confusion toward the source of the sound. Though the Greater Daemon's words were filled with madness, the fury of being backstabbed by an ally felt remarkably genuine.
At this moment, Joker stood with his hands behind his back, watching the spectacular mushroom clouds rising on the screen. Hearing the roar, his expression remained as placid as still water: "Chapter Master Phoros, surely you don't believe these mad, rambling words?"
Look at Joker's unblinking eyes, written all over with "For Mankind," Phoros recalled the heroic sacrifice of these "Helldivers" who spared nothing to cover the civilian evacuation, as well as the touching moment when the chainsword was gifted.
"Of course not," Phoros shook his head, his tone firm. "I am merely wondering why this Archenemy would use such a clumsy method to sow discord right before its death. Did it truly believe such a baseless lie could shake the trust forged in blood between the Astartes and our mortal defenders?"
Joker nodded slightly, saying without missing a beat, "Perhaps that is the nature of Chaos—full of deceit and disorder, never forgetting to spread its poison even in its final moments. Unfortunately, it underestimated our bond."
"Well said," Phoros stated solemnly. "It underestimated us."