On the distant main planet of Baal, crimson dust swirled with the storm, obscuring the bleached bones of a mutated beast.
The weather here was scorching, the climate harsh, and not a blade of grass grew; it was thousands of times worse than the Sahara Desert of Ancient Terra.
The home world of the Blood Angels, even its sand dunes were red.
This color originated from deadly chemical pollution and the terrible radiation from the surrounding Underworld star system.
This made the entire planet indistinguishable from a death world.
Baal, it is composed of two moons, Baal Primus and Baal Secundus, and the main planet of Baal. This is the home of the Blood Angels.
The magnificent Arakis, City of Angels, was situated on this desert of death.
The tall and ornate fortress-monastery within was exquisitely decorated, like another Macragge palace.
It formed a stark contrast with the harsh environment outside.
The Blood Angels Guards, clad in golden armor and wearing golden death masks, stood motionless like golden sculptures in the hall, with two Roman columns forming each post.
A tall, golden-glowing, unapproachable golden-armored warrior leaned on the holy throne, his iron hand supporting his chin.
He was Dante, the current Chapter Master of the Blood Angels.
However, at this moment, the sitting posture and demeanor of this legendary Chapter Master resembled an old, drowsy monarch.
He wore a golden Sanguinius death mask, and no one could see what was beneath it.
Was it fatigue? Was it sorrow? Was it determination? Or was it an expressionless face?
No one knew, and no one understood what this old warrior, who had lived for 1100 years, was thinking now.
From a thousand years ago to a thousand years later.
Most of those who knew him had already returned to the Golden Throne.
And now, this resolute Blood Angels still acted in a Sanguinius-like role.
He cared for and led his Blood Angels, his battle-brothers, to face the increasingly dark 41st millennium.
"My Lord." The Company Commander first saluted solemnly.
The etiquette of the Blood Angels was both exquisite and elegant.
No noble in any Hive City of the Imperial world could be found as noble and proper as them.
"Speak, Captain Afiel. I heard you were attacked."
"It has been resolved, My Lord. Furthermore, we discovered a Holy Blood Transmitter."
"Has Messenger Officer Sforza confirmed it?"
"I have confirmed it, My Lord." An ethereal voice emanated from above the golden chalice filled with blood before the noble Chapter Master.
"The 9th, and the last one." Dante finally changed his posture, sitting up majestically and saying, "Then, tell me about his great deeds."
Roman Roland stepped forward and said, "This individual is an Imperial Navy Naval Officer. At the Sacred Rose Sisterhood sanctuary in Abyss Port, he, along with hundreds of people and three battle-brothers, successfully resisted the invasion of Bloodletter demons and heretic traitors."
"He incredibly resisted corruption and accompanied us in our assault. We saw an angel resembling Saint Giliano appear above his head," said the Blood Angels Sergeant who participated in the Battle of the Church of the Celestial Woman.
"Angelic manifestation?" Dante's tone sank.
"At least in my eyes, My Lord, it was so. Under the possession of that angel, this mortal slew two heretic Astartes traitors."
Dante fell silent.
Although the divine manifestations displayed by each Holy Blood Transmitter varied, angelic manifestation was not uncommon.
However, an angel possessing a mere mortal was a rare occurrence over the past millennium, with only a few isolated cases.
Previously, every time such a situation occurred, it indicated that the prophecy being revealed was not simple.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
An extremely heavy, startling footsteps echoed from the entrance of the hall.
Swish!——
All the Blood Angels Guards uniformly raised their crimson swords in salute to the newcomer.
Their movements, though respectful, also carried a sense of vigilance.
Dante looked up.
The man striding in was tall and imposing, clad in crimson artificer power armor with a high gorget, resembling the standing collar of a vampire's evening gown in mythology.
It inevitably gave one a chilling and terrifying feeling.
He had a mane of shoulder-length silver hair, with two thick silver neural plugs attached to the sides of his forehead.
Typically, the more powerful the psyker, the thicker these neural plugs.
His face was pale, with crimson eyeshadow at the corners of his eyes, and his entire eyes were blood-red. Combined with his appearance, he resembled a vampire duke stepped out of a terrifying legendary mural.
"Brother Mepheston." Dante looked at him.
He looked at the strongest psyker in the Imperium, the only powerful warrior who had endured the Black Rage, the Chief Librarian of the Blood Angels.
"The 9th Holy Blood Transmitter has been found. What is this prophecy?" the Chapter Master asked.
Mepheston's face was grim, and he did not answer the majestic Chapter Master's question.
Dante sat there, and the atmosphere between them was filled with a terrifying sense of oppression.
The noble golden-armored warrior spoke first: "Is this prophecy, then, very grave?"
Dante knew that only when the weight of a prophecy was too heavy to be known by outsiders would this terrifying Chief Librarian be so reserved.
The Chapter Master waved his hand.
The Blood Angels Guards quickly turned left, marched out of the hall in formation, and sealed off the external access to the main hall. Anyone wishing to see the Chapter Master had to wait outside.
The Messenger Officer also discreetly shielded the sound transmission on both sides.
"Please speak, Brother Mepheston. I don't know if this time you saw the prophecy with your own eyes. So what did you see?"
The strongest Librarian in history slightly opened his mouth, revealing crimson fangs.
"All of Baal, our three homes, and the remains of our Gene-father, will be swallowed by the filthy and brutal Tyranids…"
This legendary Chapter Master, who had lived for over a thousand years and had seen almost everything, was now gripping the golden gauntlet on the armrest of the throne, exerting immense force, his iron hand trembling slightly.
"All Blood Angels will face their end, the parent Chapter and its successor Chapters, all of us, all Blood Angels will be destroyed here."
Dante, who almost always remained composed in the face of anything, this time, facing the survival of the entire Blood Angels, uncharacteristically let out a deep breath.
"No… impossible! Are you sure you didn't misinterpret this prophecy?! Tyranids / Tyranid? These weak bugs cannot do it!
They are indeed a scourge to the Imperium, but they are not powerful enough to destroy the entire Blood Angels, let alone destroy Baal and devour the remains of our Gene-father."
Chapter Master Dante rarely spoke so many words at once.
He clenched his fists, analyzing whether Mepheston's sanity was still intact.
When this Chief Librarian was still called Calistarius, he was just an ordinary Chapter Librarian.
Later, in a battle, he was corrupted by the curse in his bloodline, and the Black Rage erupted.
From then on, he was assigned to the Blood Angels Death Company.
During the Second War for Armageddon, his Death Company unit was deployed in Hades Hive to assault a group of Orks entrenched within a Ecclesiarchy building.
Calistarius and his berserk, mad vampire brothers slaughtered their way through the Ork lines, leaving a bloody mess.
The battle was exceptionally fierce and terribly destructive.
The chaotic battle continued until the entire building collapsed, burying everyone.
Calistarius was the sole survivor, trapped by boulders with severe injuries.
In his mind, the death of his Gene-father, brutally murdered and reduced to pulp by the traitor Horus, replayed constantly.
He howled ceaselessly from the craving for blood and death, then relived cycle after cycle of endless nightmares, enduring the most tormenting seven days and six nights of his life.
During these seven days and six nights.
He collapsed, went mad, and lost all reason.
By the fourth day, he was already in a daze.
Even the death of his Gene-father seemed numb to him.
He began to fight against the illusions, began to actively gaze, began to counterattack.
Until midnight on the seventh day.
He achieved something no Blood Angels had ever done: he overcame the bloodlust and the Black Rage.
A miracle. A miracle comparable to the advent of Saint Giliano.
He simultaneously gained unparalleled power, using a psychic shockwave to push away the massive rocks that had pinned him down.
From that day on, the strongest psyker in the Imperium, Lord of Death Mepheston, was born.
However, Dante still constantly worried that he would lose control again.
Mepheston was the strongest warrior of the Blood Angels, and also the deepest darkness within the soul of the Blood Angels.
The Chapter Master meticulously scrutinized the Chief Librarian.
He suppressed his burning anger and irritation with the rationality and wisdom that long years had given him, carefully deliberating the veracity of the Chief Librarian's vision.