Raynor pulled his thoughts back as the light radiating from the surface of the purple bio-armor gradually dimmed. He raised his right hand, the residual warmth of the psychic spear still lingering on his fingertips.
For him and Sarah, eliminating a heavily wounded Greenskin warlord was not difficult, but Ragnar's extraordinary life force still made him look askance.
"Hive analysis complete. Target gene sequence has been thoroughly erased. No residual life signals detected," Sarah's cold voice echoed in Raynor's mind through their connection.
"Understood," Raynor replied internally.
He looked up toward the bridge. Behind the heavy alloy doors, intermittent gunfire and battle cries still echoed. The Blood Axe agents had not given up, and the situation for Dominic and Solene remained critical.
Raynor did not choose to charge straight in. His current appearance was too unusual; he could not expose it to too many humans. The Imperium maintained an extremely high level of vigilance against the Tyranids, and any exposure would invite endless trouble.
After a moment's consideration, he activated the system in his mind.
[System, establish a private communication channel with bound Target Two (Solene Vimrott).]
Meanwhile, behind the blast door of the bridge.
Solene leaned against the cold metal wall, swiftly changing the magazine of her energy pistol. Her breathing was somewhat ragged, and fine beads of sweat dotted her forehead. The high-intensity combat from earlier had drained a significant portion of her stamina.
Dominic sat on the floor beside her, using torn strips of cloth with his single hand to bandage his wound. The excruciating pain made his face as pale as paper, but he gritted his teeth, refusing to utter a single groan.
Outside the blast door, the pounding and shouting of the Blood Axe agents were incessant. The heavy door was already beginning to warp slightly. Before long, they would breach it.
...
"We won't hold out much longer," a wounded officer said, his voice trembling. "The ammunition is nearly gone, and there's still no word of reinforcements."
A naval officer looked up, his gaze steady: "Do not give up. Soldiers of the Imperium never bow their heads before the enemy. Even if we die, we will take some Greenskins down with us!"
Just as the situation was on the verge of collapse, a voice both familiar and strange suddenly echoed deep within Solene's mind.
"Solene."
Solene's body stiffened abruptly. She instinctively gripped her energy pistol tighter, warily scanning her surroundings. Only Dominic was here, and he did not even know her name.
Dominic paused his movements, looking at her in confusion: "What is it, Lord Inquisitor?"
"It's nothing," Solene shook her head, forcing herself to calm down.
This was the second time she had heard this voice. She had investigated this bizarre power that could control her body and alter her thoughts countless times. She had scoured through all the classified files of the Inquisition, and reviewed all data regarding xenos technology and the blessings of dark gods, yet she had found nothing. No known technology could achieve this without being detected or blocked, nor would any dark god influence an Inquisitor in such a manner.
Carey Von was like a specter—a ghost that did not exist in any records. He could easily manipulate her body and even hold mental communications with her without her noticing. This feeling of being completely controlled filled her with immense unease. At the same time, it made her grow increasingly curious about this mysterious man.
Just who on earth was he?
Fortunately, for now, his actions suggested he was aligned with the Imperium, which was one of the few pieces of good news.
"How is the situation out there?" Raynor's voice echoed in her mind once more.
Solene composed herself and replied in her thoughts: "More than thirty Blood Axe agents. We have about forty people on our side, but our equipment is poor, and our ammunition is almost depleted. The blast door can hold for five minutes at most."
"Very well," Raynor's voice was devoid of emotion.
"Is that Greenskin warlord dead?" Solene asked tentatively.
"Yes," Raynor replied flatly, as though it were a trivial matter not worth mentioning.
He then spoke again: "Do you have anything that can cause wide-area visual disruption?"
Solene paused, immediately understanding his intention. Those Blood Axe agents indeed needed someone faster and stronger to deal with them.
"Yes," she answered in her mind. "Three 'Twilight' grenades. They can release a large area of yellow smoke, disrupting both visual and infrared detection, and they contain a mild neural paralytic toxin that scrambles a creature's five senses."
"That is enough," Raynor said. "I only need five seconds."
Solene was silent for two seconds. She knew this was the only way. If Raynor charged straight in, his identity would inevitably be exposed. Utilizing the smoke as cover would allow him to eliminate the Blood Axe agents while preserving his secret.
"Alright," she agreed cleanly.
"Also, find a good excuse to make it look like your own doing," Raynor said in his final instruction.
Solene put away her energy pistol and pulled three black grenades from her tactical belt. The surface of the grenades was stamped with a setting sun emblem—one of her personal collection.
She glanced at Dominic beside her. Dominic's severed arm was bandaged, but his face remained pale, and he was still very weak. Although the neural toxin of the "Twilight" grenades was mild, it could still cause severe harm to Dominic in his current state.
After a brief thought, Solene reached up and removed the black mask from her face.
Her smooth, silver-white hair cascaded down, framing her fair cheeks. A cold and exquisitely beautiful face was exposed to the air. Her skin was so pale it was almost translucent, and her features were as delicate as a perfect masterpiece. Her crimson eyes, like the purest rubies, carried a chilling distance that kept people at bay. Even in such a battered state, her beauty was breathtaking.
Dominic was stunned. As a Ventris, he had lived in aristocratic circles since childhood and had never lacked beautiful women around him. The daughters of other nobles would dress up in all their finery, clamoring to please him. But he had never seen a woman like Solene.
Her beauty was not the tender, coquettish, or seductive kind. It was a cold, aloof, and pristine beauty, like a snow lotus on an icy peak. It carried a sense of distance that warned others away, yet made them instinctively want to draw closer.
But it was only a fleeting glance. Solene had already reached out and placed the black mask over his face.
The mask covered Dominic's mouth and nose perfectly, filtering out any potential harmful substances in the air.
"Keep it on, do not take it off," Solene's voice was still ice-cold, devoid of any emotion.
"Wh-what are you going to do?" Dominic's voice muffled slightly as it filtered through the mask. He could smell Solene's faint, cool fragrance lingering on the fabric.
Solene did not answer. She stood up, walked to the side of the blast door, and suddenly cracked it open just a sliver.
"Careful!" Dominic warned instinctively.
But Solene was swift. With a flick of her wrist, three "Twilight" grenades were tossed precisely into the bridge lobby.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Three soft pops rang out. Billowing yellow smoke instantly erupted from the canisters, spreading rapidly like a sudden, thick fog rolling in over the sea. Within seconds, the entire bridge lobby was swallowed by dense yellow smog, dropping visibility to less than half a meter.
"Cough... What is this?!"
"Damn it, my eyes!"
"I can't see, don't move!"
Shouts and coughs of the Blood Axe agents echoed from within the haze. The mild neural paralytic toxin of the "Twilight" grenades began to take effect. Their vision blurred, and their limbs started to feel numb.
But the Blood Axe agents were, after all, highly trained stealth specialists. After a brief moment of panic, they quickly regained their composure.
"Don't panic!" the lead agent captain barked. "It's just the shrimps' smoke screen! They're at the end of their rope, they can't pose a real threat!"
"Everyone, hold your positions and stay alert! Don't move!"
"Once the smoke clears, they're dead!"
His voice carried absolute confidence through the haze. To him, Dominic, Solene, and the others were completely out of options; throwing a smoke grenade was merely a deathbed struggle. Once the fog dissipated, they could easily end this.
But he was destined for disappointment.
Just as the captain lowered his vox-link and prepared to adjust his defensive stance, a purple shadow slipped silently into the smoke.
Raynor's speed was pushed to the absolute limit. Shrouded by the fog, his form was completely invisible within the yellow-green haze. The Blood Axe agents could only hear the sharp whistle of wind slicing past their ears, unable to pinpoint the enemy's location.
Whoosh!
A muffled pop. The captain's hand holding the vox-link dropped to the floor. Before he could even register the pain, his entire body was pulverized into a bloody mist by a colossal impact. Dark green blood and shredded flesh splattered across the adjacent walls, painting a grotesque green streak across the yellow fog.
"Captain?!"
"Captain, what happened?!"
Several nearby agents called out in alarm. But no one answered. What awaited them was only death.
Raynor and Sarah threaded through the smoke. Their movements were clean, precise, and devoid of any excess effort. With every strike, at least one Kommando Boy met his end. Talons tore through throats, fists shattered skulls, and flesh ruptured under immense impact. A symphony of horrifying, bone-crunching sounds echoed in succession through the haze, but each noise was brutally short—often starting and ending in a fraction of a second.
To Raynor, the thirty-plus Blood Axe agents were merely a set of numbers waiting to be erased. These Kommandos, renowned for their stealth and assassination prowess, died without ever catching a glimpse of their killer. The entire process took roughly five seconds.
By the time the last Blood Axe agent collapsed to the ground, Raynor and Sarah's silhouettes had already dissolved back into the shadows, leaving no trace behind. All that remained in the mist was the heavy, metallic stench of blood and a deathly silence.
Behind the blast door, Solene listened intently to the sounds outside. When the silence turned absolute, she whispered in her mind: Thank you.
"No need," Raynor's voice replied. "I didn't do it for you. Keep an eye on Dominic—don't let him die. He is still useful."
With that, the private communication channel was severed.
Solene frowned slightly. She knew this man never acted without purpose. He had saved Dominic for his own ends, but she chose not to probe further.
Three minutes later, the yellow-green smoke gradually cleared, revealing the bridge lobby once more.
When Dominic and the surviving officers beheld the sight, they were utterly dumbfounded. The entire floor of the bridge lobby was painted with minced flesh and dark green blood. Walls, ceilings, and consoles were splattered with bits of gore and shredded viscera. Over thirty Blood Axe agents were dead. Not a single one survived.
"Wh-what on earth happened here?" a young officer asked, his voice shaking with disbelief.
Dominic, too, struggled to process the scene. He turned his head sharply to look for Solene. But the space beside him was empty. Solene had vanished without a trace when he wasn't looking.
"Inquisitor?" Dominic called out.
There was no response.
Was it her...? Dominic muttered to himself.
Though it sounded completely impossible for a single person to bare-handedly slaughter over thirty elite Blood Axe Kommandos in less than three minutes, it stretched his understanding of human combat capabilities. Yet, he knew that Inquisitors were a breed apart. They commanded the Imperium's deadliest armaments and most classified technologies. They frequently employed methods that bypassed the conventional "rules" of war to accomplish their missions. Perhaps the silver-haired Inquisitor had used some classified Ordo weapon to resolve the threat in an instant.
Dominic pulled off the black mask. Her faint scent still clung to the fabric. He stared down the empty corridor, a trace of melancholy in his eyes. The mysterious Inquisitor had vanished just as quietly as she had arrived, leaving behind not even a word of farewell.
Just then, a flurry of hurried footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor.
"Lord Dominic, are you alright!"
"We've come to save you!"
A large force of Imperial soldiers rushed in, weapons at the ready. They were guard forces from other decks of the Gemstone. Having secured their respective sectors, they had finally reinforced the bridge. The horrific scene on the command deck stunned them momentarily, but they quickly recovered, securing the perimeter and treating the wounded.
"Report, milord!" A guard captain ran up to Dominic and offered a crisp, textbook salute. "We have conducted a thorough sweep of the grand ballroom's ruins. No Greenskin life signs were detected. According to the energy residue analysis, Ragnar has been completely obliterated!"