- Moments earlier -
Nearby, Marneus Calgar and Grand Master Voldus were fighting side by side, enduring the powerful blows of their bulky, powerful enemies as they smashed and impaled one traitor after another.
Voldus unleashed a destructive shockwave of psychic force from his outstretched gauntlet, hurling an entire Chaos Terminator through the air to demolish another tall statue. He was one of the most powerful Grey Knights in several hundred years. This wasn't even him at his most powerful.
Still, the traitors pressed forward, and as they did, new warriors appeared to fill the gaps in their ranks, like an endless horde of relentless vermin intent on destroying what they came here for.
Teleportation energies flared again, revealing a trio of Terminator-armoured Black Legion Sorcerers, flanked by monstrous warriors of flesh-metal and living weaponry.
At the same time, Dreadclaw Drop Pods plunged through the shattered armour glass ceiling above everyone, slamming into the ground behind the advancing Black Legionnaires. From within these drop pods, spilt more of Abaddon's incredibly powerful warriors, Heretic Astartes, including roaring Khorne Berzerkers, charging forward to join the fray.
Khorne Berzerker – Lv.62
|HP: 14,500/14,500
|MP: 300
|A Chaos Space Marine dedicated entirely to glorifying the Chaos God Khorne through hand-to-hand combat. Driven by bloodlust and the Butcher's Nails, their only purpose is to kill and destroy their enemies in the name of Khorne. A relentless melee shock trooper who grows more dangerous the longer the fight continues.
STR: 125
VIT: 120
DEX: 75
INT: 30
---
The Ultramarines stood their ground, despite being increasingly outnumbered. These veterans unleashed volleys of fire into the advancing enemies, ripping Black Legionnaires off their feet or incinerating them into glowing ash with bolts of plasma weaponry. Blue-armoured Terminators had arrived and duelled with their black-armoured counterparts. Heavy flamers spewed fire across adamantium and ceramite while power fists delivered crushing blows.
Marshal Amalrich and his brothers of the Black Templars hurled themselves in alongside the Ultramarines, slashing chainswords and lashing lightning claws through the air, claiming many traitor lives. One Black Templar fell to a chainfist's swipe. Despite this, his brothers fought on.
The trio of Black Legion Sorcerers had their staffs raised, conjuring black fire and using it to boil everything around them.
...
That was when the air in the shrine suddenly changed, and the temperature dropped considerably, sending frost through the nervous systems of all psychically gifted or created.
Those who were more powerful started to gag and hurl, and some even started to shout in anguish and hatred for no reason. Everyone looked at the source of this pain and suffering and saw... Gerhard.
The Doomslayer was honouring his title truly as he threw himself into the thick of the battle, flanked by Lencillus in his incredibly powerful Allarus Pattern Terminator armour and four Sisters of Silence.
They were a terror of efficiency to the forces of Chaos and an utter pain to all psykers and sorcerers. The Praetor Suit not only had a similar effect to a Blank, but it also enhanced the wearer. Meaning Gerhard, who was using his [Blank] skill, was affecting all those around.
A roaring Chaos Terminator attacked Gerhard.
He swung his massive Power Fist forward, aiming to crush Gerhard in one strike. But that wasn't going to happen.
Gerhard moved his upper body back a bit, allowed the power fist to pass by, then rushed forward. A bonesword-variation extended from his left wrist guard, crackling with power: The Doomblade.
Gerhard brought his arm down.
The monomolecular edge of the blade cut through the Terminator armour and sliced through the Chaos Marine's right arm.
"AAAARRRHHHH!!!" the traitor howled in pain and anger.
Gerhard blocked the power glaive and stabbed the Terminator several times in the torso, and then finished him off through the head, piercing straight through the head and brain.
[Chaos Terminator defeated]
[+500,000 EXP]
Gerhard dodged again, beneath a volley of bolter fire and used the dead Terminator as cover to move forward and attack the next one.
The Chainsaw appeared in his hands again, and he swung it through the air, hitting a massive power axe and pushing it to the side, as the Chaos Marine had his energy absorbed.
The Chainsaw roared as it was plunged deep within the Terminator's torso and eviscerated the traitor, sending guts and blood splashing all around and painting a bloody picture.
Gerhard aimed his shotgun to the left, where new enemies had arrived, and pulled the trigger several times, killing the bulky Terminators, which exploded from the inside.
BRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTT--!!
An Assault Cannon from one of the Chaos Terminators shot through the air, hitting several Terminators on the way, but also impacting Gerhard as he was rushing forward.
The impacts smashed into Gerhard, making him shoot through the air and crash into an assembly of Khorne Berserkers.
He was back on his feet right away, though, slashing his wrist blade through the air and clashing with the chainaxe of a Berserker. The massive power of the Berserker, however, couldn't overcome the Doomslayer, as his strength was above that of the Berserker.
Gerhard moved back slightly, making the traitor overextend and then slashed his blade across his wrist, cutting off the hand that held the chainaxe. The bloodlusting Khorne Berserker reached out and smashed his massive fist into Gerhard's head.
BAAANG!
Gerhard's head snapped back. His hand grabbed the Berserker's extended arm, with immense strength, pulled him closer and then smashed his head into the Chaos Marine's chest.
BOOOM!!
The Chaos-tainted Ceramite was smashed open, and the traitor's chest caved in, making him vomit blood into his helmet. But this was a Khorne follower; they loved blood. He wasn't dead yet.
"RAAA--!!"
Gerhard's hand reached out this time, grabbing hold of the Berserker's helmet and with an insane show of physical strength...
RIIIPPP---
Ripped the traitor's head off, followed by his vertebrae.
...
Inside the Praetor Suit, Gerhard's STR stat stood at 240, and if he was in battle, that was +30 from the Blessing of Gork and Mork... so yeah... that happened.
Gerhard moved with a terrifying, cold brutality that turned the battlefield into a meat-grinder of destruction. Unlike the original Doomslayer, Gerhard didn't use rage as fuel, which would have only made the Chaos God Khorne happy and more powerful.
No, he used all the skills and technology he worked hard for and his brilliant, and scary tactical mind.
Gerhard charged forward into the next rank of traitors, the Praetor Suit humming comfortably as it translated his absolute efficiency into ridiculous speed and power. In his right hand, the Chainsaw roared to life again, a high-pitched, bone-vibrating wail that foreshadowed the end of anything in its path.
He slammed the angry teeth into a Black Legionnaire's shoulder, the blade chewing through the ceramite and bloated, necrotic flesh with a sickening wet sound.
He put his entire weight behind the weapon, bisecting the heretic from collarbone to hip in a geyser of black, foul-smelling blood. He got more efficient as he went on.
Fighting Orks and fighting Chaos were different things, and one had to learn how to fight the two.
Without breaking stride, he stored the saw and clicked his shotgun into his grip. He fired a shell into the chest of a charging Khorne Berserker, the point-blank impact shattering the warrior's ribcage into a million bloody pieces of meat and bone as they shredded his own lungs.
As the body began to topple, Gerhard lunged forward, his left arm snapped out the Doomblade. The monomolecular edge sliced through the air, sliding perfectly through the neck of another attacker.
With a brutal twist, he severed the traitor's spinal column and kicked the dying Marine into a group of Terminators, creating a domino effect of panic and broken bones. His strength was on another level.
The Blank skill, which the Praetor Suit enhanced, struck fear into the hearts of these traitors who now fought desperately to kill him at all costs. But Lencillus and the four Anathema Psykana were also there, always at his side, to kill hundreds of the Chaos forces.
Lencillus was a blur, even to the Space Marines, as he suffered no drawbacks in terms of dexterity and speed inside the Allarus armour, despite it being a Terminator armour as well. He was so fast, and thanks to the Gamer system and Gerhard's insane creation level, it was so powerful, that he killed Chaos Terminators with a swing of his sword and a shot of his storm bolter.
Hestia and her sisters weren't any worse off, in fact. Hestia had the best armour, but all of them were armed with that special Executioner Greatblade, which Gerhard had created and with which they slayed the Chaos forces easily and quickly.
The air around Gerhard warped, and the spells of the sorcerers collapsed under the weight of his [Blank] skill. Psykers nearby clutched their heads, their brains boiling and freezing at the same time inside their helmets as Gerhard's proximity severed their connection to the Warp with the subtlety of a wrecking ball.
He capitalised on their agony, and after killing another pair of Chaos Space Marines, he finally drew his most powerful close-quarter weapon: the Anathame.
---
[Anathame - "Doom Power Blade" - Rank: Mythical]
Durability: 18,000 (Self-regeneration)
Damage: 2,800 (Depends on Mana expenditure)
Critical Chance: 80%
Energy Source: Mana / Blank energy
____
Effects:
Mana-Blank Blade
| Ignores 100% armour
| Ignores 90% energy resistance
| Ignores 100% warp resistance
-
Force Weapon Core
| +500% damage vs psykers / daemons / warp entities
| Critical hits deal soul damage
-
Annihilation Cut
| On kill:
| → Total disintegration
| → Soul destruction
| -> Energy drain
-
Necrodermis Adaptation
| +5% resistance per hit taken
| Stacks to 100%
-
Auto-Regeneration
| Instant blade regeneration, through Mana
-
Mana Overdrive
| +300% damage
| +100% attack speed
| Expands blade size
| High MP drain
-
Reality Severance
| Charged attack creates a dimensional slash
| Ignores all defences
Life & Mana Drain
| +50% lifesteal
| Excess HP → MP
-
Passive Aura
| -30% enemy regeneration
| Warp instability
| Fear effect
-
Scaling
| Damage scales with INT / WIS / MP output
---
Yes, Gerhard was aware of what he had done by naming his weapon Anathame. But it fit the dark irony of the setting perfectly. The Anathame, one could say, was the metaphorical butterfly that caused the tsunami that turned into the shitshow the galaxy was in right now. The state of humanity was, in a morbid way, the fault of that blade. And now, Gerhard had used the very same name for his weapon and used it against the forces of Chaos.
The irony.
The blade ignited with a searing, blueish-white heat that seemed to hunger. As it was ignited, everyone noticed it and felt that the blade was alive. In fact, Gerhard had created it using the Tyranid's Bonesword and then combined it with Wraithbone and Necrodermis.
This weapon was indeed dangerous.
Then, Gerhard moved. He moved through the Chaos forces that still dared to stand in his way like a reaper through wheat. The sword cleaved through power armour and bodies as if they were the same density as air.
A Chaos Terminator attempted to parry the blade, swinging his own Power Gauntlet forward.
But Gerhard was a force of nature.
He caught the Terminator's power gauntlet mid-swing with his bare armoured hand, the servos in the Praetor Suit grunting slightly as he redirected the force.
In one fluid motion, he drove the power sword upward through the Terminator's abdomen and out the back, the Mana affecting the heretic's very soul.
He leaned in close, his visor meeting the Lord's dying gaze. Energy flowed through the weapon and into Gerhard, fuelling his MP, before ripping the blade out sideways and letting the two halves of the once mighty Terminator fall to the ground.
Gerhard stood in the centre of the carnage. He reloaded his shotgun, the metallic clack-clack echoing through the racket of the battlefield. And without delay, he hurled himself at the enemy again, aiming to kill those bloody Chaos sorcerers who were in immense agony as Gerhard and the Sisters of Silence approached.