Light Lances scoured the sea of sand.
Prolonged, intense heat had fused the sand grains into an endless expanse of polished glass.
The glass continent mirrored the sky, where thick, dark clouds flickered with continuous orange lightning, and streaks of Light Lances pierced the cloud sea from even farther beyond.
Standing upon this glass continent, it felt as if beneath his feet lay another, completely inverted Alert Star.
Only when a pair of ceramite knees lost their strength and crashed onto the glass did the mirrored world instantly'shatter'.
A Chaos Astartes clad in ceramite power armor, the red lenses of his helmet gazing vacantly at the Mortal before him.
Sith braced a foot, wrenching his power sword free from the Chaos Astartes's chest with effort.
The massive body toppled backward, lying amidst the boundless reflection as if upon a canopy of sky.
His form heaved, ragged breaths audible even through his helmet.
Sith stood, one hand gripping a Bolter, the other his power sword. His helmet bore a deep gash as his gaze surveyed his surroundings.
An endless expanse of corpses.
Greenskins, humans, Chaos followers—all now seemed enveloped by cloud layers above and below, resting quietly in this 'mid-air'.
Only the rivers of blood spreading beneath them slowly stained the pristine distance.
"The God-Emperor... long live..."
"The Imperium... long live..."
Intermittent, scattered shouts rose from afar. Sith looked over. The few surviving Mortals, slumped or leaning, stared at the piled corpses beside his solitary figure, straining to lift their heads and proclaim the existence of the final victor of this meat grinder.
Exhausted, Sith hung his head. His helmet, lacking the strength to support itself, drooped toward his feet. Gazing at his own reflection in the glass—covered in gashes and grime—he silently mouthed the words amid the ebbing and flowing fragments of sound in his ears.
"Long live the Mortals..."
*Thud!*
His power sword pierced the reflection in the glass. Sith took a deep breath, leaned on the sword, gritted his teeth, and forced himself upright once more.
He scanned the area. Spotting Bruno slumped amidst a pile of bodies in the distance, clutching his heavy stubber with vacant eyes, Sith pulled his power sword free and strode toward him.
"Rally the troops. Advance on Hyberia immediately."
Sith mustered his strength, keeping his voice as steady as possible. Bruno's eyes gradually regained focus. His hands, still trembling with the micro-movements of firing, forcefully pulled the heavy stubber free. Lifting his gaze to Sith, Bruno swallowed dryly.
For nearly every surviving soldier couldn't help but look beside Sith.
That ground was covered with cultist corpses, and even Astartes bodies stacked upon one another.
Among several mountains of Greenskin dead were multiple Greenskin Bosses encased in thick iron, their massive forms simply sprawled on the ground.
Faced with these 'trophies' of Sith's, survivors like Bruno, beyond dry swallows, were utterly at a loss for how else to express their awe.
Leaning on his heavy stubber, Bruno gritted his teeth and pushed his exhausted, trembling body to its feet.
Seeing this, the surrounding survivors also clenched their teeth and straightened up. Lasrifles now served as crutches for the soldiers.
Limping, the now much-depleted soldiers of the 101st Regiment converged from all directions.
He swallowed hard once more, trying to soothe his painfully dry throat.
A slightly hoarse voice came from behind the helmet:
"Following this mirror surface, we still have a long way to go."
The soldiers followed Sith's gaze. Perhaps having just been subjected to two consecutive exterminations, and with their own forces recently deployed here, the distant, repeated cycles of annihilation and carnage now lay beneath Sith and the others' feet as a strange, unsettling quiet.
Even the gales from distant, violent explosions, after racing hundreds or thousands of kilometers, arrived here as a cool breeze gently brushing over the survivors' bodies.
And from the direction of that wind, a massive hive region, jutting directly above the horizon and shimmering with a blue energy screen, still erupted with artillery fire (a sky full of artillery fire).
No extra words were spoken; there was simply no strength left for them. The soldiers merely withdrew their gazes, looking silently at Sith.
In the distance, endless 'meteors' once again pierced the cloud sea. From the direction the river of blood flowed came the growing tremor of the earth. Sith withdrew his gaze from both, turned, and continued walking toward Hyberia.
But he had barely lifted his foot when a fighter trailing thick smoke shrieked down and crashed onto the mirror surface not far away.
The cloud-sea beneath their feet was cratered by the impact. Sith and the others looked on, puzzled. By its markings, it was an Imperial side fighter.
But why would an Imperial side fighter cross the entire warzone, forcing a breakthrough to this location?
Bruno and the others looked to Sith. With a hint of weary resignation at expending more energy, Sith walked toward the fighter:
"A few Stormtroopers with me. The rest, stand guard."
Several Stormtroopers with jump packs followed Sith without a word of complaint. Bruno turned, using a Chaos Astartes who had perished with a Greenskin Boss as cover, and set up his heavy stubber on it.
But Sith had taken only a few steps when, from the billowing smoke of the distant fighter, a servitor skull wobbled into flight.
The servitor skull quickly scanned the area, then flew straight toward Sith.
The acting bodyguard Stormtroopers immediately raised their weapons, but Sith raised a hand to stop them.
Sure enough, the servitor skull did not attack. Instead, it flickered with light, projecting an image onto the open ground.
Then, within the faint, blurry blue projection, appeared a towering, blue-clad Astartes wearing a pair of exaggerated power fists!
Amidst the weak, staticky electronic signal came the other's busy voice:
"Contract the defense line! Cede the entire outer fortress to them!"
"The void shields? The void shields absolutely must not fail. Reinforce the void shield defense with the retreating stragglers!"
Staring at the blue Astartes continuously directing the battle before them, Sith and everyone around were stunned.
Only when a faint reminder came from off-screen did the giant turn and look at Sith.
Fully presenting his front, he was met with the sight of the Mortal soldiers beside Sith taking a sharp breath and dropping to one knee before the image.
"Lord... Calgar?"
Awe gripped the crowd, for this was a legend known only from Imperial propaganda, one who could meet demigods and fight alongside them.
And now, though merely a projection, this person had truly appeared before their eyes.
Sith stood his ground. Behind him, soldiers knelt across the ground. Before him stood the towering figure of Calgar, whom he had to look up to see.
Calgar did not speak immediately, first surveying the surroundings.
Observing the boundless corpses on the glass, even mixed with the ashes of Warp demons, Calgar's stern, rational face showed clear approval.
The appearance of this expression instantly caused the commotion in the command center outside the projection to quieten slightly.
But as Calgar's gaze continued to sweep, upon seeing the several mounds of Greenskin dead and the piled Chaos Astartes, even he slightly widened his remaining right eye.
Then, with a hint of disbelief, he looked from the Chaos Astartes to the power-armored Sith before him.
For that area of carnage was different from the others. There were no human soldier corpses there, only Chaos and Greenskins!
Understanding what this implied, Calgar finally abandoned his usual rational detachment. He directed toward Sith a look of astonishment he hadn't shown to an outsider in countless years.
"These..."
"Did you kill all these?"
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