Chapter 196: The Liberation of Drune (Part 3)
[Hades, you might need to wait a little longer.]
The private vox channel lit up. Hades blinked, withdrawing the Black Domain. On the battlefield, a lifeless void surrounded him—an area where no soul remained. Only corpses.
Mortarion's words prompted Hades to pull up the tactical map of the first warzone.
Hmm... They are moving slower than he expected.
[Did you run into trouble?]
[…No.]
[I'm rerouting the Death Guard's Stormbirds to your second warzone. Be ready, Hades.]
That made Hades pause.
[I don't need air support right now.]
Their line was advancing smoothly. In fact, the outer edge of the main city was already starting to peek over the horizon.
[Then how should I explain your... rapid progress to Horus?]
Hades fell silent.
Ah. Right.
Riding a Black-Domain-infused Wraith Knight was exhilarating. Caught up in his rush to make progress, Hades had completely overlooked the implications.
Mortarion, meanwhile, stared at the images sent by Garro from the second warzone.
Corpses lay packed in orderly rows, untouched by explosions or gore. No blood. No fire. No smoke. Just endless stillness.
But Mortarion knew—those people would never rise again.
Astartes instinctively associated death with violence: gunfire, smoke, screaming, torn limbs. But this… This was something else.
One brief contact—one moment—and life had been erased.
Mortarion realized grimly that if you faced this kind of power on the battlefield, you could be dead before you even realized you were under attack.
He looked again at the feed. It was almost surreal. Witchcraft? No—something worse than sorcery.
Even Psykers needed incantations, gestures, a ritualistic focus.
But Hades?
Hades merely stood there. That was all it took.
No wonder Garro's tone had been so shaken. In truth, no being with a soul could remain calm after witnessing such a display.
[The air units will run a light bombardment over your path.]
At the very least, it would make the terrain look more familiar—more like a proper battlefield. That, and they'd bomb any military infrastructure that might still offer resistance.
Still, based on the current reports, Mortarion doubted anything was left alive in that region.
[Fine, fine.]
Hades' familiar voice buzzed back. Mortarion said nothing. After seeing the second warzone's aftermath, Hades' tone now seemed... off. Slightly disconnected from reality.
'Was this really the same Hades he knew?'
Mortarion had always been aware of Hades' capabilities. So were the rest of the Death Guard. They knew Hades was strong—he's larger than others and is always near their Primarch. He's regarded as a figure of unusual stature and status.
But now, for the first time, they saw it. Saw what his Black Domain truly meant in full force.
And it shattered their assumptions.
On the frontlines, veterans like Branka managed to remain composed and continued with their duties. But back aboard the fleet, those like Garro and Vorx—tasked with support and communications—had fallen into silent disbelief.
"Didn't Hades say that Barbarus cleansing is done via the Black Tower? That he just activated it?"
That had always been Hades' explanation: that the purging of Barbarus' warp taint was done by the Black Tower, not himself.
Which was technically true.
Without the tower's amplification and resonance, Hades' Black Domain couldn't have covered an entire planet.
And Hades had never fully shown the Black Domain's strength to anyone but Mortarion and Calas Typhon.
Because of that, everyone had assumed Hades was powerful mostly due to his larger physique and his status beside their Primarch.
But now, they'd seen it.
Seen what it meant when the Black Domain was fully unleashed.
The enemy hadn't even had the chance to fight back. In a single, silent instant, their lives were stolen—without resistance, without warning.
"I understand now why he was placed in the Armoury."
Garro spoke quietly. Given Hades' personal capabilities, the standard Death Guard equipment had never truly suited him.
The two of them stared at the footage coming in from the second battlefield. The enemy approached. Then the enemy lay flat.
Bullets weren't even necessary…
Both men were plunged into deep doubt, and just to make it worse, Hades' relaxed banter with his knight was being transmitted back to headquarters too.
As people who knew Hades well, they could tell from his tone that he was genuinely at ease.
Did Hades… really understand what he was doing?
Did Hades truly grasp what his power meant on the battlefield?
Unlike Hades himself, who fully understood the nature of his ability and had long come to terms with the idea that "when the Black Domain opens, everyone dies"—the rest of the Death Guard were stunned speechless.
This was a walking, self-propelled tactical nuke.
Thank the Emperor he was one of them. Thank the Emperor Hades was a Death Guard. No one wanted to go up against something like that.
No—even as an ally, no one could truly relax after witnessing a battlefield like that.
Fear.
It was instinctive. The kind of fear only those with souls could feel. Normally, even a standard Pariah would provoke disgust and hostility in others. But Hades was far beyond that—far stronger than the average Blanks.
In this world, psykers were called the Blessed among humanity.
But Untouchables?
They were the Cursed.
When Hades retracted the Black Domain, people could temporarily suppress those feelings. But after seeing what was left in its wake…
Fear, revulsion, anxiety—all those negative emotions surged to the surface.
Vorx had originally planned to speak with Hades after the battle, maybe even ask him for advice. But now… now he found himself reluctant.
He finally understood why, back on Barbarus, Hades had voluntarily isolated himself from others.
Hades' powers had always been a double-edged sword.
"Down for the count?"
Hades looked down, trying to check on Nyx inside the cockpit. His helmet had built-in x-ray optics, after all.
The red-haired young man was clearly in no condition to respond. Piloting the Knight had drained the last of his strength. After enduring the alternating hell of enemy psyker attacks and Hades' Black Domain, Nyx felt as if he had seen the secrets of the universe.
In short—any more and it might actually kill him.
Raibo wasn't in much better shape. The Knight's movements had started to stutter and lag.
'I can't let them keep going,' Hades thought.
Still, for a first deployment, this Wraith Knight had more than met his expectations. After this, he could start producing more of them—perhaps assemble an entire Knight squad, which would be ideal for anti-psyker missions.
"Branka, prepare the Knight for withdrawal."
Just in time—the Death Guard's air support had arrived. It was best to pull the pair out now. The upcoming operation would likely involve fighting alongside the Luna Wolves, and in that case, bringing out the Wraith Knight would be… politically unwise.
Hades leapt down lightly from the Knight.
They were currently on the outskirts of the main city, surrounded by open fields and marshland.
With all the altars cleared, they could afford to pause and regroup here, wait for the main force, and then begin their assault.
Hades mulled over possible strategies as he walked, planning to find Branka and discuss the next stage of the siege.
But after walking for a while, he realized—why haven't I run into Branka yet?
He looked up… and saw the Death Guard pulling back.
Huh?
Hades took a hesitant step forward—and immediately saw Branka and the others take a step backward.
"I've already shut off the Black Domain. No need to keep your distance."
"Branka, come over here. I still need to discuss tactics with you."
Hades' voice echoed over the channel. Branka took a deep breath. Under the watchful eyes of the others, he hesitantly began walking toward Hades.
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