In the Warp, there was no concept of time.
Duanmu Huai no longer knew how many demons he had killed. To be honest, he was starting to feel numb. Countless demons rushed at him from all directions, trying to drown him beneath their numbers. But Duanmu Huai kept swinging his Warhammer, smashing them again and again into nothing. He had lost count of how many demons he had crushed, and he was even beginning to feel a little drowsy.
"Haaah…"
After splattering yet another Minotaur demon into meat paste with a swing of his Warhammer, Duanmu Huai yawned. Right now, he felt as if he were stuck in some Diablo-like farming game, endlessly grinding monsters—except these monsters didn't even drop any unique gear.
That guy really could endure, though.
Thinking back to when that player had posted "This quest isn't hard, just keep killing monsters", Duanmu Huai felt genuine respect. Forget anything else—just the sheer number of enemies… most players wouldn't have lasted this long!
It was like a long-haul truck driver on the highway—sooner or later, fatigue set in. Now, staring at the endless wave of demons, Duanmu Huai felt no ripple of emotion at all. He was like a machine, mechanically swinging his Warhammer, smashing demons, moving forward, smashing another wave, moving forward again…
To be honest, if he could use his Soul Cards, Duanmu Huai really would have summoned Augis just to have someone to talk to. But unfortunately, when he had entered this hell, the summoning ability of his Soul Cards had been sealed. Clearly, this quest required him to clear demons alone, without any outside help.
"Boom!!"
He didn't know how much time had passed when suddenly, in the distance, an explosion echoed, snapping him out of his dreamlike monotony. Instinctively, he turned toward the sound. Far away, flames erupted into the sky, and the clash of battle cries rolled together like thunder.
A war?
Were there others here, grinding demons like him?
At once, Duanmu Huai was no longer sleepy. It was like trudging along a boring road in a game, only to suddenly trigger a hidden event—his spirit instantly sharpened. Without hesitation, he rammed through the demons blocking his path, striding over their corpses toward the source of the battle.
A short while later, Duanmu Huai reached the edge of the battlefield and saw the two sides locked in combat.
As expected, one side was the demons he knew all too well. The other, however, surprised him—humans.
Or at least, they looked human.
They wore full suits of armor like holy knights, wielding blades and guns, locked in a desperate struggle against the demons. But these warriors, wherever they had come from, were already exhausted. It was only a matter of time before they were completely overrun.
That wouldn't do.
Seeing this, Duanmu Huai frowned. He had been grinding demons alone in hell for so long that he was already bored. If it had been a rabbit, he'd have tried chatting with it by now—let alone a group of people. In any case, since they were enemies of demons too, it was only natural for him to lend a hand.
With that thought, Duanmu Huai didn't hesitate. He leapt off the cliff and plunged straight into the battlefield below.
"Boom!!"
The towering shadow crashed down, startling both sides. The armored warriors holding energy weapons stared at the massive figure, unsure whether he was friend or foe. The demons, too, were caught off guard, staring blankly at the sudden intruder.
It wasn't until Duanmu Huai raised his Warhammer and smashed the nearest demon into a bloody mess that everyone realized the truth.
He was an ally!
With Duanmu Huai's arrival, the demons collapsed into chaos. For him, smashing these creatures was no different from grinding trash mobs in Diablo. One swing of the hammer meant nothing but blood and shredded flesh. Even the demons lurking in the back, firing at him from range, were not spared. All he needed to do was reach out, and under the pull of the [Gravity Gauntlet], they were dragged before him—only to be crushed in an instant.
Within moments, the tide turned. The armored knights who had been on the verge of collapse rallied again, charging once more at the demons under Duanmu Huai's cover. And the demons, after watching him cut them down like vegetables, began to scatter in terror. Clearly, they were not servants of the Blood God—if they had been, they would never have dared to flee.
If the Blood God caught his demons running away, their fate would have been far worse.
But the battle wasn't over.
With a thunderous roar, a towering demon the size of a skyscraper burst onto the field, horns curling from its head. It swung a massive blade down toward Duanmu Huai with terrifying force.
"Damn!"
Duanmu Huai cursed, his eyes flashing as [Armed Enhancement] and [Paladin's Summon] erupted once more. He raised his Warhammer to meet the descending blade head-on.
"BOOOOM!!!!"
At the instant the demon's sword was about to strike, Duanmu Huai thrust out his right hand, activating the [Gravity Gauntlet] to alter the weapon's pull. At the same time, he swung his Warhammer with all his strength, slamming into the blade's side.
The colossal sword veered off course, smashing into the ground instead. The impact tore open a massive trench in the earth. Knights and demons alike were crushed beneath the sword or swallowed by the abyss, vanishing into the depths below.
But it wasn't over yet.
"Huuhhh!!"
Amid the rising dust, Duanmu Huai leapt high into the air, both hands gripping his Chainsword. His eyes locked onto the demon's crimson core in its chest. A moment later, his jetpack roared, blasting him forward with explosive speed. Combined with gravity's acceleration, he shot toward the core like a bullet.
From a distance, all one could see was a black streak piercing the sky, stabbing into the demon's chest. The next instant, its back exploded outward in a spray of gore. The Chainsword's devastating attack shattered its chest armor, pierced through its heart and core, and left the massive demon powerless. It reached out its hand in despair, then toppled backward with an earth-shaking crash.
"BOOM!!"
The demon's massive body slammed into the ground. Seeing this, the surviving demons panicked, shrieking in terror as they fled.
When the dust settled, Duanmu Huai descended from the sky, his armor drenched in blood.
The steel-clad knights froze, staring at the blood-soaked giant. Then their leader lowered his weapon and dropped to one knee. His action spread like a signal—one by one, the others laid down their arms, knelt, and bowed their heads, murmuring a single word.
It was a word Duanmu Huai knew well.
"Astartes…"
Later, Duanmu Huai spoke with them and finally learned their origins.
In truth, these warriors were descendants of the Imperium of Man. Of course, they themselves had long forgotten that history. To them, they now bore a different name—
The Yajin.
The Yajin lived in a place called the Ring of Nur, a world created by beings known as Elemental Spirits. Like the C'tan and the Old Ones, they had existed since the dawn of the universe. But unlike those warlike beings, the Elemental Spirits had hidden away in their domain, uninterested in conquest.
Over time, the Yajin allied with them and began to develop. Their world was not peaceful, but it was prosperous.
Eventually, an alien race called the Meck arrived. After a period of diplomacy, the Yajin became vassals of the Meck. In exchange for advanced culture and knowledge, the Yajin fought as the Meck's vanguard across many worlds.
Naturally, in this process, they entered the Warp—and encountered demons.
That was inevitable. Any race that attempted interstellar exploration would inevitably clash with the Warp.
At first, the Yajin were crushed by the demons. But later, they stabilized and even captured some of them. From those demons, they extracted the essence of Hell—a mysterious, powerful force. This power granted them immortality and even enhanced their technology.
But in embracing it, the Yajin as a people were corrupted by this hellish force—essentially psychic energy. The Elemental Spirits they once worshiped were all but abandoned. Only the Night Guards still clung to the old ways.
On a later expedition, the Night Guards discovered a grim truth—the Meck had already forged a pact with the demons of Hell. The Meck sought Hell's power to secure their immortality. For that, they betrayed the Ring of Nur and the Yajin themselves. They even imprisoned the Elemental Spirits, forcing them to generate hellish power endlessly for the Meck.
Worse, they planned to merge the Ring of Nur with Hell, to consume it entirely, and to refine the souls of the Yajin into this evil energy.
When the Night Guards learned this, they tried to rouse the people of the Ring to resist. But by then, the Yajin were too far corrupted by Hell's power. To preserve their race's purity and traditions, the Night Guards launched a civil war. They even invaded the depths of Hell itself, nearly destroying the Meck's energy factories.
But betrayal from within doomed them. The Night Guards' assault failed. Most were annihilated, the survivors fleeing in scattered groups.
The unit Duanmu Huai had encountered was one such band, hunted by demons. Without his intervention, they would surely have perished.
As for why they recognized Duanmu Huai—it was because of their traditions.
Though tens of thousands of years had passed and the Imperium of Man was long dust in history, the ancestors of the Yajin had not forgotten everything. Their myths told of how their forebears fled disaster aboard great arks of metal, guided by gods to the Ring of Nur.
And in their murals, they had carved the image of the armored angel who bore skull-marked armor and represented the will of the gods to protect mankind—the Astartes.
Now, seeing this figure before them, the Night Guards believed their myths had come true. The Astartes had descended to protect them. It was divine salvation.
Well… I should probably explain that Inquisitors and Astartes are two different things.
But Duanmu Huai let it slide.
After joining with the Night Guards, his goal became clear.
He would return to the Ring of Nur and annihilate both the Meck and the demons.
What kind of man was Duanmu Huai? He was an Inquisitor of the Imperium! And the Meck, as xenos, dared to consort with Chaos demons and enslave the Emperor's people?
If they weren't purged, what kind of heresy would that be?!
It was time for these damned xenos to taste the fury of loyalty!
(End of Chapter)