The moment Chairon saw those blasphemous tattoos, he immediately pulled out his plasma pistol and squeezed the trigger. After blasting off the head of the rebel officer in front of him, Chairon drew his chainsword and shouted, "These guys are lackeys of Chaos!"
At the same time, the other rebels in the hall, seeing their superior's head explode, were so frightened that they retreated repeatedly. The reputation of the Astartes prevented them from counterattacking immediately.
Titus, Gadriel, and Valerius also noticed the blasphemous tattoos on the fallen officer's arm. Without any superfluous words, everyone immediately raised their weapons. Amidst the roar of bolters and chainswords, it only took them a dozen seconds to sweep clean all the rebels in the hall.
"Be careful, the Chaos rebels cannot possibly have only this much strength," Titus said in a deep voice after slaughtering all the rebels within sight.
No sooner had he finished speaking than a blasphemous Warp rift suddenly appeared in the center of the area. From it slowly emerged dozens of Red Sorcerers clad in ornate blue power armor, along with hundreds of surging mortal rebels. And above these Chaos Thousand Sons floated a Thousand Sons Sorcerer, dressed in a lavish robe and holding a staff.
"Kill these lackeys of the Corpse-Emperor! The Lord of Change craves sacrifices!" The Thousand Sons Sorcerer violently swung his staff. Accompanying his movement, the dozens of Red Word Warriors seemed to be activated, raising their hellguns and opening fire on Marcus and the others. Hundreds of mortal rebels were also affected by this Chaos power, chanting insane gibberish praising Tzeentch and blaspheming the Emperor, charging forward fearlessly.
When enemies meet, their eyes turn red with fury. The long-standing grudge of ten millennia between the loyalist Chapters and the traitor Legions erupted violently at this moment. Titus, Chairon, Gadriel, and Valerius, while cursing these filthy traitors, brandished their weapons, unleashing the wrath of the Emperor and Roboute Guilliman.
Marcus, hidden behind Titus and the others, saw so many targets and his eyes immediately lit up. Immediately, psychic flying knives shot out, rapidly harvesting the mortal rebels who served as cannon fodder. However, Marcus's primary targets were still the Red Sorcerers and the Sorcerer.
After setting the hellgun's output to maximum, Marcus raised his scope and locked onto a Red Word Warrior's helmet.
"Pfft!"
A scorching laser beam quickly shot out, and the laser beam, capable of penetrating ceramite, undoubtedly pierced through the Red Word Warrior's ornate helmet. A few sparkling dust particles drifted out from the hole in the helmet, only to be pulled back into the armor by an invisible force. Due to the effects of Ahriman's Rubric of Ahriman, there was no longer any flesh behind the ornate armor of these Red Word Warriors; only clumps of soul dust remained. Only by extensively damaging the armor could a Red Word Warrior be killed.
Marcus naturally knew that such a simple attack could not kill a Red Word Warrior. He continued to pull the trigger, and more laser beams shot out, piercing several holes in the Red Word Warrior's armor. However, these Red Word Warriors remained unaffected, continuing to rigidly hold their hellguns and fire incessantly.
Hiding behind a cover, Marcus looked up. Under the envelopment of his mind power, while the Thousand Sons Sorcerer's attention was focused on Titus and the other three, the meltagun had covertly approached the Red Word Warrior whose armor had several large holes.
"Bang!"
The next second, a torrent of melta poured from the muzzle, instantly engulfing the Red Word Warrior. Under the power of the melta, the Red Word Warrior's ornate armor was instantly twisted, melted, and disintegrated. The soul dust originally contained within the armor was also exposed to the air, scattering with the wind.
"Detected Host has completed Objective 1: Kill a Thousand Sons Red Sorcerer. Task evaluation in progress. Evaluation passed, task reward being issued. Obtained Random Draw Chance × 1. Obtained Title: "Thousand Sons Slayer". Title Effect: Slightly increases damage against Thousand Sons Legion warriors. For every Red Word Warrior you kill, you can free one-tenth of its soul. If you continuously kill the same Red Word Warrior ten times, that Red Word Warrior will be unable to be resurrected."
Listening to the system prompts in his ear, Marcus had no time to check them. Because the Thousand Sons Sorcerer floating in the air had already noticed him.
"Insignificant mortal! How dare you destroy the work of the great Lord of Change!" The Thousand Sons Sorcerer immediately waved the staff in his hand, and a blasphemous, evil eye formed from Chaos energy immediately appeared in the air. After a brief charge, a Chaos ray shot out from the evil eye.
"Hahahahahahaha!" Accompanying the Thousand Sons Sorcerer's sinister laughter, the Chaos ray directly blew the cover Marcus was hiding behind into fragments, piercing through it and accurately hitting Marcus's hiding spot.
"Damn it, this power is much greater than in the game." As the smoke cleared, Marcus reappeared behind another cover, cursing. Fortunately, he dodged in time, otherwise, he would have been blown into pieces along with the cover by the Chaos ray. This power was only stronger, not weaker, than a neurothrope's attack.
"Hmm?" The Thousand Sons Sorcerer, who had been sneering, did not expect that a small mortal could survive his attack.
"Hmph, lackeys of the Corpse-Emperor! Like rats, you only know how to scurry around!" The Thousand Sons Sorcerer sneered, about to wave his staff and attack Marcus behind cover again.
"Then let's see if your blasphemous sorcery is more powerful, or if the Templar's wrath is greater!" Immediately, before the Thousand Sons Sorcerer could completely swing down his staff, Marcus activated the Starfire mark on his chest.
Instantly, a spectral blue psychic rift appeared above the Thousand Sons Sorcerer's head. The Sorcerer, with his keen psychic perception, immediately stopped his actions and looked up at this rift, which he had not opened himself.
"This rift is not connected to the Warp!?" Every Thousand Sons Sorcerer is both an ambitious individual who can skillfully use sorcery, and a scholar who studies psychic spells. Even on the battlefield against the Corpse-Emperor's lackeys, the power from another universe, another race, immediately captured the Thousand Sons Sorcerer's full attention.
The next second, a terrifying gravitational pull emanated from the psychic rift, rapidly draining the psychic reserves within the Thousand Sons Sorcerer's body. The Thousand Sons Sorcerer suddenly awoke with a start, attempting to move away from this gravitational pull and retain his psychic reserves. But all his attempts ended in failure.
"Damn it, what have you done!?" The Thousand Sons Sorcerer shrieked, questioning, while enduring the pain of his psychic energy being drained and his body collapsing.
"Sealed your doom, heretic—now burn in the Emperor's light!"
Marcus had no habit of wasting words with villains, and immediately seized the opportunity to raise his hellgun and plasma pistol and open fire fiercely.