At this very moment, Adam finally understood the joy of the Lord of Skulls sitting upon the Brass Throne in the Warp.
—This felt absolutely amazing!
"Yes, yes, yes! Chop that piece of shit right there! Use your damn strength!"
The heavy blade of a Castellan Axe fell with a thunderous strike. A Lictor's body wobbled as its headless corpse crashed to the ground, dead on the spot.
"Aim for its fucking head! Harder! Faster!"
A Carnifex, using its massive crushing claws to grip an Adeptus Custodes' weapon in an attempt to disarm him, suddenly had its huge frame tilted violently.
A fist encased in auric armor made intimate contact with its chitinous shell, shattering the creature's skull.
Then came punch after punch, standard attacks weaving between heavy blows, until the Carnifex finally lost its balance entirely. The Custodian before it delivered a finishing stroke with his axe, slaying it instantly.
"Fire! Fire every fucking thing! Don't show these bastards a shred of mercy!"
A swarm of Zoanthropes, gathered under the command of the Hive Mind, attempted to unleash psychic lightning to halt the encroaching foes. Instead, they were blown to fragments by incoming multi-melta fire and specialized bolt shells, their mangled remains raining down from the air.
"Holy shit. Seeing this alone makes the whole damn trip worth it!"
And it wasn't just because it was a spectacle to behold.
Adam narrowed his eyes, looking utterly satisfied.
Those synapse creatures acting as command nodes, responsible for controlling nearby Tyranid units, naturally possessed powerful psychic energy. Now, as they died, a massive influx of souls was being devoured one by one by his Reality Strength.
The goal that once seemed unreachable was now drawing closer as the progress bar surged upward. It was an incredibly comfortable sensation.
Now, Adam truly understood the "joy" of the Blood God.
Contrary to popular belief, the Blood God never cared about the source of the sacrificed blood.
In history, there were actually Khorne cultists who disguised themselves as blood bank maintenance staff, tricking the ignorant citizens of the Empire into donating blood just to sacrifice it to Khorne. Surprisingly, Khorne accepted it with a smile and even granted generous blessings.
Putting himself in those shoes, Adam instantly understood the reasoning behind that style of operation.
If it were me, I wouldn't care either!
"Oh? Is the main event finally starting?"
Suddenly, Adam sat up straight in his seat.
An anomaly occurred within the swarm—a vast number of Tyranid organisms retreated like a receding tide, instantly clearing the surrounding environment.
All Custodes reacted immediately.
Shield-Captain veterans holding Sentinel Blades and Storm Shields stepped forward, while Blade Champions with long axes guarded the flanks. In the center, they protected the Silent Sisters in their void armor, forming a simple yet effective interception formation.
From the corridor in the distance came heavy footsteps as a massive, hideous beast appeared before everyone's eyes.
It was even taller than the heavy-duty Carnifex units.
On its four thick arms, it wielded four heavy bone sabres, its body covered in reinforced chitin. Its face was ferocious, teeth bared, as it constantly sized up the prey before it. Thick, foul-smelling smoke billowed from the chimneys on its back.
This was—the Swarmlord.
As the direct executor of the Hive Mind's will, every part of this Tyranid's body was designed for the most efficient killing possible.
Within the gestalt Hive Mind, it even possessed a complete consciousness, granted more autonomy to fulfill its specific role. This made its combat reactions lightning-fast and gave it enough intelligence to conduct tactical command and adjustments based on the battle—enough to put the galaxy's finest strategists to shame.
Beside this Swarmlord were over a dozen lumbering beasts acting as living shields, guarding the Swarmlord like a royal retinue.
These were Tyrant Guards.
These were living shields specifically created by the Hive Mind to protect high-value synapse nodes. Though their intelligence was extremely low, their threat level was not to be underestimated.
At this moment, such a terrifying killing machine lunged directly and fiercely toward the boarding party!
There was no retreat.
The Custodes and Silent Sisters simply tightened their grips on their weapons, ready and waiting.
---
Half an hour later.
A Shield-Captain, covered in blood, slowly straightened his back.
Lying at his feet was the horrific corpse of the Swarmlord, covered in jagged gashes of varying sizes. Even in death, it still radiated an incredibly powerful sense of oppression.
The Custodian reached down and forcefully held up the head of the Tyranid Tyrant. Though the monstrous face was soaked in blood, it remained terrifying to behold.
Behind him, his fellow Custodes also stood up. Every one of them was wounded; some had even lost an arm or a leg. Yet, facing such a terrifying beast, not a single member of the boarding party had died.
"Are you alright?"
Adam's voice rang out in the Shield-Captain's mind via psychic communication.
He had originally been in contact with Leonardo, but as the leader of the mobile task force, Leonardo had been leading from the front. During the fierce battle, he was struck in the chest by the Swarmlord and sent flying like a cannonball. He was currently slumped to the side, unconscious.
Therefore, Adam had to contact the Custodian who had taken over command.
"We are fine, Lord Adam," the Shield-Captain replied flatly.
"These xenos creatures are indeed troublesome, and the combat intensity was high. But having actually fought them, I can only say..."
"It's not as intense as—the War in the Webway."
With the death of the Swarmlord, the Hive Mind finally confirmed that this cruiser could no longer produce high-tier units to deal with this terrifying boarding party. It had no choice but to abandon the ship.
In the void, the Devourer-class cruiser slowly ground to a halt. Its bio-plasma thrusters extinguished as it drifted forward at a constant speed due to inertia.
But it still served one final purpose.
Under the control of the Hive Mind, the biological weaponry on the ship fired simultaneously. Along with a large number of other abandoned bio-ships, they executed a precise calculation, firing upon the other Hive Ships under the Hive Mind's command.
This was not mindless self-harm.
The Hive Mind had prepared in advance, coating the impact zones with a specialized immune chitin that converted the damage into a propulsive force, further increasing their speed.
Of course, this operation caused a large portion of the fleet to lose formation in the void, turning into silent, drifting asteroids completely separated from the main force.
In the eyes of the Hive Mind, it was all worth it.
The prey possessed such terrifyingly elite forces; if they continued boarding operations ship by ship, it would cause even greater losses to the Hive Fleet.
It was better to sacrifice the pawns to save the king.
As long as they were fast enough, the distance between the two fleets was shrinking. Soon, it would be able to use its absolute fire superiority to shatter the hidden fleet with saturated bombardment.
When that time came, no power would be left to stop the Swarm from feeding.
Just as the Hive Mind was envisioning its bright future, the expression on Adam's face began to falter.
No, I have to hold it in. I can't fucking laugh.
But how can I hold back something this goddamn funny?
"Hee-hee... you fell for the trap, you stupid bugs!"
He whispered softly: "Morning Wood."
"I am here."
As always, the Machine Spirit responded to his command.
"The time has come. You know what to do."
Adam gave the order, looking toward the Tyranid Hive Ship that had been exposed after losing its massive fleet screen.