Even with the support of the Thors, every step forward was marked by countless deaths. Yet, the soldiers charged ahead without hesitation. At that moment, several deafening roars erupted from the Tyranid swarm nearby.
A group of massive Hive Tyrants, led by the Swarmlord, launched a full-scale charge toward the Thors.
Seeing this, the six Thors ground to a halt. The quad-linked cannons on their backs shifted modes once more, their muzzles locking onto the stampeding behemoths. In the next instant, divine judgment descended from the heavens.
The 350mm quad-linked impact cannons opened fire at full capacity. The Tyranid swarm in the distance was instantly engulfed by a deluge of shells. Colossal plumes of smoke billowed into the sky as the relentless bombardment hammered the Hive Tyrants like the wrath of a god.
When the Thors' barrage finally subsided, the distant earth had been scorched into a blackened wasteland. Countless Tyranids had been reduced to ash under such firepower. However, as the smoke cleared, the pupils of everyone watching began to tremble.
Standing atop a section of intact alloy wall, Alexei stared intently at the figures emerging from the haze. "How can any biological creature survive that level of bombardment?"
A massive roar snapped him back to reality. The psychic shield surrounding the beast gradually dissipated as it charged toward the Thors once again.
It was only then that Alexei noticed several Tyranid creatures floating in the air behind the Swarmlord. Their heads were grotesquely oversized, their bodies drifting through the air via sheer psychic will. They had used their psionic shields to intercept the shells intended for their leader.
"Zoanthropes?!" Damn it. He had completely forgotten about the specialized psychic organisms within the Tyranid swarm. These creatures possessed enough psionic power to flip an Imperial Rhino transport inside out like a plastic bag.
Alexei's gaze then fell upon one specific creature whose appearance differed significantly from the ordinary Zoanthropes. His heart sank. He knew what that was—a Neurothrope, essentially the "Pro Max" version of a Zoanthrope. Its psionic level was equivalent to an Alpha-grade psyker.
Not only could it directly drain the life force of nearby enemies, but it could also heal itself and assist surrounding Zoanthropes in controlling their vast psionic energy, preventing their brains from melting due to overload.
Evidently, these wretched creatures had layered multiple psychic shields over the Swarmlord. Combined with the Swarmlord's innate psionic talent, it had managed to survive the Thors' fury.
While Alexei was still calculating his next move, the Swarmlord used its shield to tank the fire from the "Thor's Hammer" arm cannons and charged straight at the lead mecha.
With lightning speed, it used its four razor-sharp bone-blades to sever the arm of the mecha, which stood much taller than itself. As the "Thor's Hammer" crashed heavily to the ground, the Thor began to stumble back uncontrollably. In the next heartbeat, the sharp bone-blades pierced straight through the cockpit. One Thor was completely destroyed in less than three minutes.
With a thunderous roar, the Swarmlord turned its crimson gaze toward Alexei on the high wall. It seemed to sense something. It immediately wrenched its stuck bone-blades free and began charging toward the wall where Alexei stood. The remaining Thors threw themselves desperately in front of the beast.
Death seemed imminent.
Seeing their supreme commander in danger, the five remaining Thors blocked the Swarmlord's path. Their "Thor's Hammer" arm cannons fired frantically at the charging titan.
Yet, despite their best efforts, they could not halt its advance. The Tyranid swarm behind it surged forward again, braving the fire. The Zoanthropes used their immense psionic power to shield the Swarmlord and the surrounding swarm from the humans' firepower.
The Swarmlord hacked at the Thors with its four monomolecular serrated blades. The Thors' thick armor, capable of resisting standard attacks, was like tissue paper before those blades. Lacking defensive energy shields of their own, the Thors were defenseless against the Swarmlord in close combat.
The Terran Thor was simply not designed for melee combat from its inception. No one had anticipated that a biological creature could survive a direct bombardment from six batteries of 380mm quad-linked heavy cannons.
Within ten short minutes, the six Thors that Alexei and the others had pinned their hopes on were rendered into scrap. Nothing stood between the Swarmlord and its target.
As the Swarmlord accelerated toward Alexei, its blades poised to strike, a youthful and familiar voice echoed in Alexei's mind: "No... I won't allow it!"
Suddenly, a psionic shield capable of blocking any attack materialized in front of the wall where Alexei stood. Every attack from the Tyranids was intercepted, and the Swarmlord's downward slash was caught firmly by the psionic field.
It let out a deafening roar, exerting all its strength, yet it could not move its blades even a fraction of an inch. Thump! An incredibly massive surge of psionic energy erupted from in front of it. The Swarmlord's ten-meter-tall body was flung into the distance with a terrifying arc.
In the next moment, every human on the battlefield felt a sudden hum in their heads. Blood began to trickle from their ears, noses, and eyes. Their minds went blank for a second as if struck by a heavy blow.
Everyone looked up in a daze. In an instant, countless Tyranid aerial units lost their lives. Half of the sky was cleared in a heartbeat, and their corpses rained down around the soldiers.
It was as if a pause button had been pressed on the battlefield. Every living thing stopped what they were doing and looked toward the sky. Countless Mutalisks and Corruptors were circling a glowing humanoid figure.
"Ellie..." Alexei stared in shock at the little girl in mid-air. But Ellie did not appear to be flesh and blood at this moment; she radiated a blinding golden light, looking like a second sun in the sky.
In the main Hive City, the Archpriest leading the prayers in the Ecclesiarchy Cathedral seemed to notice something. He dragged his aged body to the cathedral doors, his clouded eyes staring toward the distant battlefield. "God-Emperor... is that your messenger?"
The bells at the spire rang out once more, their deep tolling faint but audible even to those on the Cinder Plains. Deep within the massive Zerg Hive in the Underhive, Ellie's small physical body lay quietly on the soft, warm Creep. Zagara and Abathur stood guard beside the sleeping girl's face.
"I don't want to lose you all."
Ellie's voice appeared in everyone's mind again. In the next instant, a psionic force so immense it made all life feel suffocated descended from the heavens. Even the Shadow in the Warp cast by the Great Devourer seemed powerless against this girl radiating golden light.
In the nearby swarm, the Zoanthropes suddenly let out wails of agony. Their psychic shields flickered violently. Even with the Neurothrope nearby, they could not contain the surging energy. Suddenly, one Zoanthrope's massive head exploded with a bang, followed by a second, then a third...
In moments, all the Zoanthropes were reduced to a mist of blood. Compared to Ellie's psionic power, which felt vast enough to consume planets, the psychic might of the Zoanthropes was like a firefly next to a full moon.
At this moment, Ellie was the only deity on this planet. Even the terrifying Shadow in the Warp briefly lost its effect on her.
Her psionic power did not stop there. Her glowing golden eyes turned toward the Swarmlord, which was roaring impotently toward the sky.
The next second, the Swarmlord's massive body was suddenly hoisted into the air. No matter how it struggled or used its own psionic energy to resist, it was futile.
Ellie slowly extended her left hand. Crack... A bone-chilling sound echoed from the Swarmlord's body. Crack... Crack... Sounds of internal shattering continued to ring out. In the next moment, accompanied by a roar of extreme fury from the Swarmlord, its body was crushed into a sphere of flesh and bone. The terrifying Tyranid beast was like a common insect in the hands of a child.
Following the death of the Swarmlord, every Synapse creature across the plains began to shriek. Their bodies twisted as if under attack. One by one, they suffered brain death under the massive psionic pressure; even the support of the Tyranid Hive Mind was useless.
Before long, the Tyranid swarm on the Cinder Plains lost all its Synapse nodes. They instantly devolved into mindless, feral beasts, attacking anything in their sight without distinction.
Alexei watched Ellie's display of power, but he suddenly noticed the golden light around her body shifting colors.
Realizing what was happening, he began to shout toward the sky, "Stop, Ellie! Stop! That's enough! Leave the rest to us! Enough!!!"
However, Ellie remained unresponsive. The golden light on her body began to flicker violently, and her massive psionic energy became unstable.
Suddenly, a light breeze brushed past Alexei's face. He turned his gaze toward the distance, a look of primal fear appearing in his eyes for the first time in a long while.
A breeze, a gust, a gale—then an endless psionic storm capable of destroying everything appeared on the battlefield. Every living being felt an instinctive terror. In the distance, whether it was the infighting Tyranids or the advancing Zerg, all were swept into the air by the raging winds.
The thick yellow sand of the wasteland was whipped up by the high-speed hurricane, turning into a natural disaster that could grind any life to pieces. In the sky, thick black clouds began to blot out the sun. A massive eye of a storm appeared just below the orbit of the planet Aiel.
The three bunkers were now trapped by this terrifying storm, with all outside forces cut off by the wall of wind. Any life that dared to approach the storm was instantly pulverized into a red mist.
Simultaneously, within the endless storm, the Warp energy that should have been suppressed by the Shadow in the Warp surged once more, stimulated by Ellie's psionic discharge.
The surviving humans were now filled with despair. This was a disaster they could not hope to withstand.
Alexei gritted his teeth, watching the hurricane approach the alloy defense line. He knew that conventional methods would not stop the out-of-control Ellie.
He placed his final hope on the Zerg psionic network. He intended to link directly to Ellie's mind to wake the lost little girl. He was gambling on his own immunity to psionic effects to bring her back!
"Zagara!! Answer me! Zagara!!!!"
"Bzzzt... Bzzzt... Mas... Bzzzt... Master... I am here!"