Seven days later, the Iron Faith tore through the veil of the Warp, re-anchoring itself in the real universe.
The arrays of cogitators on the bridge flickered with dazzling red light, and Navigator Eurix's third eye was bloodshot from overload.
His voice, distorted by the mechanical chill of the vox-caster, announced, "Warp jump complete. Arrived at target star system coordinates."
Outside the observation window, a desolate planet slowly emerged, like a rotten eyeball abandoned by the gods.
Radiation storms raged across the planet's surface, and sandstorms laden with toxic dust half-buried the abandoned research station, making it look like the rusted metallic skeleton of a giant beast from afar.
Visibility on the surface was less than a hundred meters, and the air was filled with the acrid smell of ionization.
Tech-Priest Klaus's mechanical tendrils twitched in the data stream, and his voice, punctuated by the distinctive cadences of binary prayers, squeezed out from his vocoder: "Scans indicate energy fluctuations within the research station, but the signal characteristics… are abnormal."
His mechanical eye glowed with an unsettling red light. "Unable to confirm if it's Mechanicus remnant technology, or…"
He paused, seemingly weighing his words, "…some ominous entity."
At the same time, the landing craft's hatch opened with a hissing hydraulic sound.
Knox stepped out of the hatch, the Grey Knights following closely behind, their boltgun safeties clicking in the silence as they stopped before a twisted structure.
The building's silhouette shimmered indistinctly in the toxic mist, its metal surface covered with faded binary runes, like some forgotten Mechanicus prayer.
Dark green liquid seeped from the wall seams, corroding the ground with a subtle hiss.
Toren raised his hand, and the Grey Knights immediately fanned out into a tactical formation, their power armor's servo-systems humming almost imperceptibly in silent mode.
Knox walked in the center of the team, his gaze penetrating the thick metal walls, his sight extending down the spiraling corridor.
Every inch of the corridor was inscribed with binary prayers, but interspersed among them were runes that did not belong to the Mechanicus.
Their lines were more fluid, almost a form of xenos art.
Suddenly, his gaze locked onto the ground at the entrance.
A series of delicate footprints were almost blended into the dust, with only the forefoot impressions clearly visible, as light as a ghost's passing.
"Eldar."
Knox warned in a low voice, with the alertness of a hunter spotting prey.
Toren immediately stopped. "Are you certain?"
"This gait…"
Knox crouched down, his fingertips lightly touching the ground, a faint light flowing in his eyes.
"Forefoot striking first, even stride, typical Eldar Ranger movement."
He straightened up and picked up a nearly transparent crystal shard from a shadowed corner, which refracted an eerie light in the dimness.
"Add to that… this fresh Star Dart Gun energy conduit fragment. It seems we have guests who arrived first."
Toren narrowed his eyes slightly.
The Grey Knights Captain had seen countless battlefields, but rarely encountered someone with such keen observational skills.
He instinctively adjusted his grip on his boltgun, recalling how he had secretly doubted the young Inquisitor's ability to handle this mission during their meeting on the bridge a few days ago.
Now, those doubts were dispelling with every precisely analyzed detail.
"Proceed."
Knox 's voice was unquestionable.
"But with double caution."
He gazed into the depths of the corridor, where the psychic fluctuations were unusually active, like a beast lurking in the darkness.
As the team delved deeper, the walls of the spiral corridor became increasingly twisted, and the red glow of the binary inscriptions flickered erratically.
Suddenly, an alarm tore through the silence: "Warning—Xenos life forms detected—Purge protocol initiated—"
Emergency lights flared, bathing the metal corridor in blood-red, and the runes on the walls writhed under the red light, as if alive.
Knox raised a hand, signaling the squad to stop, his eyes shimmering in the darkness.
"There's a trap."
His voice was exceptionally clear in the empty corridor.
"Beneath the third floor panel on the left, there's some kind of energy device connected."
Tech-Priest Klaus immediately stepped forward, his mechanical arm deploying a series of delicate tools, carefully disarming the hidden death trap.
When the last circuit was cut, the entire floor panel silently sank downwards, revealing a deep pit filled with spikes.
"Praise the omnissiah," Klaus murmured, "This is Necron technology, at least six thousand years old."
Knox didn't respond, his attention fully focused on the energy flows revealed to his eyes.
This ancient ruin was like a labyrinth made of death energy, every corridor and every chamber filled with deadly mechanisms.
But what alarmed him more were the energy traces that did not belong to the Necron; someone had arrived a step before them.
"Continue forward."
Knox commanded, his finger silently resting on the boltgun's trigger slot.
"Maintain vigilance."
The team cautiously advanced, passing through automatic metal doors that opened and closed.
As they went deeper, the static electricity in the air grew stronger, making everyone's hair stand on end slightly.
Knox could feel that they were approaching a powerful energy source.
The next moment, his sight caught a life signature around the corner ahead.
Knox abruptly raised his hand and clenched his fist, and the squad immediately stopped, each seeking cover.
Just at that instant, a series of shimmering energy arrows shot from the darkness, striking the position they had just occupied.
"Eldar!"
A scout growled, his sniper rifle already aimed at the source of the attack.
Knox 's gaze penetrated the darkness, seeing six elegant figures moving rapidly at the end of the corridor.
They wore streamlined armor, their movements as fluid as a dance, a standard configuration for an Eldar exploration party.
"Fire!"
Knox ordered, simultaneously sidestepping to evade an Eldar energy arrow he had already detected flying past him.
The roar of boltguns echoed deafeningly in the confined corridor, and hot shell casings rained down onto the floor.
The squad members suppressed the Eldar shooters with precise firepower, but Knox uncharacteristically did not join the firing line.
His pupils narrowed, catching the tactical intent hidden behind those elegant figures.
The Eldar's seemingly fierce assault was in fact well-organized, each shot precisely calculated to buy time rather than inflict casualties.
"They're buying time…"
As this thought flashed in his mind, his gaze detected an unusual psychic fluctuation suddenly emanating from the side wall.
"Right wall, prepare for impact!"
Knox 's warning boomed like thunder.
No sooner had he spoken than the entire metal wall shattered with a deafening explosion.
Five colossal figures in defiled power armor burst through the wall, their armor adorned with blasphemous runes that pulsed with a sickly dark red light, like breathing.
The leading Chaos Warrior brandished a chainaxe covered in gore, its teeth spinning at high speed with a grating shriek.
"For the Blood God!" The twisted roar was mixed with inhuman snarls.
Knox 's gaze instantly caught the faded legion symbol on their armor—the World Eaters, these scourges from the Great Crusade era, remnants of the Horus Heresy.
It seemed the allure of the artifact was irresistible even to the daemon-pawns from the depths of the Warp.
"For the Emperor!"
A Sister of Battle's prayer, accompanied by a surge of holy flames, temporarily halted the Chaos Warriors' charge.
The battlefield instantly devolved into a triple melee: the Eldar's Star Dart Guns wove a deadly energy net ahead, the Chaos Space Marine' chainaxes shrieked as they tore through the air from the side, and Knox 's squad was perfectly caught in the middle.
At that moment, a rocket exploded overhead, and metal fragments rained down.
Yet Knox maintained a terrifying calm amidst the chaos.
Bolter rounds grazed his shoulder guard, psychic arrows exploded by his side, but these deadly threats were merely a controllable performance in his eyes.
A faint glow deepened in his pupils, piercing through the chaotic battlefield to look directly at the Eldar position.
There, a unique energy fluctuation flickered like a firefly in the night.
"So that's it…"
Knox murmured to himself, noticing that in the seemingly fierce assault of those Eldar warriors, they consistently maintained cover for a certain direction.
His slender fingers lightly brushed the Emperor's holy emblem on his boltgun, and Knox instantly made a decision.
"Captain Toren, the Eldar are yours, Grey Knights." His voice was as sharp as a drawn power sword. "Sister Matilda, Sister Sophia—" Knox 's gaze swept over the two Adepta Sororitas who had proven themselves during the ship crisis, "Let's give these traitors a lesson in repentance they'll never forget."
No sooner had he spoken than his figure blurred into a silver-gray afterimage.
The three-meter-tall Chaos Warrior was roaring a war cry, swinging his chainaxe, and the pus and blood oozing from his defiled power armor coalesced into a nauseating pattern on the eight-pointed star mark.
"For the Chaos Go…"
The roar abruptly ceased. The moment his gaze met Knox 's, this terrifying killing machine suddenly froze like a statue.
"Time for a barbecue, ladies."
Knox 's calm tone formed an absurd contrast with the surrounding battlefield.
Sister Matilda's flamer roared in response, holy flames enveloping the traitor into a human torch, and his agonizing screams quickly turned into the sizzling sound of burning fat.
The remaining four Chaos Warriors let out furious snarls, their power joints hissing with foul steam as they lunged at Knox .
Knox didn't even pause his steps; two bolt rounds shot out from an odd angle, precisely blowing off the two unmoving heads of the traitors.
The patterns of the Underworld on Knox 's hand subtly activated.
{"Sin": "Fallen Slaughter"}
{"Sin Value": 200}
{"Punishment": "Serve as wall bricks for the main hall of Knox 's Palace"}
{"Converted Nether Energy": 100}
The crisp sound of skull fragments hitting the ground strangely formed a bizarre harmony with the judgment sound of the Mirror of Retribution.
Amidst this chaos, his eyes once again caught that fleeting psychic fluctuation.
An Eldar Farseer, clad in a star-patterned robe, was quietly retreating into a hidden passage, clutching an object radiating powerful energy.
"The artifact!" Knox instantly grasped the whole situation.
He had deliberately left two Chaos Warriors uneliminated, both to avoid appearing too astonishing and for this tactical shift.
"Keep fighting! I'm going after the Eldar Farseer!"
"Inquisitor!" Sister Sophia's shout was left behind.
Knox 's agile figure had already disappeared into the narrow passage, clearly tracking the psychic traces left by the Farseer in the absolute darkness, like a hound tracking a scent of blood.
This passage, clearly not designed for power armor, now became his optimal path for solo pursuit.