After quickly scanning the surroundings and confirming that the Inquisitor hadn't ambushed him with eight hundred lictors, Marcus closed his eyes, confirming that the lictors were still alive through their psychic link. Immediately, the invisible lictors made a few leaps, arriving in front of Marcus. In its scythe-like claw, it held a corpse whose brain had been sucked dry—apparently a noble's attendant.
"Have you found the Inquisitor?" Marcus asked.
The lictor nodded slightly, then completely tore apart the corpse in its claw, flinging it into the high sky outside. However, Marcus did not intend to act personally. Instead, he opened his system panel and summoned the Tyrant Xenomorph. In the complex environment of the Hive City, the Tyrant Xenomorph, combining the brutal efficiency of the Tyranids with the stealthy infiltration of the Xenomorphs, was undoubtedly the perfect assassin. Its intelligence was even superior to that of a Tyranid Hive Tyrant. Upon receiving the order to kill the Inquisitor, it followed the lictor into the darkness. Marcus was not idle either; guided by the psychic link, he followed far behind the two monstrous war beasts.
A high-ranking figure like an Inquisitor would naturally not frequent places like the Underhive; they would almost certainly operate in the Upper Hive and the topmost Hive City sections. This allowed the lictor to pinpoint the Inquisitor's trace within a few days by consuming the brains of more than a dozen individuals. Thanks to the Tyranids having recently been repelled by Roboute Guilliman, Avarax was still in a relatively chaotic state overall. No one paid any attention to the dozen or so missing servants or low-ranking nobles.
After moving a certain distance, following the lictor and the Tyrant Xenomorph, Marcus stopped in front of a magnificent and ornate giant spire. This was the temporary command post for the Recidus Star System, established by Roboute Guilliman himself, integrating all Imperial forces on the entire Hive City planet. The Adeptus Mechanicus, local nobles, and the Ecclesiarchy were all forcibly united by Roboute Guilliman, greatly improving administrative efficiency. Of course, this so-called "greatly improved" merely meant increasing efficiency from one percent to ten percent. The Imperium of Man's inherent decay and inefficiency could not be resolved by a single strong-willed Gene-Seed Primarch.
Bypassing the elite Astra Militarum Soldiers and Stormtrooper units guarding the spire, Marcus found a hidden ventilation duct and slipped inside. He was not a madman; for now, he had no intention of directly confronting the full might of the Imperial forces. Even an entire Blood Moon clan, if unleashed in the Warhammer setting, would have to proceed with extreme caution. Marcus's only target was the Inquisitor, who was likely still searching for his whereabouts.
"Bang! Boom!" Just as Marcus was moving through the ventilation duct, continuously approaching the location of the lictor and the Tyrant Xenomorph, several loud noises suddenly erupted not far away.
"Warning! Warning! Tyranid invasion detected! All units, assemble immediately!" Red alarms blared throughout the command post. Almost everyone who heard the alarm was stunned for a moment. This was the Hive City spire, and it was also the command post; how could Tyranids possibly invade here? But then, the Tyrant Xenomorph's roar, filled with raw psychic power, interrupted their bewildered thoughts.
"Damn it! Hurry, hurry!" A Stormtrooper captain, who had reacted immediately, raised his gun and led a dozen Stormtroopers and numerous Astra Militarum Soldiers towards the source of the roar.
"Such a big commotion?" Marcus, observing everything unfolding below from the top ventilation duct, couldn't help but mutter. He wasn't overly worried about the Tyrant Xenomorph failing. A true Norn Emissary, hatched by the Tyranids, had a documented record of slaughtering Custodian Guards like chopping melons. While Marcus didn't know how the Tyrant Xenomorph's combat power compared to a genuine Norn Emissary, he figured it wouldn't be far off. In fact, the Tyrant Xenomorph, with its combined Xenomorph abilities, might even be stronger in terms of stealth and assassination. Unless it encountered a legendary Inquisitor like Greyfax or Eisenhorn, the possibility of the Tyrant Xenomorph failing was extremely low.
Continuing through the ducts, Marcus quickly arrived above a large hall. Through the grates, Marcus could clearly see that in the hall below, the dark Tyrant Xenomorph was engaged in fierce combat with the Imperial Guard; countless laser beams and Bolter rounds streaked across the hall. And in the very center of the Imperial Guard formation, a man lay with a large hole ripped through his chest, still breathing rapidly. Presumably, that was the Inquisitor.
"He's not dead yet? Is he a cockroach?" Through his superhuman vision, Marcus could clearly see that the Inquisitor's chest had been directly pierced by the Tyrant Xenomorph's giant scythe-like claw, yet he still clung to life.
In the splendid hall below, hundreds of fully armed Astra Militarum Soldiers and dozens of elite Stormtroopers had gathered. All of them raised their various weapons and fired fiercely at the constantly dodging Tyrant Xenomorph. Not only that, but since the alarm had already been triggered, more and more reinforcements were arriving.
As if sensing that its master had personally arrived to oversee the battle, the Tyrant Xenomorph stopped dodging and unleashed a deafening psychic roar. Its powerful psychic energy instantly spread throughout the hall. Almost everyone who wasn't wearing a fully enclosed helmet clutched their heads in pain and collapsed to the ground. Immediately after, the Tyrant Xenomorph shattered all obstacles in its path, trampled several Stormtroopers to death, and charged towards the Inquisitor, who was still clinging to life. At the same time, the bloated psychic organs on its back began to gather terrifying psychic power. In the next instant, two green, corrosive psychic energy spheres suddenly appeared, striking the dense formation ahead at an extremely high speed.
"Boom! Boom!" With two loud bangs, dozens of Astra Militarum Soldiers surrounding the Inquisitor were directly blown away. Simultaneously, the lictor, which had been perfectly hidden in the shadows, also revealed its fangs. A few imperceptible stomping sounds rang out, and the next second, the lictor's scythe-like claw plunged fiercely into the Inquisitor's heart. With a violent swing, the Inquisitor's head also fell into the lictor's mouth, gripped by its twisted tentacles.
"Damn filthy Xenomorph!" Seeing the Inquisitor completely dead, several red-eyed personal guards pulled the pins on their grenades, intending to perish with the lictor, who was just a few feet away. But before these few could take two steps, the Tyrant Xenomorph had already charged close, effortlessly smashing them into minced meat. Seeing that they had succeeded, the lictor immediately vanished into the darkness, rapidly retreating out of the command post with the Inquisitor's head. As for the Tyrant Xenomorph, Marcus had given it orders to continue creating chaos in the hall, allowing Marcus and the lictor to successfully withdraw.