"When the shadow of the Great Devourer falls upon all of Ashford, it will be too late."
The winged figure, who claimed to be Sanguinius, flickered in and out of sight before Alexander.
This time, as he said, Alexander had indeed encountered danger.
But Chaos has always liked to use benevolence to lure people into degradation, the love of a lover, the teachings of a sage, the camaraderie of a brother, the care of a benevolent father. This benevolence is sometimes a disguise, but sometimes it comes from the heart, yet no matter which one, the gift of the Immaterium always has its price, and one will always sink deeper.
A Son of Horus, in an attempt to save the Warmaster, put him into the temple of the Serpent Lodge of Davin, leading to his corruption...
Magnus, in his excessive pursuit of the power of the Warp, shattered the Emperor's Webway dream with one psychic blast...
Fulgrim, obsessed with the power of the bewitching sword, was instead controlled by the daemon residing within it.
Even Primarchs, with their superhuman wisdom, could be misled by it, and Alexander considered himself lacking the wisdom to discern, nor the guts to gamble.
He took a small knife from his Dimensional Pocket and approached the cultists who had been stunned by the air gun.
The blade sliced across their necks, sending these not-deeply-corrupted Genestealer Hybrids to meet the Great Devourer.
Looking at the bodies on the ground, Alexander felt a headache.
If these corpses were left in place, other Genestealers might discover clues and track him down.
If only there was a way to destroy the evidence without leaving any trace...
Hmm?
Alexander blinked, an idea popping into his mind.
He crouched down, grabbed a corpse, and stuffed it into the Dimensional Pocket on his abdomen.
[Item Name: Corpse of a New Hybrid Cultist]
[Origin: Shield of the Underworld System - Ashford Prime - Fortia Hive City]
[Rating: Genestealer Hybrid corpse with few mutations. Warm in nature, pungent and slightly salty in flavor. Has the effects of unblocking collaterals, relieving pain, attacking toxins, dissipating lumps, and causing genetic contamination. Not suitable for consumption.]
[Manufacture Date: 978.M41]
[Status: Complete, in excellent condition]
[Value: 10,000 Credits]
"Has the effects of unblocking collaterals, relieving pain, attacking toxins, dissipating lumps, and causing genetic contamination."
Alexander was about to complain about the Dimensional Pocket's assessment when his gaze was drawn to the income value of 10,000 credits below.
It was actually more valuable than an entire broken Promethium Extraction Transceiver!
He immediately got to work, diligently stuffing the remaining corpses into his Dimensional Pocket.
The eight Genestealer corpses combined brought him an income of over 100,000 credits. The lead Genestealer, which was crushed into a 'bug-pancake' and had deeper mutations, was recovered for more than 20,000 credits alone.
Alexander suddenly felt a pang of regret. If it hadn't been crushed into a pancake and the condition hadn't been ruined, the recovery value should have been higher.
Adding this to his previous scavenging income, Alexander's money was now close to the 200,000 mark.
He couldn't help but swallow.
He wasn't a greedy person, he told himself, but the more money he accumulated, the closer he was to acquiring the 'Anywhere Door,' and the more chances he would have to escape.
If he could hunt more Genestealers...
Alexander quickly shook his head, suppressing this dangerous thought.
They were Genestealers, not a bunch of chickens in overalls singing, dancing, and rapping.
These were just Hybrid Neophytes with almost no mutations, the weakest and most human-looking type among the Genestealers.
If he encountered more Hybrid Neophytes or more deeply mutated Hybrids, let alone the top predators in the Genestealer Cults, Alexander would probably meet the Great Devourer before the Tyranid Fleet even arrived.
Thinking of this, Alexander reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of potion.
[Item Name: Air Gun Potion]
[Origin: Future Department Store]
[Manufacture Date: 241.M3]
[Function: Liquid potion. After applying it to a fingertip, point the finger at a target and shout "Bang" to fire a shockwave powerful enough to cause a person to faint. One fingertip can only fire one shot.]
[Rating: If you don't have a gun, you can't shoot people. How can a gun be so inconvenient a thing!]
The item's power was far inferior to a shock gun or air cannon, only capable of making an ordinary person faint. Monsters like the Hybrid Neophytes, with their flesh and blood corrupted, required several shots to subdue.
But its advantages were that it was cheap and highly concealable, and Alexander wasn't going to run into an Astartes, which were practically a legend in the Hive City.
He reapplied the Air Gun Potion to his fingertips and used the shockwaves to carefully sweep the surroundings, trying his best to erase all traces of his presence.
Then he ran as fast as possible from the ruined district to avoid being tracked down by the Genestealer Cult.
A few minutes after Alexander left, a hooded figure with mechanical implants filling its face silently approached the location where the battle had taken place.
It was the Sanctifier, an assassin from the Genestealer Cult, born to eliminate anyone who threatened the safety of the brood.
It possessed superhuman night vision, multi-jointed limbs that could crawl through shadows, and malleable muscles that could squeeze into the narrowest cracks.
Its eyes were the eyes of the Patriarch, and the bio-dagger in its hand was the claw of the Patriarch. It came to investigate to answer the Patriarch's perplexity.
But the ground here seemed to have been swept by a strong wind, leaving almost no trace behind.
It gripped the bio-dagger in its hand warily.
Since there were no traces on the material plane, it would examine the psychic residue left in the air.
In the world invisible to the naked eye, it discovered a single white feather gently drifting down through the air.
The feather was so magnificent, as if forged from white gold, yet so soft, surpassing all goose down.
The feather was so pure, so incompatible with this filthy world, so noble, as if it had received the most sacred blessing in the world.
It smelled a fragrance emanating from the feather, as if it had been immersed in tens of thousands of years of prayer and incense in a cathedral.
Oh, it couldn't hear. It couldn't hear the Patriarch's voice, couldn't hear the voice of the Four-Armed God-Emperor.
It began to sob. In a daze, it understood what kind of hideous form it had become and what kind of wrong path it had taken.
It begged for forgiveness, begged for atonement, and then, He sent down this fire.
In the dark corner of this ruined district, a massive shadow, six meters tall, like the incarnation of all worldly depravity and blasphemy, half-god and half-devil, watched this scene.
It watched as the Sanctifier, who served as its eyes and tracked psychic traces, suddenly froze, and its connection to it was abruptly severed.
Then, a burst of scorching golden flame erupted from the Sanctifier's corrupted and mutated skull, pouring out from its eyes, mouth, and ears, burning fiercely until it reduced it to a pile of ashes sparking with pale golden embers.
The colossal figure let out a low growl tinged with terror.
Immediately, the roar of the Patriarch echoed in the minds of all Genestealers:
"Find him! Kill him!"