Ralph gripped the hilt of the Cataclysm Blossom with a death grip, driving it even deeper into the nape of Ragnar's neck.
Blue electrical arcs danced across her Vratine armor, internal circuits sparking and popping. The intense heat from the short-circuiting systems scorched her skin. Agony threatened to black out her vision, but her hands did not waver.
She looked up at Raynor.
Her lips were bitten raw and bloody, but her gaze remained as steady as steel. She struggled to perform a series of quick, desperate signs for Raynor.
[Open fire.] [Stormblades.] [Fire at me.]
Raynor's body shuddered. Her grip on the Guardian Spear tightened reflexively. Beneath the golden helmet, her thoughts were a whirlwind.
She looked at Ralph, her sister-in-arms for decades. They had hunted Genestealers together in hive worlds, fought back Chaos demons in the Warp storms, and crawled out of mountains of corpses side-by-side.
How could she order the plasma cannons to incinerate her own sister?
But...
She looked at the trembling bridge doors. Behind those doors lay Dominic, the command center of the Gemstone, and the hope of millions of Imperial soldiers. If Ragnar broke through, everything was lost.
Raynor closed her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. When she opened them again, all emotion had vanished. Only cold, hard resolve remained.
"All Stormblades, attention!"
Her voice rang out through the vox, restored to its usual authoritative command.
"Target: The Greenskin leader directly ahead." "Maximum power." "FIRE!"
"Yes, My Lord!"
The Stormblade gunners did not hesitate. They were soldiers of the Imperium; obedience was their lifeblood. Seven massive Plasma Blastguns began to charge simultaneously. A blinding blue light coalesced at the muzzles, and the terrifying energy began to warp the surrounding space. The temperature in the hall skyrocketed, and the marble floor began to smoke and liquefy.
Ragnar sensed the aura of death. He struggled manically, his muscles bulging and straining.
"Let go of me! Damned woman, let go!"
He thrashed with all his might, trying to shake Ralph off his back. But Ralph was like a parasite, clinging to him with a grip of iron. The Cataclysm Blossom remained buried in his neck, continuously discharging millions of volts.
Don't even dream of it...
Even the high-voltage current couldn't knock the veteran Sister unconscious. She roared internally, hardening her will.
I will never let you succeed!
The plasma charging was complete. Raynor raised her right hand. Just as she was about to drop her arm—
BOOM!
The alloy bridge doors slid open violently. A black silhouette lunged out like a leopard. A massive, hydraulic-driven mechanical grapple was mounted on his left arm.
SHING!
The grapple whistled through the air, accurately snaring Ralph around the waist. With a violent jerk, it pulled backward!
Squelch!
The purifying spike was ripped out of Ragnar's neck, dragging a spray of dark green blood with it. Ralph's body was jerked backward into the air. At the exact moment she cleared Ragnar's body—
BOOM!!!
Seven streams of blue plasma fired simultaneously, converging into a single, incandescent orb of light that instantly swallowed Ragnar's form. The millions of degrees of heat turned the air itself into fuel, erupting in a crackling roar. The marble floor in the center of the hall was vaporized, forming a massive crater. The blinding blue light forced everyone to avert their eyes.
The mechanical grapple pulled Ralph to the bridge entrance. A pair of massive hands in black power armor caught her steadily.
Ralph looked up, meeting the sight of a suit of majestic, heavy white power armor. This armor was stockier and more robust than an Astartes' Terminator plate, featuring lifelike lion reliefs carved onto the shoulders and chest. Faint blue energy light glowed at the joints.
The surface was covered in a layer of holy protective coating, designed to repel Warp and demonic corruption. This was the "Celestial Lion" heavy power armor, custom-built by the Adeptus Mechanicus for Dominic Ventris.
Constructed from a composite of adamantium and rare alloys, its internal structure was similar to Vratine armor. It possessed fiber-bundle muscles that enhanced the wearer's strength—the foundation of its "power armor" status. Simultaneously, it incorporated "Vitrified Lattice Crystal" technology, a special structure that was almost weightless, drastically reducing the burden of the armor's bulk.
Its defensive capabilities were on par with conventional Terminator armor, but its physical requirements for the user were incredibly demanding. On the entire Gemstone, only Dominic, who had undergone inhuman training since childhood, could master it without external assistance.
"You've worked hard, Ralph."
Dominic's voice came from the helmet, calm and steady, carrying a reassuring power. He handed Ralph over to the medical corps behind him, then turned to face the center of the plasma explosion.
The blue light faded. Scorching dust and smoke filled the hall. Everyone held their breath, staring intently into the haze.
"Is it finally over...?"
A guard muttered, his voice a mix of exhaustion and relief. This Greenskin monster, which had put them under such immense pressure, was finally gone.
Raynor lowered her hand, her tense body finally relaxing. No matter how strange he was, no one could survive a direct hit from seven Plasma Blastguns.
However.
As the dust slowly cleared. A charred figure stood quietly in the center of the massive crater.
Ragnar was still alive.
His entire body was burned to a crisp, his skin peeling off like parched, cracked earth. His left arm and right leg were reduced to white bone, and his eyes had been burned into hollow voids. He looked like a piece of scorched meat dragged out of a crematorium.
But he was indeed alive. His chest rose and fell slightly. He was still breathing.
"..."
The entire hall fell into a deathly silence. You could hear a pin drop.
Everyone stared at the charred figure, their relief instantly replaced by disbelief.
Seven plasma blasts! Even a Knight-Titan might not have withstood that. How could a single Greenskin still be standing? What kind of monster was this?
Cold despair washed over everyone's hearts like icy water. If the Imperium's most powerful conventional weapons couldn't kill him, what was left to fight him with?
Just as everyone was paralyzed by this horrific sight—
Crr-ack, crr-ack—
The sound of tearing flesh broke the silence. In the middle of Ragnar's abdomen—the only part of him that remained relatively intact—a massive mouth suddenly split open.
The mouth was lined with rows of needle-sharp tusks. Thick, yellow saliva dripped from the fangs, sizzling as it hit the scorching floor. It opened and closed, emitting a ragged, hungry rasping sound.
Without warning, Ragnar dragged his mangled body forward, lunging toward the pile of corpses in the center of the hall with an eerie, predatory gait. He wasn't running; he was on all fours like a beast, his body twisted at an unnatural angle, yet his speed was terrifying.
"What is he doing?" a guard cried out.
Dominic's brow furrowed deeply. He didn't know what the monster intended, but he knew he couldn't let it happen. Whatever the creature wanted from those bodies, it had to be stopped.
"Stop him!" Dominic roared.
The power pack on his Celestial Lion armor erupted in blue flames. He shot forward like a cannonball, his hands equipped with massive power claws. The disruption fields on the blades flickered with a dangerous, pale-blue light.
"For the Emperor!"
Behind him, four guards—also clad in Celestial Lion plate—charged as one. These guards lacked Dominic's innate physical perfection; they had undergone over 30% cybernetic enhancement. They had traded flesh and bone for steel and circuits, fueled by absolute loyalty to the Emperor, to earn the right to wear such armor.
"Kill!"
Raynor reacted as well. She tightened her grip on her Guardian Spear once more, leading the remaining Sisters of Silence and guards to flank the beast from both sides. No matter how horrific the monster was, they would fight to the last breath—for the Emperor, and for humanity.
Ragnar reached the pile of corpses. The giant mouth on his abdomen stretched to its limit. A horrifying suction force erupted from the maw. The nearest corpses were ripped from the floor, flying into the greedy gullet alongside twisted metal shards.
CRUNCH. CRUNCH.
A hair-raising sound of chewing filled the room. The sound of bone being ground to powder and flesh being torn apart was agonizingly loud in the cavernous hall.
As the corpses vanished into his belly, the unthinkable happened. Ragnar's wounds began to heal at a rate visible to the naked eye. Massive sheets of charred, carbonized skin sloughed off, replaced by new, tougher, dark-green hide. Exposed bone was rapidly encased in fresh muscle and sinew; his severed limbs knit back together and grew. His presence was surging back toward its peak.
"He's devouring the dead to recover!" Dominic realized the truth, his face pale. He accelerated, slamming into Ragnar's path. "Die!"
Dominic roared, both claws lashing out with a gale-force whistle, aiming to tear the monster's head and that disgusting mouth apart.
"ROAR!!!"
Ragnar snapped his head up. In his hollow eye socket, a new eye had already grown. It was pure, solid dark green, devoid of whites or pupils, radiating an inhuman light. He threw a punch directly at Dominic.
CLANG!!!
The iron fist and the power claw collided with brutal force. The impact sent Dominic skidding back three meters, the soles of his Celestial Lion boots carving sparks into the marble floor. He looked down. A crack had appeared on his pure adamantium power claw.
A wave of shock washed over Dominic. The claws of the Celestial Lion armor were crafted by the Forge Worlds using the highest level of craftsmanship—they were meant to tear through Terminator plate. To have them cracked by a Greenskin's bare fist? How terrifying had his strength become?
While Dominic was reeling from the shock, Ragnar began devouring the wreckage of the nearby Stormblade. The creature didn't even spare the metal.
Under the rapid consumption, his injuries were $70\%$ healed. His dark green skin began to take on a metallic sheen. His previously broken body was now robust and brimming with explosive power. The mouth on his belly licked its "lips," letting out a satisfied gurgle.
"Good... Tastes... strong!"
Ragnar's voice was a jagged, unpleasant rasp. "Want... more..."
His gaze swept over everyone present as if looking at a lavish banquet. The mouth on his belly opened even wider. A stronger suction force erupted, dragging several more bodies toward him.
"We can't let him eat any more!"
This was the consensus of everyone left standing. Raynor was the first to strike Ragnar's flank, her Guardian Spear thrusting with the force of a falling mountain toward the giant mouth. "Shut it!"
SQUELCH!
The spear plunged into the maw. Dark green blood sprayed outward, coating the floor.
"AAAGH!!!"
Ragnar let out a roar of primal fury. He whipped around, bringing his hand down in a swift, chopping motion. Raynor barely managed to turn her shoulder, taking the hit on her thickest pauldron.
There was a deafening boom. Raynor was hit like a runaway truck, flying backward and slamming into the wall. This time, the already cracked pauldron shattered completely. Bright red blood leaked from the seams of her helmet.
The resilient Custodian did not stand back up as she had before.
Raynor!
Ralph struggled to rise, but the lingering effects of the electrical surge kept her body paralyzed.
Ragnar didn't pursue the downed Custodian. His gaze settled on Dominic. He licked his lips, a cruel smile spreading across his face.
"Now," he took a step forward, the entire hall trembling under his weight. "Your turn. Heh... heh... heh..."
Following his feast, his size had ballooned. Standing four meters tall previously, he had now reached nearly five meters ($5m$). His wounds were fully healed, and he felt more powerful than ever. A suffocating pressure radiated from him, physically weighing on the hearts of everyone in the room.
Dominic stood his ground, his heart racing. He asked himself: What kind of monster are we facing?
But as his eyes swept over the field of corpses, Dominic realized something. Those were his most loyal soldiers. They were the finest warriors of the Ventris family. They had paid the ultimate price to protect him and the Gemstone. He looked at Raynor, slumped against the wall, her fate unknown, and Ralph, covered in wounds in the arms of a medic. They were the Imperium's best, and they had nearly died to keep this monster away from him.
An indescribable fury erupted like a volcano in Dominic's chest. His pride and his dignity were set ablaze. He was Dominic Ventris. The pride of his house. A Rear Admiral of the Imperium. He could not lose. He would not allow himself to lose.
He had to make this monster pay!
"Celestial Squad, on my command! Prepare for battle!"
Dominic's voice rang through the vox, reaching the ears of his four guards.
"Yes, my Lord!"