The battlefield fell into absolute silence.
In this white hell composed of bone dust and wreckage, even the wind ceased its whimpering, as if holding its breath for an impending, indescribable judgment.
Everyone's gaze was drawn as if by an invisible magnet, fixed intently upon that slender, black figure slowly walking toward the enemy lines.
Saul Taviz's breath hitched.
He had witnessed her heal hundreds with a wave of her hand and felt her rally the army's morale with her words.
But this time, it was different.
She was walking toward a group of the most insane, Chaos-corrupted Emperor's Children, walking toward an invisible killing formation made of sound.
She wore no armor.
She carried no weapons.
She didn't even release any perceptible, murderous energy.
She simply walked.
Behind her, Terrania stood at the edge of the temple ruins, which were protected by the power of [Vitality] and still retained a faint fragrance.
In her golden eyes, there was no fear, only a curiosity and absolute trust in Leticia's power that reached the extreme of purity.
Her small hands gripped her own hem tightly, as if clutching the center of the entire world.
Leticia's footsteps stopped in front of the group of dazed Noise Marines.
She was no more than three steps away from the leading warrior.
The face of the opponent, who had removed his helmet, was a twisted tapestry incomprehensible to mortals.
Tears of obsession, mixed with blood seeping from his seven orifices, crisscrossed his face.
His lips moved unconsciously, murmuring incoherently the words he had pursued his entire life.
"Perfect..."
"Pleasure..."
"This... is... the true... sound..."
His soul had been deeply corrupted by the path of deceit and distortion that belonged to Slaanesh.
To him, Leticia's existence was both a revelation from a deity and the most lethal poison.
She looked down at him as if looking at a piece of pottery that had failed in the firing, stained with filth.
She did not make a move.
She did not say another word.
She simply raised her eyelids slowly.
Those pure black eyes, which seemed capable of swallowing all the light in the world, gazed quietly at the soul before her that was completely lost.
At that moment, Leticia no longer suppressed herself.
She unleashed, without reservation and completely, the essence from the deepest part of her soul—that pure and clean nature belonging to a deity, derived from the [genesis system].
It was not light.
It was not energy.
It was a "concept."
A kind of absolute truth, the most primordial in the universe, known as [The Beauty of Supreme Divinity].
It was not meant for people to admire, but to define "admiration" itself.
It was not meant to bring pleasure, but to define "pleasure" itself.
In the face of this "true object" that could not be described by words or understood by thought.
The obsession on the Noise Marine's face froze instantly.
Immediately after, it transformed into an extreme pain that seeped into his bones, thousands of times more intense than any physical injury.
Those sensory stimuli he had pursued all his life, obtained through distortion and blasphemy, those things he proudly called "noise art."
In the face of this pure, harmonious, creation-epic-like "perfection."
Appeared so ugly.
So dirty.
So sickeningly insignificant.
He was like a wretch living in a dark cave, subsisting on moss and carrion, calling himself a gourmet, who was suddenly dragged under the sun and saw the real, abundant fruits nourished by sunshine and rain.
Everything he adhered to, the meaning of his existence, the cornerstone of his faith.
At this moment, were completely and dimensionally shattered by a higher-dimensional "truth," in the most compassionate yet cruel way.
"No..."
A hoarse roar, filled with despair and self-denial, was squeezed from the depths of his throat.
"This... is impossible... This is impossible!!!"
His faith collapsed.
He tried to raise his hand; the instinct twisted by Chaos drove him to destroy this "true beauty" before him that made him feel infinitely inferior.
But deep in his soul, that remnant, the primitive longing for perfection belonging to the Emperor's Children, made him want to kneel, to worship, to offer everything he had to this ultimate "true object."
Attack.
Surrender.
Destroy.
Sacrifice.
Two diametrically opposed, equally powerful wills waged a bloody civil war within his soul.
His body began to convulse violently.
The purple power armor let out an unbearable, grating groan.
On his twisted face, one half was hideous murderous intent, the other half was fanatical devotion.
In the end.
His soul could no longer bear the massive gap between truth and falsehood, beauty and ugliness, which was like a chasm.
It was like a fragile balloon that had been over-inflated.
Pop.
A faint, almost inaudible, invisible cracking sound resonated at the core of his soul.
Then, it was all over.
All expressions on the Noise Marine's face vanished instantly, turning into a hollow, nihilistic numbness.
The light in his eyes went out.
His soul was completely and silently "evaporated" in the face of that ultimate "true beauty."
Clatter!!!
Having lost the support of its soul, the magnificent and twisted purple power armor could no longer maintain its form.
Chest plate, shoulder pauldrons, gauntlets, leg greaves...
Countless precise components lost all energy links in an instant.
They fell apart, like a skeleton with its spine removed, turning into a pile of cold, meaningless scrap metal, falling heavily and scattering onto that white bone dust.
A living, powerful, Chaos-corrupted Space Marine.
Just like that, disappeared.
No explosion, no gore.
Only a pile of empty armor.
This eerie yet sacred scene was like a silent command.
The other Noise Marines behind him also encountered the same irresistible fate, one after another.
Their souls, the moment they touched that "true object," were destined for the only outcome.
"My... god..."
A Noise Marine let out a dreamlike sigh, filled with a sense of immense relief, and then his soul also entered the same void.
The power armor on his body collapsed with a crash.
"So... this is... pleasure..."
Another Noise Marine, at the last moment of his soul's evaporation, shed tears of epiphany and joy.
His armor collapsed accordingly.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Those faint sounds of souls shattering rose and fell one after another.
Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!
The sounds of power armor scattering were continuous.
These two sounds intertwined to form the most eerie, most shocking musical movement called "Purification."
In the completely subverted, dazed gaze of the loyalist warriors.
Those twenty-odd arrogant Noise Marines, who had caused the mortal auxiliary forces to collapse instantly and made even Space Marines suffer in agony.
Within a mere dozen seconds, one after another.
Their souls were silently erased.
Their existence was completely purified from this universe.
When the last Noise Marine's armor fell to the ground.
The entire battlefield fell once again into a suffocating silence where a pin drop could be heard.
Only those pieces of hollow, magnificent purple armor remained, scattered on the bone dust.
Like cicada shells drained of their souls, they silently recounted what kind of god-level "execution," beyond the scope of mortal understanding, had just taken place here.
Saul Taviz stood stiffly in the trench, his Bolter hanging down, though he didn't know when it had happened.
He looked at the empty armor littering the ground, looked at that back still standing in the center of the battlefield with hair like a waterfall, and felt his throat as dry as if it had been scorched by flames.
Nathaniel Garro's eternally stoic, stone-like face, his muscles twitched slightly and uncontrollably.
The Death Guard warriors beside him instinctively tightened their grips on their weapons; it was not out of fear, but an instinctive awe when facing an incomprehensible, great power.
Those auxiliary soldiers who had just been rescued from the noise pollution looked at Leticia with eyes that were fanatical to the point of madness, as if looking at a creation myth.
Their faith was sublimated at this moment.
They no longer doubted.
They firmly believed that whom they followed was a true deity walking among mortals.
Saul Taviz finally regained control of his body.
He took a difficult step, walked out of the trench, and walked toward Leticia, step by step.
He stopped beside the nearest pile of armor remains, which belonged to the Noise Marine captain, and looked down.
Then, he raised his head, looked at Leticia's back, and asked the question that had been hovering in everyone's minds in a hoarse, dry voice that was almost lost.
"My lady, what... exactly... is this?"
He wanted to ask what kind of power this was.
What kind of attack this was.
What kind of existence this was.
Leticia did not turn back.
She just raised her eyes and looked at the sky.
As if she had already seen that above the torn firmament, a more magnificent and more depraved figure was about to appear.
She answered calmly, in a tone that was calm to the point of indifference, yet matter-of-fact.
"It is purification."
Pausing for a moment, she continued.
"Alright, the appetizer is over."
"Prepare to welcome the main course."
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