The Chainsword buzzed, swinging down toward Leticia's face with insane hatred.
The blade was caked with dried, blackened clots of blood.
Angronia, standing at the very front, stepped forward, and her massive battle-axe appeared in her hands in an instant.
Her amber eyes burned with pure Battle Intent.
When dealing with madmen, the best method is to beat them until they wake up, or beat them until they die.
This was the only truth she had learned as the King of Gladiators.
"Wait."
A soft hand gently pressed down on her arm as she was about to strike.
Leticia stopped her.
"They are not enemies."
Leticia's voice was soft, yet it reached everyone's ears clearly.
"They are just... patients."
The moment her words fell, a soft, translucent emerald-green wall of light rose out of thin air in front of Leticia.
The power of [Vitality] transformed into the most impenetrable barrier.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Five violent Chainswords slammed heavily against the wall of light at almost the same time!
The screeching sound of metal grinding was enough to tear a mortal's eardrums.
Sparks flew everywhere.
However, that seemingly fragile wall of light did not even ripple.
All the violent kinetic energy and all the crazed killing intent were completely dissipated and smoothed away by a gentle yet overbearing force the moment they touched the green light.
"Horus!"
"For the Emperor! Kill the traitor!"
"The walls of Cadia... cannot hold..."
"Terra... Terra is burning!"
The five Death Company warriors launched the most frenzied attacks against the wall of light, as if possessed.
In their eyes, there was no sign of Leticia and her group.
There was only a sea of fire, a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
They roared frantically, repeating the most tragic and desperate battle scenes that occurred during the Horus Heresy.
Their souls were trapped ten thousand years in the past.
Fogremia stood to the side, her perfect purple eyes calmly observing these mad warriors, her delicate brows slightly furrowed.
She did not sense the corruption of Chaos, nor did she hear any whispers of demons.
This was a deeper kind of... disease, originating from the soul itself.
"Their consciousnesses are imprisoned in a hallucination."
Fogremia's cold voice delivered the most precise judgment.
"A hallucination about... the death of their father."
Angronia's hand, gripping the battle-axe, paused slightly.
The way she looked at those warriors changed for the first time, from pure Battle Intent to a complex, scrutinizing gaze mixed with sympathy.
She understood better than anyone.
The pain of watching helplessly as the things you cherish most are destroyed.
Leticia closed her eyes.
She did not look at these five pathetic "patients" before her.
Guided by the Authority of [Knowledge], her perception spread out instantly like an invisible net, crossing the small valley and tracking that primal sorrow, which was sweeping across the entire planet like a tsunami.
That sorrow was too vast.
So vast that it was enough to dim the stars.
"This power..."
Leticia's heart sank suddenly.
"This desperate emotion is infecting every Blood Angel on this planet through their gene-seed, like a virus!"
Just then, a small, cold hand gripped her hem tightly.
Terrania's little face was deathly pale; her pure golden eyes were filled with fear and sorrow, and large tears welled up in her eye sockets.
"Big sister..."
The little one's voice, laced with tears, echoed in Leticia's mind.
"I heard it..."
"He is crying..."
The next second, following Terrania's purest soul guidance, Leticia's vision instantly pierced through the barriers of space, locking onto the source of that sorrow!
The scene appeared clearly in her mind.
It was a true mountain of corpses, piled up from the remains of countless demons and Blood Angels.
At the top of the hill, a magnificent figure was kneeling there.
He wore a piece of golden power armor that looked like a work of art. Behind him, that pair of huge wings, which should have been spotless and miraculous, hung limply, and the tips of every feather were stained with dried, dark red blood.
He kept his head lowered, his long golden hair hanging down like a waterfall, obscuring his face.
But Leticia could "see."
She saw that on his devastatingly handsome face, which looked as if it had been carved by the gods themselves, two lines of... bright red blood tears were flowing.
The Primarch of the Blood Angels.
The Emperor's most perfect son.
Sanguinius.
He was not fighting, nor was he roaring.
He just knelt there quietly, like a broken statue silently weeping.
And that massive torrent of sorrow, filled with despair and helplessness, which was enough to drive an entire legion mad, was emanating continuously from his body!
Boom!
A bolt of lightning struck through Leticia's mind!
In that instant, she understood everything!
She finally understood the essence of the "Black Rage"!
Sanguinius!
He had used his Primarch-level precognitive ability, which transcended space and time, and he had seen it!
He had seen the distant future, the future where he was killed by his own hand by his most beloved brother, Horus, upon the Golden Throne of Terra!
He had seen that even after bleeding his last drop of blood, he could not stop the Emperor from heading toward that doomed end!
He had seen his proudest sons, after losing his protection, being repeatedly tortured by the curse deep within their genes in the darkness of ten thousand years, eventually becoming a pack of beasts craving blood!
This unbearable, extreme grief!
This extreme despair of watching helplessly as everything he cherished was destroyed!
This deepest lament belonging to a father!
It was flowing through the gene-seed that was tightly connected to every single one of his sons, like the most vicious curse, and like the hottest brand, deeply carved into the deepest part of every Blood Angel's soul!
This was not some curse from Chaos at all!
This was not even some genetic defect!
This...
This was a father's eternal lament, lasting for ten thousand years, for his own inevitable death, and for his inability to protect his children's future!
And his children were forced to relive the pain of their father's death, over and over again, in this nightmare that would never end!
Having figured all of this out, when Leticia looked at the five Death Company warriors attacking the wall of light, there was nothing left in her eyes but endless pity.
They were not madmen.
They just... loved their father too much.
...
At the top of the mountain of corpses.
As if sensing this clear and compassionate gaze that did not belong to this desperate battlefield.
Sanguinius, kneeling there, slowly and with extreme difficulty, raised his lowered head.
His eyes, which flowed with blood tears and should have been the clearest in the world, were now filled with endless exhaustion, pain, and... numbness.
His gaze seemed to pierce through the barriers of space and time, precisely locking onto the location where Leticia stood.
The next second.
A hoarse voice, filled with endless pain, boomed directly into the minds of Leticia, Fogremia, Angronia, and Terrania.
"Have you come again..."
"Demons..."
The voice carried self-deprecation, despair, and a trace of cold sarcasm that was all that remained after being tortured for countless days and nights.
"Have you come to mock my incompetence..."
"...and my failure?"
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