Countless teeth of Chainswords hovered before Leticia's fair neck.
The blades spun at high speed, shredding the air and spewing the stench of engine oil mixed with flesh. A scorching current of air rushed toward her, fluttering Leticia's hair, yet it could not advance another inch.
Those Death Company warriors, consumed by the Black Rage, had been reduced to nothing but bloodthirsty beasts. Their pouncing postures were frozen in mid-air, as if time itself had been seized by an invisible hand.
Bloodshot eyeballs bulged out, glaring intensely at Leticia. Beast-like roars were squeezed from the depths of their throats, yet their bodies were pinned in place by an irresistible force.
Leticia raised her hand and gave a gentle wave.
The pinkish-purple wall of light surrounding her dissipated at her command, turning into billions of light particles that silently merged into the air.
She stood there in her white robes, pristine and untouched by dust, allowing those weapons capable of tearing through a starship's hull to be aimed at her fragile throat.
Behind her, Angronia gripped the handle of her battle axe, her knuckles turning white from the force. Her bronze muscles bulged, and in her amber eyes, her Battle Intent had transformed into a tangible flame.
Fogremia, on the other hand, elegantly pressed her hand against her sword hilt, her perfect face devoid of emotion. Yet within those deep purple eyes, she had already rehearsed a hundred 'perfect' ways to instantly dismember the crazed beasts before her.
Leticia did not look back.
Her gaze pierced through the frozen figures of the berserkers, falling directly into the distance—upon that massive golden figure kneeling atop the mountain of corpses.
Sanguinius.
"I am no demon, great Angel."
Leticia's voice did not vibrate her vocal cords; instead, it transformed into a pure psychic message that resonated directly within his shattered soul, as warm as a spring of early spring water.
"I am the singer who has come to end the mourning."
"I am the god who has come to answer prayers."
The moment her words fell, the pinkish-purple halo of Divine Charm upon her body spread out like ripples.
Within that halo, there was no nauseating stench of Chaos, nor the soul-twisting filth of the Subspace.
It was an aura of pure essence, a power called 'Beauty' and 'Hope' that made the soul tremble.
This aura was like a beam of light, piercing through the blood-thick clouds of the Signus system.
Wherever it passed, the suffocating bloodlust and madness in the air were actually purified and smoothed over.
Kneeling there, Sanguinius's massive frame shuddered violently.
He slowly raised his head.
On that face, which looked as if it were carved by a deity, the ice of pain and despair cracked inch by inch, revealing pure astonishment beneath.
He could distinguish this aura.
This was by no means the disguise of any demon.
The power of demons was always accompanied by the stench of corruption and decay, gnawing at everything like maggots.
But this power... it was like a long-lost hymn. It allowed his heart, which had been filled with endless sorrow and rage, to feel a long-absent peace that almost brought him to tears.
The hostility and wariness in his azure eyes melted away rapidly, like winter snow meeting a brilliant sun.
In its place was a deeper confusion.
A god?
In this hell forgotten by his father's radiance, in these ruins where only despair and curses remained, how could a new deity possibly be born?
"Your failure did not stem from incompetence."
Leticia's voice rang out again, calm yet like a sharp scalpel, precisely dissecting his layered wounds to reach the very core of the affliction.
"It is because you alone bore the despair of everyone."
Her voice carried compassion, as if she had personally witnessed all his struggles over the millennia.
"You tried to be a wall to block the torrent called 'the future.' You took all the pain of your children, all the sins, and all the curses onto your own shoulders."
"That is why you were crushed."
Boom!
The words became an invisible sledgehammer, smashing the shell of his soul. A roar exploded in the depths of his consciousness, shaking his divine form so much it began to sway.
Is... that so?
He had always thought his pain stemmed from the genetic curse, from his brother's betrayal, and from his own powerlessness to save his children.
He had never thought...
That the root of it all was actually because he himself chose to carry everything.
Because he was the perfect Sanguinius, he had to endure all the pain brought by imperfection.
This simple truth was like a key, instantly prying open the heaviest and most secret shackles in his heart.
An unprecedented sense of being understood and relieved washed over his weary soul, leaving him almost prostrate with exhaustion.
It was also at this moment that his gaze finally moved past Leticia and noticed the small figure behind her.
A blonde little girl wearing a white robe, clutching the corner of Leticia's clothes tightly.
The moment Sanguinius's gaze met Terrania's pure golden eyes.
His entire thought process came to a complete standstill.
That aura...
That psychic aura emanating from the girl, both familiar and strange, originating from the deepest part of his bloodline...
That was... Father's aura!
No, that's not right.
It was softer than his father's aura, purer, and warmer.
It lacked the distant majesty and coldness found on the Golden Throne; in its place was a sun-like primal life and Hope that wanted to embrace and heal everything!
If the Emperor was a star that burned everything to cinders,
Then this girl was the first ray of light born at the dawn of the universe.
Sanguinius's thoughts fractured. The logic and reason forged by ten thousand years of war turned into flying shards in this instant.
A black-haired woman who was not a demon and called herself a 'god'.
A mysterious blonde girl who radiated an aura purer than his father's.
Their appearance was like two hands, both the gentlest and most overbearing, tearing apart all the reality, logic, and fate he had ever known.
"You... You all..."
For the first time, Sanguinius's voice carried a heavy confusion and an uncontrollable tremble.
Slowly, he stood up from the pile of corpses.
His towering figure was still full of divine majesty, but his azure eyes were filled with the purest confusion belonging to a mortal.
"...Who are you, exactly?"
This question was no longer a demand.
It was the most instinctive inquiry of a lost child in the endless darkness, reaching toward the only source of light.
Leticia looked at his face filled with confusion, seeing that the world he had closed off in despair had finally been torn open.
The time had come.
Sanguinius no longer viewed them as enemies, but as an incomprehensible 'variable'—perhaps Hope, or perhaps a deeper temptation.
That was enough.
A smile full of compassion and tenderness appeared on Leticia's face.
Slowly, she reached out her hand toward this sorrowful Angel.
"Who I am is not important."
Her voice, like a divine oracle, echoed clearly across this mourning battlefield.
"What matters, Sanguinius..."
"Is whether you want your children to live forever in this hell constructed from your sorrow?"
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