415: Chapter 417 The Saints' Charge! By my command, tear apart the defenses!

Inside the temporary command post, a massive map covered in tactical symbols was spread across a table fashioned from the wreckage of two Sentinel mechs.

Mathieu pointed his heavy power staff toward the core area of the map.

"My Crusaders have advanced to this point, less than thirty kilometers from the energy reaction center of the 'Plague Crucible'."

His voice echoed through the ruins, carrying an unquestionable assertion.

"But right ahead lies the Death Guard's final heavy defensive line."

He used the tip of his staff to draw three thick red lines on the map.

"Three layers of deep fortifications, centered on at least twenty or more 'Plagueburst Crawlers'. Their firepower has locked down all available corridors for our advance."

An officer wearing the uniform of a Cadia regiment Commander added from the side, his face covered in dust and fatigue.

"My Lord, our heavy equipment is no longer enough to crack that shell. We lost more than half of our Leman Russ Tanks while crossing that corrupted swamp."

"My soldiers still possess supreme fighting will."

Mathieu interrupted the Commander's report, his gaze falling back onto Zhang Yuan.

"But they cannot break through that wall constructed of steel and plague."

Zhang Yuan looked at the map in silence.

His tactical computer had long since linked the positions of the Crusaders, the enemy's defensive line, and the fire control system of the [tears of vengeance] in orbit with real-time data.

He could suppress the positions of those Crawlers.

"Reapers Spear" could even directly erase those sturdy fortifications.

But time waited for no one.

KuGath was accelerating his evil creations.

And Roboute Guilliman, on another much broader front, also needed support.

"I can help you tear open that defensive line."

Zhang Yuan finally spoke.

"What is the price?"

Mathieu's eyes sharpened.

"Coordinate with my rhythm."

Zhang Yuan's answer was simple and direct.

"I will tell you when to charge, and only then will you charge."

Mathieu and Zhang Yuan locked eyes; the air seemed to solidify.

After a long while, he nodded slowly.

"The sisters of the Battle Sisters will hold the flanks to prevent any demonic infiltration."

A Battle Sisters Superior of the Order of the Bloody Rose stepped forward, her power armor covered in battle scars.

"The remaining tanks of the Cadia regiment will follow behind the Saint to provide direct fire support."

That Cadia Commander also stated his position.

Mathieu's gaze finally fell upon the two steel giant-like Terminators, Titus and Foros.

"Will your soldiers... follow behind us to clean up the remaining enemies?"

Zhang Yuan shook his head.

"My soldiers will do things you could never do, in places you would never even notice."

He turned around, no longer looking at the map, nor at Mathieu.

He walked toward the exit of the ruins, toward that clamorous battlefield.

At the very front of the Crusaders' position.

Zhang Yuan stood on a high point of a collapsed bunker, coldly overlooking the scene below.

Tens of thousands of Imperial soldiers and citizens were slowly gathering under his gaze.

Above in orbit, the [tears of vengeance] and the six Augustgrad-class battlecruisers accompanying it had gathered the energy at their bows, capable of tearing through reality, to a critical point.

Below, on the Death Guard's defensive line, a layer of disgusting green psychic aura, writhing like a living creature, was slowly lighting up.

The tanks of the Cadia regiment emitted a deafening roar of engines.

The battle formations of the Battle Sisters, like a silver tide, began to surge forward.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and zealots armed with various weapons formed an ocean of steel and flesh, layer upon layer, advancing over the corrupted hills.

Zhang Yuan raised his hand and connected to the fleet's supreme command channel.

His voice was cold and clear.

"Horner."

"Fire."

In that instant, the sky was torn apart.

Seven scorching white energy beams, so thick they could not be described in words, like the spears of divine punishment, pierced through Iax's filthy, pus-green plague clouds.

They made no sound.

They simply struck the Death Guard's impenetrable defensive line with a speed and precision that transcended mortal comprehension.

That writhing, evil green defensive aura could not withstand even a second in the face of that pure destructive energy.

It shattered, evaporated, and was annihilated silently, like a soap bubble being pricked.

Immediately after, the earth let out a painful wail.

The entire defensive line, along with those hideous Plagueburst Crawlers and countless Plague Mariness, were completely erased from this world under the direct strike of those seven beams of light.

There was no explosion.

Only vaporization.

Mathieu, standing behind Zhang Yuan, felt his pupils contract sharply. He had seen Imperial orbital bombardments before; those attacks were violent, chaotic, and filled with mortal fury. But the beams before him were pure, precise, silent, and devoid of any smoke or fire. That was not a weapon of mortals... that was the manifestation of will! It was the embodiment of the Emperor's holy judgment!

The battle-hardened Cadia Commander opened his mouth wide, an unconscious wheezing sound coming from his throat. What flashed through his mind was not tactical analysis, but an absurd yet persistent thought: "So... this is what the Aquila's claws look like..."

The Mother Superior of the Battle Sisters gripped the Chainsword in her hand tightly, veins bulging on the back of her hand. In that scorching white light, she could not feel a single trace of the Warp's filth, only pure, purifying energy. She whispered tremblingly: "...Purge the unclean with holy fire... The Emperor's wrath has finally descended."

Zhang Yuan slowly lowered his hand, turned around, and looked calmly at the Saint, who was plunged into immense shock.

"Mathieu."

"Now, your lines can advance."

After saying this, he walked toward his own squad, toward those silent Custodes and Terminators.

Behind him, Mathieu woke from his shock.

The fire of fanaticism that originally belonged to him was now completely ignited by a more fervent faith called "witnessing a miracle with one's own eyes"! All his previous prayers, all his sacrifices, had received a response at this moment!

He suddenly raised the power staff in his hand; the double-headed eagle at the head of the staff seemed to come alive. He used all his strength to issue a hoarse and fanatical roar that resounded throughout the entire battlefield:

"Behold, you doubters! Behold, all loyal believers! This is the divine revelation I once promised you! The Emperor has heard our prayers and sent down His thunder to cleave a path for us!"

"For the Emperor! For the holy revelation!"

"Charge—!"

The roar of tens of thousands of people converged into a tidal wave capable of shaking heaven and earth at this moment.

Mathieu's figure was the first to rush out.

He did not look back.

He did not command.

He just moved forward.

And the massive army behind him, composed of soldiers, zealots, and refugees, followed his back, like a breached dam of steel crushing everything in its path, rushing toward that death zone leveled by the fire of the gods.