77: When you gaze into the abyss, remember to call for friendly fire.

["abyssal overlord" Fortress - "Bridge of Sighs"]

C-19 knelt on the ground.

Coolant leaked from the damaged parts of his power armor, mixing with the warm blood of his comrades as it flowed along the metal bridge surface.

The air was thick with the pungent smell of ozone, scorched flesh, and superheated metal.

The fire sprinkler system was still working; a fine mist sprayed down from the ceiling, landing on his pauldrons with a faint hiss.

Not far away, a Void Executioner's gravity hammer had just completed another kill.

The Astartes' corpse had been smashed into the bridge's alloy plating, leaving only a twisted, humanoid indentation.

Fragments of power armor were scattered everywhere, and a pool of blood was spreading.

C-19's tactical eyepiece scanned the battlefield.

Twenty light dots. Now, only thirteen were still blinking.

Seven had already gone dark.

His Bolter could not penetrate that layer of invisible gravity shielding.

His Chainsword had shattered into powder the moment it touched the mechanical tentacles. The strength he took pride in was useless against absolute gravity.

And the ones who saved them turned out to be the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Zzzt—Boom!

An arc spear flew over C-19's head.

A blue electrical grid exploded across the surface of the Void Executioner's shield, causing it to flicker and overload for a fraction of a second.

Immediately after, a combat Servitor on the other side seized the opportunity, its shoulder-mounted melta firing a lethal beam.

Chhh—!

The melta beam pierced the overloaded shield, scorching a glowing, fist-sized hole into the black sphere's hull.

The Void Executioner let out a piercing mechanical shriek; its hovering body wobbled, but it did not fall.

"Firepower is insufficiently concentrated."

Ul-02's voice rang out in the communication channel.

There was no emotional fluctuation, only a technical statement.

"These dark creations' shields have self-repair protocols. You must conduct a saturation attack on the same point within 1.5 seconds." 1016

C-19 stood up.

His tactical eyepiece tracked those high-speed moving black spheres.

They darted across the battlefield, swatting his brothers away with mechanical tentacles, their trajectories completely unpredictable.

His mind raced.

He needed an "anchor."

Someone needed to be the bait. A bait tough enough, fast enough to draw the Void Executioner's fire and briefly pin it in place.

He glanced at the twelve remaining First Legion warriors beside him.

Their power armor was covered in craters and scorch marks.

There was no fear in their eyes.

The Astartes' modifications had already removed their fear glands. There was only burning rage and absolute obedience awaiting orders... [Holographic Operations Cabin]

Li Cang looked at the seven light dots that had gone dark on the tactical map.

His GP balance was still plummeting.

But he did not order a retreat.

He completely delegated the supreme command of the battlefield to the Black Knight at the center of the storm.

He chose to trust this "scalpel" he had created... [Battlefield - "Bridge of Sighs"]

C-19 made his decision.

He did not choose to send any of his brothers to their deaths.

He stepped forward himself.

"N-05, take the third squad and flank through the pipes on the left wing."

His voice rang out in the tactical channel, devoid of any inflection.

"Fourth squad, frontal fire suppression. Throw all your grenades. Don't worry about whether they'll damage them or not. I want smoke. I want chaos."

"Martians."

He switched to the public channel and shouted to the red-robed Tech-Priests.

"Aim all your meltas at the area in front of me. Wait for my signal."

"Commander?!"

N-05's voice was filled with confusion.

"That's an order."

C-19 shut down the squad comms.

He threw away the chipped Chainsword in his hand.

Most of the teeth on the blade had been ground down, and the engine was letting out an overburdened shriek.

He drew a power halberd from his waist—a trophy he had picked up after the battle at the first defensive line, once belonging to a Sun Warrior.

The power halberd weighed over fifty kilograms.

The halberd's blade emitted a pale blue energy glow while active.

C-19 took a deep breath.

The power armor's engine let out a low growl.

The reactor output was pushed to 85%.

The joint servos began operating at full power.

He charged out.

He rushed toward the nearest Void Executioner.

The Void Executioner immediately locked onto the incoming target.

The purple light on the black sphere's surface intensified abruptly, and a gravity field expanded instantly.

C-19 felt every step become incredibly heavy.

The power armor's joints shrieked from the overload, and the hydraulic rods bore pressure far exceeding their design limits.

The muscles in his legs contracted frantically, fighting against the force trying to crush him.

But he did not stop.

Using all his strength, he slammed the halberd into the alloy floor of the bridge.

The blade sliced into the metal with a piercing grinding sound.

He used the halberd as a fulcrum to anchor himself in place.

The Void Executioner's mechanical tentacles swung the gravity hammer toward him.

C-19 did not dodge.

He concentrated all the power armor's output into his left gauntlet.

Clang—!!!

A massive impact reverberated through his entire body.

The bones in his entire left arm wailed. The agonizing pain of torn tendons spread from his shoulder to his fingers.

The power armor's alarm blared piercingly. 2331

WARNING: Left arm armor structural damage 70%, servo motor overloaded.

ADVICE: Disengage from combat immediately.

But he had succeeded.

With his own body, he had forcibly "anchored" this high-speed killing machine in place.

Even if only for a brief two seconds.

"Now!!!"

He roared toward the sky.

The Adeptus Mechanicus combat Servitors, who had been waiting for a long time, pulled their triggers without hesitation.

Three blazing white melta beams struck the Void Executioner's defenseless core from different angles simultaneously as it maintained the gravity field. 2435

Chhh—Boom!!!

The black sphere was instantly melted through. Its metal hull liquefied and shattered.

Violent energy exploded from within, spewing orange-red flames and scalding metal fragments.

That once-arrogant creation of dark technology turned into a heap of burning scrap metal and crashed into the lava beneath the bridge.

"Tactical execution: Effective. Target destroyed."

Ul-02's voice rang out in the communication channel, still devoid of emotion.

C-19 shook his nearly ruined left arm.

The alloy joints made a strained grinding sound.

The alarm was still ringing, but he directly muted the notification sound.

He ignored the Adeptus Mechanicus's assessment.

He simply looked up toward the other end of the bridge.

There were nine more Void Executioners there.

"Next."

His voice was hoarse, but unshakeable... And so, a strange and heroic battle began.

The black Astartes were no longer reapers.

They became bait. Time and again, they charged toward those mechanical behemoths, using their bodies, their broken weapons, and anything they could to draw the enemy's attention, creating fleeting firing windows for the meltas behind them.

An Astartes used magnetic boots to cling to the pipes on the bridge's ceiling.

He leaped from a height of thirty meters, using his body to knock the gravity hammer's trajectory off course.

The hammer head slammed into his pauldron, crushing his left arm along with his shoulder.

He was sent flying, crashing into the railing, the sound of breaking bones clearly audible.

But in the instant he was thrown back, a melta beam pierced the enemy's core.

Another Void Executioner plummeted into the abyss.

Another Astartes, after being trapped by a gravity field, chose the most extreme method.

His legs had already been crushed by gravity, everything below the knees becoming a twisted mixture of metal and flesh.

He could not stand, could not move.

But he could still do one last thing.

He drew the bolt pistol from his waist.

He didn't aim at the Void Executioner. That would be meaningless.

He aimed at the reactor on his own chest plate.

Boom!!!

The bolt shell pierced the reactor's casing.

The miniature nuclear fusion core overloaded instantly.

His body became a bomb.

The energy shockwave from the explosion slammed into the Void Executioner's gravity shield.

The shield flickered, overloaded, and collapsed.

Within that brief 0.3 seconds, three melta beams simultaneously struck the exposed core.

Another Void Executioner was destroyed.

The cost was a life.

This was an exchange made with lives. Using the expensive, battle-hardened lives of Space Marines to trade for victory.

The price was heavy.

But effective... The battle lasted for fifteen minutes.

By the time the last Void Executioner plummeted into the abyss trailing black smoke, fewer than ten Astartes were still standing on the bridge.

C-19 leaned on the deformed halberd, kneeling on the ground.

His chest heaved violently, every breath accompanied by a searing pain in his lungs.

His black power armor was covered in cracks and melted holes.

His left arm had completely lost function, hanging at his side, with only the neural interface emitting faint electrical pulses.

He had won.

In a way he had never imagined.

He looked up toward the end of the bridge.

The gate leading to Nathan Doom's palace was slowly opening.

The bronze gate made a heavy grinding sound, revealing a dark corridor.

From deep within the corridor came the sound of footsteps and the clashing of metal.

The Tyrant was already impatient.