Elsewhere, in the Eastern diterranean, Jerusalem.
Under the relentless barrage of bolt guns and chainswords, faith ultimately gave way to the primal instinct for survival.
As a prominent figure of the 17th Legion arrived, the ancient city of Jerusalem was filled with piercing sirens. The sound of marching boots echoed through the streets as shadows flitted within the city walls.
There was rushing, sprinting, and ergency formations responding to special orders.
On all major roads, auxiliary troops and servitor soldiers stood in neat lines, rifles slung over their shoulders. Beside them, rows upon rows of war machines were parked.
Duty officers scrambled to report to their superiors, and the entire defensive zone bustled with running soldiers and commanders.
At this mont, in the Old City of Jerusalem, within the Temple Mount...
The setting sun cast fiery rays from the horizon, painting the ancient city in a deep red hue, like a blood-drenched rose.
tal reflected the sunlight, and the legion’s insignia stood out vividly. It was an open parchnt scroll, ablaze with golden flas.
The soldiers, their armor gleaming and adorned with dark tones of gray and yellow with hints of gold, stood in perfect formation—giants in brilliant uniforms. Over ten thousand stood as one, eerily uniform, like cloned replicas. There was no noise, only the faint whisper of the wind.
"What is your duty?!"
A thunderous voice roared from the steps towering over the giants.
Under the gaze of high-ranking Astartes officers, the warriors answered in perfect unison:
"To serve the Empress’s will!"
"What is the Empress’s will?"
"Fight and die!"
"What is death?"
"It is our duty!"
The response was like rolling thunder, each word striking the ears of onlookers like a hamr, leaving them in awe.
"Do you see it? The threads of destiny lie beneath your feet," ca a deep, resonant voice.
"All has been ordained. Only the truth is eternal."
"After the fading of dawn blooms the eternal radiance—the crown that spans the stars."
As he spoke, Lorgar, the commander of the 17th Legion Imperial Heralds, slamd the Illuminarium staff into the ground. This finely crafted power staff bore a triangular Honkai crystal embedded at its tip.
Opening a massive, tablet-like to, the Holy Scriptures, he scanned the mortals standing in the courtyard with narrowed eyes. His gaze was cold and chilling, causing sweat to bead on their brows and trickle down their noses, yet none dared to wipe it away.
Indeed, these mortals were the religious leaders of the city, and Lorgar’s purpose was self-evident: submit to the Empress, or face destruction.
As Lorgar made his stance clear, the high-ranking Astartes officers beside him turned their gazes upon the gathered clergy.
They spoke no words. A few officers smiled—though their smiles only added to their nacing aura. Their expressions, accentuated by the natural folds of their faces, veered toward the sinister and unnerving.
In an instant, over a dozen priests, rabbis, and imams among the onlookers knelt down, prostrating themselves on the ground and shouting loudly, "God-Emperor above!"
"And the rest of you?" Lorgar’s gaze shifted to the remaining holdouts, his tone deceptively mild.
"Lord Lorgar!" A white-haired elder stepped forward from the group, gritting his teeth as he locked eyes with Lorgar. "We wish to allow the people to decide for themselves, to maintain their own faith—"
"Oh, that is truly regrettable." Lorgar shook his head, his tone tinged with mock sorrow.
"Lord! Your master is not our Creator. We have only this one—"
Before the elder could finish, a gunshot rang out—bang!
A bolt round obliterated his entire upper body, sending a spray of blood and gore flying far into the distance. Lorgar remained stoic as he watched the elder’s twitching legs collapse to the ground.
"Indecisiveness! Any doubt of Her Majesty’s will must be eradicated! Her Majesty is the foundation upon which the Empire stands. If you cannot learn this, I’ll gladly reforge you and send you to et your Creator," Lorgar declared coldly.
Not far behind him, a senior Preacher of the Imperial Heralds’ 17th Legion holstered his finely crafted bolt pistol onto a magnetic strap at his waist. He shook his head with a cold smirk.
"Loyalty that is not absolute is absolute betrayal!"
Lorgar, having no intention to further argue with the stubborn dissenters, turned his back. Imdiately, the Astartes officers on the steps barked orders to the surrounding soldiers:
"Eliminate them all!"
"You’ll burn in hell! Our Lord will not forgive you!"
"No! You can’t—" schlick!
Bang! Bang! Tat-tat-tat!
The sound of gunfire erupted instantly, and those stubborn individuals standing in the center of the courtyard were imdiately dismbered amidst pools of blood. The scene quickly fell silent, with the ground soaked in gore, the air thick with a nauseating stench of iron.
"Reconstruct this city—a grander temple, larger statues. We Preachers shall let the Divine Empress’s radiance descend upon this place..." Lorgar was laying out his ambitious plans when a military officer approached him at a brisk pace.
"Report: Commander, news from Giza, Egypt..."
"Heliopolis Life Sciences? World Serpent? A MOTH insignia?" Connecting these pieces of information, the lower-ranking officers might not understand the significance, but as the Legion Commander, Lorgar was well aware of the implications.
"MOTH..." Lorgar’s eyes lit up instantly. "Fla-Chasers. MANTISes."
"Order! Return to Giza, Egypt."
...
Egypt, Giza – Luxury Apartnt on the Comrcial Street
As the high-ranking governnt official who represented Giza Province in surrendering to the Empire, Reneibo and his family enjoyed the privileges granted by the Empire’s military. Unlike most of the population, they were not subject to strict control.
The turmoil outside didn’t bother them. Having soone to answer to wasn’t new. What was the difference between one overlord and another? It wasn’t as if the new one was a monster—it wasn’t sothing intolerable.
Even if it were a monster, for bureaucratic politicians like them, decisions were always based on practical considerations (such as the power balance between sides) and enough benefits. Monsters could be tolerated if the calculations added up.
It was no different from before. Old Reneibo had just finished a day of work (transitioning from serving Giza’s governnt to serving the Empire) and was about to relax, eat hot pot, and sing when—boom! Suddenly, disaster struck.
Bang! Bang! Boom!
Crash—Clatter!
Gunfire and explosions approached rapidly. A muffled blast echoed, and the entire apartnt turned into a chaotic ss. Concrete rubble, wooden splinters, shards of glass, and broken furniture were strewn everywhere.
"An Astartes warrior?" Clutching his wife and children, Old Reneibo stared in shock at the massive, armored giant in gray tal plating who had smashed through the apartnt ceiling. He quickly cowered into a corner, muttering in disbelief.
"Hmm?!"
The 17th Legion Preacher, who had been knocked off course by Pardofelis’s "cat claw" attack, absentmindedly patted his chest plate.
Not out of injury concern—rather, he was perplexed. The fleshy, round cat paw attack seed wide-ranging and infused with Honkai energy, but the actual damage... was negligible.
Loud thunder, small rain. Was the mutant pretending to be weak?
The attack barely scratched the paint. Forget penetrating the Orichalcum composite armor of his power suit—it hardly seed to carry much force at all.
A nimble and agile enemy specializing in evasion but lacking in direct combat capabilities?
"Sir... have we done sothing wrong?" Old Reneibo stamred, trembling as he asked.
"An official, huh." Most civilians had already been rounded up. The only ones enjoying the privilege of staying at ho were officials working for the Empire. Besides, the term "Astartes" likely hadn’t yet beco common knowledge.
The Astartes warrior glanced at the cowering family of mortals in the corner of the room. After a mont’s thought, he activated the jetpack on his back, waved dismissively, and said, "Stay out of the way," before blasting out of the room.
Boom!
The remaining wall couldn’t withstand the impact of the multi-ton armored giant and finally crumbled completely, sending a trail of plasma smoke skyward.
"That mutant is an agility-specialized enemy. Its attacks don’t seem particularly strong!" an Astartes warrior shouted through the internal communication channel, raising his chainsword.
Buzz!
Dodging the volley of explosive rounds raining down like a storm, Pardofelis watched as the dark gray giant surged forward again, blocking her retreat. She drew her circular blades, the sharp-tipped cat tail behind her swaying lightly.
There was no other choice. Enemies were closing in from all directions, and the large-caliber explosive rounds kept pouring down like an unrelenting downpour.
The teeth of the chainsword clashed against the violet circular blades with a sharp screech—clang!
This wasn’t a contest of Honkai energy but a direct clash of raw strength!
Pardofelis’s weapon consisted of a dual-layer blade ford by two semi-circular edges. For the first ti, the massive chainsword began to tremble under the strain, the vibrations passing into her arms and forcing her to use her second hand to maintain her grip.
The fight between the Astartes warrior and Pardofelis resembled a heavily armored knight battling an unarmored rogue.
A roar followed the clash of the chainsword.
Taking advantage of the montary pause, another Preacher warrior, wielding a mace-like power hamr, used his jetpack to close the distance with perfect precision. The coordinated assault and the smokescreen provided him with an invaluable opening. Following his years of teamwork training, he swung the hamr, its head crackling with crimson electrical arcs—zap, crackle!
BOOM!
A deafening explosion reverberated, dispersing the mid-air dust slightly. The Preacher warrior was pushed back half a ter but maintained his posture in the air, while Pardofelis was knocked off the wall she had been clinging to. Her feet skidded across the asphalt road, leaving gouges as she slid back at least a dozen ters.
"Indeed, she’s agility-specialized," the warrior remarked, feeling the vibrations through the transmission chanisms of his power armor.
Her agility and nimbleness were undoubtedly exceptional. Without jetpacks or the sheer numbers for a coordinated encirclent, she could easily outrun them, leaving not even a trail behind.
To trap her, fewer than a hundred warriors wouldn’t be enough to seal off all her potential escape routes. With her speed and sharp instincts, any gap could easily beco a breakthrough point.
But her muscle strength was remarkably weak. Compared to her incredible agility, her raw power was disproportionately low—she was undoubtedly a single-attribute specialized enemy.
The Preachers discussed this over their internal communication channel.
The Astartes warriors were undoubtedly enhanced across all attributes, but specialized units weren’t unheard of within the Empire’s forces, such as infiltration and reconnaissance units in the auxiliary army.
"On closer observation, she’s not a mutant; she seems to be so sort of variant."
"Probably. Her physical mutations appear limited to the cat ears and tail. She’s not like those beast mutants covered in fur with sharp limbs—she’s still technically human."
"Uh... those catgirls, I hear the nobles up top are really into them."
"Bah! Talk about it when you’ve earned yourself a real title of nobility!"
More and more Imperial Heralds stationed throughout the city converged on the scene. Thanks to the internal communication channel, they quickly grasped the situation and seamlessly coordinated their efforts.
Having exchanged over a dozen moves with the Astartes warriors, Pardofelis utilized her exceptional wall-running and acrobatics—honed on the streets of Twilight City—to weave nimbly between the giants’ legs.
This ti, the heavy center of gravity of their armored forms worked to Pardofelis’s advantage.
As the battle raged on, entire blocks of landmark buildings were reduced to sothing resembling war-torn Syria.
"Big guys, can’t hit , can you?"
Despite being out of breath and feeling her arm muscles tremble after clashing with the Astartes, Pardofelis remained cheerful.
Taking a mont to crouch against a building wall, she tossed her violet circular blades forward. "Tin Can, go! Smash them flat!"
The two circular blades combined mid-air, forming a ring. In the next mont, a massive... rotund brown cat erged from it.
The creature grew larger as it spun and landed, enveloping dozens of Astartes warriors beneath its massive backside.
"ow—!"
Instantly, with a sense of utter humiliation, the warriors were flung away, crashing into nearby buildings and leaving gaping holes in the walls.
The attack didn’t cause significant damage, but its indignity was undeniable.
"Yay!" Pardofelis exclaid, forming a "V" with her fingers. Her cat ears adorably twitched in celebration.
...
"What are you all doing?!"
This scene was witnessed by an approaching Astartes squad leader. Watching Pardofelis flipping and dodging among the chainswords, power hamrs, and bolt rounds, he narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Cat ears? Fur..."
In nearly ten blinks of an eye, he identified a potential weakness.
"Cats fear fire. Most furred animals have an inherent fear of flas. If she exhibits cat-like traits, then let’s test it. Everyone, switch to inferno bolts! Authorization granted for incendiary weapons in the city. If higher-ups question it, I’ll take responsibility."
The soldiers hesitated briefly at the audacious order, but officers weren’t bound by the sa restrictions.
Even a squad leader commanding fewer than 100 soldiers held officer status within the Astartes hierarchy.
"Yes, sir!"
Since the officer hadn’t bothered to lower his voice, Pardofelis overheard the command. Her smile froze as she muttered, "Uh... there’s no need for all this violence. I’m a good person, a righteous thief."
But with talk of infernos and incendiary rounds, the cat-girl’s deanor visibly shifted—she truly feared fire.
"Open fire!"
"Waaah—!" Pardofelis cried out in alarm.
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