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Chapter 8
EMIYA's POV
There was that smell again.
Of rancid honey above me. Of blood below me.
Of heated metal and carbon.
And what I had seen through Analysis, what these "Genestealers" did was much more than what I had thought.
It was a change down to the DNA, more similar to the change to a Dead Apostle than a ghoul, as I had thought when I had researched these Genestealers.
The Analysis I had done had even given far more information than usual, and that information was enough to also be aware of what kind of "children" this madman was talking about, and to make the magical energy all around, be it from this planet and this "God Emperor", flow in me.
There wasn't that trepidation that I could see these men and women having, while a cursed, warped, and corrupted enemy stood there laughing.
I couldn't feel it, I didn't feel it, ever since I sold my soul.
Nor could I feel the need to breathe, being it a psychological action, while they took position as the newly made Lieutenant made orders, the strange machine spiritist speaking in her monotone voice, saying that more and more cameras had been destroyed.
Nor did I feel the need to shout, or ask that same spiritist, about what was coming. I could feel the tremors under my boots, and the smell of honey coming closer and closer, and the snarls and grinding of teeth from the open door.
I walked up, taking position on the tower where the radio had been, and Reinforced all the while the laser gun I had in my hands, making the battery in it better, its wires able to give more power through, and the lenses less damaged and more focusing.
Along with that, I Reinforced my eyes, making the crystalline take more of the image while bettering the cells at the back so they would see better in the dark and more detailed.
The few things I could see with the changed Analysis was some kind of humanoid beast with many hands, nothing more.
And, while the beasts came closer and closer, the voice inside my head piped in:
"I cannot think of anything similar as well during the Great Crusade, nor something quite like that inside the sea of souls. Truly surprising for the Imperium to be able to resist them, and a show of the strength of human will despite this carcass of an Empire. Along with how they control humans, a mixture of hormones, mutations, and a bit of Psykic power, enough to be almost untraceable."
There wasn't disgust for these aliens, but more like curiosity from a Magus.
It made me shudder for a but a moment, but another "Pic-taker destroyed, one hundred meters" made me snap my attention towards the incoming fight.
"They come, the child-" A quick crack, and then silence, along with a subtle, under the smell of death and metal, the odor of burnt chicken.
"Prepare, Guardsmen!" shouted the Lieutenant from below me: "For the God Emperor!"
"For the God Emperor! For the Omnissaiah!"
Half the squad took position to overlook the stairs, while the other half, like myself, took watch on the door. The turrets turned quickly, and I could almost see the revving of the rounds inside them, and definitely hear it.
The sounds of chitin against concrete and metal, and the growls and the snarls of beasts, and shrill sounds, too acute to be heard.
The smell of honey became too much, and I could almost taste the iron coming from that door.
Then, for but a moment, the sounds stopped.
The darkness of the open door gave away to yellow eyes, fully yellow, no iris or pupil, no emotion.
And there were many of them.
The turrets were the first to fire, the rounds leaving the barrels in yellow lightning, while thunder sounded with their caliber firing, 25 millimeters of cannon rounds coming out and spraying.
Even from where those creatures were, I could see deep red, almost black, ichor coming out, and, for a moment, I was stunned by their strength.
I had seen them work on humans, but they were outgunned and outmatched.
Then, the tide of beasts came out of that door.
They weren't overly big, for a biped, around one meter and thirty I would say, with white endoskeleton, like an insect, and purple crests, that same purple that looked similar to the colour on the possible infected above, and the infected I had fought here.
They had six limbs, two legs that looked like those of a horse, but without much in the way of muscles, two smaller arms, ending in what looked like one pair of claws.
And then there were the two main arms, more reminiscing of two small swords than anything natural, for how long the claws, or far more pointedly, those weapons were.
Their maw was open, and remained open when the fire of the turrets rained on them.
But those weren't Genestealers.
"For the God Emperor!" Came from below, while red bolts lighted the door and added to the continuous fall of those beasts.
"That they are not. What we see look remarkably more similar to how those books described the "Hormogaunts", even if the colours are…strange. They were said to be red and black, after all. Not purple and white."
I nodded internally, while starting to fire myself, the tide starting to be too much for just the turrets, these Tyranids coming out tens in number, almost like they wanted to use their bodies to drown…
That smell of honey didn't come from them.
Where did it come from?
They were tearing metal all around, their claws hitting down in ravenous and animalistic bloodlust, while more and more sounds came from around me, from above and below.
Then more sounds came from that same door, and tens of those beasts came out, only this time instead of enormous claws they had what looked like…a gun?
A gun in what seemed to be humanlike hands?
The description didn't make it so understandable, and I could see how.
Even with the sporadic photos I had seen in our research, these aliens were truly strange.
"Grenade!" The fight continued while I shot calmly, black ichor and white keratin flying around and painting the floor black and slick, making some of those beasts fall and being torn apart by their brethren, who like the tide were gaining somehow, despite the good throw from one of the female soldiers.
They pressed their triggers, while many of their comrades were mowed down, both by the cannons and by the laser guns, and one of those strange projectiles flew from the biological gun to hit the turret, melting the outside slightly before the alien was killed quickly.
A Structural Analysis gave me an answer to what these aliens were firing.
"Acid." I whispered, both disgusted and curious by this.
It was still somewhat biological, but an acid so strong to melt metal, even if slowly, produced by what was described to be barely more than a familiar?
"Truly frightening, and these are Termagants. Quite similar, but they seem…engineered. I wonder how they came to be." The voice in my head commented, and I had to avoid grunting at the annoyance of having a studious inside my head in this moment, while I myself was thinking the same thing.
We had our ideas on the dangers of these Tyranids.
The fact that this "Primarch" had never heard of them gave him quite the fright. I wasn't sure if, though, the danger they posed was more than these "Genestealers".
Their numbers, now arriving at the metal stairs towards the tower, gave me a cold shower.
"The Imperium, even at the time of our Crusade, would be hard-pressed with such a foe. We need to find a way to get outside this planet, and find a more solid footing, Counter Guardian."
I grunted at that, continuing to take care of those Tyranids, and it was better I started to use the term, who went too close to the soldiers down.
Then that smell of honey. It was above.
And the sound of metal being contorted, became louder as well.
I heard the sounds of claws, but they were louder, and stronger, and I immediately looked up, the sound of metal being torn apart, and of growls and of…almost whispers.
Human like whispers.
They were trying to make another way to attack, I saw.
I aimed to where they were, five enormous hands, far bigger than those of the Tyranids below, and two of them even bigger, coming out and making the hole itself big enough for two people to enter and jump from and, without hesitation or doubt, I pressed the trigger.
The laser's bolt fired from the gun in my hands three times stronger than what was shot by the soldiers below, and, with a pained hiss, one of the Tyranids above fell.
It was, without saying, a good shot.
The corpse of the alien fell through, and it was bigger, and it had and it had the same number of limbs, only the four arms ending in claws, and its head was bulbous, enormous.
I immediately Analyzed it, to find its weakness, only to understand quite well why that infected officer had called these "Genestealers", children.
"Kill them. Kill them!" The voice inside my head shouted, angry and disgusted, and I almost expected the power now letting my existence be stable to also come out, but it mercifully didn't.
I could understand the sentiment, but that really was not the time to have light coming out from my body, thank you.
I wasn't able to shout anything, though. Or to say anything. Between the shot and the corpse falling it had been less than five seconds
Honey, above me!
"Shit!"
I jumped just before the metal roof broke with an explosion of heat and acid, and the aliens trying to tear it apart jumped down, or came down, with it, the smell of burning flesh and bile and honey coming down with them, while the feeling of weightlessness took me for a moment.
I had the time, while jumping, to aim for one of those aliens, and shoot it in the head.
Quite a good shot, even if this weapon was quite shoddily made.
Then that sense of weightlessness left me, and down I went.
The clang of metal against my back, and quiet discomfort against the body of a weak Counter Guardian, and I was able to take another shot from the lying position, on one of those Genestealers who had taken position on the tower and was roaring up, a shrill scream coming out its mouth.
Then I had to use the gun to parry a slice taken against my head from my side, one of the beasts having survived the fall, and it sliced through half of the battery pack, even if it had been Reinforced.
Scary beast.
I was able to use the gun as a hammer, which broke one of the beast's arms, before another three came down and made me fall back, and I let the now useless gun clatter on the floor, the sound it made while falling covered by the fighting, and the screeches, and the shouts, and the uncaring machines and trains and metal still being worked on this foundry.
Kanshou and Bakuya were already in my hands when I finished that roll, and I took my stance, prepared to fight.
Small Tyranids had joined their towering brethren, a moment like they were smiling.
There were thirty-seven of those Hormogaunts, and six Genestealers.
One of which was much taller than the others, two and a half meters, with longer and bigger arms and bigger head, with flat spikes coming out its back.
It was a tall beast, but alone? It would have been easy, easier than eating a cake.
Even without Magecraft, killing that would have been quite easy, maybe not as easy as being able to puncture it with one meter of steel.
Several of those meters, in fact.
I would have survived them even without Magecraft, and with it would have been almost banal.
I knew that. I know that.
They did as well.
Somehow, at least, even at the time, I knew that they weren't simple beasts.
The head beast shrilled, and one of its clawed hands almost pointed at me, and the smell of honey covered everything for a moment, and the small beasts, for a moment, looked at me, and then the jump.
Then, as one, they jumped, barely two seconds passing between what was a command and them following that order.
Half of them jumped at me. The others sailed for the soldiers, still trying to stop the tide and only now turning for also those behind them.
I knew I could fight them off.
But I also knew that the soldiers, taken from behind, wouldn't be able to fight on two sides without casualties.
Casualties that I could avoid if I used Magecraft.
Which I knew was hated by this Imperium, or at least something close to my abilities, close enough visually that it would make any kind of movement harder.
It would be far easier to not do anything, and let some of them die.
I also wanted to return to the man I once was.
It was an easy decision.
"Trace On." The energy of this planet, almost singing at being used, and the energy inside me, coming both from the strange summoning and the one keeping me tied, all was used to summon tens of swords, of daggers and knives, of spears and halberds, all around me.
All pointed at different beasts.
With but a thought, those blades shot off, the beasts still in mid-flight, and all of them, but one, were pierced, the force behind those weapons made them crash against the structure around or pinned at the roof or walls, shrill cries coming from their maws and black ichor falling from their enormous wounds, all the while they tried to move and follow the order of their head beast in their last seconds.
Only one beast remained, which was quick enough to see the danger, strong enough to use a shield, and clever, lowly clever, to grab one of the smaller Genestealers and use it to cover itself, and then, when with but a thought another armory appeared, jump faster than I could expect into the hole it did and, with a last screech, it ran away.
Two soldiers were looking at me, alongside that flying skull.
I didn't stop, though.
The firing behind was continuing, and I could hear the sounds of bone on metal, many of those, alongside the sounds of those strange bioweapons, and the smell of acid and bile.
I simply turned in that direction, and traced my black bow.
Too late to not give my all, at least I would finish this quickly.
I raised the bow, a strong grip needed, and Reinforced my arm somewhat, not much due to the ease these aliens would die.
The arrows were prepared in my mind, and the string was pulled back.
In a few seconds, the arrow went up, and pierced fifty remaining aliens.
Quite easy, as I thought
"This is almost humbling. Almost. Now, I would advise you to take out the bow."
Ah, yes.
"Witch!" Several noises of lasers charging, and that skull flying in front of me.
Truly a good step to return to trying to save everyone, Emiya.
AN
I apologize for the lateness, but unfortunately it will continue.
I had a difficult week, after I posted the chapter, alongside the exams, which is also why the chapter is a tad smaller (even if hopefully still good enough).
I can only apologize, and unfortunately say I will have some problems for at least June. I will try to make God of swords come out next week, but it may take some more.
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