The Bizarre Adventures of the Oil Man, but Starting with Warhammer 32K

"Did he really not expect it?"

Li Ang reconfirmed.

"...He seems to be familiar with our fighting style."

This strike severely injured Occam, but the Dreadnought, ensuring the suddenness of the attack, did not activate the energy field on his Power Fist. After two injections of stimulant, Occam barely regained his mobility.

"This opponent is much stronger than we thought, Sage Leon. I hope you have some other methods."

"Where are the wizards in your warband?"

"He has more important work to do."

"Then buy me some more time."

The severely injured Occam once again stepped forward, and the three changed their targets to focus on distracting the Fearless, together holding them back. Felynx was ordered by Leon to collect materials.

The Thinker controlled by the Machine Soul wanted to self-destruct, but Tom's cat claws cut open the Thinker system here first and took out the chip inside that could serve as a carrier of electromagnetic energy.

Li Ang quickly assembled a directional electromagnetic wave weapon that was powerful enough to paralyze some of the Dreadnought's auxiliary equipment.

Knowing what he was doing, the Dreadnought no longer insisted on using highly destructive weapons. He used a series of explosive shells to drive back the Expellers warband that was besieging him, then strode forward and put the barrel of the gun against the forehead of Leon, who had just finished assembling it.

"You will pay the price for your betrayal, Sage!"

"Do you really want to do this?"

Li Ang pointed at the electromagnetic wave bomb in his hand and said, "I think we should still have room for discussion."

"I never let threats get to me."

"Me too. Actually, I'm not really that scared of it."

The light blue energy shield blocked Leon's gun barrel, and the weight was immediately removed from the balance where they could destroy each other.

Fearless fell silent, but he still didn't move the gun barrel away.

Leon didn't rush to activate the bomb. Even if he had the upper hand, destroying a Dreadnought that was at least at the level of a Chapter Venerable would be a huge problem for him.

If possible, he still wanted to make the fearless man in front of him compromise. So he waited patiently for him to make a choice. But Occam came to Leon, panting, and urged:

"We don't have time to waste here."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know why you'd come to the gene pool when we're on guard against Soul Drinkers, but they're a real problem. If you don't act quickly, the situation aboard the Phalanx will spiral out of control."

Occam's words caught the attention of both Leon and Fearless, but still failed to break the stalemate between them. It wasn't until a new communication request came in that the atmosphere between him and Fearless eased slightly.

"I suppose you don't mind if I take a call first?"

Unless it is an emergency, this communication request from the colonel will not be received by Leon.

Fearless's attention was also attracted by the blood-red communication request that symbolized urgency. He thought for a moment and finally gave in.

The person on the other end of the communication was the colonel who was assigned by Leon to guard against the Soul Drinkers. Leon could hear the clanging sound of bombs hitting metal from him.

"It's the Soul Drinker! The Soul Drinker has attacked!"

He loudly informed Leon of the situation over the comms, his voice so loud that even Fearless beside him could hear: "While Ornis was leading a patrol, he ran into a heavily armed group of Soul Drinkers who had infiltrated the area. They wanted to silence us, so they attacked us first!"

"Where's Neos? How's the situation now?"

"Nyos is fine, and the Soul Drinkers haven't breached our defenses. But they've reacted and are starting to move past us and deeper into the Phalanx! We can't stop them, and we don't know where they're going!"

The Soul Drinkers' riot had occurred much earlier than Leon had anticipated, but fortunately, the arrangements he had made in advance had worked. He looked at the Dreadnought in front of him, which had also heard the same thing.

"You heard me—I was only attempting to add two gene-seeds to the gene pool. But someone on the Phalanx was doing something far more extreme than I was."

"From the conversations to the correspondence, everything is one-sided."

"Please, you're not so stubborn as to believe that Rogal Dorn's descendants would never betray me, are you? I do have some other ideas, but I wouldn't turn the tables on the Phalanx, would I?"

"…While the Soul Drinkers are indeed different, the Mechanicus are equally untrustworthy."

Li Ang sighed. Using violence to deal with the fearless person in front of him seemed to be his last choice.

But the Phalanx suddenly began to "tremble," and the various auxiliary equipment that had been providing support to Fearless suddenly became disordered. Fearless seemed to sense something, and he finally moved the gun barrel away from Leon and said in a deep voice:

"I can sense the fear on the Phalanx. It's indeed those Soul Drinkers."

Without further persuasion, Dauntless, realizing the Soul Drinker uprising was indeed taking place, voluntarily put aside the current conflict. He asked the Expunged Warband and Leon to leave the gene-seed vault with him and rush to the scene. Leon finally had time to confirm the situation with Occam.

"You came to the Phalanx about the Soul Drinker anomaly?"

"It's more than that, but that's the main purpose."

"So what did you find out?"

Ockham pulled up a simple topographic map of the Phalanx. He drew a circle connecting the Soul Drinkers' base and the area they requested repairs, then pointed at the circle and said, "There is a closed Warp Gate within this range."

"A warp gate?"

This was the first time Leon had heard this: "On the Phalanx?"

"According to the information I found on the Phalanx, this door was moved to the Phalanx by the Primarch Dorn. I don't know where it leads, but I believe it is the Soul Drinker's target."

An opened subspace door could bring huge destruction no matter where it led to. Leon realized the seriousness of the matter: "Where is that door?"

"My wizard Koda is trying to locate it, but it's a closed Warp Gate, and apparently only the Soul Drinker knows about it now."

If they simply followed the Soul Drinker, their actions would inevitably be one step behind him. Fortunately, the knowledgeable Emperor Fist Fearless once again demonstrated his erudition.

"It's the Eye of the Predator."

He blasted open the corridor of the Phalanx with a shot, opening a shortcut to the gate of the subspace for Leon and his party.

"Let's go this way!"

-

"Colonel, how much longer must we hold out?"

"Persevere until victory!"

"I hate this kind of empty talk!"

Faraday narrowly avoided a scattering cannonball. He raised his own lasgun and tried to fire back, but failed to land a single focus on the Soul Drinker's power armor.

He suddenly missed the weapons they used in Covenant Harbor.

Faraday could only continue to crouch and hide, but even the Phalanx itself became their enemy.

The walls of the corridor began to twist and deform, the metal, squeezed by invisible forces, eventually taking the form of demonic faces. The pipes and cables hidden beneath the walls, driven by the electronic demons, transformed into tentacle-like structures, rapidly attacking them.

At the critical moment, the colonel threw a microwave grenade. The raging electromagnetic wave shock made these weak electronic demons shrink back and dared not attack again for a while.

However, the Soul Drinkers had taken advantage of this brief pause to seize the opportunity to cross the passage. With a clear goal in mind, they simply ignored this group of mortals and headed towards the depths of the Mountain Formation.

The colonel pulled off his hat, annoyed at the enemy's disregard.

After the battle at Covenant Harbor, some of them were equipped with standard Imperial weapons. While they were indeed much safer, their power was also greatly reduced.

"We have to catch up with those traitors! Where's Neos?"

"He's here!"

Xie Ri's response came along with the sound of a loud engine. The colonel turned around and saw a truck coming towards him.

The truck looked like it was cobbled together from scrap metal scavenged from the battlefield, its exterior covered in crude, haphazardly welded metal plates. But its rammed front and the swathes of pom-pom cannons and flamethrowers that covered its hull betrayed its formidable firepower.

The colonel saw the technical priest named Evil Sun riding on the front of the car, driving this war machine with Neos.

William's eyes widened as big as bells: "Can this thing really be turned on?"

Xie Ri was dissatisfied: "Are you questioning my skills? This is something that Neos and I tinkered with together. It's absolutely reliable!"

The colonel looked at Neos in confusion. Neos nodded, looking pleased with himself. "I think this toy is pretty cool."

"This isn't a toy! This is a real weapon!"

Amidst Evil Sun's vociferous protests, a group of people hurriedly boarded the battle truck. Neos drove the chariot forward, crushing any electronic demon that dared to operate the equipment to stop them along the way.

They caught up with the Soul Drinkers' team, but the strange shape of the battle truck made the Soul Drinkers more determined.

"The Chapter Master is right. There is indeed something sinister inside the Phalanx!"

These deceived ordinary soldiers, believing they were purging the emperor, turned and engaged Neos and his group. However, the evil sun's blessing on the creation meant that they lacked heavy firepower and were unable to destroy the vehicle in a short time.

The Soul Drinkers' advance was once again delayed. Danyatus, the driving force behind all this, was displeased by the mortals whose deployment and fighting spirit far exceeded his expectations.

However, thinking of the backup plan he had left earlier, he was not particularly worried.

"We must rush to the Predator's Eye as soon as possible. We just need to leave some people behind to hold them back."

The Soul Drinker quickly carried out his orders, leaving only about four hundred of his brothers with him.

Even so, they were the strongest Astartes force on the Phalanx.

"Welcome back our Gene Father and put an end to the hypocrisy and corruption of the empire..."

He murmured to himself, his eyes filled with desire for a brand new future.

"We will save all of humanity and the entire Empire in the Great Evolution!"

-

Thanks to the efforts of the Undead Army and their fearless guidance, Leon arrived at the Eye of the Predator before the Soul Drinkers could achieve their goal.

This warp rift, which has been closed for thousands of years, now seems to be called by something. The space around it has become distorted, forming a small vortex.

Leon tried to touch the vortex, but it was of no use - the vortex had not been opened from the Phalanx's side, and strictly speaking it was not a subspace phenomenon.

"It seems the trouble on the Phalanx is more serious than we thought."

Ockham said.

"This door has a final security measure."

Fearless replied, "When this Warp Gate was moved to the Phalanx, the Imperial Fists' think tanks worked together to seal off the Warp rift. Only the Imperial Fists' genetic sequences can unlock this Warp Gate."

"It sounds like the Soul Drinker can complete the unlocking process himself."

Li Ang said deliberately.

Fearless did not answer.

Leon raised an eyebrow, realizing that the Dreadnought should have known that the Soul Drinker was not a son of Dorne. He could only change the question: "Why not just destroy it?"

"We haven't found a way to destroy it, so moving it to the Phalanx is the safest approach. For thousands of years, it has been sealed deep within the Phalanx, without a single incident."

"But just one time is enough to be fatal."

With the Eye of Predator as the core, Leon began to summon the battle group assembled on the Phalanx.

But the cyber-demon had severed many communication channels, leaving Leon with only a handful of people he could actually reach. Ultimately, only two hundred or so warriors gathered at the Predator's Eye. They stared at the Warp Gate before them, their eyes filled with confusion.

"How could there be a warp rift in the Phalanx?"

The first to ask the question was Thorne. Before Leon contacted him, he thought that the mortals on the Phalanx had rebelled. Only after Leon contacted him did he realize that the rebellion had actually broken out from the Soul Drinkers.

"No one knows why, but this is the Soul Drinkers' goal."

Leon answered and looked at Captain Zeberion who came with Thorne.

This warrior, who strictly abided by the holy scriptures, wore a helmet during combat as required by the holy scriptures. Leon could not see his expression.

Leon then turned his head to look at Isaga who was standing aside. Isaga, as a think tank, shook his head, indicating that he did not feel any signs of corruption from the people present or the soul drinkers.

Despite the rampage of electronic demons, this rebellion does not look like the work of Chaos.

"Perhaps a few corrupted Chapter leaders instigated this rebellion. Whatever the truth, we must now build our defenses."

At Leon's signal, the Imperial Fists, the Condemners, and the Paragon Fists set up defenses in several narrow corridors outside the Predator's Eye.

Leon assigned the veterans of the Second Legion, led by Armidale, to the inner circle, closer to the Eye of the Predator. Fearless stared at these veterans wielding Monster Hunter weapons for a long time, seeming to see something fishy, ​​but ultimately saying nothing.

This fearless person seems to know a little too much.

Unfortunately, Leon didn't have time to delve into why this Dreadnought knew more than Thorn, the former Imperial Fists captain. Soul Drinkers quickly emerged from the end of the corridor. Although the colonel and his men struggled to hold them back, half of them still appeared near the Predator's Eye.

The Soul Drinkers, once the largest reinforcement force at the Last Wall at eight hundred, now became its enemies. The Soul Drinkers were slightly agitated when faced with the Space Marines of other Chapters, but Danyatus quickly intervened to quell their dissent.

"Brothers, look around us! The greatest star fortress in the human empire is now actively avoiding the battle with the greenskins! All this is because we are caught in a huge conspiracy. This conspiracy has corrupted our empire and made our warriors degenerate!"

"And we Soul Drinkers have awakened! We are no longer blinded, no longer bound! We will defeat those lost brothers, unleash the true power of the Phalanx, and save this empire eroded by corruption and decadence!"

His voice was filled with incitement, as if every word ignited the fire in the hearts of the Soul Drinkers. The agitated Soul Drinkers calmed down, and they shouted their battle cry once again under the false words of the Chapter Master.