Kenmei Isayama, clad in Inquisition Power Armor, stepped down from the Fury-class Interceptor, slowly leaving his footprint on this dust-covered, lost land.
The ground here was mostly composed of crystalline residue produced only by intense heat. He looked up to see an endless, brilliant galaxy. Since the atmosphere had been completely burned away by the Two-Stage Cyclonic Torpedoes, the view was unobstructed.
The starry sky was filled with shattered celestial fragments, slowly emitting the light of dazzling particles.
This was the ruins of the Hive World Albert (Abel)—an abandoned Hive World where no one but scavengers would set foot.
The traitor to the Inquisition, Tosak Rome, had crashed his ship nearby. In the distance, the place emitting a steady stream of black smoke was the location of the Inquisition warship.
Kenmei had many things he wanted to ask Tosak Rome, which was why he hadn't used a laser cannon volley to execute the traitor immediately in space.
"The Emperor protects. I hope he's okay."
Kenmei prayed silently. By "okay," he meant healthy enough to survive the torture methods stored in Macarnos Elfman's mind. After all, there was no need to hold back against a traitor.
"It's truly desolate here."
Kenmei couldn't help but wonder if the Homeworld on which he had dropped two Cyclonic Torpedoes looked just as miserable as this.
He walked in from the edge of a city that had long since been buried under countless asteroids, smashed into ruins and broken walls.
Kenmei could access the Inquisition's internal database, which contained photos of this world before it was crushed by the iron hooves of the Imperium.
Based on the coordinates, Kenmei judged that the place where he stood was once a massive arsenal. Towering smokestacks used to churn out various tanks from the production lines endlessly.
But now, nothing remained. All buildings were annihilated by the initial shockwave, and all life was evaporated by the terrifying high temperatures during the months-long burning of the atmosphere.
Only a broken mess remained—a silent sigh of an entire Hive World destroyed by the terrifying war machines of the Imperium.
Behind the destruction of a once-prosperous Hive World lay the death of a conservatively estimated fifty billion innocent civilians.
Wearing an oxygen rebreather mask, Kenmei arrived at the crash site of Tosak Rome's ship. The ship's hull had smashed a massive crater into the ground.
Wreckage was everywhere. Seeing this, Kenmei simply recorded it silently and uploaded the data to the Ordo Hereticus Headquarters.
The materials used in every Inquisition warship were quite precious; the Tech-Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus would come to retrieve them later.
Kenmei arrived at the ship's hatch. There were no signs of it having been opened, so Tosak Rome should still be inside.
The special alloy door of the Inquisition ship had only lost its surface paint despite the corrosion from the shaped-charge explosives, but it was severely deformed from the impact.
However, this was nothing to Kenmei. With Macarnos Elfman's body, his psychic power could handle this special alloy door with ease.
Kenmei simply placed his hand on the hatch. Under the erosion of psychic energy, the special alloy emitted terrifying sounds of metal twisting and creaking. The damaged gears inside were forced to move.
In the end, Kenmei ripped the entire hatch off directly. He pulled back hard, and with a loud thud, he threw it backward, smashing it into the ruins of rubble in the distance.
Entering the ship's interior, Kenmei discovered that the damage was far more severe than he had imagined. It was basically damaged beyond repair.
Kenmei had a premonition that if he had arrived a little later, this ship would have exploded.
The urgent task was to find Tosak Rome quickly. Kenmei looked at the electronic components blocking his way. He raised his bolt pistol, and explosive rounds shattered these eyesores.
Finally, Kenmei found the unconscious Tosak Rome in the cockpit. He was in a coma; the ceiling light had fallen on him, and he was buried under the exploded components of the central control console. He looked miserable, his body covered in wounds. The most serious injury was a shard that had pierced his chest like a fork.
It looked quite severe, but Kenmei knew that with an Inquisitor's physical constitution, this wasn't a critical injury.
So, he rather roughly pulled the shard out directly. Blood instantly sprayed from the mangled wound, staining the ground red.
Without delay, Kenmei grabbed Tosak Rome by the back of his collar and ran out, dragging a long, terrifying trail of blood behind him.
Just as Kenmei ran about three hundred meters away, the ship exploded massively. Some parts flew incredibly high, especially that super-high-horsepower engine.
One could say Tosak Rome was woken up by pain. When he woke up to find himself being dragged like garbage, he was instantly enraged and tried to raise his right hand.
It was as if Kenmei had eyes in the back of his head. He pulled out his bolt pistol and fired a precise shot. The bullet tore through skin and flesh upon contact, and the secondary explosion fractured the bone—double damage.
This time, Tosak Rome was truly suffering a living hell. Kenmei didn't aim carefully, so at the connection between his wrist and palm, three-quarters were severed, leaving one-quarter still attached to the wrist. It was quite gruesome.
Kenmei looked at Tosak Rome, who had now lost both hands. The former Inquisitor was curled up in pain as Kenmei asked coldly:
"Why did you betray us?"
"You could have had a bright future, yet you buried your own prospects."
Although Inquisitors had a heavy workload, their treatment and status were much better than other personnel in the Imperium. After all, the Inquisition's authority came from the Emperor Himself.
"Future?"
"Under the rule of that Corpse Emperor, have we humans ever lived a good day?"
Tosak Rome roared angrily at Kenmei.
"Endless wars. Even if a civilian just sits at home, a Cyclonic Torpedo might fall on their head."
"An Inquisitor's duty is to find hope for humanity's continuation, so I found it."
"That is for the Corpse Emperor to die!"
"Only when humanity gains the favor of the Prince of Pleasure will we have a bright future."
Not even calling Him the Emperor anymore? Kenmei was curious. What kind of brainwashing could turn someone into this?
To wash the brain away entirely was impressive. Without the Emperor, humanity had only one outcome: total annihilation.
Kenmei sighed and placed his hand on top of Tosak Rome's head.
Daemons always used various negative emotions in the lives of humans and other creatures to strengthen themselves and lure others into corruption.
But for a loyal Inquisitor to fall to this extent was ridiculous.
No one in this Hive World knew Kenmei, so using slightly rougher sorcery was acceptable.
However, just as Kenmei placed his hand on Tosak Rome's head to perform a soul-searching spell...
Several bolt rounds whistled from the distance. The target was very clear: Tosak Rome's head.
It seemed someone didn't want Kenmei to check his memories and had decided to execute Tosak Rome.