lcionline Chapter 378 Corruption Has Never Gone
Chapter 378 Corruption Has Never Gone
**Frontline Command Post - The Iron Throne Hall**
Russell's golden eyes flickered slightly as he looked at Guilliman, the afterglow of psionic energy still flowing from his fingertips. "My lord," he said, "the Zerg haven't been completely wiped out, and the Orcs are gathering for a new offensive—is it too early to retreat?"
Guilliman's smile remained composed, but a subtle, unreadable meaning flickered in his eyes. He reached out and placed his hand on Russell's shoulder, touching the Terminator armor with its flowing gold patterns.
"You've destroyed the hybrid's command node. Calga and the Salamanders can handle the rest." His voice was deep and firm. "And you... need a full checkup."
Russell frowned. The Blood Drinker trembled slightly in his hand, as if sensing its master's confusion.
**"examine?"**
The Great Sage's mechanical tentacles unfurled a holographic projection in the air—it was Russell's energy scan data from the battlefield:
- **Psionic Energy Exhaustion Curve**: Theoretically, such a high intensity of psionic energy release should have exhausted him long ago, but Russell's energy readings remained at their peak.
- **Abnormal vital signs:** The heart is not beating, blood flow is driven by psionic energy, and the golden patterns on the bones are slowly eroding the muscle tissue.
- **Battlefield Energy Absorption**: Whenever a warrior falls, the Blood Drinker absorbs a small amount of psionic energy from his blood, and Russell himself... seems completely unaware.
"Your power is increasing, but at what cost?" Caul's mechanical eye locked onto Russell. "We need to make sure... you are still 'you'."
Carleon's wings folded slightly, and he hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't. The super angel's psychic vision could see more—within Russell's soul radiance, countless tiny gray threads were entwined, the lingering echoes of the dead from the battlefield.
Russell paused for a moment, then finally nodded. "If this is your order."
He turned and walked toward the Thunderhawk gunship, the Orks still chanting "Golden-Eyed God" in the distance, the Space Marines saluting him with the Aquila Ridge. But as he stepped onto the hatch, an Astragalman suddenly knelt, his hand trembling as he reached out—
"Sir... my brother died at the hands of the hybrid, but your light has brought him peace." A bloodstained dog tag lay in the soldier's palm. "Please... take it."
Russell took the dog tag, his golden fingertips unconsciously tracing the bloodstains. In that instant, the bloodstains on the dog tag disappeared, and the brightness of his pupils increased imperceptibly.
Killieman and Caul exchanged a serious look.
After the Thunderhawk took off, Guilliman immediately issued three secret orders:
1. **Perform memory purification on all warriors who have come into contact with Russell** (to prevent the spread of religious fanaticism)
2. **Seal the Blood Drinker in the Black Stone Safe** (to be personally guarded by the Imperial Guard)
3. **Send Sister Silent to approach Russell** (to test his psionic resistance)
Outside the porthole, no one noticed—
In the battlefields purified by Russell, the residual golden psionic energy in the soil is quietly gathering, forming tiny eight-pointed star patterns...
…………
**Macurag Sanctuary**
Inside the black stone cell, Russell's golden light cast distorted shadows on the walls. Guilliman stood outside the energy barrier, the hilt of the Emperor's Sword white from his grip.
"My father opposed divinity." The Primarch's voice seemed to come from the depths of time. "He shattered the City of Perfection with his own hands, burned the hymns of the believers... and now, Russell, you are becoming a walking icon."
Russell looked down at his palm, the golden veins pulsating beneath his skin like living things. Deep within his chest, the burning pleasure still throbbed—that flame would tremble hungrily whenever he recalled the image of crushing the Zerg tyrant.
"My lord... I did not pray for such power."
"Horus did not pray for corruption." Guilliman's fingertips traced the barrier, ripples spreading across the black stone's surface. "He was once more rational, more perfect than you—until chaos found a crack within him."
Russell suddenly pressed his hand to his chest, where the golden vortex contracted violently. Images flooded back uncontrollably—
- The fanatical gaze of the Astragalus soldiers kneeling in worship on the battlefield
- The orc warlord had his image engraved on his rusty armor.
- The pleasurable hum emitted by the Blood Drinker as it absorbs the souls of the dead.
"You felt it, didn't you?" Guilliman stepped closer. "The thrill of mortals praying to you, of enemies wailing at you—that thrill that transcends life itself."
The cell light flickered suddenly, and a beam of golden light shot from Russell's left eye, shattering the monitor on the ceiling. His voice became hoarse: **"If this is the price... I can control it..."**
"No!" Guilliman suddenly slammed his fist into the black stone barrier. "Control? You think Horus didn't try? When he slaughtered his people on the Istvan III, he firmly believed he was still in control!"
Kaul's mechanical tentacles emerged from the shadows, injecting a tube of scarlet liquid into the cell's ventilation system.
"This is an extract of the Silent Sisters' gray marrow." The sage's electronic voice remained completely still. "If you were a pure psionicist, you should be paralyzed by now."
Russell stood even straighter. His golden light did not extinguish; instead, it condensed into an imperial phantom within the gray marrow mist—a phantom wielding the Blood Drinker, its feet resting on the remains of the insectoids and chaos.
**“Unknown energy form detected…”** Sparks flew from Kaul’s mechanical eye. **“Non-subspace…non-real universe…immediate activation of the extinction protocol is recommended!”**
Guilliman's hand rested on the activation rune of the Emperor's Sword, but he hesitated to press it. He looked at Russell's pained face in the golden light—a face that still bore the smile of the veteran of Kadia, a trace of five years ago before it was corrupted by divinity.
…………
That night, Russell heard noises in his cell.
At first he thought it was a hallucination—until the voice spoke in the **voice of a fallen Astral Army soldier**:
"Killiman fears you... just as he feared Saint Gilles back then."
The golden light cast Horus's shadow on the wall, but the face was Russell's own.
"Accept the truth." The voice suddenly transformed into Mortalian's decaying whisper, "Every enemy you kill makes you stronger... and Guilliman, he doesn't even trust his own offspring..."
Russell swung his fist at the shadowy figure, and amidst the burst of golden light, a charred fist mark was left on the wall. As he looked up, panting, he met Guilliman's gaze from behind the surveillance camera.