Chapter 9: Time for Your Medicine

Mortarion was furious.

What was supposed to be a foolproof extermination mission had gone awry because he had underestimated his enemy. The Xenos Overlord had escaped using Psychic teleportation.

Damn it, Psychic teleportation was an obscure and advanced Psychic spell. Mortarion hadn't anticipated that an Overlord on Barbarus would possess such knowledge.

Even his foster father, the most powerful sorcerer on Barbarus, couldn't teleport, yet this Xenos sorcerer could?!

This failure was his fault. He hadn't foreseen the sudden teleportation, allowing the once cornered Lazar to slip away from his blade.

Standing amidst the ruins of his battle with Overlord Lazar, Mortarion angrily pondered where the cunning foe might have teleported to. He realized that the inexperienced Death Guard rebels down the mountain might be his target.

Damn it!!!

He cursed inwardly while leading the mountain rebels swiftly down the main path.

However, a rebel guarding the side path suddenly ran up, informing him that Lazar had teleported onto that path.

How could that be? Why would the cunning Lazar teleport to such a place? It offered neither good defensive positions nor was it far from Mortarion.

What could Lazar be doing there? Was his psychic spell limited to such short-range teleportation?

Or was this rebel being controlled by the Xenos's Psychic spell?

Mortarion looked at Herila. He knew her; she was the only one willing to team up with his friend, Hades.

Tears brimmed her eyes, and her frantic running forced her to breathe heavily, her respirator struggling to cope. It was clear she had inhaled some toxins.

But there was no trace of psychic corruption on her.

So, it seemed likely to be true.

Mortarion instructed Typhon to continue leading the elite forces down the main path, while he and Herila sprinted down the side path.

If what Herila said was true…

Then Hades was probably already…

Mortarion stifled his anxious thoughts. He needed to trust his friend.

But he ran faster and faster—

—Then they saw Hades soaring through the air, his scythe sweeping in a full moon arc, decapitating the grotesque Xenos Overlord!

What!!!

Mortarion's eyes widened in disbelief.

Blood and the severed head spun through the air, the Xenos's body erupting in a blood fountain. Hades landed precisely in the center of the blood spray, covered head to toe in blood—both his own and the Xenos's.

The scene looked like a child's crayon drawing smeared with blood.

Hades stood at the center, lowering his scythe like a farmer who had just harvested his crops. The scythe blade was sticky with blood and grass.

Realizing they were there, Hades turned his head, offering a strained smile through his gas mask.

At that moment, the faint light of Barbarus seemed to converge around Hades.

—Then he wobbled, wobbled, and slowly collapsed.

Meanwhile, that obnoxiously lively voice started wailing,

"Ahhhh! It hurts!!! Help!!! I'm dying!!! Help meeeee!!!"

There was no way this guy was going to die. Mortarion bet he was perfectly fine.

Annoying bastard.

Despite his thoughts, Mortarion and Herila quickly ran to Hades' side. Mortarion carefully examined his wounds. Aside from significant blood loss and severe poisoning, he really wasn't in bad shape.

—Contrary to his usual careless demeanor, in battle, Hades was exceptionally meticulous.

—He had defended himself well.

But Hades continued his dramatic wailing, and Mortarion reluctantly dragged him off the Xenos's corpse, tossing him to the tearful Herila.

The wailing instantly turned into soft whimpering.

Annoying bastard.

Mortarion thought the same thing once more.

Unlike his friend Typhon, whom Mortarion respected and trusted implicitly, Hades... Well, Mortarion also trusted him, but his occasional antics gave Mortarion headaches.

For example, the Death Guard he led believed in silent combat and marching, never uttering a sound even when injured or dying.

But Hades was an outlier...

Since Hades rarely participated in large-scale battles and didn't disrupt morale, Mortarion tolerated his occasional outbursts, just as he permitted Typhon's harsh words.

Realizing that Hades wasn't in mortal danger or disabled, Mortarion stopped paying attention to him.

He pulled out the dagger he had thrown earlier from the corpse.

Then, while inspecting the Xenos Overlord's body, Mortarion still found himself stupefied with what he saw.

He knew that even at fourteen, Hades' combat prowess was among the best in the Death Guard, 

But this didn't mean he could single-handedly kill an Overlord proficient in psychic powers.

Having fought Lazar himself, Mortarion knew how powerful his psychic power was. His physical strength is also no joke, most mortals would barely withstand a single strike from him.

Then Mortarion saw it—the stone, split in two.

He picked it up, the nauseating, evil sorcerous aura completely gone.

Mortarion remembered this stone vividly. In his battles with Lazar, many of his sorceries were cast using it.

He didn't recall any damage to the stone when Lazar escaped—despite his attempts to attack it, the stone's powerful warp distortions always deflected him.

He knew Lazar had acquired the stone by sacrificing countless villagers, but Lazar himself had not contributed his soul—meaning the stone's state wasn't tied to Lazar's life or death.

So, Lazar's death didn't cause the stone to break.

It must have been damaged by another attack.

Could Hades also be a hidden Psyker?

No, impossible. Even a Psyker couldn't achieve this without leaving an evil aura on the stone if he used Psychic.

But now the stone had no aura, literally no trace of anything.

Mortarion frowned and pocketed the two stone fragments.

He then hoisted Hades onto his back and had Herila carry the Xenos Overlord's head as they rejoined the rebels down the mountain.

The only comforting thing was that Hades, due to the battle and blood loss, had passed out, which meant his endless comment had stopped.

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Hades was now happily lying in bed, being fed by Herila...

Her soft body leaned against Hades, her long eyelashes quivering slightly as she gazed at him with tenderness so soft it could form threads.

Her small, upturned nose was dotted with tiny freckles. Though her lips, eroded by Barbarus's toxins, were an abnormal pale, they were still delicate.

Hades swore he even smelled a faint soap fragrance, a rare commodity on Barbarus.

Herila held a bowl of indescribable purple liquid, with a thick layer of yellow grease floating on top. As she stirred with a spoon, some mashed pieces surfaced.

She scooped up a spoonful of the unknown substance, gently bringing it to Hades' face, the pungent odor overwhelming her soap fragrance.

Hades swore he used all his strength to swallow the bile rising in his throat.

He exerted his full control, comparable to the willpower he used when slashing Lazar. Hades forced a smile, looking at Herila.

Herila shyly returned his gaze, "Hades, it's time to eat~"

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