The Chaldean war on Skalus was won. This is also recorded in the archives of the Empire.

But what exactly did they win?

Kylea pondered this question amid the burning ruins.

Rika Saito Maru likes to be nosy, and thanks to the fact that the current empire does have a lot of "gossip" that allows them to "take care of it", it is not the first time that she has faced such a dangerous battlefield in the more than half a year since she was carried on the Storm Frontier by Pamenio.

Even so, she had just barely adapted to the roar of the cannon fire in her ears, to the powerful recoil of a mortal-sized blaster in her hand, and to the cold and illusory burning sensation that would occur when she actively channeled the Emperor's psionic energy.

There were two things that she couldn't get used to for the time being: one was the slight dizziness of the adrenaline rush between life and death, and the other was the massive, meaningless death and destruction that lay out before her eyes.

But that's what war is all about.

The discrete tentacles of the Tyranid were successfully wiped out by the Chaldeans within five days. Determined that they could kill with a single hit, the entire team split into four lanes and attacked at the same time, destroying the Motherhive and all of the Node creatures it landed on the ground in one fell swoop. Tyron, who has lost his command and organization, and is unable to reproduce himself, is the end of a strong crossbow to fear, but there are no living people left on Skalos.

The unarmed civilians have long since been fed by the Abominable Devourers, and all organic structures have been converted by Tyron into biomass to drive the hive; The Astral Army, a professional soldier, has not been spared a similar fate, and according to information obtained by Inquisitor Hastings in the contemplative arrays of several government agencies that are barely functioning, at least two full-fledged Imperial legions have fought these space locusts on the surface of Skalus - and their bravery is not remembered, only the military equipment that has been corrupted by acid can prove that it once existed.

Before the subspace of this galaxy was completely sealed off by the shadow of the hive, only half of the company of the Holy Blood Angels managed to rush to support. But even these biological warfare weapons designed by the emperor himself and can still maintain combat effectiveness in various extremely harsh environments, they obviously cannot maintain their superiority in the face of the Tyranid Zerg that is all over the mountains. If San Gigliano hadn't appeared here, the Emperor's Angel of Death would have been wiped out here - and even if the living saints had come, there would have been only twelve angelic heirs left to survive to the end, as well as a complete corpse.

From the beginning, they came late.

"What do you want?" Rika Fujimaru's voice came from behind her, "The smell of Tyran's corpse burning is not good, and I strongly suspect that the gas from the burning is poisonous. ”

Ignoring the obvious teasing remark at the moment, Kylia answered only the first question: "What did we win?" ”

She'd already asked a few other people about it. Inquisitor Hastings' answer to her was "cleared of an alien that could continue to harm the Empire"; The answer given to her by the Dreadwing Company Commander Zantik Afpa, who happened to be a professional counterpart here, was "successfully guarding the territory of the Empire from the ravages of the aliens"; Yago Sevitaleon, who was wandering on the edge of the battlefield and seemed idle, digressed in his answer, and asked Kylea, "Don't these man-eating monsters deserve retribution?" ”

Kylia didn't know how to answer. She's too young. She wanted to ask the Forbidden Army again, but then she dispelled the idea herself: in the last six months or so, she could already guess what these Emperor's guards would say to her.

And Fujimaru Rika's reaction was a little beyond her expectations - she also asked Kelya, "So, what do you think we lost here?" ”

Kylia was stunned for a moment, then immediately replied: "The people on this planet are already ......"

She didn't finish her sentence, and the sadness of her powerful empathy ability choked her throat, but it didn't stop Rika Fujimaru from understanding. Again to Kylea's surprise, the latter nodded his head: "Indeed, this is quite a serious failure. We arrived too late, not to mention the people of the planet, and even the history and culture of Skylos, we have not been able to preserve much. ”

Fujimaru Rika pointed to the burning ruins and wilderness in front of them—they weren't ruins and wilderness, and from the records kept in the array of local contemplatives, it seemed that there was a huge and prosperous city in this latitude and longitude. Like any imperial metropolis, it has a large footprint, advanced infrastructure, and a dense population. Buildings for various purposes were supposed to be here, but under the ravages of the Tyranid Zerg, it has become a deserted dead place.

Tyrann's "digestive system" is terrifying, and even inorganic substances such as clay, steel, earth, and stone can be corroded and reduced by them to some kind of "biomass" such as foul-smelling mud or slime that is only enough for their own use. The majestic man-made objects that should have stood here were razed under the gnawing of countless insect swarms, and the only ones that remained were unrecognizable.

It's no wonder that some in the empire call them "devourers of civilization."

"However, both victory and defeat are relative. It's too easy to drive yourself crazy by only looking at the parts of yourself that you've failed. Rika Fujimaru added in a scripted tone, "There is no doubt that Skyulus is completely ruined. Even if the Mechanics were able to restore the ecology here, and the empire brought a new batch of colonists here, the culture and civilization on this planet would indeed be completely broken, and the future Skalus would no longer be the Skalus of the past - but we still succeeded in destroying this hive fleet, and forever cut off the possibility of it bringing similar disasters to other imperial worlds. ”

“……”

Kellia paused delicately for a moment, and then asked, "Sister, do you really think that now?" ”

"Not exactly." Fujimaru Rika replied, but digressed, "I'm thinking now that if you see too many of these things in the future, when will you become a 'damn alien' inquisitor like Sibyla......"

"Li-Xiang-Sister-Sister-"

"Okay, what I just said is an 'official' opinion. If you ask me what I actually think, it's 'never too late to make amends.'" Fujimaru Rika said with a wry smile, "What happened above Skalus is indeed very sad, but those who die are dead, and what is gone is gone—the past is the past, and we who can't easily go back to the past to change all this, the next thing we can do is to plan for the future." Although helpless, this kind of 'victory' is already the best result we can achieve. ”

With a small hope—or a fluke—Kellya tentatively asked, "...... Is there no better way to do it? ”

"I can't do my word anymore." Fujimaru Rika shook her head, "Could it be that our previous journey was a little too smooth, and you had the illusion of 'Chaldean omnipotence'?" ”

"But just like this time, in the face of a hive fleet that almost left Skylos defenseless, it only took us five standard days to manage to settle the situation......"

"That's because the power in our hands is really too luxurious. Although the number of people is small, in terms of effectiveness, there is no doubt that the current Chaldea can still function as a knife force in a war. "Even so, you have to remember that in a regular war, a small number of elite swords can still play a limited role. The reason why we were able to end the battle of Skalus so quickly was because the opponents were the Tyranid Swarms, and their habits dictated that if they succeeded in pulling out their 'Headquarters' and 'Heralds', the rest would not be to be feared. ”

She paused for a moment and added, "Don't forget, in the end, we are just 'field workers' who exist so that the emperor can take the stage. In this universe, there are many things that even the emperor can't help but do, and it would be better for you and me to accept the fact that 'manpower will eventually be exhausted'. ”

The dejected Kellia was silent for a while, and then said, "I always feel that I can do better if I work harder......

"It's good to have this idea, but if the ideal state you want in your mind is too far from the reality, one day, you will drive yourself crazy." Rika Fujimaru sighed and said, "However, this is a problem that every Inquisitor must face—or is it the same sentence, be careful to become Hastings-"

"What's wrong with me?" Inquisitor Hastings' disgruntled voice came from behind the two girls.

Half a year shouldn't have left too many marks on a man in the prime of life who had already grown up, but now, Inquisitor Hastings's eyebrows were noticeably more wrinkled than they had been six months ago. Obviously, his life aboard the Storm Frontier wasn't very good, at least he frowned much more often than he used to—

- But at least, he's finally learned to hold his opinion to a certain extent, though he still doesn't have much of an air to say to Rika Fujimaru, and no one knows what he thinks of the "Imperial Saint" now.

"You shouldn't have turned off the communication system on the armor, your doctor is looking for you, about the Blood Angel." The Inquisitor threw the sentence at Fujimaru Rika very stiffly, and then turned to Kelya, "Have you done your homework today?" Come with me to the simulation room and I'm going to check your meditation progress. ”

As soon as she heard this, the sad emotions on Kelya's face, who had officially become an "inquisitor acolyte" in every sense, disappeared in an instant: instead, the natural fear of the students of the teacher who was about to check the homework.

Miwoo (serene)

(End of chapter)