Amidst the ignited interest, this Grand Battalion Commander's thoughts inevitably fluctuated a bit, even inadvertently drifting back to ten thousand years ago, to the point where he began to somewhat miss the time before the Legion Civil War and Fragmentation.

At least back then, the brothers still included a considerable number of veterans from The Great Crusade Era, and the officers under his command wouldn't produce wastes like this.

Of course, in his beautification of the past, he naturally overlooked the fact that the failure before him was also one of those "veterans," otherwise it would have been hard for him to entrust such an important task to him.

But in an instant, his thoughts returned once more to the real world.

As the highest-ranking commander in this region, he had an extremely ample force at his disposal. Facing the legion assaulting his rear, he thought for a moment and decided to dispatch two hundred Space Marines and six million Cultist Auxiliaries.

This legion was equipped with conventional heavy gear, but that wasn't enough; they would also receive additional support from a Super-heavy Tank Division. Besides serving a large number of ordinary super-heavy tanks, this tank division included two Shadowsword Super-heavy Tanks from The Great Crusade Era.

The Main Cannon of each of these two super weapons consisted of a Volcano Cannon, possessing destruction-level strike effects. A single shot was enough to directly injure a standard Warhound Titan head-on, and if both fired simultaneously and hit fully, it was possible to outright destroy a Warhound Titan in one volley.

Even against a Warlord Titan, such terrifying damage effects could be considered a lethal threat.

This was only natural, after all, the Shadowsword had often been used as a Titan killer since its inception, and after these two Shadowswords fell to Chaos, the inevitable Warp Interference further enhanced their power.

If paired with experienced crews, even without the cover of other super-heavy tanks, the two Shadowswords could trade opening salvos with a Warlord Titan.

Two hundred elite troops, six million auxiliaries, a horde of super-heavy tanks, and the ultimate killing machines, paired with a Trusted Officer of his own.

The Grand Battalion Commander truly couldn't imagine how this legion could lose when facing a mere few hundred thousand enemies, even if those few hundred thousand on the enemy side possessed a Warlord Titan—there was absolutely no possibility of victory for them.

However, regrettably, a mobilization of this scale would also impact the offensive on the Deadwood Festival Zone, allowing those aesthetically unchanging, inferior golden turtles to live a bit longer.

Thinking of this, the Grand Battalion Commander even hesitated for a moment, wanting to reduce some of the mobilized forces, but ultimately abandoned this less-than-rational idea.

With a single order, within the Iron Warriors' positions, operating with gear-meshing efficiency, a massive legion corresponding to its Paper Strength was assembled. And besides those in the official roster, these millions of troops additionally included a large number of daemons, elevating their strength even further.

In The Desert.

Two legions, one large and one small, were advancing toward each other, both utterly convinced of their own victory.

Of course, the confrontation between them didn't begin on the ground first, but unfolded quietly in the skies above.

In the airspace above the two legions, the Chaos Fighters and Daemon Engines of the Sky, which held an absolute numerical advantage, first launched an attack on the seemingly fragile enemy aircraft fleet.

However, after an initial phase of overwhelming destruction, they quickly realized something was wrong.

Why was it that while fighting up front, the Early Warning Aircraft and Data Hub Aircraft used for detection in the rear kept getting shot down by an enemy fighter that came out of nowhere?

What about the escort fighters? Were they just freeloading off the military rations?

But those escort fighters were already unable to respond.

Most of the time, by the time the escort fighters detected that enemy plane which displayed no Radar Signature at all, it had already downed two to three escorts with unbelievably precise shooting—a fatal blow for a typical four- or six-plane escort squadron.

And even more terrifying was that, even if they reacted, the remaining three or four fighters would usually all crash in the first few exchanges.

This situation didn't improve at all even when the escort formations were increased to twelve or sixteen planes; it only futilely increased the number of fighters crashing each time.

Finally, when the fighters guarding the large aircraft exceeded twenty and reached a bloated and massive twenty-six, it somewhat curbed such assaults... she finally stopped casually devouring the escort squadrons, instead appearing out of nowhere at some unknown time, destroying the large aircraft protected by the squadron with lightning speed, and then swiftly vanishing from the sight of the pursuing fighters.

But later, the Chaos side finally didn't have to worry about this problem anymore, because those large aircraft serving as detection and information nodes were extremely precious, and at this rate of losses, they were all depleted before long.

In this situation, most of the Chaos Fighters in the airspace were effectively blinded in one eye. After engaging the Imperial Fighters, which were at an absolute numerical disadvantage relative to their own, they astonishingly ended up in a stalemate—and this stalemate meant that the Chaos side's losses were far higher than the Imperial side's.

At the same time, this brought about a secondary effect:

The Iron Warriors side couldn't use their air force to transport their Space Marine troops... or rather, they didn't dare to.

Because a stealthily operating Thunderhawk Gunship was somehow discovered and shot down by that Phantom of the Sky. At the time, that Thunderhawk Gunship was carrying over thirty Space Marines and at least one Dreadnought... the exact number was unknown; the last Greenhorn who asked the Commander about this was neatly turned into two not-so-peaceful corpses.

Losing over a tenth of their brothers before even making contact, and the air force not gaining any advantage—these were clearly not good omens.

But bad news was bad news; for the ultimate victory, the Iron Warriors side remained highly confident.

The setbacks occurring in the skies above, for now, merely meant they hadn't gained an edge... even taking a step back, if those aerial idiots couldn't be relied on, what did that have to do with my Mighty Ground Forces?

If anything, without those pests stealing the glory, wouldn't it be even better? Let them watch wide-eyed as we rack up the merits, then go back and get promoted, reaching the peak of life.

Such thoughts persisted until the Vanguard Force came running back to the legion in terror, with the originally dispatched ten thousand elite Cultist Auxiliaries reduced to less than one in ten.

According to their intelligence, the enemy had deployed at least six Titans in their initial batch.

Watching the footage and hearing this news, the Commander's vision went black, and at that moment, only one phrase remained in his mind:

Who is trying to frame me?

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