=== Maximus ===
Maximus streaked through the chaos like a comet, his Centurion suit's thrusters blazing blue-white. The battlefield below shrank to a storm of fire and slaughter, but his focus was on one thing alone: Kharath. The Chaos Sorcerer… no, the Daemon Prince, his wings unfurled, his staff crackling with a foul light that bent reality like fractured glass. Each guttural word he roared into the air fed the portal, forcing it wider, birthing horrors that should never walk mortal soil.
He slammed through a wall of flying lesser daemons, his autocannon tearing through them mid-flight. Warp-fire washed over his shields before sizzling out, clawed limbs raked at him, but he ignored them all, punching through the tide with sheer fury. His engines screamed. His armor shuddered. And then he saw Kharath clearly, his towering form framed in the unnatural light of the portal.
Maximus angled his descent and roared.
He struck the Prince with such force, the impact thundered across Mortis, a shockwave scattering cultists and daemons like leaves in a storm. The Daemon Prince staggered, his wings snapping outward as he was knocked off his feet, his clawed hands clawing at the dirt as he fell. The ritual sputtered as his concentration broke.
Maximus didn't hesitate. He brought his sword up, and swung in a two-handed arc, putting the weight of his massive suit behind it. The blade struck Kharath's staff, the blackened, rune-etched weapon at the heart of the ritual.
The staff shattered. Shards of corrupted crystal exploded outward, screaming with bound daemons that winked out of existence as the Null aura surrounding Maximus consumed them. The portal convulsed like a wounded beast. Its edges shriveled inward, collapsing against itself, sucking screaming daemons back into the void. Lesser spawn screeched in fury as they were ripped apart mid-stride, dissolving into smoke and ash. Greater Daemons roared in anguish, some being dragged back into the immaterium before they could fully manifest.
The collapse cracked reality itself. The battlefield went silent for a heartbeat, a vacuum of sound as if the universe was holding its breath. Then came the backlash. Warp-light imploded with a deafening scream, shattering stone spires, throwing daemons, Astartes, and clones alike sprawling.
Maximus stood firm, his armor glowing red-hot from the strain, but his aura flared brighter, smothering the Warp's presence like a storm snuffing a candle.
Kharath screamed, a sound that was half daemon, half man. The broken staff lay smoldering at his feet. His talons twitched, sparks of sorcerous power hissing uselessly as the Null field gnawed at him, choking off his connection to the Warp.
"You—" the Daemon Prince snarled, his monstrous voice cracking under the strain. His eyes burned like molten suns. "You dare deny me? You think your mortal shell can cage the will of the gods?"
Maximus raised his sword, the edge dripping with molten daemon ichor.
Kharath lunged, claws tearing against his shield and armor, wings battering him backward. They slammed into the ruins, stone cratering beneath their weight. Maximus grunted as talons scraped against his armor, sparks flying, but his power fist swung up and caught Kharath in the ribs with the force of a cannon shell. Bone cracked, ichor sprayed, and the Prince roared in pain.
Maximus's autocannon spat death point-blank, tearing into Kharath's torso. Blackened blood sprayed in geysers as the shells detonated inside the Daemon Prince's flesh. Kharath retaliated with his claws, swiping in brutal arcs that sent sparks flying as they raked across Maximus's armor as he twisted aside. His wings snapped, one catching Maximus across the helm and smashing him into the ground.
Maximus rose instantly, thrusters blasting. He rammed forward, shoulder-first, driving Kharath through a broken tower. The ruins collapsed around them, burying both in stone and fire.
From the rubble, Kharath erupted, roaring, his talons clamped tight around Maximus's sword arm. He tried to wrench the blade away, his warped muscles bulging under the strain. But Maximus' power fist slammed into Kharath's face. Once. Twice. Three times. Each strike rang like thunder, fracturing the Daemon Prince's jaw, cracking horns, caving in part of his skull.
Kharath retaliated with a scream of warp fire, a last desperate attempt to summon power, but it fizzled against the Null aura. He howled as the Beskantium blade bit into one of his legs, wings flailing, but his rage drove him forward. He tackled Maximus to the ground again, pinning him. His claws dug into the Centurion suit's armor, screeching as they carved deep gouges.
Maximus snarled, thrusters firing. He reversed the pin, rolling and slamming Kharath onto his back, the ground cracking like glass beneath the impact. With a guttural roar, Maximus drove his sword down, forcing the blade toward Kharath's chest.
The Daemon Prince caught the blade with both claws, sparks spraying as he strained against the pressure. Their faces were inches apart now, Maximus's glowing visor, Kharath's twisted visage seething with hate and pain.
"I will kill you!" Kharath hissed, blood and ichor dripping from his fanged maw.
"Be silent Traitor." Maximus growled, pressing down harder, the servos in his suit screaming with effort.
With a guttural grunt, Kharath shoved the massive blade aside, its edge biting across his ribcage and leaving a trail of burning blood. Maximus stumbled forward half a step from the force of his own swing, right into the Daemon Prince's waiting crown of jagged horns. They crashed against his helm with the force of a ram, and the Ultramarine's helmet rang like a struck cathedral bell, his vision momentarily reeling with sparks.
Kharath wasted no moment. He seized the opening, a clawed hand flashing upward and driving into the side of Maximus' warplate. Adamantine screeched as the talons pierced, and with a violent heave the Daemon Prince hurled the Primaris captain off his chest. Maximus skidded across the torn earth, gauntlets gouging furrows as he steadied himself and came back to his feet, blade raised.
He brought a hand to his side, and watched as it came away bloody.
Kharath rolled smoothly to the right and rose in a single motion, his wings unfurling wide, silhouette looming like a titan of nightmare. For a heartbeat, the two locked eyes, red lenses burning with unbreakable resolve against crimson irises that seethed with hatred and sorcerous fire.
Then they surged forward as one.
Kharath struck first, a vicious downward claw meant to cleave through ceramite and flesh. Maximus sidestepped left with precision born of decades in battle. The Daemon's talons carved empty air. Seizing the moment, Maximus drove his power fist forward, the blow landing squarely across Kharath's face. The impact detonated with a crack of energy, sending ichor and shards of teeth flying.
Before Kharath could stagger, Maximus swung low with his blade, aiming to shear the Prince's leg clean from its joint. But Kharath was faster, he twisted back with unnatural agility, the sword grazing instead of cleaving, sparks spitting from the graze of daemonic armor.
The Daemon Prince snarled, wings lashing in retaliation. One clawed pinion lashed forward like a spear, driving toward Maximus' chestplate with enough force to punch through it. The Ultramarine twisted, catching the wing with his power fist. His gauntlet locked onto the bony joint, servos whining in protest as he halted the thrust inches from his core.
With a roar, Maximus raised his blade high and brought it down at the wing joint. The blade crackled with empyric power as it sheared through the wing before Kharath ripped himself free with a howl. Black blood hissed on the ground where it spilled, burning like acid.
Then a Greater Daemon of Khorne, its axe longer than a Land Speeder, its fanged visage twisted in endless fury, appeared after having crossed over before the portal had closed.
"Little Wrench!"
Maximus knew that voice. That presence.
He had fought this beast before. He had scarred it, once, in a battle that had claimed entire cities.
"Kha'Zhul," Maximus growled through gritted teeth, his sword raising instinctively.
The Bloodthirster wasted no time with introductions. With a deafening roar it barreled forward, wings folding, and slammed into Maximus with the force of a meteor. The Ultramarine was driven back, crashing through a shattered column and vanishing in a storm of dust and stone.
Kharath's lips curled into a hateful grin. He did not waste the opportunity. With his one wing spreading wide, he turned and strode back toward the shattered remnants of his staff. His ritual had been broken, but not destroyed. He began to chant anew, arcane syllables warping the air as the ground trembled beneath the pressure of raw Warp energy as it began to reform.
Meanwhile, Maximus and the Bloodthirster collided once more. The Ultramarine rose from the rubble just as the daemon's axe came screaming down, splitting the ground where he had stood. Maximus leapt aside, blade sweeping up to meet the daemon's guard. Sparks and warpflame exploded where the weapons clashed, the shockwave flattening lesser daemons around them.
Kha'Zhul pressed the attack relentlessly, each strike of his axes a hateful rebuke. Maximus ducked, parried, rolled, each movement precise yet fueled by desperation. His blade sang as it carved into daemonflesh, leaving burning gouges, but the Bloodthirster's hide was like iron and its fury unending.
With a roar, Maximus slammed his power fist into the beast's side, sending it staggering. He followed with an upward slash that carved through its chest, ichor like molten brass. The daemon howled, retaliating with a backhand swing of its axe that hurled Maximus through another ruin, his armor sparking and dented.
Crawling from the wreckage, Maximus tried to rise once more, battered but unbroken. His gaze locked across the battlefield, where Kharath was once more weaving his ritual, the portal beginning to shimmer with renewed light.
But Kha'Zhul roared, wings snapping wide, demanding Maximus' attention.
The momentary glance toward Kharath's ritual proved costly.
Kha'Zhul's massive knee surged upward with crushing speed, smashing into Maximus' helmet. The world rang in a deafening clang as the reinforced ceramite buckled inward. The Ultramarine staggered, vision flickering with static and afterimages as he was hurled onto his back.
"You got lucky when last we met!" the Bloodthirster thundered, spittle and fire flying from its fanged maw. The ground quaked as it loomed over him, wings blotting out the ruined skyline.
Maximus did not hesitate. Even dazed, the grav-cannon mounted to his shoulder whined to life, coils charging for a point-blank discharge.
But the daemon moved faster. With a roar, Kha'Zhul's massive axe came down in a murderous arc. The weapon cleaved through Maximus' right pauldron, shearing away the entire shoulder plate and the grav-cannon with it in a spray of sparks and shattered adamantine. The ruined weapon exploded beside him, shockwaves rattling his frame as the daemon drew back for another strike.
Maximus rolled clear, fragments of rubble erupting as the axe buried itself in the earth. He came up on one knee, thunderblade raised, his armor leaking fluids from the torn shoulder, alarms screeching in his helm.
The Bloodthirster tore its weapon free with one hand and swung with the other, a colossal backhand that carried the weight of a Titan's fist. Maximus brought his blade up just in time, the blow crashing into the flat of the sword and still launching him across the ruins. He smashed through a stone arch and tumbled across the dirt before planting his boots and skidding to a stop, chest heaving.
The daemon came on relentlessly, stomping closer, each step cracking the earth.
Maximus surged forward, refusing to yield ground. Their weapons collided in a thunderous shockwave. Sparks and warpflame erupted, throwing lesser daemons screaming into the air. Maximus' sword slid across the haft of the axe, then lashed out low, slicing a furrow across Kha'Zhul's thigh. The beast roared, but did not falter, he simply pressed harder, swinging its axe with unstoppable momentum.
Maximus countered with his power fist slamming into the daemon's chest. The impact burst a crater in its flesh, ichor spraying like molten metal. But Kha'Zhul barely flinched. He seized Maximus arm in one clawed hand, lifted him high, and hurled him bodily into the remains of a toppled statue.
The Centurion armor groaned, servos sparking, but held. Maximus pushed himself upright, blood trickling down his temple beneath the helm. His every instinct screamed at him to push through, to cut down Kharath before the ritual could be completed. But the damn daemon blocked the way.
Kha'Zhul came on again, axes raised overhead. Maximus braced his sword in both hands, meeting the strike. The impact drove him to one knee. The Bloodthirster leaned down, tusked jaws inches from his visor, eyes burning with triumph.
"Your corpse will lie at my feet, as it should have last time."
Maximus snarled and rose with all his strength, slashing upward with his blade, carving a line across the daemon's chest. The wound hissed and bled, but Kha'Zhul only laughed, swinging again with bone-shattering force.
The duel became a storm. Each strike of the axe was a mountain crashing down. Each parry of Maximus' blade was thunder echoing across the field. Sparks rained like meteors as Beskantium and daemonsteel clashed again and again.
Maximus fought like a cornered lion, every strike of his sword vicious, every blow from his fist shattering bone and tearing ichor. Yet the daemon absorbed it all, unflinching, its laughter booming across the battlefield even though he had been cut from his God through Maximus' null-aura. The Ultramarine's armor was battered, his sword arm growing heavy, his strength stretched thin.
He realized he could not fight both battles at once. He could not guard against the daemon and still think of reaching Kharath. Not yet.
With a defiant roar, he shifted focus, planting his boots and giving the Bloodthirster his full attention. His armor's power core roared as he overcharged the Centurion systems. Pistons whined. Servos shrieked. His strength redoubled, and the thunderblade burned brighter.
Now the daemon found resistance equal to its fury.
Maximus slammed his blade across the daemon's axe, sparks showering as he twisted and shoved the weapon aside. His power fist struck the Bloodthirster's knee, forcing it to buckle, before his sword carved a deep gash across its arm. Kha'Zhul roared and retaliated, sweeping its wings like a hurricane, sending Maximus skidding back across the battlefield.
The Ultramarine came on again relentless. Each exchange became faster, heavier, blood and sparks flying with every strike. Maximus fought with all the fury of Ultramar, no longer retreating, no longer distracted. He became a wall of ceramite and fury, a storm contained within armor.
Kha'Zhul snarled, realizing that the fight was no longer one-sided. The daemon's blows still shook the earth, but Maximus' counters were cutting deeper, his fist denting daemonflesh, his sword scoring wounds that refused to close.
For the first time since their reunion, the Bloodthirster growled in frustration.
And through it all, Maximus' vox whispered with alarms, his HUD flashing warnings, but his mind burned with only one truth:
If he could not break this monster, he would never reach Kharath.
And if he never reached Kharath, the galaxy itself would burn.
===
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