David's eyes were closed but he could hear the Gekkonidae Discerpere approaching. He felt this was his end; he whispered a small prayer to his family and let his body slump. He had accepted his end. He had put up a fight - he had refused the gods of chaos and told them they would have to wait for his soul. Now only 20 minutes later they would be receiving it. He let his mind wander through memories of his past. A hissing rattle made his blood chill and adrenaline fill his body, but still he chose not to move. He could feel the servo skull moving around his body, cutting and sterilizing, as it worked to try and repair the brutal damage that had been inflicted upon David's body. He could feel the sticky glue-like substance of the puss as it exited his body and stuck to his skin. A second hissing rattle sounded but still David refused to react, he instead chose to wait and continue to pray.
Time passed slowly, the adrenaline had made everything feel like it was moving at a crawl, but David's mind raced. He saw memories of his family, of his childhood and friends. He remembered the death of his best friend and how it nearly drove him to suicide. He remembered graduating and leaving for the military, only to be met with disregard from his brother. He remembered the death of his father and the few brief glimpses of his face he still had.
His memories broke as the thud of footsteps approached him. He opened his eyes slightly and looked up at the large lizard like mutant that was about to kill him. He had accepted his death, but he felt that his family would be disappointed if he died without a fight. In his mind he willed the servo skull to move out of the way and try to attack its eyes while it was focused on him. The servo skull didn't heed his wishes and continued to work to try and save David from his eventual demise.
The Gekkonidae Discerpere raised its spear like tail and prepared to kill. David saw his death and welcomed it. He couldn't raise his arms or move his legs; he could barely move his head. Before his end he had one last thought.
'I should probably look at those notifications. Maybe it could help me.'
The spear like tail pierced into David's chest, skewering his heart and lung. Blood, puss, and purple liquid flowed like a spirting jet from the wound. David's mouth hung open in shock; the air pushed from his lungs. He struggled to breath for a few seconds, he could feel his body getting colder and colder. He began to choke on his own blood, as his eyes started to glaze over. He looked shakily into the eyes of his killer and felt no hatred only regret. Regret at his own failure, regret at his over confidence, regret at not fighting harder. But most of all he regretted letting the despair led to his death.
In his final moments he saw visions of his family crying over a closed casket. When he approached and opened it there was no body inside, but his name was written on the lid. The next vison, he saw his body being devoured by insects and critters in the cave where he died. 'At least my corpse will allow some to have a meal' David thought to himself.
David's eyes blurred and eyelids grew heavy. He could see the spear like tail in his body but couldn't move or do anything to try and die fighting. His arm spasmed one final time before going limp. David drew on final ragged breath before his eyes glassed over.
*****
David awoke, drifting through the void. Around him colors assaulted his senses. Screams of souls being torn apart made his ears bleed, and the overload of visuals made his eyes cry blood. He could see creatures, malicious and ethereal, moving through the void like hungry predators. They had too many eyes, limbs and joints. Just looking at them made David feel nauseous. Their limbs stretched too far, their bodies twisted to extreme proportions. They raced towards David eager to devour his soul.
David turned and began to try and run. He flailed and drifted off in a random direction. He tried to swim but he faced the same result. He stopped moving his limbs and turned inward towards his mind to try and find a solution.
He was in the sea of souls. He knew this place; he had read enough 40k books to know what this place was and what his fate would be. He turned to his knowledge of the warp that might be able to help him. The depictions of psykers using their minds to fight and navigate within the warp.
'This is like in the books, I need to steel my mind and channel my thoughts to fight against these things. They don't just want to devour me - they want to possess me; to use my body to manifest. Just think, just focus on moving, don't worry about those things.'
With David's mind focused on a specific thing his soul began to move. He was able to avoid the ethereal predators. He continued to travel further and further, but every time he stopped, he would be surrounded once more by hungry creatures ready to devour him. He could feel the heat of their breath on his soul, the vibrations of their hideous maws clamping down inches from his limbs. The pressure of their hunger, rage and malice bore down on David like a bolder crushing a poor hiker.
He continued to flee, dodging and weaving through the countless ethereal beings that hunted him. In the distance through the endless expanse of the void a light shown stronger than all of the countless colors and constantly shifting objects. Hope, salvation, safety - all he needed to do was reach it. A place not despoiled by the countless horrors around him.
David willed his soul to move faster, to dodge and avoid claws, fangs, stingers, and nameless abominations. He was gaining ground; the light was growing stronger and stronger but the closer he got the greater resistance he faced. He felt a burning feeling wrap around his leg and all his momentum disappear.
David turned and came face to face with a demonic soul. Its burning flesh boiled and writhed. Its jaw twisted and changed continuously. A 20 jointed arm wrapped around David's leg with its clawed hand. A horn jutted from its empty eye socket while the other burned with a copper glow. Its maw, if it could even be called that, constantly changed shape, shifting from being a solid object to a void of glowing teeth, to wisps of gas, then back to a twisted malformed version of a human mouth then a wolf like maw full of teeth, before starting the process all over again.
David knew he needed to escape. If he let the demonic entity drag him back to itself, his soul would be overpowered and destroyed. David began to imagine blades cutting into the demon. He knew within the sea of souls, reality doesn't follow the same rules. Imagination and emotion control everything.
'Stay calm, stay calm. If your emotions get the better of you; it only makes them stronger. Just calm your mind and imagine a blade severing the abominations' limb. You can do this - its powerful but keep going. Come on keep going. It's not working! I need to get out of its grip. That thing is attached to my leg, maybe I can sever my leg to escape. That is going to hurt like crazy though.'
As the demonic soul dragged David closer and closer, other demonic presences began to draw near. They could taste the emotion pouring from David's soul. The blades David imagined cutting through the ethereal beast did little to slow it down. With no choice left, David chose to sever his own leg to escape.
His body jettisoned away from the demonic souls that were now swarming his severed leg. They fought each other as his leg was ripped apart and devoured. His body felt as if it had been hit by a truck but there was no pain from where his leg once was. He had sacrificed a portion of his soul so the remainder could survive.
David moved closer to the light, he was no longer impeded, the entities hunting him had been consumed by the fight for his leg. The losers were being consumed by the victors, drawing more and more souls into the fray. The distraction gave David time to distance himself from the conflict and assess the damage to his soul.
He was missing a leg, and wisps of energy were draining from large gashes in his side. There was no pain only a lethargic feeling spreading throughout his being. 'I need to keep moving that feeding frenzy won't last forever. If the lore of Warhammer is correct, then that light in the distance should be the astronomican. A beacon used to guide vessels through the now corrupted sea of souls. That means if I follow the beacon, I should make it into human space, and they might be able to save me.'
As David neared the edge of an especially violent area of the warp a new horror overtook him. Before him was trillions of demonic souls. They looked like the stars in the sky - uncountable and insurmountable. They bore the colors David was all too familiar with. He had read enough Warhammer books to know who they were and which chaos god they each served. Swaths of red, blue, green and purple fought each other for dominance. Demons of each faction died by the hundreds of thousands.
'So, this is what the war in the warp looks like. The red must be Khorne, the god of blood and war. Green for Nurgle, god of decay and stagnation. Blue for Tzeentch, the god of progress and change. And finally purple for Slaanesh, the god of excess and depravity. All of this, nothing more than a war between corrupted gods vying for power.'
In the distance David could see the light. Its edge formed some kind of barrier. Continuously, small branches of demons from each faction would break off and attack the barrier only to be killed by demons from a different faction before they would then start attacking the barrier.
'There is no way I am going to be able to make it through all of that alive. I need to find a different route. The problem is their war covers everywhere I can see leading to the beacon. Maybe if I try to go around the outside, I might be able to find an area where there are fewer entities of each faction. The one unclaimed demonic soul nearly killed me, If I get caught by a claimed one, I am screwed.'
Before David had time to move and try to flank the massive war before him, a thin tendril had wrap around his body. The tendril must have started to wrap around his remaining leg and lower torso before he had realized it was there. The thin tendril glowed with red sparking light and power. It looked like lightning was traveling through it before disappearing then reappearing further away just to travel back towards him. The tendril looked just like the outline of the notifications he had seen many times in his head.
With a sudden lurch and extreme pressure, David's soul was dragged away from the swirling storm and endless death. In a few second, he passed the amalgamation of demonic entities that had fought to feast on his leg. Getting closer and closer to his original location he could see a massive swirling circle of energy. The energy looked like a cloud violently spinning like a tornado. Red electricity crackled around the portal. Dozens of unclaimed entitles gather around, trying to force their way toward the portal only to be wrapped in the red threads like David. Once completely covered, the red electrical threads would contract crushing the soul trapped inside and shattering them into hundreds of tiny pieces. The other souls would hungrily consume the fragments before trying to force their way through only to end up the same way as the soul they had just consumed.
The tendril pulled David through the crowd of hungry demons and into the portal. An extremely bright flash of light blinded David as the sound of raging winds buffeted his ears. His vision began to return in splotches, with large black blobs still obscuring most of his vision.
The familiar chimes once again sounded in his head as he received a notification.
Over the next minute, David's vision returned to normal, and the winds died down around him. He found himself inside a large black marble and metal building. Massive black marble pillars rose from the smooth obsidian floor into the back expanse above. From each of the pillars hung a chandelier, made of inky black metal. Each chandelier held five gray candles each burning with a blue flame. Over a dozen pillars lined the expanse David stood in. He could not see the walls or ceiling for the candles did not provide enough light.
'Where am I? What is this place? This is like nothing I have ever read about in any of the Warhammer novels I own. Did my soul get destroyed? But if it did wouldn't I cease to exist or be stuck in and endless state of agony?'
With these thoughts running through David's mind, it took him a moment to even notice his own hand. It was still that same soft blue glow of his soul. He looked down and just like when he was in the warp his leg was still missing. As he looked over his body David came to realization that he wasn't even on the ground. He was floating 20 feet from the ground as if he was some sort of spectral entity observing the real world. David tried to move towards one of the pillars to inspect it, but he couldn't. He could rotate his body and look around, but it was as if his body was stuck inside some sort of box.
Loud thuds sounded in the empty space. It was like the footsteps of 2 or 3 giants echoing through the hall. Focusing on the noise, David turned towards the origin of the sounds. He could see movement in the distance. He could see faint reflections of candlelight on metal. The closer the beings drew, the louder their footsteps echoed through the hall. Blue light glowed softly from six sharp angled openings in the dark. They softly swayed back and forth in pairs hanging 9 feet from the ground.
'Those blue lights look like they are in pairs of two. Judging by the way they move in sync with each other, I would guess they are eyes from three separate heads. Based on the footsteps, it's either three individual beings or the thing has six legs.'
Before David could continue his train of thought, the entire hall shook violently. The chandeliers swayed back and forth. Dust and small amounts of debris fell from far above and turned the air hazy. The candlelight from the chandeliers made shadows dance along the pillars and floor. With the swinging of the chandeliers, their light moved from their original locations. As the light moved obsidian caskets could be glimpsed for a moment before disappearing once more as the light moved away from them.
'This must be some type of tomb. But that doesn't explain what is going on or why I am here.'
"You must be confused. Do not worry, your soul shall not be consumed here."
'What, who is speaking? Show yourself. Why do you have the same robotic voice as the system when I listen to the notifications? Wait a moment, are you the system?'
"Yes, I am the system"
'Why am I here? Shouldn't I be dead?'
"You should have looked at the notifications before your death. A non-hostile entity pulled your soul from the warp into this space. It is known as the soul keep. You will be safe here as long as it's master do not wish you harm."
'Wow that is really helpful. Please answer my question.'
"Your body dropped to zero health, but you never activated the last notification sent."
"Before your death, you leveled up due to number of kills and total XP acquired. This level up increased all stats by 2. Additionally, you received 5 summon slots as well as unlocked a new skill."
'Ok but what does that have to do with why I am here?'
"You are here because your body has died but you soul still remains active due to the remaining 2 health you now currently have."
"This place is the system's soul keep. It is like a fortress within the sea of souls. When you use summon slots, it pulls entities that you have designed and created from the soul keep into the material universe."
'Ok, so how do I create and design things? This place looks extremely dead and dreary.'
"As of right now, you currently have no way of improving or adding to the soul keep. You must earn a trip back to your original world to improve your keep."
'You said I need to go back home to improve the keep. But I don't want to come back here I just want to return to my old life.'
"Imposible. You will not be able to earn a permanent stay at your original world for at least another 34,000 years at the rate you are currently acquiring XP."
'That is insane, I will have to die from old age a thousand times just to pass that much time. There has to be a faster way.'
"There is. Just get more efficient at earning XP. Master your soul keep and use it's abilities to improve your performance."
'Thank you, that was so helpful. As if I didn't already think of that. Can you give me some actually useful information please.'
While David was having his discussion with the system, the beings marching below him continued down the hall. The reflection of candlelight off their space marine power armor caught David's eye. He turned his head back down to the floor of the hall. Their armor, their movements, their names, their backstories, their personalities, he knew it all. He knew them better then they probably did, for he had created them. They marched on as if he wasn't there, but David was shaken.
'5 years. I spent 5 years designing, creating and coming up with lore for those three. I can't believe this; they were just words on a page and 3d printed plastic. Now I am seeing them with my own eyes, not just plastic figures I designed - but living, moving, real.'
"Yes, they are real, you made them. Now they exist here, protecting the keep and one day they may even fight by your side."
David only heard the last half of the sentence, but it struck him like a hammer to the head
'I might be able to fight alongside characters I created'