A week later, Tosh summoned Julius to his laboratory. The air was heavy with strange smells: ozone, molten metal, and the acrid perfume of burnt herbs and dried blood. The chalk circle on the floor was now a complex pattern of intertwined runes, in the center of which rested the object.
Magneto's helmet no longer existed.
In its place was a new creation.
It was a dark blue, almost black, like the midnight sky on a moonless world. The shape was more angular, more martial, evoking both the CMC armor of the Marines and the ancient helms of medieval Earth. It did not cover the face entirely, leaving the lower part free, but extended at the back to protect the nape of the neck. On the forehead, where Magneto's "M" had stood, a single rune had been engraved. It resembled no alphabet known to Julius; it seemed made of spirals and broken lines, and it pulsed with a faint violet light, like a sleeping heart.
"It is finished, Commander," Tosh announced, dark circles under his eyes but a glimmer of satisfaction in his gaze. "The essence of the former artifact has been bound to the adamantium steel of this world and enchanted with the glyphs of silence."
Julius approached, feeling a strange quietude emanating from the object. The constant buzzing of the Immaterium in the background of his perceptions, that pressure he had learned to ignore, seemed... attenuated.
"What exactly does it do?"
"It does not block your power," Tosh clarified. "It filters it. It isolates you from external influences. The 'gazes' you spoke of should no longer find you. Your own flame will burn, but its light will be hidden from most predators of the Warp. It is a cloak of shadow for your soul."
Julius took the helmet. It was surprisingly light and cold. Without hesitation, he placed it on his head.
The effect was immediate and radical.
Silence.
Not a physical silence, but a mental one. The emotional cacophony of the base, which he had constantly perceived since his Delta ascension, ceased. The menacing pressure of the Immaterium, that sensation of being observed by unnameable entities, dissipated like fog in the sun. For the first time since unlocking his powers, his mind was his, and his alone. It was a relief so profound it made him dizzy.
He concentrated. The psionic flame within him was still there, ardent and obedient. He raised a hand and levitated a tool on a workbench. No difference. His power responded as quickly, as precisely. But there was no echo, no sensation of invisible hands seeking to grasp his.
He removed the helmet, and the mental noise returned in a sudden, almost deafening flood. He put it back on, and the protective silence enveloped him again.
A triumphant smile spread across his face.
"It's perfect, Tosh. Absolutely perfect."
"The runes will need to be periodically recharged with psionic crystals, but the base artifact is stable," Tosh commented. "Wear it, and you can grow in power without being the target of all the shadows' covetousness."
Julius kept the helmet on. This dark blue would become his new signature. He was no longer an easy target. He could now build, plan, and even wage war without fearing to attract the attention of the true horrors of the galaxy.
As he left the laboratory, his mind clear and liberated, a thought came to him. The Emperor, in His omnipotence, had He sensed his flame? Had He felt this flame vanish from the perceptions of the Warp? Was it an advantage, or would it make the enigma that Julius represented even more intriguing to the Master of Humanity?
It didn't matter. For now, he had gained a precious respite. And in the 30th millennium, a respite was more precious than all the treasures of Terra.