| High Chaplain Akil Osiris POV |
Aboard the Photep…
'Just what has gone wrong,' Osiris thought, as he erected another shield of faith against the shrieks being released in the distance by a grotesque abomination with multiple appendages that was half male and half female. 'I have counted every second that has gone by and its been over 25 minutes… What has happened to time? What is interfering with it?'
A swing of a blade dangerously close to his head snapped him out of his thoughts. A purple daemonette, a lesser daemon of Slaanesh whose role is a foot soldier, had gotten extremely close to him in a sudden burst of speed.
Osiris tilted left and raised the crozius in his right hand, a specialized mace with a powerfield that symbolized his status as Chaplain, and swung it with so much force that the blade of the purple daemon shattered.
With his left hand, he grabbed the purple daemon by the throat and slammed it onto the steel floor. Before the slaaneshi daemon could moan in ecstasy, Osiris ruthlessly stomped his boot on its head and with a sharp twist. The slaaneshi daemon's head was utterly crushed into a gorey mess spread across the floor.
Taking a quick survey of his surroundings, Osiris noticed something that made his hearts drop. In the corner of the hangar bay he was fighting in, a mist of vivid blues, purples, and pinks was traveling throughout the entire area.
'How did I not notice this sooner?' Osiris thought in alarm and very quickly, he tried to share his observation through his vox, but it didn't work.
Osiris quickly channeled the faith energy he had to try and dispel the mist, however it was futile because the entirety of the Photep was covered in this mist. Something has completely erased the concept of time inside the Photep.
The moment he reached that conclusion, he heard stomps of a Space Marine moving with urgency heading straight for him.
"LORD CHAPLAIN," a voice in the distance yelled.
Taking a step back from the frontlines of the breach he was leading the defense of, Osiris looked over at the one who called him. In an instant he recognized the one before him: it was Librian Nezchad Thutek, he is the right hand man of Chief Libarian Maibe.
"A message from Captain Maibe," Thutek wheezed out in between gasps for air. "Ever since the ninth minute, the concept of time has been frozen. A greater daemon of the Conspirator has appeared and is aboard the Photep fighting our father. Captain Maibe believes that greater daemon perhaps created a spell of some kind that affects time. He requires your aid in trying to pinpoint and destroy whatever sorcery is affecting the Photep."
The Cospirator was the codename Magnus designated for Tzeentch because saying a Chaos God's name out loud could attract their attention and lead an individual's corruption. Even thinking of their name could lead to one's corruption if their mind was weak.
However, thanks to his training, Osiris's mind was more than strong enough to speak their name as he rapidly processed the shared information and mused.
'How can we be under a spell? Even if it was a greater daemon, can it truly cast such a powerful spell without first preparing an incantation or ritual of great proportion? Most importantly, that greater daemon is facing off against father, although he is nowhere near his top condition. It shouldn't be possible for that greater daemon to cast that spell in front of him unless something went drastically wrong.'
"Are the members of the Sekhmet still holding?" Osiris asked worriedly.
"No," Thutek replied somberly. "Most of them are struggling to keep the modified warp nexus spell active while the rest are being routed firmly by daemons of the Bloodfiend, Blightbringer, Hermaphrodite, Conspirator and even daemons of chaos undivided. They are all uncharacteristically working together as one and are even pushing the Sekhmet back."
Learning this, Osiris reacted quickly and yelled, "Brother Karnis, take command of the defense of this breach."
Brother Karnis, a new Chaplain under Osiris's command, turned his head sharply towards Osiris and nodded in acknowledgement. Although he had questions and deep down believed he was not the best person to assume command, this was not the time for questions nor doubt.
With the grace of a natural born commander known to all in the legion but him, he commanded, "Spread the defensive line, TS 1 and TS 5 ready veil lightning in fire line formation 13. TS 3, prepare for melee combat. TS 4, prepare warp fire and fire upon my command."
Osiris looked on with a hint of pride at Brother Karnis's instantaneous solid grasp of command and turned towards Thutek and said, "I believe something else is at play here. Follow me to the Sanctum of the Chaplaincy Office, the altar there bestowed by the Emperor that may help us uncover the truth of what is occurring."
Thutek placed his hand out, signaling Osiris to stop for a moment, as he said, "Lord Chaplain, allow me to lead the way. On my way here, I came across blocked sectors and minor breaches that delayed me. I know the quickest route to the Sanctum that avoids those complications."
Osiris nodded and replied, "Very well then, lead the way."
The both of them bolted off, easily reaching vehicle speed of 30 mph. It was the fastest and safest speed for moving through decks that could suddenly have a daemon appear.
In a matter of minutes they reached the Sanctum of the Chaplaincy Office thanks to Thutek's knowledge and a lot of luck in not encountering a daemon.
Stepping inside through the door, they were met by the beautiful spherical chamber full of design elements from Prospero and rites of passage of the Chaplaincy.
Osiris walked past all the pedestals and artworks, heading straight to the back. Ignoring Thutek's questioning gaze, Osiris kneeled and chanted the Chaplain's oath, a string of words that evoked visible glow of golden power on his body.
"By the Emperor's will, I keep eternal watch, holding the night at bay.
In His glory, I stand unwavering, defending mankind from corruption's touch.
In His light, I remain a steadfast shield, unbroken until my final breath.
For only in death does duty end."
Upon completion of his oath, Osiris's body was displaced from the Sanctum and placed inside a Sub-Dimensional Bubble anchored to the Photep. This was a miracle that will be handed over to every High Chaplain of each legion when their Primarch is found and their Gloriana-Class Battleship is completed.
This Sub-Dimensional Bubble was known only to its owner, the Primarch and the sub-owner, the High Chaplain and his direct subordinates. As the sub-owner, Osiris was privy to a bit of how this miraculous item was made.
It was a object master crafted by the Emperor himself using a blend of humanities golden age technology, necron tesseract labyrinth technology, extreme warp mastery, and some kind of unknown energy that reminded Osiris of the Emperor on the day of the Sol System Unification Parade.
Even in this critical moment, Osiris couldn't help but marvel not only at the ingenuity and the shifting textures of marble, shattered glass, and abstract liquid. The colors of the surrounding textures was primarily gold with mesmerising blue, green, silver, and black mixed in.
Scanning the space he was in, Osiris instantly regained full focus after his eyes locked onto what he was looking for. Past the chained daemons for Chaplain initiation rituals and vaults of sealed weapons, a pillar stood tall in the middle creating a torus variation.
That pillar served as a central control of the space and it held it together. On the textured floor, there were engravings of symbols and letters that Osiris only knew were called Enuncia. Moving towards the pillar, Osiris placed his hand on it and borrowed the power of the space itself to perform an advanced form of Emperor's tarot.
This specific method, along with how the space was designed, allowed a much clearer answer to one question and did not tax its user as much as a normal Emperor's tarot, but at the same time it does. The main cost of using this was that it would not be available again until after one solar decade, one year, one month, and one day.
Feeling his consciousness connect to the Emperor's power, he presented his question: 'How do we complete your will with the fewest casualties?'
In response to his question, a flash of blinding light appeared and very soon after it was gone, Osiris was subjected to a life-like vision of the answer. In the vision, Osiris saw Magnus fully armored in his resplendent crimson armor that featured golden trim accents, platings of eagles, words, and scarabs. Inscribed on the armor were also arcane runes and psychic glyphs meant to amplify his immense psychic power.
Judging by the fact that the robe that covered Magnus's armor was glowing with psychic might and the reuleaux triangle on his back was lit, symbolizing its extreme use in shielding his father, furthermore, Magnus's helmet was on and his eagle staff that helped him focus psychic power was now being used as a physical weapon with multiple blades of energy turning it into Magnus's favored weapon, a massive double-bladed halberd.
The fact that his father was going all out meant that the greater daemon of Tzeentch he was facing was no ordinary one. Osiris watched closely in trepidation as the tall humanoid bird-like daemon with two heads fought savagely against his father.
It was abnormally skilled in close combat, warp sorcery, and it seemed to see through every attack his father launched at it. This continued for a bit until Osiris saw the truth; its details ruptured parts of his mind, body, and soul. If it wasn't for the protection of the bubble and the Emperor's power, he would've died instead of briefly passing out with what could be considered minor injuries for what he saw.
Osiris regained awareness with a startled jolt and, with peaceful resignation, he thought, 'By your will, Magnus's death will be prevented. My life for his is a small price to pay.'
He sluggishly got to his feet and, with great pain, made his way over to the weapons vault. Through a series of scans and identification methods that read his soul signature, the vault's weapons opened, and he proceeded to pick up the required weapons.
First, he added a hyper-dimensional pocket prison known as a Tesseract Labyrinth to his belt and slipped a bracelet onto his right wrist that possessed the activation command. Then he used it to store certain items and explosives.
Next, he picked up and wrapped a sigil of a double-headed eagle crafted with a fragment of the Emperor's power around his vambrace.
Lastly, he walked further into the vault and unlocked a secondary vault. Inside was a cylinder container with a very menacing hazard symbol of multiple intersecting crescents. He picked it up and attached the container to his back using the built-in mag-locks.
Now possessing everything he needed from the vault, Osiris made his way out of the vault and relocked it. He then moved back over to the center pillar and, after a series of inputs, the engraving of Enuncia on the floor began to glow brighter. Then it started to pulse as if it were awaiting a connection from something else.
Osiris added some more input to the center pillar and a hexagonal plate full of small engravings appeared before him. He grabbed it and added it into the Tesseract Labyrinth on his belt.
With that final act, Osiris made one last input and had himself teleported directly outside the Sub-Dimensional Bubble back into the Sanctum. Outside, Osiris was met face to face by Thutek, who rushed over to help support him after seeing the major difference in his movements.
Deeply concerned, Thutek questioned, "Lord Chaplain, what happened? I don't even need to be psychically apt to—"
Thutek froze in shock upon seeing the container on Osiris's back. He may not have recognized what the odd cube on Osiris's waist was, but he could sense that the sigil wrapped around the vambrace contained a part of the Emperor's power.
However, the container on Osiris's back he knew exactly what it was. It was a Telos Bomb, a horrific weapon of humanities golden age that they had acquired during their deployment in the Unification Wars.
Their assignment was to annex the autonomous nation of Boeotia, in which they did well with ease, but then had uncovered Telos Bombs that the Yeselti, the royal house who ruled Boetia, were secretly trying to ignite during negotiations.
The attempt was discovered, the remaining pocket of resistance was put down and killed. As for the Telos Bombs, it was originally handed over to the Custodians for processing because it was a weapon capable of destroying what was once called a continent on Terra.
It was only later on that the Emperor magnanimously returned it to Magnus and the Crimson Arbiters. Furthermore, Thutek was also privy to the fact that psychic runes were added to this weapon to make it deadly even for creatures of the Immaterium.
With this knowledge in mind, Thutek expressed his disbelief: "By the Emperor… Why do you have a Telos Bomb on your back? Lord Chaplain, father has specifically said that this weapon cannot be used without his authorization. Have you managed to make contact with him? Is he currently well? How do we help him? Just what have you learned?"
Osiris stared at Thutek and shook his head, saying, "I used a method to consult the Emperor and received a vision. In it, I gained his authorization to use the Telos Bomb. But we must make haste to hangar bay 9 on deck 45; our father is losing and close to dying. Follow me, I'll explain along the way what else I've seen."
Moving quickly, Osiris left the Sanctum and began running as fast as he could manage. Thutek was right beside him, keeping pace with him. He moved while keeping his force sword in his left hand and his right hand in a ready position to launch a spell.
As they moved, Osiris continued, "Our father is locked in combat with an extremely powerful greater daemon, powerful to the point that even if he were in perfect condition, he would still lose. The sigil on my arm is making us temporarily invisible to its senses, and I dare not say it, because it must not receive any clues about where we are or what I am about to do. It is—"
Osiris was cut off by a Bloodletter, a lesser daemon of Khorne that acts like a foot soldier, who suddenly appeared in front of him. Osiris and Thutek both made evasive maneuvers to avoid its burning greatsword full of screaming faces as the daemon roared, "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, SKULLS FO—"
Before the daemon could finish its battlecry, Osiris leaped up and smashed his crozius into its face, creating a brutal dent from which psychic manifestations of broken skulls, bits, and blood showed. Despite the pain it felt, the daemon laughed in glee, believing he had found a most worthy skull to offer up to the Blood God.
However, its belief was ended by a sudden bolt of psychic lightning that Thutek hurled at its knee, causing it to burst apart and splatter the daemon's blood-like essence.
"I WILL HAVE YOU—" The daemon tried to yell, but once again it was interrupted by Osiris, who quickly closed the distance, gripped the daemon by the jaw, and viciously ripped it off.
The daemon hopped forward, trying to grab Osiris and impale him on his greatsword, but Osiris reacted quickly, dodging its leap, and he smashed his crozius into the daemon's sword arm. Ignoring the damage that was done, the daemon lashed out with its arm, aiming to knock Osiris's head clean off.
However, its arm crashed against a shield made of faith energy that Osiris created, and Thutek, who was channeling the warp for another spell, hurled his completed warp fire directly at the daemon. It howled in pain and started to blindly lash out at Osiris's shield, trying to at least take one soul down with him.
Unfortunately, its attempts were useless because Osiris's faith shield was far too powerful for it to do any damage to it. With one last pitiful howl, the daemon of Khorne's body fully dissipated back into the warp. Normally, all daemons can eventually reform their bodies after painstakingly gathering warp energy to reconstruct their consciousness and physical form.
Daemons of Khorne might even receive help from Khorne in remaking their bodies if their performance was worthy or they were needed. But daemons like this one, whose performance was utterly disappointing, would not be reformed to once again serve the Blood God. It didn't offer a single skull in his name nor draw blood from the ones it faced; the fate of daemons this disappointing to Khorne was to suffer for a millennium as a formless consciousness.
Its path to becoming a stronger daemon would be effectively cut off, and no one would care one bit, just like how Osiris and Thutek kept moving on without a care about the abomination they had just put down.
"The truth that I discovered is that," Osiris started to say as he leaped over a fallen brother surrounded by ashes of daemons in the hall they were currently in. "We are technically no longer in the warp."
Thutek glanced over in shock and replied incredulously, "HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!? We would know! There would have been indications!"
Osiris looked over at Thutek, and Thutek paused and said, "My apologies, Lord Chaplain."
Before either of them realized it, they reached the lift to take them down to the hangar bay. Thutek quickly activated the lift and Osiris continued.
"At the ninth minute, that greater daemon pulled the entirety of the Photep into its body. The mist we are seeing is its essence restricting the modified warp nexus spell from activating. It is also trying to destroy the wards on the Photep and disable all of its weaponry. Once the Photep is completely defenseless, it can then forcibly corrupt all of us by keeping us at its mercy inside its body."
The lift stopped because it reached the hangar bay floor, but they still had to move and reach hangar bay 9 because the lift they were on was not the main lift. They moved quickly through the halls while avoiding any further fights with daemons.
Now clear of any possible fights, Osiris concluded, "There are ten terminators of the Sekhmet trapped in a barrier further up ahead. We must kill the daemon with the feathered staff in order to free them. Following that, we enter hangar bay 9 to aid our father by creating a momentary distraction.
That will give our father a small chance to breathe, and then we will work together to destroy the avatar of that greater daemon. Once it is destroyed, we can focus on getting this bomb outside the Photep using the hangar doors, so that we can create a hole in the greater daemon's true body. Which would then let us draw in the warp and complete the warp-modified warp nexus spell, sending us and Chaeronia back into realspace."
Thutek replied, "Understood."
Although in his mind he couldn't help but wonder, 'To stop our father's foretold death and deal with a greater daemon, this plan almost seems too simple. In fact something almost seems off.'
But he immediately dismissed the thought; this was a plan made by High Chaplain Osiris. A firstborn of the 15th legion, a veteran of the Unification Wars, and chosen one of the Emperor. If he makes a plan then it will surely work.
After a few more seconds of moving, they finally came across the ten terminators belonging to the Sekhmet. They were inside a warp barrier locked in battle against a breach in which a tide of endless nurglings, small imps with overwhelming numbers, and Plaguebearers, lesser daemons of Nurgle made from decaying flesh.
On the ground in front of the terminators were 12 fallen brothers, their armor and bodies were decaying from the pestilence brought by the daemons of Nurgle. The ten terminators boldly stood their ground against the onslaught, with their backs against the edge of the barrier.
Anyone could tell that, given 5 more minutes, these ten terminators would have fallen if it weren't for Thutek and Osiris ambushing the Herald of Tzeentch, an elite lesser daemon of Tzeentch. Thutek first destroyed the flying disc it was on with a bolt of warp lightning, while Osiris unmag-locked his plasma pistol and shot the arm holding the staff. The Herald of Tzeentch let out a wail of pain and confusion at its sudden loss of an arm and gravity.
Since its focus was broken, the barrier was dropped, and the leading terminator opened fire on the Herald of Tzeentch. Bullet after bullet tore into its body until it became nothing but wisps of warp energy.
The leading terminator then said, "My thanks, Chaplain Osiris and Librarian Thutek. Have you any news about our father or the status of our legion's defense?"
Thutek moved to work together with one of the more psychically gifted terminators to repair the ward in order to close the breach. The other terminators moved farther away from the breach, allowing them to easily mow down all of the daemons of Nurgle before they got too close and spread their pestilence.
As for Osiris, he spent the next few seconds telling Brother Vharzak, the leading terminator, everything he knew of their situation and his plan to aid their father. Brother Vharzak roared at his squad to hurry up so that they could reach their father in time.
A minute later, the ward was fixed and the breach was gone, so together as one they made their way towards hangar bay 9 at a rather frustratingly slow pace due to the extreme weight of terminator armor.
Brother Vharzak looked to Osiris in distress and urged, "Go ahead of us to Magnus's side, we will catch up."
With a shake of his head, Osiris replied, "In my vision, we absolutely must work together, and Magnus is not in hangar bay 9 as of yet. His fight with that greater daemon is taking place in different areas of the ship. I have kept count of each passing moment, and we are making good time for the exact moment his fight with the greater daemon reached hangar bay 9."
Through his helmet Vharzak looked deeply at Osiris, trying to feel out any hint of uncertainty, sensing none in Osiris's movements. They all continued forward, and along the way, Vharzak informed them of his side of what had happened so far.
He told them about how the fight between them and the greater daemon and its minions suddenly went gravely wrong, which then led to Magnus suddenly teleporting all of the Sekhmet from deck 23 at the back of the Photep to different sections of the Photep. He also informed them that they may not receive any reinforcements since other members of the Sekhmet were most definitely rushing back to the same location on deck 23.
Hearing this, Thutek proposed, "If I sacrifice myself, I can force a psychic communication to Captain Maibe. He will definitely pick up on it and send a majority of our forces here."
Osiris sighed and replied, "No… The risk is far too great. Remember that we are inside a greater daemon's body, and your mind will be extremely vulnerable to it. It is a miracle that you can even use the warp in the first place without any problems, perhaps most likely due to the greater daemon being more focused on fighting our father and suppressing the modified warp nexus. But nevertheless, we will not test whether or not it still possesses enough focus to take over your mind."
After his words there was silence all around; everyone was preparing themselves for anything to come. This silence continued until finally they reached the doors leading to hangar bay 9. With zero hesitation, they pressed the control panel to have the doors opened.
At the exact moment they opened the doors, a teleportation light flashed in the center of the hangar that momentarily blinded everyone. When their vision cleared up, they witnessed a sight that sent shivers through their hearts that instantly turned into a blazing fury.
Standing above in the air was a fluid, formless monstrosity that possessed countless eyes, mouths, and limbs. It radiated a power like no other, and it stared at everything around it with contemptful glee.
Leaning heavily on a staff turned double-bladed halberd was Magnus, his armor was riddled with cracks from what seemed like multiple blunt hits, and some areas had jagged cuts. His blood was dripping from these wounds, and the worst of the bleeding came from barbed lances that were pierced through different parts of his body.
Everyone could see Magnus's chest heaving from extreme exertion, and the most damning thing of them all was that half of Magnus's helmet was broken, allowing one to see his face. His face was stricken with nothing but worry and resolution, worry for his sons and resolution to do whatever was necessary to protect them.
Everything about this sight was wrong; Magnus never should have been so grievously injured nor be fighting alone. It was his honor guard, the Sekhmet, who were supposed to be the ones not just fighting by his side, but also protecting him no matter what.
It should not be the other way around; it never should be. Feeling nothing but shame in himself and rage at failing his one duty, Vharzak let out a roar and did something believed impossible. In a full suit of terminator armor, he ran forward ahead of everyone else as he rushed to reach Magnus's side.
Everyone else but Osiris followed suit in unleashing every weapon they possessed upon the greater daemon while moving towards Magnus's side. Unlike the others, Osiris stayed back and operated the door command panel.
'Please forgive me,' Osiris lamented as he detached the Tesseract Labyrinth from his belt and made his way to his father and brothers before him. He knew what really had to be done next, for there was no such thing as defeating that greater daemon. It was too powerful for all of them, and their only chance at Magnus's survival was the actions he was about to take next.
-To Be Continued...
(A/N: Unfortunately Tzeentch happened again and stopped me from dropping 2 chps within a week. Working on proper wording for fight scenes so next chapter with Magnus's pov against the greater daemon should be a lot more entertaining than the fight scene in this one.
Another thing, I feel like a few of you have some questions about somethings in this chapter which should all be answered in the next one.)