Prologue: True Damnation

The desolated hallway reeked of ungrowth and the unbound horror and emotions of the Warp. The strewn bodies of space marines lay where they had died. The husks of their bodies were rotting into dust and would soon be made into suits of dusty and broken Mk 6 power armour. A lone man stood in the corridor. He looked into the blown out entrance with a blank look of drawn-out pain. This was torturing him. The man was threatened to be broken by its slow and painful approach. His body wouldn't respond. It was numb with overwhelming emotions, inhuman emotions. Daemonic thoughts and desires were running through his overloaded senses. Something was terribly wrong. His body was not his own.

Without thought from him, his body moved towards the broken frame and the summoning chamber inside. This was the Exorcist's most holy chamber. The black veil in the door's frame melted away at his back as he stepped inside. The darkness was invaded by a daemonic glow emanating from the dirty runes in the broken Exorcist cell. The man saw Librarian Carze crucified upon the blood-splattered wall. He was still alive in some macabre form of life. His armed had been stripped away and he wore nothing except chaotic runes etched upon his violated flesh. The defiled Librarian strained to lift his head to see the newcomer. Carze regarded the shaking man through his lidless eyes. The man dry heaved onto himself at the sight of the Librarian.

Carze began to open his jaw as if to say something. The jaw snapped and the librarian's mouth continued to grow into a gaping maw. The teeth grew into long fangs and the features of Librarian Carze rapidly melted and changed into features characteristic of a daemon. Raw Chaos flowed into the room out of the daemon's still-open maw. The temperature dropped rapidly until the man could see his own terrified breath. The warp solidified onto the walls and floor of the room, including the broken forms of the space marines and the bones of their servants. The newly appeared daemon turned its hateful gaze to the man. The man couldn't cry out in pain and fear as the daemon's gaze began to peel and blister his skin. His body began to rise off the floor and the room began to distort in shape. The Daemon took its long, clawed hand and stuck it into the wall. Its hand reached in father and stopped. Seconds elapsed and the man stared forward in a horrified curiosity. The Daemon turned its head back to the floating man and its mouth slipped into a cruel grin. It ripped the hand out wall holding a tiny object.

The daemon walked forward and drew its hand up to the man's chest. The man tried to fight against the invisible bonds holding him and prayed feverishly to the Emperor for deliverance.

"He holds no power in the realm of the damned, human," the Daemon hissed gleefully. The suspended figure only tried to break the bonds more. The Daemon grinned once more and laughed as he made a shallow cut in the man's throbbing chest. The man screamed and flailed his head around in the pain of the Daemon's touch. It paused drinking in the misery and pain of the man's scream. He made seven more cuts and formed the star of Chaos on his chest.

"I'm really interested in ripping your throat out," said the Daemon over the screaming. "I won't end you like that though. My Gods deserve a proper thank you and you will be a glorious one." Then it grabbed the screaming man's hand. New waves of agony spurted from the tortured man's lips. The Daemon neatly cut off 4 fingers on each his hands. He wouldn't allow the man to slip into unconsciousness from blood loss and bent down and breathed on each of the bleeding hands. The daemon's breath cauterized the wound and began melting the hands into two disfigured lumps. The man's screams grew louder.

The Daemon took the small glass orb it had retrieved from the warped walls and set it onto the ground around the fragments of the Librarian's armor. It took the severed fingers and spread them back from the orb while smearing the blood into a line. The Daemon looked at the eight-pointed star of Chaos that was newly made onto the floor. It took a talon and stabbed it into its own heart and drew out a single drop of black blood. The talon then dabbed the blood onto the glass orb, completing the ritual. The warp material on the floor began to twist and writhe as the Daemon's ritual began its nasty work. The man who had fallen back to painful whimpers began to scream once more.

"Hush, now. We are done. Be grateful that you are a glorious gift to the Gods, for this is an honor to you," snarled the Daemon as it turned to face the man again. He looked at the daemon and its terrible grin and knew his soul was forfeit. He began to progress to the ritual portal that led to the warp itself. He tried to scream but the sound choked in his chest and the emotion was sucked away into the portal. He moved ever closer and the warp stole him. It began to steal everything he was, his emotions, his memories. His very soul was now belonging to Chaos.

The moment he teetered on the edge of the Daemon's portal he looked down into Chaos and knew that he was truly damned.