The bodies lay around the cavern's entrance gate. Demeter spat a gobbet of spittle to the ground in frustration. These humans were no match for him; twenty seconds, and their lives were over. Whilst the battle for Guilliman City raged, he and his company had made it to the entrance, but despite his conflicted hopes there were no Astartes, only Army personnel. Despite the lack of challenge, he had laughed as the smell of voided bowels and erupting bladders reached his nostrils. Such was the effect of an Astartes on a human. The very notion of these supposed soldiers even slowing the Emperor's Children down was absurd.
He stepped over a torso, its intestines sprawled around it, and moved further into the cavern. It would take a little while; these damn caverns were like underground cities and damnably dark. He ordered his brothers to switch to night vision, their eye lenses glowing an eerie green in the stygian blackness, but they didn't have any way to see through kilometers of rock.
They walked for over an hour, encountering minimal resistance. What resistance they did encounter died in seconds at the transformed Solomon Demeter's hand. Still, there were no Astartes; perhaps the Ultramarines had all bugged out, left to defend their cities at the call of their Regent and left the young unguarded. It didn't matter; the children would be theirs. Demeter was not one to deviate from his purpose so easily.
They stopped only when giants in blue armour appeared before them. Demeter ran his helm over their forms, and a smile twisted his features.
"Well, well, well," he drawled. "Hello Julius. Defected to the poster boys, have we?"
Julius Kaesoron stepped forward, the light from the single glowlamp above his head illuminating his armour - celestial blue, with a rampant Lion on the pauldron.
"You've had a wasted journey, Demeter," Julius told him, "The children are no longer here."
"Rubbish," Sergeant Ingellis scoffed. "There were human guards in number - "
"Brave souls that opted to remain to maintain the illusion," Julius calmly replied. "I did not want any more to fall here; I think this is our battle, don't you, Demeter?"
Solomon nodded. "And when I have taken your traitorous head back to our father, I will find the children."
"You won't be going anywhere, Solomon, except to whatever fate awaits you in the Warp," Julius promised. Then, feeling exhausted of speaking to this parody of his friend, he drew his sword. "Let's do this."
Julius had sent back three companies to aid the Wolf King, another two remaining within the caverns, to insure against his failure or another Imperial search party. At the moment, he stood with First Company alone, but that was enough.
Unlike Demeter, he knew the caverns he was in, thanks to the schematics (public and classified) he had read. He hadn't lied; there were no children here. They had been evacuated by the Ultramarines to the Heroes' Redemption and translated out of the system hours ago. It had galled the sons of Guilliman and Russ to leave such a fledgling chapter to defend the arcologies, but in the end, he had convinced them that he and he alone could defeat Demeter, whereas they would be needed on the surface. So the remainder had gone out the other passages and gone to aid the Regent or the Wolf King.
Julius felt almost sorry for his foe; almost, but not quite. Not anymore.
"So no Night Lords to aid you?" Demeter cocked his head. "I know they are here; I had a run-in with some on the way here. Didn't end well for them."
Julius said nothing; he didn't need to. He knew what Demeter was up to. Krysander was already moving, and after a few seconds, the sounds of blade and bolter rang out around them.
"Very good, traitor." Demeter nodded his approval. "Then it is just us, as it should be, old friend."
Julius raised his bolter and fired. Demeter brought a shield up and around himself with but a thought. Kaesoron rolled his eyes; he had expected something like that, but it was still an unpleasant confirmation. But then, he had been changed in his own way. Opening his mouth, using a power he had never really wanted in the first place, Julius Kaesoron let loose a sonic noise that broke Demeter's shield and sent him staggering back.
Fury enveloped the new First Captain and, with a roar, Demeter shook his head clear and ran up the centre. To meet his old friend, brother, and former commander head-on.
The battle between them was brutal. Every so often, the Lion of Chemos's HUD would register a death or a wounded brother in his peripheral vision; but, much to his enduring gratitude, the Night Lords had thinned out the ranks to make it slightly more even, leaving him free to focus on the duel. The Emperor's Children were falling at an equal rate, though Demeter paid them even less heed.
For every opening that Demeter got, eldritch fire struck the Chapter Master, but it didn't stop him. It wouldn't, not anymore. Solomon had betrayed him - betrayed his friendship, his trust, and above all, his cause. He yelled once more, splitting his opponent's helm and causing Demeter to throw it to the ground, eyes swimming in pleasure as the sonic barrier washed over him.
It took a lot for Julius to control himself, and Demeter saw it. "Come home, brother," he cooed. "The Primarch will welcome you back with open arms, you know that."
"Never!" Julius snarled, bringing his emotions under control. He would have to learn to live with whatever he was, but it would be at his command, not some Warp phantom's.
He swung his blade, cutting across Demeter's exposed throat. The Captain moved back, clutching the wound, his blood flowing from it. Seconds later, the Larraman cells did their job and the wound closed as the blood clotted; but it was enough to break the moment.
Demeter threw his knife, striking his former friend through the left eye lens. Julius snarled and pulled the blade free, his eye coming with it. He threw both onto the ground; he had another eye. He fired his bolter, smashing Demeters jaw and cheek, a second shell taking half his face with it.
Demeter reeled, his body under too much abuse and still battle-weary from the fight with the Night Lords. But he forced himself to stay standing, even though there seemed to be too few warriors in violet and gold around, the world spinning...
He blinked as he realized he wasn't fainting, but rather being picked up by two of his sergeants.
"We must leave, captain; our Father has recalled us all. We cannot lose you, my lord," Ingelis said.
"No!" Demeter shouted. "He is mine..."
"It will come another day, lord... Vespasian is dead, with all his force." Ingelis used all his body strength to drag his commander away. He knew he might pay for it later, but he did not want to see his captain dead. Demeter was the soul of the Legion now.
Julius fired again, ignoring the two Sergeants and taking Demeter's left leg with an explosive bolt. The next shot missed, and before Kaesoron could reload the Emperor's Children had retreated out of range. Julius slumped to the floor, vaguely aware of a voice calling his name and the white helm of the Apothecary that tended him.
"How many did we lose?" he asked wearily.
"Fifteen brothers dead, twenty wounded. The Imperials fared worse." Krysander crouched down. "Gage is dead, my lord; he killed Vespasian, though." Krysander looked at the hall before them, now devoid of Emperor's Children. "We will meet them one day, lord; for now, we must get you and our wounded to safety."
"All that is left is the Wolf King's battle." Julius went to get up. "I want us to be there for this."
"We can't, lord; we have wounded to tend to, and you need to rest... that is an order from the Apothecaries."
Julius could have tried overruling his first captain, but he liked Krysander for this very reason: he was not afraid of disagreeing with any order if he found it flawed. The Lion of Chemos felt his eye grown heavy. Yes, he would leave the Primarchs' duel to fate. "Demeter is going to be a powerful psyker when he learns to use that properly."
"Are you sure he will live?"
"He will live," Julius sighed wearily. "He wants - no, needs - to kill me; it's perhaps the only truth driving him now. That alone will make him live, and that alone will mean that either my death will come at his hands sometime, or his mine. Or both."