Chapter twenty-one.
Volgatis, Divinus Prime.
Mariah looked down from her agonising prison as Mephiston and Rhacelus rolled to a halt and clambered to their feet. Rhacelus' face was a grotesque hybrid – a mixture of the Librarian's own stern features and Zorambus' leering grin.
"Too slow!" Zorambus cried through Rhacelus' mouth, sprinting up the steps towards the woman.
The witch drew back her knife to cleave another hole in reality, but before she could lash out Rhacelus jolted to one side, blasted against the railing that edged the steps.
Mephiston strode after him, his smouldering blade held aloft like a banner and his armour coruscating with warp-flame.
The railing gave way under Rhacelus' armoured bulk and he had to grasp the heat warped strut to halt himself.
As Mephiston approached his possessed friend, the witch led her female companion up the steps towards the statue.
Mariah strained to free herself from the rift the she had been cast into. Her legs felt as though they were sunk in boiling tar. She could barley speak she was in so much pain. "The blade!" she gasped, trying to get Mephiston's Attention.
Mephiston looked up at her. Then he turned to the woman as she ignited the jump pack and launched herself across the abyss, clutching her friend to her chest.
The black cracks that had spread over Mephiston's armour had now splintered across his face. Lines of vivid darkness networked his skin. He looked like a piece of shattered ivory.
Mariah looked at Rhacelus and saw his face was being contorted into a likeness of Zorambus.
Mephiston howled and lifted Vitarus to the skies, summoning wild, fulminous streaks from the clouds. The grin faded from Zorambus' face as Mephiston plunged the shimmering blade into his chest.
Zorambus stiffened and slumped backwards, almost falling into the chasm below. Mephiston grabbed Zorambus by the arm as a sliver of blood rushed from his chest, reforming into the same silverfish swarm that had invaded Rhacelus' body a few minutes earlier.
Rhacelus' body slumped in Mephiston's grip as the silverfish scurried together and piled on top of each other, forming a glittering, humanoid shape.
Mephiston howled again, shedding more darkness from the cracks in his body. He dragged Vitarus from Rhacelus and thrust it at the silver shape.
Crimson spat from the sword, tearing through the half-formed Zorambus and turning the silverfish into a column of red flame.
A searing scream sliced through the storm as the sorcerer finally died, but the red fire did not halt at the destruction of Zorambus; it powered on across the rooftops and spires, ripping through the destruction and razing everything in its path, carving a brilliant red channel through the ruins of Volgatis and lacing out into the toppling peaks beyond.
The blast was so fierce that it knocked Mephiston from his feet and sent crashing back against the steps. He landed heavily, enveloped in his scorched robes, then lay there raging at the clouds and crying out in a torrent of different languages. He lashed out with his sword, as though surrounded by foes only he could see, and with every blow, waves of flame spilled out across the steps, toppling statues and immolating the surrounding corpses, surrounding Mephiston with a whirl wind of fire and dust.
Mariah felt herself being dragged from the world. Clawed, inhuman hands were hauling her down into whatever hellish realm lay beyond the sky. "Mephiston!" she howled.
She strained to look at the shrine behind her and groaned in horror. The witch was hauling a sealed box from the casket beneath the statue. The casket and half the dais were smouldering and glowing were she had blasted them with sorcery. As Mariah slipped from reality, she leapt from the dais, the chest under on arm and her friend under the other, grinning victoriously as she dropped into the crevasse, her jump pack blazing.
Something serpentine and muscular lashed itself around Mariah's chest and jolted her violently. Her sword began to slip from its perch, ripping through the sky as though it were cloth. "Mephiston!" she cried again.
A figure lurched trough the maelstrom and, as it reached Mephiston, Antros saw that it was Rhacelus. His chest armour was drenched in blood and his face was ghastly white, but he managed to dodge the waves of flame Mephiston was hurling and wrestle the Chief Librarian to the ground.
Mephiston grabbed Rhacelus by the throat.
Rhacelus gasped in agony as the Chief Librarian crushed his neck.
Then he grabbed the syringe from Mephiston's armour and jammed it into his lord's neck.
The dark lines faded from Mephiston's armour and he loosened his grip, looking around at the desolation with a dazed expression.
Rhacelus collapsed on the steps and Mephiston stood up, reeling like a drunk and looking for something.
"Mephiston!" cried Mariah, only her head and hand visible. She could just see the crevasse. "She has the blade. The sorcerer. Stop her!"
Mephiston staggered up the steps and looked out at the receding figure. Then he simply nodded and watched her go.
"Stop her,"whispered Rhacelus as all his worst doubts returned to haunt him. Mephiston was letting the witch go. She was a Chaos witch and he was letting her take the Blade Petrific. A crushing despair washed over Mariah as her strength failed her. A forest of unseen limbs enveloped her, wrenching her from the world.