The brother walked towards the portal that led to the vault, it was quite funny despite their superhuman nature, none of them could bear to look at the portal.
The reason was simple and yet so complicated, the portal is proof of their failure, to their people, to their father but overall their failure as a hole.
What good were all oft he past wars and battles, all of humanities collective suffering and never-ending pain, if, in the end, the galaxy burned.
Around the portal, several members of the adepta sororita were kneeling praying, they couldn't see the billions or perhaps trillions of souls that were but a footstep away from them, but their belief in the emperor was o great, that somehow they could sens the soul's presence and were now attempting to either make the souls move on or stay contained beyond the portal.
Some of the women were beginning to show their pregnancy, at their side was the man that either had been picked for them or they had chosen, the men themselves were from all walks of life, a man that at one point had been a governor, who once ruled over entire sectors of space, a simple guardsman and even a factory worker.
Even though more and more people were being brought out of the vault, the brothers had to admit that if something were to happen, humanity as a whole would be done for.
Even now they were sending settlers to meet up with those that had left several days earlier, but it would be a while before their numbers would be at a respectable quantity, so now everyone had to help with restoring the numbers and that meant that if a woman could give birth he would.
Perhaps it was fear- sadness- regret or perhaps it was a mixture of all of these feelings but hesitantly the brothers stepped forward and crossed the portal.
They found themselves inside a tunnel only illumined by candles that should have burned out long ago, there was a presence here as if something could look inside the tunnel but was unable to interact with it, for a brief moment the brothers understood what that being was.
Bright colors meant to catch a person's attention, contradicted by a mixture of plain colors meant to be completely overlooked were everywhere, the brothers could see the mark of the Eldar Laughing God everywhere.
As they walked the souls of the dead surrounded them but became quiet, their endless moans were gone now, finally, they reached the area where the door was located.
The door was massive easily towering over the brothers, some of the guardsmen jumped the moment they saw the three of them before lowering their heads and pretended to be busy.
The vault was massive but not truly massive, no, it wasn't all that big, but that was if it obeyed the laws of the universe, it was a pice of the web way and so it extended for miles.
None of them knew the size of the vault and in truth they didn't care, they had just come to see for themselves if the specter's warning had been true and they found it was worse then they could have ever imagined.
The sheer amount of souls within the vault would have made a regular person freeze in fear, but thankfully none of the men and woman could see the souls, for a brief moment the brothers felt their fathers presence but his calm presence didn't offer any comfort, it only increased their troubles.
Nothing should be able to cross the gate and if they could feel their father's presence, then that meant the vaults dors were weakening, the weakening of the doors also explained the Eldar God's presence.
They had little options and so the brothers walked back towards the portal and lower their heads granting the specters entrance to the vault.
The specters wasted no time and immediately began to ferry the souls of the dead away.
The vault began to shake as the specters neared the soul stones of the Eldar, titans, and ancient constructs immediately awakened to protect their charges, yet the specters never touched a single soul stone.
Eldar souls were lingering about within the vault, last of their kind, souls so ancient that even for Eldar they were to be respected only because of how ancient they were, in a combination of warp magic and sheer force of will, they managed to stay within the vault by attaching themselves to an occupied soul stone.
These very souls waited for their turn to be carried away patiently, yet whenever a specter near them, the Spector would ignore them, choosing to take a nearby human soul instead.
Beyond the portal stood the Eldar elder, they knew they had to make a choice and the specters had already made it clear that they wouldn't take those they weren't allowed to and so reluctantly they lowered their heads and allowed the specters to do their job.
The specters entered the vault and carried away the souls that were outside of the soul stones, but they never went near any that were within the tears of the goddess.
As the brothers stepped out of the portal they only had to turn their heads slightly, the sheer number of specters carrying souls away was enough to make the candle given to them completely unnecessary.
"Each of you has stepped into a realm of death. Therefore you can enter and stay within the realm of death, for an extended period."
"The brother that whose soul was injured and his body died, the brother that lost connection to both his soul and his body, and finally the brother that lost his connection to the realm of souls, but his body lived" A specter said to the brothers, who understood the specters wanted the three of them to go to where the dead were being taken.