Chapter 29: Grasp
The illusory bedchambers of the Princess of the Night felt larger than in reality, but despite the scattered spars of twisted candelabras and shattered ironwood furnishings, it was her room. Luna knew every bit of it, and as she glares at the door and the twisted shrieking that melded with an utter cacophony of noise, her heartbeat quickens.
"Sunset, keep a watch behind us on the balcony. They may try to sneak in there and keep us occupied here." Luna flares her nostrils and conjures her barbed halberd of midnight, holding it out in front of her at the wide dual doors.
"Alright." Sunset nods, spinning around and backing up alongside Twilight.
A soft glow of inoffensive lavender light spills underneath the wide doorway. A few flickering shadows momentarily interrupt the light, letting the Princess track them with assurance.
"Twilight, shield. Starlight, don't let them get close." Luna nods and wets her lips with a somewhat sandy-feeling tongue.
Her slow spreading smile doesn't go unnoticed as Starlight uncomfortably watches and then turns back. "Alright, princess. If you say so."
The shrieking sound stills, but the discordant chaos of tambourines and horns mix with a guttural wail. In the few moments that anything but the riotous clamour could be heard, the sibilant hiss of unequine breath washes from beneath the door.
Twilight licks her tongue as she focuses on the doorway, "Are they just wai-"
With a thunderous boom, the ironwood door shatters sending splinters rippling across Twilight's barrier spell. Five lithe figures dart in, shrieking all the while. The too-sickly, too slender figures sway as billowing manes of red and lavender stream behind them in gaudy locks while stretching out serrated talons. They careen into Twilight's barrier, gnashing needle teeth and lashing at the barrier.
A sixth beast snorts and wickers, its elongated muzzle twitching as it bows its head under the lintel and flicks side to side to scent the air. But it was a grotesque mockery of the equine form. The creature resembles a centaur of sorts, though a far cry from Tirek. Its fleshy pink skin stretches over a sickly frail frame, blending with black skin at its withers and haunch that stretch down to cloven hooves. A scorpions tail flicks over its back, weaving a pair of barbed stingers flicking back and forth just behind its elongated equine muzzle. The crown of antlers around its head twist with tiny silver bells, while four eyes blink independently of one another.
But as it raises its mantis-like claws, the reeking musk washes in. The deep pheromone perfume was heady, familiar, distracting. Twilight had taken a sharp breath at the towering creature's appearance, and choked with a gagging cough.
Twilight's eyes widen as she stammers, "P-pr-"
"Ignore it!" Luna commands, sweeping her halberd out and beyond the barrier, cleaving off a leg from one of the lithe figures. It hisses, tumbling backwards as a blaze of cyan arcane magic streaks through and pulverizes a second, obliterating it in a wisp of soft pink smoke.
Even by then, Starlight was quivering, looking at the graceful beast as it stepped into the room on joints that curled the wrong way. "What in Tartarus is that?!"
Luna's blaze of magic evaporates the third shrieking beast, leaving only the lone equine form. It's silhouetted against a bright orange light from the hallway, presented as if by the deafening clamour of music from somewhere nearby.
Twilight's ruby red field flickers as she coughs again, but stares at the creature as it warbles in some alien wicker. The equine beast flicks its tongue out, focusing each of its eyes on one of the ponies in the room. Evidently seeing Luna, its tail shakes, producing some harmonic rattle of loose skin folds on the underside of its twin scorpion barb.
"Back, fiend!" Luna jabs the halberd out as the creature rears with a snort and snaps out with its claws to ward off her probing blade. Two more of thee lithe figures scream as they lash and rage against the barrier, sending spidering cracks across it.
The creature turns, scuttling to the side. It's wide stance and huffing breath come out primal and bestial as it focuses on Twilight. A flick of its tongue, it darts forward, a loud squelching sound in its throat. The shield flickers and dies as Twilight's eyes glaze over for a moment.
A body suddenly slams into her own, scrabbling over the Alicorn and dragging her to the ground. "Twilight!" Soft fur hugs Twilight's frame, the smell of a familiar sunlit beach, prickles of warmth along her spine relaxing. Even as her wings try to fan out in relaxed ease, a sharp holler in her ears shakes her out of it, "TWILIGHT!" And a hoof covers her muzzle.
Sunset tackles her as she struggles to draw in another breath. The Alicorn protests as the ruby shield flickers and dies, leaving the pair of surviving spirits to pounce at them.
Starlight draws in a breath, ducking to the side and sending a scything beam of magic into one's chest as it mirrors her own movement. The cyan blast carves a scar across the wall and instinctively the Unicorn calls, "Sorry!"
"Not our room, Starlight!" Luna calls back, "Just kill it!"
"K-kill?" Starlight warbles as the thing gets close enough to turn her eyes to pinpricks, seeing the creature's inky black eyes blink and lipless mouth opens to bare rows of needle sharp fangs.
The face utterly dissolves in a geyser of torpid pink ichor as Ceifador rams through its temple from the side. "Fine, banish!" Luna snarls as another yowl echoes through the room.
The fifth lithe figure pounces, crashing into Luna and sending her tumbling. It rolls with her in a ball of pink and midnight blue, claws already lashing out in wide sweeping strokes, straddling her barrel.
"Luna!" Starlight's renewed cyan bolt strikes the creature in the back, carting through it and setting its flesh alight as it screams and burns away to nothing.
Luna hisses as the quadruped fiend warbles its primal zebraic bray and takes a few lanky disjointed steps towards Starlight Glimmer. Its tongue flicks out, its chest inflates as it scents her.
The Alicorn princess of the Night grits her teeth, staggering as she struggles to rise. She clenches her teeth and with a single telekenetic shove, hurls Ceifador. The mythic blade spears through the air and slams into the fiend's flank. The creature's shrill cry breaks the silence as its mantis claws clamp down at the fluted haft.
Its wickering squeal breaks Twilight's fugue, and the Alicorn looks up wide eyed at the monstrous fiend. Scrambling up, Sunset tries to push her back, "Tw-"
"Mmmmf'okay" she wheezes past Sunset's hoof as her mind clears the perfumed fugue. But as she rights herself, the creature rounds on Luna, rearing up as Ceifador is carelessly tossed aside.
The scorpion tail rattles as Luna pulls herself up to all fours. The monsters inky black eyes roll in its skull and its tongue flicks out, but it twists, half focused on Luna and half on the quickly backpeddling Starlight Glimmer.
Long strips of the princesses hide along her back and barrel were torn free, showing bare bloody tissue. She snarls, teeth bared and jaw jutting in defiance as the creature rears and the barbed stringers plunge down at her with a snap.
The Alicorn rolls, sending an arcane bolt at the creature who dodges with the same disjointed speed and follows it up with another sweep. The thick tail slams into the bed, shattering the headboard and hurling splinters across the room.
Starlight yelps as the fiend rushes at her, claws strike out with unequine speed. As the mantis claw snaps down and Starlight cowers as a ruby red shield blurs into existence to surround the mare. The monster's hooked claws scrape down the bubbles side. Wickering its undulating cry in defiance, the beast smashes its forehooves into the barrier. Spider-line cracks flicker through the arcane shield under its assault.
Luna's howl of rage melds with a sharp snort from Sunset. The princess's arcane beam roils through the air only for the beast to dodge and crash right into Sunset's golden ray. The narrow lance of arcane energy sets the beast's flesh to a boil, a ragged rent of burning skin flecking off in scorched ribbons smouldering at the edges.
Its entire haunch is scarred, left hind leg barely hanging on by a thread. The nightmare beast turns to them in its pained braying before it unleashes a clattering scream that physically shoves the ponies. Drapes, furnishings, and pictures come loose and crash to the ground as its sonic shriek rattles the room and deafens the quartet.
Through gritted teeth and ringing ears, Twilight rises to her forelegs, still half splayed beneath Sunset. With a huff of effort, the Alicorn alights her horn and gathers a massive glut of arcane power. The creature rears back, snapping its claws out as its tail coils to strike. It lashes out just as Twilight's glowing orb of power builds to a cascade. Determination flashes in the Princess of Friendship's eyes even as the scorpion barb streaks at her face. If the creature screamed, her ears still rang loud enough to blot it out.
It feels like a breath of wind and little else as the monstrous beast crashes into the arcane orb. The lethal stinger dissolving as it crackles into the magical field, rippling lines racing up the tail and into its body like fire through its unholy veins. It cascades through its form, burning its flesh away and kicking up drifting motes as it comes completely unraveled.
In seconds only drifting flakes of charred parchment drifts through the ruined chamber, leaving four ponies and a door off its hinges.
Luna shouts something, though everypony elses ears were waggling as they tried to register sound again.
Words didn't need to be exchanged as Luna hobbles towards Starlight while Sunset helps the second princess. The Unicorn pulls her friend into a tight hug, breath tickling the larger mare's ear as she said something that still barely came through any louder than a whisper from underwater.
The burbled 'What?!' didn't help much either. But Sunset pulls back, and for a moment, she saw the smile before the Unicorn laughs and pulls her into another affectionate embrace.
But the good humour dissolves quickly as the other Alicorn in the room limps uncomfortably, hide torn where the lithe spirit had drove its hooks deep. It didn't look like a bleeding, ragged wound, but the flesh was bare, her lustrous coat gone, and cankerous black scabs swelled on her flayed skin.
Starlight was already babbling something, though the Alicorn swung her hoof up and over the mare's withers, pulling her to her chest protectively. She looks back and forth, letting Starlight calm.
"Princess Luna?!" Twilight calls again, and finally Luna's ears flick at the call, before she looks at the fellow Alicorn. "We have to get you ho-"
"'Tis not real, Twilight." Luna tilts her chin up, staring on regally, "These are merely... shadows of injuries. It is, perhaps, slightly taxing-"
"Horse feathers." Sunset says and nods to the Princess's left wing still tucked firmly to her side. "You haven't been able to use that at all and now you're limping. It still hurts you even if we're here and none of this is real-"
"it is, though it's a metaphysical... reality..." Twilight's explanation winds down as she senses the stares of everypony else. "And that was theoretical, wasn't it?"
Sunset nods, still helping the princess as the pair cross over to stand in front of a somewhat daunting stone-faced Luna. "I know you don't want to go back, but we still should. Maybe if we get some help-"
"I WILL NOT!" Luna's shout rocks the room just like the fiendish creature's had before.
And standing there, clutching the slightly straining Starlight, Luna stares impassively through bloodshot eyes. She glares down her muzzle at Sunset, who stares right back.
"I know." says the Unicorn before breathing out and looking out the wide open door to the hallways. "I just felt like I had to try." she grumbles something else beneath her breath, "Princess Celestia would never forgive me if you came out of here looking like that." But she sighs in finality and wearily glances over at Starlight, "How are you feeling?"
Starlight pulls her face from Luna's chest tuft, face a little flush. "B-better, thanks. I thought it... I thought it got me." She licks her lips and takes another breath that wavers at the end. "Fast."
"Verily." Luna snorts, "And still not enough." Before unfurling her right wing and gesturing to the door. "Does everypony else feel that?"
The thrum of the music threads its way back into the room, its melody far more regular and instruments matching a classical orchestra. Where before it was a contorting miasma of sounds only just similar enough to be called 'music', Sunset was now casting a glance to Twilight as Luna was glaring dagger at the wash of warm incandescent light.
Sunset narrows her eyes, ears flicking in concentration. "Is that Handle's Firework Suite?" Sunset uncomfortably looks over to Twilight.
Twilight cocks her head to the side and swivels her ears. "No, the rhythm isn't right. Listen-"
"Twilight," Starlight Glimmers sighs as the pair of other Unicorns strain to listen to the music. "I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to be listening for." It was an, admittedly, pleasant piece. The music was a regal symphonic meld of strings, horns, and a harpsichord. Sure, there was a sound in there that wasn't quite fitting, the drawn out squeak of a rusty hinge, but no more odd than any other fancy orchestra.
"They're mocking us." Luna's teeth audibly grind and she stalks unfalteringly into the hallway.
"Wait, what?" Sunset lofts a brow at the Princesses sudden surge forward, glancing to the other two and trotting to catch up as Luna turns the corner. Starlight rises to all fours and quickly pads out with Twilight shooing her onward with a wing, then galloping to catch up to the ever hastening Princess of the Night.
"Oh... OH." Twilight's eyes go wide as realization hits. "You commissioned this-" Twilight's eyes rove across the stiff posture and haughty glare of the Princess of the Night. Luna's stride neatly matched the slightly-off tempo of the song, the underlying note coming as a longer creak as if from a rusty gait which matched Luna's slight limp. "This... oooooh."
As they stride the empty marble halls of Canterlot, the music swells in volume and grandeur. Where guards should be stationed is only shadows of ponies cast on the walls. They look at them, the movements made by flickering wall sconces as they pass through the gleaming white and gold passageways.
Give minutes, and by now, everypony knew where they were headed as they descended from Luna's tower to the castle proper. And, in minutes, they were set in front of the wide filigree etched doors to the Galloping Hall. The music came from beyond the white wooden doorway.
Four ponies stood on the wide red carpet in front of the doors, Luna's face betraying twitches of anger. "Enough!" Despite her shout, nothing changes.
Shadows of tricorn pony heralds were thrown long against the walls, everypony present entirely missing in the towering caverns of Canterlot. But as the door yawns open, it wasn't exactly the case.
The ballroom was full. Swirling figures in elaborate costumes of silk, woven mesh, metal, velvet, and lace swirl to the pace of the music played by a wide stretched band on a raised dais. The Galloping hall was remarkably accurate, untouched.
The harlequin mass of bipedal forms and quadrupeds alike spin and wheel in an formal waltz, perfectly formal with an unbroken cadence.
Luna glares at the masses, eyes darting to and fro as she cranes her neck up to see over at least some of the pony-forms. Twilight and Starlight both look across the hall. It was even more cramped than the last Grand Galloping Gala had been. But Sunset merely shivers, biting back an uncomfortable cringe as she inspects the faceless crowds for some sign of perfidy.
"What in Equestria..." Starlight mumbles dumbly as the phantom-like form of a mare sweeps by her. The lacy hem of a blue velvet dress brushing her forehoof. The mare is supported by a tall bipedal creature. A human or close to, in a forest green tailed suit with sharp golden epaulets. But both wore masks, ceramic full-faced things fringed in precious metals and painted in harlequin diamonds.
Twilight takes in a sharp breath, "Lookattheclawslookattheclaws!" she babbles and gestures wide-eyed at the legs and feet of the bipeds.
Sunset spots it at once; each of the figures limbs were recurved, identical to the lithe spirits that attacked them, rather than humans. She looks around the crowd, where hands ended in gloves or nailed talons while spaded tails poked from formal suits and dresses.
"Twilight... please tell me they're not all..." Starlight's voice peters out.
A chill engulfs her as she realizes it all at once, but Luna gives voice to the answer first. "Dark Spirits. Devils. The same kind of loathsome creature as a Windego." She snorts and steps over the threshold.
But as the Princess of the Night walks forward, a path clears for them with the dancers swirling in some elaborate upbeat waltz. It was easy to forget, for a moment, that they were dark shades of humanity and pony kind.
Twilight quickly scuttles forward to be next to Luna, "Spirits? I suppose that makes sense, they're strongly influenced by Dark Magic."
"I would expect nothing less." Luna eyes the creatures with loathsome disgust, scrunching her muzzle into a prominent scowl.
While Twilight herself doesn't see it, Sunset catches the hissing forked tongues slip from the open slits of drama masks and flicker in irritation as she passes by. But the glare from sightless sockets she gets isn't any less bitter. Sunset watches as the dancers recoil from her more swiftly and violently than even Luna. Snapping her attention back, she pads off next to Starlight Glimmer and keeps watching the crowd.
"Keep close." Sunset whispers in Starlight's ear and gets a sharp nod in reply.
"Oh don't worry, I will... this place is right on the edge of creepy and incredible." Starlight clicks her tongue and bites her lip.
"I have an awful feeling Rarity would love it." Sunset lets a wane smirk pass her muzzle.
Starlight quietly chuckles, "Oh mare, I was just thinking that."
The mirthful sound sets even more of the creatures looking at them, even as the dance continues. But something was different, the Unicorn was looking around and couldn't quite put a hoof on it.
Luna's attention was fixed on the rising figure on the raised dais by the orchestra. She growls bitterly and redoubles her pace, "You bovine cur, there's nowhere to run now!"
Twilight looks around, tracking the tall white pillar stretching up to the ceiling. "Princess Luna, there's a gallery." She points with a wing, and sure enough, the Galloping Hall had a second balcony overlooking the hall's main floor.
Hundreds of masked figures stare down at them, crowding around elaborate fluted railings and gazing at the party of independent ponies carving a swathe across the ballroom. But in the recesses, Sunset's eyes fall upon something different. An immensly tall giant in a half mask, merely a glittering amethyst thing showing a shock of white hair.
"Mistress Luna!" A feminine voice seizes the gathering as the music plays on, though not loud enough to drown her out. "We're so happy to have you here."
From the crest of the orchestra's stage, the towering figure of the Lurker rears herself up with three arms wide open. The fourth, her left talon, was wreathed in white lace to hide the ugly black charring where it had been burned off at the joint. An assortment of intricate gold and silver chains string jewels across pale and almost completely bared flesh as she greets them. Only a carved amethyst mask decorated with platinum ferns and tall monochromatic plumes adorn her lithe figure.
"It seems Princess Sparkle's magic did a little more than give you a swat, didn't it?" Luna grins viciously only to get a remarkably smarmy grin from the Lurker.
"Mmmm, she did. I'm almost proud of her. It did hurt." she hisses and looks at the lace, golden stare peering out from the mask's eyeslits, while a second pair of amber jewels set behind a similar feature gave her the appearance of another set. "But it's not unexpected, and it's one reason I'm here."
"Are you surrendering for judgment?" Luna asks, eyes cold and muzzle still twisted up as she redoubles her pace. And sure enough, the dancers part before her, forming a bubble that shifts around the Equestrians.
The creature gives a high pitched giggle that descends in musical scale, "Oh, no no, not that." she waves a hand dismissively, "Mmmm, still delightful to see you here, my little Sunbeam."
As the Lurker's gaze falls on Sunset, the Unicorn frowns and tries to glare back. Starlight's presence and direct physical contact kept her from shaking too badly, but with ears folded back and eyes narrowed to slits, it was easy to guess Sunset's mood.
"Enough prattle-" Luna stamps, though the orchestra didn't so much as skip a beat. "Let us go, or submit to judgment. Or you and all these spirits will be destroyed."
The Lurker just holds its arms wide, "I have no do-"
"Stop toying with them, Kanathara!" A strained voice hisses through the ether, loud, commanding, and bitingly familiar. "Slaughter them."
The female jolts as if shocked, or something tugged on her strings. She rolls her eyes and wets her lips before winking at Sunset, "Maybe next time, my little ray of Sunshine."
With an angered snort, Luna's horn glows with power as she pans her gaze across the ballroom, "Erebus?! I know that's you! Enough games!"
"This is more for the spectacle," The animalistic female smirks, winking once and letting her forked tongue flick out while tearing off the mask. "Or, rather, a display."
Luna's horn blazes, cutting a swathe across the stage as the Lurker careens to the left. The torrent of pure magic rips across the stage and dozens of ballroom figures, gouging into marble flaying the gaudily dressed guests.
But the Lurker merely springs through the crowd, crouching for a moment and diving to a pillar and spinning around it before shooting up its smooth side to scale a balcony. The entire railing disappears in a blast of roiling azure energy as a score of spectators disappear under the lancing ray. But the Lurker wasn't among them.
Luna draws in a breath admid the bevy of hissing screams in the hall while the orchestra still plays on. Scraps of flaming parchment and cloth drift freely through the air, kicked up by spiraling curls of wafting corpse smoke and pinkish hued clouds. "Face me, Spirit!"
"Oh, I think I'll decline for the moment. But soon, little princess. Soon." Amid a cackling laugh as the hordes of dancers continue on in some delirious waltz, a mask hurtles over the balcony towards Luna. Reflexively, the Alicorn swats it from the air in a single burst of magic.
Even as the world thrums with power and crackles at the edges, Twilight can see the narrow bovine face of the Lurker as she grins from just above the parapet of the balcony's ruined edge. Behind her, the grinning giant raises a thin stemmed flute, as if in salute. All the while, the world falls away and the aetheric energies start to dissipate, leaving them in a rapidly expanding void to the tune of softly fading music.
There was a certain familiar kinship between astartes and their machines. The captain's chest tightens as he listens to the avian scream of the Stormbird's retrothrusters as the swept wing behemoth settles on the mudflats outside the temple walls. Rain still pelts down in roaring sheets, blurring most of the noise that wasn't made by roving gunships.
Horus Aximand anxiously sweeps his gaze from the slowly settling drop ship to the nimble Storm Eagle perched atop the now somewhat shorter bastion tower.
"Damn it Abaddon, why did I expect anything else?" he mutters to himself, letting out a breath of irritation from the side of his mouth.
Captain Aximand taps the hilt of Mournitall, the greatsword resting on his shoulder nonchalantly on his pauldron as he watches the Storm Eagle in the distance. A sleek Fire Raptor gunship pitches back and starts its short climb to a better altitude as it circles the tower, looking for prey. Meanwhile, that Anvilus Dreadclaw had somehow remained latched to the side of the tower like a limpet. Most likely, it's deeply set mechanical limbs was probably the only thing that kept that side of the tower together. The rest of the dull grey stone had slumped down into the caldera when the assault gunship's rockets had blasted away most of the bastion's face.
The sight lets Aximand's attention return to the yawning assault ramp at the beaked fore of the Stormbird as it disgorged another flood of green armored legionnaires. It had been too dangerous and cramped to land a Stormbird inside the temple grounds, so they were stuck debarking from the flats at the base of the Delphos.
Meanwhile, six clusters of legionnaires gather in neatly formed packs along the upper steps, while others wait near the wide stone plinths supporting the bronze braziers leading to the temple's entrance. His troopers may be lined up in parade ground fashion, the front two ranks hefting thick breacher shields, but it all belied the crack elements of his own company.
Several of Ekkadon's black clad Catulan reavers had scaled the plinth nearest to the door and stood atop it, watching like vultures as the rest of his company slowly ferried in from the Vengeful Spirit.
He still caught the movement of one black plumed officer hustling down the steps. "Captain." a familiar voice snarls into his vox, some atmospheric disruption clogging communications even at this minuscule range. His lieutenant claps a clenched fist to his chest.
"Yade." Aximand acknowledges before going back to looking at the dispersal pattern of the newly arrived Stormbird. It garners only a single muted grunt and upturned lip.
'too slow.'
"Captain, forward elements are here, but Abaddon's made the breach before we could get the rest of the company on the gro-" A low throaty growl erupts from a second, third, then forth tower forming a semi circle all around the front of the fane's courtyard. Yade spins, hand flying to the hilt of his powersword while Aximand swings his chopping blade into a readied position.
Fires of pale green and red flash through the gloomy sheets of rain. Spears of light race skywards in pillars of multi-hued flame that boil the clouds and whip the winds into a frenzy.
"Sacred unity, what now?!" Yade growls, glancing at the spewing pillars of light geysering from the shattered towers.
"Beacons. Oaths damned it if you're right, Loken. Because If you're wrong..." he hisses and claps Yade on the shoulder before pointing his massive double-handed sword down the slope towards the impromptu landing ground. "Yade, get down there and organize the reinforcements. We've got two more birds coming in and we'll need every trooper at the front. Level the courtyard if you have too! Gather the second wave and follow us in!"
Slinging the blade over his shoulder, Aximand didn't wait for the salute that time. He knew his second in command would obey. Sprinting up the slope, feeling the rain splashing in his face at every step, he pushes himself upwards as the winds slam into him with hurricane force. The rush of blood thunders in his ears as an acrid tang gathers at the back of his mouth. It was all inconsequential next to the worry gnawing at his mind.
Loken. Torgaddon. Abaddon.
Damn them.
They'd all made their choices. He was left again. Reacting. Always reacting. Always responding to others. A legionnaire that couldn't fight was useless. A captain who didn't seize every opportunity was equally useless. A mournival member who had no plan of his own was the pinnacle of useless. He was useless.
Aximand didn't feel when he clenched his jaws against the rain trying to scour the courtyard clean, but he did hear when the snarl slipped unbidden from his lips. "Come on!" The mournival captain roars, half to himself, half to the gathering of legionnaires up ahead.
A few sea-green warriors glance back at him, but only those that had to make room for the captain as he barrels up the steps. Aximand passes rows of his soldiers and watches as the wall of breachers parts to allow him his place at the forefront. The captain reaches out, snatching a heavy cylindrical charge from one of his assault troopers as he ascends the pronaos steps.
"You two, with me." Aximand calls with a sharp glance, indicating two more of the nearest breacher squad.
The captain slings the melta bomb low in his grip as he reaches the summit. There's no pause as the astartes slams the charge home on the subtle fissure at the base of the carved tree spanning the door to the temple. With a quick flick of the charge's ignition trigger, the astartes leaps back and spins on his heels. His warriors follow suit and return to the safety of the formation.
"No words, just deeds! Sons of Horus, fifth of the line-" Captain Horus Aximand thrusts the greatsword up at the lightning forked sky. The melta charge thrums behind him with a high pitched squeal, superheating the stone from dull grey to blazing white as it crumbles to dust. "Forward! Forward for the Lupercal!"
