The Inquisitor
Chapter Six
Images of a battle played before my very gaze, I hardly could move and all that responded to my will had fled in a fit of fleeting departures. I felt my heart struggle to remain amongst the living when I witnessed bolter fire flash in front of my face. Sensations of heat came to sear my skin closest to the said light, I hardly flinched through out it all. I felt nothing except for my need to have tears leak down my cheeks, I just wanted to cry once again. The reason wasn't for a selfish ambition, or desire but of a sorrow in what followed the flashes of weapon discharges.
The banner of the Order of the Bloody Rose fell onto the ground marred in flames.
And my tears came down along with its fall.
"On me Sisters! Concentrate fire on the horde! Let none of these heathenish cultists tarnish the blessed grounds of our God-Emperor. For we are Adeptus Sorortias and our faith alone will cleanse these fowl atrocities of traitors!" I heard a righteous fury of a battle cry echo into my senses, I blinked despite being in a haze to see the fierce face of Sister Theresa. The normally stern yet fair woman had a face twisted into a zealous abandon of fury that contorted any image I once had of her. Flames and embers seemingly fell from above her as she stood unflinching within the flames.
"Supporting fire! Helena secure the left flank, for I shall take the right and center! Let loose your holy rounds onto these foul Chaotic traitors to the Imperium of Mankind! Leave none standing, leave none unspoiled and leave none alive for the God-Emperor himself to burn their ilk at his side when they are judged!" The power armored normally cleaned and pristine had been dented, the bloodied limbs or organs being splattered on it's exterior stained the once beautiful sets of holy protections. Seemingly they were standing at the head of the temple interior cathedral, the entire squad firing away at the endless waves of raving maddening inhabits of the planet.
Blessed Bolter casings were ejected from their respective weapons to clatter onto the ground.
And for every round that blew body parts asunder...
It wasn't enough.
Every said round continued to go throw several more bodies behind the initial target. Literally wave upon wave of human heretical cultists and maddening screams were in full swing as I watched those who were my friends stand their ground. I wanted to speak out, to tell them to hold on or possibly do something except to watch them. Yet all I got for an effort was to witness a clarity beyond the makeshift barricade at the base of the Emperor's statue within the cathedrals internal structure. Blood splattered onto walls, organs were torn apart and the force of the projectiles were slowly being overwhelmed.
I realized this with a growing horror at how quickly the Sisters were reloading once the magazines dropped to the floor.
"Are you afraid for them? Boy?"
My eyes were wide when I turned to see that same image of the woman who I shattered into pieces earlier, I could see the pieces trying to reform themselves. I felt anger so potent at this fowl sorcery as laughter echoed into my ears despite the bolter fire being in front of me. I could only watch as dozens upon dozens of cultists were flinging themselves at the power armored fielded Adeptus Sororitas who stood defiant at the praises and prayers being spewed out the fallen heathens. I noticed in a glaring rage to see that their auras which were normally darkish purple were turning into a black coloration. The very same coloration that Tartarus warned me about, I didn't understand why she warned me about black outlines on people and I found out why.
It was because...
They no longer felt human.
I watched as their eyes shifted from the normal pupils of humanity in eight pointed slits of malice. "What is happening?"
Tears dropped down from my eyes once more, I heard a cooing voice whisper into my ear. I flinched despite the silent nightmare that I was enduring, or was it really reality? It was that same woman's voice in that ever so alluring tone, "Do you see my loving little ones releasing themselves into an eternal bliss of ecstasy? If you so desire, you can save your little friends, oh you can and achieve the perfection that is on hand." I cried out when something assaulted me in a fire of painful intent, I screamed when I struggled to push back against this massive weight crushing me with despair. I couldn't fall here, I couldn't fall or listen to whatever this daemon like entity wanted out of me.
I refused to listen!
I refused to listen to its words, so I screamed only one word.
"BEGONE!"
And the face of that fair beauty...
It shattered once again!
My eyes continued to watch the battle as the Sisters were starting to get overwhelmed, I witnessed Theresa screaming like a madwoman in a fit of zealous strength and desperation. She had been be set by waves daemon hosts which the black coloration were the only rational thought I held. They chanted praises and shrieked to drive her to the ground while they clawed at her. Bolter fire managed to dissuade them briefly in the form of body parts being removed. Skulls, arms and other various chunks of red meat were splattered all over the walls in a fit of a last stand.
"Burn! Heretics! Burn!" I heard one of the Sisters scream out as her bolter attachment was a flame thrower, the orange and yellow holy fires of purification scorched scores of the attackers. Smoke choked the interior of the cathedral as it consumed the view from my vantage point, I still witnessed bolter fire being shot through the smoke itself. Flashes of light and yellow were what I could see as the various clinking of ejected bolter casings filled my senses. However I felt an ever commonly occurring chill up up my back once again.
I swore I'd understand what this meant regardless of the future for me from now on.
The entire room itself shimmered as if something were unveiling itself, I watched in an ever growing horror to see the once majestic and beautiful cathedral dedicated to the Emperor vanish. It was like a curtain had been lifted over what it concealed, I felt my stomach clench and curl as to what I witnessed as the smoke cleared. For once I felt every pore of my skin burn as to what naturally had lying in wait in those very halls, in that very place earlier in the day I walked, I sensed that bad vibe and my instincts were never wrong in that sense. I had been walking in a literal slaughter house like a brain dead grox eating to his content alone.
The walls were decorated in symbolic design akin to the experience I had in the ventilation shaft, I saw them all glow a sickly orange and burn the very stone they were engraved upon. That eight pointed star was so prominent yet other heretical imagery were surrounding the banners. It a circular shape stretched to a small sphere at the end, two reverse looped sharped half moon were in between the two spheres alone and the eight pointed star lay in the larger circle. I didn't understand what that symbol meant yet it frightened me, it frightened me to my core and I felt a shiver slowly entice my spine to wane in relief.
My heart nearly ran out of my chests, I never felt it beat so hard and it hurt to breathe normally.
The entire atmosphere of the interior of the temple went form a serenity into a malicious craze of screams and blissful prayers to what never fowl deity the heretics proclaimed to be into. It felt like a switch had been flipped, a primal surge in the air to cause destruction and create death on a scale I had never witnessed. No hiver gangster, no criminal and no one in my past could come close to this mounting horror that my eyes took in so clearly. The forms of those cultists swarmed forward when I heard screaming of another sort.
The screams of people who I cared for inside my heart.
"Excellent! Most splendid maidens of the corpse, you just furnished our greatest and newest holy site to our god, I thank you." A familiar voice rang up from behind the smoke, I watched with a growing rage so hot and so inexplicably soul staining, I bit my tongue hard. All just for a moment to down to a scream from erupting, a roar to destroy her very existence! That same fecking caretaker arrived wearing nothing but a thin layer of clothing, symbols glowing a potent orange and the eight pointed star imprinted on her forehead. Her eyes were less then humane at all, I witnessed that aura of a darkened abyss surge into the massively open room.
She walked up swaying her hips past my eyes, I could see the satisfied and eager smile threatening to split past her flesh.
As she walked into the smoke, I watched as it parted with an unholy grace.
Five battered and broken Sororitas were being held from behind by figures outlined in that black aura as my eyes were blazing fireballs at this point. The caretaker sighed in completely blissful and utter pleasure in having one of the still smoldering bolters, she took it barrel first to press in between her breasts. The sizzling skin at first made her scream in agony then it turned into an orgasmic wail of beseeching willingness. I wanted so badly to kill her, to main her and to utterly burn her corpse into the very depths of warp for the Emperor to judge this heretic's soul! Both parts of my jaws were clamped so hard that I nearly broke a tooth.
Feck, I swore both of my canines were going to snap at the pressure alone.
"My fellow faithful, my beautiful brothers and sisters! The Great God, our dear ever lasting Prince has granted us this victory over these corpse's maidens whose very presence shall align what is needed! For our Champion shall leads us on the crusade to bring all under our God's name alone!" The heretical fanatic cried out in sheer unwarranted joy, I felt disgust in the same sense as to what happened. Her smile was so utterly unfathomable in what she was feeling, I swore that crazy was the blissful gesture of victory on hand.
One of the battered Sisters of Battle was brought up to face her, the captors were gleefully salivating at at what came next as the caretaker took a fistful of the white hair. All to just force her to glare hatefully and so full of zealous faith to defy the heretical touch on her skin. So the speaker of these cultists presented this face as if it were the most joyous of occasions, "You see this! The mark of defeat is masked by this blind and utterly unanswered heathen to the corpse on that parasitic throne. She will be amongst her comrades to be in service to our great Prince and his crusade to spread this truth across every world, every star and every being will know the name of our Great God!"
My eyes were burning at this point when they started to strip the armor off the sister as it was torn effortlessly by those covered in that dark aura.
They were chaining them up to the ceiling as barbed metallic cuffs were used to have them be lifted effortlessly, the blood dripping from their wrists were only the beginning. Chanting of a fowl yet darkened tongue filled the air to make my very skin singe as if being burned. Floods and scores of these cultists were praying while swaying their voices into a one beautiful yet sickened twisted chorus of a language I knew not what to make. A few of them were carrying a box of sorts, I could see blackened scripts binding whatever the contents were inside.
And soon enough, I saw a podium being erected.
Just as a small yet green glowing gem was placed in the center. The pulsing gem turned a darkened black from within, I swore I heard a wailing so painful that it made my ears bleed from the sounds alone. God-Emperor on the throne it felt like nails being gouged into my very muscles all over my body in one fluid motion! When I looked up through my pain gaze, I say another fowl yet horrifying sight alone to make me look on in despair. The caretaker started to forcibly carve glyphs with a knife into the sister's skin making them scream out in a terrible agony that assaulted them not just physically, but of another nature altogether.
I witnessed that formation of that woman return for the third time.
She spoke out to me as if gloating, "No matter how hard you struggle. No matter how much you resist me boy, I shall return before you and offer the chance of perfection. No matter how much you try, I shall never be forgotten and you shall never forget me." I saw pieces floating over the chained up Sororitas whose very bodies were being cut into for some sort of ritual. Glowing glyphs and eight pointed stars were arranging themselves behind them on the wall, it stretched from the ground to nearly an equal ten meters in a circumference. I watched as the chanting continued their praising, the crowd started to go in an unrestrained bliss of wild abandonment.
Men slashed at each other, women did the same and various others started to envelope over the corpses of their own fallen.
I felt my stomach up heave its contents.
Or rather...
I couldn't allow such an impulse now.
My words seemingly echoed back to the formation of this fair beauty who merely laughed out deviously, "I swear to all that's holy! I don't understand what you are, or rather what in the feck you want with me! But no matter how impossible, or fecking difficult the Emperor ordains my purpose into my future. I shall shut that wretched fecking hole in your face and rip that bitch of yours into a million pieces, I swear it!"
I got a cheeky yet very real taunting statement in return.
And I all felt was my soul...
I truly could feel my soul burn into a righteous fury to destroy this entity.
"If you feel like that, I offer you a chance then."
The pieces were forming a limb as made a come hither gesture to me. I swore the smile that was cracked reformed into a near perfect taunting grin, I swore it burned me with a scorning blade to seep into my chest. I heard the last words that came from this entity as my mind howled with a rage so violently, it made the woman coo out. Her giggling made my eyes just harden to the point where I never felt such hatred, nothing came close except for that moment in when Jane was cut down in front of me.
"Claim them back, if you can. So hurry up my soon to be perfected child, I shall be waiting when you embrace the passion that will uplift you into perfection!"
The caretaker started to bring the knife towards one of the sisters hanging by the chains, I saw blood drip down the length of it's blade.
Those few drops was all it took!
As I screamed out in defiance!
"NO!"
"NO!"
Jolting myself awake I got a mouthful of brackish water for my troubles, I coughed out hoarsely trying to get off the dirtied ground. Heaving lungfuls of air, I blinked groggily groaning while forcing myself to roll against the steel wall. Slowly but surely my senses came to bare the lack of anything, well I heard a literal silence inside the underground shaft. Wiping away sweat coursing down my face, I shook my head in a fit to ward off the blurred visions plaguing me in a pair of twos. Absently singular right hand became a pair of them much to my groaning.
Muttering exhausted, I pushed myself onto my feet slowly but surely.
Even though I had to ask myself an inevitable question, "Throne have it! How long have I been out?"
Clutching my ribs for a moment, I shakily got myself down the latter while baring with the internal pains racking my stomach. Nearly slipping off the said piece of metal, I inhaled deeply while idly checking the tunnels to see if no one was down here. All I got in response was a muted tremor from above to which dirt shuffled down in my brief haze and apart from that, these tunnels were unnaturally silent for some reason or another. Lights flickered occasionally as I made my way through the ankle deep waters towards the way I had originally came from. It took a lot of effort on my part to not shiver due to the coldness of this underground haven for the heretics.
It sounded like something had gone on above ground.
I swore I could distantly make out more thuds and muted tremors racking the world.
"That dream! Was it really real, or am I going mad? Emperor please, I just want to know if this is normal, please." My face twisted when I cupped my mouth as my stomach churned violently. Resisting no longer I took a knee and let my body up heave it's own contents yet again. I vomited up blood, grim and Emperor knew what else within my body itself. Falling onto a knee which it got drenched in the icy chilling waters, I had to stop myself from losing any control that I had.
"It can't be real but what if it is? I have to find Skit!"
The servo-skull was somewhere out there and I had to get to him, I had to believe in the Emperor to show me that despite this madness inflicting my mind. I would remain true to his light, to his protection and to the belief that my friends would fall that easy to these heretics. With a sense of a renewed vigor I stumbled back onto my feet to keep moving past the ever growing frequent tremors going on above my position. Even though I remained truthful to the god-emperor's divinity, why did I feel like I just walked over my own grave and that I was just preparing it? I felt like I just walked into someone who wasn't meant to be fecked with and yet I did so.
Just why did I feel like I was fighting an impossible enemy to overcome?
Snarling angrily I stumped past the waters while splashing them violently apart, I reached back to pull out the shotgun still strapped to my back. I had forgotten that the weapon was still with me, so with a sense of security and strength with the weapon's presence alone. I flipped the safety off to keep it trained in front of my body, I wanted to have as much time as possible to shoot down any heretic or cultist alike. Moving around a bend within the tunnel, I literally could smell a burning smell seep into the very air itself.
Yet oddly enough nothing around me indicated of such things.
"Thank the Emperor, there's the ladder. Once I get out of here I have to contact Skit, possibly Tartarus and see if everyone else is fine. Come on Marcos, you can do it man, just easy does it." Slinging the weapon over my shoulder, I started to make my way back up to the surface. Every foot that ascended up the metallic support made my body tremble as the loud booms became more prominent. Panting heavily I managed to get myself up and over the railing to see the skies themselves. Although when I stopped to look up at the overhead horizon, I nearly fell to my knees in what I was witnessing now.
Across the massive river columns of smoke and fireballs were erupting on the far side of the city.
And in the distance weapons were exchanging fire like a sickening popping sound.
Rubble had surrounded this part of the city, the buildings had missing chunks out of them at times and most had a scorched look upon their walls. Concrete, steel and flesh alike were all burning to filter into the air like a plague long unleashed upon this world as a foul omen. I took off the shotgun around my shoulder area, I checked the safety to turn it off and kept the weapon on semi to start moving towards the nearest building with a usable ladder to get to higher ground. I needed a more higher position to somehow contact Skit and possibly figure out what in the Throne of Terra I'd be doing now. Shaking my head side to side, I finally located a suitable way onto a roof despite traveling a near block down the road to find it.
More weapons were discharging in the distance.
Even though I wished I'd be wrong, I knew I heard lasfire and auto-weaponry being in use much to my ever growing sense of uneasiness. Smoke billowed up into the air to the far reaches when I got onto the roof, I tapped the vox communicator inside my ears. Rather it lay imbedded and remarkably I heard the crackle of it coming to life. Muttering a quicker prayer of mercy to the god-emperor, I took a breath to start voicing out to my servo-skull familiar. "Skit do you read me? Skit are you alive out here? If so please respond, I'm kind of lost in what's happening."
The transmission went out as I stared at the burning city of the Imperium and silence was met for several long excruciating minutes...
Until I got a reply which my made my heart swoon. I grinned when I heard that monotone voice and it sounded like praises of the hymns to the Emperor to me really. I waited very happily as he responded over the vox, "Acknowledged. Acolyte Eius confirmed survival established, proceeding to your position. Hold one moment. Establishing link under duress is not recommended in this unit's programing data slates." The static wasn't broken up this time around and praise the Emperor, I almost started to cry happily. My eyes scanned the building line and through the varying degrees of smoke to get a glimpse of my friend.
And I witnessed his glowing eye float over to me from roughly to my right.
"Good to see your in one piece Skit. Did you miss me?" I asked humorously to the servo-skull who merely responded in his usual tone. His singular mechanical eye scanned my face briefly before initiating a phase that got me startled. A hologram started to form directly three meters as if projecting something and it only made sense when elaborated. "This unit is functional Acolyte. One moment, transmission incoming from recognized: Inquisitor Tartarus. Priority message, live feed, acknowledged and displaying. Established connection is commencing."
Ignoring an urge to shift uncomfortably at being in the open. I just leveled my weapon off to my side to see a hologram image of my Inquisitorial teacher herself.
Tartarus's exterior seemed to be a bit ruffled yet her face was the same passive expression I had seen wear consistently. Her hat concealed a portion of her face when she gestured to me almost approvingly, "Marcos. Good to see you haven't wasted your life so quickly. Otherwise I'd have to consider wasting resources to scavenge this planet for your location." My jaw twitched at the woman who seemingly stared at someone off the hologram, I could hear a lot of chattering in wherever see was located. Although I managed to retort almost blandly with sarcasm clearly evident, "Thanks mother. I love the fact you're not gushing tears in not hearing from your son! Emperor be praised about your affectionate side, so did you get my message before I..."
The hologram of my mentor cut me off immediately.
Her face contorted briefly into a frown despite the sharpness in her tone, "Unfortunately so. There were signs of corruption here in the Governor's Palace, so sadly, I had to cleanse it. The late man is now reaping his rewards with a bolter round to his forehead currently and do not even get me started on your use of unsecured vox communications on a planet such as this Marcos." I rolled my eyes when I heard the chastising annoyance of something I had no experience with. So yet again I retorted blandly while shrugging my shoulders in the process, "Really? Unsecured broadcast? Who the feck tells me anything other then go here and learn that? Sound familiar to you mother?" If I had to be scolded in a burning city as an Acolyte of the Holy Inquisition, I'd say it'd be insanity. Yet here I was arguing over a vox hologram of my teacher and I'd swear I'd so get even!
In being I'd rather stick to the cover story just to piss her off and by the Emperor I hoped it did.
"That language and mouth of yours is getting tiring boy." The woman exhaled while shaking her head as I heard laughter in the background. Her pistol came into frame for a moment as it fired and the laughter went silent, her eyes were less then comforting. Especially in what her next words stated, "Furthermore you're in the heart of this chaotic mess Marcos. I can't say you're going to be alright and see the next day." I felt my stomach lurch but not for my safety alone, I had another reasons to fear in being inside this city now.
I must have gave it away even over the hologram vox transmission.
As I heard my teacher speak up loudly, "Marcos. What is ailing you now?"
Tartarus sounded almost exasperated but almost resigned to hear my answer even if I glared at her. I managed to glare but kept my voice level despite how close it came to crack under it's own weight. "What's got me scared? How about Sister Anora and Theresa? Ever think I do care about people who are my friends Tartarus?" Feck my life, I couldn't stop thinking about those dreams I had recently. I swore I knew they were real, the details and the feelings were so vivid that what else could it be? I mean they had to be real and the mere fact that I was wasting time started to really effect me.
I needed to know now!
The Inquisitor tilted her head at my enraged look to make her reply in kind, "No. I don't have time to care for inconsequential details. No vox communications have been picked up by the Adeptus Sororitas Macros, so assume they are killed in action and nothing less in their service to our God-Emperor." The way she just wrote off the Sisters of Battle made my head spin. What in the Throne of Terra did she have the right to just say they were dead! Wasn't there a plan in the works to get them out as well, or was I losing what sanity I had to care for people who were clearly important?
"And what? That's it? Aren't we going to at least get them out, or make sure that they're alive Tartarus?" I said clearly angered as the woman shrugged over the hologram, "Not really. They're not apart of my retinue nor are they my technical responsibility Marcos. Unlike you, who I must make sure you're alive and salvageable, I can only offer my condolences if they have be given a place at our god-emperor's side." My eyes widened at how casually callous her tone had become now! Just what in the name of the throne had brought this on?
In fact I gestured angrily at her passive form, "Do you honestly believe the feck you are saying to me? You want to just think that Sister Anora and the others are just dead? They might be fighting for their very lives right now!" The woman merely stared at me as if gauging my eyes over the vox. Despite the vast distance, or wherever she currently was at, I felt uneasy at how penetrating this gaze was truly. Nothing came close to whatever I saw about her over my time talking, or encountering her aboard the ship.
"Or they're as cold as ice now. In this universe you must understand something Marcos. Life itself is not given a fair chance, it in-fact makes it so that life is so easily removed. Wasting resources on a potential pile of bodies is not worth my time, nor the Inquisition's or those others in my place. If it is not remotely related to our mission, or apart as agents of the Emperor's will as of the Ordos Malleus. I do not care for them." Her tone brokered no sense of the word hope, I knew I should have expected something as cold as this from her. So why did my heart steel itself when my resolve to speak up came to startle even my teacher when the words slipped past my mouth.
I didn't even realize what I had said until it was too late.
"Then what if I told you the Sisters were being held potentially in where the Warp-Gate was being created? What then?"
No sooner did those words spill out, Tartarus looked up at me concerned. I gave off a grin to see her eyes widening ever so slightly despite the hologram fading due to whatever reasons. Her tone became more concerned with the sense in how in name of the Emperor I'd say that. Despite how serious she became, I just smirked ever more casually at the question. "Marcos what have you done? If this is a jest to get back at me for our pitiful by-play then you will be in for a world of hurt when I get my hands on you. Do not toy about matters that aren't what they appear too be."
I merely stared back at her without even flinching which was a feat in my humble opinion.
So I simply told her what happened to me, "Nothing as far as I'm aware Tartarus. But for the past day, I've been getting visions or dreams since I don't know, or really feck that, if the Emperor knows. They started last night and now today, the most recent in seeing Sister Theresa being chained up like a sick spectacle to hundreds of these fecking bastards." I waited for a moment to take a shaking breath to willingly remember that woman who lingered inside my head. I shuddered at how cold yet delighting those thoughts implied when my stomach churned sickly once more.
"These nightmares, dreams or whatever that have plagued you? This has been an reoccurring theme for you and today was no different. Even while awake and conscious?" The Inquisitor probed to me intently as I nodded. I even explained in what I encountered recently, "When I was looking around for those black outlines you told me about. I found a place that pulled me yet it truly didn't so, I felt uneasy and I got curious to find out what this place was really. Turned out to be the cultists main haven to do whatever the flying fecking throne knows, I tried to transmit a vox message to Skit but when I started too. It felt like someone..."
Now I got floored in what happened next when the woman practically screamed at me!
"You mean to tell me! You willingly went into a heart of a heretical cult's territory as you are now? With your mind clearly unguarded and untrained because you felt a pull? Marcos! What in the name of the Emperor did you see! Answer me! Now!" Her transmission seemingly started to fade and flicker as if something were interrupting the connection. I swore Tartarus's eyes were blazing orbs of pure white for a moment as I replied completely honest. I've never seen her angered, concerned or flat out anxious to this extent at all.
Gripping the place in where my heart terrified in replaying these fresh nightmares.
I slowly started to explain truthfully, "I...I don't know what exactly that thing or whatever the feck it is was Tartarus. She looked so beautiful, her smile was so promising for a better lack of a word yet it wasn't natural! Throne of Terra I felt my entire body go haywire! Everything inside me was screaming a warning and she kept speaking to me. Showing me images, pictures and promising perfection?" My eyes averted to the side to see the destruction spreading from street to street, I could hear the screaming now and I wished I hadn't.
A soft yet steady breeze wafted the smells of the dying world into my very being now.
"Emperor's blood! Marcos you must not listen, nor say the creature's name or else I'll have no choice but to put a bolter round into your head! I knew I should have started your training as a psyker if I knew you'd be seeing things already despite being so young." I tried to say anything to justify in what I had down but Tartarus's expression had turned into a murderous look of a woman deathly honest. She'd kill me without hesitation if I knew that things name which I didn't but the implications sunk close to my heart. The Inquisitor saw my expression unfortunately, "You have no idea in what you're being exposed too. Your mind is raw, your emotions are undisciplined and you're like an open book to those like myself. Anything with a psychic link will see into what makes you squirm, those who beyond the veil of reality and that are beyond what normal people can perceive."
I had see her angry moments ago and now a genuine concern had etched itself onto her face. For all that was Holy, I scarcely could ever believe any person could go through this many emotions in a short amount of time. Once a stoic and passive woman who scared the living feck out of me now because a concerned mentor who realized something horrible. A horror that I had fought off, or rather the horror was merely beginning and those thoughts really got me worried. The hologram flickered a bit more rapidly this time around as I felt a wind blow across the exposed nape of my neck.
Unconsciously I turned around to see the shrine in the distance with the main road covered in corpses and what not as a river of blood ran down the terrain.
"So daemons can enter my mind and tell me what to do?" My question made the Inquisitor merely reply in a tone that set my heart to drop. "Worse. Daemons are one thing but there are even more powerful entities whose names I dare not utter to you, or over this vox communication so any would hear it. If you say the name of the one whose whispering and showing you the images that any Seer in the Imperium foresaw, you'd fall into ruin." The way she said that last word, ruin, I immediately could say an obvious remark. Aside as the phantom chills were crawling up my back once again and even through the thoughts of a wall inside my mind, I cringed physically as a result.
"So fall into ruin means what? I take a bad fall like someone slipping down a flight of stairs?" I cautiously tried to reason as the woman shook her head. Her next words were what I'd call soul shattering considering the topic, "Marcos this is not a jest, nor an idiotic attempt of humor. If you fall into ruin, your soul and what makes you have a semblance in being human is lost. Do not ever say the name of those who are tempting you, for they will claim you body, mind and soul to be damned into the warp."
My mouth went dry when that was said to me...
I'd lose my soul?
Using a hand to cover my face briefly, I realized how weak my knees got when they became literally nerveless. So what was the point in those visions, or dreams for that matter? That whatever was out there in the warp wanted to claim me for what? These questions were burning the center of my mind at its core, I just didn't understand what the feck was happening to me. Rubbing the underside of my jawline in order to keep calm, I replied a bit uneasily to my teacher. Her expression had grown ever more grim at my silence, "Wait a minute Tartarus! You mean to say to me that all these nightmares, dreams and what not are all fake? Just to get me to say a name of a daemon?"
The hologram of my mentor flickered a bit more violently this time around and it caused Skit to inform me why.
Here my servo skull companion clarified the distortions, "Warning! Interference detected of Vox transmission. Stand-by for adjustments. Processing calculations Acolyte Eius."
Glancing around my position on the rooftop to see the varying levels of destruction and carnage envelop the heart of this world. I swore I could hear a faint laughter over the wind itself and that got my spine standing rigid. Leveling the shotgun towards the direction of the temple in the distance, I felt all the hairs on my arm rooting themselves upright as waves of electric tremor accelerated my blood. Something was amiss in the air of this planet, I practically could feel it and something truly felt like it was being unleashed. I dared not imagine why because not the lack of an imagination, but merely the truth of the matter that it was too late to do anything.
Skit spoke up on his progress and it's success, "Vox connection reestablished!"
My attention went back to my mentor whose hologram seemed a bit static like much to my growing concerns. Tartarus seemed a bit more antsy as her expression was to someone off screen again, "Marcos you need to get out of that city now, or find somewhere to be extracted. That warp gate is active now, I can sense a major disturbance echoing in this world and the veil to the Immaterium is practically gone! Do you hear me? Get out..."
Her voice got cut off in a peal of static as I looked around feeling the very fabric reality start to those warnings fell deaf onto my ears sadly enough to warrant my senses. Yet I narrowed my gaze to see some sort of distortion wash over the temple as various statues were crumbling. Gulping any built up saliva to stem the moisture being sucked out of my throat when a ripple formed at the base of the massive temple once dedicated to the Emperor of Mankind.
And as the ripple condensed a wave flew out!
"Oh shit..."
Two words were what I could get out in time before it hit me.
The shock wave sent me flying to the ground as I screamed out loud clutching my head when a terrible agony crushed my ability to think. Clutching my temples I dropped the weapon to ground as it went off creating a ringing sensation in my ears when fire consumed my insides. I screamed when liquid dripped out of my ears when a terrible screech wailed its doom upon this world, I had bite down tears when I struggled to remain sane. Whatever this wave, or ripple had down it made everything around glow as if it had an outline of varying degrees of red to near darkish crimson in itself.
The worst came when a familiar giggling voice echoed over the landscape, I didn't need my mind to listen to it's words now. This nightmare had started to become a true reality in which this entity started to seep into the physical world. This whispering just encircled myself and destroy any means of resistance to block it out mentally for sure now. It was coming, I knew it and whatever it was it wanted me to listen to it. So I did because I had no choice due to this reality bending sensation, "Five were once amongst your wishes and desires yet now three remain. Boy, you better hurry for I shall gain while you lose this game for those you wish to claim. Or I'll just claim you, only if you desire, so the need to play hide and seek."
I roared out loud when I felt a pressure exert itself onto the back of my skull, I struggled to get onto my knees and hiss back into the open air. I swore the entity or whatever whispered its fowl promises into my head was laughing, or giggling at my resistance. Apparently it loved to see resistance and I'd not fail the Emperor's faith inside my heart. Biting down the pain I swore to the air, "Is this all you can do to me you fecking daemon? Spit out promises, taunts and what not? It'll be a cold day if I do what you ask, oh I swear I'll shut the hole in your face if I get the chance."
I got an amused response out of that threat alone.
"Daemon? I am something beyond those of my ilk boy, so many yet I am perfection. I am the pinnacle of pleasure and desires made incarnate for all those to indulge themselves. Say my name and I shall give you what you crave the most, I offer you the universe and in return, I shall claim what is rightfully mine." This being from beyond the reality that threatened to spill over into the next had said to me all the more promising. I ignored any urge to think positively out of this situation and I immediately thought about the steel walls to block out these whispers. My eyes were strained as heat flow past my orbs to slowly erode this presence away piece by piece, I managed to inhale deeply while using every fiber of my will to close it out.
And soon enough my efforts were rewarded.
The presence started to fade away once more into the recesses of my head.
Panting heavily I opened my eyes to see Tartarus screaming at me over the vox. Skit hadn't moved at during the shock-wave and I just caught words, "...control your emotion! Do not get angry, think of anything but what is causing you pain! Marcos get up! If you sleep, or close your eyes it will find you that much quicker!" The will to see things straight had grown notoriously difficult to see the hologram split into three sets of the Inquisitor herself. I groaned while somehow getting onto my feet when I looked up in an absently mindless gesture.
Only to see that the heavens were bleeding red and a sickly orange compared to the blue normally meant too be.
"It's getting harder to block out these whispers Tartarus, I just heard the daemon come back and all I can do is just ignore it. It said to me that the five Sisters it caught are now down to three, I don't know if Sister Anora is alive! Fecking Emperor's blood, what the throne is wrong with me?" I whimpered out trying to contain my sanity in a fracture mess as the hologram kept flickering. Whatever blocked the vox had started to become more prominent as Tartarus's voice got thinner, "Keep blocking its influence from your senses Marcos, it's the only defense you have right now and I'm en-route to the capital. Get as far away from the center of the Warp-Rift as you can! You're going to be seeing and hearing many things that you can't handle in your raw state. Do not go towards it, no matter what, if you go towards it then you're going..."
What she'd say to me I never got the rest of it.
The vox transmission cut out when Skit informed of the errors occurring, "Live transmission terminated due to interferences. Recommend extraction to secure location in the mean time Acolyte Eius."
I wanted to say I'd agree with the following recommendation that Skit said to me. Really I honestly wanted to leave but I couldn't leave Anora, or Sister Thersea to die within this bloodied nightmare that started because of insanity being allowed to flourish. No matter how much I wanted to run, I couldn't view myself to run in the face of a daemon who'd kill my friends once again. I wanted to run yet I refused to become that coward who watched his best friend, my mother figure and sister all alike to be torn apart in front of my eyes. Instead of fleeing like Skit and Tartarus wanted me to do, I'd say I grew a mind to go to the source of this madness to end it somehow.
Retrieving my shotgun as I unzipped the bag to store a small pouch's worth inside my pockets and reloaded the shell that went off unintentionally. Gripping the stock of the weapon, I had it flush against my forehead to have it center between my eyes which closed to garner my strength. I needed to find out where the rest of the Adeptus Sororitas were at, I knew where and I knew some were still alive yet for how much longer was the question. I had do something for once and not run like a rat who clearly could have done something to save a life.
I refused to be a coward.
I refused to see Jane die again in front of my eyes...
And I'd damned well refuse to shed tears for something I could prevent!
"Skit. We're heading to the Temple, I want you to broadcast our position to Tartarus and hopefully anyone willing to come to heart of this madness to end it. I know you want me to live but I can't live with myself knowing I didn't try to save those who I care about. I'm not leaving Sister Anora, or Sister Thersea to suffer at the hands of these fecking sons of bitches. Forgive me please..." I said to the servo-skull that merely floated in front of my face. It's singular mechanical eye scanned my face as tears of a resigned happiness fleeted over my sense of self-survival.
I'd risk my life to save people who I knew that they were alive.
I felt it inside my gut.
And I felt that was this the right thing.
Skit merely said one word to me that caused me smile truly grateful.
"Understood."
Even he had no flesh, no blood and no organic components. It was here I could say that I truly started to understand the little known concept of a belief that stemmed into the Adeptus Mechanicus. A concept so misunderstood that I knew not what to say of it at this time. In the future I'd respect that cult of priests far more deeply then what most considered to be a trivial matter. It made me laugh in how I believed in a simple yet very truthful belief that make any loyal follower of the Mechanicus smile in approval if they had flesh.
I had started to believe in something that was there yet it wasn't.
I believed in a spirit.
Well really, I believed that Skit had a machine's spirit.
End Chapter Six
Author's Note: Leave a review, please I do like them a lot.
I hope some of you readers are enjoying Skit's effect on a child, I'd wager that this kind of adds a more diverse feel to a servo-skull of all things. If you noticed a few things, Skit has his own personality, I just can't directly say how, or why. It's a subtle yet direct effect in what I'd call the Adeptus Mechanicus's belief of a machine spirit, I mean I like their Cult but the fact you'd have to become a walking machine is a bit...
Well a bit demanding since I'd rather feel then be a two thirds of a cybernetic tech priest.
Plus it doesn't take a genius to really add depth into a universe as grim, or dark as Warhammer 40K. I'd like to say there's a more subtle moral authority, a choice to be made, no matter what position or place a human has within the Imperium of Mankind. Humanity has always made that leap into the unknown, we'd risk the dangers, not for glory or merely a sense of satisfaction to appease our desires. No humans have a more potency that is far more dangerous yet very powerfully motivated for as one as young as Marcos.
He'd risk the unknown and face all the dangers that are coming...
To do the right thing and save a life.
Just to save a friend, a loved one or a life he cares and no pain on the oath of death would make that child go through that again I dare say this is the faith required for such a person to make a step forward, but really it's an inspiration to a more spiritual level. I mean wouldn't anyone admit that this is a true inspiration for the Emperor to bless his will over this child. I'd like to share a certain aspect about humanity within the Warhammer 40K lore in itself, I again dare say it's skewered yet there's hope for anyone really.
Humans are fickle, oh yeah we are, heck we'd destroy more then we create for whatever reasons.
However it take a rare individual to really stand up, to show others that even amongst the many there is a few who are the rare glimpse of a future. Noble yet rational, fearful yet willing to endure any pain and that sense of doing everything the right way is never the easiest. Eldar in particular pick up on those virtues to see a not as common glimpse of humanity actually rising up to the challenge to change themselves as rare as it's displayed within Warhammer 40K. I mean hands down the Imperium of Mankind is basically the superpower of the Galaxy, for how much longer, we know not until the Forty-Second Millennium that is the end of all days.
I guess the rumor mill in Games Workshop is that even the far grim dark future is about to end, or begin anew. My point is even when there's no blood to be spilled, someone rises up to take on the unknown and to face down all the dangers to do what is right. Yet that doesn't it'll be easy...
Are these visions premonitions or hallucinations?
Oh I hope you all understand something, it's tricky to give light to a darkness that corrupts all. Hell I can say from the Lore, sometimes, Chaos is very patient despite the portrayal in this story. So be aware if one of the Great Four doesn't convert a child now, they have all the damned time in the universe to just pick at him. Right now, I'm, only focusing one effort on one particular force of Chaos and I can not wait till I get to the Grand Schemer of the them all. There is a lot of opportunities and many, many possibilities for me to really set this story up for one hell of a bang.
Who do you think it'll be?
What about later on?
Which entity affects him in the present or into the future?
And who of the four has the best chance?
I'll leave those questions and the answers for you to decide.
