Exitus Ultima Chapter 27
When the Warp spat them out into reality it wasn't a soft landing. Beta may be a master of teleportation but his conjuring was hasty and done under fire, without time to focus or prepare a destination. The results were troubling. The Chaos Marines were thrown bodily from the translocation, slamming onto a marble tiled floor with force enough to shatter the delicate plates. A dozen Alpha Legionnaires, all that had escaped their main hub, left reeling on the cold ground.
Beta hit the floor with the sound of shattering marble, sending bits of stone flying as he burrowed a crater. His bones ached and his muscles were freezing, chilled by the Warp's hunger. Worse his soul was drained, all power sucked from his essence, leaving him a shivering wreck. He'd felt the claws of Daemons brush his mind, seeking to devour him utterly and counted himself fortunate to have escaped. It hadn't been skill, he knew that much, their emergency translation had been a desperate gamble and they owed their lives to chance alone.
Epsilon groaned as he pulled himself out of a crater, looking about wearily, "Where are we?"
"I have no idea," Beta confessed as he thumped his head back on his generator pack.
"How can you not know?!" Talgor spat angrily from the other side.
"I barely managed to get us out alive," Beta retorted, "Be grateful you are breathing."
Epsilon pulled himself to his feet snarling, "Delta isn't!"
Beta sensed his Brother's ire and forced his head up despite protesting muscles, "That's not my fault!"
"There's no one else to blame," Epsilon spat, "Delta changing his face was your idea. You said it would enfeeble that Captain to see his old friend again, instead it goaded him into a fury. Delta is dead because of you!"
Beta had no energy for squabbling but knew Epsilon wasn't going to let this go, "Delta knew the risks, we all did. Death was always a possibility."
"You were singing a different tune before!" Epsilon accused, "We've lost our main base, a half-dozen Glykonae and many Brothers."
"There are other bases, other squads and thousands of cultists, the Alpha Legion never depends on one lynchpin."
"That doesn't excuse this disaster!"
Beta readied a retort but then Talgor spat, "Will you two shut up?! We're in an unknown location and could be attacked any moment."
Beta realised the renegade was right, while they were laying about anything could be happening. He forced himself to his feet and looked about. What he found was strange indeed, a long hall, broad enough for two Land Raiders to drive down. The floor was delicate marble and the roof was high and supported by many pillars. Mosaics and frescos adorned the walls, panels of figures surrounded by haloes dispensing alms to starving masses and weapons to happy Guardsmen. Many illustrations depicted a female figure with shining wings, soaring over fields of victory. Between the pillars were long rows of bookshelves, filled with old tomes, data-slates and info-crystals.
"A Library," Beta ventured.
Epsilon wiped a shelf with a gauntleted finger, "Dust as thick as a tree, nobody's been in here for years."
"Good, give us a chance to recover," Beta affirmed, "We need to find out where we are, and then contact the rest of the squads. Regrouping is our priority."
"I suggest we find a local priest and torture the information out of them," Talgor growled.
"Or you could just ask me," a thin voice issued in the echoing vault. Beta spun about and found himself confronted by a slip of girl, or rather the flesh of one. Harbinger, the Daemon was standing nonchalantly in the shadows, leaning on a bookshelf as if idling away a restday afternoon. Beta's guard went up instantly, there had been no spell of translocation, no mystic veil, the only answer was Harbinger had been here for some time, waiting for them to arrive. Troubling, especially since Beta hadn't intended to come here.
"Harbinger," Talgor snarled.
"In the flesh," the Daemon chuckled, "Well, someone's flesh anyway."
"How did you know we were coming here?" Beta hissed.
"I'm a Daemon, the future is no mystery to me. You were fated to be here, after your failed treachery."
"We didn't…" Epsilon began.
Harbinger snapped, "Save it, I know you lured the Storm Heralds to you. I arranged it in fact. Dropping that little tidbit about my True Name was sure to get you salivating; I knew you couldn't resist the bait."
"You wanted them to ambush us," Talgor accused.
"Of course, I read you like a book."
Beta fell silent, trying to still his thoughts in case the Daemon could read them. Harbinger had played them, manoeuvring the Alpha Legion like pawns. He had seen their endpoint, but how much of the route they took to get here did the Daemon know? Did Harbinger know Beta had learned of the Mendix Ignis, that he had subtly altered it, their lives hung on the answer to that question. If there was the smallest chance Harbinger didn't know of Beta's activities, there may be a chance to survive.
"You played us," Beta deflected.
"I did, I made you dance like puppets. Provoking you to draw Arvael to you was elementary."
"A risk, I could have uncovered your True Name."
"So deluded," Harbinger scoffed, "There was no future where he told you the name, die screaming in agony yes, but he never would he give you what you wanted. I was in no danger from you."
"Then why?"
"Obviously so he'd call in Toran, and then you would kill him for me."
The Alpha Legionnaires shared a glance as Harbinger crowed, "Now he is dead we can proceed with the next phase. You shall help me bring about the end of all things!"
"Urrrrrrmmm…" Epsilon murmured.
Harbinger didn't listen, "You shall fear for your lives, but trust it is a better end than the one fate ordains for you. Serve me well and I may even bring you with me, as pets."
"About that," Talgor said.
"You will like the Warp, well no you won't, but you hardly have any choice left. Once the Anathame's tool dies I will…"
"That Captain's not dead," Beta stated firmly.
Harbinger's head snapped about, "What?!"
"I guess you didn't see that bit," Beta scorned, "The Captain, he yet lives."
Harbinger's eyes flashed, "He's alive?! You had one job, one simple job and you screw it up! One future, out of billions of possibilities and you somehow make it real! You've ruined everything!" Harbinger's hands flickered and Epsilon was sent flying into a bookshelf, making it topple. Talgor was hurled into the roof and dropped to the ground to shatter more tiles. Others went flying too, bolters ripped from hands and Space Marines tossed about like rag dolls.
Beta alone stood untroubled as he remarked, "This is a waste of energy."
"You dare?!" Harbinger growled, "I spent centuries arranging these events and your blundering undoes all my hard work! Toran lives and my plan to kill the Statesman falters. He will see what we have done and undo it, the poison will be denied. I should laminate your bones into the walls and chew upon your souls!"
"Centuries, how very static of you," Beta sniffed, "A servant of the Changer of Ways should delight in the upset of plans. The Architect of Fate laughs at the plans of lesser beings, it seems your god isn't quite finished with Guilliman. Tzeentch's schemes are beyond even your understanding."
Harbinger glared fiercely, but then dropped the pale hands and remarked, "The future is indeed changing, but that doesn't mean the Statesman gets to live. I shall simply change my approach and you will help me."
"Of course," Beta purred, "What do you have in mind?"
"Follow," Harbinger snapped as he walked out.
Beta nodded to his companions and they fell in, walking behind the Sorcerer. They left the dusty library, entering more inhabited sections. Beta was surprised to find yet more stacks beyond their entry point, a vast conurbation of libraries and archives. Section after section came and went, filled with dead bodies. It seemed Harbinger had been busy, claiming this edifice for his own use. Beta counted the number of branches and side rooms they passed and when it reached the low hundreds he, at last, knew where he was.
Beta declared, "Vaticer city-state, the Apostolic Library, biggest on the planet."
"Does that matter?" Talgor asked.
"Possibly," Beta replied.
"Do you think he knows about…" Epsilon wondered.
"Hush, say nothing, reveal nothing, everything depends on this."
Harbinger led the gaggle of Space Marines deeper into the Apostolic Library, till they came to the nexus. At the heart of the archive a central hub was raised, under a glorious dome adorned with images of the corpse of Terra. Seven passages intersected here and rings of pews surrounded a podium. Here Ecclesiarchy preachers would expound their misbegotten delusions to naive scholars, drilling out any trace of original thought and filling skulls with dogma. The scholars were still there, grinning skeletons blasted of flesh sitting in the pews with clay tablets and parchments still in hand.
At the centre a ring of acolytes stood about a pillar, topped with a flame Beta recognised. The Mendix Ignis, exactly as he had left it. Harbinger seemed untroubled by the prospect that the sorcerer had interfered with his magics. Beta could only trust it was genuine ignorance, and not an elaborate trap.
"More acolytes, where does he keep finding them?" Epsilon wondered.
"Hush," Beta chided.
Harbinger stepped up to the podium and gloated over the flame, "Behold the Mendix Ignis! Flame of creation! The ultimate weapon!"
"That, that's your ultimate weapon?" Talgor scoffed with just the right about of sarcasm.
"A bit small isn't it," Epsilon snorted with perfect disdain.
Beta was impressed with his companion's ability to feign reactions, he would have sworn they had never seen it before had he not known otherwise. Harbinger seemed to buy it, or was an even better liar than they, "Mock not, this is the key to completing our mutual goal. Not what I intended it for, but I am a creature of Change after all."
Beta nodded, "I have heard legends of the Mendix Ignis, but the tales speak of sacrifices needed to empower it. If you plan to sacrifice us, we shall not go easily to the fire."
"Fret not, I need your army yet," Harbinger laughed, "My tribute is far more precious."
The Daemon reached into a pocket and removed three vials. Blood sloshed within, still half full. Blood of the 33rd Psyker Son, the Thrice-betrayed and the Threefold Traitor. Mystically significant, powerful and precious, Beta would have given much to own such arcana but Harbinger opened the vials and tipped them into the flame as the cultists cried aloud. The result was spectacular.
The Mendix Ignis flared, growing from a wisp of light into a surging bonfire. Twin flames wrapped around each other, blazing all colours as the sinuous coils formed loop after loop. Magic flowed from it in a torrent, washing over Beta and making him step back. Even an Astartes felt battered by mystical winds but the Acolytes flared far worse. Flesh ran like wax in an oven, eyes balls burst and poured down exposed cheekbones, hair burned to ash, and yet they laughed in triumph. In moments they were reduced to blackened skeletons, but to the very last they laughed as the power of Chaos annihilated them.
"What's he doing?!" Talgor yelled over the roar of fire as he shielded his eyes.
"Anything he wants!" Beta cried.
"Let the humans think they have won!" Harbinger cried, "I shall have my victory yet. If poison fails the Warp shall provide! I summon a storm to lay waste cities and the pillars of the world shall shake as the veil between warp and realspace part. I summon my kin, I summon the shades and revenants of the Dark Gods to take their fill of this planet. Come my Neverborn brethren, this planet and all who dwell here are yours!"
Beta looked about in horror as an earthquake began to shake the building, rattling pews and causing skeletons to topple over. The sky above blackened as impenetrable clouds formed, a global hurricane cutting the land off from the stars above. Nothing could pass through that barrier, sealing the fleet in orbit off from the troops below. Eerie lightning brewed among that storm, promising utter destruction. Yet worse of all the shadows began to move. Creeping figures of darkness and hate, sliding across the ground, independent of any light source. Neverborn, pressing against the surface of reality, seeking a way to break into the Materium. Daemons were coming to Sacellum and Beta knew they would not stop till they made a slaughterhouse among the temples of the living. Chaos was coming to Sacellum, to make it their Daemonic kingdom.