The Light House suddenly trembled. Rockcrete dust fell from the bracing as the sound of grinding metal echoed through the structures subbasement from up above. Kais looked down at the enchained body of the Gue'la Astartes as he knelt upon his armored knees. There was something about this human which felt odd, or perhaps the problem was actually the situation the duo found themselves in.
"Release me!" ordered Brother Librarian Delpheus with a commanding voice while flexing his armored arms fruitlessly against his bindings.
The room started to darken and the sound of sundered structural bracing become more blatant. Something was tarring the light house apart from the rooftop down to the subbasement, and it wasn't being gentle. Through the hallways a ferocious wind started to pick up. Candles blew out around the chamber as Kais looked about with a growing sense of terror upon his face.
The darkness was making another desperate attack against him.
Once more the tower shook as if battered by a force of nature of manifested will. The walls started to run like candle wax as the golden aura around the Ultramarine Librarian started to dull.
"Release me now or we're both doomed!" ordered Delpheus once more.
Kais took one last look over the crumbling cavern and with a feeling of dread started to pry the chains loose from their moorings which kept the Gue'la imprisoned. There was a sudden gust of wind which wound through the chamber. It was cold and ominous, and spoke one word, "nooooooo."
With a little bit of effort and a well-placed solid shut from his Scattergun the first chain broke and crackled to the floor with blue electrical sparks dusting from the metal. The chamber trembled and this time the cold voice spoke louder, "NOOOO."
"Don't stop," said Brother Delpheus as a torrent of wind swept through the dungeon of the light house.
"That demon took my body and wore it to deceive my brothers. It has my soul imprisoned in this place within the warp, but it hasn't claimed you yet. You are still free. You still have free-will and a material body. Strip me of these binds, and hurry!"
Kais tore loose the last chain mooring and covered his eyes as the golden light of the Ultramarine Librarian pushed back an encroaching darkness within the halls of the Light Houses' subbasement. There was a terrible scream of pain from the eldritch demons' ghostly form as Delpheus stood from his knees and bore a gauntleted palm facing the terror of the warp.
"Feel my wraith!" he yelled. The golden light blew through the demon wisp and stopped the building from shaking and melting. What had once been a torrent of wind subsided into nothingness leaving Kais and the Ultramarine unharmed.
"What was that?" he asked the Gue'la.
The human turned to face him with the look of exhaustion upon his features. The golden light illuminating from the humans' body was depleted and somewhat dulled to a yellow glow.
"Tarkh'ax, or at least a piece of him," the Ultramarine considered the Tau briefly and then elaborated further, "Right now you are fighting a war within the very Warp for your soul. In the Materium, our universe, mere moments are passing while you wage this war. That thing seeks to imprison you so that the demon Tarkh'ax can lay claim to your body just like it did mine."
"I'm in the warp?" asked the Tau with bewilderment, "but that's impossible."
The Gue'la explained further, "Your soul is in the warp, or at least part of it is. Think of this place as a prison where the condemned have been isolated and are being hunted."
"Condemned?" asked Kais, "You mean there are others? Like in the city?"
The Ultramarine frowned sharply, "Yes and no. The city you are likely speaking of is a mental construct built within the warp from your mind. It's a representation of your inner-self trying to create an environment of order within the Warp itself. None of the people within this environment are real… as you and I would identify them as being real. They are… parts of you… which are fighting the demon."
"And yet there are… other survivors?" pressed Kais.
The Space Marine nodded, "Yes, other prisoners. They to are being held in this place, but they are in other illusions."
"Can they help us?" asked Kais. The Gue'la smiled a thin grim line upon his face. It did not appear remotely comforting even though it was meant to be.
"In theory, we could potentially navigate this place and enter the illusions of others. However, convincing them to join us might require some effort," he replied, "You must consider that they are being hunted as well and will be loath to trust anyone or anything due to their own experiences… let alone a Tau warrior."
Kais considered this but knew deep down in the inside that it was the only way to escape the horrors of the warp. He couldn't fight Tarkh'ax by himself and hope to prevail. He had only lasted this long through good fortune.
"There is one more thing," said the space marine while interrupting the Tau's train of thought.
He continued, "You have probably experienced some forms of mental corruption by now. Voices in your mind urging you to indulge in dark and sadistic pleasures."
Instantly there was a whisper at the back of Kais's mind, 'rip and tare.' The Tau fire warrior ignored it, but evidently the Ultramarine picked up on the voice because he snarled sharply. "That," he said, "was the voice of Khorne. You must not give in to him. Every time you indulge in the corrupting influences of these voices it weakens you against the demon Tarkh'ax."
"It helped me survive earlier," retorted Kais.
The Ultramarine quickly rebutted, "at a price, and the price is always high. Do not let these foul creatures control you. They seek only the smallest of purchase within your soul to which they can then spread like a cancer. Deny them even that and they will have to earn your mortal body through naked forced."
Kais nodded curtly and accepted the advice. In the real world mere seconds were passing as he and Karkh'ax fought in the warp for his mortal soul. If denying the advances of the Chaos gods could help the Tau warrior preserve himself then that was what he was going to do.
"Very well," he admitted, and then quickly decided on a further course of action, "and for now; we must seek aide from the other prisoners. How do we do that?"
Librarian Delpheus motioned down a darkened corridor where only the faint outlines of the walls and floor were visible. Kais raised a single eyebrow at the Gue'la from a lack of comprehension.
"We lose ourselves in this illusion. I'll then navigate us closer to one of the other prisoners."
Kais was skeptical and glowered sharply. Without explaining further, the Ultarmarine Librarian started to walk away with his armored feet thumping loudly against the rockcrete floor. The fire warrior reluctantly followed in the Gue'la's shadow with the yellow of his aura proving to be a guide.
"Close your eyes," ordered the space marine. Kais begrudgingly did as he was told and continued to listen to their feet clunking against the floor as they both continued to walk.
Within his imagination, Kais could feel the black eyes of his ghostly father looking at him from the shadows. Judging him. Inferior. Weak. To either side of the hallway were the mirrored images of his father, now a wraith, judging him. He spoke in whispers and nothing more.
…
Kais walked forward one step at a time. He heard the voices scratching at the edges of his sanity. His breath felt cold in his chest and the sweat ran down his irritated brow. Before him were the clunking footsteps of the Astartes Librarian.
"In this illusion your mind is your greatest weapon. When your eyes are closed and you have no means of reference to the real and unreal. Focus on yourself. See what you want to see inside your head. Do not open your eyes when you walk this path we now take for you will see only the raw madness of the warp."
Kais took the words to heart. He could hear and feel the wicked voices surrounding him. They moved like phantoms willing him unto the paths of moral decay. Rather than open his eyes to their reality he instead focused on the one within his own mind.
Before him was the rockcrete path illuminated in white. Beyond that there was nothing. There were no walls to the edges of the underground tunnel. There was only the golden ball of aura which represented Delpheus's soul. It hovered off the ground and moved forward before the Tau like a guide through the underworld.
"What do you see?" asked the golden orb. Kais kept his eyes closed, but within his mind emerged figures from the darkness. They shambled forward from a sea of shadows and fog. They were the undead cast in melting ink and hands outstretched to touch the fire warrior with willingness to consume him.
Kais turned and fired his Scattergun. In his mind and within the reality of the void the pellets from the scattergun hit something close by and there was a scream of horror within the immaterial. Blue blood ran down the fire warrior's ears and nose as he cocked the Scattergun and fired once again at another target.
Both undead exploded into black ashes and faded into nothingness. Together, Kais and Delpheus continued to walk the path of darkness with their eyes closed. The golden orb within the fire warriors mind led the way as another illusion formed within the mist.
"Failure," it spoke at Kais.
"Outcaste."
"Useless."
"Unworthy."
His father cursed him with those haunting empty eyes of the void. He stood always just out of reach and with a grim judgmental face.
"Ignore him," spoke Delpheus, "He tempts you from the path. Do not step away or you will be lost to the warp."
Kais ignored the ghost of his father and kept to the rockcrete illuminated within his mind. He followed the clanking footsteps of the Astartes represented as a yellow orb. Together they passed through the tunnel as it slowly started to fade away from all consuming darkness.
His guide now spoke.
…
"Listen to me, and listen well," said the space marine to the troubled Tau, "We are going to be separated soon. It is the way of the warp just like a pair of star ships sailing through the Immaterium. I will do my best to relocate you once in the other illusion. Do your best to survive in the…" there was silence and Kais only heard his own footsteps for the briefest of seconds clunking against a metal floor.
He opened his eyes with a moment of fright. Gone was the subbasement of the light house. It was replaced with a long metal corridor covered in red blood and ghostly mist. Kais quickly tensed his fingers against the grip to Terran issue Scattergun and looked down the sights. The transition between illusions had been totally without warning.
"Delpheus!" he yelled down the hallway. Kais quickly circled back around and noticed more gore and fog in the opposite direction. Still, the Ultramarine Librarian was nowhere to be found. Had he abandoned Kais? Had it been some sort of foul trick all along by another demon or worse?
The Fire Warrior didn't know.
"Deleheus!" he yelled once again while backing down the corridor with his raised Scattergun up against his shoulder. At a four-way junction in the metal hallway he stopped. Kais suddenly felt a gun barrel up against the side of his head. He looked to his left with beady eyes and saw another Gue'la.
It was a man with black hair and a fishnet scar over his right eye. Upon his head he wore the peaked cap of an Imperial Commissar. The drawn weapon up against the Tau warriors head was a bolt pistol.
"You sure don't look like a demon," said Commissar Holt Iverson, "But you are a Tau."
