Locum Ignotum Chapter 29
Jubila ran for all he was worth, climbing ramp after ramp, level after level. He pushed his transhuman frame to the limit desperate for more speed. In his wake his horde of Traitors and Daemons followed, tagging along in dumb confusion. Jubila gave them no heed, they were of no consequence.
None of them had heard Ganaar's last words, none of them understood the scale of the threat hanging over them. Jubila did however, for he knew how loyalists thought. They were prideful and stubborn, as all Astartes should be. They would fight to the last Marine, unless they had some devious scheme brewing. Jubila didn't know what the lickspittles had in mind but doubtless it would be bad, they would be determined to ruin everything, he had to stop them.
Jubila pressed on until his enhanced body ached and his breath came in short gasps as his armour flooded his bloodstream with combat stims. There wasn't much further to go and he pressed on, he had to get there in time. Suddenly Jubila pulled up short as he reached the apex of the tower, emerging to face a large round opening. He screeched to a halt and his horde jostled up behind him, staring at the sight greeted that them.
Before them a solid wall of Adamantium and Plasteel was receding, moving away at a stately pace. It was the hull of a starship, already hundreds of meters away and drifting further with every second. It was miles long and almost as high, a solid mass of metal floating serenely in mid-air. Jubila could see a slice of sky above, filled with flapping Daemons. The ship's anti-air defence turrets were firing constantly, creating a deafening thunder as they swatted down those flitting horrors. Jubila saw that the defence was stretched thin, a concentrated rush in one place might break through. He raised his voice over the thunder and cried, "Forward my pretties…"
But before anyone could react there was a flash of black lightning and the ground shook beneath their feet. Jubila was thrown to one side and struggled to stay upright as the docking tower lurched beneath him, bucking like a wild colt. The ground far below shook and quivered, vast cracks appearing in the earth, revealing the frothing insanity of the Warp beyond.
Jubila staggered and cried, "What's happening?"
"The foundations of this land are collapsing," Rebis snarled in masculine tones then shrieked in a feminine screech, "We warned you there would be consequences!"
Jubila looked up and gasped as he saw the vast cracks running across the sky, the contoured roof of this world splitting asunder. Black lightning fell like rain, incinerating all it touched and turning frantically fleeing Daemons into plummeting fireballs. Then through the cracks emerged a forest of tentacles, long ribbons of flesh reaching into this land from the depths of the Warp.
Neverborn, Jubila realised, but not just any lowly Daemons. These were the kings of their kind, second only to the Chaos Gods themselves in power and in hunger. He saw all four of the pantheon represented here, some tentacles diseased and mottled, others covered in eyes and snapping beaks. Some appendages curled and probed enticingly while others bulged with muscle, dripping blood all the while.
The lesser Neverborn shrieked in terror and fled before their betters, trying to reach the Warp, but not one made it. The Greater Daemons scooped them up and consumed them, devouring their essences like sharks snapping up minnows. The tentacles were everywhere, filling the sky and taking all for themselves. Jubila was aghast at the sight, all his desires had been thwarted. His dreams of a floating palace were crumbling before his eyes and everything had been ruined. This was the lickspittle's fault, he cursed. They had broken his new toy, smashed it somehow before he even got to play with it.
As if summoned by the thought there was a deafening roar and the immense length of the ship jerked forward. Jubila saw its length slide by, bulkheads and armoured plates flashing past his eyes. The ship surged away and Jubila felt the plasma backwash of its main drives roll over him. It was like standing before a flamer, the heat scorching his skin and stripping his armour bare. Jubila fumed as the ship raced away, headed right towards the very largest of the cracks. Then he screamed in denial as he saw the glimmering protection of a Gellar field burst into being, sheltering the ship from the ravaging Daemons. Even as he watched the ship dove into the rippling hues of the Warp, sinking bow first into the Immaterium and escaping far beyond his reach.
Jubila raged as he saw the architects of his downfall fly from his grasp and cursed the fates that had brought him low but his ruination had only just begun. Besides the swaying docking tower there was an immense pit, one Jubila had paid scant attention to before. Yet now the pit was filling with a harsh red light and a terrible roar arose. Even as he watched something ancient and powerful and vengeful arose. Jubila's jaw dropped as a burning red fireball shot into the sky, blazing with etheric energies like a dying star. It was swirling with potency, light and dark spots moving over it like sunspots while plumes of fire shot out randomly in every direction.
The heat of it burned his face, the brilliance seared his eyes and Jubila's Chaos tainted senses screamed that here was a power anathema to the Dark Gods. There was something in the heart of it, a small shape squatting in the centre and he struggled to make it out. Was it one shape or many, he couldn't tell, but it looked vaguely toad-like and radiated power in a burning corona.
"What is that?!" Jubila yelled.
"Power!" Rebis screamed in a masculine voice then shrieked, "Power and vengeance!"
Jubila could do nothing but stare as the star contracted; growing more concentrated second by second. It was like watching the tide rush out as a tidal wave approached. Looming dread and the knowledge that it was too late to flee rushing over him. The star contracted to a pinprick and then it exploded outwards, spilling raw energy in all directions. There was more than physical power in it, there was a message to the universe: giants yet walked the stars and they would shake the foundations of the earth before they passed.
Jubila slammed back into the nearest wall and his flesh was scalded even through his amour. The whole tower swayed dangerously over as the wave of power swept the land and any lesser Daemon it touched was annihilated. Jubila was shocked, he had thought that nothing short of the Gods of Chaos could unleash such potent devastation. This was beyond anything he had ever witnessed before.
Even the greater Daemons shrank back from that power, their tentacles scorched and burned by the roaring fires. They withdrew in searing agony but not for long. They gathered their strength and came back in a blizzard of lashing whips and tentacles, trying to crush the hateful star entirely. Spiked appendages threw themselves into the fire while purple coils whipped back and forth. Feathered limbs spat bolts of lighting while blistered protuberances vomited gore at it. The star responded by spilling out flares of energy, long plumes of fire that resembled coronal mass ejections in scope and fury. Tentacles were burnt to ash, severed and destroyed in the conflict and yet still they came.
Jubila had no time to watch however, concentrating solely on riding the swaying docking tower. In all directions the land was breaking apart, splitting into free-floating chunks of rock. Ravaged towns and farms disappeared as the ground shattered, rendered into nothing but boulders. The chunks of earth floated away on a wave of raw Warp energy, tiny little islands of rock flying above his head.
Jubila felt the tremors of the docking tower crumbling beneath him and gathered himself to jump clear. He leapt from the toppling tower and fell with his arms spinning to smash down upon a moving piece of rock. He held on with both hands as the rock spun and bobbed in the clash of energies, the mighty warlord reduced to just another piece of flotsam in a raging storm.
Above he saw his minions trying to replicate his feat but the inferno took them. Most of them fell short or their targets moved and they fell into the raw Warp, drowning in Immaterial energies as lesser Daemons came for their souls. Jubila saw Baeghost and Salmacis disappear into the seething Warp, taken from before his eyes. Yet a few had even worse fates, the writhing tentacles snatching warriors from mid-air, and stuffing them down gaping maws, the Daemons not bothering to tell friend from foe.
Of them all only Rebis actually made it to another rock but he was struck by a burst of lightning from a feathered tentacle. There was a flash of light and Jubila saw that where there had been one now there was two: one male, one female. The man said, "Sister?" and the woman said, "Brother?" But then the rock they were stood upon spun away, taking them beyond Jubila's sight.
Jubila was left clinging to his rock as it danced across the sky, thrown about amid an insane tornado of fire and wind and lashing Daemon limbs. He felt the fire growing more intense across his back, building up to a crescendo of power that nothing could withstand. He screamed in denial but he was but a feather in the breeze, unable to do anything save cling on for dear life and wait for his fate to come.
Then he saw it.
Amid the destruction and rage was a dancing shadow, a small whisper of a thing in comparison to the mighty lords clashing above. It was far more humanoid than the rest of the Daemons but with dark wings and too many arms. A mere prince in a realm of kings. The Daemon Prince dodged and swerved around the seething insanity, avoiding every lashing tentacle and errant blasts of power. It soared and dove, tucked and rolled in an elegant dance and somehow it managed to dodge everything as it closed upon Jubila. It was graceful and swift and it was laughing all the while.
Jubila gasped at the sight, even amid the raging inferno he recognised this one. He desperately looked for an escape but there was nowhere to go. Jubila was caught between the building power of the star and the towering rage of the Greater Daemons, there was no way he could run now.
Jubila looked up and screamed, "No, keep him away! Not Ozymandias!"
The Daemon Prince laughed aloud and dove upon him, snatching the warlord up in his many arms and carrying him away. Jubila fought and kicked and bit but was as a helpless babe compared to his former prisoner. Ozymandias cackled in revenge as he carried his tormentor away, swooping back towards the shimmering cracks. Then together they dove into the raw warp, leaving the battle behind.
The land had been utterly ravaged so there were none left to witness the final drama play out. The Old One's power had mounted to a critical mass of energy, their star blazing incandescently as it built and built and built. The Greater Daemons threw everything they had into one last barrage but they could not stop the inevitable. The whole scene froze for an instant and then the Old One's star detonated, destroying themselves and everything else in a brilliant supernova.
The Daemons screamed as they burned in that supernova, their immaterial flesh roasting and broiling. They were immortal, the very greatest of Greater Daemons, they could not die but they certainly wished that they could. The fire seared into their essence, scarring them eternally, branding them for the rest of their existence. They would bear these wounds until the universe died.
While the Daemons writhed in agony the land disintegrated under the onslaught, broken into billions of shards. The etheric walls fell and dropped the debris into the raw Warp, leaving nothing behind at all. It was as if the Old One's refuge had never existed, reduced to nought but a memory. Thus by their own hands their legacy was ended, their creation wiped from existence by its makers.
And so the universe marked the passing of the Old Ones.
