Chapter 37

Blood & Sorcery

Part III

Alana and Ishta jumped down upon the squad of red armoured traitor guards that were running towards the centre, lightsabre igniting and witchblades unsheathed, they both cut down two traitors each by the time they hit the ground. As they landed they spun on their heels, beginning a beautiful and deadly dance, deflecting lasfire and slicing through the carapace armour of the guards, within moments it was over.

They turned in time to see four black drop pods ignite their thrusters as they hit the ground, their side doors falling open in time to allow their compliments of space marines and force psykers to jump into the fight. The few squads of mutants and traitors who had made their way to the centre were mowed down by bursts of bolter and plasma fire, as the fire fight continued the surviving chaos raptors abandoned their skirmish with the ARC troopers on the rooftops to engage the space marines. As they hovered towards them they found themselves caught in crossfire between the marines of the Black Fists and the ARC trooper's heavy weapons, cutting most of them down before they hit the ground.

Alana and Ishta ran into the fray with their weapons ready and their eyes ablaze with their respective powers, streams of warp lightning and massive chunks of debris flew through the air, colliding with the raptors and leaving them wide open for the marines to finish the job. As the last raptor fell the ARC troopers began using their recently liberated rooftops as sniping positions, giving covering fire to the beleaguered units of Imperial Guards, giving them a chance to regroup and counterattack.

A third and final wave of atmospheric assault pods burst through the dark clouds above and within them Alana felt the powerful presence of Revan and his oldest force psykers along with dreadnoughts, terminators and devastator squads. As the last few pods fell to the ground a fresh wave of cultists ran into the city centre and were mercilessly cut down by the marines as they all dived for cover and prepared for a long battle.

"Its like shooting rats in a barrel" one of the marines howled as he peppered the charging cultists with bolter fire.

"These are just cannon fodder Brother Chartis" another marine replied as he let out a controlled burst into a cluster of cultists "Don't waste your ammunition, controlled bursts"

"Yes Sir" Chartis replied.

"Master Rev" the Brother-Champion shouted to one of the force-psykers who were taking cover with his squad, a muscular bald headed man wearing charred light armour with a tattered black and silver cloak "We could use some cover!"

"Very well Brother-Champion Harris" Rev replied before deactivating his lightsabre and raising his hands towards the charging horde. Suddenly the ground began to shake and the earth in front of them began to heave and convulse, within a few moments spikes of rock shot up from the ground, impaling the entire front line of cultists, earth and soil rose with it, creating a natural wall of rock, concrete and dirt "Is that to your liking?"

"You force psykers never cease to bore me Rev" Harris shouted as he lifted his power-sword into the air "Marines front and centre!!!"

As one the space marines, ARC troopers and psykers ran for the wall and took cover, spraying bolter, las, blaster and psychic power into the suddenly weary chaos soldiers mowing them down easily and causing them to run back for cover. Alana and Ishta found themselves among the defenders, using their pistols to gun down a few retreating cultists before they too found cover.

"This just seems far too easy" an ARC trooper spoke up "Where are the guardsmen, the chaos marines, the lesser sorcerers?"

As if on cue he heard the united thundering of booted feet, from the streets came a mass of red armoured traitor Guards, marching in skirmish lines towards the city centre, a cluster of Chaos marines armed with storm bolters and flamers leading them, laughing maniacally and shouting chilling praises to the blood god.

"Ask and ye shall receive brother" the space marine beside him muttered, before aiming down the spine of his bolter and pulling the trigger.

------

The predator assault tanks spilled out of the city and formed into a skirmish line just outside of the outer walls, the Baneblade stood out in the centre of the line, its massive main turret primed and ready to fire upon the advancing wall of armour and weapons advancing towards them. A large force made up of about twenty Lemon Russ and Predator Assault tanks, mixed in with a wall of sentinels and similar looking walkers. But standing out from the rest were a group of three four legged battle walkers, at least 5m tall and covered with weapons, it was these behemoths that trudged through the rearguard group of armoured vehicles with ease.

Lord Sorcerer Kane sat on top of the turret of the Baneblade, his staff casually shouldered as he examined this mass of armour heading towards his forces position. He would leave the interior battle with the space marines to his older brother. It was this fight, with tanks and heavy artillery that he excelled at.

Fire

His psychic words forcefully pushed themselves into the minds of the tank commanders, letting them now that the time was right. As one the predators and Baneblade opened up with their main cannons and a hail of shells peppered the approaching armoured line of tanks and walkers. Two Lemon Russ tanks vanished into blooms of fire and debris, a sentinel lost a leg and fell to the ground, exploding as it hit.

Advance

As one the tanks advanced towards the armoured column, their firing now completely random as they squealed forward. It was the enemies turn and they unleashed a hail of tank shells and powerful lasers. The predator beside Kane's Baneblade erupted in a blast of fire from its front, punching through its blood red armour plating and mangling its main gun, another explosion signalled the death of another tank, and another. Those four legged walkers were truly an irritating force on the battlefield, but his Baneblade was the decider.

Commander, aim a shell for the main walkers head…do not miss

He relaxed as the turret turned slightly and the main gun rising to the needed height to fire at the walker, the main gun recoiled as it fired and the shell could be clearly seen, a ball of fire with a trail of pitch black smoke billowing in its wake. Kane watched the shell pummel into the walkers head, causing a massive explosion, the walker stopped its advance and started to stumble, as Kane watched the smoke clear he smiled fanatically, the head had been blown completely off. The walker stumbled one last time and fell forward, kicking up clouds of dirt and rain water as it hit the ground.

Not so invincible after all

A sense of danger and he vanished in a blur, reappearing on the turret of a trailing predator tank in time to see the Baneblade bear the brunt of a series of explosions from the laserfire of the other two large walkers. As the smoke cleared he saw the armour plating of the powerful super tank charred and burned through to the final layer, its main gun completely mangled and its left side gun blown straight off. A final blinding assault blasted through the weakened plating and caused a powerful explosion which decimated the Baneblades front, the tank sputtered and ground to a halt only to finally die in one last explosion as its fuel canisters caught fire and detonated.

Not invincible but by the dark gods do they pack a menacing punch

He looked up in time to see another of his predator assault tanks detonate from a well timed hit from the main guns of two Lemon Russ tanks, the enemy fighters were coming around for another strafing run on their line and the anti-air vehicles and mobile batteries were not doing much to deter them.

Order all tanks to pull back to the walls and plug the gaps he sent telepathically to every surviving tank If we cannot defeat them here then we can at least hold them back until my brother defeats the interior problems.

------

Revan stood in the middle of a cracked and wrecked road, standing on a mound made of the bodies of mutants, traitors and marines who thought that they could kill him, their last mistake he thought as he descended down the mountain of bodies, his lightsabre still active in his right hand. Looking up he saw the unmistakeable form of an approaching Predator tank, its gold and red hull marking it as a vehicle of the World Eaters and standing on the top of the monstrosity was the being that he had been planning to kill for the last one hundred years.

Lord Sorcerer Kahn jumped off of the approaching tank, landed on his feet and began walking towards the armour robed figure of Revan, his eyes and staff encompassed by eerie red power. There was no need for them to exchange words; they knew that this battle would only end with one of them lying mangled on the street and the victor towering over the defeated.

Revan extinguished the blade of his lightsabre and clipped the weapon to his belt; Kahn likewise sheathed his staff across his back. This battle would not be fought with weapons but with the powers that they both wielded, it was the dark gods of the warp versus the will of the force. Revan began the duel, raising his black gloved hands and discharging a salvo of green lightning. Kahn dived to the side missing the deadly blast. It struck the predator tank head on, turning it into a mangled wreck. As Kahn came out of his role he fired several warp fireballs towards Revan only to see them stopped by his hands and deflected to the side, crashing through the shattered windows of the surrounding buildings and exploding.

In a blur of motion the Force Master surged forward, a blade of pure energy appearing in his hands, he raised it over his head and threw it as if he were throwing a spear. Kahn raised his hand and created a barrier. He had been at the brunt of such an attack before and knew that trying to dodge it was the worst thing to do. His thoughts proved correct as the blade of green light shattered in midair, becoming dozens of green energy shards. They peppered his barrier, each shard exploding on contact but his shield held firm.

A blur of motion and the ancient force master was beside him, his bronze and red mask hiding the old warriors face. Kahn turned and was hit in the stomach by a blast of green force lightning, a point blank assault that sent him reeling through the street and crashing through the wall of an office block. Revan approached the sorcerer as he got to his feet and stumbled through the opening he just created, the Chaos sorcerer looked up, his black eye visors alive with warp energy. He raised his hands and screamed in anger as he unleashed a powerful shockwave of power, the concrete heaved and shook as veins as red as blood seared through, a portal appeared behind the sorcerer and within were a hundred pairs of hungry eyes, all whispering the same unholy thing. In his rage Kahn had opened a portal to the warp and allowed the daemons that resided within to spill out into the material universe.

------

Chaos Champion Slann could only look on as the brown robed woman cut through his last marine, the cobalt energy blade she wielded slicing off his head in one clean stroke. She turned to face him, the eerie light that her weapon caste upon the chamber illuminating the surrounding area and showing the huddled forms of civilians cowering behind the psyker including many young women and children.

He had lead over five hundred soldiers into the main control spire of the city, fighting off the defending guards and finding the main entrance to the underground caverns that were situated below the city. Once they had entered the caverns they slaughtered the few squads of loyalist defenders and fanned out in search of standards and sacrifices for their victory. For hours he and his force had fought their way through the labyrinth of corridors and pathways, losing more of his troops to surprise attacks from the corpse emperor's followers and finally when he and his few surviving troops find a chamber full of civilians for their sacrifices they run into this.

The woman in front of him was completely dressed in brown robes, an oversized hood worn over her head, enshrouding the top half of her face in shadows. She held a blade of pure energy in her hands, it was not one of their mythical lightsabres because it didn't even have a hilt, she was holding onto the energy with her bare hands. As she danced and spun the robes billowed and flapped showing the skin tight black combat suit, showing her curves and womanly features almost perfectly. Seductive, beautiful, deadly, these were words that the champion used to describe this creature now facing him.

He roared and grabbing the hilt of his power sword swung it in a sweeping arc, aiming to cut the female in front of him in half. No such luck as his sword was blocked by the cobalt coloured blade, almost with no effort the psyker batted his blade away and spun with such incredible grace, her brown robes again billowing as if caught by a none existent wind, swinging her blade in a steep arc. Slann brought his power-sword up to intercept and watched with disbelief as his blade shattered under the raw power of the stroke. With a flick of her wrist the fight was over, the blue blade cut through his waist, slicing him neatly in half.

She turned away from the mangled marines that she had fought and willed the weapon she held to disappear before looking up at the ceiling. Her azure eyes looking past the tonnes of rock, concrete and dirt which separated her from the surface and saw the purpose for the sudden tremor felt through the force. Grimacing at the very sight of the warp gate she turned towards the terrified innocents, their safety came first.

------

The explosions of bolters and the flashes of blaster fire from the central plaza were continuous as the space marines and ARC troopers continued their relentless assault, peppering lines of cultists and traitor guard with their weapons, dropping so many that the lines behind had to trudge over their own dead to keep going. From the rooftops surrounding the centre ARC trooper crack teams continued to pour blaster fire upon the latter ranks, aiming for anyone with a rank in the hope of making the Chaos army panic.

"This is endless" Alana yelled over the deafening weapons discharges, forcing out the power pack of her blaster and slamming in a new one "I'm on my last power pack for this thing!"

Ishta was sitting against the makeshift wall panting heavily, her psychic and mental strength sapped. She took one look at her shuriken pistol, scowled at the now useless weapon and threw it away before picking up the blaster of a fallen ARC trooper and fired several more shots at the approaching army. A few shots later and the blaster sputtered.

"By the gods" Ishta cursed as she fumbled with the alien weapon, wishing that she had swallowed her pride and allowed Gabriel to show her how to use it "What is wrong with this arcane contraption!?"

"It needs a new cartridge" Alana shouted as she crawled towards her, unbuttoning a satchel on the fallen troopers belt and pulling out a power pack "Just push the button above the handle and slam this wherever the other pack falls out!"

"Why didn't you let me show you how to use that thing Ishta" a familiar voice shouted over the gunfire and explosions "It's not the same as a Shuriken!"

Before the two women could turn the line of fatigued marines and troopers was reinforced by over a hundred Imperial Guards, Kasrkins and ARC troopers. The fresh soldiers fell into place, pouring las and blaster fire into the approaching ranks, three dreadnoughts followed, their presence bolstering the beleaguered defenders as they put their storm bolters and assault cannons to good use. Gabriel fell in beside them, no longer wearing his Jedi robes, his light armour caked in layers of mud and gravel. He held a pair of assault blaster pistols in his hands and fired several rounds over the defences.

Your late master Alana sent to him smugly over their bond

Sorry, sorry, just got lost on the walk of life Gabriel sent back as he ruffled his apprentice's messy blonde hair. How are you holding up? It is your first battle after all

Don't worry about me

That's your line for everything these days Gabriel replied as he put a hole into the head of a mutant with his blasters. You are like a daughter to me. It is my obligation and my instinct to be worried about you no matter how sure of yourself you are

"Get out your lightsabres" Ishta interrupted as she dropped the blaster and unsheathed her blood soaked witchblades "They're about to run over this pile of dirt you force psykers call a wall!!!"

So feisty Gabriel muttered mentally.

Tell me about it Alana replied before she looked up, her eyes widened Master, aboveabove!!!

Gabriel looked up and his own eyes widened in shock, above them were several dozen winged silhouettes, their lithe forms making them look human but they soared on long wings.

"What in the name of the force is that!?"

"Daemonettes!!!" a marine shouted before raising his bolter and firing a long burst into the sky, likewise half the marines and Imperial Guards raised their rifles and bolters, completely forgetting about the advancing traitors and peppered the sky with streaks of lasfire and salvoes of bolter shells. The daemons tucked their wings close to their bodies and dived down towards them. Piercing screams echoed through the air and several imperials broke from their positions and started to run, only to be pounced upon by the warp monsters, their claws and talons digging into their flesh and lifting them off the ground. It was only then that Gabriel got a close look, they looked like women with long crimson red hair and pink skin, they had dragon like wings, and their eyes were blood shot, long claws and talons extended from their hands and feet and as they opened their mouths the Jedi master saw rows of needle sharp teeth. They wore black leather clothes that left nothing to the imagination. In fact they wore nothing more than what looked like a leather bikini.

"Master behind you"

Gabriel spun on his heel, his lightsabre activating in his hands just in time to decapitate a cultist who had clambered over the dirt, he then raised his hand and summoning the force unleashed the full power of a force-hurricane. The blast of wind threw five cultists and traitors back over the earth mound, crashing into the ranks of chaos followers behind them and impaling them upon their weapons. Above the line the Daemonettes circled around them like vultures soaring above a kill, waiting for the right time to dive and pick up a prize, several saw the light from his lightsabre and dived down towards him, their claws ready to impale him.

This is not good

A thick blast of crimson laser fire flared overhead, catching one of the she-devils and vaporising her. As the other Daemonettes broke into steep climbs Gabriel turned to see two AT-AT walkers stomp their way through the flood of Chaos soldiers towards them, a sea of white and silver at their feet showing the advancing columns of stormtroopers and shadow guardians. LAAT gunships and a myriad of other support craft flew overhead, firing at the confused and panicked chaos army with their weapon turrets and rocket launchers.

Screaming a war-cry several force psykers clambered over the hill and jumped into the confused traitors, cutting a path of death with their lightsabres. The space marines and other soldiers followed, clashing with the front line, blood spattered as metal cut through flesh. Gabriel force-jumped high into the air with Alana and Ishta following suit and sliced a chaos marine from the top of his helm to his groin, cutting him neatly in half. Ishta howled the call of the Banshee and began to dance, her twin witchblades dripping blood and gore as they cut through traitor guards, mutants and cultists as easily as paper. Alana fell into a cluster of traitor guards and unleashed a powerful blast of force energy which threw them like rag dolls in every possible direction.

Already many cultists and mutants were beginning to flee, opting to run away and fight another day instead of standing their ground with the World Eaters and apprentices of the Blood Brothers. As their flock began to panic many of the chaos marines and berserkers simply charged and fought to the very end, continuing to chant their praises to the blood god, the battle may have been won but the fight was far from over.

------

Daemons of different shapes and sizes spilled out of the warp portal into the material world, screaming unholy chants and blood chilling roars into the night sky. The skies became infested by the winged silhouettes of Daemonettes and the ground trembled from a thousand charging daemons. Revan raised his hands and unleashed as much power as he could safely control, jagged flashes of green lightning and blasts of fire streaked across the void, striking down dozens of daemons and turning them from physical beings to wisps of red mist, sending them back to the warp.

Within a few moments squads of space marines joined him, their bolters firing steady streams of shells, killing off more of the foul monsters as they came rushing out of the portal. From the sky clusters of assault troopers dived into the mass of chaos daemons, looking like patches of black in a sea of reds, pinks and purples, their chain-swords grinding through the unnatural flesh. But they were heavily outnumbered and one by one the patches of marines vanished within the bloody sea, overrun and massacred by the masses of daemons.

Force Psykers joined the fight; their lightsabres alight with colour as they jumped to Revans side. His daughter appeared beside him and punched a hole into a horned daemon with a blast of force energy. Before long a barrier was created around the portal, containing the unholy incursion of warped monsters but it was getting weaker, more powerful warp beasts were stampeding through the portal and the Daemonettes who were striking from the sky were joined by the much larger silhouettes of warp dragons and wyverns.

"Father we can't hold out like this much longer" Sonya said as she gritted her teeth and shrugged off the urge to wipe away the sheen of sweat from her brow "The longer we wait the stronger they will become!"

"Agreed, all force psykers with me" he shouted before gathering the force around him and channelling it through his body, unleashing it as a beam of concentrated green energy. The beam blasted through the ranks of daemons creating a temporary path right through them to the now glowing form of Kahn. Together Revan and another twenty force psykers speared their way into the closing path, their lightsabres blurs of deadly colour, lobbing off limps and cutting through deformed torsos.

Kahn saw them and raising his hand unleashed a terrifying blast of warp energy making Revan and his strike team jump away into the sea of daemons surrounding them. Three of his knights were too slow and caught in the blast of power, their bodies turned into charred husks of what they once where. His taskforce was now separated and every few moments he flinched involuntarily as another of his knight's fell to the overwhelming daemons. His force numbering twenty brave souls when they charged into the fray now numbered eleven and falling by the minute.

He created a force bubble around himself and wadded through the masses, feeling the lives of a few dozen of his space marines wink out of existence as they clashed with the daemons, trying desperately to get to their commanders before it was too late.

Finally Revan blasted through to the warp portal, a rippling mass of red energy which bubbled with the cries of thousands of tortured souls. Panting heavily Revan began to mumble an ancient incantation, specially made by the first force masters when they fought the forces of chaos so many millennia ago. He felt his force bubble begin to waver and dissipate as he poured more of his power into the incantation, the warp gate had to be closed, no matter the cost. He felt his daughter jump up beside him and forcing her force ability past her limitations, creating a barrier around her father and allowing him to continue with his ancient sealing spell.

He breathed a thank you and continued onward, his own ability still wavering even if he didn't have to defend himself. A ball of blindingly pure white light appeared in front of him and with a flick of his wrist he grabbed it and channelled as much energy as he possibly could into it, it was only then that he threw it into the portal and watched with satisfaction as it sputtered and died, collapsing in on itself and imploding with a powerful tremor of shockwaves and a gust of wind. Kahn screamed in anger, tinged with fear as the daemons and ruinous powers of the warp took their payment, blasting him through the portal before it finally closed, condemning him to an eternity in the hells of the Immaterium.

It was only then that Revan, spent and exhausted fell to his knees, pulling his mask off of his face so that he could breath. Sonya fell beside him, her own powers spent and close to letting the sweet darkness of unconsciousness take her; he looked over to her and managed a weakened smile. The daemons which threatened to make the city vanish in a sea of bloody colours had turned into red wisps of mist, powerless and unable to keep their physical forms without the warp portal to sustain them.

A barrage of warp shards suddenly encompassed him, peppering his and Sonya's armour with sharp spikes of warp energy. Kane appeared before them, dropping the limp body of an Imperial guard beside him before looking up to stare at Revan with warped, hate filled eyes. Sonya tried to rise to her feet, her entire body shaking with the effort. Kane simply raised his hand and released a blast of energy, blasting a hole into her armour and through her shoulder, she screamed in pain and fell backwards, coughing up blood as she hit the ground.

Revan himself then tried to rise but was thrown into a wall and held there by the seething sorcerer lords will. He then walked casually over to Sonya and kneeling down beside her blasted her with a wave of arc lightning right on the injured shoulder, she screamed again as thousands of volts jolted through her body. Kane simply threw his head back and laughed, blasting away the few surviving space marines who had survived the battle with a barrage of warp fire.

"A fair trade don't you think" he said venomously to Revan "You took my brother so I will take your daughter, and I will make you watch as I kill her. Go on scream for help, squeal" he said as he squeezed her shoulder wound to the point that blood started to flow "No ones going to save you now!!!"

There was a musical war-cry and the psycho-plastic armoured form of Ishta appeared above the sorcerer, her twin witchblades pointed down to deliver a killing blow. She was just stopped in midair as if caught by an invisible hand; the sorcerer wasn't even looking in her direction.

An Eldar among us lowly humans Kane said as his head cranked up to get a glimpse of the Ulthwe warlock. How very interesting…and pathetic

Ishta suddenly started to howl and scream in pain as Kane unleashed a torturous wave of warp energy, breaking through the warlocks mental defences and making every nerve membrane in her body feel as if it was on fire, every vein in her body feel like it was carrying molten lava. With a flick of his wrist Kane smashed a concentrated volley of energy at Ishta, hitting her helmet and cracking it neatly in half, the broken pieces fell to the blood soaked ground letting the Eldar females long white hair cascade past her shoulders, the side of her head cut open and letting her bright red blood spill down the side of her porcelain white face, dying her white hair crimson red. In a final act the lord sorcerer threw her away like a rag doll, aiming to impale her upon the sharpened remains of an iron girder.

There was a blur and Gabriel appeared in front of the Eldar's flight path, catching her limp body and landing on the ground, skidding to a halt with the female warlock in his arms. Her purple eyes were glazed over, going in and out of consciousness like a pendulum rocking back and forth.

Gabriel? her psychic voice asked, weak and faint.

I'm here Ishta.

"A Jedi knight" Kane said as he turned, ignoring the fallen form of Sonya and walking casually in his direction "How very interesting, it appears that I will have to squash these bugs before I can continue my revenge"

Gabriel smiled and turned his head slightly to the right "ARC troopers…deploy!!!"

A hail of red blaster bolts cascaded down from the dark skies as a group of four ARC troopers hovered down on jetpacks. Kane waved his hand and it was like the elites of the Alliance were run over by a rampaging tank, each one hit and thrown across the sky, smashing into the ground with a series of bone crunching thuds. He spun in time to deflect another volley of crimson blaster bolts and with a palm strike threw the second group of ARC troopers flying backwards, crashing into the ruins of a wall and breaking every bone in their bodies.

As the last ARC fell limply to the bloody ground Gabriel had engaged the radical sorcerer, leaving Ishta safe in the care of Alana he jumped high into the air, cutting down with his emerald bladed lightsabre, the blade never reached him for as it came within a few feet it crashed into an invisible barrier. Kane took the chance and grabbing Gabriel's sword arm punched him full power in the stomach, sending him flying backwards and careening through a wall and leaving a crater in the one behind it.

Kane started to stalk towards the fallen Jedi, his entire form radiating death and murderous intent "You shouldn't have interfered Jedi" he said "We will deal with your kind soon enough. Once our plans are set into motion your home galaxy will fall, the Alliance left in ruins, the temples, enclaves and planets belonging to force sensitive's will burn under the fire of our armadas!"

Images started to flicker in Gabriel's mind. He saw the Jedi temples of Ossus and Corusant as smouldering ruins, chaos marines gunning down Jedi no matter what age they were, he saw younglings hiding within the council chambers hacked to pieces by berserkers, the Jedi high council members, bloodied and violated, crucified upon eight pointed stars, hung up over the corpse strewn ruins. He saw Dathomir, home to the Dathomiri witches burn under the fire of an armada of battleships and battlecruisers, the once beautiful forests of the surface burning along with the villages of the witch tribes, the surviving warrior women found and crucified upon those same eight pointed stars. Similar conclaves and holy places of other orders were found and similarly purged, the followers of the currant, the Jeenasari, the Nightsisters all found and massacred to the last.

"Your sick" Gabriel managed "You make the Sith look like saints!"

"Ah the Sith" Kane said as if chiding him "They will be next"

He saw a fleet of black hulled star destroyers burning in space, wreckage of starfighters and escort frigates strewn around them. He saw the familiar form of Dark Lady Lumiya, someone whom he considered his worst enemy for a decade fighting valiantly against the Chaos hordes, surviving Dark Jedi, apprentices and crimson armoured stormtroopers rallying around her, not enough. They were all captured and crucified on the ruined surface of Denon, the five dark gods of Chaos watching from high above with smiles on their faces.

"Enough sorcerer" Revan said as he shakily got to his feet "Your fight is here"

The sorcerer turned, breaking his nightmare hold on the Jedi master and letting him fall to the ground, coughing and sputtering. He walked over to Revan, his eyes alive with warp energy "Ah so Revan the Grey" he said, his voice low and venomous "You are to weakened to fight me. Right now I could kill you with one blast!"

"I know you can" Revan replied through ragged breaths "Which is why it's not me your fighting"

"Oh" Kane replied "And who might I be facing?"

Me

Kane turned in time to be struck by the most powerful force-push he had ever encountered, the force behind it throwing him through the air, bouncing off the cracked concrete and heaved earth like a pebble across water. He found his feet and skidded to a halt to see who had struck him. The woman wore long flowing brown robes, the hood up over her head hiding the top half of her features. Kane screamed in uncontrollable fury and pointed his staff towards the newcomer, unleashing the most powerful beam of warp energy he had ever fired.

The woman raised her right hand palm up and the beam was halted, the power made her skid backwards and the hood fly off of her head showing long dark blonde hair and emerald green eyes, her skin was pale, smooth, unblemished and even in the heat of his rage the sorcerer had to marvel at the woman's beauty. She pushed her hand forward firing a powerful salvo of green force lightning, pushing back the warp energy thrown against her and smashing straight into the fatigued chaos sorcerer, the green lightning encompassed him, burning every nerve ending and coursing through his veins.

This attack was known as the lightning of redemption, a powerful attack not so different to the dark sides force lightning; only its power was increased tenfold. In the entire history of lightside force psykers only a handful, including Revan were ever able to summon it, and never to the degree of finesse and control that this one psyker was showing.

"Wait, wait" Kane found himself shouting as the lightning continued to flow through him, ravaging his organs and destroying his nerve centres "I know you, my master warned me about you, your that force psyker…Exile, you're the Jedi Exile!!!"

"Oh" the exile said as she continued the onslaught "And who is your master? I know that this power you have shown is not your own, someone is lending it to you…who?"

The sorcerers armour started to chip and crack, his helmet breaking in two showing the grotesque features of a man corrupted by the ruinous powers underneath, even through the pain Kane smiled at the exile.

"Sorry" he said as the green energy was replaced by red "He doesn't wish you to know that yet"

He spun his staff over his head and drove it into the ground just as the lightning finished its task. A powerful shockwave blasted out in all directions, decimating any surviving ruins and burning away his flesh, leaving nothing behind but a charred black skeleton. As the shockwave crashed towards the exile and the survivors she called up a barrier, blocking the assault and containing it within a force bubble until it dissipated.

------

Deep within the ruinous energies of the Immaterium lord sorcerer Kahn screamed and roared in uncontrollable fury and rage, his hands unleashing blasts of warp energy upon any daemons that got too close. He had felt his brother's death and cursed Revan in every language he knew, he screamed threats and cries of vengeance into the warp, not caring that the Force Master wasn't there to hear them.

The sounds of laughter brought him out of his rage, resounding from every direction like a thousand fiends were laughing at once.

Poor little sorcerer It said. Summoning the ruinous powers like that and not even caring about the consequences.

"Who are you!!?" Kahn screamed into the void.

I, sorcerer of the Night Lords am your master It replied, its voice turning into an echoing rasp that chilled Kahn to the core I am known as Shingai, the Chaos God of fear and terror…although I suppose that since your legion did not attend my appearance you would not have heard of me.

My legion?

Yes little sorcerer…if I am not mistaken your legion is known as the Night Lord…a legion that fights through instilling fear and terror into your enemies before tearing them apart

"You do your homework" Kahn said flatly; only know realising that the masses of daemons around him had vanished into the mass of colours and clouds of the Immaterium.

Of course little sorcerer the voice replied I do need to chose my own legion after all…Khorne has his world eaters, Tzeentch has the Thousand Sons, Nurgle the Death Guard and Slaneesh the Emperor's Children…

"The Night Lords Legion does not bow to the fictional dark gods of Chaos like those other fools…we believe in the warp as simply a tool, a power source to our own ends" Kahn spat.

Oh is that what you think…well think again

What Kahn saw next terrified him to the core, the wisps of coloured cloud around him began to shift and move, joining together and creating a physical body ten times his size. Long black hair, drenched in blood appeared at its skull, armour that shinned with a hundred thousand colours was edged into existence and a pair of ruby red eyes starred out from the still forming black mass, turning into a shade of yellow which screamed with the terrified cries of hundreds of souls, wings sprouted from his back and clawed hands formed at his sides. The dark god of fear looked at him, his yellow eyes starring through his tainted soul.

Tell me Night Lord…do I look like a myth to you?

Kahn couldn't even open his mouth let alone speak out, the anguished screams of a million souls pierced through his ears making him believe that he would lose the last few scrapes of his sanity to those sickening yellow eyes which showed no emotion, no fear or hatred, they just starred into him, like they were starring through him.

You Night Lords are getting weak and pathetic in your old age. You are leaderless and acting like little more than lowly pirates and raiders, striking at the Imperium with absolutely no real greater strategy. Your ability to incite fear into a population is why I wish for your Legion to become my own.

M-My lord Kahn just managed to say T-There will be those who will not believe this…T-There will be those who will continue to see the dark gods as mere myth.

Then I will make them see the errors of their ways little sorcerer Shingai replied, averting his gaze from the terrified sorcerer and walking into the mist of the warp You have proven yourself as a strong and skilled wielder of the dark arts…that warp tear you created should not have been possible without a squad of sorcerers…but you did it alone and that is a power that I can use…you will be returned to the material realm, return to the Night Lords homeworld and tell them that I wish to speak with them…understand?

"Y-yes my master" Kahn found himself saying.

Do this for me sorcerer and I will allow you to have your revenge

I hope this was a good ending to the battle…if not I'll scrape the chapter and start over. And for those of you who are getting impatient I will be starting on the Emperor soon enough, just be patient.