2.3

It was time.

I stood ready, all across the island. I had a hundred thousand bodies, many of them hidden away in Quiet places here and there. I did not expect to use them, but having insurance against Daemons was always a wise idea. Most were temporary, a just-in-case measure for... well, just-in-case.

It was dark, out. And the moon...

It was easy to see. Pale and sickly white light giving way to an evil red. Raw malice, filling air, filling space, enough to make a man choke... Enough to whet my appetite.

Here it comes~

The moon finishes the change, its light dyeing the world the crimson colour of blood.

I can feel barriers weaken. The scent of the Warp coming closer, just a bit away...

Any moment, a beast will tear its way through with an electric red burst of power...

There! I can feel it, taste it, the barrier stretching-

And a ray of gold shines through.

That isn't right. That's not Chaos.

Space cracks opens, a rift spitting out a meteor that glows with shining, distinctly NOT CHAOS Warp Energies. It tastes...

Human? Stronger, purer, but definitely Human. Its a power that pushes away the Chaos surrounding it, combined with... something else, something that's... hardening local space? Shoring up the barriers between realspace and the Warp?

Part of it was a Gellar Field, but there was something more than that to it.

What is going on?

The meteor plummets, falling to the planet's surface. Its path takes it... away from this island, closer to the mainland.

The rift bubbles, and my attention is drawn back to it. One look, and I can see a truly hideous amount of red spilling out, the air filling with more malice than I've felt for...

Decades.

I reach for the minds of the hosts of my Symbionts, pushing a warning to them. My hundred thousand bodies are already scrambling, spreading out of their hiding spots, even as I pump energy to spawn more.

Daemons spill from the rift, so many that they're more a solid wave of red. They're chasing the powerful energy of the meteor. They don't stick around for long; most of them vanishing back into the Warp when they realize that they're in orbit. A few follow nonetheless, mostly flying types.

Whatever that meteor is, I can't let them have it. I focus on the meteor, working the math in my mind. It takes a moment, but I gather energy, grip space, and pull.

A sudden intense gravity surge curves the trajectory of the meteor, redirecting it towards the island. It will land... roughly in the northern part. I shift my bodies again, preparing to gather them wherever it lands.

The Daemons are already arriving, appearing on the island with puffs of purple-pink power. I start killing them immediately, multitudes of bodies meeting multitudes of Daemons.

I had not been prepared for this number, not so suddenly. Still, the situation isn't completely out of control, not yet, and so long as it isn't, I don't have to pull out my trump cards.

Minutes pass in deathly slowness. I shoot, I stab, I charge, I grapple, I attack with everything I have, I kill, and I consume. Daemons flood down my gullet, and I use every bit of energy I'm getting from it as my bodies die and I replace them.

The meteor smashes into the ground with a thunderous boom, shaking the earth with its power. It hits in the middle of a forest, the impact clearing a fair part of it away, and setting fire to good portion beyond that.

I ignore the destruction, closing in immediately. A Mimic-self, of course, is the first to arrive, the fastest and closest thing I have available.

It's imbedded partially in the ground, but it's surprisingly intact for something that just fell from orbit.

Beyond that... It's metal. Tough and strong, a particularly dense and tough mix that I'm more than familiar with; Adamantium. Roughly the shape of rounded cylinder, appearing as some sort of pod. There's power, lingering around it, just as I tasted before.

With a pulse of electric red, I'm suddenly out of time to analyze it. My Mimic-self spins around, coming to face a Bloodletter, which snarls. I waste no time, shooting a bolt of energy at it, and it dodges out of the way, moving with supernatural quickness. It swings its sword, slashing wildly. My Mimic-self shoots back, moving out of the way, before firing again. It doesn't move quite fast enough to dodge completely this time, and it takes the shot straight its side.

A Mimic's attack is a lot stronger than it looks. It punches through the Daemon skin, melting it away, and I draw that energy in immediately.

There's another crackle, and another Bloodletter appears.

Just as it does, a bolt of energy shoots out of the destroyed treeline, slamming into it and violently exploding. The Daemon is sent flying, and a pair of Howler-selves come in, followed shortly by a Clasher-self. More are on the way, and they'll be here soon. I just need to buy time.

Then again, the same is true for them.

I fire immediately, shooting bolts and waves of power at the downed Daemon. It disintegrates under the attacks, finished off quickly. The trouble with ranged attacks is that I can't quite capture all of that energy, but in this scenario, I don't really care, either.

Especially since it is immediately replaced by another three. They move with coordination, and promptly slice my Mimic-self to pieces. The energy matrice destabilizes, and it promptly collapses into base energy with a burst of heat and light.

They waste no time following that up, though my Clasher-self is hardier and the Howler-selves much more agile. The former gets a pair of blades, but survives long enough to fire breaker-waves at point blank, getting revenge on the Daemons. Neither of them are dead, but they are wounded.

With a howling roar that announces they don't intend to give me that time, another pair of Daemons appear in the clearing. This time, only one of them is a Bloodletter, because the other is a Juggernaut, a massive, almost mechanical beast made of corrupted iron and brass.

It charges immediately.

Too bad for them, I don't care for their intentions. A massive, glowing polyhedron crashes down in front of it, promptly detonating in an impressive explosion that knocks even the Juggernaut clean off its feet.

The energy quickly reconstitutes into bodies, four Clasher-selves and a pair of Klaxon-selves. In the air above is a Torrent-self, providing rapid transportation for those very same creatures.

The Klaxons were extremely tough, dense and thick shells that could resist even heavy ordinance. Even the Daemonblades would find it difficult to cut through. They weren't much taller than the Clashers, but they were wider, quadrupedal, and significantly more massive, closer to a tank than anything else. There weren't many things that could pose a threat to them.

I heard the flapping of wings, right before an even more massive beast cleaved my Torrent-self in two as it fell to the ground, smashing into the ground in front of the Klaxons. It rose, rearing up to its full height, looking like a much larger, much more evil, and much angrier version of the Bloodletters.

There weren't many things that could pose a threat to them.

But a Bloodthirster was definitely on that list.