"Wrath and vengeance, grudge and strife, we march into the afterlife!" Bardin sang as the shots from his pistol found their mark in the hoard of rats, beasts, and norse savages. The ranger held a hammer in his other hand, smashing the heads of those who managed to get too close, staining him with their blood and gore.
The impossible architecture of the Citadel of Eternity made defense nearly impossible, but such odds had been made normal to the Ubersreik Five as they continued to fight on and hold against the vile tide.
As the dwarf finished off a downed marauder, the sudden sound of cranking machinery reached his ears, looking up at one of the floating platforms revealed a rat operating one of their many ramshackle war machines.
"Ratling gunner!" Bardin shouted as he raised his pistol to fire at the gunner, his shot would have struck true, had the magazine not been empty.
"Kruk!" The dwarf yelled as the rat finished cranking its gun and aimed directly at him.
As Bardin's face filled with dread at the impending barrage of warpstone bullets that would shred through him, a familiar figure rushed in front of the ranger, bracing with a shield.
The ratling gunner fired all the same, expecting to shoot through the 'man-thing's' shield, like had been done many times before, only to find his guard unbroken.
The rat didn't have much time to ponder over the matter as a bullet soon pierced through his skull, causing him to fall into the endless void below.
"Taal's teeth! That was a bit close," Kruber exclaimed as he refocused his attention on a group of Skaven charging in now that the risk of friendly fire was no longer present.
"Be more careful Goreksson," Saltzpyre chided from a distance as he holstered his spent pistol and drew another from his brace, firing it into a charging berserker. "Neither Sigmar nor Valaya needs another dwarf slain at the hands of these vile creatures."
"Are you worried about me, Grimgi?" Bardin bantered, brushing off the near-death experience as he reloaded his pistol, "It'd take much more than that to fell a dawi, and I knew Azumgi was watching my back."
"I have my doubts about that, master dwarf," The witch hunter retorted, as he dodged out of the way of a beastman's axe before dispatching it by piercing through the creature's throat.
Saltzpyre engaged an advancing crowd of beastmen and marauders, disarming, stabbing, and slashing all that came near. His momentum was suddenly halted, however, by the appearance of a hulking armored brute.
"The grandfather welcomes you, southlander!" The chaos warrior exclaimed as he swung his great axe.
"Your foul 'gods' are nothing before the righteous!" Saltzpyre shouted back as he dodged the blow, before firing a shot into the warrior's chest and stabbing his head through the gap in his helmet.
The witch hunter's strikes would have felled any ordinary man, but it was insufficient to down the demonic bulwark blessed by the plague god.
As Saltzpyre's rapier found itself stuck in rotting flesh and pus, the warrior struck back with his fist, knocking the witch hunter back and sending him to the floor.
The brute advanced onto the witch hunter's fallen figure, readying an overhead strike to finish him off.
"Ashqy!" a voice yelled out as the air around them suddenly filled with heat.
A flaming skull suddenly burst through the warrior's chest, melting through both rotted flesh and rusted metal before biting the warrior's head. In mere moments, the warrior's head and helmet were reduced to ash and molten slag before the firey skull faded into the air.
Having gotten his bearings back, the witch hunter rolled out of the way of the warrior's collapsing body, before standing up and flicking the fat and pus off of his rapier.
"Seems like you should be more careful yourself, darling," The battle wizard mocked playfully as she engulfed the surrounding horde in gouts of flame, "Can't have the embarrassment of being saved by a witch on your record now, can you Saltzpyre?"
"The same can be said for you," Saltzpyre replied flatly as he drew his pistol and shot at a hook rat that had attempted to sneak up on Sienna, "But your assistance is appreciated, wizard."
"These bloody bastards just keep coming!" Kruber shouted as he finished off a mauler by bashing in its throat with his shield.
"Not like we haven't faced worse before, Azumgi!" Bardin replied as he stood with his back to the former sergeant's, blocking arrows shot by ungor archers with his shield and retaliating with a shot from his pistol.
"That so?" Kruber questioned while knocking back a plague monk before decapitating it with a sword strike, "Can't say anything comes to mind, big gap between carrying grain and jumping into a chaos wastes hellhole."
"Aye, perhaps," The dwarf continued, bashing a stormvermin in its face with a shield before finishing it with a shot to the head, "But think of the story we can tell when this is over, 'The Saga of Mighty Bardin and his sidekicks' will be a classic for generations to come."
"Sidekicks?" Kruber parroted amusedly as he kicked a charging clan rat in the face, "Bit of a mouthful, I think 'The Triumph of Sir Kruber' has a better ring to it."
The sudden sound of a warpfire thrower's clanking at their flank caught the two bantering fighters off guard; but just before it could incinerate the pair, an arrow of woodelf-making found its mark in one of the volatile tubes connected to the weapon's fuel tank, causing it and the rat operating it to explode in a burst of green flames.
"Try to keep your attention on your surroundings, lumberfoots," The waystalker snarked as she rained arrows down upon the hordes from her vantage point, "And besides, 'Kerillian and Her Endless Nursemaiding of Mayfly Children' would be a much more fitting name."
"Why don't you argue about it when we get back?" Sienna interrupted, as a roaring stormfiend leaped down from a floating platform, "If we get back."
"Have faith! Sigmar guides us this hour!" Saltzpyre exclaimed, drawing a much bulkier, double-barreled firearm and firing directly at the armored head of the behemoth.
The witch hunter's heavy shot managed to punch through the stormfiend's armor, and the shrapnel shredded through the creature's unnaturally muscular flesh, but it remained standing.
Raising one of its warpfire thrower arms, the stormfiend spewed out a gout of green flame, at its assailant, which Saltzpyre narrowly dodged.
"Fly true!" Kerillian shouted as she let loose a volley of arrows, which flew in curved motions before finding their mark in the vulnerable components of the weapons, disabling them.
But even without its deadly war machines, the Stormfiend was still as fearsome as any rat ogre, advancing upon the group with the swiftness of its smaller brethren.
"Distract that dronrakogri, Drengbarazi!" Bardin shouted as he began moving.
"On it!" Kruber yelled as he charged the stormfiend, dodging its overhead swing before bashing his shield across the beast's armored head, "Kneel before Sir Kruber, you filthy bastard!"
Successfully distracted by the former sergeant, Sienna, Saltzpyre, and Kerillian laid down supporting fire, shredding, piercing burning the stormfiend's flesh.
The stormfiend began to lose steam, clearly weakened by its injuries and the poison that had been coated on the woodelf's arrows. However, similar things could be said for the group, who were running low on ammunition and energy.
Weary from holding off the beast, Kruber was unable to dodge a swipe from the stormfiend's bulky arm, barely blocking the blow with his shield, but still being knocked down.
Just as the sergeant was about to be pinned down and beaten, a cloud of smoke engulfed the area, blinding the stormfiend and leaving it disorientated. The creature's confusion did not last long, however, as the sound of a smashing hammer came from behind. The brain rat which had been controlling the stormfiend had been crushed by the dwarf ranger, causing the beast to collapse as the twice-lobotomized vegetable it now was.
"The beast's down," Bardin exclaimed as he gave the beast a kick for good measure, "Cousin Okri couldn't have done the job better!"
"Would Cousin Okri help get his bloody thing off me?" Kruber asked strainingly, having been caught under the stormfiend's collapsed body.
"Aye, he would." The dwarf replied as he moved to lift the body before looking to the rest of the group "Oi, mind lending a hand, dawri?"
"Not up to the task yourself, dwarf?" Kerillian asked tauntingly as she moved to assist him.
"Do not worry Kruber, we will relieve you of your predicament," Saltzpyre reassured as he moved in as well.
"Be ready to crawl out under that thing, Markus," Sienna said as she stuck her staff under the stormfiend, intending to use it as a lever.
With the efforts of the group, the stormfiend's body had been lifted up enough for Kruber to escape its hold.
"By Taal, I'll be sure to step back next time," Kruber said, breathing a sigh of relief as he realized the silence around them, "Sounds like they've stopped coming."
"Divine intervention, maybe?" Sienna suggested, "It's happened before, hasn't it?"
"There is no 'maybe' about it," Saltzpyre retorted as he reloaded his firearms, "We came here seeking guidance from our gods. Our faith and valiant efforts have proven us worthy of their attention."
"Sigmar," The witch hunter began before turning to each of his companions.
"Taal," Addressing Kruber, who now stood straighter than usual.
"Valaya," Addressing Bardin, who was puffing out his chest in pride.
"Myrmidia," Addressing Sienna, who smiled warmly, appreciating the relatively amicable tone the witch hunter was speaking in.
"And... that pagan horror the elf worships," Addressing Kerillian, who now bore a look of annoyance.
"Lileath," The waystalker corrected, making no effort to conceal her irritation.
"Whatever," Saltzpyre said dismissively as he continued speaking, "They have seen us and now they grant us respite."
The witch hunter then turned to the altar at the center of the platform, "Soon, they shall grant us an audience."
The great deceiver looked upon one of his many gameboards, one which had recently been breached by a group of new pieces.
The Citadel of Eternity was one of his many prized designs, a beacon that attracted the desperate and the foolish to its core, like moths to a flame.
Out of all the prizes the primordial being was happy to get its claws on, the small group from Ubersreik was a niche gem, something overlooked with everything happening in the wake of End Times but deeply cherished. It would not be too long before this world was destroyed, visions of the future, dubious as they were, all pointed to its destruction, and with it would come the end of the game.
The deceiver felt somewhat sorrowful on that matter, that was a cycle he was familiar with, everything had a beginning and end, and soon the end would come to the group from Ubersreik as well.
A sudden realization came to the deceiver: he had the group right in the palm of his hand; he had the power to preserve them, to ensure that their story, and by extension his entertainment, would continue on.
The deceiver began looking through the worlds he could plant the pieces, eventually coming to the perfect one; it was a world that was similar but also very different to the one they were currently inhabiting, and one controlled by beings of a similar deviousness to himself, rivals in other words, and he was never one to shy away from competition.
The Ubersreik Five climbed the stairs of the platform, eventually reaching the altar at its end.
"Finally here," Sienna remarked, looking upon the altar, "So, which of us is going first, darlings?"
"Well this whole expedition was Grimgi's idea in the first place," Bardin responded, "It's only fair if he's the first here as well."
"I can get behind that," Kruber added, nudging the witch hunter forward playfully, "Go on Sir, can't keep Sigmar waiting, eh?"
"This is not the light matter that you are treating it as," Saltzpyre chided as he stepped forward, "But I am honored by your sentiments."
"Just hurry it up One-Eye," Kerillian snarked, "Some of us have real gods to pray to."
"Quiet Elf!" The witch hunter barked back before kneeling down in prayer. "Blessed Sigmar, I ask that you hear me, your humble servant..."
As he spoke out his prayers, a radiant light began to glow above the altar.
"Well I'll be, Sigmar is really listening!" Kruber exclaimed in awe.
"Look at that Wutelgi, seems you were wrong about Sigmar." Bardin teased.
"A little light does not prove the divinity of some long-dead barbarian," Kerillian stubbornly argued.
As the light continued to grow more and more radiant, Sienna began to feel a strange discomfort, the voice in the back of her mind spoke up. "You should know as well as I what that is, dear sister."
"Darlings, get back!" Sienna yelled out, reaching to pull Saltzpyre away from the altar, but it was too late.
The light exploded, enveloping the group in a blinding flash.
Then everything went dark.