Fatorum ruptor (Inquisitorial cruiser) -Year: 913.M34 -Location: Ultima Segmentum, Moving out of the Goul stars -POV: Anon
Anon still couldn't get used to traveling in space, it was already a challenging task to keep his mind sane with the thoughts of thousands upon thousands of crewmen pouring into his mind, it was even harder to do so while in the warp. Even with the Geller fields he still could feel the daemons bashing themselves against the small bubble of reality, their souls were quite tempting for the denizens of the sea of souls, not to mention the one that shined brightly as a beacon in the dark, the Witch's soul alone was brighter than anything they have seen.
For the Silver masked Witch, most of the time in the warp was spent shielding his soul, and trying to avoid awful visions of the possible futures in which he died horribly, but even then the cursed visions find their way into his nightmares, as if the thoughts of thousands of crewmen wasn't enough. Every day for Anon was a struggle, after the eleventh time, he completely gave on the idea of sleep, he won't need it anymore, whatever he'll receive from its lack would heal anyways.
In the last few days, Anon busied himself by familiarizing himself with the ship, from what he read from William's mind, or at least the amount he could read without being noticed, he realized his future was that of servitude to the Inquisition which suited him just fine, it might be dangerous, no, it definitely will be dangerous but it was of no matter, the Witch has already discarded any idea of comfort from his mind.
After passing himself as an Inquisitorial acolyte who lost his master, Anon or Jermai in this case, was granted permission to study the archives within the ship, though anything remotely important was removed, the Inquisitor did not trust him, not at all, he was only keeping him on the ship in order to keep an eye on him, and discover whether Anon was telling the truth or not, unfortunately for William, he will never uncover his lies, Anon has already sensed the security measures he has put in place, Avina the assassin was the first amongst this efforts.
Although all of the important things from the archives were removed, they still contained many interesting things so they were worth a read. After his daily studies were over, he spends the rest of his time training with melee and ranged weapons under William's orders, most likely a test to evaluate his skills and develop countermeasures towards them, if the Witch was to ever turn out to be a traitor, they would be ready for him.
The masked man was completely ok with this, he was learning more and more skills while also gaining the Inquisitor's trust by pretending to show everything he got. The worst part about it, however, was that the one who trained him in melee was Avina, the one who hated his guts for being a "Cursed Witch", and yes she used every opportunity to cause him pain.
While the Assassin tended to his CQC skills, the Arbite trained him with ranged weapons. Ishmael, who also hated Anon, the difference being, at least he wasn't actively trying to kill him... most of the time.
As for the crew of the ship, no one talked to him unless absolutely necessary, he was a psyker on top of being an outsider so that much is expected.
After a few weeks of living on the ship, the Inquisitor finally called him to his "Office" which in reality was an interrogation room. As the Witch entered the room, he noticed the bland decoration of the room, two steel chairs and a table with lots of chains, Inquisitor was sitting on of the tables as he noticed the masked man enter, he pointed at the chair in front of him and ordered Anon to sit.
Anon sent out a hard-to-detect psychic wave across the room as he sat, the entire room was covered in a psychic ward that reduced the amount of power a psyker could use, unfortunately for them, Anon was not a run of the mil psyker, he could easily pass through the wards, though it was harder to do so without breaking the wards.
"As I'm sure you already know, I do not question my "Guests" under these circumstances" the Inquisitor began, carefully selecting his words to take control of the interrogation's flow from the start.
'He is being quite polite for a man of his rank, his colleagues would've chained me the moment I step on the ship' the Witch noted "I appreciate your hospitality, I do understand the extent to which you're going, my lord" Anon bowed his head.
"Then you understand why you are here?" William asked a question Anon already knew the answer for, his background was shady, too shady for the Inquisitor's liking, for him, the Silver masked Witch was the unknown waters, exploring it may result in either a great boon or a terrible curse.
The silver masked Psyker began to creep his way into William's mind, normally, doing such a thing was a death sentence for a normal Psyker. Unlike what the uneducated believe, the "Witchs" cannot read your mind without you noticing, that was an exaggeration born from the hate of the common folk towards the Psykers. The trails of every Psyker can be felt within the mind, most cannot delve into another's mind without them noticing. Whenever someone tries to enter your psyche, they leave behind a sensation, tickle-like footsteps that only the most psychically dull people cannot detect.
Anon, however, was not bound by such things, like every psyker, he had a unique ability that was his and his alone, for some its incorruptibility, for some it is an iron will, for some invisibility and much much more. Every psyker has one ability unique to them, though most don't even discover their unique ability, but Anon did, his was the mastery over information. Unlike his kin who have a focus on the opponent's mind, the Silver masked Witch could read them without effort, it felt all natural to him, like breathing air.
But even breathing air might get difficult if it's polluted, in this case, said pollution was training. Although the minds of the civilians are an open book to read through, the psyche of those who honed their minds through training was not, a soldier's mind was far more difficult to read than that of an artisan, it is like comparing a clean plain to that of a swamp, in Inquisitor's case, it was a minefield guarded by bunkers. Difficult? yes, impossible? no. If the Inquisitor's mind was a minefield, then Anon was a bird.
"To prove where my loyalties lie" Anon answered blatantly and directly to the point "Or in our case, to prove my merit to you" the Witch smiled from beneath the mask.
"I was not aware that you could peek through my mind without my consent or awareness"
"If you think I didn't then it must be true, Inquisitor. Psychic powers are not the only way to read one's mind" Anon said, his words were all blended with lies in order to make it more digestible to the skeptic. This was the problem with having no Psykers as your ally, sure you will eliminate the possibility of them turning against you as a puppet for daemons, but you also deprived yourself of their protection. Had the Inquisitor possessed a psyker in telepathy discipline, it might've made a difference, "Might have" being the key word, Anon may be terrible in some of the disciplines like Divination and Pyromancy but he was unmatched in Telepathy, he doubted anyone could see through his lies.
"Really now?" William scoffed with a mocking smile.
"To know one Inquisitor is to know them all, my lord" William raised an eyebrow.
"Had there been another in my place, they might have taken offense to your words" William gave a cold chuckle "Yet here you stand" his voice grew cold "You speak as if you know many of my colleagues, was there anyone other than your dead master?"
"I knew many" Anon lied, his words were all lies yet not quite, he was once an outside viewer of this galaxy, enjoying its grimdarkness from the safety of the pages of the novels, this allowed him to know many of the famous characters more personally than they themselves would like, especially the novels about Inquisitor's written in first person.
"And who were these individuals?" William asked, the Witch had to be careful with his next words, otherwise William's judgment will fall upon him.
"Not all secrets can be shared, not even to those of your own kind, the secrets of my masters along with their identity will die with me" William's face hardened at his response, seems like he didn't like his answer, he didn't like it at all.
"You think less of me for hiding information?" Anon asked, he could already sense tens of stormtroopers waiting outside, ready to respond on William's whim.
"I know you're walking on unstable grounds"
"You of all people should know the importance of secrecy, my lord"
"And you should know not to hide something from me" William's finger softly landed on the button beneath the table, though he didn't press it, Anon didn't know what the contraption did but he didn't like to find out.
"Even if you knowing might endanger the future of the Imperium?" the Witch's words took the Inquisitor off guard, his eyes were not completely locked on to his, ready to judge and deliver the Emperor's judgment if the Witch spoke too much out of line.
"You walk steadily on that path, Witch!" William growled his order "Imperium is undefeatable, no amounts of petty trickery may make me believe otherwise"
"Your kind spoke ill of the greenskins before, yet they were the closest in conquering Terra after Horus himself" Anon said, a small part of his mind wished he didn't, the Inquisitor's eyes were now burning in rage "Before you torture and execute me, my lord, allow me to tell you this" Anon brought up his hand as a gesture for the Inquisitor to calm down, it did little to quench his anger "Not everything is what they appear to be, Imperium is the same. Like many before it, Imperium can fall as well if we do not continue our vigil" hearing this, the Inquisitor slammed his fist against the table, he has reached his limit.
"I have finally heard enough, was that your last word?" William said as he pushed the button beneath the table.
Suddenly, the wards around the room grew in strength, two times, three times, four times, six times, and finally eight times, the wards grew in strength eight times more than before, the wards were powerful enough to cripple any psyker trapped within it.
"No" the Witch said calmly, his demeanor stunned the Inquisitor, it was as if the wards did nothing to stop him.
A few seconds later, Anon felt fifteen soldiers rushing into the room, he quickly closed the door shut with his mind which stopped them in their tracks. William looked toward the door as he heard the sounds of people trying to open it, his reinforcements were cut off.
William's face hardened as his hand slowly went over his bolt pistol, though he didn't dare to pull it, he doubted his reaction speed would be as fast as the Witch's.
"Do you realize the gravity of your mistake? No one can survive the Inquisition's wrath" William said.
"I am... I was a part of the Inquisition, I do not plan to destroy all I worked for" Anon lied.
"Oh sorry, the situation is rather mistakable" Anon chuckled at William's words, his gaze slowly turned towards the door, soon the sounds of people trying to break in stopped, all of them were now knocked out, no one will now bother the two of them.
"Inquisitor" William gulped as he heard his title, now the Witch's undived attention was on him "Before any more of your retinue came to interrupt us, I wish to offer you an accord"
"What? what are you playing at?" William asked.
"I offer you my services, Inquisitor, freely given and without restraint. I offer you the truth" the masked man said, William carefully looked as the Witch pulled two crystals from beneath his sleeves, he should've been thoroughly scanned before the interrogation for anything harmful, how did he manage to pass through the scans? he didn't know.
The Witch then proceeded to put the crystals in front of him on the table, one was black, the other colorless and translucent "What are these?" the Inquisitor asked.
"A choice, my lord" the Witch informed, casually "Both of these crystals are imbued with my psychic powers, their purpose is to allow me to make you this offer" William carefully studied the crystals, now that he paid attention, he could see the crystals illuminating a faint glow "Choose the black one and all the memories of me being on the ship will be erased, no one on the ship will even remember my existence, I will then hide within the ship, until an opportunity present itself, then I will leave and bother you no longer"
"You think I will allow you to escape? I rather blow up my ship than let you roam free and cause harm to the Imperium" William threatened, it was true, someone with Anon's unique ability can cause quite the harm, maybe even in segmentum scale.
"My purpose is to save Imperium and humanity, not needless destruction, my fight is with the forces of chaos, not you" Anon explained "Besides, no one in this ship can stop me" there was a high chance that the Witch was bluffing but for some reason, William couldn't shake off the feeling that he was telling the truth.
"And the other one?" the Inquisitor asked.
The Witch gave a dry chuckle "What you asked of me when we first met, the truth and my services" the Witch answered "So, Inquisitor Husan, two paths are laid before you, either choose the path of ignorance or help me with saving the Imperium from the darkness of M41" William's eyes widened as he heard the year the Witch spoke of.
"M41? as in 40000 AD? do you know what will happen in the future?" the Inquisitor asked but the Witch remained silent "What is going to happen in M41?" again, there were no answers from the Witch "TELL ME!" he shouted and stood up but just like before, he was ignored.
Anon looked at the eyes of the Inquisitor in front of him, he could sense fear and worry emanating from the Daemon hunter 'I forgot how much humans valued the Imperium' Anon mentally chuckled, he wasn't going to answer his question, not when he already gave him a choice, he simply gestured towards the crystals "What will you do, my lord?"
William sat back down, his eyes going between the crystals and the psyker in front of him, after minutes that felt like hours, he finally made his decision.
"Emperor preserve me" he muttered the prayers as his hand went over the translucent crystal, he was going to regret this, wasn't he?
It was always a struggle to get from one point of the ship to another, the Inquisitorial ship was 4km long and was built like a labyrinth, the worst part however was the fact that Avina's training area was far away from Ishmael's shooting range, forcing Anon to make walk the distance between the two each day. Sometimes he felt this was William's way of taking revenge for what he had done.
After half an hour of walking, Anon reached his destination, the worst part of his current life, training with Avina. Don't get him wrong, Anon has grown cold over the long time he had lived, living for that long does that to people but he wasn't immune to pain, he wasn't this emotionless killing machine that feared nothing, he was still a human deep down so he liked to avoid pain wherever possible, this included Avina's "Proper" training methods which were often performed with real blades.
As the Witch entered the room Avina turned back to look at him, her fiery gaze was burning with hatred. She was everything you would expect of a death cult assassin, black and red skin-tight suit, two eastern blades, needles placed on her thighs as secondaries, and a lot more weapons hiding somewhere in her body. Avina had long black hair shaped into a long ponytail which remained Anon of sisters of silence. Her body had reached human perfection and showed her assassin nature, it made her look like an athlete from his previous life but far more deadly. She was tattoed with religious iconographies all over her body, at least the parts Anon could see, even her face was tattoed. There was a long scar above her right eye which is probably the reason why she had a cybernetic eye. What disturbed Anon the most, however, were her teeth, they were sharp as if she wanted to eat her prey, her being taller than him didn't make her less intimidating, Anon was a little over 180cm(6ft) and Avina was well over 190cm (6.3ft).
"Is there nowhere safe from the presence of mutants like you?" Avina growled in her usual manner, there was nothing new about the way she talked, most if not all of the crew treated him the same way.
"I know you're quite fond of me, but I rather start our practicum than waste time on pleasantries" the Witch grabbed a sword from the stand nearby, it was an arming sword but made with far superior material than steel or iron "What kind of horrors are you going to unleash on me this time?" he asked, jokingly, he received his answer with sounds of blades being unsheathed.
Avina was not fond of Anon, in other words, she was disgusted by his sight, mainly because of him being a mutant. Even though she hated his guts, she still taught him properly, instead of teaching bad stances or techniques to sabotage his progress, but that was mainly because it was William's orders, not because she was a responsible teacher.
During his time on Thule, the Witch had trained himself in the art of melee combat due to an unfortunate accident he had with savage orks, and because not knowing how to handle yourself in CQC was a terrible idea in the galaxy of 40k, the best warriors of this unreasonable galaxy were all either psykers or melee combatants, he needed to keep up with them.
The more the Witch trained with the Assassin, the more he appreciate her way with the blade, her way was far superior to his self-taught fighting style in every way, both graceful and efficient though it was extremely sadistic which didn't fit Anon's taste, he just wanted to end the fight quickly so he changed some parts of her teachings to suit his taste, and results were good.
Due to the readiness of his body after hundreds of years of training, and his already written muscle memory, Anon became more skillful every day and each day, he added another technique to his fighting style. The Witch learned how to combine his blade skills with acrobatics, just the way Avina taught him, he wasn't as good as her yet, but it was definitely an improvement.
After exhausting all of his energy and receiving 11 new cut wounds from his "teacher", Anon went to the shooting range. Going from Avina to Ishmael was changing one zealot with another but with less beating.
Ishmael is your typical army instructor with a little flavor of religious dogmatism. When Anon was sent into the training field for the first time, Ishmael was disgusted at Anon's physic, combined with his previous hate for psykers, the physical and ranged training quickly became hell. Ishmael showed him how bad and unbalanced his body was, Anon had a good body shape but unfortunately, the body standards of M2 didn't hold up well in 40k, his training became so harsh that the only thing that kept Anon going was the psychic power that allowed him to rejuvenate some of his stamina.
After 4 hours of hellish treatment which Ishmael remarked that it was "better than being in schola", Anon finally retreated to his room. Important crew members including Inquisitor's close retinue had better rooms than other crew members, which translated to a gothic-style motel room which suited him just fine, he used to live in a primitive feudal world, he rather live in the engine room rather than going back to Thule, mostly because of cleanliness of the ship.
Upon entering his room, Anon saw his lunch on the table, because mutants like him weren't welcome in the ship's mess hall, so a servitor was tasked with bringing his food into his room every day, the appearance of the half-dead mechanical corpse was not appetizing at all. At least the food's taste was good, except for ration bars Ishmael forced him to eat in order to grow his muscles in the "Right way".
The Witch lost himself in his thoughts as he continue to eat his meal, was this going to be his life from now on? one day he was on a nameless unimportant feudal planet, the other day he was traveling across the stars in an Inquisitorial ship.
'It's certainly not a boring life' the Witch chuckled.
Anon has been struggling ever since he came to this reality, but for some reason, he felt that his path filled with struggle and pain had just begun.
-Planet: Fatorum ruptor (Inquisitorial cruiser) -Year: 913.M34 -Location: Ultima Segmentum, Moving out of the Goul stars -POV: Inquisitor William
William sat on his chair, reading through files within his cogitator unit, the files for his new retinue member, proven acolyte Jermai, were almost complete, soon he will become an official member of his entourage. He will soon climb the ranks with ease and reach the status of 'trusted acolyte' and then to the rank of 'Interrogator', such was the nature of their deal.
The Inquisitor's hand grabbed the bottle of amasec and opened it with his armored figures, he then drank a generous chunk of the drink in one go, the liquor burning his throat as it went down. He cleaned his alcohol-dripped lips with his sleeve, his mind was still capable of higher thought processes even after consuming so much alcohol, he still wished that he didn't choose the white crystal from the silver masked Witch.
It's been a few days since he chose to accept Jermai as his underling, how couldn't he after seeing what he has shown him? the horrors he witnessed in that vision alone was enough to break any man's mind, the vision of the dark future that waited for the Imperium of man, the destruction caused by the fall of Cadia. William has seen the galaxy cut in half, aliens and daemons assaulting human worlds in numbers not seen before, imperial armies decimated, traitor Primarchs wreaking havoc, forge worlds destroyed and so much more.
The horrors unleashed on the galaxy of M41 were not an easy thing to cope with, that's why he has been drowning himself with alcohol, hoping that it might help his mind to process it all, maybe if Jermail had shown the visions one at the time it might've made a difference but then again, that wasn't the case, the only thing that gave a small amount of closer to his mind, was the return of the Emperor's sons, it was comforting to know that despite facing so many horrors, humans of the future were not abandoned by their master.
"Inquisitor" a voice snapped William out of his thoughts, he quickly put the amasac bottle next to five other empty bottles beneath his desk.
The voice that called him belonged to Avina, his cold-hearted Assassin, next to him was William, the only person William could call friend, he had served the longest amongst everyone within his retinue. Both of them noticed the empty bottles as his leg accidentally hit one and caused it to roll into their view.
William was quick to put it back "Last time I checked, knocking was a show of good manners in all worlds, Tallaran was no different" he said, uttering the name of the Arbite's homeworld, even after being trained in such a young age, the Tallarans still prided their world greatly, even indoctrination couldn't remove that pride.
"We need to talk, William" Ishmael said, this time not using his title.
The Inquisitor sighed, he could just order him to use punished for being rude, but he had served him faithfully for a little over a hundred years now, he at least deserved some respect "I am not in the mood, does it have to be now?" the old Arbite turned to glance at the Assassin who just nodded.
Ishmael turned to face the Inquisitor again "There is no better time than now" he said, pausing for a moment "Why did you accept that Witch? he assaulted fifteen of my men, he almost killed Avina on the planet, he threatened you by locking you in the interrogation room yet, you give him the rank of a proven acolyte?" Ishmael asked.
"As if that wasn't enough you asked us to train him to the best of our abilities" the Assassin chimed in "Some of the crewmen even spoke you being tainted in the mind, they think the Witch has enchanted you into giving him his rank"
"What now? I pay them to work not spread baseless rumors" William slammed his fist against the desk, the wooden furniture cracked under the force "My acceptance was not without reason, for one he did not assault the troopers nor did he try to kill Avina on the planet, we were the ones trying to kill him on both accounts, he merely protected himself against us, given his knowledge and its value, it was a reasonable decision"
"Whatever that knowledge may be, it must be quite valuable for it to be a mistake for an enchantment, I'm sorry if I'm not convinced that he is so valuable to warrant such drastic measures in promoting him" Ishmael said in a mocking tone "In all my years of being by your side, I never seen you once trust someone easily as you did with the Witch, why the change of personality now, my lord?"
"Ishmael, Avina!" William called out their names in a cold tone, the two flinched as they heard his voice "Both of you have served me faithfully, from the start of your career until now, so I forgive the insults you two have heralded towards me" the two watched with concern as William's hand softly touched the grip of his bolt pistol "But even my generosity has its limits so I suggest you be very careful with your next words"
William studied the faces of the warriors in front of him, they seem to accept to keep their mouths shut about the situation. However that was not the thing that bothered him, he could see the dissatisfaction in their eyes, they didn't like William's answer.
The Inquisitor sighed, his hand softly massaging his eyes "Jermai has knowledge about the future" William said, catching the two off guard.
"Future?" the Arbite repeated.
"He has shown me the events of M41 in exchange for taking him in" he explained "But that is all I can tell you about without breaking my oath, keep this information to yourselves"
The old Arbite's face hardened while Avina's face was unreadable like most of the time, but William could tell she was confused "They could've been a-"
"They were real, Ishmael, they were not future prophecies or visions, they were memories" he answered the Arbite's question before he could finish it "I don't know how he knows it but he does, but if accepting him within the Inquisition can alter said future even slightly, I will do so without hesitation, and you two also must make sure to help him in any way possible"
With that, the room went silent as the two tried to process the information, was Jermai a time traveler? how did he know about the future better than the scryers of Terra? so many questions went through the Arbite's mind but one prevailed over the rest.
"Did... will the Imperium fall?" the Arbite asked, he asked the question as if even considering the possibility was hard for him, his religious upbringing both on Tallaran and the Schola was screaming in his mind about the impossibility of such an event. Yes, it should impossible yet he has seen so many impossible things occur during his time within the inquisition.
"Heresy! sin unbound!" the Assassin shouted in rage, she was ready to strike down the Arbite for his words, only to freeze at William's words.
"The Imperium was at the brink of collapse, it was dying... slowly" William answered, the two froze in place, their minds were unable to accept the truth "If that happens" William said, taking back their attention to himself "We might yet have a chance to prevent it, he might have a chance to prevent this"
Avina and Ishmael looked at each other, for the first time in his life, he could see something resembling worry on Avina's face.
"Alright, is there something I need to know?"
"The rumors...they..." Avina tried to say something but she couldn't, Ishmael decided to finish it for her.
"The rumors have already reached the ears of the wider Inquisition, they are dispatching someone to investigate your situation" William became pale as he heard the news, he took the half-empty bottle of amasac and drank it in one go.
"Do the troubles never end?" the Inquisitor asked to no one in particular, little did he know, his troubles has just begun.
A few weeks have passed since Anon joined the Inquisitor's retinue, most of his days were spent training with Avina, and Ishmael, this left him with little free time and that was spent on studying of all kinds, he was granted access to more files with the Inquisitorial archives, at least the ones on the ship, so he busied himself reading through them.
He has learned much from the files, all sorts of things relating to Xenos and chaos daemons, the knowledge that was not part of the Warhammer novels he used to read. Like how chaos taint can pass through generations, if a man's grandfather was a secret chaos cultist, the boy could inherit its mutation despite not knowing anything about it, or the different kinds of rituals the cultist perform to draw power from immaterium, all in all, it was an interesting read.
Anon was reading through another page from the archives as he sensed something coming toward his location, it was Inquisitor Williams, for what reason he was coming? he didn't know. He could try to read his mind but that will take at least 10 minutes, William's mind has weathered many trials and was trained from a very young age, he wasn't easy to read like civilians.
"How can I help you, my lord?" the silver masked Witch asked without bothering to look away from the cogitator, William seems to get used to this at this point "Came here to ask how I'm doing?" Anon jested.
"I came here to ask a few questions, Jermai" William ignored the Witch's jest.
The Witch stopped in his tracks, his attention no longer on the cogitator, he slowly turned back to face the Inquisitor. In an imperceptible way, the Witch's head pointed towards the other people within the data storage room, there were several mortal crewmen and a few tech adepts working on different tasks.
Taking the hit before it was even given, William ordered everyone to leave the room and voxed the deck to turn off the audio recorders in the room. As the room was now empty beside the two, William spoke "How are settling within the ship?"
The Witch chuckled at the question "Please Inquisitor, stop acting as if you care. Ask what you came here to ask and I will answer to the best of my abilities"
The Inquisitor looked weary, he was still fearful of the Witch's power to some extent but his fear was more to do with his knowledge and unknown background, the Inquisition was full of secrets like this so William refrained to ask about them so far.
The Inquisitor looked into the Witch's eyes and sighed, looks like he won't be able to fool him today "The Inquisition has sent someone to investigate me and my crew, it seems like the information about you has reached the Inquisition's attention, somehow" William informed the Witch.
"Will this be a problem?"
"For the time being? no, it will take many years or even decades for them to dispatch someone, sending messages, choosing an agent, sending them with proper forces and equipment, all of it will take some time" William explained.
'Imperial bureaucracy at its finest' Anon gave a mental chuckle.
"I want you to go through the investigation without hostile actions"
"I shall be done, my lord" William gave Anon a look that said 'Good' as he answered his request, although satisfied with the Witch's answer, the Inquisitor seems to still have more questions "Is there anything else, my lord?" the Psyker asked.
"We are currently moving towards a rebellious planet in Segmentum Obscurus. The reports I have read indicate that the rebellion has been caused by a Chaos cult, will you join us in the mission?" the Inquisitor asked.
The Silver masked Witch stood there for a few seconds without saying anything, he then faced William again "Inquisitor" he called his title, William looked at him with concerned eyes hidden behind a calm mask that was his face "When we struck our deal, what was the condition?"
The question caught the Inquisitor off guard, what did the Witch mean by this question? he decided to answer anyways "That I will accept you within my retinue in exchange for the truth, that you will serve me until my death"
"Precisely, I didn't come here to undermine your authority, Inquisitor, I came here to offer you a deal in exchange for your help" the Witch explained "Order me what you will and I will fulfill it without fear or hesitation"
William's eyes widened, the Witch was extremely respectful of his rank, despite being extremely powerful, he probably could kill everyone within this ship.
"Very well" William said then coughed to clear his throat "Jermai, you will be joining us in the next mission" he ordered.
As always, Anon's expression was hidden from the rest of the world behind his silver mask but at that time, William could tell he was grinning "As you wish, my lord" the Witch bowed.
Anon prepared himself for his first mission, he moved through the ship towards the debriefing room, the only people present will be William's close retinue and essential crew members. Anon wasn't completely aware of the details, only that a daemon gate has been manifested on the planet and local PDF was in total war against the chaotic forces.
He picked up everything he needs then moved towards the debriefing room, on his way he unintentionally walk alongside a stormtrooper. The stormtrooper noticed him but didn't make a sound about it, Anon could feel his tenseness when he walked with him, he didn't trust the Witch like the rest of the crew. The trooper wore complete carapace armor, he carried his hotshot in his left hand and his helmet in the right hand making his face visible. To his credit, despite being tense, the stormtrooper kept his stoic face near Anon but wasn't able to hide his emotions, Anon looked at him for a brief moment, blond hair, few scars, no facial hair, and well build physic, a lady's man through and through. After 5 minutes of awkward walk, they finally reached their destination.
The room was almost full with only a few seats remaining, looks like everyone was ready for the debriefing. The Witch felt the tenseness in the air as he walked by the crewmen, only the Inquisitor, Ishmael, and Avina seems to be unaffected by his presence.
"Now that everyone is here let's begin" William said, then began to explain the situation.
Two years ago, a demonic gate has somehow opened on the north pole of the planet, the entire planet was now at war with the invading daemons, fortunately only lesser daemons have been sighted for now with no sighs of traitor marines, segmentum command was unable to send guardsmen reinforcements because of an orkish waaagh that threatened the more important areas of the Imperium. Surprisingly, one space marine chapter was dispatched to deal with the demonic threat, they will arrive in the system within a week. The reinforcement contained a hundred Astartes from Dark Angels space marine chapter under the command of Adamus Rogelius, captain of the fifth company.
Although the agents all wished to wait for the reinforcements, they couldn't, the recent Auspax readings on the planet indicated a sudden rise of warp energy, William believed it to be a ritual in order to expand the daemonic portal to the rest of the world, they had to stop the ritual before they could complete it. So, the orders were simple, go in, close the gate and let the grunts deal with the remaining hostiles, though it was only simple on paper.
The people present in the debriefing will split into a few teams, team alpha includes Avina and a few agents specialized in stealth, they are to take down cultist priests within the other hives and locations, who are actively summoning more daemons. Team beta will be consisting of Ishmael, William, stormtroopers, and Anon who are tasked with shutting down the source of the problems, the portal in the north pole, located within the hive city of Baluch. Once the portal the main portal was gone, the other ones will begin to close on themselves.
"Jermai" William called out his name.
"Yes, lord?"
"Can you locate the exact location of the portal?" William asked.
"A moment please" the masked man said as he began to concentrate, he put his hands on his legs as he sat on the chair, everyone except the three tensed as Anon concentrated which annoyed him.
Anon's psyche reached out to the planet below and sought the most powerful warp signatures, he located the main one in the hive city Baluch and several other smaller ones in other locations, all of them were connected to the main portal, but there was something wrong, Anon sensed a terrible thing from the portal, something big and powerful. Using the blood of the fallen as a chain that would connect him to the Materium, the cultist priest was trying to use blood sacrifice to expand the rift, enough to bring something more powerful. Anon quickly opened his eyes again.
"I have found the portal" Anon answered "But there is a problem"
"What problem?" Inquisitor asked, his eyes narrowed.
"The cultist are trying to summon a greater daemon Inquisitor" the faces of the crew grew grim as they heard the information "The heretics are trying to perform a ritual"
"Are you sure it is a greater daemon?" asked Ishmael, it was the first time Anon have seen him like this, and the first time he didn't insult him while speaking to him.
"Either that or a very powerful exalted daemon which is highly unlikely" answered the masked man "They are trying to perform a ritual of blood sacrifice to summon a greater daemon, but they cannot do it with such a low number of slaves, what they can do however is to sacrifice all of them at once which might be able to manifest a greater daemon instead of sacrificing them one by one. They are currently gathering captives to the hive as we speak, it should take them 3 days to gather all of the captives needed for ritual"
"So we have 3 days" Inquisitor muttered as he put his right hand on his chin, thinking about his options "Then we have no time to waste, we will move out in an hour" Inquisitor announced then looked at Anon again "Jermai, can your close the portal on your own?" William asked.
"Yes I can close the gate, but I need to be close to it, a portal of that size will require time to close" the Witch answered.
The Inquisitor nodded at the Witch's answer and then spoke his final orders "Prepare for the descend in one hour" With that, everyone began to depart the room in haste.
Anons battle gear *
-Unpowered plasteel sword made by the Magos - A Plasma pistol with 10 shots worth of ammo -A Flack armor under Anon's cloth to protect him from autogun shots and unpowered blades -Cloth modified so as not to hinder him in CQC (Robe remove and replaced with a suit like clothing, the same color as before)
"We will soon enter the AA range, get ready for being shot" Anon heard the Inquisitor order from his vox unit.
"That will not be necessary, keep the other transports close, I can cloak to be invisible to the naked eye" Anon said, he was willing to do anything other than getting shot at by high caliber anti-air cannons.
"You can do that? why I was not informed of such ability?"
"You never asked" the Witch shrugged "The motto of our organization 'The plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time' was enough to convince me"
Inquisitor chuckled "Can't argue with that" his laughter wasn't shared with anyone else "Pilot tell the other lander to stick close, and tell him not to open fire on the enemy until given the order to do so" Inquisitor ordered.
As the other assault lander got close, Anon tapped into the warp again and concealed the ships, making both of them invisible to the naked eye.
After a few minutes they reached AA range and to the hive city, Anon observed the ground beneath. Thousands upon thousands of daemons were pouring out of the gate and towards the battlefield where they could smell blood, it was like that army of savage orks he faced on Thule but far worse. The hive city was the tallest on the planet, the only one capable of matching it was Campestresa, the center of loyalist resistance. On the walls of the hive city, many khornite symbols could be seen, even looking at them caused the Witch to feel fury and rage, though he quickly calmed his mind.
"Three minutes until we reach our target, expect heavy resistance upon landing" Announced the pilot.
"Acknowledged" William said, he then turned towards the silver masked Witch "Don't suppose you could cloak 12 people at once?" William asked sarcastically to the Masked man, only for him to nod in acknowledgment "You can?!" Asked the Inquisitor.
"It can be done, so long as they don't stray too far" Anon informed William.
William's face took the form of a grin which made Anon uncomfortable "Looks like I wasn't wrong in picking you up ey?" the Witch didn't bother to answer.
A few minutes later both landers reached their landing spot, Anon focused and made sure cultists nearby wouldn't notice two giant landers full of inquisition agents, it was a hard task, there were around 30-40 cultists with auto guns and unpowered melee weapons around. To make all of them ignore the Imperials was a hard task, not because it needed lots of power but because of how much concentration was needed. The Witch had to manipulate the minds of all of them individually, if any of them saw the loyalists, their cover would be blown.
The troops left the landers with their guns drawn expecting a firefight, only to be surprised by the enemy's total ignorance of their presence. Anon signed to his allies, telling them to kill all the cultists while they couldn't see them, and they obliged. In a swift show of skill, all of them aligned their shots and kill the cultist in a matter of seconds.
"All clear" said one of the stormtroopers.
"4 of you will stay here and protect the shuttles until we arrive, the rest will follow me. Ishmael, Jermail stick close to me" William ordered, 4 of the stormtroopers remained and started creating a barricade around the landing area, Anon put a hastily created ward around the landing area, nothing special, it will decrease the chance of landers being detected.
The other team, led by the Inquisitor himself, moved unseen through the corridors, killing the cultists along the way. Their advance was unhindered until they reached a bridge, there were only four entry points that reached the plasma generators powering this section of the hive and the hive's void shield, all of the four entry points being bridges with defenses at the end, making it perfect Killzone across the bridges. About 60 meters down the bridge, was the army of Khornite daemons, moving out of the city towards the warzones.
The main problem with the bridge was the explosives planted under them, the rest of the hive, was protected by either lowly trained former PDF or crazed citizens charging towards you with melee weapons, they were easy to deal with for the stormtroopers, but the ones protecting the plasma generators and the portal were the elite cultist forces, equipped with lasguns, flak armor and some even had plasma guns and carapace armor. They were also not as crazy as the rest of their forces.
Inquisitors forcers moved into a cover and awaited further orders, Ishmael peaked around the corner and looked at the hostile forces "Two automated multi-laser turrets, one heavy bolter emplacement, eight traitor PDF, five with lasguns, one plasma, two operating the heavy bolter, heavy bolter to the right protected by cement bunker, turrets on the walls above the hostile fortification" Ishmael reported then looked at the Inquisitor.
"Their defenses around the core generators seem to be strong, but I expected this kind of development" William said then looked at his troops then towards Anon "Jermai, scan the area, I don't want any surprises when we go in" William ordered.
Anon focused his powers to have a more detailed scan of the enemy, he could detect a total of 78 corrupted Elite PDF inside, including those who protected this bridge, there were around 12 lesser daemons controlled by one person, though the puppeteer himself was nowhere to be found "Total of 78 PDF and 12 lesser daemons controlled by someone within upper levels of the hive, I think, the one in command of the daemons is hard to detect" Anon reported.
"Alright listen" William said out loud gathering the attention of everyone "Two of you will use your plasma guns to disable the turrets, Jermai use your powers to disable the heavy bolter but do not damage it, after we move across the bridge I want three of you to guard our rear, use that heavy bolter to hold the enemy back, the rest of the PDF shouldn't be a problem without their heavy weapons, their lasguns won't do much against carapace" William then looked towards the old arbite "Ishmael once we enter, take someone with you and use meltas to damage the generators, once we close the portal we will use orbital bombardment to take down the hive, the rest of you and me will protect Jermail until he closes the portal, any questions?" Everyone nods at Williams "Then let's begin" William ordered, powering his sword and checking his bolter pistol.
Two stormtroopers, one with a plasma gun and the other with a plasma pistol took their positions, two plasma bolts hit their target and melt the turrets, the energy batteries of the turrets blow up under the heat of the plasma. This alerted the PDF who quickly brought up their weapons. Anon cast an illusion on the two PDF troops making them see each other as enemies, the two PDF inside the bunker shot each other.
After he disabled the heavy bolter, the entire team moved forward and shot the remaining PDF, three stormtroopers manned the heavy bolter and cover their rear.
Alerted by the sounds of gunfire outside, the traitor PDF took their weapons and moved towards the sounds while shouting in local low gothic, one of them sound the alarm to alert their allies on the enemy.
William and Anon moved in front of the team with their melee weapons while Ishmael took the stormtrooper and went towards the plasma generators. The remaining three-man team moved towards the portal.
The Inquisitorial team moved through the narrow corridors and reached a corner, William, sensing the encroaching enemy, sign the stormtrooper and Anon to stop. Seven footsteps approached the trio, and a few seconds later, the unsuspecting PDF met with the inquisitorial agents. As soon as they reached melee distance the Inquisitor and the Witch leaped out from the cover and start engaging them in melee.
The cultist in front of the group looked in horror as Inquisitor cut him in half with his power sword, he then shot two bullets with his bolt pistol, killing another PDF. Utilizing his training, Anon jumped on the left wall and used his legs to propel himself toward the enemy, imitating the same grace and cruelty he has seen from his mentor, Anon cut the head of a cultist and used his powers to create a shock wave which stunted the remaining cultists, causing them to drop on the floor.
Taking advantage of the situation, the stormtrooper used his hotshot to kill two cultists. Meanwhile, the Witch used his powers to augment himself and jump forward toward the remaining Cultists. Enhanced by the powers of the warp, the Witch dodged their bullets with inhuman speed, and brought up his sword to strike, the cultist brought up his lasgun in order to block the sword, only for Anon to change the direction of his sword mid-strike, the slash turned into a thrust and priced the cultist through his heart, he then conjured a fireball that engulfed the last cultist, burning him alive.
The three continued their mission after letting the cultist burn in agony, a few minutes later they reached the balcony-like structure and peeked out of it, 20 meters under the balcony was a portal that spewed out lesser daemons, they couldn't possibly hope to fight them so they decided not to aggravate them, so long as they stood where they were, the daemons will ignore them, though they must be careful not to spill too much blood, the daemons of Khorne are attracted to blood like a moth to a flame.
"Jermai, do what you must" Inquisitor ordered and moved to a cover, Anon sat near the balcony-like structure and began to connect with the portal.
This portal was not his first, he was quite experienced when it came to holes in reality. Anon's first encounter with such anomalies was on Thule where he closed two portals, he still could remember the poor psykers he had to put down. He had searched the entire planet in search to find a fellow psyker after hundreds of years of being alone, only to find them begging for a quick death as daemons tore their souls apart.
Anon cleared his thoughts and drove the memories out of his mind, he had a task to complete. As soon as he connected to the portal, he could feel the Attention of the daemons being drawn toward him. The Witch's focus increased in its intensity as he tried to close the gate while also shielding his soul, it was a good decision to attack before cultists could start the sacrifice, had done so, it would be much harder for him to close the gate.
William and the last stormtrooper in his team held back the waves of cultists in order to buy Jremai the time he needed to close the demonic gate, tens of cultists were already dead, but instead of retreating the remaining cultist pushed forward, charging them in a fit of rage, only to meet a wave lasgun and bolter fire, only a few cultists manage to close the gap but they too were cut down by William's power sword.
After another fifty or so dead, the Cultists realized the futility of their assaults and stop their attacks, this caused a sense of unease within the Inquisitor's mind. The two stood vigil for any foes, but none dared to come close. A hundred questions began to form in William's mind for the reason for the cease-fire, and after 10 minutes of silence, he finally got his answer.
"Daemons" Inquisitor shouted at the sight of the four Bloodletters charging towards them.
The stormtrooper threw a Krak grenade towards the incoming lesser daemons, one of the daemons evaporated into thin air as the grenade caused enough damage to banish him. The remaining three were faced with hotshot and bolter rounds coming towards them, the two focused their fire on the bloodletter in front of the attack and manage to banish it before it closed its distance, unfortunately, the other two manage to get into CQC distance.
With a blazing power sword in hand, William charged toward his adversary, his power sword blocked the daemon's blade in mid-air, the warp fire of the daemon's sword was burning hot, it was only thanks to his power armor that it didn't burn him. The Stormtrooper behind him gave the Inquisitor the covering fire he needed, his las shots keeping the other daemon at bay.
The Inquisitor used one hand to hold the enemy's sword in place and used another to bring his bolt pistol to its stomach. He fired three rounds and watched as the daemon shouted in anger and fell to its knees, before he could finish it off, the other daemon moved in to attack him, William left the damaged daemon for the stormtrooper to finish off and he charged towards the other daemon, the daemon of the blood god was already damaged by hotshot rounds.
William shot the daemon's right hand with his bolter, the round exploded and took off the daemon's hand. The daemon's head flung into the air as William's sword met its neck, unable to maintain its form, the daemon returned to the immaterium.
William took a deep breath and turn back to check on the stormtrooper, the daemon was banished and both of them were still alive and in optimal health.
Before William could say anything, two las shots hit his armor, William quickly took cover while taking potshots at the enemy, one of the cultist's hands blow up in a gory mess as the bolt round exploded on his shoulder. The stormtrooper covered the Inquisitor's retreat with his hotshot. The situation looked good, William will soon reach into cover, and then they could wait until Jermai finished his task, but like most of the time on the battlefield, the best situation turned into the worst possible scenario in only a few seconds. A ball of blue energy flew by William's helmet, the plasma bolt hissed as it went by the Inquisitor and impacted the Stormtrooper, William watched as the body of his retinue was deleted under the heat of the shot, and what remained of the blond handsome trooper was a pile of ceramite mixed with melted flesh.
Fearing the effects of the plasma gun on his armor, William jumped into a cover and shoot a few blind shots from the corner. Before he could retaliate, however, he sensed something, something was wrong, something bad was going to happen.
Suddenly, the cultists began to scream as the daemons tore them apart from behind, what the madmen once thought as their allies, had turned against them. After killing all the cultists, the bloodletters noticed Anon's presence and charge towards the Inquisitor's position in unholy fury, William cursed under his breath, he couldn't take all these daemons at once, they would tear him apart, but he had no choice did he? they had no one of escaping and the only way to victory was by closing the demonic gate powering the immaterial beasts. William contemplated his options, but he could finish, William saw a lighting bolt pass by him and hit the bloodletter in the forefront of the attack.
"The portal is closed, my Lord, they won't be able to summon more daemons once we kill the ones already summoned" Jermai shouted as he came to the inquisitor's aid.
"Move towards the bridge, we will regroup and retreat towards the landers" William ordered "If we could pass through these that is" he pointed towards still approaching daemons.
Suddenly eldritch energies began to gather in the air around them, the Inquisitor turned towards the psyker and discovered that it was being concentrated on his arms, few seconds later William saw a giant lightning bolt come out of Jermai's hand, the lighting pass by William and hit the bloodletters, all sixteen bloodletters were banished in an instant leaving only smoke and smell of burning flesh behind. William was amazed, even if they are lesser ones they are still daemons, banishing all of them at once was no easy task.
Inquisitor looked at the silver masked figure with widened eyes "Which grade are you Jermai?" William asked.
"Do you mean the psyker grade, my lord?" William nodded at his question "I don't know, I have been living in a feudal world and there are not the type who would put grades on psykers, the closes thing they have is the term 'weak witch' and 'powerful witch' " Jermai answered.
"Remind me to put you in a test next time we return to a proper civilized world" Said the inquisitor "Now let's move out before we are surrounded" William continued.
A few minutes later, before the duo could reach the bridge, they were welcomed by the old arbite, Ishmael, he was bleeding in the left eye and his stomach. Regardless of his injuries, William was happy to see him alive.
"Ishmael report" Inquisitor ordered.
"Stormtrooper Agot Norse was torn apart by a group of cultists, but the mission was successful, the generators have been destroyed, I have lost my left eye and a bolter round have pierced my armor" Said the old arbite putting his hand on his stomach where the bolter round had hit him.
"Throne damn it!" William cursed, now he had to carry a wounded soldier while retreating from enemy territory.
"I can still move but I would only slow you down, I will stay behind and draw their attention to the bridge, just leave the heavy bolter and my shotgun" Ishmael offered.
William was about to say something when the masked man barged into the conversation "That kind of heroic action will not be necessary" said the masked man as he approached the injured Arbite.
He tried to put his hands on Ishmael's wounds but was met with his protestion "What do you think your doing witch?!" Ishmael shouted out loud as he took a step back.
The masked man just stared at him, his expression as always, was hidden behind an indifferent mask "If you wish to die here I will not stop you, but if you let me help you, you may serve the one on the throne for few more years" the apathetic mask offered.
Ishmael looked at William, he clearly didn't want anything to do with a psyker, Inquisitor sighed "Let him help you, Ishmael, you'll be more useful to the emperor alive than dead" Inquisitor ordered.
Ishmael grunted and after looking at the inquisitor for a few seconds reluctantly agreed "If I turn into a warp spawn, I will kill you before killing myself Witch" The arbite threatened the psyker, Anon, however, didn't pay any mind.
William watched with curiosity as the masked man put his hand on Arbite's wounds, then a faint light began to emanate from his hands, after 30 seconds he removed his hands and revealed what was beneath, the Arbite's wounds were completely healed.
"Wait, just how many disciplines do you know? I saw you perform abilities from at least two different disciplines, now you are using another one?" Inquisitor was baffled at the thought, only a few psykers in the Imperium could learn two different disciplines at the same time, and even a lesser number of those psykers were normal humans, as far as he could see, Jermai was a normal human, it was nearly impossible for a mortal human to do what he has done, the only people capable of accomplishing such feats were Space marines and Eldar due to their long lifespans.
A thought hit William's brain, a talented psyker, multiple disciplines, not an Eldar yet has a long enough lifespan to learn multiple disciplines, William hasn't put him in a DNA test, was Jermai a hybrid?
William was horrified at the thought, he scanned the masked man, hoping his theory is wrong, but his thought was cut short as the masked man looked at him, dead in the eye, although he couldn't see his eyes William knew he was looking directly into his.
"Please refrain from having such thought, I'm not a mongrel" The Witch said, it was for the first time that William saw Jermai with such level of emotion, he genuinely looked offended.
"Once we return to the ship YOU WILL go through a DNA test by magos!" William declared.
"If that would stop you from having such stupid thoughts then gladly" The masked man said "There is little to nothing that can offend me, Inquisitor, but somehow you manage to accomplish such feat" looks like Jermai was really angry at William's accusation.
William felt a little relieved at Jerma's straight denial of the accusation, he looked at Ishmael who was still in a confused state "We will discuss this matter later, for now, let's move towards the bridge" William ordered then took the lead.
William saw the Witch quickly heal Ishmael's head, his eye was gone, but at least the socket wasn't bleeding. To William's surprise, Ishmael actually thanked the psyker, William smiled under his helmet, if he thanked a psyker then the world was truly coming to an end.
"We should reach the bridge soon be ready to break out" William shouted
The group reached the bridge protected by two remaining stormtroopers, the bridge was filled with hundreds of cultist bodies, the head of the dead stormtrooper was missing and the other two seem to be tattered.
The group moved towards the friendlies, then one of the stormtroopers noticed them "My lord, ready to report" said the stormtrooper, William gesture him to start "The cultists start pouring in when the alarm was hit, we hold them off but one of the daemons managed to kill Hans died, after the first three waves they stopped attacking"
The Inquisitor surveyed the area in front of him with the help of an image enhancer installed on his helmet, there were no cultists to be seen.
'Are they trying to keep us trapped inside? But they are khornites they don't follow plans after they become mad, unless, someone is controlling them!' William thought.
William turned to Jermai again for his aid "You mentioned that someone was controlling the daemons correct?" the Witch confirms his question "Where is he?" William asked.
Anon looked blankly at William, the way he looked at him made William uncomfortable as if he was capable of looking into his soul and drawing out his darkest secrets, the mask hiding the Witch's face didn't help either "He was two levels above us, but now" William saw him gesture to the other side of the bridge "He is commanding the cultists, he is more powerful than I anticipated"
The discomfort within the Inquisitor's mind grew, he didn't want to know what could possibly be troubling even for Jermai. William shook his head, there was no time for fear or hesitation. With a gesture of his hand, he drew the attention of his retinue "Here is the plan"
Anon cut through the untrained cultist charging at him, while in melee he tried to imitate his mentor's fighting style, trying to move as gracefully and as fast as Avina but he was struggling. He only learned the basics of her fighting style, Avina's way of fighting exhausted his legs as he had to constantly jump and move around. The greatest problem he faced was enemy ranged units, Anon may be faster than a normal human but not faster than bullets, he was already got shot at least 10 times 4 of which bypassed his flak armor and hit him, the wounds are going to take some time to heal.
The Inquisitor's brilliant plan was that Anon would separate from the rest of the group after crossing the bridge. While they attract the enemy's attention, he would conceal himself and assassinate the enemy commander who is controlling the daemons, once he killed their leader, the daemons would go into a frenzy, attacking friend and foe alike, at least that was the plan...
The silver masked Witch had made a mistake, when he looked for the person controlling the daemons, he failed to detect his psychic powers, and then everything went to hell. The sorcerer managed to detect his group and ambush them, seeing this Anon quickly ran into the buildings around the area in order to continue his mission.
Anon cursed himself under his breath as he burned three cultists with warp fire, a group of cultists carrying autoguns appeared in front of him ready to shoot, Anon quickly jumped into a building, he wasn't alone inside, there were another two with him. Anon brought his head down and moved low as he could to dodge the autogun shots, aided by his illusions, he was nearly unhittable.
Unfortunately, even with such powers, a person cannot dodge several automatic rifles shooitng at him. After receiving three new bullet wounds, Anon finally closed the distance, one of the cultists dropped his autogun and charged him with his sword, the Witch used him as a cover against the other hostile then in a quick motion, he brought his sword and slashed his throat. Seeing her friend's death, the other cultist pointed her gun toward Anon, the masked man quickly pointed his left arm toward her and cast a lightning bolt, the warp lightning boiled her blood and caused her blood vessels to explode.
Anon was in pain, if it wasn't for his healing abilities he would be dead by now. The silver masked Witch had a hard time concentrating after the enemy ambush, not only did he need to fight the cultists and the daemons, he also had to fight off the chaos sorcerer as he or she tried to invade his mind, he needed to find the sorcerer and keep an eye for the Inquisitor and his group.
Anon healed his wounds while bullets were still inside, he could take them out once he was on the ship. The Witch calculated his situation, he had some time before the enemy break into the house, the time he could use to detect the sorcerer's exact location. The sorcerer was trying to cast an illusion that caused fear, he wanted the Inquisitor's team to give up their position in terror, now was the time to strike back. The silver masked Witch quickly jumped onto the opportunity and infused the sorcerer's illusion with more psychic power, not to increase its power, but to cause his spell to blow up due to overload. The excess of energy within the spell caused a psychic backlash, revealing the location of the caster.
The Witch leaped towards his target, if he fail to kill it, then the inquisitor and his retinue will die.
As he was running Anon connect to William's mind to deliver his message.
~Inquisitor, I have located the sorcerer, I'm currently on move to hunt him, how long can you hold the enemy back?~ asked Anon, moving toward the chaos sorcerer
~Is that you Jermai?~ William sounded confused for a second but quickly recovered ~We can hold them for 20 minutes but no more than that, move faster and kill that emperor damn sorcerer, Jermai~ William ordered.
~I'm on the move my lord~ Anon said as he shut off their connection.
As he was moving from one building to another toward his target, he faced heavy resistance, the closer he got to the sorcerer, the more daemons attacked him. The daemons of the blood god charged at him, filled with rage after they sensed his psychic power, the last thing they saw before they were banished was a large bolt of lighting turning them into dust. To his surprise, Anon found the daemons much easier to deal with than the cultists, at least the cultists were partially mad, allowing them to make plans while attacking, the daemons on the other hand were wild, especially after sensing the psyker, how the sorcerer managed to bind the daemons of the blood god to his control, especially on a planetary scale, Anon didn't know.
After 5 minutes of banishing daemons, he reached his destination, the building he was looking at, was a large shop that used to sell dolls for the kids, but it seems abandoned for a long time, you could even see the corpse of its owner nailed above the front door. Anon cursed the sorcerer, of all places he could've chosen, the bastard had chosen the most creepy place on the hive to face him.
The doll shop met his expectations on every level, the chaos corruption made it look even scarier but not as much as the daemons outside. The Inquisitorial agent moved low while he tried to conceal himself against the sorcerer, if he was as skilled as Anon was, he would probably know he was there.
~LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE FOUND ME LITTLE DOG, CONGRAGULATION~ a voice directly echoed in his mind, Anon quickly tried to find its location as the voice continued ~YOU ARE QUITE SKILLED FOR A MORTAL I GIVE YOU THAT, LITTLE WHELP~
~Your soul is damned the moment you chose chaos sorcerer, now come and face me, I'll put you out of your missery~ the Witch challenged the voice,
~I HAVE LIVED FOR FAR LONG TO DIE AT THE HANDS OF MORTAL SUCH AS YOU, INQUISITOR~ the voice replied in anger, he seems to mistake him for William ~YOU HAVE SET BACK MY PLANS BY CLOSING THAT PORTAL... BUT SINCE I FEEL MERCYFUL TODAY, I WILL OFFER YOU A CHOICE, SUBMIT TO ME AS A SLAVE AND I WILL SPARE YOUR PITIFUL LIFE~ the voice offered.
Anon gave a genuine laugh in response ~That was a fine joke, sorcerer, had I not known any better, I might've accepted that offer~
"Shame, I could've done much more with a willing slave" the voice came again but it wasn't telepathy this time.
The Witch turned back in order to face the source of the voice, a fist came heralding towards him as soon as he did. The force of the fist sent the Witch flying in the air, cracking his skull. Anon crashed into the wall so hard that his spine broke, whatever it was that hit him was using something to enhance himself. After taking such amounts of damage, the Witch's body began to heal him in a desperate attempt to keep him conscious.
The Witch's head turned upwards, locating his new adversary, his eyes widened as soon as he saw him.
A two-meter-tall giant clad in green and black power armor, the sorcerer's eyes were burning red like charcoal. On his left hand was a psychic staff that was glowing with immaterial energy while his other hand was empty, he was wearing a psychic hood that darkened his face and hide his features, there was also a bolt pistol attached to his hip.
"Do you realize the futility of your challenge, little dog? you lost before you even started" said the space marine, his voice was deeper under the hood "You have set me back by closing the portal, but alas, I can open another one, the only thing I require is a psyker" Anon could sense a smile beneath the hood.
The Witch slowly stood up after healing his wounds, not completely but enough to keep him moving. For the first time in centuries, Anon felt fear, he knew one day he had to face a chaos space marine, he knew it yet... he felt nervous, if he died here, the marine will use his soul to create a portal, disabling him from resurrecting.
"You can still stand after receiving such injuries?" the chaos marine questioned, a sadistic smile crossed his face as he saw the mortal clenching his sword "A mortal wants to kill me with a sword!" the marine laughed "Your interesting mortal, it's been eons since I have laughed like this" the marine mocked him again.
Anon couldn't afford to fight a sorcerer with psychic powers, he could defeat him in a psychic duel, but the Inquisitor and his retinue will be dead before they finish the fight. At first, Anon thought he would face a mortal chaos sorcerer and finish him off in melee but now that option was gone, his sword wouldn't even pass his power armor, so he decided to use his last option.
The masked man used the marine's distraction to his advantage, he acted as if he wanted to charge him into a melee, but in reality, he was planning to use his plasma pistol hidden under his cloth. The plasma weapon will take three seconds to charge before shooting, luckily, the sorcerer was distracted by his own monologue. The Witch pulled the trigger.
1...2... With blinding speed, Anon brought up his pistol and aimed it at the marine, marine processed the information at a rate that was impossible for a mortal man. His expression suddenly turned into shock as he saw a plasma pistol aimed at him, unfortunately for him, it was too late. A hissing sound was heard from the pistol as a bolt of plasma flew toward the sorcerer, the marine, in order to defend himself, brought his right arm to block the plasma bolt, in less than a second the burning plasma hit his right hand's palm and fused his flesh with the ceramite of his armor.
Anon quickly take advantage of the situation and used his telekinesis to throw his sword toward the marine, it wouldn't kill him but at least it can injure him. The plasteel sword flew with sonic speed as it was propelled by psychic force, the sword quickly hit the marine's chest and pierced through his armor. The sword broke under the pressure that made it shatter into pieces inside the marine's body.
It was the marine's turn to attack now, "YOU MORTAL SCUM!" shouted the marine as he gathered his psychic powers, he then launched several balls of hellfire on the Witch, the masked man managed to dodge most of them but one of them hit him, Anon's right hand burned by unholy fire, he could sense the corruption trying to creep inside his soul.
Anon repelled the psychic attack, his left hand was now gone, as he finished dealing with the corruption he saw the marine drop his staff and point his bolt pistol at him, he shot 8 times, without any delay, the masked man cast a telekinesis shield around himself, he managed to hold 7 of them in the air but the first one passed by him and hit him in the stomach, the bolter round exploded in his stomach, angered by the pain the masked man used all of his might to propel all of the remaining rounds at the marine.
The Marine looked in horror as his own weapon was used against himself, the bolter rounds hit the marine like a hammer, two of them exploded on his armor. The marine tried to fight back with his own psychic power, he managed to cast a shield, the remaining bullets exploded on the shield leaving only smoke behind.
Anon augmented himself and jumped towards the marine, the sorcerer was unable to see his approach thanks to the smoke left behind by the bolter rounds and Anon's concealment cloak, before the smoke could completely clear out the masked man jumped on the marine. Anon held himself on the marine using his hand to hold his head.
Anon looked the marine in the eye and said only one word "BURN!" Anon created a warp fire inside his armor, marine cried out in pain as he was burning alive, in a final act of defiance the chaos sorcerer caught the masked man in the neck and used the last of his power to break his neck.
The darkness consumed Anon as his neck shattered under the pressure.