Third person POV
BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG.
'There they go again.' Thought a hooded figure as it stood atop a broken building, overlooking the ritual site. The creature resembled no man, as it was incredibly hunched with blue feathered wings with multiple eyes that shone with power. Standing around 30ft tall, the monster was only less in stature to its acquaintances. Beings the hooded figure would never call companions.
No, as it held onto its staff tightly while perched atop the carnage of the city, it was not seeing through its eyes, of which there were many. No, the mysterious figure was instead using masterful warp sorcery to observe a certain group of humans that had caught its many eyes many human hours ago when the Anathema, a creature his honoured Patron had once struck a deal with for secrets of the cosmos, only to have been handedly outsmarted for his hubris by said Anathema, had projected his will after being dormant for a short 10,000 years give or take, to this seemingly inconsequential world for seemingly no true reason. By this point, he no longer believed so, as he chuckled low with a main baritone that was overlapped with multiple other voices.
No other servants of the four gods had noticed, too busy revelling in their own individual proclivities and short-term distractions. The shrouded figure had, however as he had been monitoring the energy fluctuations of the planet as part of the ritual he was conducting. Now, however, he found himself disinterested in the endeavour as something even more valuable to him than the ritual had emerged. Something new, a rare treat for a being so ancient.
It had started from the moment he sensed the Anathema blessing not just the human but placing his mark on a low ranked new-born demon of all things.
Granting small inconsequential fractions of power was not uncommon for that peculiar being as in the last 10,000 years, remnants of a broken legion whose name he didn't deem important, known as the Black Templars had occasionally received a boon from the new emerging chaos God in times most bleak to turn the tide of a battle. The entity admired the young Emperor for such actions which altered destiny, and defied so many fates as this was one of the hunched Entity's Lord's many values, they themself was most attuned with.
With further investigation into the two individuals, the shrouded figure discovered something it was sure even their Patron had not foreseen possible. The human was not of this universe. Even more, for a being such as itself, seeing into a beings' past, present, and future were as simple and instinctual as breathing was for mortals. As such, the human's destiny was most interesting to the entity as it shifted from moment to moment.
Suffice to say, as it watched the creature emerge onto the surface of the massive ritual area in the centre of the human city, the entity knew all too well that despite their grand efforts in surviving the small pocket of the Plague Father's Garden spawned in the depths of this world's multilayered cities, they knew the small group would not be able to pass this next trial as their path was halted by its own ritual, as well as their cohorts and temporary associates.
With a sudden sharp jerk of its head reminiscent of an avian, the creature pondered the humans for a moment, before it came to a conclusion it found to be most joyous within its mind. An act of treachery and altering fate it believed even their creator would recognise with great personal amusement. With that, it disappeared in a swirling vortex of vibrant and dark blue plumage wreathed in black warp mist, returning to its realm to acquire an old trinket.
Rex Pov
Running up the steps to the demon hellhole of a station, I felt more like a mobile gun turret/horse as above me Kleo was shooting everything that got close to us with my gun while riding on my back. That said, I couldn't for the immortal life of me bring myself to muster ever an ounce of indignation as the sensation of her naked lower half rubbing against my back, was the full payment for the ticket and the tip in my eyes. Sadly, I had to move my hands from that surprisingly firm phat ass she'd likely earned from a lifetime of hard work and been hiding in that baggy soldier's uniform, bloody farm girls, as I was concerned what would happen if I ran into a Slaanesh demon with a hard on.
That said, I kind of wanted to know what their reaction would be to the tables being turned as instead, they were the ones being chanced down by a naked blood-covered psycho with an erection. Hahaha.
Sadly, couldn't mention my, in my head, hilarious thoughts as my personal Slaanesh demon and friend was out of commission. While I had felt sad at this, it was nothing compared to the eye twitching irritation of hearing her constant SNORING within my fucking mind! Why couldn't the bitch have just done dormant or some shit from TV and anime. No, annoying bitch was genuinely sleeping within me like she was on a car ride, only to wake up at the end of the fuckin journey.
Fortunately for Kleo, who I now knew I definitely had the hots for, Seranz was killing the majority of the warp creatures that attacked us. Unfortunately, her auto-gun wasn't as effective against these low-level warp spawn as it had been against the undead, taking multiple shots to the head to permanently take them out.
Fortunately for her, she could focus more on the Khorne demons for the most part, as the little rapey Slaanesh bastards were more interested in mine and Kleo's exposed genitals than the bullets that stopped them dead in their tracks.
I personally wouldn't mind if something wasn't so painfully apparent about the Whore God's purple demons. Something I was infinitely thankful that Verosika differed from them in. While my demon buddy was ALL woman. That could NOT be said about these pervy naked half-male creatures in any way my mind could contrive. Running as be with dicks swinging from places, I didn't even know one could grow from, and with only one saggy tit. Most of them had ugly malformed faces with sharp maws and tentacle-like tongues. I hadn't really gotten a good look at the demons I was incinerating in Big E's church but fuck me were these daemonette ugly.
I needed to seriously ask Verosika why she looked like a succubus, and these things were more like the female character designs of game characters back on earth. Thank God that shit would never exist in this universe… Note to self, if porn exists here, keep the Ordo Hereticus away from it. If they have already banned it or made it shit, slaughter the inquisition down to the last man.
SMACK
"REX! WAKE UP! What are you doing?" Kleo brought me back to reality with a bitch slap to my face, stirring me from my thoughts. Looking around, I realised with no small amount of embarrassment that I had been smashing in a daemonette's face with my bare foot while giggling. Not a great look in front of the girl I was trying to keep liking me. Eh, if she wanted to jump ship, she should have climbed abord… Ok, considering she no longer had feet, that was actually a pretty fucked up thought. As for another, I was glad feet weren't my kink as with a subtle, 'not so subtle' shift of my hand, I could indeed confirm Kleo still had her Grade-A big farmgirl butt.
"Right, sorry. These rapey twats just annoy me." I grumble, to which she gave me both a look of understanding and one as if to say, 'you're no better.' As she once more smacked my shoulder for groping her naked ass.
"Maybe I should have asked Seranz to carry me." He narrowed her eyes at me after shooting yet another demon, this time between the eyes. As it turned out, my M4A1 was very good at killing demons apparently, which I guessed was thanks to the golden hue of the bullets that looked like tracers.
"Ok, ok. I'll be good! I'll be good!" Still, I kowtowed to her threat of moving her body off mine. Unfortunately, it seemed the Sororitas had been aware of my actions as after stomping a demon into the first step of a staircase, before blowing its brains out and turning it to ash, she fixed me with a glare.
"Lord Rex. This appears to be the station's surface access. I suggest you get your mind on the mission at hand, or blessed or not, by the God Emperor, I will give you a reason to focus." She warned, though the way she twisted her body in a way which had her armour highlighting her curves, it didn't feel like the sort of threat the tall buff woman was no doubt trying to convey.
It seemed my passenger agreed as I widened my eyes at the few small droplets of drool that fell on my shoulder, as well as the damp feeling on my lower back. Note to self, Kleopatra is bisexual, nice.
"Right, right. Sorry. I'll behave." I stuck my tongue out at the woman, who scoffed and started up the stairs, with me following suit, avoiding the bodies and being careful not to drop my passenger.
Our ascension into the light of the morning wasn't welcomed by the warm sun I had become accustomed to. Instead we all felt a sense of dread as the area we came out to was something out of Doom 2016 as the sky was now an apocalyptic blood red with storm clouds rolling over in waves, occasionally sharping with green lighting and massive demonic shadows of beasts what seemed to galivant across the sky above the clouds.
The area around us was a blood bath as corpses of humans and demons that didn't turn to ash were littering the ground and walls ahead of us. Blood ran in puddles and streams and seemed to be moving counter flow as it seemed to be moving like a slow river to a centre point somewhere ahead of us.
To make matters worse, there seemed to be a psychic barrier originating from a single spire of energy ahead of us, covering the entire area and effectively trapping us.
Backing up a step subconsciously, I murmured "Seranz, what's going on?" Not finding it within myself to crack a joke like usual.
The woman bit her lip in anger. "This is the reality of chaos. I believe this means the Astates sent here were unsuccessful. The ritual has started." I could hear the metal and fabric of her gloves tightening over the grip of her auto-gun as she surveyed the damage and chaos filth with utter distain, I didn't believe the woman capable of.
"W-We're trapped. We can't leave this place." Kleo whimpered, hugging into my back and pressing her still armoured chest into the back my head unintentionally. "Maybe we can go back and find another way?"
"No." Seranz shook her head." The monorail track is a fixed circuit made exclusively for the underhive. Something as valuable as the Mega Forge is a massive installation which runs deeper than even the lowest level of the under hive. As such, it is cut off from it to avoid vagrants breaking in no doubt." She explained, and that made sense as the AdMechs knew just the kind of people that lived down there. They in all honestly likely used them as an excuse to acquire for servitors, and it wouldn't surprise me if they did in fact have secret tunnels made to quickly snatch vagrants and squalor without ever going to the surface and away from the upper city's notice.
"Any idea what they are doing?" I asked.
"My best estimate is that they are attempting to corrupt this planet and its surrounding real space to create a demon world as a new foothold for the immaterium." Seranz said, looking down at a small child's doll, as if this fucked image couldn't look anymore sketchy and depressing.
"Great, so the world's fucked, just what we needed." I almost throw my arms up in irritation until I remembered my passenger, so I simply settled for kicking a demon's corpse. "As if we weren't already pressured enough to escape this shithole. I take it that barrier is keeping everything out, as well as in, right?" The sororitas nodded. "So, we just gotta kill the demonic asshole running this murder-fuck party and we can leave, am I right?"
"While not always the case as in the cases of artifacts or other objects being used as a catalyst, but yes. Generally killing the master who is feeding the ritual will stop it as the ritual itself lacks a focal point." She helpfully informed, making me grin.
"Lovely." I cracked my neck. "Well, lets go kill some demons." I'd heard all I needed as I stepped forwards with Kleo nervously looking around for more demons.
"What are you doing? What suggests to you that we could succeed where the God Emperor's angels and their retinue have failed?" Sera demanded from me, and while she did make a valid point, its not like we had many options.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
"Contact!" Unfortunately, just as I was about to tell her as much, I was struck repeatedly via bolter rounds, making me drop Kleo to the floor before any of them hit her. She made a sound of discomfort at being dropped, but I didn't care as while Seranz called out the attack as if I hadn't been made aware by the arm and leg I had just lost, as well as a decent chunk of my torso, and returned fire at whatever was shooting at us. I we hurriedly drawing the enemy fire while helping Kleo into a safer spot behind a wrecked wall. This didn't provide much cover as it turned out as the bolters were showing us in broken bits of concrete and dust.
Taking my gun from Kleopatra, I levelled it at the general direction of the enemy, only for my head to be taken off in an instant. Blind and deaf, I was somehow still conscious of my surroundings without a brain as I regenerated my head and crawled back to cover.
"Jesus, it's like fighting on realistic in COD. Whoever is shooting at us, they ain't fucking around." I cursed, trying to peak out, only to have the segment of wall I was peaking form be blown apart and take half of my face off.
"Who's Jezuz?"
"Not important Kleo! Stay down." I was once again reminded of the culture difference of this universe as I Leeroy Jenkins'd my way out of cover and began sprinting directly at the general direction of the threat, only to widen my eyes at some very familiar armour sets, only with much more revealing as a lot of their plate seemed to have been removed.
Diving behind cover yet again as my arm and leg were blown off, I tentatively reached out and dragged my dropped M4A1 by its barrel into cover. Calling out to Seranz, I saw her returning fire as fortunately my actions had netted me the bulk of the hostile force's attention.
"SERA! Looks like some of your order have switched to the slut's side!" Of course, what we were facing was about thirty Slaanesh-rebranded Sororitas. Complete with the tentacles, snake attributes, crab claws, and dicks. Seriously, what was with that weird God and giving almost everything she touched a cock? Looking down at my own, I mentally weighed the options of potentially having multiple, before I squashed the thought like a bug as in all likelihood, I was just as likely to be turned into a woman via mutation or with painful horrific physical means. You can never tell with those sick fucks.
"TRAITORS TO THE GOD EMPEROR!" It seemed Seranz was well aware of our opponents and was returning fire with the righteous anger I'd come to associate with her. "Lord Rex! I'm running out of ammunition for this cursed civilian weapon and its barrel is melting. On my mark I shall lay suppressive fire, after which I require you to get closer and use that blessed rifle of yours on these faithless heretics!"
Pointedly ignoring the obvious pub she'd unintendedly served me, as I was sure this woman was unaware of such concepts, and this wasn't the time, I waited for her signal, looking to Kleo to see the woman was sat behind the wall, waiting for the moment to poke up, not that she could really move from her spot easily.
"GO!" The loyalist Sororitas roared and raised her auto-gun above the slab of concrete she was using as cover and fired blindly vaguely in the direction of the traitors.
Bounding out of cover, I sprinted as fast as my legs could walk, taking a bolter round to my gut, but I returned fire, this time gunning down the demon woman where she stood. Finally, close enough, I could see they had set up within a building block and were firing from a defensible position.
"SAY HELLO TO MY LITTLE FRIEND!" I laughed like a maniac, entering the building and lighting it up like the fourth of July. I felt like Rambo in his famous boat scene as despite getting shot repeatedly, even losing my head and one leg, I just kept holding down the trigger in a sweeping arch.
Eventually, I heard a clicking noise that I'd come to associate with great irritation. Fortunately, it seemed these demon bitches were polite enough to supply me with alternatives as for the first time, I picked up a bolter. Looking down at the weapon which had had its aquila sadly ripped off. That said, I was confident that the Emperor's blessing would keep whatever chaos taint was impressed upon its black metal surface at bay so I didn't suffer the same fate as Fulgrim.
Running through the building, I may have gotted a bit ahead of myself as I was suddenly tackled and pinned under the surprisingly heavy weight of a demon Sororitas. Trying to struggle free, I reached for my dropped bolter, only for her to pin my hand above my head, gripping my wrist tight enough to break it. My lack of reaction seemed to get her attention as the demon leered at me.
"You don't break as easy as the rest, do you?" She huskily breathed, her purple cat-like eyes shining with malevolence, framed by her purple skin. "I watched you get blown apart multiple times, and yet you stood again, vanquishing my sisters." She hissed, gripping my chin with her clawed hand as she forced me to look her in the eyes. "I can also sense one like us within you and yet you are not with chaos. Definitely not a cultist, so your regeneration can't be due to the demon within you, I wonder what it could be." The demon seemed perplexed by me, pondering as she tilted my face to and frow with me unable to resister her superior strength, reminding me of the time Seranz had lifted me up with just one hands.
"Hmm, you aren't very big, are you?" She mocked, seeming to enjoy her dominance over me, or which I could only hope I got an opening to shoot the bitch. I gasped in the next instant as her hand had let go of my chin and had snaked down to grab my exposed shaft in a sensual grip as she stroked me to an immediate response. "Hmm, look at that. You can't feel pain, but pleasure is still available to you. A little boring considering the joys my new lord has shown me and my sisters that pain can provide. Heh, least we know where your inches in height went." She huskily whispered and I was honestly not even fighting her. Not that I could considering the difference in our strength, but considering how unbelievably hot this pink pheromone leaking bitch was and how good this felt, I found myself melting into her seduction.
BANG
Only to be splattered with blood as the bitch slumped dead. Looking up, I could see Seranz's full resting bitch face and Kleopatra on her back glaring down at me with narrowed judgmental eyes. Pushing the dead demon off, I could only meet their gaze with equal fervour and growl.
"You could have at least let her finish." I crossed my arms, pouting like a child for being blue balled. My erection still pointing proudly skyward.
"Blessed or not, you are undoubtably a heretic enslaved by your lusts." Seranz coldly glared down at me, making me shiver before without hesitation, she kicked me in the jaw hard enough to snap it, making even Kleo wince.
"You do know I can't feel that, right? Thought you couldn't hit me for being the Emperor's vessel and all that" I say as I held my jaw while it regenerated and stood up, grabbing my discarded bolter.
"What a pity." The apathetically bitch said, and maybe later I'd say I honestly deserved that. That said, as I stood with an erection big enough to bridge me back to Holy Terra, I could only give my deepest sigh as I recognised, she could probably fuck me up worse than this demon ever could have. Mental scaring can be much worse than physical. Looking up at Kleo, it seemed even she was somewhat annoyed with me as she looked away from me while pouting.
Looking around to see the remaining evil Sororitas had fled, I spotted something shiny in the distance that was reflected by the red sky.
"Hey guys."
"Not now Rex, a further word and I may not control my anger." Seranz cut me off, much to my irritation.
"Sera! Look!" I said, grabbing her by the shoulder and forcefully turning her while pointed out of the window.
It seemed she was about to deck me for my actions, only to note what I was referring to out of the corner of her eye. It seemed significant enough as all anger left her face and, in a moment, we were rushing to the spot across the street where a battle seemed to have taken place as bolter and fire damage littered the area. Around us were arrayed many space marines in all their fallen glory, complete with armour and weapons.
Looking around, we agreed that it was in all likelihood the members that didn't turn traitor, betrayed by their allies. Seranz seemed to take this especially hard as she handed Kleo to me, before she then fell to her knees and delicately moved the desecrated body of a Battle Sister whose lower armour had been stripped before she had been left in an unflattering pose. I averted my gaze as this wasn't something I wanted to see.
"Monsters. Every. Last. One of them." The tears in her eyes and venom on her tongue stung my heart like acid. Sure, I hadn't known the woman for long, such sadness still wasn't something I enjoyed seeing on her gorgeous stern face. Seeing the stoic woman like this was unnatural to me.
Still, we had a job to do, so I placed Kleo on the floor, bracing myself for what was to come next, I turned to the kneeling woman's back.
"Sera, I don't really have any way to say this, but we are basically out of supplies and I'm sorry I have to ask this but…" I hesitated, fully expecting the full brunt of her rage. "Kleo… Still needs pants-"
One moment I was looking at a grieving Sororitas, the next I was staring up at the red stormy sky. I even thought I saw spots in my vision as one of my eyes healed after being popped. I wasn't staring at nothing for long as Kleopatra's mop of black hair and purple eyes came into view, leaning over to check on me.
"Rex, are you ok?" I heard her say with concern, to which I nodded, placing my hand on her cheek while she nuzzled and grabbed with her hand.
"I'm fine." I sat back up, half expecting to get hit a second time. Instead, it seemed Seranz was fuming a few feet away with her back once more turned to me.
"How dare you. How dare you! You suggest we take the garments of my fallen Sisters?" Ok, so she was pissed. Very pissed.
But so was I.
Standing up, I bitch slap her as hard as I could, the resounding noise echoing in the quiet street.
"Fuck sake, I don't like it any more than you do, but she can't keep wondering around like that, only for some lucky purple chaos rapist to get his/her, or whatever the fuck these things are' disgusting paws on her." I match her glare, pointing to the unfortunate Sisters who had befallen that very fate to prove my point. By this point, a visible red mark had formed on her cheek which she slowly raised her hand to as if questioning the reality of my audacity.
"Even so." She hissed "To desecrate my Order's most holy, that they be laid to rest in service to He who protects on Holy Terry, only that they be snatched of their final shreds of their dignity in death!?" She barked back, to which I stood my ground, our chests pressing against each other as we sneered at each other. It seemed despite being the topic of conversation, Kleo was wisely staying silent and out of our way, keeping an eye out for an attack.
I could feel her hot breath on my face as she could feel mine. Still, I didn't falter. "Wasn't it you who said something about focusing on what you have, not what's lost? They are dead Sera, they have things we can use to make sure we don't fuckin join them."
We held each other's gaze for a long time. Blue vs blue. Will, vs will. Even if I was shorter than her by quite a bit as I'm pretty sure she was about 6'3ft, I held my ground even as she grit her teeth and looked like she may just deck me again.
"FUCK!" Turning around and screaming, she took a deep breath. "I see wisdom in your logic Lord Rex. We are trained to seize every advantage on the battlefield. That said, if you ever slap me again, I will kill you. Perpetual or not." She threatened. To said threat, I made one of my own.
"Bitch, I'll do it again." I step forwards hands clenching and unclenching. "We've survived this far by working together, so if I gotta smack the shit out of you to get your platinum blonde brain in gear so your stubbedness doesn't get either of you girls killed, so help me I'll bend you over my fucking knee until your white arse is red raw!" I huff, finally taking in a breath, only to realise I may have fucked up as she was now simply staring down at me with hair shadowed eyes and a red face. Even Kleo had gasped and was looking at me like I was on death-row.
Despite myself, I felt the urge to run as I was sure whatever came next from this warrior woman would involve psychological torture I couldn't possibly endure.
Contrary to all of my mentally painful predictions, she never rounded back on me and simply stayed turned. Bending down, she tossed the discarded pants and armour of her fallen Order Sister to Kleo, who dared not move.
"I'm going to check their Data-slate. With any luck, we will determine what corrupted so many loyal sisters and made them go Heretic." She simply stated, no emotion in her vacant tone.
"S-Sure. Sounds good." I hesitantly responded, not knowing what to make of her new attitude.
Turning to Kleo, I sighed. "Come on, as much as I much prefer you half naked, we need you protected more than I desire to keep seeing your sexy ass and thighs right now." I joked, prompting the girl to move into action.
"R-Right. I-I hope Seranz doesn't take what you just did too harshly." She blushed while worriedly glancing over to the woman who was hunched over the left arm of who I assumed to be the Death Watch commander of this unit.
"I think she'll get over it." I shrugged, though my gaze dared drift to Sera's back, hoping my own words were right. "Plus, it was all I could think to do after getting hit twice my her in the last fifteen minutes. We are alike in that we don't take shit easily." I say with narrowed eyes, clenching my once more blood covered fist that Kleo then placed her hands over, gently making me loosen it.
"I get it, just remember to be gentle when its required, ok? Daddy always did say, an angry man who only acts in anger is again angry when he returns to reason." She smiled, making me smile back with a dusting to my cheeks. Who knew such a cinnamon roll could be found in a hellhole like this?
Seeing Kleopatra was fine, I once more helped her move to the cover of a crumbled wall where I could keep an eye on her. I then began looting around now that I had been given the green light. That said, I wisely stayed away from the woman in question as she now wielded a new bolter after discarding her beaten auto-gun.
Looking around, I found all the sets of pants were too big for me, much to my continued annoyance as they had fit Kleo just fine. I was just too skinny and small to make this armour work for my body apparently. Seriously, what was with all the tall muscular bitches, and why couldn't this be like all the stories, fanfics, and animes where the protagonist just fits into any old shit he puts on magically. I considered blessing something, but the likelihood I attracted the demons here was just too high so close to the ritual site.
As for weapons, I dropped the chaos tainted bolter, and grabbed an untainted one. Lighter than I thought it would be honestly, and while holding it I definitely felt badass. Still, looking at their bigger and beefier cousins used by the deceased Astartes, a part of me wondered if it would be enough if even they couldn't kill whatever was responsible for this massacre.
My mood is lifted when I spy something particularly eye catching that made my mouth water. Strutting over, I gripped a large wooden handle that felt more like metal and gave it a pull. It was stuck pretty good, but with a hard enough yank, like the sword in the stone, I yanked a massive 2.3-meter black chain sword out of the chest cavity of a Death Watch member. I stumbled a bit and struggled to properly hold it hold it properly at first. No surprise since the big fucker was designed to be used as a one-handed sword for an 8ft tall superhuman, not a 5'6ft random.
Still, as I held it, I couldn't help but believe I may be able to wield it like a buster sword with enough time and effort. Was I going to be endlessly tearing ligaments and muscles? Yes. Did I also fully intend to feed this thing's rotating blade with as much living things as humanly possible? Also, yes.
For the Emperor or some shit.
"Rex! Get Kleo over here. You two need to see this." I heard my name called, making me raise my brow at the lack of the word 'Lord', making me a worried since it had been Seranz who had insisted upon it to begin with. Resting the slab of metal on my shoulder, I walked over to Kleo and helped her over to the deathwatch commander's body, where Sera had activated his suit's Data-Slate, which was a screen on his left inner forearm.
Arriving beside her, she actually looked paler than before as she activated the screen. What played next was a series of fast-forwarded footage from his helmet cam that showed them arriving under heavy fire via Dropship.
They seemed to be kicking ass and taking names just fine, slaughtering demons and being every bit the superhuman soldiers I had envisioned them to be as they moved with speed and power I could only dream of.
"I don't get it." I said, to which Sera rolled her eyes and turned my face back to the screen just in time to see the situation change as the horde was barrelled out of the way by what I could only describe as a 35ft tall red freight train with horns.
The monster shrugged off most ranged attacks and only seemed to be slowed down by a lucky power sword that stabbed its thigh. The personification of hate then began tearing apart everything in sight, including the odd demon that go in its path. Still, that didn't compare to the next thing that appeared.
Moving with slick and sinuous movements, the 30ft demon that obviously belonged to Slaanesh entered the shot and spoke. With just words alone, loyalists began turning coat to begin stabbing and shooting their comrades. I personally found to be repulsive, and I was glad that its abilities didn't seem to work through video. The last shot was its grinning visage as this marine had been gunned down by the many traitor sisters.
"What-What was those things?" Kleo was the first to speak and for once Seranz was silent and uninformative. Apparently, her little Data-Slate never covered the incarnation of drunken rage and a demon with 10 in charisma.
"My guess is they were what guards this ritual site. They must have left those sisters around here as a sort of after thought guard. Not believing any more reinforcement would be coming by before the ritual was concluded." I pieced together. "If I was to hazard a guess, those bitches that escaped much have gone to tell papa slut how mean we were to them." I growled, cracking my knuckles as I thought about those bastards coming back here.
"We can't face an enemy like that. We wouldn't stand a chance." Seranz bit her inner cheek, picking up her bolter and looking around, suddenly on more alert than before."
"Yeah, if only it were so simple." I snort, overcome with the desire for a decent drink. "Only issue is we gotta somehow shut down the ritual to escape this barrier and get the fuck out of here." My bitter tone did nothing to alleviate our current panic.
Still, this really did leave us with not real options as soon enough, the whore's pet Sisters and their fellow demons would arrive and who knows if they'd bring those bigger demons? Another thought that was terrifying was what if I was taken over? I could only assume that thing was of a much higher level than the kind of shit Big E had warded me off from when I touched his statue.
("Rex, look alive, something is approaching, something strong!") Verosika shouted out of nowhere loud enough for us all to hear, startling me to the point I dropped my sword, thankfully missing Kleo with it as it clattered to the ground heavily, the girls gave me strange, panicked looks.
"What's wrong Rex?" I didn't respond to either girl as behind us opened a black swirling vortex formed out of thin air, followed by a self-contained shower of blue feathers that swirled around like snow in a snow globe.
TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP
An intricate golden cane hit the broken street floor in a soft rhythm, echoing in the seemingly dead environment as it seemed all background noise had ceased. The three of us trained our bolters on a lone black robed figure as it slowly walked around us without saying a word. The only noise being the constant TAP of its cane and our own rapid breathing through fear and of being startled.
Below its plane garment, of which outlined a deep hunchback, the three blue bird feet that slowly and harmoniously carried the ominous fucker clued us in that it wasn't human of any sort, not that the huge bird wings which draped at its sides screamed homosapien. Did I mention the literal eyes on said wings, that were locked onto us with the creature's every step.
"Wh-Who the fuck are you?" I could feel sweat building on my brow as I could tell through our connection, just how much this monster terrified Verosika. If she was terrified, I assumed I ought to be to. Still, I held my ground, not daring to take my eyes off the fucker.
Finally, it came to a stop before us with its hood shrouding its face except for the tip of a sharp golden beak which much like the arms of its wings, had a sort of gold jewellery dressing resting upon it. Now it was close enough, I could tell it was about 9ft tall.
"Greetings humans. I trust that the entity who defied Slaanesh's eternal service had warned you of my arrival?" The creature's voice was felt more in my mind than spoken, like it hadn't actually made a sound, and yet I knew precisely that it had said in that instant. The tone conveyed being elderly, wise, baritone, and yet assisted by multiple lighter tones. It reminded me of the 'We Are Legion' voice. As if multiple people had been enslaved to be this thing's voice box.
"Y-Yeah, she said as much." I gulped, receiving chills everywhere on my body, and not from the temperature of the city. This guy just made me feel like he was laying all I was bare and studying it like you may an interesting ticket.
"Good, I apologies for the sudden intrusion, however I happened to become aware of your predicament. You may call me Voragror Khravex. I must admit, I have taken a great interest in you and your short journey thus far." Ok, now I wanna piss myself.
"T-That so? Little old m-me? Hehehe You must have me confused mate." I could feel my blood freezing while I broke out in a cold sweat.
"Fear not." I raised its hand in a peaceful gesture, said blue scaled hand having three talons adorned with golden rings with eyes and jewels in them. "I would pose you and your retinue no threat. You see, you happen to represent a great number of mysteries, possibilities, and even possess a destiny spanning the galaxy. Such a rare treat is especially potent to one of my age and station." It explained, only succeeding in making my skin crawl.
"How long have you followed us Warp creature?" Seranz asked, though I could even sense her hesitation to fight as her hands were visibly shaking. That didn't even account for Kleo who had dropped her bolter and crawled behind my legs like a scared child, making me feel an even greater protective inclination for her than before.
"Since the beginning." It then chuckled at Seranz, said Sororitas only glared. "Hmm, no not exactly. You see, I became aware of your collective presence within that meagre temple to the Anathema after it exerted its will to grant Rex and the one he dubbed Verosika his mark as well as small boons in power and protection which have thus far assisted your continued mortal existence. Given that I can see the past, present, and future with the ease it takes you mortals to breathe, it was not difficult to learn everything about each of you that I desired."
Ok, so I have a demonic stalker, not the worst thing that could happen…
"R-Right, so you know everything. What do you want then? No offense, but we are kinda pressed for time." I say, not wanting to spend any more time around this guy as the longer I do, the more I feel he's up to something. Who was I kidding, he was definitely up to something!
"But of course." It bowed ever so slightly with its arm stretched out disarmingly. "You desire to leave this barrier and escape this city, do you not? Unfortunately, as you had surmised earlier you face a great obstacle. You see, those demons were indeed very powerful. They were greater demons of Khorne and Slaanesh. A Bloodthirster and a Keeper of secrets. They are conducting the ritual as we speak, said ritual will turn this entire section of real space into a foothold of the Immaterium. They have the catalyst and are merely awaiting the final ingredient." The creature informed us, much to our despair as this basically meant we'd be trapped in the warp.
Kleo was now actively sobbing, and I couldn't help myself as I crouched down and hugged the woman. Whispering comforting words to her that seemed to do little as she just kept repeating how she didn't want to die over and over again, making me grit my teeth.
"Why are you here then? You say you come in peace, yet you tell us this knowledge. Is it satisfaction? Is that it? Are you just here to gloat?" Sera demanded, getting angry and I had to join her in that sentiment as for me, fear and anger generally mixed well.
"No, nothing to mediocre. I come to offer assistance to get out of this terrible situation you find yourselves in." The entity offered, and I couldn't help but be on alert as everything I'd ever known screamed not to trust this being.
"Right and I assume you ain't just doing this out of the kindness of your heart. What's your angle? This is some trick, right?" I accused brasher than I wanted to be admittedly as I was still mindful that this fucker could probably do some horrific shit to me. Immortal or not.
"Oh, no trick. Not today. You see, while I believe in a war of attrition your immortality would win out against the Bloodthirster. It is impossible for you to not be swayed by the tongue of the Keeper of Secrets as the Anathema's ward had no chance against entities of their station. That is where I come in." It said, waving its hand, making a yellow magic sigil appear over a small ring sized box. "I can bestow you a unique artifact of unrivalled power of my own personal creation, capable of shielding you and your allies from warp manipulation from anything lower than the Gods Of Chaos themselves." It explained, and I could only stare in complete disbelief.
"Right, and you expect me to believe you, a warp creature who'd fall under this category, would be willing to grant an enemy of Chaos such a powerful item? Pull the other one mate, it has a Christmas bell." I snark at the sheer unbelievability of the statement.
Unfazed by my blatant and entirely justifiable refusal to believe, him. The chaos creature reached, for its veil, removing it, revealing the rest of its face. That being an avian with sharp teeth and three eyes in a line either side of its head. It also had small horns on the top of its blue feathered head, as well as a black and gold feathered head dressing with an eye in the centre.
"You have every right to distrust me as an eternally loyal servant to my Patron, the Changer of Ways, Tzeentch. One of his tenants is trickery, deceit, and betrayal after all. With that in mind, while it would be far easier assist you, only to see to your downfall. My Lord also values something else, that being ambition, Destiny and fate. You see, by betraying my allies in their time of greatest need when the ritual is at the precipice of completion, resulting in their own ascension and recognition in the eyes of their own Patrons, I would be conducting the single greatest act of betrayal to chaos undivided itself!" The creature started getting excited as he looked oddly dreamy, spreading its arms out wide.
"After all, what is a greater act of ambition, scheming, and betrayal, than starting a grand scheme that encapsulates many associates, going to all the effort of facilitating the perfect catalyst by convening in private with your ally's mortal enemies, only to slowly and methodically take over a world while promising glory and power to all who'd aid me. Finally, at the grand moment of completion, I change my mind and give a seemingly random and inconsequential group of humans the means to stop the ritual and thwart chaos undivided! After all, I am the final ingredient! for it was my spell which they are using! All I have done is not recited the final incantation only known to me. Voragror Khravex the Deadly Corruptor of the Profane Crucible, and Lord of Change, GREATER DEMON SERVANT OF HE WHO WEAVES FATE!" The creature roared, a wave of power blasting out, making all of our hair wave with the kicked-up wind and dust.
I stared numb, after all, I was literally staring at the motherfucker who'd caused all of this.
"You-You-YOU MONSTER!"
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
Sera finally lost her shit and let her bolter rip, firing a full mag into the demon. When she was done, we stared in wide-eyed shock as every round was frozen midair in such a way that you could just reach out and grab them. To make matters worse, we couldn't move.
The demon approached the shells and looked upon them with curiosity while we could only stare in fear.
"It always interests me how every civilisation always creates what you would call a gun, no matter the millions of variations they have in the payload that is fired." He then flicked a round, to which it regained its momentum, hitting a pillar, blowing it down. "As I said, my offer still stands. I shall leave the artifact to you for your discretion. I do so hope you take my little investment in your continued fate. It is a device from a time you would know as the war in heaven." The monster then turned around and began to be surrounded by black mist. "One final piece of advice. That artifact had been converted to consume Warp energy to function. As such, it shall be needing a large sauce to jump start its systems." The Lord of Change explained.
"May Tzeentch and myself be entertained by your destiny, wherever it takes you."
And with that, he was gone, and we could move again. Falling to our knees side by side, me and Seranz gasped for air as we shook.
"By the God Emperor. That being…" She breathed beside me. Idly I'd noticed that each of the bolter rounds had restarted their velocity and had carved up a wall across the street.
"Look, the artifact is still there." I huffed, shakily standing up, even as my legs shook. Looking down Kleo, I could see that the poor girl was shaking like a leaf and scared to silence. Picking her up, I held her to my chest. Meanwhile Seranz who was made of sterner stuff than either of us, hesitantly approached the artifact. However, that wasn't what was on my mind.
"Verosika, are you in there?" I called out, hoping that the Lord of Change had not hurt her. Afterall, that fucker clearly liked to talk and scheme so I was concerned he'd hurt her in some way.
("I-I'm here Rex. I'm just… That entity. I don't know how to describe it, but…") She trailed off while I gently rubbed Kleo's back soothingly.
"It was too much, right? Like you just hoped it would stop looking at you?" I received a quiet murmured approval as response. "Want a hug as well?" I offered, and in the next moment, the familiar and dearly missed gorgeous human-looking daemonette was hugging me from the front with Kleo between us.
"Thank you…" We faintly heard the woman say to Verosika, who squeezed the girl ever so tighter.
"You're welcome, sorry about your feet." She said sadly. The response was a kiss on her cheek from the blushing farm girl cinnamon roll.
"You did your best. All that's all that matters." She murmured and I could help but feel warm at the cute interaction.
For my part, I took a shuddering breath to attempt to kill my nerves that were still going haywire. "Hey, Verosika, mind taking Kleo for awhile? I need to see about this artifact thing with Seranz."
"Of course, I'd gladly watch over her. Just be careful Rex. That demon is never to be trusted." My demon warned me, to which I nodded and handed Kleo to her, who immediately hugged her tight like a hawala.
Seeing that they were good as Verosika sat down and was stroking Kleopatra's hair soothingly to do damage control on the girl, something which wasn't my strong suit, I went over the a woman that I had even less chances of reading successfully.
Before I had even gotten close, she held out her hand, stopping me.
"I know what you're thinking. I need to know what your intentions are." She said, her gaze unreadable.
"Then you know we also don't have a choice. Even if the demon had been lying, we know what that Keeper of Secrets can do to Astartes and Sisters." I said with determination, still forcing my nerves down.
She remained stull for a long moment, simply staring at me long and hard. Eventually, she spoke, and when she did, I honestly didn't expect what would come out of her mouth.
"Slap me." She said, to which I gave her a scandalised look.
"And why would I do that?" I raised a brow, after all. Even if saying so would only piss this particular woman off, especially as if anyone would be abused out of the two of us in a one of one fair fight, it would be me, I didn't make it a habit of going around hitting women for no reason.
Still, she looked determined as she looked away with narrowed eyes. "Because I feel the need to repent." She huffed while her hand gripped the side of her hair in frustration. "I have failed my mission, failed to vanquish the God Emperor's enemies, and now have fallen so low as to require the assistance of a demon. I've been letting my emotions get the better of me. And what's worse, necessity will likely require I keep treading doing down this seemingly bleaker path. I just need to feel something that this internal conflict maybe abated for a short while." She said, looking me in the eyes pleadingly.
I stood there in quiet consternation, looking down at my hand. Rasing it, she closed her eyes.
SMACK
"Owe!" She actually hissed as she immediately jumped form the unexpected sensation and rubbed her ass. Fortunately, it seemed the flexible body fitting material covering it was thin enough for the impact to do the job.
"Why did you do that!?" She seethed predictably.
"You asked me to slap you remember?" I shrugged. "Plus, I did say where I'd aim if I ever needed to punish you for anything. Didn't I?" I shrugged, figuring if she was mad at me, she'd do what she usually did and turn that anger into focus. If she hit me, I'd just grin and bear it… as soon as my teeth grew back.
Holding her intense electric blue gaze, I saw her face shift numerous times, before settling on the ghost of an emotion I didn't expect. The only upward tilt of her lips, followed by the husting of her cheeks said more than enough.
Holy shit, did she like that?
Still, as ever she was quickly back on track as the buff Amazoness changed the subject and gestured to the floating artifact behind her, which I hesitantly reached out and grabbed in both of my hands. Looking down at it, I was half-expecting to be cursed of even blow up. I was pleasantly surprised when I didn't.
"So, what do we do with this thing?" I asked, looking at it from different angles.
"We need to charge it. Unfortunately, I believe the creature was illuding to how you could do it." Seranz surmised and I had to agree.
"Yeah, it said I could kill the Bloodthirster without the artifact and that it would need a large amount of Warp essence to turn on." I recalled, feeling uneasy about facing such a creature, even with my regeneration.
Sighing, Sera actually smirked at me. "Hmm, damned if you do, damned if we don't. Seems to be a theme with this place, right?"
"Yeah, I'm just a walking bundle of Heresy." I sardonically bemoan. "Maybe we should have Kleo hold onto the artifact until it can be charged? For all we know, I get blasted apart and it goes missing some place." I reason, to which she nods.
"Good idea Rex." She praised, and I couldn't help but grin.
"Not calling me Lord anymore?" I taunted to which she raised a brow and crossed her arms.
"What was that you said about lords, and politicians making everything worse for everyone? I simply decided that you were more help than a hinderance. That is all." She flippantly stated, but the dusting on her cheeks despite her impassive face not budging an inch, was a dead giveaway.
Smiling a hundred watte smile, I turned back to our other two companions. "Come on, lets load up and get going. We don't have long and no telling if that guy will keep his word about not reciting the last of the chants."
Nodding, Seranz bent around looting ammo and weapons while I handed Kleo the artifact to protect. She was hesitant, but when I told her how important it was that she look after it, she relented to peer pressure of Verosika whispering into her ear, before nipping it. Honestly, she was such a tease.
Loaded up with a bolter each, my empty M4A1 was being carried by Kleo on a sling, I had my new oversized chain sword on my shoulder. Finally, it was agreed that Verosika would carry Kleo as I and Seranz would be needing both of our hands if we were to somehow bring down a Bloodthirster. It helped that Verosika could run much faster than us to keep Kleo and the artifact safe. I just hoped we managed it without anyone getting hurt.