Date: D076. Y977. M31. MI60
Abord one of the many ships within the Chaos Fleet was one Galaxia Warrior, one with a colored armor that could be considered aqua, cyan, teal or anything else it did not matter what did matter was the fresh blood on their armor for the one said blood came from was currently being dragged across the floor, the psykers neck cut open almost to the spine the head barely hanging on to its body, but the warrior payed almost no mind to it for their mind was elsewhere.
They were quite excited, no not excited exactly but the anticipation for some, any challenge to their own talents and skills was a great prospect that had them feel something… different per say, the reason for this emotion was quite simple they had ambition, ambition to push new heights, to leave the biggest impact one could possibly have on the galaxy and this was just one step to do just that.
They were close, oh so very close indeed, with only a few more finishing details that needed touching up for the ritual to be carried out to its fullest as well as getting a bit closer to the intended target for better accuracy, this was due to the common fact that teleportation was considerably inaccurate and unreliable the farther out and the smaller the area you targeted, but again that would be solved via them closing the distance and targeting a large area, that being an entire enemy ship.
Now Annu was closing in and was almost in range to perform their plan to destroy both the sheep of the Federation and the self important of the Eldar, all in one fell swoop and it all started with the ritual at their feet, in front of them was a very large circle on top of an eight pointed star that was made of fresh crimson blood with intricate and complex patterns woven into its design.
Again such a ritual needed a complex design for a reason as it needed a lot of power to put it mildly, however such power could only be obtained through a few ways, one was utilizing your own power to fuel the ritual alongside many others until you ran out of stamina or you destroyed yourself, but this was slow and took a lot of time, then there was the much quicker and more preferred method of just sacrificing psykers and their souls to the ritual which was much faster and provided the blood.
Annu had already sacrificed the choir's of each and every ship in the Federation Fleet that their master had 'borrowed' along the way here leaving the last few sacrifices needed on this ship for ease of transport and to ensure that they could choose whenever they wanted to provide the last few sacrifices so that the spell did not go off prematurely, a consequence of this however was that they had relied on the psyker brain infused machines that the followers used in the place of choir's and ungumented psykers.
Speaking of blood, the crimson color of the blood used to make the ritual circle was beginning to fade meaning that the mold for the teleportation was set all they needed was a few more sacrifices, looking over their shoulder they saw an acolyte who currently looked like he may just fall over and die from the prospect of being sacrificed "calm yourself, you are far too weak to be sacrificed" Annu said in backhanded reassurance.
It was also an insult as to worship Tzeentch the Lord of Change meant you had at least some ambition and for someone to spit on it was a particularly egregious insult to most, but that did not matter what did was the small amount of pleasure that Annu took from hearing the acolyte grind their teeth and tighten their jaw in anger, frustrating and annoying others was always a good pastime.
"Acolyte quite whining as logical dictates that if I do not get my sacrifices soon you will be up next anyway, agreed?" Annu said, the acolyte froze up again before bowing and scurrying out of the room in order to get away from Annu and to hopeful expedite the arrival of the next sacrifices less they be up next, Annu laughed to themself the pride and ego of some of these lowly mortals was almost absurd, so much so it was humorous to a near immortal Galaxia Warrior such as them.
Speaking of pride such a trait was most noticeable in one of their puppets 'Rapheal' they believed his name was, a lowly under hive pile of scum that had been fortunate to be blessed with some power and potential, but for someone who came from such a lowly position the man certainly had an ego with a temper to match.
Annu had summarized long ago that most humans with psychic powers had such an ego because they felt they were quote on quote "special" or better than their non psychic counterparts, and combine that with the natural human instinct to abuse such power it only made sense that such pride would take such a deep root in ones personality for the puppet thought he could take on the master that he was better than Annu, an impossibility to be sure.
Annu would have loved to truly make lasting a high quality puppets out of them breaking their free will and destroying their sense of self it would be fun to, but to put it simply they did not have the time as their master planned for the three of them to not survive this anyway so putting any effort into them was pointless and a waste of time.
Then there was that technophilia zealot, Annu would have preferred to have not taken them along as they needed to be in full control of every action taken by the fleet and its ground forces and having a portion of the fleet be under the control of another party that was certainly scheming to kill them was not good for business per say, no matter she would not be a issue for their planes would be complete before she could even take action.
They were confident in this because of their previous knowledge and interactions with May before she had even left the suppressive nature of the citadel, the context for this was that they had their own ambitions and had exploited her insecurities with her intelligence, body and image in order to turn her against the Federation and the citadel.
Why had they done this? Well let's just say that information and STC's that May provided had allowed them to influence many a Mechanical Cult and Contrivance Churches and cause some much needed chaos within a few sectors and set the stage for a ritual known as the 'Colossal Contusion'.
Safe to say they had failed when the legendary figure known as the 'Unkillable Guardian of the Father' or more commonly known as the Archangel Michael intervened, and thus with that failure they had a falling out with May resulting in them taking the STC's with all for themselves and their master.
In a way it made sense why the Technophile Cardinal hated their guts though it gave them some excellent ammunition to manipulate her once again into unwittingly doing their bidding while hoping to advance her station when in actuality they would never give her the chance to do so, combine that with the fact she seemingly had no recollection of them meeting for some odd reason and it was obvious that they had the advantage here, not her.
Well they might have an idea now that they gave it a few moments of thought, it may in fact be due to how he had left her brain matter splattered across a portion of the floor the last time they had met, oh he was sure that she remembered that or else why would she be so hostile? And also given that he had killed literally billions of people over the many, many millennia it would have made their murder of May Pain fade into the background and not be immediately remembered.
That was always a problem for them, leaving loose ends untied and out of mind, in fact it had come back to bite them many times in the past so you would think that they had learned something by now, no matter in their current position it would not- "M-my Lord" his thought process was then interrupted by the same acolyte he had sent off to seek out where their sacrifices where 'ah they made good time' he concluded.
Turning to the acolyte Annu glared for but a second before they spoke "speak, now" they commanded, the acolyte audibly gulped in terror "M-my lord, we have acquired the necessary sacrifices from the choir and a few that the fol-followers proivded, a-although they have been r-rather uh, resistant" the acolyte explained, this frustrated Annu slightly but they let it drop quickly instead they set off themselves without a word in order to just do it themselves 'useless imbeciles' they cursed.
As they passed the acolyte they would utilize the discipline of Biomancy and with a wave of their hand would cause to the acolyte grasp at his neck with rapidly mutating hands as he began to choke on his own blood as all of his teeth, the incisors, canines and molars began to grow uncontrollably causing an entire tubes worth of blood to pour down the throat and along with many other mutations to the hands, feet and internal organs the acolyte would soon collapse from a lack of air and blood.
Leaving the mutated corpse behind Annu would stalk down the hallways while still uncorrupted soldiers, servants and officers would do their best to avoid them giving them a wide berth with their terror either being obvious or barely hidden beneath the surface.
Taking the quickest route to the room where the formerly Federation choir was kept Annu would soon come across around five dozen soldiers all crowding around what looked to be a few other mortals all in robes, Annu would quickly melt into the shadows becoming a shapeless black void.
Annu could feel the power of these musicians radiating just beneath the skin being held back by their conviction to not harm those unaffected by the truth of Chaos 'weak minded fools' Annu thought, for if they were truly intelligent the choir would have killed everyone in their way to escape or commit seppuku as soon as possible, to Annu it was obvious that the unusual combination of selfishness and generosity was what had caused this, or they were just not thinking ahead.
"All of you stay back! You will only bring about all of our deaths!" one of the psykers exclaimed, to this one of the officers would step up "You are just going to get us killed by resisting you freaks! Just shut up and go!" the man yelled stepping forward with a few others and attempting to get the psykers back under control "YOU UNGRATEFUL INGRATES WE ARE THE ONLY REASON YOU HAVE NOT BEEN MOLESTED BY DAEMONIC FORCES!, STEP BACK!" the lead psyker yelled in response.
The lead psyker would then take off the hood of their robe, the shadow that hid all psykers faces was also pulled back revealing a man in his 500s with tan skin and dark black eyes, runes covered his face and most likely his entire body with tattoos on the side of his bald head, a sneer crossed across the mans face "you are all bending your knee to a mad man! One who will dispose of us all when the time is right!" the psyker proclaimed to the crowd"then why does he not do it now?!" someone called out.
… wow, for the first time in centuries Annu was stumped at the man's stupidity but that's humanity for you, the lead psyker seemed to share that sentiment before merely shaking his head "He Needs Us! Without us he cannot achieve his goals! Even now we charge headlong into our brothers in arms!" the man proclaimed "lower your weapons! We must face this together!" the psyker yelled out.
The crowd would seem to stop and think for a moment, it was a short speech but he had to give it to him, the speech was efficient but not bulletproof as all Annu would do was utilize a combination of his biomancy and telepathy putting the equivalent of the fear of god into all the soldiers and the lone officer who impressively rebuke the psyker despite his emotional state.
"We may ride to our deaths but there is a chance that we will come out of this alive if we simply appease the beast, you've all seen what he did to the inquisitors! That monster merely swatted them away like flys! What chance do we have?! NONE" the man yelled while drematicly holding out his hands in an animated fashion.
"We can only hope to sacrifice those who he demands for, im sorry but I like many want to live" the officer said finishing his ramble with many others echoing the same points, it almost made Annu give themselves away with laughter "cowards" the psyker said calmly realizing his cause was lost before anyone else could believe in it.
The lead psyker would then raise his hand and perform the discipline of telekinesis, a pink glow would surround the officer and lift him off the ground before throwing him back into the crowd who by this point had already drawn their mako rifles but had now turned the safety off and had fingers on the triggers, growing bored Annu decided enough was enough and that hiding in the shadows would service them no longer.
Sliding under the soldiers in their shadow form Annu would first utilize his discipline of telepathy to read the minds of the psykers in front of them who by now had certainly sensed their presence given how close they were and their rapid movements 'ITS HIM' they all thought in a panic, at this they snorted as they had lost use for such terms a long time ago.
"m-my lord" the officer greeted, kneeling on the ground "a-as you can see, w-we have tracked them down and are pre-prepared to apprehend them" the officer said trembling slightly "mmmmm what have they been up to?" Annu asked, the officer stammered for a second before speaking "w-we do not know, they escaped their restraints and only now have we tracked them down" the man said Annu would then be charged by the choir, in total he was being rushed down by well over a dozen psykers.
Their skill that the psykers had displayed was decent but compared to himself it was like a baby compared to a lion, a few of the psykers, with blue trimmed robes, would show themselves to be skilled at biomancy their bone ripping out of their arm's and sharpening into blade's and with a simple technique known as hammerhead they strengthened their mussels by a factor of four quickly becoming a frontline for the others 'crude and primitive but efficient' Annu concluded.
Other psykers with red trimmed robes would turn themselves into fire with their discipline of pyromancy and like the biomancers charge him with, while others would choose to be more cowardly and disperse into a few wisps of flame and ash disappearing into the vents and air ducts 'so the smart ones have already left hmm?' Annu thought laughing it was no matter as they had no way to truly escape him and would be found soon enough anyway.
Then there was the ones with yellow trimmed robes who like the lead psyker practiced the discipline of telekinesis, using said discipline they ripped anything they could off the walls and either sent them their way or began to fuse objects together as shields and barriers for cover, it would seem that the officer now behind Annu had realized this as well and given his mental and emotional state would immediately order the over six dozen soldiers at his disposal to open fire.
Quickly however the soldiers would find themselves overwhelmed with fire, metal and bone being sent their way with quite a few going down never to get up again, all the while Annu stood there as they used telekinesis to redirect any and all attacks away from themselves resulting in them taking no damage, meanwhile a few of the biomancers would die, the mako rifles sending them to the ground with holes in their chests and limbs blown off.
Deciding that it would be preferable if most of these psykers survived Annu would drop their discipline of telekinesis as one could only use a single discipline at a time and bring out their pyrokinesis, blue fire would form and ignite in their hands and out of the mouthpiece and visor of their helmet, unlike really fire it did not burn or scorch their superhuman skin instead providing a slight warmth that would have provided comfort to anyone else but was something that they ignored.
Instead they would focus on burning off the limbs and melting the flesh of the psykers in front of them, aiming for the legs Annu would quickly repel the biomancers with fireballs and arrows of flame that went faster than the psykers could react to and whose skill would only allow them to block with the bone daggers that they had already created.
The secondary reason was also that they did not have the time to transform the bone into something more useful, as a result almost all of the biomacers were quickly incapacitated, their flesh melting into goopy puddles more akin to warm playdough than flesh, bone and bodily fluids, the soldiers behind them would puke or vomit not really much of a difference, while Annu just ignored it for they had laughed at much worse and more vile stuff.
Next was the pyromacers which would be slightly more challenging purely due to the fact that they had all transformed into fire which was something they could not just grab or contain with telekinesis in a conventional grab and hold down way, so they could get creative, as such they would immediately proceed to use telekinesis to influence the bodies of fire that the psykers had turned into and who were now shooting fireballs and creating walls of fire to block the mako bolts coming their way.
A few would also decided to just take out the problem at its source, with a few psykers rushing towards the soldiers their bodies of flame engulfing the soldiers and burning them up into smoke and ash leaving practically nothing behind not even the souls of the soldiers were left instead they were consumed like a fire does to a piece of plastic, Annu would make no attempt to help these soldiers either as they served as convenient distractions.
Anyways, first, Annu would cast out their power and quickly overpower the pyromancers whose skill could hold no candle to theirs and with a few movements of their hands they would deprive the pyromancers of all oxygen by moving said oxygen molecules away to from a sphere of nothing around the pyromancers that prevented them from breathing.
Said pyromancers would quickly lose all of their breath as they had not expected such an unorthodox attack and quickly passed out after a little while, their forms reverting back to flesh and bone, their faces blue and cold.
Even though the pyromancers used warp energies to fuel their disciplines and used such energies to cast these techniques like regular everyday fire they still needed air and thus would soon pass out, a few would resist as Annu's influence was equivalent to casting a wide net missing or allowing a few to escape but not for long as Annu would bring out a simple knife, but this knife was far from ordinary.
No, it was a daemon infused knife like much of their equipment like their armor for example, having a daemon inside may have made the armor a vessel for a daemon and thus made it sometimes unwilling to cooperate but a psychic attack was usually enough to quell its rebellion and to put it back in line.
Such was the situation for their knife which for a moment rebelled against the master but was put down almost instantly, instead the daemon settled for the blood of a psyker as Annu used their speed and agility to quickly cripple the remaining pyromancers without killing them, Annu would need them for the ritual after all.
Lastly was the lead psyker who stood tall in front of the last of the still unsubdued choir, at this point Annu had disabled about two dozen psykers via mutation of their limbs to prevent movement or suffocation by restriction of the available oxygen, now all that stood in their way was the lead psyker and his entourage of about a dozen psykers, looking Annu up and down for any weaknesses the lead psyker would then speak.
"I am Shem Rey, know this You monster for my name will be the last thing you ever hear" the man said, at that Annu would just laugh "my, my so harsh, you of all should know that monster is such a subjective term, I could even apply it to you in fact" Annu responded.
The psyker would just grit his teeth before assuming a battle stance, one meant for stability "for example you all could have all attempted to end your own lives once you were free, but no, instead you fight a hopeless battle for your own survival" Annu mocked "and without a plan no less".
It was then that the rest of the psykers joined their leader, assuming position their hands would begin to glow before they extended their arms forward and sent a huge amount of force Annu's way, in a way it was akin to having a main battle tank charge into them momentarily knocking all air from Annu's lungs as they stabbed their knife into the ground while they attempted to summon their own telekinesis, but to no avail as all of the still remaining choir was now focused on Annu pinning them down.
Instead Annu would summon their discipline of biomancy before taking their mockingbird plasma pistol out of its holster and shooting out the lights to allow themselves to shift back into their shadowy form allowing them to avoid the massive tidal wave of what could only be described as psychic force caused by the choir and their discipline of telekinesis, quickly approaching the choir Annu would then slide up the wall to the choir's right and would dematerialize from said wall.
At this point they were a little impatient as such when they took out their knife they aimed for the leaders neck for an instantaneous kill, Annu had already killed a few of them and they still had more than enough psykers to fuel the ritual, Annu would come flying out of the wall although even with the lights having been shot out the psykers could sense them and thus react jumping out of the way "TOGETHER! ATTACK!" Shem commanded.
The circle that the psykers had now created around Annu would work to the psykers advantage as they all would place their hands on the ground, looking down at their feet Annu would spy just what the psykers had been standing on, it was a ritual circle 'huh so they DO have a plan' Annu thought sarcastically before they prepared to quickly destroy said circle with their knife, but it did not work as the choir quickly activated the ritual and with so much power following through it their knife was unable to destroy the circle.
"THIS IS IT YOU MONSTER YOU WILL DIE, PARISHING UNLOVED AND FORGOTTEN" Shem said hate and satisfaction pratically flowing from his mouth, Annu in complete contrast would remain calm however as they had one last trick up their sleeve "YOU WILL BEG FOR MERCY BEFORE THE TRUE GODS BEFORE BEING CAST TO THE DAEMONS YOU LOVE THIS I SWEAR, NOW I SHEM REY HERBY BANIS-" 'Squelch'.
It was then that the psykers raving was cut off by a sharp blade piercing through his neck, blood flowing from the wound and flooding the mans airway and throat, the man known as Shem would then collapse in a puddle of his own blood life quickly fading from his eyes 'ironic' Annu thought.
The ritual would then immediately cease the glowing circle fading from a bright neon pink and back into a dim and dull rusted red, it was then that that rest of the psykers caught off guard would be pinned to the wall by some drone like machines, the psykers would then pass out from exhaustion and overexertion, really it was a miracle that none had been possessed and consumed by daemons when they had used so much power.
Looking back to the one who stabbed the leader in the neck Annu would find exactly who they thought they would "Technophile Bishop Alpha" Annu greeted, the women stood tall with about a dozen mechanical nightmares behind her with her demeanor giving off the emotion of annoyance, "thank you for the assistance, I really do, but as you can see I still had the ultimate advantage of having a gun" Annu explained sarcastically shaking said gun like a toy in their hand.
The Technophile Bishop would just shake her head "you know I would not let you go that easily, mark my words warrior your head will be on a pike by the time i'm done with you" she said as her drones fanned out and picked up the disabled psykers while avoiding the bodies of the dozens of soldiers that had been killed when the choir had hit Annu with that main battle tank level of force, wading through the blood and guts both of them quickly and efficiently made their way to the ritual room with Annu leading the way.
As they walked the silence between them would only be disturbed by the pitter pattering of mortal soldiers who avoided them like the plague that was until the Bishop spoke up "my forces will be deploying planet side very soon, im nearly positive that they can assist in finding whatever treasure lies under this planet's crust, yes valuable indeed" she said.
Annu had already known about the fact that she would most likely be threatening to steal their prize and to end them in general but where did the need to threaten them come from? Annu quickly decided that it was most likely hubris or just a threat for the purpose of it being a threat because she despised Annu's entire existence which was very amusing indeed.
Well it was official she would be joining them in the ritual as it appeared that they had not hidden their activities well enough, no matter this made things more interesting regardless, for example it had gotten awfully boring after just a few tens of thousands of years alive, they always had the same personality and thus their enemies would react to it the same way every time, thats why unexpected variables were not a hindrance of Annu in fact they enjoyed thinking and working out a solution on the fly.
That was also why his three puppets were just that, puppers, sure one rebelled and wanted to cause some problems but did not have the strength to truly do anything while the other two just did nothing to resist 'true cowards' Annu thought as they reached the ritual room, the circle was still the same rusted red color that they had left it as, thus it was still ready and primed to be used which was nice considering that blood naturally breaks down over time thus the quality of the ritual breaks down over time.
Placing the over two dozen psykers around the circle at certain points in order to maximize the amount of warp energy that went into said spell as well as tying them down with smaller rituals meant for containment and that required negligible amounts of energy that Annu themselves could provide.
Soon they would have all that was needed for the transference to begin, first Annu slit the throats of each psyker while chanting and praying to the true gods thus allowing the souls and psychic power of the psykers to flow into the ritual.
The ritual circle quickly began to glow a bright neon pink and purple continuing to get brighter as it was now it was not only primed but also given enough power to complete its task, arks of lightning shot off and away from the circle as Annu and May stepped into the center of the circle allowing them to simply watch "how much do you want me dead?, truly on a scale of one to ten?" Annu asked the Bishop "the scales cannot comprehend" she responded plainly.
"Good" Annu replied, it just would not be fun if she didn't.
—-
Date: D076. Y977. M31. MI60
The flashing red and blaring horn of the drop pod flashed in Rapheal's ears and eyes nearly drowning out all other thoughts, but he kept his focus on the Luger pistol in his hands, an antique really something that had been forgotten and replaced long, long ago like them really, currently he was sitting down in one of the seats just waiting for… something, that something was his two best friends and siblings in arms who were most likely still pissed at him for his dumbass comments.
To say he regretted them would be an understatement and combine that with the irrational fear he held that they would hold it against him thus allowing the gap between them to grow, it was safe to say that he was slightly stressed to put it mildly that they would forgive him as they had overcome worse in the past and had stuck together through thick and thin, through rain or shine.
He remembered when they had first met, three orphans left to rot in the depths of the terran underhive by an uncaring authority just so happening to meet because of the one dumpster that the lazy garbage workers had decided to leave until next week because they could care less about missing one of the thousands on their route.
At his young age he had childishly resented those garbage workers because at least they had a relatively respected means to provide for themselves even though they were probably just as exhausted and well off as his child self at the time, and combine that with the fact that his anger and irrational behavior had made him many enemies in the gangs who he had stolen from and it made for a child who was tired, hungry and paranoid at all times.
Diving into his memories he remembered when the orphanage had burned down due to mysterious circumstances leaving him on the streets with no weapons or food to his name, to fix this he planed to dumpster dive until he could find a more permanent solution, as such he went and found one, sneaking up and making sure to see that no one else would disturb him when his child self went dumpster diving.
So (In retrospect he did a piss poor job of doing so) when he had seen that at the moment the coast was clear his emaciated and thin body sped across the street from behind a lamp post with the speed that only a desperate and starving child could manage, when Raphael had reached the dumpster he practically launched himself into.
Launched in terms of speed not actually jumping in because that was just asking to be stabbed by broken glass and scraps of metal and thus get an infection that he would not be able to treat, even so he hurried into the dumpster as Raphael knew that he was the first one here, how did he know that? The answer lies in his at the time untapped potential as a psyker that although unrefined and something that he did not consciously use it still allowed him to sense others unconsciously.
This is why when Raphael found a small container with a half eaten sandwich he did not sense the presence coming from behind until said presence lunged for the container in his hands "what the fu-" he yelled as the person jumped on him before scrambling for the container that he dropped in surprise.
It turned out the person who attacked him was a girl with pale skin, blue eyes and black hair, soon however they were both throwing punches at each other, though these attacks did little actual damage considering that they were both tweens and were emaciated.
The container soon fell to the floor as both of them fought each other, if he remembered it correctly it was less of a fight and more of the two scratching at each other like cats, it was then that a third figure entered the picture, siad figure ran into the alleyway and scooped up the container before running away completely unchallenged, both him and the girl would stop for a second before they gave chase pushing and stretching at each other along the way.
Despite the head start the other kid had and the pushing and shoving going on between himself and the girl they still managed to catch up as the kid was even smaller and thus younger than either of them, that was the conclusion that Rapheal had come to at the time and it would be proven right as the kid who he would soon know as the kid proved to be only ten years old at the time compared to him and Sabine being tweens, again they would soon catch up to the kid.
"Get out of my way!" the girl yelled "Screw you Asshole! That stuff is mine!" he yelled back as they came out to a small rectangle clearing in the jungle of buildings and pipe work, there on the opposite side of the artificial clearing was the smaller kid who was staring at them wide eyed and looked to be on the verge of panicking, he had gone to essay something akin to a threat before the girl threw her body into his knocking him a good five to eight feet away and sending him to the ground scrambling to get up.
In that time the girl launched herself at the kid and attempted to pin him down with her larger body, but he scurried to the side barely avoiding her, the girl got a face full of rockcreate for that, by now he had gotten up and ran towards the kid who was himself still on his ass dazed as the girl had clipped him with her fist, grabbing the container he then attempted to run for the alleyway to leave "Crack".
But it was not be as the kid kicked him in the ass resulting in a cat fight on the ground which gave the girl time to get back up from the floor, fresh bloody scrapes and all, and join the small brawl, they would scratch, punch and kick at each other for the small left over a sandwich, "Click" the sound of a gun cocking back had them stop "well, well what do we have here?" a voice asked mockingly causing them all to freeze up "some brats who want to take what's mine that's what I see" the man answered himself.
The man was about six feet tall with pale skin and black eyes a scar across his face, the mans hair was messy and dirty hanging very long all the way down to his upper back, his clothes were ripped and torn, basically a lowlife criminal, "Fuck off!" Sabine shouted as she rushed the man "BANG" blood flew from her shoulder as the man let out a shot from his pistol, the girl few to the ground in pain and was then thrown back into the far wall by the man, a cruel smirk showing he took great pleasure in her pain and suffering.
"Heh" the man giggled walking towards them, they were all scared frozen in fear and not able to move even if it was for their lives, which at that point it was, taking out a knife in his left hand, than gun in his right, the man would then look between the three of them humming a tune as he then chose him.
Taking the knife the man grabbed Rephaels chin before dragging the blade across his cheek "you kids have a lot of nerve to be intruding on my junk, my stuff" the man said in a low voice "you know what happens when you steal from others right?" the man asked mockingly.
In response Raphael just glared at him before swinging his leg outward in a kick to the man's groin "FUCK!" the man screamed dropping his gun while throwing Raphael to the ground thus allowing Raphael to begin to scramble away only for the scruff of his shirt to be grabbed from behind, the man had quickly recovered and had taken advantage of Raphael turning his back to him, the look in the man's eyes now told Raphael that he was now going to do a lot more damage than just a scratch.
"OH YOU THINK YOU TOUGH DON'T YOU BRAT" the man yelled in his face, fear, true pure fear now coursed through Raphael's veins as the knife inched closer to his face "n-no" Raphael whimpered, the man ignored him instead pushing him up against the wall holding him by his neck "Well, if your so tough why don't I give you a scar to prove it?" the man sneered before giving Raphael a sick smile and placing the knife on Raphael's forehead.
Pressing the knife into his skin the man would then drag the knife across Raphael's face, the screams of agony would be fueled by the white hot pain and rage that Raphael felt at that moment, how weak and helpless, useless he felt at that very moment, the man laughed cruelly as blood fell like rain from Raphaels forehead and cheek as the man only stopped cutting at the jaw bone leaving a nasty gash, the man would then let Raphael drop to the ground.
"How do you feel brat?" the man asks with mock concern, to which Raphael just spat at the man "well, if I can't teach you humility I might as well end you, no use in leaving a loose end right?" the man picked him right back up holding the knife to Raphael's throat, Raphael tried to squrim out of the man's grasp but the man was just too strong "say goodbye brat" the man sneered "g-go to hell" Raphael replied, the man rolled his eyes before plunging the knife- "BANG".
Time seemed to freeze as a gunshot sounded out in the clearing the man ceasing all movements before falling to the ground on top of Raphael, it was only when looking up from the knife did Raphael notice a large hole in the man's head behind him the kid was holding the gun that the man had dropped, kids eyes were wider than saucers and his breathing was shallow and quick at the same time with his hands trembling, Raphael quickly squirmed out from under the deads mans body, with Raphael kicking the dead corpse "asshole" he said.
The two just stared at each other for a few seconds that felt like an eternity before Rapgael asked the question racing through his mind "why?" at this the kid seemed startled and dropped the gun "uh… I-I don't know, I guess well you're a kid like me and I uh didn't want you to die? If that makes sense?" the kid answered uncertainty but honestly, the two then sat there for a second before Raphael responded "w-well thanks, we still have the sandwich right? We could uh split it maybe, y-you as a thanks I guess?".
The kid just stared at him before looking at the sandwich and looking back at him seemingly bewildered "uh, sure?" the kid answered taking the container and popping it open, the sandwich almost caused him to drool as both their stomachs growled, but at that moment their hunger was almost overshadowed by their elation at still being alive and at what they had accomplished, first it had been just to get it back from the girl then the kid- wait THE GIRL.
"Uh you don't happen to know where the girl is right? Uh blue eyes and black hair?" Raphael asked, the kid looked at him funny before a groan of pain echoed from behind a few pipes that were at the far wall "well that answers that question, how'd you not know where she was anyway?" the kid asked, Raphael just rolled his eyes "well I almost got stabbed to death and my face feels like it got hit by those kinky electro whips that the Arbites use, yo know?" Raphael responded in a surprisingly casual tone.
The kid snickered at that before another groan of pain prompted them to hurry, it was not long before they found the girl curled up in a ball on the ground, it was obvious that she had crawled back here during the little scuffle that had been going on between the two boys and the evil man "uh are you alright?" the kid asked while Raphael looked over her wounds, the girl had numerous cuts and even some gashes due to her face having a condition known as 'prolonged exposure of one's face to rockcreate'.
Her shoulder had the expected gunshot wound but fortunately it appear that instead of lodging into her should the bullet had only grazed her taking a lot of skin with it "damn you lucky that bastard was a shit shot" Raphael remarked holding out his hand to help her up, the girl glared at him before reluctantly taking his hand in her left and pulling herself up "why do you idiots even care?" she asked, it was a genuine question, why did they care? "W-well you did take a bullet for us, we thought it was only fair that we shared the sandwich with you as thanks" the kid answered.
The girl did not look convinced and frankly Raphael didn't really think that was the reason either but they really didn't have any other explanation, walking out from behind the pipes Raphael would walk over and take the man's knife before taking the sandwich and cutting it into three pieces, the three of them than sat there for a while chewing and eating with not a word being spoken between them until the girl asked yet another important question.
"Well what now?" she asked, Raphael gave her a slightly confused look "oh don't give me that bs, we all still want what's inside that shitty dumpster and you have a knife while we have nothing" she stated plainly, Raphael just blinked at her in realization before he responded "well… fuck that, im not going to kill you two and honestly I never wanted to" Raphael said the other two looked at each other before looking back at him with the girl being the one to respond.
"Then what the hell do we do?" she asked, silence followed before the kid spoke up "w-we could look through the dumpster together, after all three sets of hands would get the job done better than one set or when were all fighting" he explained, both himself and the girl liked that idea they had all just gone through a near death experience so why not work together for at least a little while longer?.
"Sounds like a plan, let's go!" Raphael said before turning around, he was stopped however when the girl walked up and gave him a light punch on the should "slow down you idiot we don't even know each other's names" she said, Raphael had the decency to look embarrassed turning back to them to get their names "well, im Raphael, you?" "Corvin" the kid said "Sabine" the girl followed, smiling Raphael would then notice something behind the ki-Corvin.
Walking over he picked up the Luger pistol that the man had used and examined it, 'looks like the thing had only six bullets left in its detached magazine' he concluded, still useful but given that he did not have any more ammo he would have to spend it carefully and smartly "oi idiot you coming?" the gir-Sabine asked, "yeah, yeah i'm coming" Raphael said, the two of them would walk off down the alley while Raphael caught up to them leaving the corpse behind to be forgotten.
"Bang" pulling himself from his thoughts Raphael looked up to see that the door had been thrown open with his two siblings entering soon after, Sabine and her striking and tough features, and Corvin with his almost goat-like legs. Imposing stature and bloody red eyes that could portray an almost too wide spectrum of emotions if that made any sense, but, given where they had come from, anything making any sense would be a idiotic concern that no one could figure out.
As Raphael placed the pistol in his utility belt the two of them shuffled into the drop pod in silence as the tension from before still hung low and heavy, the two of them would take their seats while adjusting the harnesses to fit as they had not been made for comfort and with their extensive mutations it made it slightly more difficult to strap in, but they did all the same while Raphael stared at his shoes 'Damnit! Speak up you idiot! they're your siblings!' his thoughts lambasted.
Finally he decided to speak "soooo… uh, I" he stammered, 'Damnit why was this difficult? he had hurt them before and had apologized before so why was this difficult? Just get it over with! "Uh I wanted to say i'm… sorry about what I said" he said, the two of them looked at him with looks that screamed disappointment "I… was just pissed off, you know? That's not an excuse and calling you guys freaks was… not my best moment really… its just… I dont fucking know, im sorry ok?!" he said.
Silence reigned as the three of them sat in silence with the awkward tone from before being completely absent, the two of them boring holes into his skull with the looks they were giving him, it was then the silence was finally broke "well, we'll tell you, we don't accept it" Sabine said with Corvin nodding, Raphael sat in silence as he was not completely surprised at this point they may as well be officially done with him-.
"But you are still our best friend, our sibling so before we… risk our necks we will give you a reason and how you can fix it, we owe you that at least" Sabine said with Corvin then taking the lead "you can't keep doing this shit man, freaking out and saying crap or doing something stupid especially not in battle" Corvin told him a serious look on his face, for a few moments anger burned through Raphaels veins, how dare they judge him? don't they see the mistakes they are making?.
"Stop" Corvin said, clearly reading the emotions from Raphael "to basically answer what I think you're thinking, we are both upset, yes that devil will die slowly and painfully, but for now we gotta work with what we got alright? You damn hypocrite" Corvin said, looking at the boiling water flowing from a few pin prick openings in Raphaels skin, Raphael quickly pulled the water back into his body.
At this Raphael was… slightly shocked, but a few seconds of reflection quickly dispelled that with another thought flowing through his brain, how had he been such a damn thoughtless brainlet? Claiming to want to make it up to them when all he offered was empty words with no history to provide him credibility, "I-I…" he began before taking a deep breath and sighing in defeat "your right on that, and… I don't really have the best track record do I?" he half joked.
Quickly shifting his tone back to being serious Raphael would "t-that being said what can I do to make it up to you guys? I'm pretty sure I know but I think you guys should be the ones to decide" Raphael said, the two of them would look at each other giving each other a nod before Sabine would speak up "ok, Ralph this is what's going to go down alright?" she asked, he would just nod and wait for her to speak again, the feeling of being not good enough returned.
"The thing is we know you really are sorry, we're psykers dammit we can sense each other's emotions and we know that you care and want to change, but you have to put it into action alright?" she told him, Raphael just nodded and once again sat there waiting for anything to happen as he did not have any words worth any of their time "and… look, we ain't perfect either, hell far from it, we've killed innocent people, stolen and provided nothing to anything or anyone around us for almost all of our lives" she said.
Raphael wanted to defend their past actions, they were his and his siblings actions after all, but it only took a moment to hold himself back, did he feel any guilt to the many lives that he had ended? Well, no not really, he could hardly even remember any of their faces and to be honest he had almost always done those killings with survival in mind, didn't make it right, but to be honest he had seen and experienced too much in his life to feel any strong emotion towards his past actions.
"But the point is that like you we care, we aren't better than you, like, for example" she said then pointing to Corvin "this idiot like to go fast and to only go fast, fuckin adrenaline junkie I tell you, good for being a meathead not good for strategizing mid battle" she explained, Corvin rolled his eyes while giving her a light kick to the shin.
"And then we got me, you know the girl who doesn't have a plan and just wings it most of the time?" she said with her own dragon wings unintentionally fanning out, they both snickered as she told them to shut it with embarrassment being painted across her face, Sabine would then take a breath before continuing her point.
"we just want you to be better ok?" she said, after a few moments he looked up at her with a smile and a nod, the confirmation was enough for her as Sabine who then sat down in her seat adjusting her wings to get comfortable "having trouble? chicken wings" Corvin joked, the three of them laughed together giggling like little kids.
At this the feeling of belonging and finding his place filled him as he read their emotions, ones of anticipation, humorous annoyance (mostly from Sabine) and most importantly, hope, hope of a better tomorrow, it was then however that the alarm for the drop pod blared to life again with the ship's A.I speaking though the speakers.
"WARNING, DROP POD INSERTION IN T-MINUS TEN SECONDS" the A.I loudly spoke, taking the little remaining time he had left Raphael checked all his equipment especially his Luger, he did not want to lose that, for rather… personal reasons, then he checked his harness, he checked his mako rifle on his back and he lastly checked his siblings, from just a glance he could tell they were fine but gave them a few once overs to make sure, then and only then he checked his sword 'Fate Seeker'.
When the pod finally dropped the feeling of weightlessness sinked into his chest, but he had done this many times before and it was not a foreign feeling instead Raphael merely closed his eyes and pictured what would happen on the ground, first they would land near the objective with a few hundred soldiers quickly set up a perimeter and enter the objective with a few dozen soldiers while dispatching all opposition.
That would include both the Inquisitions forces and the hordes of daemons that now wandered the continent, the latter in particular would provide a far more difficult challenge as there would most likely be at minimum a dozen inquisitors along with many acolytes that they would have to face.
Now although they now had new powers and mutations that they could use, their skill with the blade was comparable to many of those inquisitors and they could be countered by those who were natural gifted in and practiced disciplines that would be more difficult for them to deal with, for example Sabines discipline was one of Divination which allowed her to sense what the enemies next move in a one on one battle by momentarily peering a few seconds into the future.
But compared to those with the discipline of Biomancy, Pyromancy, Telekinesis and Telepathy, Divination could not be used to harm the enemy as a result it required a lot more planning and effort to get use out of, this was in effect the only use that an unaugmented human could get out of Divination as the pure strain it put on the body to look past more than a few days would cause the body to shut down with a brain hemorrhage, that was not to mention the amount of time it would take get that far,
This death by overexertion also applied to all Disciplines, push past your limits and you would lose control of your psychic abilities causing them to turn on the user and their allies, you would go up in flames, have your body ripped apart, be left a messy soup of bodily fluids from your biology being destroyed or lose your mind and sanity from reading the mind of every sentient being at the exact same time, within a certain range of course.
This was not to mention those few seconds you spent looking into the future could be used by your enemy to attack while it also had the side effect of giving you tunnel vision on a specific event or series of events, hindering you from considering other ideas or strategies.
Then there was himself and Corvin, they both had the Discipline of Telekinesis, he himself found that using it to help control the water under his skin in order to attack his enemies was a the most efficient, meanwhile Corvin used it for a relatively similar purpose, but instead of manipulating his body which Corvin could not do given the nature of his mutations, instead he used it to enable his speed and agility by moving around pieces of the environment.
With this in mind while they could make great use of their abilities, they had to be careful with who they engaged with, as one could easily imagine that the power to mess with the entirety of one beings relatively fragile biology or to have your squishy and exposed soul burned away by warp fire was in fact better in a one vs one duel, but then again rarely on the battlefield will there be the opportunity for such an encounter.
It was then that Raphael was once again ripped out of his thoughts by a jolt that he had expected as the A.I then spoke "Landing measures successful, Please stand by and brace for impact" Raphael then opened his eyes to see the pod around him, the lights were dim and soft in contrast with the light from Molechs sun that peeked through the small windows in the drop pod, combine this with a view of the ground rapidly approaching it was obvious that they would touch down very soon.
"CRASH" there it was, the harnesses clipped open allowing them to stand up and draw their weapons, Sabine and her mace, Corvin and his gauntlets and himself and his sword, they all stilled for a second to give commands to the soldiers in the pods all around them.
Normally since they did not possess the Discipline of Telepathy they could not manipulate others emotions or actions, but whatever that devil had done in the ritual after he dealt with… whatever it was, point is it gave them control over all the soldiers in the fleet that had been with them that… day? It was hard to tell time in the warp.
Anyways, with their orders sent and weapons ready Sabine would simply walk up and kick down the door, only to be greeted with a hail of laz bolts and shouts from the officers of the Inquisition, taking a peek out from behind the door Raphael would get a immediately greeted by a volley of presumably mako rifle fire, taking a step back Raphael ask Sabine what to do as she had the ability to see the future, after a few seconds she just smiled "check the dirt, it's pretty loose" she said.
After a moment of consideration they both realized what she was talking about, standing at either side of the door he and Corvin would use their Disciplines to grab a few clumps of dirt before throwing it up, 'pretty decent smokescreen if I say so' Raphael thought, with this cover they all launched themselves from the doorway, avoiding a fireball from the Acolyte that was presumably there, this allowed them to get into the tall corn surrounding the drop site.
From there is was a slaughter as with their greatest advantage now turned against them the soldiers of the Inquisition were killed in droves as the three of them were simply superior in terms of just about everything, explosions from frag and plasma grands filling his ears and eyes along with the blood and guts of the soldiers that he killed, at some point it all became white noise as he went through the motions that he had been doing all his life, killing without remorse.
Although he would pay attention once again as they did have to pull back slightly every now and again due to being overextend and suffered a few injuries from laz fire, they were mostly fine with acolytes also being relatively easily dispatched by the ancient and complex technique known as "jumping" when they all ganged up on one all at once, pretty simple really.
It was then however he met someone who could be a real challenge, Raphael had just killed an acolyte and let their body fall to the ground when Sabine yelled at him "RALPH GET DOWN!" she yelled, quickly he did barley dodging a blade that zoomed across his vision right where his neck had been, "Fuck" he swore blindly swinging his own blade behind him only to be met with the same blade that had nearly taken his, their blades coming together in a loud clash.
Sabine and Corvin would turn to help him but were quickly cut off by an increased amount of laz fire from the Inquisitions soldiers as there was simply too much distance between them for them to cover in a quick manor, 'where are the troops?' he thought, but this momentary distraction cost him, as the figure would bring their blade back and in one motion, kick him with a spin kick to the side, boiling water exploding from the impact as Raphael was thrown into another clearing, this one made from a bomb, evidently so.
Getting up Raphael would then be met with the figure who had attack him, it was a women, and she was pissed, he could tell that by many things, by the look in her eyes, how hard she had struck him and just based on plain old experience with being mad a lot, she didn't wait, didn't hesitate as why would someone break out into an open monologue on an active battle field?, that was unless they were supremely arrogant or just a downright fool who liked to hear themselves speak 'self righteous assholes' Raphael thought.
Her black coat appeared right in front of him, a strong jab being thrusted his way, he quickly deflected it away beforing swinging on her himself, the act causing her to back up 'YES' he thought with a cheer, with this distance he could now use his mutation safely.
Raphaels arm would then seem to melt into the boiling water as skiing and tissue became the clear bubbling liquid that he would now use alongside his Discipline as a whip "Crack" "Crack" it went as he whipped it at her several times, each time splashing a bit of water on to her coat and slowly burning through.
It was that he noticed something, on her ankle the same one she had used to strike him back in the fields, it was why she was swaying slightly to the right as her left was injured 'perfect' his mind hissed as he began to target her right side to force her to use her left to pivot and dodge, it was working pretty well as she could not find an opportunity to close the distance and force into to transform back, this continued on for about a minute as they danced around each other, well his boiling hot arm did while he stood back.
'I could pull out my Luger' he thought, but quickly discarded it to do so meant he would have to put away his sword and he decided not risk it if she could find a gap in his defenses, it was then that he was pulled from his thoughts as he winced in muted pain from her alshing at his water arm, however something else also caught his attention, several times now while slashing she had attempted to grab at the glove still on his boiling arm to… to… well, he did not know.
He always wore these gloves nowadays with sleeveless shirts and coats as to not get in the way of his mutation, but had kept the gloves so it was much easier to coordinate his arm with it, but now his glove felt like a weak point and he could not pinpoint why, it was then that he slashed back at her dowards with his water bent at an old angle like it was an actual arm with an elbow joint.
Normally he couldn't do that because his water acted more like he was stretching out on of those slap hands you got at the dollar store, as he can could only maintain a straight line from and between point A (his shoulder) and point B (his glove), but with his Discipline of Telekinesis it made it possible for his water to function like it really had joints due to the extra control it provided, he was actually quite proud of himself for that one.
Anyway back to the fight, his slash had caught her right shoulder finally burning through her coat and exposing skin, skin that looked it had a pretty bad sunburn 'one more hit' he thought, then he would cripple her and bring this fight to an end, so he waited for her, however instead of attacking once again the women took a deep breath before she shook her head, it was as if she had realized something and was chasing herself for being stupid.
She took a step back sheeting her blade along the way, wincing from a bit of pain coming from her ankle and her shoulder, it was then that she grasped one of the stalks of corn in her right hand before it was transformed it into some sort of purple liquid that sat in the palm of her hand, 'Fuck a Biomacer' he thought, she had finally revealed what her Discipline was, but was not going to stop him from killing this sheep in wolfs clothing and getting back to his siblings.
And so Raphael would swipe down at her right shoulder the water coming within a foot of her skin before she rolled out of the way pushing off her left foot, the pain must have been immense as she fell down right afterwards on to the loosely packed dirt which smeared her face.
'Time to finish this' he thought, the fight was going to end one more hit and she would be crippled, unable to properly fight back, and so he brought his water around to her, only to fall to one knee in excruciating pain 'w-WHAT THE HELL!' he thought panic was banging at the door to his head, he held it back just barely, even so he had never felt pain like this before.
It felt his very essence of being was under attack, sure he had been stabbed, punched, shot and beaten before, but those all paled in comparison as the pain felt electric in his body racing up and down his nervous system, all the while invoking some primordial fear in him, the fear of mutilation, of the unknown, of death, quickly he searched for any problems looking mainly to his water.
He had never really considered it before, that pain like this could come from his water, hell he had tested if he felt pain from his water by cutting it, shooting it and much more but it was all muted, kind of like trying to feel the texture of something under water, the sense was just muted which is what this kind of felt like now that he gave it a bit of thought, but with pain like this? Something was seriously wrong.
And that's when he spotted it, a purple liquid floating aimlessly in his water spreading out like some… cancer, quickly it dawned on him 'poison' he thought grimly, she had taken the corn and made it into poison 'just great' he thought as the pain doubled causing him to scream once again in agonizing pain and fear.
Taking this as her opportunity the woman, who by now was standing, took out her blade which glowed like an amazing light show before she dashed forward, not with the same speed as before but with him on his knees, what in all of the galaxy could he possibly do?.
The answer was a simple 'not much' as she slashed at his torso, he still managed to block it with 'Fate Seeker' but she quickly followed it up with a kick to the throat which would send him flying back at the force of it about ten feet, his breathing became short with coughing fits along with a partially collapsed windpipe preventing much air from getting into his system, this caused him to involuntarily retract his water back into his arm.
PAIN, that's what flooded his thoughts and dominated his system as the poison was presumably drawn into his system along with the water causing him pain that was in a whole other league compared what he had felt before, he curled up into a ball and began to cry the aches and cramps becoming nearly too much to bare, "what's wrong traitor?, you can still giht right? YOU CAN ANSWER FOR YOUR CRIMES RIGHT?" the woman yelled.
Gunfire and explosions partially covered what she had said, but he had still gotten it loud and clear, he was going to die here "I am Nelda Schon, a Inquisitor that exterminates filth like you all the time, I am a beacon of light in this disgusting galaxy that can not seem to stop creating people like you, thoughtless, selfish and hellbent on destroying everything in your path to get what you want" she said "it seems tha-".
Her monologue continued trailing off into rambling as she approached, she did slowly as to not only aggravate her injury anymore, but to also build tension, anticipation, fear for his death 'NO' he thought 'THINK DAMN YOU THINK, YOU HAVE TIME' he told himself, 'just breath, you must your water in some way as you don't have the strength to life the sword' he concluded. The moments dragged on as she drew closer still, but it was then that an idea popped into his head.
'Air and water' he thought, peeking at the woman, she was breathing heavily clearly indicating her tiredness and need for oxygen 'that's it!' he concluded, it was an insane idea but he had to try, slowly he activated his mutation, the water slowly creeping out with the same purple liquid slowing tainting its pure hot depths, the pain was excruciating but it was either his life or a bit of pain, to see them again he would take a bit of pain.
It was then however that he felt a presence looming over him, the woman was here 'now or never' he thought, "I… Nelda Schon…" she paused for a second to catch her breath and to lift her blade "hereby sentence you to dea-" 'NOW!' his mind screamed at him, rolling over he shot the water out in a long thin tendrail, the pain threatening to take his sanity every second, but he persevered as his water hit its target, the womans mouth.
With his target reached he pushed with all his might to force the tendrail of water down her throat, she fought back of course or tried to as she dropped her blade in shock before attempting to hack up the water in a panic, quickly such action proved futile as he poured every last bit of strength into his finale stand, so instead she tried to cut the head off the snake looking around frantically for her blade, she found it and picked it up once again looming over him.
But it was not to be her victory as the poison, what was still unabsorbed by his system, the very same poison that had caused him so much pain had by then mixed with much of the water that his arm was now made of, a purplish tint coloring the once crystal clear water, by now that same poison was being absorbed into her system through the mouth and throat cousin her to drop the blade and to the ground convulsing in pain, still he pushed and he pushed.
He did not stop till he presumably got to the fork between the path to her stomach and her lungs, obviously he chose the later filling the space within a few seconds now that there were no muscle groups resisting his invasion, now he was drowning her, causing every waking moment to be filled with pain truly these were her last moments in the mortal coil.
And in those last waking moments she chose to spend them glaring at him, glaring at him with such intensity, such visual and concentrated hate it almost took him aback, but he steeled himself, he would push on, they stayed like that for a good minute just staring, until finally her eyes drooped and closed with her body going limp on the ground not moving a muscle, it was only then that he withdrew taking blood from the ruptured air sacs of her lungs out with him, and so he breathed a sigh or relief.
This… this did not feel like victory, instead he felt something that he felt almost every time he killed somebody, apathy, minus the pain of course, but apart from that this felt felt no different from all the times he had killed to survive and he recognized that this was one of them, but this time he had done it so brutally and in a way that maximizes pain and suffering, this kill for survival felt a bit… wrong, not in the act itself but in its education, "no i'm not like that monster, that devil' he thought.
Before he could dive deeper however he was interrupted by someone bursting through the corn "HOLY SHIT!' the figure yelled seemingly startled, looking over at the figure Raphael saw that it was Corvin in all his goat looking glory, horns and all "fucking hell, are you alright man?" he said racing over to help Raphael up "no" he replied painfully "look, i've got poison in my water, shit hurts alright" he told Corvin.
"You don't have a way to get it out?" he asked, Raphael shook his head "no, I would have taken it out by now, dumbass" he said giving a light kick to Corvins leg, Corvin ignored him, instead appearing to think about something "you know what poison it is?" Corvin asked.
Raphael let out a weak, wet laugh "don't know, didn't consider it really, and it wouldn't make a difference if I did given that a bit of it is in my body" Raphael answered, all that got out of Corvin was a "hmmm" as he thought of something "well we can still get rid of a majority of it, due to the stuff still in your water" Corvin said before asking another question.
"Can you extend your water arm?" Corvin asked, a bit confused Raphael responded "y-yeah, I think, shit hurts like a bitch though" he said, after a few more seconds Corvin told him what he wanted him to do "alright, extend your arm, give me about five feet to work with, can you do that, if not I can work with less… maybe" that did not fill Raphael with optimism but was grateful to Corvin for being considerate.
So he tried, given his current state the pain was even worse than before as all the adrenaline and shock from before had worn off, the pain felt like he was burning himself alive, but eventually he did it, the purple tint had gotten much more pronounced as it had spread much more evenly and now gave it the appearance of light purple, highlighted by a darker purple on the outside and lighter on the inside.
Backing up about two dozen feet Corvin would appear to ready himself "when the impact comes drop your water, okay?" he said "i'm pretty sure this will work" it was only then that Raphael figured out what Corvin was going to do "pretty sure? God help me" he said sarcastically.
In order to minimize the damage Raphael would try to relax to also make the process as painless as possible, a moment later Corvin nodded and rushed forward at an incredible speed, his gauntlets flashing and burning with orange and blue flames as he slammed his fist into Raphaels water arm, the water flew away at insane speeds resulting in much of the ground being soaked, but nonetheless the goal had been achieved.
Remembering his own part Raphael would then let go of is water, it was like relaxing a muscle as he let go, the water still around his glove falling to the ground, with that the hold in the place where his shoulder and arm connected grew into a stump, a hissing sound being heard and felt by Raphael as the hole closed up "you good?" Corvin asked reaching out a hand, slowly Raphael took his hand and tried to stand.
It was painful, but it was a pain that was fading pretty quickly all things considered, he would probably ache and feel sore for days maybe even weeks but he would survive "f-fine, im fine, most of the poison is out but a bit is still in there, so i'll survive" he answered, Corvin looked him up and down before sighing "you look like shit man, come on Sabine should be this way" Corvin said before turning around, Raphael followed him it was a good thing he could walk.
Along the way a few questions popped into Raphael's mind, mainly "what the hell happened after that bitch kicked me?" he asked Corvin, Corvin would think for a second before answering.
"When we got cut off and had to pull back we ran back into our own soldiers, we rallied and reorganized the infantry a bit and led a head on assault, seemed idiotic but given that we are strapped for time it seemed like the best, turns out we had butchered so many of them and their acolytes beforehand that although they seemed better trained, those assholes fell apart due to being overwhelmed themselves" Corvin explained.
"After that we found the objective and went looking for you, thankfully I found you before whatever that poison was took full effect and now we're here" he finished, that was pretty short and sweet if Raphael had anything to say about it "what about now?" he asked, Corvin rolled his eyes "see for yourself" he said, they finally entered another clearing allowing them to see the large mine entrance and the surrounding pit.
Along the edge of the pit was well over seven dozen of their troops laying or kneeling at the edge using the lip of the pit as cover while around a dozen more were at the bottom conversing with Sabine who was most likely giving orders, as they walked up the pit, nodding at and reprimanding their troops along the way Raphael noticed how thirsty he was, not an unusual thing given that his mutation was water and that he had just lost a lot of it.
"YO, Sabine" Corvin called out as they both walked down the side of the pit "check out who I found!" Sabine turned to look at them, a look of relief and slight horror falling over her face as she saw his lack of am arm, soon they all got together in a small circle, "you dipshits, thought I'd never seen you guys again" she told them, Corvin laughed while Raphael gave her a smile "well I just got my shit kicked in if that's any excuse" he said, she rolled her eyes "but seriously though, are you okay?" she asked him.
Raphael just shrugged "well, i'm still standing, all I really need it some water and i'll be fine" he explained, she gave him a look before she called over one of the soldiers having the poor guy drag other a few water bottles proceeding to throw them over to him "here, take it, heal up and hurry up, we're on the clock" she said, pointing up to the sky, looking up Raphael would see what see was pointing at and talking about, it was the battle in space 'the battle of Molech' he thought.
In the far off distance he could make out dozens of explosions and volleys being exchanged between their's and the Inquisitions fleets, beams of purple and white shone brilliantly even from tens of thousands of miles away, the flashing lights of the ships shields put on a fireworks display that he knew was only matched by the madness of the warp, as he stared absentmindedly drinking from his water bottle he could help but think 'are we going to win?' the thought rooted in uncertainty.
It was then however that Corvin clapped a hand on his shoulder to get his attention while pointing to his watch, looking behind him Raphael saw that they were already moving out preparing to enter Molech's depths, they both hurried and got directly in front of the entrance Sabine waving them in "and by the way I didn't forget about your damn arm, your telling me what happened as soon as possible, got it?" she said leveling a glare at him that told Raphael the trouble he would be in if he refused.
"Alright, alright, I got it your overgrown lizard, i'll tell you everything" he responded "everything, really? Didn't think you'd take the chance to embarrass yourself" she said, he gave her a light punch before they moved on, Raphael and his water case in hand, sword in its sheath, loved ones at his side "you know they call this place Diaboli Mei right? Wonder what it means" Corvin said pointing out a sign "that means devils mine in that fancy priest talk remember? Names kinda ironic to" Sabine supplied, they all shrugged content with the knowledge as they walked deeper into the mine.
Later he only wished he had done more, done more to help, to be better in that moment then wait until afterwards, all in all he had a different name one more fitting, "Maxime Desideriis".