The three of us were in a tense mood when we followed Null back to the elevator. He had not explained what needed to immediately happen, so we just followed him instead as he wrung his hands. Once in the elevator, Alberich broke the silence.

"What do you need us to d-"

"Quiet, mutant! I am extrapolating probabilities!" Null said as he flashed a hologram again at the wall of the elevator as he pressed the button for the very top floor, the 19th.

Alberich and I exchanged nervous glances. I hoped that Null had a real plan here.

The elevator door opened to a wide area with a metal mesh floor which was somewhat exposed to the outside weather. A blast of cool, midmorning wind struck us. It was nice to get some fresh air.

We were now on a wide covered balcony that stood about three meters out, and five meters wide on either side of me. A metal railing that stood about chest height rimmed the area, and allowed for viewing the local landscape at a good height. Ahead, and slightly to the right, a irregular shape the size of a small car covered in a black tarp stood partially over the railing. Null stepped off the balcony, and once again, laser turrets fixed sights on my chest before shutting off. We followed Null again as he walked to the covered shape, his metal steps clanking in the open air. I looked up, and through gaps in the sheet metal roof, I realized that we were flush with the pylon and about ten stories up.

"99-Z, unveil the scope," the tech-priest said, standing aside the tarp.

Behind us, and previously unseen, another servitor walked into my field of view. This one was thinner than the others, and was once a woman. It contained a few thinner mechadendrites that snaked around its back, appearing more specialized for precision work. Just like all the others I had seen, this servitor had those familiar dark, welded on goggles. With a few appendages, it reached out, and unfurled the covering, revealing a complex machine that only vaguely suggested a telescope.

It was covered in tubes, wires, and antennae, all of which I saw slightly adjust themselves as Null walked to it. The tech-priest placed his face inside what seemed to be a viewfinder. The machine appeared very powerful, and resembled some kind of steampunk-y cannon, with gears, wires and mysterious crystals covering it. "Scope, fixate on location Alys Island," the tech-priest said. The telescope began to adjust with a whirring sound.

Alberich and I stood waiting for Null next to the railing. The weather was cool and sunny, and the breeze at this height was refreshing. I placed my hands on the dew covered surface of the welded metal. Looking out over the landscape, I could see the road where I had come from, crossing the rushing river outside of the walls of this site before vanishing into the forest. The road reappeared through the flat farmland before arcing up onto the prominence that housed the settlement of Alys, and Evanora's ruined manor. Standing above everything, I saw the tall statue of what was now called Am'Erika glinting gold in the sun. From this distance, it looked even more like the Statue of Liberty.

"Fuck," I muttered.

This really was awful, being designated a fun plaything by an extremely fickle and obscenely powerful Chaos God. Seriously, thanks for this whole thing, Tzeentch. He set all this up for fun. A daemonic Slaaneshi Statue of Liberty-looking colossus that had renamed itself Am'Erika that lives on what Null called Alys Island. And now it wanted to hunt me down and eat me. Great. Cutting through my ruminating self-pity, the Tzaangor beside me said, "I must not forget Valkyrie," quietly to himself.

"What's that?" I asked, keeping my voice low as we waiting for the tech-priest to tell us what he was doing.

"My spear. It is precious to me."

"As is the Divine Retribution to me, as is all the technology I study, " Null said, still looking through the telescope. "So," the tech-priest pulled away. "You may have wondered how I have such miraculous sight across the land, and even into auric emanations? Not only can I see through all implanted individuals in the region, but this scope, also crafted by my hand, has the ability to not only see up to seven hundred fifty kilometers away, but it also holds the ability to sense Warp-reactive phenomena which would be invisible otherwise! Just a degree or so off of reality. Nothing too harmful to sanity, of course!"

Null really liked showing off, I thought. "See anything dangerous out there?" I asked.

There was a tense pause. "Look through the scope."

I put my eyes up against the viewfinder, and found that I could see Evanora's ruined manor, and found it to be perfectly clear. This was about 90% cool and 10% creepy, I thought, witnessing just how much this tech-priest could survey the land while never leaving this site. "This is Evanora's manor. How do I adjust it?" I asked. Fingers of warm metal moved my right hand to a gear-like tool on the side of the apparatus, and my left hand to some kind of rolling sphere attached to its base.

"Turn the side wheel to focus, and move the ball for small locational adjustments. Now, focus it on the statue, and tell me what you see."

I adjusted the scope to the golden statue, and found her lower robed half. Readjusting, I pulled back until I could see the whole figure of Am'Erika. I could spy a few discolored corpses at her feet, and from here, I could now make out her face, which held a slight crack of amusement. In her right hand, held above her head, I could see that what I thought had been a torch was actually a sort of flaming sword. Huh, had I been wrong about what I had seen before?

"Anything look abnormal to you?" Null asked me as I looked.

I studied the profane golden statue. She still definitely looked like Statue of Liberty, but aside from the sneer she wore, and the flaming sword, everything looked as it did before. The colossus I had left at the settlement was as upsetting as ever, but now that I could clearly see her face...

Wait.

"The statue!" I cried out in recognition as I turned back to my companions. "It turned around! It was facing the other way when I left! I swear it was! It was facing south! I remember I spat at it right before leaving and it was facing away from me!"

At hearing that, Alberich rushed over to the scope. I stepped aside. After awkwardly placing his eyes against the viewfinder as well as he could considering his beak, I heard him gasp, "How could this be?"

"Perhaps Traveler Erika knows why," Null said. "I noticed it early this morning. It must have occurred during the outage two nights ago. The amount of Warp energy needed for that massive statue to physically turn around on its heel is monumental. This demonstrates the danger we are in." The tech-priests words betrayed a small amount of fear.

"I don't know how that happened," I said in shock. "Let me see again, Alberich."

Alberich moved away, and allowed me to look through the scope. He had focused it on her familiar, placidly cruel face. It looked like she was looking right at us, dead on. I shuddered as I came to a realization. "She's looking at me," I said, pulling away. "Amnaich, er-Am'Erika. She's looking at me. She promised me that she would hunt me down and eat me. She changed her name too. She came to me in a dream last night, promising to never stop hunting me."

No one said anything to contradict me, but Null nodded solemnly. "Amnaich the Golden has its vile desires set upon you, yes. I saw it promising destruction after you arrived."

"That's not just it. She, um-it, I don't know. She changed her name; she told me. That thing has pieces of my soul from a few days ago, so now she's calling herself 'Am'Erika' because of it."

Null's eyes brightened in surprise. "The daemon ate parts of your soul?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she tried to tear me away from my body!"

The tech-priest took a deep breath. "You should be thankful for your resilience that you still stand uncorrupted from that. I am impressed."

"Guess I didn't taste too good, huh?"

Null laughed at my gallows humor. "Your soul was probably too alien for it to instantly devour. And you say it changed its name? To Am'Erika?" The tech-priest laughed nervously again, and strangely, I could see that Alberich was also amused. He was shaking his head and suppressing a laugh. This wasn't funny. Well, maybe a little.

"My research into Travelers suggests that your foreign energy is probably like no other meal they have had, and to a Keeper of Secrets, you were an entirely new sensation for it to experience. It changed its name because likely, it is now obsessed with eating the rest of you, even to the point of adjusting its identity. This is a terribly unfortunate situation for you to be in, but I have faith that you can manage it."

"What does this mean for us?" Alberich asked, composing himself.

"All of this means that since a physical statue that large was able to transform on a whim, the weak point over Alys is quite dangerous, and that as soon as this daemon can, it will immediately hunt Traveler Erika down."

"So, on top of a rift forming, there's a greater daemon that will immediately come after me as soon as it can," I said.

Null nodded. "Yes, we must work quickly to depart from here," he confirmed again. "I will now show you what I intend to do. 99-Z, bring me the Icon of Revelation, access code 20-22-alpha-omega-phi." The lady servitor silently bowed, and walked to the elevator, pressing the button. It departed.

"So, it comes to an end. It is hard to believe I am actually here, at the end of this world, and the beginning of the new dawn," the tech-priest said, walking to us. "I do admit the danger of it is quite exciting! My circuits are quite hungry for the next chapter to begin."

Null walked to the railing, clutching the metal. "Directly opposite us on the other side of the pylon, 50 meters down underground, the Divine Retribution sleeps, but soon, she will escape."

"You're going to blow all that up, aren't you?" I asked, and saw Null's expressive animated eyes brighten in anticipation.

"Not just that, but yes," he answered earnestly. He then pointed in the direction of the front wall where we had come from. "The last obstacle is the river. If I were to use simple explosives, the rubble could conceivably damage the Retribution, and the water from the river could flood the site, making it very hard to retrieve. But I have a solution."

Behind me, I heard the elevator arrive. I witnessed the servitor gently offer Null a hand-sized cube covered in a fine red cloth covered in strange golden runes. The tech-priests eyes were shining gold as he took the object with careful metal fingers.

"Scope, fix coordinates on site Hephaestus," Null said as the placed the red box on an elaborate empty table adjacent to the telescope. "Look again, tell me what you see," the tech-priest said as he opened a drawer on the table, removing what appeared to be a stick of incense, and a small glass vial.

I looked in the viewfinder again, and saw that I was looking at a very tall white wall overlooking a flat plain of grasses and scrubland. I was confused, and looked again with my own eyes. This had to be very far away, since I couldn't make out any hint of this wall anywhere on the horizon. Null was busying himself with lighting the stick of incense, and placing it in a holder built into the table. I looked back into the viewfinder. The structure was very tall, with white walls that gleamed in the morning sun. The surface was convexly curved. Distantly, I saw sea birds flying about it, one with a fish in its beak. It dawned on me that I was probably looking at a very tall dam. I zoomed back outward, revealing that this structure had to be very long, as I could not see the end of it on either side.

The tech-priest resumed speaking, and I could now smell a spicy burning scent in the air. "In an effort to offer more arable farmland to the people of Levant, many millennia ago, the ancient settlers who came here constructed a dam to stop up the inland sea that used to be here. The effort was a great success, and as the land before us dried up, fertile grounds were revealed, perfectly flat and ready to produce food for all. I imagine the architect of the entire endeavor likely never lived to see the full fruits of his labor, but, it worked beautifully. This area all used to be a part of an expansive freshwater sea, dotted with islands that were simply too small for good farming. The great dam was renamed to White Water Ridge, and for thousands of years, it has stood intact. To earthquakes, storms, it stood as strong and as immovable as the Imperium itself. It stood tall until today, as the end of the world began."

I pulled away from the telescope, and saw that Null had uncovered the cube and placed it on the table. The cube had actually been a golden box, and he opened it. Inside was a panel covered in small switches of various colors, and a golden keypad. The tech-priest stood over it, placing a woodsy aromatic oil on the tips of his metal fingers, all while lowly chanting. He raised four of his metal arms, bent at the elbow, hand open in a gesture of offering.

"I give thanks to the technology of the ancients long past, and the spirits of the machine that enlighten us. I give thanks to those who have not yet come to be. I give thanks to the spirits of the great blackstone towers, their strength holding us since time immemorial. I give thanks to before, I give thanks to now, I give thanks to after. To the spirit of ignition, the strength and beauty of technological destruction, to this I give praise. May my actions light the way to a brighter future. I am Archmagos Ogun Nemo become Null, a vessel for your will, oh Omnissiah. Bless me now with your grace as I endeavor to do your just just and divine will!"

Null spread his arms and mechadendrites out in wide praise, and after a few moments. "Omnissiah be praised! And so thus, we witness the beginning of Levant's end!" the tech-priest called loudly into the area before a left arm reached out, entered a code into the keypad, and hit the top most red button.

Nothing happened, but Null turned back to us with his shining golden eyes, and walked to the telescope again. After a quick look, he pulled back, very obviously satisfied.

"What just happened?" Alberich asked. "I saw nothing."

"Look through the scope," Null said, smiling.

After awkwardly positioning his beak, he was able to put his eyes partially against the viewfinder. "Where is this? It is an area of water and smoke. Are we in any danger?"

"The dam was quite far away. I destroyed it. We are safe here. However, due to the topography of the land, the entirety of this area, from this site to Alys and all beyond, it will flood soon. A wall of water twenty meters high rushes the land."

"Why did you do that?" I asked. I went to look through the viewfinder of the telescope again, and saw that where the dam had been was now blasted area of billowing fiery smoke and rushing water. He blew the dam up! If there was anyone left living on the lowlands, they would all be killed!

Before I could protest, Null spoke up, "In order to raise the Divine Retribution, I needed to lower the river. We are in no danger, as the prominence we are on now is fifty meters at its lowest. The river will dry up when its source flees to the lower water below us. In addition, this begins the process of scattering the traces of technology here as to not allow any Dark Mechanicus hereteks to scavenge. If this world is claimed intact by Chaos and is not simply destroyed by the rift, I will leave them as little as I can."

Null enclosed the metal box again, and covered it with the red cloth. He handed it to the female servitor, who bowed in return. The tech-priest said, "Initiate stage two, 99-Z. Arm subterranean vortex grenades, authorization code 'alpha-omega-zeta-289'." The servitor bowed again, and reached into a hole below its rib cage, where it adjusted a mysterious dial that I couldn't quite see.

It dawned on me that Null was probably not someone you wanted to get on the wrong side of. He had sabotaged his own fleet, and now he was blowing up everything as to leave no trace of his passage and...

Wait, did he say, vortex grenades?

"I know what vortex grenades do!" I said in alarm as Null calmly motioned for us to follow him.

"You do? Then you know that there will be no rubble to trouble us!" the tech-priest said happily.

Alberich was looking very confused listening to Null and I nerd out, so I helped. "A vortex grenade opens a tiny vortex into the Warp that destroys everything it touches. No debris or bodies left behind."

"Correct, the fleet left behind some interesting weaponry, so I've put it to good use here."

"Aren't those things really dangerous and unpredictable?" I asked.

"Not if they've been researched and perfected by me! Come with me now. We go to the Retribution again. After almost ten thousand years, the Divine Retribution will once again be entered!"

I really wasn't looking forward to this, I thought as we walked back into the elevator.

After stopping at a floor directly below us, and inputting a complex series of numbers into a nondescript keypad attached to a wall in what looked like a server room, Null told us that it was alright to take our weapons and possessions from the ground floor. 99-Z came with us, and stood silent and still as a statue as it held the cube that contained the remote explosive triggers. Were we just going to leave right now? I wondered, nervously tracing the contours of my diamond dagger and adjusting my pack. I didn't like that no one was addressing the fact that I was not a Navigator and could not fly the ship! Once again, we stopped on the second floor, but this time, Null and 99-Z didn't get off the elevator, and told us to wait outside the Retribution. Alberich and I stepped into the menacing mad scientist laboratory area.

"I have to manually adjust the power to the pylon network from the first floor," Null informed us. "I will send 77-X with you, along with Jiminy. You are to do as I instruct. If my theories are correct, the ship will respond and an entryway will emerge after a certain lowered threshold is reached." Jiminy launched himself off of Null's shoulder, buzzing briefly until landing on my right shoulder again. The elevator doors closed, and I wondered which servitor he was referring to.

The sound of heavy metal steps advanced to us from the far corner of the room as the metal-armed servitor we had seen earlier approached us both. Unlike most of Null's helpers, this one looked like he was made for fighting, as it was bulky and even taller than Alberich.

"You follow us?" I asked the big servitor, looking up at his emotionless face. Dark goggles moved down to regard the Tzaangor and I.

"I obey," it said. The arms on this particular servitor were ropey, metal things with shiny metal muscles, and he resembled a body builder. This one was so big that he could conceivably get into a boxing match with a space marine and win. Alberich and I walked to the end of the room again, and were once again barred by the locked doorway. Jiminy fluttered ahead, and flashed some kind of hologram against the metal of the door, causing all of the locks to disengage before flying back to my shoulder.

Again, we walked down the long passageway, and again the lights flickered on as we passed. Finally, we came to the giant area where the Divine Retribution stood. The lights in this room flickered on once again, bathing the room in a warm, surreal golden radiance.

"Alright, we're here," I said, standing between the two giant gilded eagle talons.

I heard a static crackle from Jiminy on my shoulder. "I am at the power matrix for the network now. Stay positioned where you are. I will announce each percentage of the network as I lower its output. We are currently at 82%. If anything should happen, such as a mishap or a manifestation, 77-X is a combat servitor, and will defend you."

Alberich and I looked at each other, and I saw him ready his glaive. "I don't like this," he said, ears back and feathers ruffled.

We waited about a minute in silence, until hearing, "75% power, 100% of units responding," call from Jiminy's high pitched voice. Nothing felt any different, and soon after, we heard, "70% power, 100% of units responding."

"Units responding?" The Tzaangor wondered, his ears still back.

"I think he means all the other towers on the planet. He has control over the whole network," I responded. That was really honestly very impressive, I thought. Null really had control over the fate of all of Levant! This moody tech-priest was literally causing the end of the world, and he sounded excited about it.

"65% power, 95% of units responding. Power failure, South Pole." Right after this, I heard a rumbling from somewhere above, and it felt like the earth was trembling. "That was the inland sea flooding once again, tidal wave height 21 meters. Complete decimation of Harlow plane and surrounding areas. Mechanicus dig sites 1-29, 31-33 destroyed. All research stations at Harlow, destroyed. Seawall at Adler, holding. You need not worry, fleshlings!"

I did not listen and still worried. The ground around us trembled, and small pebbles were knocked loose above, clattering to either the ground, or the hull of the Retribution standing ahead of us.

"Status on your Key, Traveler Erika?" I heard Jiminy question me. I reached for it and held it with my hand.

"It isn't glowing, but it's warm," I responded.

Next to me, I saw Alberich closing his eyes while laying his head against the flat of his blade again. Before I could wonder about that, I heard Jiminy announce once again. "60% power, 95% of units responding, power fluctuations in towers Zeta, Ramses, and Firebough."

In my hand, I now noticed that the key had started to dimly fluoresce. "Null, its glowing! Look!" The tremors continued, and a larger rock fell from the ceiling, which was miraculously deflected from hitting Alberich on the head by a previously hidden telescopic mechadendrite on 77-X. Woah!

"Excellent!" Null said through Jiminy. "Walk toward the chest area of the Retribution, see if anything changes."

"We can't reach up there," Alberich protested. "The chest of the bird is too high up. We put ourselves in danger just by being here!" More rocks fell with a clatter.

"The quakes should stop soon. There is debris in the lahar. It needs to pass. Traveler Erika, go to the Divine Retribution."

With a nervous hand around the warm, glowing Key, I cautiously walked toward the golden eagle. To my right, Alberich held his glaive, ready for anything, and to my left, the monster servitor 77-X walked silently and calmly. At the point where I was right beneath its beak, I stopped. Nothing was happening. Once again I noticed Alberich laying his face on the glaive. Why was he doing that?

"Null, you need to lower it to 47%. The door won't appear over that percentage!" Alberich suddenly announced, certainty in his voice. Wait, what?

Jiminy turned toward the Tzaangor. "You know, I had my suspicions, and now this confirms it. We will deal with this matter later, mutant, but now there is no time," the metal mantis said, a note of disapproval in his high mechanical voice. No one said anything for a few moments, until suddenly, I began to feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and a chill pass over my body. The Key began to glow a little brighter. "50% power," a pause which felt bad. "75% of units responding. Power failure at Zeta, Ramses, Firebough, and Dorn's Nail."

That pause and the slight tremor in Null's voice through Jiminy gave me a bad feeling. 25% of the pylons were down. I took a breath to compose myself, holding the glowing Key and looking upward at the Divine Retribution. At least the quakes above had begun to settle.

"47% power, 75% of units responding," Jiminy announced, and I looked up at the bird towering over me. Maybe I had to tell it to open?

Knock knock. Open up, gold eagle ship! I yelled at it inside my mind. Maybe it needed a password?

Something incredible happened then. In amazement, we watched as the Divine Retribution's eagle head slowly turned, seemingly regarding us with one of its closed three eyes on its tilted head. It felt as if I was a squirrel about to be eaten. It was looking at us!

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE TRAVELER? The words absolutely boomed like a thunderclap inside my mind, so much that I flinched. Beside me, I saw Alberich also stagger, gripping his head. The ship stood over me, waiting for an answer. I was too overwhelmed to even think of anything in the psychic shadow of this impossible golden ship.

Jiminy aggressively pinched me on my shoulder, snapping me out of my disorientation. "Traveler Erika! The phrase! The phrase I taught you! Say it!" It flew off of my shoulder, and into my face.

I... I... Oh god I forgot it again! For fuck's sake I can't... I can't fucking win! I began to lock up in panic. Another tremor began rocking the cavern, and then, suddenly everything froze.

Time had stopped.

I don't know how, and I didn't understand, but it did. The Divine Retribution stood above me, glowering for an answer, and the falling pebbles around us were frozen. Alberich's beak was open in mid-shout and the servitor's mechadendrite was extended in protection. Jiminy was frozen mid-flap, hanging motionless in the air.

"Hello," I heard an unfamiliar voice male behind me. I turned around, feeling strangely calm. It was a flickering golden ghost, a man I had not seen before with shaggy dark hair about my height. He glided over to me. "I've heard about you."

"Who are you?" I asked the stranger.

He smiled. "I am an echo of something that was, a very long time ago. I am now here. I always wanted to see and know, and now I do," the man said cryptically, his grin falling just a little bit.

"Are you the Divine Retribution?" I asked him.

"I might be. Or maybe not. Names are very subjective. The roles we play through the cycles of time change, but the souls fade and remain. For you, perhaps maybe I am in this moment, but I remain an echo."

I had a feeling that somehow I could trust this strange shining spirit. I held my glowing Key, and asked him. "How do I get inside the ship? I have to leave this planet! I need to see the Wizard of Molech!"

"As to be expected, yes, you do," the man nodded. "What is your goal, Traveler? Your purpose?" he asked me.

"To go home," I answered immediately.

"No, no. Your real purpose," he asked, gliding around me. Everything else remained frozen.

"But, that's what I want! I want to get home!"

"You have another force that burns within you. The primal motivator that drives you forward. The people who stole from you, those who tried to murder you. Tell me your motivation."

I took a deep breath, not even caring that he somehow knew this stuff.

"Justice, retribution," I admitted. "I... in another reality, I'm dying. Someone tried to murder me. I want justice for that. I don't want the bad guys to win."

"That's right. Good answer," the ghost looked up at the eagle. "The last pilot had a similar motivation," he sighed sadly before looking back to me. I could now see that this ghost was beginning to dissipate, just as Virgil did inside the Retribution. Floating over to me, he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Do good, alright?" he said to me, almost in a fatherly tone. I nodded. "Find your justice, your retribution, but help them if you can along the way. Many of them don't understand. Forgive them." I didn't know exactly what he was referring to, but I felt myself begin to tear up regardless. "You'll be alright, just as the thousands who came before and will come after. My words will open the way. Allow me into your flesh, so that I may say them."

Without even thinking, I accepted, and he went to embrace me, the sad smile never leaving his face. I felt the defenses of my mind fall as the phantom jumped into my body.

Time started again in this loud terrifying space, but now, I knew no fear. I looked up at the Divine Retribution, and holding the Key, I felt myself shout, "Sic itur ad astra. Sit nomen viator benedictum!"

The presence inside of me said Do what you will, and I felt it depart with a contented sigh. I was rewarded with seeing the form of the Divine Retribution begin to kneel down. As it lowered itself, a door pulled itself open from its suddenly malleable golden hull. A gangway also appeared. As this was happening, I dimly heard Jiminy call out, "47% power, power failure on multiple towers, 70%!" There was a note of fear in Jiminy's tiny voice. A falling pebble struck one of his wings, and he struggled to stay airborne. The quake was beginning to subside again.

"Come on," I said, now feeling determined. I walked up the gangway, and entered the ship. Jiminy bumbled behind me like a drunken bumblebee. I heard footsteps behind me, and an image in my head of Alberich and the servitor flashed. I guessed that was just a random psyker moment.

As if the ship wasn't majestic enough on the outside, the interior of the vessel was gold embellished with brass and silver in finely articulated irregular plates that made up the floors and walls. I was walking in an interior passage about two meters wide with an arced ceiling. A runner of small white lights lined each side of the passage, leading us further into the ship. It was less mirrored than the outside, with a dull buff over every surface. The light was dim, but we could see. The ship probably wasn't completely "on" yet, I concluded. Adding to the light, my Key glowed warmly, reflecting across the metal surface of the interior walls. Jiminy buzzed ahead of me, turned around, and once again, fluttered on my shoulder, resting himself. "Incredible, incredible! I cannot wait to see it with my own vision!" Behind me, I heard Alberich and 77-X walking inside.

"Power stabilized at 45%. It would probably be unwise to stay too long at this low a level here! Six towers have died in the network, but this one is still up!"

"Where to now?" After a few paces in, we were currently standing in a wide round metal room. To our left and right, there were two passages, and another corridor directly ahead of us. Orienting myself, I figured that the bridge of the ship, the head, would be behind and slightly above us somehow. I walked further into the round room, and turned around. I was rewarded with the sight of two narrow staircases built aside the passage we had come from.

"To the bridge!" Jiminy said, rapidly buzzing up one of the narrow staircases. Of course Null was happy about all of this. He wasn't the one everyone was expecting to sit on a golden throne. I didn't move for a few moments, collecting myself.

Alberich made his way into the ship. "This is indeed incredible, as the insect says," he remarked to me. He massaged a temple with his free hand, while holding his glaive with the other. I didn't immediately say anything, and looked at Alberich's blade.

"Valkyrie," I remarked, looking at it. The shadows and light reflecting off of his weapon were very dramatic, and made it almost look like some kind of a creature was watching me. Without moving, I swear I saw the reflective shadows shift and dance. I turned away.

"You named that glaive?" I asked, beginning to walk up the left staircase with Alberich. 77-X slowly fell in behind us. That thing was an absolute tank. If Null decided to kill the Tzaangor right now for owning that weapon, he would have no problem doing so.

Alberich took a little bit too long to answer my question before saying "No."

"It named itself, didn't it?"

"Yes."

We both continued climbing up the long flight of stairs. I busied myself with wondering how flexible the neck of this ship was to keep myself from thinking that Alberich possessed a Chaos-blessed weapon, or maybe even one with a daemon. "Talk about it later, not now," I said, concentrating on walking ahead.

"Agreed," he plainly said.

"Come, come here!" Jiminy called out to us from above as we climbed.

After some climbing, we came to a landing area that was split into three other passageways, each leading up. This ship was decidedly large on the inside, with each passage big enough for two men to easily walk side by side, I thought, continuing onward on the central staircase. We were definitely the neck portion of the ship, I thought.

"The bridge! It is here!" I heard Jiminy loudly proclaiming ahead. The passage once again met a landing, and ahead of us, a large opening with a pointed arch yawned before us. A dim room awaited ahead. Behind me, I heard Alberich and 77-X as they climbed.

This was where the Golden Throne thing was, I thought with a shudder. I knew it was in here before I even saw it, and as I crossed the threshold of the opening, a shiver washed through my body.

The air in here felt strange, almost electrified. An ephemeral sense of metaphysical danger hung around this area. Ahead of me, I saw Jiminy fluttering in the air, hovering over something. As I walked further in, the glow from my Key offered brighter illumination.

My breath caught as I saw what I expected to see. The three chairs, each facing a large curved aperture in the shape of a pinched ellipse. Each aperture appeared shut from here, and each corresponded where an eye would be on the ship. Jiminy fluttered in front of the central eye, which was slightly bent over us conforming to the shape of the eagle's head. Across from the central eye lay the dreaded throne that I had witnessed devour Virgil.

"This is something that only a few people have ever seen, archaeotech such as this," Jiminy remarked, still hovering. "The one on Terra is bigger, of course, much more substantial. It powers the Astronomicon with its holy strength, extending across the galaxy to guide humanity."

With great trepidation, I walked further into the room. I couldn't get the image of Virgil's screaming disintegration out of my head. Slowly, I walked around to the front of the throne, where Jiminy buzzed in midair. The center chair was as I had seen it before in my vision. It was slightly elevated, and covered in mysterious machinery, wires, and strange dark crystals. Of course, it was gold, and as I got closer, I swore it began to shimmer with its own light. It almost looked as if it had grown organically into its shape, there were so many twisting cables and unknowable seals and symbols woven within. The more I looked at it, the more dangerous it seemed.

"Now what?" I dared to ask. Another slight tremor shook us, and Jiminy's attention turned back to us.

"Now you sit down," the metal mantis said simply, indicating the throne with one of his bladed foreclaws. He flew back to me, and sat on my shoulder.

I saw Alberich and 77-X enter the bridge, walking to where I stood having an existential crisis. "The ship feels asleep, like a living animal," the Tzaangor remarked poetically.

"She is, in a way, alive. She simply needs to be properly woken," Jiminy said, still on my shoulder. "After all this time, you're here, Traveler. Here you are. I can't help but be excited! And they wanted to dissect this wonder like a grox for dinner! Fools! They didn't even know what they had found!" The metal insect began to laugh, but then abruptly stopped. A feeling of dread washed over me.

"What is it?" I asked Jiminy.

"One moment, I-"

Another tremor struck us. It must really be crazy upstairs with that flood.

"Power fluctuation, Adler Tower," he said, a nervous warble in his voice. "That's us. I'm attempting to compensate by pulling power from the remaining units. Erika, sit in the chair."

"W-what? Just like that? But it killed Virgil! He died screaming! The ship ate him! I know what the Golden Throne of Terra does to psykers!"

"What other options do we have? The mutant cannot sit on the throne, and you're the one with the Key to the ship. I calculate with a 68% probability it will not immediately kill you because you hold that artifact, so have faith."

Another tremor, and this one felt close. No one spoke. Distantly, from the cavern, I could hear the sound of an alarm.

"What is that?"

Jiminy didn't answer, and another quake struck us. "Either that you give yourself a chance of survival by guiding us out of here, or, we all die in the coming Warp rift less than a hundred kilometers away, Traveler. Please tell me that you didn't come to our dimension to simply disappoint us all by immediately dying."

"Erika," Alberich said, almost inaudible. "I am sorry. I do not want to die. Not again. If you can save us, save us."

"Yes, save us," Jiminy said, almost pleadingly. "Listen, if you need a boost in your abilities in order to have more confidence, allow me inject you with something that will boost your strength. I have one dose here, with Jiminy. I cannot promise a miracle, but it will bring your chance of survival up to 72%"

Everyone was looking at me as I tried to muster enough courage to sit on something that could devour my soul like a Dorito. Well, I conceded to myself that drugs and alcohol were working out for me in this universe so far.

"Liquid courage, I hope," I said, steeling myself. I held out my left arm, and pulled up my shirt sleeve. Once again, I felt a sting in my neck. Fucking hell! I gave him a choice this time, injecting me in the neck was-

Wait, what? I began to feel dizzy, and stumbled. Behind me, I felt metal arms catch me as I fell. "What was... in that?"

"A mixture of a quick metabolizing tranquilizer and a drug called 'Spook', a psychoactive enhancer," Jiminy said, jumping off my shoulder and flying into the air again. The world was greying out as I felt another tremor, fading to shadows. "77-X, put her on the throne. And so the wheel of fate turns again. I do this with greater optimism than Rogal Dorn, I hope. Omnissiah, help us," the metal insect sadly intoned to me. The last thing I felt before falling unconscious was the sense of cold metal arms lifting me before placing me on a hot surface that sang of pain.