**Author's notes: Updates might be slow/irregular for a little while because of irl issues. Also, because of issues with this site being broken (notifications, views being busted, etc.), I've decided to prioritize ao3 instead of this site. This fic can be found under the username "Architect_of_Fate" over at ao3.**
Instead of doing anything, I sat on the stone bench in this simulated version of a perfected Japanese garden. The simulation was absolutely perfect, I noticed. I could even feel the cold texture of the stone I sat on beneath my hands. A flock of cranes even flew across the blazing picturesque sky in artful silhouettes, making this place appear even more heavenly.
"Wow," I whispered, feeling the perfectly simulated spring air against my skin.
So, Spoiled Prince was Japanese, and his name was once Izumi. Judging by the condition and style of his simulated computer chair and PC, it appeared that Spoiled Prince came from a time that was at least somewhat close to mine. Linear time wasn't really a concern for Warp gods looking to steal people away from their home realities, after all.
And this place was something like a fancy holodeck. This was fascinating, I thought as I reached over to touch a falling cherry blossom petal. Everything felt so real! I wondered if this worked like it did on Star Trek? Could you chat with historical figures? Brush up on combat skills and be instructed by famous warriors? I wondered what scenarios had been programmed into this simulation, and how he had done all this. The Emperor had been spoken of as a savant of genetic, mechanical, and Warp sciences, so it would be reasonable to assume that his predecessor would also be intelligent. Would I get that smart? Probably not, as I admitted to myself that I was pretty much a fuck up in this universe.
I sighed, closed my eyes, and relaxed, simply enjoying this simulation for a time.
After a short time, I finally stood up.
"Simulation, uh, default mode? End the simulation?" I spoke, curious.
I felt a peculiar tickle of energy as the garden sparkled away. I was now standing on the wide smooth metal surface in the void again.
"Status report," I stated. If I kept spitting out space words from sci-fi pop culture, something important was bound to happen, I figured. Before me, lines of floating text appeared.
Current simulation: inactive; default
Simulation safety protocols: on
Temporal dilation: on
Awaiting command...
I observed the floating text before me, and while I was extremely curious about this holodeck, I should probably get back to the amphitheater to let everyone know about this place before my friends got worried about me. It felt as if I had been teleported somewhere, so I didn't want anyone to think that I had disintegrated by stepping through that arch.
I turned and made my way back to the arch I had come from. Feeling smug, I ignited my Corona and let it glow proudly around my upper body. I smiled, happy that Jinnicky would be apologizing to me soon.
As I passed through the arch, I was surprised to see that Jinnicky was still laughing next to Null, whose animated eyes quickly fixed upon me.
"There, that proves it," I instantly said as soon as I reappeared in the amphitheater.
"Proves what?" Jinnicky sniggered. "That you turned around?"
I paused a few steps into the wide space. The tapping sounds of the mining servitors echoed loudly.
Null continued watching me with narrowed eyes as Jinnicky continued to be an asshole. Lian stood protectively nearby, the light of my halo reflecting in his stern eyes. The spider Magos laughed again, "A clever deception, I'll give you that! Psychically altering my perception so that I do not perceive you turning around! I will grant you that!"
I growled. "I've been gone for like, ten minutes. Do you need your eyes checked?"
"Wait, wait..." Null breathed as he approached quickly, causing Jinnicky to hustle to keep up at his side. Both Tech-priests now stood before me. "Inheritor, I watched your passage. You stepped through the arch, and now, you have nearly instantly reappeared, but turned about as if walking from another space. Where did you go?"
"A large flat arena type area floating in an expanse of black," I explained with a broad gesture of my force staff. "It's some kind of virtual reality place. I even saw a recording of Spoiled Prince speaking! It's a super realistic simulation, or a holodeck, whatever they're called here! It was amazing! You've got to see it!"
"You don't... seriously believe this, do you?" Jinnicky quietly asked Null, who didn't even deign to look at him.
I also decided to ignore the rude metal spider guy, and I turned back to face the arch again. The gateway continued to shimmer with energy. "No time actually passed? How about that," I wondered, and turned back around to face Null. "When I was in there the simulation did mention a time dilation effect."
"You were only gone a moment," Null offered. Lian also nodded beside me.
Jinnicky continued to giggle and gesture rudely, shaking his inhuman suggestion of a metal pile of scrap that seemed to be his head. Null cautiously approached the barrier, and I watched as the Tech-priest reached forward with a thin mechadendrite in an attempt to reach through the shimmering mirage. His mechadendrite passed through the barrier before it made a dull metallic tap against the back wall. "Mmm. There is an interesting energy field here, yes. Warded as to not function with non-Plane Walker souls."
"I've been telling you this, my fellow!" Jinnicky moaned as he walked to stand next to Null. I had just about had it with this guy. "Why are you humoring her delusions of being the Omnissiah?"
"I again suggest that you temper your disrespect, Magos," Lian rumbled dangerously.
"But, she-"
"Why yes, this arch could easily be a cleverly hidden teleportarium." Null immediately interrupted in a loud tone, cutting Jinnicky off before he could spew more garbage. "While none of the rest of us here can apparently cross the threshold, there may be a way we can easily observe what you have seen beyond the boundary."
Before I could ask what this new test was about, the twitching antennae of Null's mantis drone peered out from within a deep pocket in his red robes. The metal insect then launched itself into the air, and landed with a metallic chitter on my left shoulder. "If... if I could trouble to ask you to go back through the arch once more for ten minutes or so, I'd like to have Jiminy accompany you so that we may see where you went. I will activate my visual feed, but if we get cut off, the drone will record all that it perceives for us to view later."
"Fleshling insanity! Why, I should-"
The metal mantis squawked loudly on my shoulder, interrupting Jinnicky's complaints. "Sounds like a plan. Alright, I'll be right back," I quickly said to Null with a quick grin before turning around and stepping through the arch again.
The sensation of movement and pressure change again gripped me as I passed through the threshold, and on my shoulder, the mantis drone made an irritated squabbling noise.
"Can you hear me?" I asked as I walked deeper into the strange flat metal expanse floating in the black void. The drone on my shoulder did not answer. I reached over my shoulder, and Jiminy clambered onto my hand. "Hey, anything getting through to you, Null?" I projected my voice toward the drone, which did not respond.
After a few moments, the mantis drone quieted, and fluttered back on my shoulder again. "Yeah, looks like we're in a weird space with bent time," I mused to no one in particular, walking aimlessly along the metal surface.
Well, let's see what this place can do in the meantime. "Simulation, display Inheritor Weeping King as he appeared to you."
To my surprise, a sedate neutral voice informed me, "Inheritor not found in logs. Last Inheritor to visit: Pale Lord."
That was unexpected. Did Sebastian even know that this place existed? Knowing him, he probably did. The guy probably just deleted the logs of his visits. From what it looked like according to the logs, Spoiled Prince had met his end at whatever horror was consuming planets in the Dark Age of Technology. Thinking on that, it was strange that that Inheritor had spoken as if he had enjoyed entire conversations with me. So far, I remembered seeing Spoiled Prince in my dreams twice, as a ghost aboard the Divine Retribution once, and when I was on drugs in that palace hedge maze. These visits didn't really seem to "count" as entire conversations to me, though. Maybe I would eventually see him on the Divine Retribution later as one of its ghosts?
Disappointed that I wasn't going to see any moody Sebastian logs, I decided to take another direction. Curious, I leaned on my force staff, and asked, "Simulation, give me a list of scenarios enjoyed by the last person that was here."
Before me, a long list of different scenarios appeared out of nothing. I read with interest.
Journal (journal)...
Beach (battle), variants 1-22, Nemeses Argentum x1, x2
City (battle), variants 1-22, Nemeses Argentum x1, x2
Ballroom (entertainment), variants 1-9
Zero-G (battle), variants 1-256, Nemeses Argentum x1, x2, bo, talon
Roman (battle), variants 1-16, Nemeses Argentum x2
Sendai Garden (relaxation), variants 1-96, Note: data corruption, father variants
I reached forward, and discovered that I could "scroll" through the list with a motion of my hand. The list was substantial. Many of these scenarios were fighting simulations, but there were a fair amount devoted to relaxation, entertainment, piloting, and other activities (I even saw one for surfing!). One striking title caught my eye. It was simply called "Heinrich" with no other description, and instead of white text, it was red.
Because I'm impulsively curious, I didn't think twice before reaching forward to touch the red "Heinrich" title. A sub list appeared with the titles: Early Heinrich (3), Middle Heinrich (5), Late Heinrich (72).
Not knowing what any of these meant, I indicated toward "Late Heinrich". I really hoped that I wouldn't see Alberich standing before me...
The simulation around me darkened and shifted, and now, I was standing in an ominous blasted wasteland of grey cracked rock below an apocalyptic crimson sky. Bands of dark smoky clouds drifted above, and the dry air smelled faintly of fire and dust. The wind stung my cheeks in a baleful howl. Ahead of me, at about a distance of a few paces, an absolutely massive shadow many times my height was pulling itself into existence.
I quickly scrambled backward as I found myself standing beneath a gigantic machine that appeared to be crafted of pure malevolence. The mechanical behemoth stood at a towering height of ten meters on two powerful digitigrade metal legs, almost like some sort of profane recreation of the lower body of a dinosaur. It halfway reminded me of an anime-styled mech bot, but with less in the way of clean lines and more sharp edges. It had six multi-jointed metal arms, each affixed with either a long jagged blade, a three-clawed talon, or some kind of wicked cannon. A long metal tail segmented like an insect's body terminated in two scything blades was suspended threateningly behind its torso like a scorpion. Its bizarre "head" was an armored round singular red eye about my height resting above its torso on a thick, reptilian neck, which was currently craned as if it could see me below. The eye was somewhat shaped like that of a cat's, and it possessed a vertical black pupil. This thing oozed an evil aesthetic. Was this murder robot "Heinrich"? From what it had sounded like, Spoiled Prince's Heinrich had been a 1940s Nazi like my Heinrich, and not some giant eldritch robot.
As I studied the creature while it configured itself, my eyes were drawn to the center pupil of the eye-head looming above me. There, I realized that I could see a faint representation of a human face. The face was indistinct enough as to be unrecognizable, but it appeared to be vaguely male. It was approximately human sized with a hateful expression, and its features were made up of smears of flickering red and grey light. Was Heinrich actually inside this monster?
After the metal abomination had fully summoned itself into existence, it shifted, and crouched before me like a predator waiting to strike before freezing. More lines of white text appeared before me.
Options:
Timer: on/off?
Pain sensitivity settings: on/off? adjust...
Kinetic sensitivity settings: on/off? adjust...
Von Neumann probes: on/off? adjust...
Temporal Sight capability: on/off? adjust...
Biomancy: on/off? adjust...
Civilian casualties: on/off? adjust...
Other...
This definitely seemed to be a fighting simulation, I thought, looking upward at the unblinking red eye-face above me. I wasn't even going to begin to entertain that I could do anything against something as horrific as this Heinrich robot, so I indicated toward the "other" text that appeared at the end of the floating lines of text.
Replay last confrontation? Confrontations stored: 72
I assumed this meant that I would see one of the 72 holographic battles that Spoiled Prince had engaged in between whatever this "Heinrich" machine was. Just to be sure, I asked the simulation, "Simulation, what would I see if I replayed the last confrontation? I'd be safe, right?" as I looked upward at the looming eye-head of this monster.
A sedate voice responded with, "Affirmative. Simulation on replay mode."
"Hmm," I murmured as I leaned against my force staff. Jiminy chittered on my shoulder again. We had a little bit of time before I was due back at the amphitheater, so I decided to say, "Yeah, play simulation."
My point of view was pulled back and slightly upward almost as if I was watching a fighting game from a height of a few meters. There was now nothing beneath my feet, and I stood in midair. A few paces away, another figure began to pull itself from reality. This one seemed to be the familiar figure of Spoiled Prince, but now, he was depicted in his "tall" form, and stood a full 3-4 meters in height. The Inheritor, while tall, was still only about just under half the size of Heinrich, who loomed over everyone like a kaiju.
Spoiled Prince here wore his gold and black ornate armor as his hologram crafted itself, and his Corona shimmered around his head and shoulders in a beautiful glow. Here, he did not wear his cloak. In his gauntleted hands, he held each of his two silver swords before him in a ready pose, almost like as if I was watching a fighting game. Each of his slender blades were easily much longer than I was tall, and they had an inner vibrancy that made them exceptionally beautiful. The Inheritor wore his white hair long and loose beneath his jeweled crown, which didn't make much sense to me. As someone with long tresses, loose hair can easily become a liability in day to day life, so I didn't understand why Spoiled Prince's hair wasn't at least tied back. Come to think of it, the Emperor never walked around wearing a ponytail either from what I remembered from the lore art. Long hair had to be a giant pain when in an epic space duel with your nemesis.
Both the Inheritor and Heinrich were now fully formed holographic shapes, and both stood frozen on the ground below me, ready to fight. A line of floating white text appeared before me.
"Commence playback?" the simulation asked me.
"Hell yeah," I said with a smile. While my life was terrifying and my soul was being slowly burned away, at least I had moments like this, which were really fucking cool.
Immediately, Spoiled Prince lunged ahead with an upward leap with one blade outstretched toward the central eye-head above. I got the sensation that time had slowed down, and a faint notation of, "Sight factor, 60%" appeared briefly before me.
Before his blade could land, the giant evil robot moved with terrifying quickness, sidestepping the sword strike. Spoiled Prince, in response to this movement, did some kind of psychotic backflip kicking off Heinrich's torso, and launching his body away like an acrobat. The Inheritor had managed to also dodge the mech's tail, which cracked like a whip as it struck the empty air where Spoiled Prince used to be.
The Inheritor was still in the process of backflipping away when Heinrich abruptly rushed ahead with a lunge of one of his blade arms. As I watched this, I felt my own Sight instinctually respond so that I actually could see what was going on more easily, and the movements of both combatants slowed. The evil mech ended up somehow missing Spoiled Prince by a mere hand's length, but then, the robot's second blade arm raced forward, successfully predicting where the Inheritor would be in the air.
What happened next was incredible, and it all happened in a tiny moment of slowed time. As Heinrich surged forward with his second blade, Spoiled Prince then somehow twisted in mid-air and extended his legs downward so that he was momentarily standing on Heinrich's extended arm blade. Using his momentum, the Inheritor artfully swung ahead, sword outreached. This move landed a scar across Heinrich's breastplate and severed one of the many cables attaching the eye-head to the rest of the body.
As fast as this happened, Spoiled Prince then immediately danced away again.
The Inheritor was now levitating in midair at a distance of a few paces away from the metal abomination, which made no move to advance upon him. I watched as his Corona began to blaze around his entire body like a nova, making him difficult to even look at directly. Holding his swords upward, he extended his arms in a threatening T-pose as he continued to brighten like a miniature sun. I got the sense that if I were a baseline human that I would not be able to be in Spoiled Prince's presence at all like this without getting burned or blinded.
"Why have you done this, Heinrich?" Spoiled Prince boomed in his strong voice, his eyes blazing even brighter than the rest of him as he floated like some kind of supernatural white-haired angel. "You have slaughtered the dream of humanity."
"You betray galactic progress, false Messiah!" Heinrich shouted in a stilted, German-accented synthetic grinding voice. "I have eternally waged war against the dissolute, the liars, and those who would impede natural evolution! Even in my former life, I have done so! And you, you're just a prancing spoiled prince playing Caesar to a legion of fools!"
Heinrich saying "spoiled prince" apparently triggered the Inheritor, and I watched as he nearly imperceptibly flinched. "I work for the glory of humanity! You strive for war, consumption, and death! You follow the lies of the great dragon of the void! I am ashamed that I ever trusted you!"
"I follow the imperative of truth, Izz-uu-mmii, lost little boy playing at being God!" Heinrich jeered, drawing out the Inheritor's former name in a slathering mechanical hiss. The abomination's long segmented tail waved in a threatening manner behind his bulk. The creature stomped and scraped his legs on the ground like an angry bull. "Your destruction will mark a new golden galactic age of progress, one where the true master race reigns supreme without any false pretenders!"
Watching these two giants shout angrily at each other set off a sense of familiarity in me. While I didn't know much about the Emperor from the knowledge of my old life, I definitely got the sense that a confrontation like this had happened in the formal 40k lore. Spoiled Prince was a giant gold demigod, and Heinrich was some kind of stupidly powerful individual who had once been close to Spoiled Prince, apparently betraying him. On top of that, Heinrich's eye-head reminded me of Horus and his whole "eye of Horus" aesthetic he had going on. Null had said recently that history does tend to rhyme, and seeing this definitely confirmed it. This was eerie.
"You never even gave my dream a chance, wayward fool. You gave your old Führer your everlasting devotion for his monstrous aims, but not my glittering dream of progress? May shame grip you before I obliterate your memory!"
Heinrich laughed coldly. "Your ignorance is plain to see, boy, as you do not know your history. Foolish false beast, unworthy of the mantle he carries, lying to those who follow him! You are unwilling to listen to reason, and once again, history calls upon me to amend the damage a mad god has decided to inflict."
The two combatants stood before one another, each seething with hatred for the other. Spoiled Prince appeared to broil with anger, and he pointed one of his swords toward Heinrich in a threatening gesture. "I will be victorious, and even if you strike me down, I will return more powerful. I will outlast you and your ruin."
"I do not think so," Heinrich chuckled with a grinding laugh, and shifted his bulk to stomp upon the ground again. "I think our little game ends here tonight. Little children need to be taught humility, and I will show you humiliation as I break you over my will. And I will-"
"Pause simulation," Spoiled Prince interjected. Heinrich and the apocalyptic landscape around us froze. The Inheritor stood breathing heavily, his eyes blazing in rage as his feet found the ground again. He then placed his swords at his hips, and sat down on a large black folding chair that instantly appeared behind him. The Inheritor sighed deeply, and leaned forward as he sat, his gauntleted hand gripping his lower jaw in an expression of emotional turmoil. After a few deep breaths, he began again, "Simulation, please augment the following parameters..." he started, but could not give further instruction, as it appeared he was emotionally overcome with anger. His Corona flashed, and even displayed a slight rainbow prism at its edges.
As I sat there waiting for Spoiled Prince to compose himself enough to continue, the metal mantis drone on my should chirped, and said in a robotic, squeaky voice: "10 minutes local time reached."
"End simulation," I announced, and the holographic battle, including the entirety of the simulated landscape and the two giants vanished into nothing. I was now standing back on the flat metal plane of this strange place again. Wow, wait'll everyone sees this, I thought happily. Jinnicky is going to lose his shit! I turned around and began making my way back to the arch I had come from.
I walked through the arch again and discovered that, as expected, Magos Jinnicky was still nastily laughing in my direction. It felt as if no time had passed whatsoever. Both Null and Lian were close, and I felt Jiminy launch himself off my shoulder to land on Null's gold forearm. "You have experienced ten minutes of time?" the Tech-priest asked.
"Yeah," I offered. "I even saw a recording of a holographic Spoiled Prince dueling a giant evil robot that he called 'Heinrich'. The simulation in there is amazing!"
Null made an "mmm" noise as he pulled a long metal cable from behind his neck, and fastened it to the mantis drone's back as it perched on one of the Tech-priest's arms. "Initiating video transfer," Jiminy squeaked.
"You saw the Inheritor that reigned before the God-Emperor?" Lian asked me in a hushed, marveling voice. I nodded happily.
"Null," Jinnicky began as he began to walk toward the Tech-priest, who stood by me as he transferred what Jiminy had seen to himself. "This is obscene, this is blasphemy. I cannot tolerate this farce any longer. I respect that she is yours to command, but this is too much. If we were on a more civilized world, I'd be demanding execution or servitorisation of this blasphemous specimen, you see-"
I snapped.
"No more," I flatly proclaimed in my resonant voice as I quickly turned on my heel to face Jinnicky, who reflexively stepped away from my suddenly-bright Corona. My patience was fucking done with this guy. I didn't like doing this, but sometimes, people just don't listen, and this guy needed some education on how to respect a creature like me.
Time slowed down around me as I called upon my Sight, and I remembered that I had broken into that one Word Bearer's mind him when he doubted me. A part of me now hated being doubted. A peculiarly alien thought of "I'm here to assist humans, and those who doubt me obviously should be reeducated" crawled in the back of my mind.
I focused my Sight again, and found myself looking directly into Jinnicky's eight alien eyes. I felt his fear as his mental resolve was torn away like rotted cloth as I pierced his very soul like a needle made of holy light. While he was mostly augmented, he was still a human at his core. With a blink of perception, I found myself looking into the soul of a wiry thin man with dark eyes, short dirty brown hair, and very pale, sickly skin. His expression was that of surprised horror as I continued to bore into him. Glimpses of his life flitted through my subconscious, and I quickly determined that Jinnicky was particularly unsuccessful in social endeavors, even among his AdMech peers. I watched as he stood before Nimmie Amee, his eight hands folded before her as if begging for something. He was pleading for her affection, and I got a massive dose of second hand embarrassment as I watched Magos Amee turn away from him.
I cleared my throat. Time to get to it.
"You were born as Jinn Randall, a scrounger of technology on Holy Terra. Neglected by women due to your lack of hygiene and poor social aptitude, you vowed to overcome the weakness of your flesh so that you would no longer yearn for the touch of a woman against your wretched unwashed skin."
Jinnicky stood before me as I flayed his mind, now absolutely terrified. He glanced around in a panic, realizing that I had slowed time around him.
"'Women are illogical, insane creatures. It is mental illness for me to be attracted to such animals!' That is what you said to your own mother when you announced that you would be leaving home to become a Tech-priest. Still and now forever a virgin, your opinion on the female sex has never wavered in the three hundred years you have served as a Magos Explorator. You were transferred away from Mars because no one could stand you, and you were placed under the command of Magos Nimmie Amee, who you promptly fell in love with."
"How... how..." Jinnicky gasped. The implants in his body began to buzz under the strain of my Corona as I stood before him in this pocket of slowed time. One of his spider arms fell from his body with a smash.
"Nimmie Amee never returned your clumsy attempts at romance. Instead, she sent you out here, far away from any help and all alone. Now she is gone, and no help is coming. You fear you will die here, eventually claimed under the flensing claws of Cyclothrathe. You know they have already sent a drone to this world, so it is only a matter of time. You have nightmares that the hereteks will consume you, circuit by circuit. Worse yet, you're ultimately too weak to end yourself to prevent that. Fool..."
"I..."
"This can't be true! Women are too weak to hold the mantle of the Omnissiah!" you say to yourself... Oh, really?"
Hearing this and vocalizing it at the same time as I sensed it, I felt a rush of furious electric indignation race through me. I was now a giant, and I stood before the frightened Spider Magos who cowered below, falling to his knees like a terrified child. With a swatting motion of my hand, I telekinetically hurled the jerk against the wall of rock at the far end of the amphitheater, a full fifty meters away. I then pinned him there in a similar manner to how I had assaulted Ven Tristan back on Tar Vigaz. I smiled and stepped through space and time so that I now stood directly before the frightened Magos.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" the spider Magos stammered out. Another of his arms disarticulated from his torso and crashed to the floor below.
I continued to smile coldly. I then gripped the spider Magos as easily as a child holding a doll, and threw him all the way across the amphitheater to strike the other wall. There, I pinned him against the far wall at a height of a few meters. With an easy manipulation of reality, I stepped through time and space, and instantly traversed the entire length of the amphitheater again.
My teeth began to chatter beneath my grin as Jinnicky screamed in terror. He flailed against the wall, and choked out, "Omnissiah! I believe now!"
I held the rude Magos against the wall for a few moments, enjoying his fearful deference. I then asked, "You promise?" with a cold snarl.
"Yes, yes I do! Omnissiah! Mercy!"
"Cross your heart?" I asked as I swiped an 'X' across his chest with two motions of my right index figure. I then let the Magos drop to the floor.
As quickly as I had grown in height, I was now back to my normal size, and time normalized. Vertigo immediately washed through me, and my heart began to ache, sending a spasm of pain down my left arm. Lian immediately rushed over to help me before I could topple over.
"What... what just happened!?" Null asked as he saw that Jinnicky was now a trembling pile of metal on the floor a few paces away from where he had been standing before. The Tech-priest placed his gold hand to his lower jaw in shock. Null then turned back to me, his eyes wide. I had terrorized the mind and body of the spider Magos in the space of under a second!
"I slowed time, and I looked..." I gasped as I leaned on my force staff, dizzy. I made a mental note that I couldn't just do the turn-into-a-gold-giant trick like that whenever I wanted. It took a lot out of me, and it was still pretty much involuntary, even if it felt great for me to hulk out like that. "I looked into his soul. He continued to deny me, so I had to show him who I was. I slowed time and I gave his soul a quick reeducation."
As he supported me, Lian's soul trembled with awe and fear. His reverence elicited within me a sensation of well-being, and I found that I was smiling. However, I was beginning to realize that this sort of behavior was abnormal, so I continued to breathe deeply in order to bring myself back to reality.
I meditated, willing myself to further relax, quieting the power within me. Looking around, I noticed that the servitors, despite being in the same room as their fallen master, all continued working, unbothered by everything. The tapping clatter of their continued mining created a very tense atmosphere in the amphitheater.
"Ahhh!" Jinnicky suddenly cried out in a warbling voice as he staggered to his feet nearby. I turned to observe him. From here, I could see that his many implants now had blinking red lights. I could also tell that one of his eyes had burnt out, and that he had lost three arms from the encounter with me.
Jinnicky continued to whimper in overwhelming anxiety, and in response, Lian bitterly scoffed. The Fallen Paladin turned to the spider Magos as he continued supporting me. "Fool. She is the Inheritor of mankind. The future heir and lord of all of humanity. She is your Omnissiah's avatar. You were warned against disrespect. Consider yourself lucky that you still live," Lian scowled.
"Yeah, I'm an Inheritor," I said dizzily, still calming down. "That's just the way it is. Sorry, not sorry."
Null remained standing about two meters away, and was watching both me and the staggering form of Jinnicky, his animated eyes registering conflict. The mantis drone was still perched atop one of his extended arms, apparently still in the process of transferring what it had seen in the simulation room to the Tech-priest's memory banks. Understanding what Null wanted, I said: "You can go and help him. I'm not upset anymore. He knows what I am. Even if he won't say it, he knows."
The Tech-priest bowed, and then, immediately hustled over to Jinnicky, who continued to moan piteously.
Still feeling somewhat vindictive, I announced, "Oh, so guess what, Null? People kept transferring this guy to different locations to get rid of him, which is why he's out here alone. You were right, Null. How about that?"
"Ahh!" Jinnicky cried out again as he gripped his torso with his remaining arms. The front of his red robes had been torn, and the metal of his chest had indeed been scarred by me 'crossing his heart'. Null reached Jinnicky, and I could tell that the Tech-priest was trying to calm the Magos down with gentle language.
"Well, at least we know he'll listen now," I said to Lian as I watched Null fuss over the humiliated Magos. A creeping sensation of guilt began to invade my feelings of lingering indignation.
"Excuse my curiosity, Inheritor," Lian gently began with a small bow beside me. "But, what has transpired, if I may ask? I, as an Astartes, have reflexes beyond normal human capability, but even I could not witness your movement, if that is what you accomplished. I witnessed unusual flashes gold of light, among other sights, and then, the Magos had reappeared at a new location nearby, damaged and crying."
"Oh, that," I said, closing my eyes and trying to will my vertigo (and my burgeoning guilt) to calm. "That's just my Sight again. I'm getting stronger. I slowed time and threw the Magos down the hall and then back up here since I was fed up with him. I also broke into his mind and saw who he was at his core. He'll be fine, I think, but he'll probably be a little spooked for awhile," I explained quietly as I watched Null speak to Jinnicky. He now only had five functional arms, and one of his mechadendrites was currently dragging limply along the floor. It made an awful grinding sound.
"Yes, I understand your Sight, but there was something else as well," Lian asked me. I turned to look up at the Fallen, who looked away from me, unable to make eye contact. "I saw, for a moment, you as a giant. Maybe... maybe even twice your current stature. A warrior of..." Lian slowly trailed off as Null and Jinnicky cautiously began to approach us.
"Tall, yes," Jinnicky spoke from a few paces away. His remaining seven green eyes were glowing too brightly, and a spark raced across his metal cheek. "Tall. A gold giant. Aura of power. T-tall, tall, tall."
"Yes, Magos. Very tall," Null said as he continued to examine the frightened Tech-priest. There was a scent of burnt electronics around Jinnicky now, and he shivered as he babbled. One of Null's mechadendrites produced a screwdriver, and he began to adjust something against Jinnicky's collar. Now that I had calmed down, I began to understand just how much I had damaged Jinnicky. Another wave of vertigo caused me to briefly sway on my feet, and Lian's giant hand gently gripped my shoulder to keep me steady. Had I really gone that overboard?
"Upload complete," the mantis drone on Null's arm cheeped as he hastily tinkered with Jinnicky's metal. From what I could see, Null actually appeared worried as he fussed over Jinnicky.
"With your blessing, I would request that you allot me a moment to do some emergency repairs on Magos Jinnicky before we view the feed, Inheritor. While he is damaged, it isn't anything that I shouldn't be unable to fix."
"Okay, fix him," I replied as I watched the Magos tremble and gibber. This outcome wasn't good, I cringed. Who knew that telekinetically hurling someone a full fifty meters into a wall and then pinning him against said wall (twice) while psychically dragging their soul to the surface in order to bludgeon it would traumatize someone...
"Omnissiah's a woman now. A damn woman Inheritor!" Jinnicky madly buzzed as he swung his monstrous head toward me. He pointed at me, and then, at himself where I had marked his chest. "I have died. I have gone to the Warp! I am being preyed upon by daemons. Hell. I am in hell, yes! The hereteks got me! I'm in hell! Hell!"
Instead of getting mad at this Magos a second time, I now found myself feeling ashamed at my own behavior as my "normal" personality began to fully reassert itself. The emotion of fear was palpable in this space, radiating from all three members of my present company. Sure, Jinnicky was an insulting jerk, but holy shit, I could've waited two damn minutes for the visual feed from Null's mantis drone to be uploaded to prove myself. I didn't have to lose my temper and cause this guy grievous mental and physical harm. Just because someone is being insulting doesn't mean that you should outright savage them like this!
Fuck, here I go destroying things and enjoying my retributive anger yet again, I thought, closing my eyes in shame. The Divine Retribution's influence on me was becoming stronger. I thought back to the bloodstone that Alberich's daemon glaive described. Could this mysterious gemstone really help me in preventing this corruption of my free will? Spoiled Prince had an entire crown of these jewels, so I actually had no idea if a single bloodstone would be able to help at all. All I knew is that I didn't want to devolve into a giant gold psychic demigod-weapon whose purpose is to beat the hell out of humanity's enemies in this universe!
With a sigh of concession, I realized that I was probably in a position where I would have to listen to the advice of a damn daemon to keep myself as myself. If there was a bloodstone somewhere in Jinnicky's possession, I needed it, and I was going to find and take it, I thought with grim resolution.
And, as I had that thought, the eye of the God of Fate turned to me, and smiled.