Steel & Oil: Warhammer 32K

Threatening an Astartes usually came off as laughable, but Efron did not dare take it lightly in the slightest. He took two steps back. "I'll carry the message."

Lin waved his hand, letting the Fallen Angel go.

"We're just letting him leave, like that?" Vladilena found it hard to believe.

Lin's earlier exchange with Efron had left her thoroughly lost. The only thing she'd managed to catch was that this band of traitor Astartes had some connection to that traitor Inquisitor. By all rights they should have followed the thread and wrung it out of him, yet Lin had gone and set the man free.

"You really should have let me try a Psychic mind-scour," Issaga said, a little wistful. Still, unlike the Inquisitor, he raised no objection.

"We've already come this far. Letting him go costs us nothing. They aren't in league with Chaos, and whatever that warband leader has in mind, it won't affect us dealing with these daemons."

"So what about this cooperation you mentioned?"

"I only wanted to see whether they've truly faced reality, and whether they're sincere."

Lin gathered the gun batteries again and assigned firing solutions to the crews. With him back in command, the final barrage eased the pressure on the underhive defenders and swept clear the obstacles ahead of the advancing Astartes.

"Our work here is done. Let's move. Time to link up with Kurande and the others and put an end to this Chaos farce."

The once-again disciplined fire displeased Ayash.

Half an hour ago, the sudden chaos in the underhive command and the slackening of their fire had handed Ayash an opening, and he'd resolved to use that window to break the underhive people completely.

Though the underhive folk had thrown enormous casualties into blunting the charge of sorcery and corrupted defense force troops, they too were at the end of their strength. Just as Ayash prepared to deliver the killing blow, the enemy's suddenly restored command caught him flat-footed.

It made him realize one thing: "Those traitor Astartes have failed."

The half hour of chaos proved that the two traitor Astartes had indeed caused the enemy some trouble, but the enemy was still able to command, which meant their actions had failed to threaten the enemy's life.

Beside him, M'Kachen felt regret as well. "The idea was sound, but still too weak, was it?"

This hive-city-scale upheaval had been launched with the Imperium turning a blind eye, relying on the thin resources of the planetary governor. In the past, if an important world erupted into revolt, a hundred thousand troops poured in wouldn't be enough to fill a gap between the teeth.

It was precisely this that Ayash had prized when he stirred up the revolt, yet the very chaos he'd counted on to rise became a shackle when it came to dealing with Lin.

With neither Psychic power nor the Warp's presence able to threaten their target, the several tens of thousands of corrupted defense troops on hand plainly couldn't pose any threat to the enemy.

Still, over this half hour, they had not come away empty-handed.

"It doesn't matter." Ayash steadied himself. "In this half hour we've already inflicted enough dead and wounded. Whether or not we deal with that Tech-Priest, you'll be able to manifest in the world."

As a steward, Ayash had of course heard of Blanks. Their capacity to suppress Psychic power was indeed formidable, but if their numbers were few, a strong enough Psyker could still tear these Blanks to shreds in turn.

However strange that Tech-Priest might be, how could he withstand the might of a Greater Daemon?

"Of course." M'Kachen did not deny it. "But I still need something else."

"What?"

"The souls of those cultists performing the ritual."

For a moment Ayash doubted he'd heard right. He looked back at M'Kachen and only then saw that this Ever-Changing Daemon Lord was utterly serious about this act of picking a household clean.

"This is part of the plan too?" he couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Of course. Nothing lies outside the plan. And if it did, that would only make it part of another plan."

And what did that have to do with picking a household bare?

Ayash forced down the unease within. "I'll arrange it."

The Greater Daemon gave a low chuckle and opened a teleportation rift for Ayash. Ayash stepped through, and in an instant he arrived at the already corrupted Imperial Creed cathedral.

This was no longer the solemn majesty of a place that served the Emperor, but the chaos and disorder that embodied the very essence of Tzeentch. The Imperial Aquila atop the cathedral was devouring its own wings, and the cherubim wheeling beneath the dome gave off a droning hum like an infant's wailing. Outside the cathedral one could already hear the ever-nearing crack of bolter fire, yet a throng of cultists paid it no heed, kneeling on the floor and loudly reciting the Imperial Creed Catechism written backwards.

"The hour has come!" Ayash raised both hands high. "Let us offer the souls of these ignorant mortals to the great Changer of the Ways, and beg for the descent of his emissary!"

When Kurande led his team fighting into the cathedral, the first thing they saw was indigo witch-fire seeping from the cracks in the holy image of the Emperor.

"This is blasphemy!" Lancelot was like an enraged lion, sword in hand, ready to charge into the cathedral, only to be stopped by Kurande.

"The ritual looks to have already begun. Before Issaga and the others arrive, we must be more cautious."

Admidel led his brothers forward, warriors bearing shields forming an advancing battle line. Several daemons lying in ambush along both sides of the cathedral sprang from the shadows, but unable to breach the shield wall they were swiftly cut down by the Astartes in return, dissolving into ash that scattered on the air.

Thorne eyed those shields with some envy. "Maybe we should ask Lin whether he can arm a batch of us with this kind of gear too."

But all that was for later. After sweeping away the last resistance at the cathedral's outer perimeter, they stepped into this already corrupted cathedral. Strangely, there were no enemies inside. Kurande's gaze swept over the figures fallen silent on the floor. These twisted, deformed Chaos Cultists bore no external wounds, and he needed no thought to understand what had drawn away their souls.

"Pitiable running dogs of Chaos," he said in a low voice.

Answering these sacrificed Chaos worshippers was the thick reek of corruption pervading the cathedral. Even those who were not Librarians felt the inexplicable pull at the cathedral's center.

The group hurried through the corridor to the cathedral's heart. In the vast prayer hall now stood only Ayash, and beside him a massive vortex taking shape. Within the vortex a colossal silhouette could faintly be seen.

Kurande was no stranger to this. The feeling was exactly like the summoning of the Greater Daemon in the underhive a dozen days ago.

"Ayash!" he roared. "You betrayed the Emperor, deceived us, and now you dare attempt to summon a daemon?"

"Betrayed? Deceived?"

Ayash turned back with a cold sneer. Now that the summoning was complete, he no longer feared this pack of Astartes.

"What truly deceived you was your blind loyalty to the False Emperor!"

Unwilling to hear such words, Kurande raised his pistol and loosed a bolt round, but the round was blocked by Ayash's psionic shield.

Realizing ranged weapons wouldn't settle his foe, he charged with the other Astartes toward the cathedral's center, meaning to halt the ritual.

But it was already too late. As every soul was sacrificed to the being at the vortex's very heart, the vortex swelled violently, and a powerful Psychic shockwave rolled through the entire cathedral, hurling the Space Marines back several paces.

"The False Emperor's dogs think to halt the march of truth?" Ayash remained devoted to spreading his words of Chaos. "You weave faith from lies and rule the multitudes through fear! You proclaim yourselves the Emperor's angels, yet cast countless souls into the furnace of war! But thanks to your blind loyalty, I completed the ritual amid the deaths of the underhive people."

He spread his arms wide, as if embracing the whole planet. "Now, let us offer everything to the Changer of the Ways!"

At his call, the light of the summoning dispersed, and a tall figure appeared at the cathedral's center. He was clad in indigo armor, its surface covered in twisting runes and endlessly rotating eyes.

When his gaze swept across the Astartes present, those eyes would fix upon them together in accord with his will. Those near-tangible stares converged, making every Space Marine feel the weight of oppression and peril.

Kurande's knowledge of Greater Daemons was limited to that failed summoning ritual in the underhive. Though wary of the Greater Daemon, the Ever-Changing Daemon Lord, beaten savagely by Lin at that time, had not displayed his true strength. Now with Lin absent, the Ever-Changing Daemon Lord could at last unleash himself fully.

"At last! Such sweet, sweet souls!"

M'Kachen was well pleased with this sacrificial ritual, but when he touched his own face, his satisfaction turned in an instant to fury.

"Why is it that even this many souls aren't enough to mend my wound?!"

The third of his face shorn away by an axe blade remained mutilated. Even though the ritual had pushed his power onto an entirely new tier, his face had not improved for it, as if that place had always been meant to be a void.

Kurande realized the Greater Daemon before him was the very one Lin had crippled earlier, and much of the tension eased within him.

Beside him, Lancelot let out a roar. This Black Templar charged the Greater Daemon with absolute courage. But the Greater Daemon merely gave a light wave of his staff, and the indigo Psychic energy that shot from the ever-color-shifting gem at its tip sent him flying.

"No need to rush to your deaths. I still have plenty of time to savor your futile struggles."

His anger unspent, the Greater Daemon was in no hurry to dispatch the pack of Astartes. But at his side, Ayash, waiting to be elevated to Daemon Prince, grew a little frantic. "Finish them off, quickly!"

The Greater Daemon only gave a noncommittal snort. "I'm working on it."

The Astartes scattered, seeking cover and launching their attack on the Ever-Changing Daemon Lord. But on his home ground, thick with the power of the Warp, the laws of the physical world were no more than clay for the Greater Daemon to mold at will.

With a single light slap he embedded an Astartes crouched behind cover into the crushed stone. Those Astartes attacking at range were driven back by his sorcerous flames.

Only the Astartes who tried close combat gave him any trouble. He flung away Thorne, who had seized the gap in his spellcasting to slip in and strike, but the true killing blow was Admidel's, following in behind Thorne.

His katana sank into the Ever-Changing Daemon Lord's Psychic barrier, though the Greater Daemon, using the moment the blade's momentum was checked, twisted aside to evade the downward slash.

M'Kachen took note of this peculiar Astartes and frowned. "There's a familiar scent about you…"

But now was not the time to dwell on it. He lifted his head toward the dome, and though he could not see outside, he had already sensed the one who was coming.

The Ever-Changing Daemon Lord felt some regret. "This is as far as the game goes."

Ayash froze. Looking at the Ever-Changing Daemon Lord's mutilated face, a sense of crisis began to climb sharply within him.

"What do you mean, as far as it goes? By our pact, I offer up the souls to summon you to the material world, and you at the very least kill ninety-nine Astartes to elevate me to Daemon Prince!"

M'Kachen spread his hands, wholly indifferent to Ayash's challenge.

"That's true enough, but I never guaranteed I could actually beat this pack of Astartes."

The words had barely left him when he flung away another squad of Astartes that had tried to attack. And this was called not being able to beat them?

Ayash demanded, "How could you possibly not beat them?!"

"We never defined the standard for whether I could beat them, did we?"

Had Lin died to the ambush of those two Space Marines, M'Kachen naturally wouldn't have minded killing ninety-nine relatively weaker Astartes to raise Ayash to Daemon Prince.

But Lin was still alive, and the time it took to kill ninety-nine was more than enough for him to arrive here.

Remembering full well how much harm that man had inflicted on him before, the Ever-Changing Daemon Lord had no intention of staying to trade blows head-on.

Besides, through this cost he had also grasped the trick of it: that uncanny Tech-Priest could likewise be disrupted by physical means. To defeat him, one would have to work on the fabric of reality itself.

The place that could provide such conditions certainly was not here. As for Ayash?

Having already reaped enough benefit, he did not spare so much as another glance for this pitiable plaything, turning to return into the Warp.

"No, no!" His earlier unease became reality, and Ayash shrieked. "You can't leave! This isn't part of our plan!"

"Here's a last piece of advice for you: the one who believes he holds all things in his grasp is the easiest to become another's pawn. Your plan? It may be no more than a single link in mine, or in someone else's."

A turbolaser blast shattered the cathedral's dome, and a battered Thunderhawk gunship shrieked down onto the battlefield. Lin leaped down through the open hatch with Issaga and Lena. M'Kachen, who had been about to say something more, paused briefly, then turned to devote himself to scrabbling back into the slightly shrunken Warp vortex.

Lin spotted this Greater Daemon trying to flee at a glance. "Didn't you tell me to wait? I've come to the Imperial Creed cathedral. Where are you off to?"

The Greater Daemon moved faster still. Lin raised his hand and loosed a bolt of plasma to stop him, but an attack of that magnitude was easily blocked by the Greater Daemon.

Only once his body had already entered the Warp did the Ever-Changing Daemon Lord bother to poke out his mutilated face, glaring viciously at Lin.

"Remember this victory, you accursed one who steals souls from me! My defeat is nothing but a thorn planted within your triumph. When those weeping souls turn and devour you, I will drag you into the deepest reaches of the Labyrinth!"

"…?"

Do I have the ability to absorb souls?

Lin felt puzzled, unsure why this Ever-Changing Daemon Lord had brought up something that seemed to have nothing to do with him. But that did nothing to keep him from striding forward with the Solar-Powered Warblade in hand.

Seeing such a deadly weapon again, the Greater Daemon let out a shriek and swiftly sealed the Warp rift shut. The corrupted cathedral snapped back to its former state at once, and only the reek of the Warp still hanging in the air reminded everyone present of just what they had been facing.

Unlike that titular Tzeentchian Greater Daemon lodged within the Dreadnought chassis, this Greater Daemon had his own physical body and a channel to return through. If he was truly set on fleeing, Lin really had no good way to stop him.

Lin clicked his tongue, more than a little sorry to have failed to finish off this Greater Daemon.

Though it was the second time he had witnessed such might, Kurande still found it incredible.

A Greater Daemon that they had no idea how great a price it would take to banish had fled at the mere sight of Lin, as if Lin need only stand there for it to mean his victory over those Warp-spawned horrors.

"It must be the Emperor's protection…" Lancelot murmured beside him.

This time no one refuted him. Kurande even thought that if there truly were the Emperor's protection, it might not have been so easy.

The Inquisitor, who had arrived with them, was likewise at a loss. As an Inquisitor of the Sacred Hammer Chapter, Vladilena had of course dealt with banishing daemons before.

Specialists in their craft, they had a far easier time against daemons than ordinary Space Marines, yet a Greater Daemon fleeing outright, hurling threats without having killed anyone, still lay beyond her comprehension.

Better to say that from the moment they let that traitor Astartes go, the entire course of events had already run beyond her expectations.

The thing that surpassed understanding made the Inquisitor give up thinking. She looked elsewhere, only to find Ayash fleeing this place in a panic.

"It's that steward, he's trying to escape!" she warned at once.

"He won't get away. Issaga?"

Lin cast a questioning look at Issaga. Issaga nodded. "I can track his Psychic signature. It's very clear now."

"Good. Then let's enjoy his final struggle."

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