My Life as A Death Guard
Act 4: "Cadia Stands!"
The place where gaze and destiny converge,
Where causality flows, and even the gods fall silent.
Look ahead—to where the black curtain descends.
Warriors, tighten your grip upon your swords.
He is waiting for you.
Chapter 471: Uninvited Guests
"What exactly is this?" A hoarse whisper drifted down from the shadows, like raven feathers brushing across skin with a rustling hiss.
"Monsters," the Khan replied calmly.
He sat before the command table, one hand propping up his head while the other rested casually upon the map.
A series of dissatisfied mechanical clicks sounded from a nearby corner, as though protesting silently. The Khan glanced toward the Tech-Priest in crimson robes riddled with bullet holes, then calmly looked away again.
"Or perhaps the Head of the Silent Sisterhood of the Imperium."
A smile appeared at the corners of the Khan's mouth, impossible to tell whether it was mockery or bitterness.
"Or perhaps both at once. I imagine such a thing would be possible for the Emperor."
From the shadows emerged a tall, pale-faced figure with a gloomy expression. Long hair draped over his shoulders, and his features bore a faint resemblance to Curze. His pitch-black pupils were filled with sorrow and confusion.
He stepped forward until he stood before the Khan.
"But…" Corax spoke almost like a sigh. "…what exactly happened here? What happened to the Imperium?"
The two Legions had rushed here in haste. After enduring countless Warp storms and disturbances, they had barely managed to stabilize near Cadia.
Only here were the Warp tides in the vacuum of space somewhat less chaotic.
And as for why—
One glance through the observation ports of the fleet was enough for even those unfamiliar with the Eternal Sky to understand the reason. All psychic energy around this world had converged into a single region.
Right there, at a single point upon Cadia, a violent psychic storm, visible even to the naked eye, churned there. Merely looking at it was enough to make one dizzy and nauseous.
The endlessly rolling storm clouds resembled the legendary prison of some sealed evil god.
The Khan frowned. Nothing of joy or anger could be read from his dignified face.
"The first man to see a wolf would never know how sharp its fangs are, brother. We are the first witnesses—or perhaps the first man who saw the wolf is already dead."
Corax gave a bitter smile. "I very much want to leave this place. It makes me uncomfortable."
Jaghatai remained silent.
He stared at the holographic map, at the command console. Upon it flickered fragmented final messages from Terra itself.
A direct decree from the Emperor:
The Legions were to cooperate with the orders of the Head of the Silent Sisterhood and engage the enemies of the Imperium.
But where was the Head of the Silent Sisterhood?
As the two Legions wandered aimlessly through the void searching for answers, countless drifting wreck-ships attacked them—Word Bearers vessels, Iron Warriors ships.
The lances and macro-cannons that had once defended the Imperium now turned upon their own kin.
Fortunately, the eagle's eyes remained sharp. Almost the instant they came under attack, the White Scars fleet launched a counteroffensive.
No one could ever catch the engines of the White Scars—neither upon the grasslands nor within the stars.
Meanwhile, the Raven Guard fleet suffered losses.
What they faced was not merely scattered, bizarre fleets—but the ceaseless pounding tides of the Warp itself. Ship sensors malfunctioned unpredictably. Crew morale deteriorated. Some even descended into madness at critical moments.
To lessen the Warp's influence upon their crews and warriors, the two Legions supported one another and, guided by the predictions of the White Scars Stormseers, arrived above Cadia.
According to the Stormseers, colossal giants were wrestling against one another here.
And so the ants went unnoticed.
They needed only worry about not being crushed by the aftershocks beneath the giants' feet.
And then, above Cadia, an unexpected visitor arrived aboard the White Scars fleet—
A shattered vessel of the Silent Sisterhood.
Their condition was utterly pitiful.
Every single one of them swung between extremes of fanatical madness and utter exhaustion. Whenever they were not under attack, they collapsed asleep wherever they stood.
When the Khan personally boarded their ship, what greeted him was a scene of bodies strewn everywhere like corpses.
The Khan raised a brow.
Their temporary leader was a deranged-looking Tech-Priest who was not even originally part of the fleet.
According to another Null Maiden who appeared somewhat more experienced, this Tech-Priest had come alone from a nearby star sector after receiving Magos Korklan's distress signal. Drawn purely by shared faith, he had rushed here by himself.
It was the vast amount of supplies he brought that allowed the Silent Sisterhood fleet—already on the brink of total annihilation and preparing to crash directly into Cadia itself—to survive a little longer.
The Primarch of the White Scars no longer knew how to even judge the situation anymore.
Whether it was the Tech-Priest who had come here solely because of faith, or the Silent Sisterhood itself, whose senior leadership had all gone to Cadia and apparently died to the last woman, forcing them to place an outsider Tech–Priest in command.
It was practically a farce.
The Khan roared inwardly, but when faced with those utterly exhausted mortals—who had nevertheless held the line until reinforcements arrived—the Primarch silently swallowed his rebuke.
They had already done well enough.
The Khan tapped the table lightly.
An absurd situation. Absurd enemies. Unclear objectives. Vultures circling overhead.
The two Primarchs fell silent simultaneously. Compared to the visible Imperium guided by Malcador, or the hidden side of the Imperium already under direct assault, the situation within the Eye of Terror was far more obscure and incomprehensible.
The Khan pondered silently.
Faintly, he could feel that somewhere above Cadia, some existence was calling to him from afar.
But was the summons real, or merely a hallucination?
Seeing the two Primarchs remain silent, the Archmagos stepped forward. A lifelike mechanical voice rang out:
"My lords, no offense intended—but we must rescue the Head of the Silent Sisterhood, Hades. This matter is of utmost priority. Not a moment can be wasted."
Indicator lights flickered across the Tech-Priest's face. This Tech-Priest had undergone extensive mechanization; the Khan suspected that less than one percent of his original biomass remained.
The Khan studied him silently.
Seeing that the Primarch did not interrupt, the sage continued calmly:
"My psychic detectors inform me that the Warp is currently undergoing violent changes. Very soon, other entities will arrive. But in my humble opinion, those arriving are not allies."
"They…"
The Tech-Priest paused, then raised his voice.
"They are coming for the Head of the Silent Sisterhood! My lord—we absolutely cannot allow the Head of the Silent Sisterhood to fall into enemy hands. You may not understand the true abilities of Hades. It is precisely because of his existence that this raging Warp has been suppressed. Otherwise, this place would already have been entirely consumed by the Eye of Terror."
The Tech-Priest spread his hands.
"I received the final words of Magos Korklan. My lords, the Eye of Terror where we now stand is the boundary between the mortal world and hell itself. The Silent Sisterhood that arrived here in the Emperor's name came precisely to seal this place."
"And now…"
The Tech-Priest lowered his voice and leaned forward. Boldly, he used a mechanical arm to shrink the map upon the command table. The local map of the Eye of Terror contracted, revealing the map of the entire Imperium.
The Tech-Priest's mechanical arm slashed brutally across it.
"My lords, what you may not realize is this: because this place has fallen… half of the human Imperium has already descended into hell."
Ever since entering the Eye of Terror, the White Scars and Raven Guard had received no messages from the outside world.
The Khan folded his arms and frowned sharply.
"Do you understand what you are saying?! Archmagos Trazyn!"
"Yes, my lord. Upon the full honor of Archmagos Trazyn, I understand exactly what I am saying." So spoke the Archaeovist of the Solemnace Galleries.
I'm here, Trazyn the Infinite thought. So don't you dare die here, Hades.
He was not the kind of being who enjoyed breaking promises.
But then Trazyn spared a sliver of attention toward the real-time images of Cadia playing within his mind.
Damn. The Necron Overlord cursed inwardly.
You're still not dead? Hades, your life really is stubborn as hell.
The heavy storm clouds answered him in silence.
Unfortunately, Necrons possessed no souls, and so Hades could not answer Trazyn.
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Note:
Ah yes, Archmagos Trazyn, a devout follower of the Omnissiah
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