CHAPTER 22
The night air split apart with a thunderous impact. Abomination fell like a meteor, his bulk smashing into the outskirts of a small town. The ground quaked beneath his descent, a massive crater spider-webbing outwards as dirt and stone rained in all directions. Dust hung heavy, a suffocating shroud cloaking the broken earth.
Through it, he rose. Taller. Broader. No longer the same twisted creation born of human greed, but a form further corrupted—his flesh laced with veins that glowed faintly with a sickly crimson hue. His skin had taken on a jagged, almost obsidian texture, horn-like ridges sprouting across his spine and arms, shaped by the Warp's cruel gift. His eyes burned like twin coals, each one simmering with malice.
He inhaled deeply, his chest expanding as his sharpened senses caught it.
The scent.
Cold. Familiar. Delicious.
Warp energy.
It bled faintly from the town ahead, carried on the night breeze. Somewhere within it, hidden among the fragile humans, was a psyker—weak compared to those of the Immaterium, yet enough for Voryx's whispers to echo inside his skull.
"Take it. Break it. Through the vessel, we shall tear open the veil."
A jagged smile carved across his monstrous face. He did not care for subtlety. He did not care for the noise. The Warp itself cloaked him in arrogance. And so, he simply leaned forward and charged.
Each step split the ground beneath him. Cracks shot through the earth, structures shuddering before he even touched them. The night was shattered by his rampage as he plowed through buildings, wood and brick disintegrating against his frame.
BOOM
A house vanished into splinters as his shoulder slammed into it. Screams broke the silence of sleeping civilians, but most did not even live long enough to draw breath before he crushed them beneath rubble. Panic blossomed across the town in moments, lights flickering on, people stumbling half-awake into a waking nightmare.
Abomination cut them down without hesitation. His claws tore, his fists smashed, his tail lashed like a whip through fleeing groups. His malice was a tide—his joy a grotesque laughter echoing through the night streets.
Minutes felt like hours. And then silence.
Only the sound of crackling fire and crumbling buildings remained.
Amid the ruin, Abomination stood in the center square, clutching the throat of a man still clinging to life—the psyker. His warped grin stretched unnaturally wide as he lifted the bloodied figure higher, his crimson eyes gleaming at the destruction around him.
"You will serve. You will open the way."
The man gurgled in pain before Abomination slammed his head against the wall, knocking him out cold. Without another word, he bounded away into the night, leaving nothing but corpses and ruin behind.
The town would not see another dawn.
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The Next Day
Smoke still lingered faintly when Tony dropped from the skies, his armor gleaming in the weak morning light. He hovered above the ruins first, scanning the destruction with Jarvis feeding him readings. His jaw tightened behind the helmet.
"Jesus…" he muttered, eyes following the outlines of collapsed houses and shattered roads. "It's like a damn nuke went off here."
> Jarvis: "Sir, preliminary scans show no survivors. Bio-signatures all flatlined. The devastation is total."
Tony exhaled sharply through his teeth, fighting the heavy pit that grew in his chest. It wasn't just numbers on a screen—people had lived here. Families. Kids. And now there was nothing.
Fury's voice cut through the static. "Stark! Down here."
Tony landed heavily beside him. Fury stood in the middle of the rubble, coat billowing slightly in the wind, his one eye hard as stone as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents moved around him, searching pointlessly for survivors.
Tony's helmet retracted with a click, revealing his tired face, his usual smirk nowhere in sight. "Nothing," he reported quietly. "Not a single pulse. Jarvis triple-checked. Whoever—or whatever—did this wasn't playing around."
Fury cursed under his breath, turning away as if even looking at the bodies covered in sheets of tarp made his blood boil. "Damn it… all these people, gone. Wiped off the map."
Tony folded his arms, metal plates creaking slightly. "I did find something though. The air's saturated with traces of that same energy reading we picked up during the last… event."
Fury snapped his gaze back at him. "The kid? Kevin?"
Tony shook his head. "I don't know. Could be connected. Could be something else entirely. But it's Warp energy, same as before. Jarvis picked it up clear as day."
> Jarvis: "To clarify, Director Fury, these readings match prior anomalies with a ninety-seven percent correlation. It is not random."
Fury pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling hard. "So you're telling me it's the same damn thing… or it's friends."
"Maybe," Tony admitted. "But if anyone knows more, it's Vulkan. He's been the only one who can put words to all this chaos crap."
For a long moment, Fury stood silent, scanning the devastation around him. His shoulders tensed, his anger simmering just below the surface. "Stark," he finally said, his voice low but sharp, "I'm getting real tired of burying bodies because of things we don't understand."
"Join the club," Tony muttered bitterly, glancing at a burnt-out home.
Fury turned, his gaze locking with Tony's. "I need you to do something for me."
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