"If you wish to live, chart us a path through the Warp."
Obelisk strode forward. Forgoing any negotiation tactics, he stated his demand directly. His eyes were filled with unvarnished loathing, and his dimensional power blade flared to life. If the Bloodthirster dared utter a single "no," the blade would carve through it instantly.
Had it not been a matter of absolute necessity, Obelisk would have already raised his blade to cleave the demon, executing the blasphemous thing on the spot.
The escort fleet was navigating the depths of the Warp. Though the Rangdan hunter-killer fleets remained unaware of the Defiant Overlord's presence aboard, they were closing in wave after wave. Under this relentless coordination and encirclement, the fleet's survival space was shrinking drastically. Before long, they would be trapped in a multi-layered blockade.
To complete their mission, the escorting warriors held a brief council and ultimately resolved to summon a denizen of the Warp to guide them through an obscure, uncharted channel.
"So that is it." The Bloodthirster lowered its head to face the son of Blazkowicz, a calculated gleam entering its crimson eyes. The nature of a demon was inherently greedy; it sensed an opportunity for leverage.
A scalding breath laced with sparks surged toward Obelisk. Narrowing his eyes, he registered the demon's avarice.
"You dare act arrogant in my presence?"
The low growl resonated like muffled thunder. Before the roar even faded from the Bloodthirster's ears, an armored fist expanded rapidly within its crimson vision.
BANG!
A tremendous, crushing blow smashed into the Bloodthirster's cheek, tearing open its hide and shattering its skull.
Obelisk was terrifyingly powerful. He was a premier combatant within the Legion and a close retainer of the Primarch, having hunted Be'lakor alongside his genetic sire and fought through the demonic wars of Planet Requiem. The number of warp entities that had perished by his hand was beyond counting.
The Bloodthirster's mind turned to absolute chaos as its massive frame went airborne, smashing into the protective wards of the secure room before sliding down the wall like a puppet with severed strings.
Sizzle!
The ancient Old Tech runes seared the demon's flesh. Dense, bloody smoke billowed from its crimson hide as its muscle and bone were systematically dismantled by the holy script.
Hearing the heavy stomp of combat boots drawing near, the Bloodthirster ignored the agony wracking its body, its hands instinctively tightening around its great skull-axe. It was already formulating its counterattack—it would slaughter this Doom Marine and claim the Blood God's favor!
The enemy was directly in front of it; a single sweeping down-cleave would connect!
The Bloodthirster thought it, and it executed it. The muscular, daemonic arms swung high, condensing a lifetime of combat experience into the axe, unleashing it with a desperate, murderous intent. The daemonic eyes snapped open, eager to watch the Doom Marine get sheared in two, bathing in blood to reflect the Blood God's glory.
Yet, reality defied its expectations. The Bloodthirster watched as an armored hand arrested the skull-axe mid-swing. It felt as though it had struck a mountain; no matter how much force it exerted, it could not advance a single fraction of an inch.
Then, a black combat boot expanded rapidly in its vision.
CRACK!
Profane daemonic ichor erupted from its mouth and nose. The entity spun across the obsidian floor like a helpless animal brought to slaughter, spraying foul, corrupted blood indiscriminately.
"I am... I am a Great Demon of the Blood God! Violence will never make me submit!"
Hearing these defiant words, Obelisk snapped the entity's arms, locked a hand around its throat, and slammed the demon's head directly into the wall's purging runes.
Instantly, a dense mist of blood erupted as the Bloodthirster was subjected to agonizing torment. It felt its facial features dissolving as its right eye was pressed closer and closer to the runes. It thrashed in agony, using its broken arms to batter the power armor while its sharp hooves scored deep gouges into the floorboards.
"I am a Great Demon of the Blood God! I am the instigator of violence! I will never yield to violence!" The Bloodthirster gasped violently, blood streaming unceasingly from its maw and nose, its crimson eyes holding nothing but raw brutality and unyielding pride.
"A tough one?" The response was cold and merciless. Obelisk's hands began to exert crushing pressure, preparing to twist the demon's neck off. "Then face total annihilation. If you will not do it, another demon will."
"Hmph!" The Bloodthirster snorted violently, meting out its final defiance to the Doom Marine.
But in the very next second, a grand, overwhelming will descended into the chamber.
As the fleet navigated the Warp, even their cloaking runes struggled to completely shield them from the gaze of a Chaos God, whose power amplified infinitely in a realm devoid of physical laws. The Bloodthirster's unyielding combat ethos had drawn the attention of the Plague-Father's rival.
"The Chaos God!" Obelisk hurled the demon to the floor, pinning its chest beneath his combat boot. He raised his head and pointed a single finger toward the void. "The sons of the Slayer have never feared you!"
He let out a furious, low snarl, tearing off his black-and-gold helmet, his eyes completely devoid of fear or retreat. Within the chamber, the Legion warriors brought their weapons to bear, glaring defiantly at the manifestation of the Chaos God's will, responding to a deity's gaze with bared steel.
ROAR!
The Warp buckled and screamed. Within the Blood God's domain, a deafening roar shook the heavens as Khorne opened his maw, expelling a bolt of crimson lightning from his throat. The dark god's might crossed infinite distances, punching through the psychic shielding to strike the dying Bloodthirster.
"Fight, and claim what you seek."
The void churned and echoed as the Blood God, in his favored manner, pronounced a reward for combat.
"Fight?" Obelisk leaned down and lunged at the Bloodthirster, responding to the Chaos God with repeated, iron-fisted strikes. He raised his arm and brought it down again and again, every punch packed with infinite fury.
The secure chamber echoed with a sound like beating war drums, interspersed with the snapping of bone and the rupture of flesh, alongside low, muffled grunts of forced endurance.
Though the Bloodthirster had received the Blood God's blessing due to its unyielding will, and its muscles should have restructured to grant it supreme power, it was entirely incapable of resisting at this moment.
A flurry of punches—thousands delivered in the blink of an eye—reduced the demon's physical form to a pulp, shattering it into clouds of bloody mist. The Chaos God's blessing granted the Bloodthirster supernatural regeneration, yet it was utterly overwhelmed by a pair of iron fists. Obelisk's furious intent was driven through his knuckles into every single inch of the demon's flesh and bone, shattering its very concept.
His auric-gold gauntlets fractured, and faint flames flickered within the creases of Obelisk's fists—a manifestation of literal rage. This was not a battle; it was absolute, pitiless devastation.
Every individual within the chamber witnessed the horrific display, yet not a single face flinched. The master专psykers stepped aside, watching the flesh and blood fly with cold detachment. Compared to a demon's desecration of a human soul, the scene before them was practically "gentle."
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The entire room vibrated. Obelisk shattered the Bloodthirster's chest, seized its horns, and slammed its skull into the flooring repeatedly. The obsidian cracked, and sharp black stone shards embedded themselves into the demon's face, the ricocheting debris clattering against the legionaries' power armor.
The Bloodthirster was powerless to resist, its broken form devoid of strength. Disoriented and blind, it could not even form a scream. Profane daemonic blood gushed like a fountain, pooling within the crater of shattered stone. Under this irresistible degradation, the Bloodthirster effectively drowned in its own blood.
It could not maintain cohesion, it could not fight back, and it could not even stand. Its heart was reduced to a twitching mass of ruined flesh, its skeleton ground into fine splinters, and its skull rendered unrecognizable.
Obelisk stood up, hoisting the Bloodthirster's head from the pool of flesh. A scrap of consciousness remained as the entity muttered a low, garbled whisper: "I... am..."
The muscles of its neck were no longer sufficient to sustain speech; its jaw hung open limply, a wicked, elongated tongue trailing saliva as it sagged downward.
"Is this the champion you selected?" Obelisk held the demon's head high, tilting his gaze upward to mock the Blood God in a harsh, ringing tone: "Pathetically fragile!"
"ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!"
A low rumble resembling laughter echoed through the void. Khorne slammed a brass gauntlet onto the Throne of Skulls, filled with an uncontainable excitement. The Blood God even considered churning the tides of the Warp to intercept this fleet, keeping the scions of Blazkowicz trapped within the immaterium to fight an eternal crusade.
The entity reached out, grasping across the void. The unrecognizable daemonic head vanished, tossed casually onto the mountain of skulls. For a true warrior, Khorne held a distinct favor.
The Blood God was in an exceptional mood. A potent son of Blazkowicz and an unyielding blood-demon were excellent stimulants in the span of eternity. With a grand sweep of his arm, he whipped up a colossal sea of blood, flooding it across that sector of the Warp.
Inside the ship's chamber, though the daemonic head had been claimed by Khorne, the remaining blood rapidly came to a boil, sketching out a crimson path through the Warp.
A master psyker stepped forward, biting through his fingertips to trace an ancient Old Tech rune across his forehead, securing his soul against corruption. He submerged both hands into the daemonic gore, lifting a bloody waypoint from the sludge.
"We succeeded," the master psyker said, his voice low as he cradled the crimson marker. "The beacon will show us the way."
"That is enough." Obelisk wiped the foul ichor from his hands, letting out a long sigh of relief. The plan had at least proceeded without a catastrophic hitch.
Compared to a demon of Tzeentch, a Bloodthirster was actually simpler to manage. Previously, they had summoned a Tzeentchian entity, but because the creature insisted they answer nine riddles of intellect before granting passage, it had been executed on the spot by the Doom Marines. Because that exchange required an equivalent trade of concepts, the Tzeentchian demon refused to budge, preferring absolute erasure over compliance.
A Great Demon of Khorne was far more direct—everything was settled through a trial of combat.
The walls of the secure chamber slid upward, and holographic displays projected the status of the outside universe. The situation was far from comforting.
The transport fleet was under heavy assault from Rangdan hunter-killer flotillas. To their rear, Rangdan interceptors were continuously closing the gap, dropping melta-charges to bombard the structural hulls of the vessels.
Obelisk picked up his tactical terminal from the floor and transmitted orders to the fleet: "We have secured the coordinates. All ships execute maximum acceleration to break away from the Rangdan pursuers."
Once the route was scanned and fed into the automated navigation systems, the anxiety in his heart eased slightly. Even if the Chaos God had intended to deceive them, breaking line-of-sight with the Rangdan tracking systems was an immediate benefit—at the very least, the Blood God held no interest in a Rangdan Overlord, ensuring their high-value asset would not be lost.