Bombs rattled the deck, chainswords screamed, and blood and flesh flew everywhere. Players like Mordecai went in like a wrecking ball, slaughtering the cultists who were as helpless as sheep.
"In the God-Emperor's name, take your medicine, heretic!"
Little Alpaca, the Battle Sister successor, wore her Power Armor like a suit of armor, charging the front line with an oversized Chainsword engraved with holy litanies.
With the fire of faith backing her up, her combat ability was neck and neck with an Astartes player.
The nine Psykers running the ritual screamed bloody murder, intending to unleash terrifying Warp spells on the players. To their shock, they couldn't even conjure a spark.
This was Mordecai's doing.
Unlike the other players, Mordecai couldn't become an Astartes. The Primarchs possess characteristics of both reality and the Warp, and Astartes, being anchored to them, naturally share some of that dual nature.
But Mordecai, the Null King, was fundamentally repulsed by the Warp. He had leaned into his null traits, choosing a path that made him an anti-Warp weapon.
Extraordinary Warp energy melted like snow in the scorching sun the moment it hit him. In his null bubble, Psykers were shut down cold—they couldn't cast so much as a cantrip.
The nascent Daemons near the Warp portal collapsed in a heap, driven back into the torrent of the Warp with cries of utter despair.
Stripped of their psychic power, the skinny Psykers were sitting ducks. Ilana, the Battle Sister, tore through them with her chainsword. With the deaths of the nine Psykers and the cultist rabble, the sacrifice was interrupted.
However, the tear in reality didn't snap shut; it slowly began to creep open.
Battle in the Crystal Maze
"Hahahaha! Heh-heh-heh!"
A Great Daemon of Tzeentch, known as the Lord of Change, wearing an ancient Greek-style robe over its blue-purple feathered, bird-like body, giggled menacingly. It was the agent of the Changer of Ways' grand schemes.
The Great Daemon waved its staff, maintaining the Warp portal from the other side and trying to pry it wider. Beside it, Pink and Blue Horrors chittered like mad, and the Changeling cheered it on, waving its many arms while loudly praising Tzeentch's never-failing wisdom.
The Great Daemon declared that the armies of Tzeentch would hit the ground running and blow up the damned Corpse-Emperor's plans.
"It's my time to shine! I'm taking the gold this time!" Mordecai shouted. He didn't hesitate; he tore through the crack in reality and charged the Ever-changing Daemon Lord with his sword.
His move plunged the entire Tzeentchian domain into an eerie silence. No mortal had ever been crazy enough to rush into the Lord of Change's domain and attack a Great Daemon head-on.
"Die, Daemon! For the God-Emperor! For the Omnissiah!" Mordecai roared, bringing his sword down.
Due to his unique null nature, the Lord of Change shrieked in agony. Without the Great Daemon's power stabilizing it, the Warp portal began to shut down fast.
The Horrors and Changelings came back to life, swarming Mordecai like a tidal wave.
"For the God-Emperor! For Khorne! For Nezuko!" Mordecai yelled, shouting a grab-bag of ridiculous slogans.
He didn't retreat.
Relying on his null nature, he cut down over a dozen Tzeentch Daemons. But the numbers were overwhelming; more Daemons rushed him and beat him to the ground. He got up again and again, fighting back with his Bolter and broken sword.
Finally, with his armor shredded, his sword shattered, and his explosives all used up, Mordecai knew he had bought enough time. He triggered the self-destruct system on his armor, detonating the meltabomb.
A deafening blast ensued. Hordes of Horrors and Changelings were scattered like leaves, and Mordecai was blown to smithereens.
The Lord of Change tried to grab the soul of the arrogant mortal, intent on torturing him in every conceivable way to teach him the consequences of invading Tzeentch's domain. It was then it discovered the mortal didn't have a soul at all.
At that moment, the Warp portal snapped shut and couldn't be reopened. The Tzeentch Daemons looked at the vanished passage and let out frustrated howls.
"Master, was... was that part of your plan, too?" a Horror Daemon asked meekly from the depths of the Crystal Maze.
Nine minutes and nine seconds later, a faint voice was heard from the depths of the Crystal Maze.
"That..."
"Yeah, it was totally the plan."
Just as the Punishment Fleet's mutiny hit a wall, a light screen appeared before Daniel at Lycard Space Station. He had leveled up.
Congratulations on gaining experience!
LV12 -> LV13 New Skill: Holy Summoning (Can consume Exp Points to instantly summon players to your side.
Higher player level and greater distance increase the cost.)
New Skill: Holy Advent (Can consume Exp Points to instantly descend to the player's side.
Higher player level and greater distance increase the cost.
Friendly Heads-Up: Holy Summoning and Holy Advent share a 24-hour cooldown after use.)
"Good God, did the Emperor finally grow a conscience? He's actually cutting me some slack?" Daniel's eyes lit up at the skill descriptions.
In the old stories, there was a hero who threw corpses to trick children. Now, a Living Saint could throw players across the galaxy and descend like a superhero!
As long as he accumulated enough faith, he could call on the most loyal, chaotic army in the galaxy anytime, anywhere.
The news that the ritual was stopped and the Daemons got the boot left Anjido and the others utterly deflated. They knew they were well and truly screwed.
Facing interrogation, they kept their mouths zipped, trying to protect the families backing them. Too bad for them, Daniel had the Mind Touch skill. Once their psychological defenses were broken, he easily read their memories.
He learned that the Colin family was the ringleader of the Myriad Changes Esoteric Cult—a vicious Chaos cult dedicated to Tzeentch, favoring conspiracy and intrigue. Anyone wanting to get in good with the Colin family had to join the cult. In other words, the entire collective led by the Colin family had been rotten to the core by Chaos.
"This needs to be reported to Sintira immediately. The whole Colin group is neck-deep in Chaos worship," Shalatath said solemnly.
She wasted no time, ordering the Astropath to send a priority message to the Segmentum administration, the Inquisition, and the Ecclesiarchy on Sintira, spilling the whole story about the Colin family.
However, she had underestimated how deep the rot went. The instant the message hit the Astropathic Choir on Sintira, the Colin family got wind of it. They had been running this operation for so long that they had spies in every nook and cranny of the government.
Realizing their cover was blown for good, the Colin family immediately threw a fit, launching a massive armed uprising. At the same time, they framed themselves as the victims, publicly declaring that the Navy and the Valancius family had ganged up to slander them.
They claimed they were forced to fight back and called on loyalists to join them, punishing those who dared to do evil in the Emperor's name.
True Tzeentch followers, they had managed to fully embody meanness, shamelessness, insidiousness, and malice.
Not long after the uprising began, Sintira's Hive Cities were pummeled into ruins by the warring parties. The entire Calixis Sector was quickly plunged into a full-scale civil war.
Meanwhile, in the Crystal Maze, Kairos the Fate Weaver, the two-headed Greater Daemon of Tzeentch, was meticulously tugging at the threads of destiny. The Lord of Change had ordered him to investigate the origins of the "Corpse King's minions."
Kairos's first step was to discover their true names, which hold immense secrets. Following their threads of fate, his four eyes popped wide open in shock.
Spaceking Arm Wrestling with Khorne, I Laugh at That Treacherous and Reckless Person, Crazy Kissing Nurse's Fat Face, The Emperor Also Remains Charming, The Bull of Khorne ...
Kairos thought that, as Tzeentch's chief Greater Daemon, nothing in existence could shock him anymore. Now, he felt he still had a thing or two to learn.
"What in the Warp are these true names?"
"Are these guys really the Corpse King's Saints? They look more chaotic than Chaos itself!"
Huff! Kairos, mid-rant, suddenly caught a new scent. He smelled the unmistakable, pure presence of the Thousand Sons.