Chapter 16: Kill You! I Will Kill You, Erebus!
"Mortal… perhaps we should renegotiate."
Shaeluna's voice trembled despite her efforts to mask it.
To profess belief in the God-Emperor within the warp was not, in itself, unthinkable. Such blasphemy could even amuse the Prince of Excess. But to denounce the Lord of Pleasure? To defile His name?
That was annihilation.
Shaeluna wanted to live.
Lorgar stood silent, deep in thought. He was weighing Erebus's proposal with the instincts of a Primarch—and finding it dangerously unsound. To attempt the conversion of daemons was not merely heresy. It was catastrophe waiting for a single misstep.
Even as the so-called Son of the Emperor, Lorgar could not justify such a risk.
Erebus, however, laughed softly.
"No," he said. "I was lying to you. You believed me far too quickly."
Shaeluna froze.
Erebus's gaze hardened.
"Tell me," he said. "Why are you here?"
Shaeluna's fear vanished behind a false smile. She opened her mouth—ready to speak of divine attention, of the Ruinous Powers watching him—
Erebus waved a hand.
"Forget it," he said. "I've lost interest."
He shoved the pict-recording directly into her mouth and turned to Kor Phaeron.
"Send her back."
Kor Phaeron raised his staff.
"Shaeluna," he intoned, his psychic voice flaring. "Return to the warp."
Reality tore.
The daemon had no time to scream.
The rift swallowed her whole.
"Never believe a daemon," Erebus said calmly, watching the tear seal itself.
The good news was that her true name had been genuine.
The bad news was worse.
The warp had noticed him.
"Seal everything," Erebus ordered. "No witnesses. No records beyond us."
Lorgar obeyed without protest.
For the first time, he truly understood the danger of faith.
Yet that understanding did not weaken his resolve.
It hardened it.
Letting daemons pretend devotion to the Emperor was insanity. Particularly the followers of Slaanesh. To them, blasphemy itself was ecstasy. Push too far, and one might create something far worse than a failure.
Erebus walked away, frowning.
Then stopped.
An idea—blasphemous, audacious, unforgivable—took shape in his mind.
He turned back and spoke quietly to Lorgar.
Ten seconds passed.
Lorgar stared at him.
Then, slowly, he nodded.
The Warp
Shaeluna tore the pict-recording apart with her teeth, her fury shaking the immaterial realm.
"Erebus," she hissed.
"Erebus!"
She would kill him. Not today. Not soon. But eventually.
Then she felt it.
Summoning.
Sacrifice.
Voices calling her name.
Mortals—ignorant, desperate, devoted.
Shaeluna smiled.
At last.
She gathered herself, reshaping her form, preparing to descend and reward her faithful—
A hand reached through the forming rift.
It seized her ankle.
Before she could react, she was dragged bodily into realspace.
Silence.
Erebus stared.
Shaeluna stared back.
Neither had expected this to work.
Erebus recovered first.
He threw her to the ground with visible disgust.
"Erebus!" she screamed. "You miserable mortal!"
She stopped.
Dozens of eyes were upon her.
"This," Erebus announced, "is a daemon of the warp."
"These," he continued, gesturing, "are worshippers of the Lord of Pleasure."
"They promise indulgence. Power. Ecstasy. They hollow you out and wear your desires like skin."
"Lorgar."
The Primarch stepped forward, blade drawn.
He did not approve of this.
But he understood it.
"If we do not study the enemy," Erebus had said, "we will never defeat false gods."
That, above all else, had convinced him.
"For the Emperor," Lorgar murmured.
"Jalulek," Erebus said. "Record."
"Yes, lord."
"Designation," Erebus continued. "Daemon of Slaanesh. True name: Shaeluna."
Shaeluna moved.
Fast.
Erebus saw it. Lorgar saw it.
She never reached him.
Erebus's boot struck her midsection like a piston. Warp-ichor spilled from her mouth as she collapsed.
Before she could rise, Lorgar brought down the faceless statue of the Emperor with crushing force.
"Brothers," Erebus said quietly, almost tenderly,
"today we study daemonic anatomy."
Lorgar's blade descended.
Shaeluna laughed, broken and shrill.
"Joy!" she screamed.
"I will kill you! I will kill you, Erebus!"
Erebus watched without expression.
For the first time, the daemon understood.
She was not being punished.
She was being understood.