Nyx's cognitive faculties were undergoing accelerated combustion at an unprecedentedcalibration.
Skarbrand's sanguinary battle-axes — 'Slaughter' and 'Murder' — descended upon Nyx with the irresistible momentum of twincataclysmic currents.
Nyx registered, with visceral clarity, that his adversary's oppressive martial effluence was progressively intensifying. It was analogousto some feral predator of insatiable appetite, deriving inexhaustible wrath and puissancefrom the Warp's profundity.
Skarbrand — the pre-eminent Daemonbeneath Khorne's throne — had, in that primordial mythic epoch, personallyvanquished the most puissant Bloodthirsterthen in Khorne's service. He had transmutedhis victim's essence — and that of anotherformidable Daemon — to forge the terriblesanguinary battle-axes he now wielded.
Absolute self-assurance had, once, been his crowning attribute.
It had also constituted the provenance of his estrangement from Khorne.
Heeding the calumnious enunciations of Tzeentch's perpetually transfiguring DaemonLord, he had committed himself to a wretchedpre-emptive assault upon his proprietarydivinity — the Blood God, Khorne.
The outcome of this enterprise was predetermined.
The incandescent Khorne had sentenced him to existential annihilation — excising him from the Brass Citadel with the contemptuousfacility of discarding effluent residuum.
At this chronological juncture, Nyx's manifestation constituted Skarbrand's soleremaining expedient for redemption.
Should he successfully repatriate this specimen's essence to the Blood God, his ignominy would be expiated. He would be reinstated within the sanguinary pavilion of glory and haemorrhagic effluence.
He was prepared to expend any existentialcurrency to consummate this enterprise.
Even his own essential substrate.
"DETACH** his CEPHALIC EXTREMITY! CONSECRATE his ESSENCE to KHORNE!"**
This formulation constituted the exclusivecognitive investment within Skarbrand's sensorium. It ignited every constituent fibre of his formidable sanguinary musculature.
The corporeal configuration of his adversarywas immaterial to Khorne. The Blood God could, with effortless facility, fabricateinnumerable such receptacles.
What He truly coveted was Nyx's essence — that unique effulgence that irradiated from his existential substrate.
Upon the battlefield, the dual battle-axes and the colossal great-blade collided with such velocity that their engagement was indiscernible to baseline human perceptualfaculties.
Each exchange erupted with piercingcacophonies and fulgurative scintillations.
Each offensive commitment from Skarbrand's battle-axes occasioned a sanguinarytempest. Any Khornate Daemon insufficientlyagile to evacuate the immediate perimeterwas instantaneously pulverised into crimsonparticulate suspension.
Nyx deliberately directed the engagementtowards the most densely concentratedsectors of the Daemon host, endeavouring to reduce his adversaries' numerical superiority.
Skarbrand registered his adversary's strategicintention with contemptuous equanimity.
Any entity presumptuous enough to divert its cognitive investment from his martialencounter would expiate this affront through existential expenditure.
He would, with considerable gratification, personally execute this sentence.
Nyx, his cognitive faculties fractionallydiverted, was subjected to considerableoffensive pressure.
He was constrained to simultaneouslyinterdict Skarbrand's inexhaustible offensivecommitments and deliberately traverse his adversary's perimeter to reduce the proliferating Daemon complement.
Following this protracted engagement, his corporeal configuration had accumulated a comprehensive catalogue of lacerations.
The wounds inflicted by 'Slaughter' and 'Murder' resisted his autonomic reparativefaculties. The sanguinary maledictions coiledabout these lesions, progressively corrodinghis corporeal substrate.
Had Nyx's essential constitution not been sufficiently formidable to forcibly opposethese accursed implements' proscribeddispensations, any other specimen would have exsanguinated at this juncture.
"We must SUSTAIN the Space King!"
Chestnut's autogun discharged inexhaustiblefulgurations into the advancing Daemon host. His enunciation was saturated with apprehension.
"I cannot ACQUIRE a coherent visualregistration!"
Blazing Hatred's simulated 'Hatred Hammer'was comprehensively inscribed with lacerative impressions from proximateDaemonic encounters. His power armour had sustained considerable attrition.
"Their engagement velocity exceeds my perceptual threshold! We are constrained to interdict the residual Daemon complementfrom breaching our defensive perimeter!"
As they enunciated this assessment, the second wave of the Daemon offensive had already consolidated its formation.
Innumerable sanguinary torrents cascadedtowards their attenuated defensive perimeter.
I must INTERVENE!
Nyx's cognitive enunciation was urgent, imperative.
As this determination progressivelycrystallised, the coronal effulgence behind his cephalic extremity — saturated with the collective conviction of tens of millions of Resistance devotees — commenced its rotational translation.
It emitted a soft, resolute radiance.
At this chronological instant, Nyx registered, with visceral certitude, his connectiveinfrastructure with every individual devotee.
Without instruction or precedent, he apprehended, with instinctive clarity, the methodology for employing this puissance.
The subsequent instant —
Pure, sanctified argent configrations eruptedfrom his four equerries' corporealconfigurations.
Their connective infrastructure with Nyx was the most intimate. They were the inauguralrecipients of his disseminated faith effluence.
WIND. SPIRIT. MOON. SHADOW. COMMENCEMENT!
Their offensive velocity exceeded its customary operational thresholds. Their somatic endurance registered zero attrition. Their ordnance discharges inflictedexponential augmentation upon their Daemonic adversaries. Their armaments'essential essences resonated with anticipatory alacrity. Their ammunitionexpenditure was rendered immaterial.
Nyx's puissance propagated outward with the momentum of a substratal perturbation.
It suffused every Resistance combatant upon the distal perimeter of the engagement.
Those las-bolts which had, formerly, been capable only of inscribing superficialcarbonaceous impressions upon Night Lords ceramite now effectively perforated their adversaries' august war-plate.
The tactical disposition transfigured itself in response to this unanticipated augmentation.
At the instant of Nyx's diverted cognitiveinvestment, however — SkarbrandEXPLOITED this DEFICIENCY in his adversary's defensive perimeter.
"YOU! How DARE you DIVERT your MARTIALINVESTMENT from ENGAGEMENT with ME?!"
His fulminant enunciation was indistinguishable from celestial atmosphericdischarge.
'Slaughter' — his sanguinary battle-axe — traversed Nyx's defensive perimeter through an unprecedented angular trajectory.
It IMPACTED Nyx's anterior thoraciccompartment.
This was the most catastrophic corporealcompromise Nyx had sustained since the inauguration of this engagement.
Acute nociceptive effluence perforated his sensorium. Haemorrhagic effluencecascaded from the catastrophic lesion.
A temporal increment of attenuated defensiveinvestment had occasioned this catastrophicattrition.
Nyx's assessment of Skarbrand's martialcalibration had been grievously inadequate.
He had registered only that the Archangel had decapitated Ka'Bandha.
At this chronological juncture, he authentically comprehended that both entitieswere Great Daemons — and the disparity in their martial calibration was comparable to a geological chasm.
Nostramo, comprehensively enveloped by the Warp tempest, had been transfigured into the Blood God's exclusive dominion.
Within this environment, Skarbrand could discharge his comprehensive martialinvestment without reservation or impediment.
As the engagement protracted itself, he manifested destructive capacitiesconsiderably exceeding those of Ka'Bandha.
*BOOM——! *
'Murder' — his second sanguinary battle-axe— descended.
Nyx, sustaining his catastrophic thoraciccompromise, evacuated the impactcoordinates with considerable volitionalexertion.
The battle-axe impacted the substratum.
Its percussive effluence fractured the terrestrial configuration into profoundchthonic fissures. These geologicalcompromises propagated outward with the momentum of arachnid reticulation — sufficient to compromise the structuralintegrity between the upper and lower hiveconfigurations.
I cannot countenance any further divertedcognitive investment!
The faith effluence has been disseminated. Should I EXPIRE at this chronological juncture, every existential expenditure we have accumulated shall be RENDERED FUTILE!
"ENGAGE!"
Nyx's enunciation was a subauditory, primordial growl.
His martial momentum accelerated with catastrophic velocity.
Argent sanctified configrations coalescedabout the catastrophic lesion upon his anterior thoracic compartment. They combusted and purified the accursedKhornate effluence contaminating his corporeal substrate.
Enveloped by this divine configration, the wound — which had formerly disclosed his osseous infrastructure — remediated itself with appalling celerity.
Within instants, his corporeal configurationhad been restored to its customaryintegumentary integrity.
Simultaneously — Nyx's martial investmentperforated its customary operationalthreshold.
His offensive momentum instantaneouslyattained parity with Skarbrand's progressivelyaccelerating tyrannical effluence.
His corporeal calibration — considerablyexceeding that of his fraternal Primarchassociates — was, at this chronologicaljuncture, comprehensively emancipated from its customary operational constraints.
Nyx — fully transfigured into his martialconfiguration — elevated his colossal great-blade once more.
He re-established his effective suppression of his Daemonic adversary.
Blade and axe interlaced. The energiesdischarged by their collisions occasionedsubtle spatial perturbations within the immediate perimeter.
Should circumstances persist in their currentdisposition, Nyx was capable of sustainingthis engagement.
He even registered a prospect of supportingthe Resistance subsequent to Skarbrand's termination.
The savage reality of his operationalenvironment, however, disclosed that the distal perimeter of the engagement could not accommodate his protracted martialinvestment.
The atmosphere of the distal perimeter was saturated with the effluvium of existentialexpenditure and battlefield combustion — the customary environmental characteristics of Resistance engagement with the EighthLegion.
Notwithstanding the augmentation conferredby Nyx's faith effluence, the tacticaldisposition remained comprehensivelyasymmetrical.**
Baseline humanity — engaging geneticallycalibrated, comprehensively armed Astartes— constituted an existential disparitycomparable to the collision of ovularspecimens with geological substrata.**
Under Curze's ruthless, efficient operationaldirection, the Resistance could sustainopposition exclusively through exploitation of topographic irregularities, fortifiedinstallations, and accumulated existentialexpenditure.
Fortunately, this ten-thousand specimenLegion complement was not comprehensivelycommitted to the engagement.
Curze was confronted by an advance elementof one thousand Night Lords.
Through accelerated integration of Resistance combatants and the construction of concentric defensive perimeters, he had successfully evaded the encirclement, isolation, and umbral termination protocols for which the Night Lords were pre-eminent.
The absolute disparity in martial calibration, however, necessitated continuous existentialexpenditure. Resistance combatants expiredat accelerated temporal increments.
Curze himself, accompanied by Sevatar and his other acquisitions, traversed the umbra.
The addition of a Primarch to any engagementconstituted a decisive strategic asset. Every theatre of his personal intervention registeredNight Lords casualties with the facility of agricultural harvesting implementsencountering desiccated vegetation.
Curze was, however, acutely cognisant that his adversaries were merely conventionalLegion warriors — expendable assets.
His foresight had disclosed to him, with terrifying clarity, his future iteration'sdesignated protocol for his existentialtermination:
Comprehensive numerical supremacy. Concentrated offensive investment. Fraternalsuccessors' manual extremities.
"Sevatar."
Curze's enunciation, transmitted through the tactical vox network subsequent to the successful elimination of an advanceelement, was affectless, absolute.
"Upon consummation of this forwardengagement element's extermination — prepare for decapitation strike."
Passive defensive dispositions were entirelyincongruent with his essential nature.
The most efficient methodology for inflictingmaximum attritional expenditure upon an Astartes Legion was the termination of its gene-father.
Curze refused to accede to his futureiteration's predestined trajectory.
He would, accordingly, execute the preciseopposite of his future iteration's strategicdeterminations.
His designated objective:
The Nightfall — suspended in celestial orbitover Nostramo with the funereal permanenceof a chthonic memorial stele.