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The immaterium is vast… so, vast and deep… that locked within it swirling endless rivers… time and gods, are but an afterthought, existing and not, born and not, a place so devoid and full… a fullness in contradictions. Where souls are but a surface level… devoured and screaming, used as fuel and batteries, pain and torment, but peace… a small light… surrounded by a deep sea… a simple cradle so small… so fragile…. As a heart beat… The Anathema!
A beacon… of light, where the only source of "love" could be found… but a burning pillar to those of the endless spring… emperor protects… emperor protects… THE EMPEROR PROTECTS… no.. truer words… Then these, though the people mock… The emperor forgets.. The emperor forgets... THE EMPEROR FORGETS! They do not know… they do not understand… the man… the god… that he was... That he is… nor the tremendous dark that hides behind him… deep and seething…. contaminated by the warps waters… isn't that right… mother… You need to wake up…you need to wake up…YOU NEED TO WAKE UP!
→ Excerpt by—-←
"There must come a moment when the soul knows: this far, and no further. But we are cursed never to hear that warning until it is too late."
→attributed to the remembrancer Ignace Karkasy [M31]←
Smog… and fog… broken houses, and sheet metal lines the bridges… the walkways… and people, broken… scars line their faces, both emotional and physical… at least that's what it looks like to Molly as she stared into the slums of the undercity…
Grateful to her ventilator, but sorry for her shoes, as each step forward was lined with waste of men…
[How do people live like this…] asked Molly with a tinge of emotion.
[what? First time in a slum? Oh! How sheltered your life must have been until now, sister… but anyway, it's always been this way…] replied Wienart with slight annoyance.
[always? What have the nobles of this world been doing? Are they not following in the god emperor's teachings? For the people?] Molly replied with a questioning gaze.
[huh? That's.. An odd thing to say.. Coming from a sister…]
[What do you mean by that?]
[Well its it's by only following the god emperor's teaching, why, these people live this way…]
[...]
[sigh, "by the emperor will… the people must work nonstop… must not be vain to money, must give everything for their duty"… that's just some of the rhetoric the nobles preach on the daily…look… since birth we are told such things… made to do such things… maybe now you can see how that led to this situation in the slums just a little bit now…]
[hmm…. Sorry.. But I can not.. As even we sisters study the god emperor to such lengths… surely only good can come of them… this must just be the work of incompetent leadership….]
[Ha! "Incompetent" leadership, you say! That's a good one, sister… I guess even your…] replied Wienart, but was quickly cut short as Molly suddenly placed her hand in front of his chest..
[What is it, sister? What do you see?...]
[...]
A moment earlier:
As the pair walked and talked, while passing suspicious people, Molly could never shake off that feeling… the feeling of being hunted! The feeling of something hidden just beneath the fog of the slums… but could not pin what it was… but as men coughed, and women huddled in corners shivering and hiding mutation… with the absence of children's laughter… Molly couldn't help but squint her eyes…
Within the fog, Molly saw shadows, small and nimble, quick little things… she could hear the quiet sounds of their feet… the little scratches as their claws scraped across the metal sheets used as flooring… with a shield at the ready and maul in her right hand, she prepared herself…
And when a shadow finally moved close enough to her, she struck first! But while her mace came down in a powerful display of blue lighting, she stopped! As her mace stalled just an inch from an old man's head! Sickly and pale, coughing with eyes white, the old man didn't say anything… he didn't scream, or yell words of profanity, he simply stared at Molly for a moment, like a zombie…
Then, as Molly was confused, she heard a sound deep within the fog… at first it sounded like laughter, but deep and disturbing… Then, as it faded, another sound rang… a sweet noise that sounded like a bell of some kind… but still, after a while, nothing came of it.. Just a quiet fog and low lights that gave next to no light around dirty, broken homes…
Then, as the old man turned to look at Wienart… something changed.. Like a switch, the old man suddenly came to life! Though coughing blood, the man's skin turned pale, turned red in pustules, then, with a scream as deafening as a drum, out from within the man burst out rats!
Having no idea what was even happening, and scard inwardly, Wienart opened fire on the rats! With the old man's death came a changing of the fog, now a yellowish green, with a tinge of blood mist. Molly could hear all around her the voices of the crazed!
Running within the fog were people! People and rats… and so, with a shield and mace, Molly mauled all that came before her without mercy! Bashing rats to the walls, into the air, and into the ceiling of the slum chambers! Blood rained as she was a rock that stood amidst a river of people who had lost their minds!
Then just as quickly as it began, all became quiet… deadly quiet… as the sudden dispensation of voices sent a chill down Molly's back!
[run..Wienart…RUN!] screamed Molly as she felt the ground beneath her feet shake!
Not one to mix words in an emergency, Wienart did as he was told and ran with Molly close behind, but in a fog where forward could be backwards and vice versa, the maze and haze made it difficult for Wienart to guide in such conditions, but regardless, he had to make decisions, as he was too afraid to think of what would happen he he took even a second to stop and think…
As the ground shaking had yet to cease! To his horror, it had in fact only gotten louder and closer… with a mix of dog voices in the back… There! As they ran, they passed "normal" people who screamed for aid, though the pair couldn't see them or, better yet, had to make a choice… A choice that didn't sit well with Molly.. But what could she do…
[still so powerless] a voice echoed in her mind…
[shut up!] she replied, as she heard.. No! watched a woman being torn apart by poxhounds!
Closing her eyes as she ran, the screaming never ended… the sound of bones breaking, of being crushed by a creature she does not know… to hear the hearts of men falling as they shut their doors… to hear countless moans of sick people, to hear the innumerable screeches of rats, some the size of vehicles! Breaking doors, breaking streets, killing bandits and pets…
Bounty hunters and militia mustered barricades and last stands in every major direction, shooting before asking, Wienart was lucky to have never been on the receiving end of a Las bullet. Thankful for her shield, Molly tanked most shots and ignored them, as she didn't blame the people; to her, it was a question of how long these people had lived like this… Been like this…
She couldn't fathom… how far the rot went… she could only pray to the emperors for the innocent for his mercy… like that woman she passed… regretting that she couldn't have given her "his mercy"...
With twisting corridors, and collapsing walls, with upper platforms falling, and rushing winds, the mist, the fog, never washed away… always there and in the way, but darker, as the pair continued venturing into the slums!
Then, finally.. As if light in the dark, the pair saw a military post! Reaching for it and calling through the Vox… but only emptiness as a response.. But not discouraged and full of hope, Wienart continued to cry over the channels!
But just moments before the metal doors, and with the sound of hounds at their heels, the vox suddenly flared in a chorus of unrecognizable voices! Loud and untamed, it almost caused Wienart to bleed through his ears!
Screaming and stopping in pain, Molly followed suit to give Wienart cover from behind, screaming at him to get it together, but it was of no use, as her words couldn't reach him… then, as a bell sounded within the mist, the military auto gun fired a volley at Wienart! blowing clean off his right leg! Bleeding and on the floor, and in and out of a mind haze, Wienart looked at his missing leg as he could hear Molly screaming his name… then, like a curse, another bullet came for him!
But determined not to let it happen again, Molly shielded Wienart with her shield strapped to her back! While holding him in her arms… but while shot after shot hit her back, chipping away at her shield, Molly could only stare into the eyes of a dying man whom she had only just met…
Coughing blood, Wienart looked back into Molly's eyes as he saw the pain of a sister who loved the emperor… but sensing his duty was nearing its end, and hearing the sounds of nurgle forces getting closer, all while watching bullet after bullet hit the sister who should have, by all right already left him to die…he smiled… as he scrambled to transfer to Molly all the codes needed to head back topside…And while smiling a smile that Molly couldn't understand… she heard the voice again…
[I can give you the power…you know… Just take my hand…] said a voice as a songbird that changed the world in Molly's eyes to a blue light… as a hand covered in blue feathers came out from within the clouds.
[let me change you…] it continued…
With eyes closed and a deep breath, Molly said…
[No!]
[...no? But why? Why would you reject that in which you crave most?] replied the disembodied voice of many birds.
But before Molly could chime in, another voice came from the void.. A seductive voice.. that came through purple clouds…
[Ha, you have been rejected, old bird! Just give up!]
[huh? And why should I.. you old worn out whore!] replied the old bird…
But laughing at his remark, the seductive voice ignored the old bird's mockery and turned her attention back to Molly with her temptation!
[look… Molly… what that old bird offers you, I too can give and better yet, in a way that won't change you into something… You would rather not be... or at least I will let you choose how to look... Unlike a certain old bird… plus do you not wish to impress... Her…] said the seductive voice with a vision of Layla…
While staring into the face of the sleeping Layla, the seductive voice continued as if indivisible arms and hands embrace Molly from behind:
[I offer you, your heart desires… You but need to take it!]
Hearing both offers, and staring into mist as it departed for the aw fathers forces… revealing an abomination of some kind… a creature born from disease… A great, uncleaned one! With a giant bell… Molly… staring at such a monster! while feeling the bullets striking her back, Molly looked at both clouds and yelled in all confidence… while pointing her shotgun at the great unclean one!
[I… REFUSE! MY DEATH FOR EMPEROR!]
With her yell of defiance, and the flame arounds leaving the barrel of her gun, she suddenly felt the weight of a heavy hand on her shoulder… A red hand… with the symbol of a raven as their crest…
[Well said! Battle sister!] said Akios!