Saint Celestine
"Corpse-saint," the daemon prince growled. Its ruined jaw barely moved. The words instead emerged from the mouths of the dead cultists scattered across the avenue, dozens of lifeless voices speaking as one.
Celestine raised the Ardent Blade. "Faithless slave."
The daemon did not attack at once. It opened one claw. Every lesser daemon within the avenue froze.Bloodletters stumbled in the midst of battle, their blades falling from suddenly weakened hands. Then they began to scream. Crimson light tore free from their bodies in twisting streams and rushed toward the prince. Their flesh collapsed into ash as the creature dragged the very essence of the Warp from them. It was the closest thing daemons possessed to life.
The stolen power poured into the prince.
Colonel Thern's melta charge had torn open its breastplate, burned away much of its abdomen, shattered its jaw, and left one wing hanging uselessly behind it. One wound after another closed.
Black flesh knitted across the ruin of its torso. Fused armour crawled over the new muscle like living metal. Its jaw reformed with a wet crack, and the bones of its ruined wing snapped back into place before fresh crimson flesh stretched across them.
The act lasted only a heartbeat. By the time Celestine raised the Ardent Blade to strike, no trace of the melta blast remained. The daemon prince stood whole once more, both wings spread wide above the avenue. Dark power rolled from its restored body in waves.
But scores of lesser daemons had vanished to heal it. Colonel Thern's sacrifice had not been undone. He had forced the prince to consume part of its own horde merely to survive.
Now Celestine would make it pay the rest.
The daemon attacked.Its burning sword struck hers with enough force to shatter the street beneath Celestine's feet. The impact drove her backward, her boots cutting through stone as she fought to remain upright.
The daemon swung again.
Celestine spread her wings and rose above the blade. She turned in the air and brought the Ardent Blade down across its armoured shoulder.
Golden fire cut through black armour and sank into the flesh beneath. The daemon prince roared. It caught Celestine with the back of one claw and hurled her through the remains of a hab-block.
She struck a support column. The building collapsed around her.
Stone and twisted metal buried Celestine beneath the ruins, but golden light closed around her before the rubble could touch her. Rock shattered against the radiance. Dust and flame rolled past without leaving so much as a mark upon her armour or white wings.
For several seconds, there was only darkness.
The battle continued outside. Bolters, lasguns, and the screams of the dying blended into a single endless roar. Colonel Arven Rusk's orders passed through the surviving Cadians as he struggled to hold together what remained of the defensive line.
Beneath it all, Celestine heard prayers. Thousands of frightened souls called to the Emperor from within Kasr Kraf. Soldiers prayed as they reloaded. Medicae workers prayed over the wounded. Civilians prayed in the darkness beneath the citadel. Children prayed for parents who would never return.
Among those voices, one faded into silence. Colonel Vaylon Thern had given Cadia everything he possessed.
Another voice rose in his place. "All units, reform the line!" Rusk shouted. "Heavy weapons on the central avenue!"
The defenders obeyed. Their faith found Celestine beneath the rubble.
She opened her eyes. Golden light spread through the fallen stone.
The daemon prince tore open the side of the ruined building. Its claws ripped through the wall, throwing slabs of rock into the avenue. It reached into the darkness.
Celestine rose to meet it. The Ardent Blade struck its sword, and golden fire illuminated the interior of the collapsed hab-block. Celestine twisted aside, allowing the larger weapon to slide past her. She cut through the armour across the creature's ribs and then drove one armoured knee into the wound.
The daemon recoiled.
Celestine flew through the opening and struck again before it could recover. Her sword carved a burning line across its chest.
The prince reached for one of her wings. Its claws closed around the outer feathers, but they dissolved into golden flame within its grasp. Celestine folded the wing and twisted free before the creature could secure its hold.
The daemon's backhand still caught the radiance surrounding her and hurled her into the avenue. Celestine turned in the air and landed upon her feet. Her boots slid across the broken stone, but her armour remained untarnished and every feather returned to its place as the daemon followed, each step leaving black fire behind.
Las-fire struck the creature from both sides.
Colonel Rusk stood behind the second barricade with Vaylon's power sword raised in one hand and a vox-receiver in the other. He waited until Celestine moved clear before giving the order.
"Fire!" The surviving heavy weapons answered.
Autocannon rounds struck the daemon's wounded flank. Heavy bolters tore pieces from its remaining armour. The Leman Russ tanks fired from farther down the avenue, their shells bursting around its legs and forcing it backward.
The weapons could not kill the prince. They did not need to because they gave Celestine openings for her to strike. She flew through the smoke and drove the Ardent Blade into the creature's side.
Golden fire spread through the wound she had carved into it. The daemon howled and struck the golden radiance around her with one elbow. Celestine tore her blade free as the impact sent her sliding across the street.
The creature turned toward the Cadian line. Hatred burned within its eyes. It spread both wings above it like vast crimson sails. A wave of daemonic fire rushed across the avenue.
Celestine placed herself between the flames and the defenders. She drove the Ardent Blade into the street and opened her wings. Golden light surrounded her.
The crimson fire struck.
For one terrible moment, the two forces remained locked together. Golden light trembled around Celestine while the street melted on either side of her. Statues cracked. Weapons abandoned by the dead became pools of glowing metal.
The defenders behind her remained untouched. Celestine heard their prayers grow louder. Her wings opened farther. The golden light surged. The daemonic flames split around her and rolled harmlessly past the Cadian line.
The prince roared and charged through its own fire.
Celestine pulled the Ardent Blade from the ground, but she was a heartbeat too slow.
The creature's sword struck hers.
The impact lifted Celestine from her feet. She flew across the courtyard, turned with the blow, and landed upon the steps of an Imperial shrine. Golden light absorbed the remaining force, leaving the stone cracked beneath her while she remained untouched.
The daemon was upon her before she could rise. Its foot came down. Celestine rolled aside. The shrine steps collapsed beneath the impact.
She cut through the tendons behind its ankle. Black blood covered the Ardent Blade. The creature staggered, and Celestine rose beneath its guard. Her sword pierced its exposed side. Holy fire spread through the wound.
The daemon prince trapped the Ardent Blade beneath one claw and forced Celestine back against the shrine. Its other hand closed around the golden radiance protecting her throat, but could come no closer.
It drove her against the stone.
Once.
Twice.
The shrine broke behind her. Celestine remained pristine within the light, her golden armour unmarred and her wings still pure white.
"Look upon this world," the daemon whispered.
Its restored mouth formed the words, and every dead cultist surrounding them echoed its voice. "Your Emperor cannot save it."
Celestine held the creature's gaze. Above the walls of Kasr Kraf, Cadia burned. Warships died in the heavens. Their wreckage fell through the atmosphere like burning rain. The Eye of Terror filled half the sky, its impossible colours bleeding through the smoke.
Far beyond the city, the silhouettes of the great Cadian pylons stood against the horizon. Higher still, barely visible through the cloud cover, hung the broken shape of the Will of Eternity. The Blackstone Fortress had been crippled. It had not been destroyed.
Celestine felt the intent gathering around it. Hatred vast enough to poison the heavens pressed down upon Cadia. Even wounded, the ancient station retained enough power to cast a shadow across the fortress world.
The Despoiler had not finished.
"You feel it," the daemon prince said. "This world is already dead."
Celestine looked past it toward the Cadians holding the avenue. They had heard the creature. They continued firing. Some fought from their knees. Others stood over wounded comrades while they reloaded. Colonel Rusk remained at the centre of the line, Vaylon's sword still raised above him.
None of them ran.
"Then why," Celestine asked, "are you still fighting so desperately to claim it?" She drove the pommel of the Ardent Blade into the wound beneath the creature's ribs.
The prince's grip weakened.
Celestine tore herself free and flew upward. Its sword passed beneath her as she climbed along the wall of the shrine. She kicked away from the stone and descended upon its back. The Ardent Blade struck the base of its left wing.
Once.
Twice.
On the third strike, golden fire cut through the remaining flesh. The severed wing struck the street.
The daemon prince screamed. It spun and swept one claw toward Celestine's chest.
Celestine crossed her wings before her. Golden feathers flared into a shield, and the daemon's claws struck light instead of flesh. The impact hurled her backward, but she turned in the air and landed in a low crouch.
Not a drop of blood marked her. No soot stained her armour. She remained a figure of untouched gold and white amid the ruin.
The creature closed the distance between them. Its sword rose for the killing blow. Celestine brought the Ardent Blade up to meet it. Before either could strike, reality changed.
An overwhelming presence erupted across Kasr Kraf.
Celestine felt it as clearly as she felt the daemon standing above her, yet it did not originate from the eastern avenue. It burned in the distance, somewhere along the western front. For one alarming instant, she thought another Warp rift had opened within the city.
Yet the presence carried none of the corruption she knew. Neither did it resemble any sanctioned psyker, saint, daemon, or mortal soul she had ever encountered.
She could only feel its immensity.
Celestine had known one power of comparable weight. Between death and resurrection, she had stood within the golden radiance of the Emperor of Mankind. This presence was nothing like His. It carried no revelation, no command, and no promise of salvation. Yet in sheer spiritual force, it rivalled Him.
The realisation shook even Celestine.
The presence carried the heat of burning worlds and the echo of countless slain daemons. Rage surrounded it, and it seemed older than the world. It seemed merciless powerful enough that every creature touched by the Warp recoiled.
Bloodletters across the avenue stopped fighting. Some turned toward the western districts. Others backed away. The daemon prince felt it too. Its raised sword stopped.
The presence did not spread like corruption. Nor did it whisper in the daemon language. It did not offer temptation and demanded no worship.
Celestine could only feel fury from the west. And all of that fury contained a singular place. Its presence could be felt in a ruined Ecclesiarchal sanctum dedicated to the God-Emperor, deep within the shattered western district of Kasr Kraf.
The daemon prince turned toward the western front.
For the first time, Celestine sensed fear within it.
"What is…" It asked in confusion and a face that showed immensed fear.
Celestine took advantage of his distraction and surged to her feet and drove the Ardent Blade through its chest. The golden sword entered through a rent the Cadian guns had torn in its breastplate. It pierced the creature's heart and emerged between its shoulders.
The daemon looked down at her.
Celestine stepped closer, forcing the blade deeper.
"You should have kept your eyes upon me." Light burst through the cracks in the creature's armour.
It tried to speak, but golden fire poured from the mouths of the dead cultists surrounding them. Their bodies burned as the daemon's hold over them broke. The prince's flesh split apart from within.
Celestine pulled her sword free. The daemon fell to its knees. One final stroke removed its head.
Its body collapsed into a column of golden fire. The shock wave swept across the avenue. Bloodletters burst into ash. Cultists were thrown from their feet. The surviving forces of Chaos faltered and began retreating toward the eastern breach.
The Cadians gave them no mercy. Lasguns and heavy weapons opened fire upon the fleeing horde.
Then a new sound rose from the inner citadel. Armoured engines. Marching boots. And beneath both, a battle hymn sung by voices that did not waver. Hundreds of Cadian soldiers advanced from the inner districts beneath raised regimental banners. Chimeras rolled between their formations while Sentinels strode along the edges of the column, their weapons already searching for targets.
Alongside them marched the Adepta Sororitas.
Several squads of Battle Sisters advanced in disciplined ranks, their power armour scarred by the siege and their vestments darkened by smoke. Fleur-de-lis standards rose above levelled bolters, and Sisters carrying flamers walked at the front without breaking the hymn upon their lips.
At the centre of the column came two depleted squads of Space Marines. They were survivors drawn from different Chapters, their armour bearing different colours and battered heraldry, but they moved as one. Bolters and chainswords rested ready in their hands.
These were not reinforcements sent from beyond Kasr Kraf. No such help was coming. The Cadians had guarded the evacuation routes. The Sororitas had protected the basilicas and the entrances to the underground shelters. The Space Marines had held the inner transit passages against every daemon that breached the lower levels.
The last civilians were now safely below. Kasr Kraf's final reserve was free to fight.
Rusk's vox crackled. "Inner defence force entering the central avenue," a voice reported. "Six Cadian companies, four Sororitas squads, and two depleted Astartes squads ready for orders."
Colonel Rusk looked toward Celestine.
The surviving forces of Chaos were still retreating. Without the daemon prince driving them forward, their assault had lost all unity. Cultists fled through the breach while Bloodletters turned westward, distracted by the terrible presence burning across the far side of Kasr Kraf.
The opportunity would not last.
Celestine landed at the front of the shattered Cadian line. Despite the battle, she remained pristine. No blood stained her armour. No ash clung to her wings. She stood amid the broken street as a figure of untouched gold and white.
"Tell them to advance," she said.
Rusk raised Vaylon's power sword. "All units, forward!"
The order travelled down the avenue. The reinforcements broke into a run. The battered survivors climbed over their barricades to meet them. Wounded veterans, exhausted Whiteshields, tank crews, Battle Sisters, and Space Marines came together beneath the banners of the Imperium.
Celestine raised the Ardent Blade. Golden fire ran along its edge.
"Defenders of Cadia!" she called.
Every face in the avenue turned toward her. "Take back your gate."
The defenders charged. Celestine flew at their head.
She struck the retreating daemons like a spear of golden light. The Ardent Blade passed through the first Bloodletter and continued into the creature behind it. Both vanished in bursts of fire.
Lasguns discharged beneath her in disciplined volleys. The Battle Sisters advanced through the smoke with their hymn rising above the gunfire, bolters hammering the cultists while streams of burning promethium consumed the daemons among them.
The Space Marines drove into the centre of the retreat. Loyalist and Traitor Astartes met amid the rubble in a storm of point-blank bolter fire and shrieking chainswords.
Chimeras followed close behind, their multilasers cutting down cultists attempting to rally. Sentinels stepped over the ruined barricades and fired into the horde crowding the eastern breach.
The surviving Leman Russ tanks followed. Their battle cannons struck the gatehouse ruins, breaking apart the Black Legionaries attempting to form a new defensive position.
One Traitor Astartes tore free of the melee and raised its bolter toward the advancing Sororitas. Celestine descended before it could fire. The Ardent Blade cut through the bolter, the warrior's breastplate, and the corrupted flesh beneath. Golden fire consumed the traitor before its body struck the ground.
The counterattack continued.
The same defenders who had been preparing to die behind the inner barricades now drove the enemy back across the avenue. Cadians, Sororitas, and Space Marines fought over the bodies of the fallen, past the wreckage of Imperial tanks, and through the smoke left by the daemon prince's death.
"Cadia stands!" someone shouted.
The words passed through the advancing ranks.
"Cadia stands!"
The cultists broke.
"Cadia stands!"
The Bloodletters retreated through the shattered gate.
The counterattack reached the remains of the eastern gatehouse and reclaimed the rubble one blood-soaked metre at a time. Heavy-weapons teams climbed onto the fallen towers. Battle Sisters secured the approaches while the Space Marines hunted the last Black Legionaries still hidden among the ruins. Cadian engineers followed close behind, placing mines and rebuilding firing positions from broken stone and twisted metal.
Celestine landed upon the highest section of the ruined wall.
Beyond Kasr Kraf, the armies of Chaos still stretched across the horizon. The counterattack had not ended the siege, nor had it destroyed the endless host waiting outside.
But the eastern approach belonged to Cadia once more.
"Hold the ruins!" Celestine ordered. "Do not pursue beyond the wall." Rusk repeated the command through the vox.
The Imperial advance stopped at the breach. Cadians and Battle Sisters took cover and turned their weapons outward while the Space Marines anchored the centre of the position. The tanks formed a new line behind them.
For the first time since the gate had fallen, the defenders had room to breathe.
Colonel Rusk climbed the rubble toward Celestine. Blood covered his uniform. He carried Vaylon's plasma pistol at his side and held Vaylon's power sword in his right hand.
For a moment, Celestine looked back along the avenue toward the place where Vaylon had fallen. His body remained beneath the torn banner of his regiment. Two soldiers had moved him away from the fighting, but there had been no time for anything more.
"He died holding the line," Rusk said.
"He bought us the time to break that creature," Celestine replied. "And he forced it to devour its own kind merely to survive."
Rusk looked toward the burning remains of the daemon prince. "What made it hesitate?"
Celestine turned toward the west. The unknown presence remained. Distance did little to diminish it. Its power pressed across Kasr Kraf like the weight of another sky, concentrated somewhere beyond the ruined towers of the western front.
She could still discern nothing of its identity. It revealed no body, no voice, no gender, and no allegiance. Even the rage surrounding it offered no answer. Hatred of daemons did not necessarily mean mercy toward humanity.
The comparison to the Emperor seemed impossible, almost blasphemous, and yet Celestine could not deny what her soul had felt. A power of that magnitude could alter the fate of Cadia in either direction.
"Something has appeared on the western front," she said.
Rusk tightened his grip on Vaylon's sword. "Another daemon?"
"I do not know." The answer from Celestine silenced him.
"Is it one of ours?" Celestine looked toward the distant fires consuming western Kasr Kraf.
"I do not know that either. The daemons fear it, but that does not make it our ally." The presence surged again.
Every instinct within Celestine demanded that she confront it before it chose a path of its own. She spread her wings.
"Hold this gate." Celestine commanded.
Rusk looked beyond the breach. The enemy was already gathering for another assault.
"For how long?" Rusk questioned.
Celestine glanced at the burning city, the wounded soldiers, and Cadia's violet sky.
"For as long as Cadia stands." Celestine said with sharp eyes.
"Where are you going?" Rusk once again questioned.
Celestine fixed her gaze upon the western horizon.
"The western front. I intend to learn what has come to Cadia." After stating this, Celestine rose into the air. She did not wait for an escort or another report. She turned west and flew over the burning rooftops, leaving the reclaimed gate in Colonel Rusk's hands.
She flew toward a presence whose purpose she could not know, only that it had made the daemons afraid, and that its power may rival the Emperor's own.
…
Eastern front Casualties
Cadians: 34,789 (Civilians included)
Forces of Chaos: 46,578