Wilshire led his force, carefully navigating around patches of sparkling gems, each the size of a man's palm.
The gems glittered enticingly under the purple light.
No black-armored warrior picked them up. Like the giant armored lizards around them, they gave the gem fields a wide berth.
Tendrils sprouted from the organic spires. Purple light surged from their bases, unleashing energy accumulated over millennia.
The light spread like a tide. Herbivores' eyes turned bloodshot.
They charged at each other, tearing and biting.
Flesh flew. Blood stained the ground.
Giant armored lizards, as large as hive domes, reared up, slamming their forelimbs down, causing the ground to shake.
Gentle herbivores, they opened their massive jaws, swallowing entire herds.
Hissing sounds came from beneath their tough, horny hides.
Pink flesh buds, like tender shoots breaking soil, tore through their armor-like skin.
The tender buds, like tentacles, reached out, coiling around the battling herbivores.
Viscous, brightly colored slime oozed from the buds, enveloping the herbivores.
As the herbivores dissolved, the buds swelled and split open, blooming like flowers.
A wave of musky scent washed over Wilshire, making him dizzy.
The "Notary" sensed the spreading evil. His psychic energy surged.
Golden light radiated from him, growing purer, fnally forming a seal-like projection.
He shouted in Dunnic, "'Notarize,' 'Sun Halo'!"
A golden aura rapidly expanded, enveloping his Guard.
The Light Lord saw the gentle armored lizards, rapidly growing as they fed, and shouted into the vox channel: "Sun Tripod Walkers!"
After purifying the daemon world in the Maelstrom and acquiring the Slaughtersong, Wilshire had focused on developing weapons against daemons.
With Techmarine support, they had created new weapons using "Sun Holy Water" and other technologies.
As the "Notary" moved among his Guard, performing "Notarizations," the Shadows of Order fired dense barrages at the armored lizards.
Bolts thundered. Adamantium-tipped rounds struck the blooming flesh flowers.
The bright flowers swayed. Flesh fragments scattered, but they were not significantly damaged.
Clusters of golden flames erupted around the "Solar High Priests." A vast, sacred aura filled the air.
The enormous, bright flesh flowers, like candles, rapidly burned to ash in the sacred flames.
"Light Suppliant" raised their bolters. Golden rounds, blessed by ritual holy water, slammed into the thick hides.
With a roar, ripples spread across the hides.
The armored lizard let out an angry hiss, raising a massive foot.
The Shadows of Order retreated rapidly, distancing themselves from the behemoth.
Forty-one black tripod walkers surrounded the bloated lizard monster from the flanks.
Each walker was accompanied by a squad led by a "Solar High Priest."
They chanted "Holy Oath" in Dunnic. Golden lines and sun runes on the black hulls blazed with warm, bright light.
The operators within the sarcophagi felt bathed in warm light, like sunbathing in the new sun gardens of Gardinaal.
As they enjoyed the comfort, they recalled the brutal legends of the past.
In the era of the High Lords' rule over Gardinaal, the castes who piloted the tripod walkers had lain in cold sarcophagi, like living mummies.
The last of those pilot castes had fallen in the war against the Rangdan. Their successors no longer needed to lie in cold coffins.
"Light Suppliant" sang. Light descended from the sky, illuminating the walkers' cores.
The black walkers raised their arms. Blazing beams leaped.
The beams, bright gold, struck the giant lizard's swollen body like a net.
The lizard, larger than a hive dome, was sliced into chunks by the golden light, crashing down onto the plain.
As the Sun Tripod Walkers struck the mutated armored lizards, on the first planet.
Keon, Captain of the Fourth Chapter's Fifth Company, clad in power armor, had felt uncomfortable since arriving on this lush, tropical world.
He led his company to the foot of the Fifth Mountain, looking at the clear spring before him.
In his Spirit Vision, the spring was saturated with spiritual luster.
He said to Okafor beside him, "This spring must be what my Lord warned us about."
The newly promoted "Warlock" nodded in agreement. His "Mystic Eye," which he couldn't turn off, was filled with dazzling light.
"The spring itself shows no signs of corrosion, but there is an evil, abnormal force around it."
"They feed on the creatures it lures. The natural spirits here are exceptionally sparse," the "Spirit Medium" said certainly.
"They tell me the evil predators are coming."
The mentalist psyker, Okafor, extended his consciousness. It collided with brilliant ribbons of light and rippling sound waves.
The drifting, seductive sounds were pleasant, intoxicating.
He instantly ascended to the third level of the Thelema mindstate, blocking the evil influence, and looked into the distance.
Horses, moving with incredible speed, galloped towards them.
Slaaneshi steeds flicked their serpent-like tongues, sensing subtle scents.
Their swollen sensory organs detected the disgust and battle-lust carried on the breeze. Though less pleasing than the fear of Aeldari or the pleasure of creatures lured by the spring, it still made them tremble with excitement.
The "Spirit Medium" placed his hand on the lush vegetation. Psychic energy surged.
He intoned in Dunnic, his voice low: "Obey my command. 'Rise' and take revenge on the evil creatures that killed you."
Bones in the soil trembled. Driven by "Rise," they coalesced, pushing through the ground.
The "Spirit Medium" walked forward. Bones, hidden by the lush vegetation, continuously emerged.
Some still had traces of their former forms. Some were skeletal horses, others vaguely humanoid...
The skeletal horses charged the ostrich-like Slaaneshi steeds. The steeds' whip-like tongues lashed out, striking them.
The Tongue-Eaters recoiled in disgust. The bones lacked the delicious flavor they had when the creatures were alive, tended by the Aeldari.
Barbed tongues scraped off bone fragments. Noxious venom made the bones crackle.
If alive, the elegant steeds would have fallen.
But the risen skeletal horses had no will, no life. They obeyed the "Spirit Medium's" command.
Their gaping jaws crunched, tearing at the lavender-smooth skin.
For the first time, the Tongue-Eaters were treated like food. Large patches of their smooth, elegant hide were torn away.
Aeldari skeletal warriors, missing limbs or with shattered torsos, moved between the skeletal horses, their fists slamming into the slender heads.
The Slaaneshi steeds shrieked. From the sphincter-like openings of their mouths, long whips shot out.
A steed suddenly burst through two skeletal horses, charging Okafor, who was waiting.
The "Warlock" raised his hand, scattering red powder. Flames erupted, engulfing the horse.
He moved behind the skeletal line, throwing bottle after bottle, plugging gaps.
The continuously "rose" bones, devoured by Slaaneshi steeds millennia ago, forming a shield wall.
The Slaaneshi steeds, wave after wave, crashed against the black-armored warriors, tasting them for the first time, only to be blocked by the tasteless skeletal wall.
Shadows of Order, from their higher position, rained barrages on the steeds, but most of their efforts supported the Fifth Chapter's assault on the third planet.
On the ocean world, island chains dotted the surface.
Above the second island chain, inside a black Stormbird,
Thomas looked down at the buildings and ruins below.
He saw the local tribespeople, their faces barely recognizable as human.
Their features were strange. Their skin was pale. Their deep green, round eyes were flecked with flesh tones. They gazed hungrily at the sky.
Their long, slender tongues flickered, like snakes.
The Chief Librarian opened the vox channel, issuing the order:
"The locals are corroded by the Dark God. Use the 'Griffin's Roar.'"
Through rotational training, all Legion Librarians had mastered the "Griffin's Roar."
After personally encountering the griffins on Macragge, the Primarch's sons, with their keen perception, had all successfully mastered it.
The Chief Librarian had made mastering the "Griffin's Roar" a requirement for promotion from aspirant to Librarian.
Also required for the lowest rank of Codicier were the third level of the Thelema mindstate and the first level of the Enumeration.
The Slaaneshi cultists flicked their tongues, tasting the delicious meat they had never tasted before.
Swift as horses, they pursued the descending black iron birds, their deep green eyes gleaming with hunger.
The Stormbird's gunners, watching the bizarre humans,
spun their turrets, each with four twin-linked lascannons. Dense beams rained down.
Blazing beams sliced through pale skin, tearing the horned, bizarre humans into grotesque lumps.
The cultists lashed their razor-sharp tails, diving into buildings draped with the skins of their kin.
Stormbirds hovered, turning, aiming in different directions.
Underwing missiles screamed.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
The disgusting, abhorrent buildings were blasted into the sky.
After the Stormbirds cleared a landing zone, Thomas stepped off the ramp with two COG drone.
Excited, bizarre shrieks sounded. Countless cultists in spiked armor, wrapped in skins, surged out.
"Griffin's Roar!" Thomas shouted.
Ten Librarians stepped forward, forming a ring with the Chief Librarian, facing the thousands of charging cultists.
The psychic circuits on Thomas's Dominum blazed. The runes on his two COG drone lit up in response.
Golden light gathered in the Librarians' throats. They opened their mouths. A deafening roar erupted.
In the Librarians' ætheric vision, griffins of various sizes, made of gold, surged forward.
With the boost of the COG drone and the psychic armor, the griffin from Thomas, at the ring's apex, was a hundred times larger than any other.
AH... ROAR...
The Slaaneshi cultists screamed in terror, then were swallowed by the golden light.
The golden griffins, on their path, crushed the cultists instantly.
Where the golden light touched, pale skin ignited with golden flames.
The surviving cultists shrieked, fleeing like frightened beasts.
The "Warlock" strode forward, leading the Librarians towards the sensed evil.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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