Aboard the Khrave web-ship designated E-13 by the Shadows of Order.
The "Gatekeeper," Sasebo Tezuka, his face pale, struggled to maintain the open gate to the spirit world. The blue-black vines that extended from the bronze gate were burned to ash by the psychic flames.
His bone serpent was coiled around the Khrave Titan, which was the size of an Emperor-class Titan.
From the Titan's massive shadow, the "Shadow Ascetic" thrust their shadow-sculpted blades into the crystalline body, exposed as it was dragged into reality by the bronze gate.
The Titan shrank slowly. With each moment, several "Shadow Ascetic" thrust their shadow-blades into the crystalline body, only to be forced to retreat as the psychic flames erupted from the wounds.
The "Gatekeeper," Sasebo Tezuka's spirituality was rapidly depleting. The bronze gate grew ethereal, flickering.
As the Khrave Titan shrank to Warlord size, the bronze gate shattered.
The Titan's crystalline form faded, shifting between ethereal and real.
The "Shadow Ascetic" were forced from their hiding places in the shadows. The shadow-blades, formed from the Titan's own substance, vanished.
Hundreds of arms blazed with psychic flame, striking at the detested bone serpent.
The serpent beat its wings, twisting to evade hundreds of grasping arms.
Dozens of arms wrapped around the serpent, their psychic fire burning away a large portion of its body.
Thirteen "Shadow Ascetic" were caught in the brutal psychic flames, their Cataphractii-pattern Terminator armor and bodies consumed.
Bang, bang, bang...
Three "Rose Bishops" exploded. One lost his head and neck, another his left arm, and a third his legs.
The "Rose Bishops," unable to harvest much flesh from the Khrave warriors, had no stored biomass to replenish themselves, and could only slowly regenerate with their spirituality.
Ramsey of the Tenth Chapter narrowed his eyes as the Khrave Titan, freed from its bonds, swung its arms in fury.
A dozen "Rose Bishops" exploded. Some fled on their legs, some rolled with their heads, some hopped on their arms.
Ramsey watched the fleeing, fragmented limbs. Though a "Rose Bishop" had no true vital point, depletion of their flesh would still mean death.
Ramsey's obsidian eyes shifted to blue-green. He switched to the "Wind Wraith" soul he had 'herded.'
The wind howled, swirling around him.
Ramsey rose into the air, flying towards the Khrave Titan.
The biomancer raised his hand. Psychic lightning struck from nowhere, searing the Titan's chest.
The strange crystalline structure became visible under the psychic assault.
Ramsey raised his left arm, pouring a surge of bio-energy into the crystal body.
He guided the energy like a serpent, rapidly probing the Titan's internal structure.
A shadow flickered in his eyes. He found no trace of flesh or organic structures within the Khrave Titan.
Not only the Khrave he had examined before, but the mutable Titan and its solidified crystal body, even its arms, were not biological structures.
Realizing his abilities were of little use against the Titan, Ramsey knew his only option was to delay, to hold on until the Black Emperor arrived.
He felt the Khrave pilot's gaze focus on him.
The Titan swelled, its psychic shields and shifting form deflecting the barrage and plasma beams.
Countless arms swung. Psychic flames rained down.
Ramsey twisted, evading most of the flames.
A blaze of psychic fire struck his black armor.
The Cataphractii-pattern Terminator armor crumbled like paper, consumed.
Ramsey's right arm was burned to ash in the crackling flame.
He hurled a bolt of psychic lightning with his left arm, even as his right arm began to regenerate.
As Ramsey engaged the Khrave Titan, Petronella Vivar, with her private bodyguard Maggard, followed Lord Nareth aboard the Khrave web-ship.
The Primarch's boots had barely touched the deck when a terrible psychic scream erupted.
Nareth instantly ascended to the First Level of the Thelema midstate. The psychic assault shattered against his flickering light.
He noticed "Guardian" Ghurgur and the Blank Etrich shudder slightly.
Petronella, whose earrings were made of a Blank's skull, shivered, her shoulders hunching.
Maggard's powerful form stiffened, frozen in place.
'Maggard's mind, sharp as a blade, still struggles to resist the Khrave's psychic assault.' Nareth moved his mind. Light and shadow flickered in his obsidian eyes. His consciousness unfurled.
His psychic power blazed, intertwining light and shadow, shredding the probing tendrils.
Maggard shuddered, blinking. He looked at the majestic figure before him.
'Lord Nareth destroyed the thing that was invading my mind.'
He had lost the ability to speak after surgeries by House Carpinus's private Doctors. He stepped forward, wanting to express his thanks.
Suddenly, his golden eyes saw the grotesque, bat-like creature materialize before him.
Maggard pulled the trigger. His pistol's shots hammered against the smoky form.
Bang, bang, bang...
The bullets shattered. The Khrave materialized a blade.
Maggard's Kirlian Blade, a silver serpent, lunged. Its shimmering edge thrust forward.
With a crack, the blade tore through the psychic shield, piercing the black, grotesque form.
The Khrave, which had matched a Custodes in size and strength, fell, pierced.
Nareth took in the image of Maggard slaying the Khrave.
'Truly a heirloom blade of House Carpinus. Its ability to harm Warp-entities exceeds even most force swords.'
He raised his right hand, sweeping the Dionysian Spear from Etrich's back.
His golden wings beat, the great spear stabbing again and again.
Petronella's eyes widened, struggling to follow Lord Nareth's form. She only saw a blur, and xenos, appearing from all directions, were struck down, holes blasted in their chests.
She pouted in frustration. The organic crystal of her memory quill, capturing her thoughts, wrote a line.
'Lord Nareth's speed is like the wind. He slew fifteen Khrave simultaneously.'
'According to War Council records, each of these xenos is stronger than an Astartes, only a Custodes can match them.'
"Gurjur, protect them!" Nareth ordered, striding forward. The Dionysian Spear spun, each teleporting Khrave pierced as they appeared.
Petronella's eyes shone as she followed Lord Nareth.
She found herself moving through a long passage, flashes of lightning blinding her.
She squinted at the center of the storm, where a xenos Titan stood, larger than any Imperial Titan she had ever seen.
It had no visible weapon systems. Countless arms swung.
Bang, bang, bang, bang...
Four Shadows of Order exploded into bloody mist.
A figure was hurled into the air by a blast of lightning.
Ramsey, his spirituality exhausted, drew on the last dregs of his bio-energy to heal his charred heart.
He watched the descending lightning, closing in. He was about to shatter his own body, to flee as living flesh, when a flash of gold caught his eye.
The Black Emperor's form appeared before him. He raised his left arm, a shimmering psychic shield rising.
The lightning, cascading down, crackled against the shield, sending up ripples of light.
Ramsey breathed a sigh of relief. He had held out until the Black Emperor's arrival.
The "Mentor of Disorder," Nareth, beat his golden wings, closing on the Khrave Titan in an instant.
The Khrave pilot moved his mind, attempting to shrink the Emperor-sized form.
Then, he found, to his astonishment, that it was not shrinking, but rapidly solidifying.
Having "twisted" the Titan's intent, Nareth let light and shadow flicker in his eyes.
The veil the Khrave had torn allowed a torrent of aetheric energy from the Great Ocean to flow into the spear.
Blinding psychic light blazed through the Khrave web-ship, spilling into the source domain.
The Khrave Progenitor who had once fought Angron stood, half in the Ghoul Stars, half in the source domain.
He watched the terrible psychic light blooming in both dimensions, his tendrils twitching in unease.
Nareth hurled the terrible spear.
It struck the Khrave Titan.
A mushroom cloud of psychic fire rose, spreading throughout the twenty-kilometer-long web-ship.
Boom!
The Titan's strange crystalline body shattered into a thousand fragments.
The psychic backlash, through the Splinter-Web's link, struck the Progenitor.
The perfectly geometric War Crown upon his head shattered.
Tens of thousands of Khrave in the material world, their anchor lost, died almost instantly. Their psychic screams echoed, causing the already weakened Progenitor's tendrils to wither and fall in droves.
"Nareth!"
A terrible psychic scream, laced with endless hatred, pierced into the material world.
Petronella's earrings grew icy cold. Her body trembled. Her memory quill, which had been writing, stopped.
'Lord Nareth hurled the Dionysian Spear, a gift from the Emperor, and with one strike...'
A dawn-like light flared. Petronella, her senses returning, saw Standard Bearer Ghurgur kneeling on one knee.
The memory quill began to move again.
'Killed the Khrave Titan!'
'Lord Nareth's warnings were correct. The xenos' psychic assault is terrible. My family's heirloom necklace was not enough to resist it, without the Blank's skull and the protection of his sons, I would be dead.'
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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