V2 Chapter 141: Only You Can Save the Warmaster, Duvette. Help Him.
In a corner of the hall, well away from the others, Duvette stopped.
Cawl's vast mechanical frame came to a halt behind him. Several of the Archmagos's optical sensors remained fixed on the distant Eldar. The rest had settled on Duvette.
Duvette did not speak immediately.
He confirmed the distance to the others was sufficient, then lowered his voice.
"What you wanted to ask me just now was why we need that Eldar woman's death god power to save Guilliman."
Cawl said nothing. He waited.
Duvette looked at those continuously moving optical sensors.
"Guilliman's current state is unusual."
"After Fulgrim's poisoned blade opened his throat, he was placed inside a stasis field. That wound and its toxins never truly ended. They were simply suspended at the instant before death."
"The moment the stasis field is removed, death will complete itself immediately."
Cawl gave a slight nod. This much he already knew.
Duvette continued. "So to save him, the stasis field must be severed first, and he must be allowed to cross the threshold of death. Then Yvraine's death god power brings him back."
He raised a hand and pointed at Cawl.
"After that, you use the armour of fate to stabilise his body following the return. To allow his life to genuinely continue."
"That is the method by which Guilliman survives."
Cawl's processors accelerated.
He knew Guilliman's condition. He knew what the armour of fate had been built to do. Until this moment, however, Duvette had been the only one who understood the missing piece of the sequence.
Death.
Return from death.
Cawl was quiet for a moment.
"You believe the Aeldari woman can do this."
"I know she can."
Duvette's voice was steady.
"My own ability could accomplish the same, but I have just purified a Men of Iron STC. The next use is a very long time away."
He paused.
"And time is what humanity can least afford right now."
"Chaos, xenos, traitors: every one of them is watching the Imperium. You can see the administrative reality of the Imperium more clearly than most."
"Only Guilliman's return can address any of it."
Cawl's optical sensors rested on Duvette's face.
Duvette did not look away.
"Trust her, Cawl."
"Trust me as well."
"I have already demonstrated that I can purify a Men of Iron STC with this ability. On the matter of fate's path, I do not get it wrong."
When he had said his piece, Duvette stood quietly where he was.
The Archmagos looked at him.
In the depths of this Age of Darkness ruin, the sounds of Mechanicus priests and Skitarii moving still came from the distance. The Eldar, the Inquisitor, the Rogue Trader, and the Astra Militarum soldiers all waited on the other side of the hall for the outcome of this conversation.
A long time passed.
Then Cawl turned and walked back toward where Sylandri and Yvraine were standing.
He left behind a single line.
"I am sceptical of them. But I am willing, for now, to trust your judgement."
Duvette allowed himself a quiet laugh and followed.
"That is enough, Cawl."
In the period that followed, Menazoid Epsilon entered a new phase.
The cultist forces were steadily eliminated in the 112th Combat Group's clearance operations. Remaining small enemy groups were pushed into the barren wastes and rock fissures beyond the canyon, then taken apart piece by piece by Tanith scouts, Catachan hunting teams, and armoured infantry.
The remnants of Heldane's directly attached Inquisitorial strike team were also disarmed.
Those willing to surrender were held separately. Those who continued to resist were eliminated on the spot. Heldane himself was located and taken by Duvette personally. A psychic suppression collar was fitted to him, and he was transferred to Lord Inquisitor Werner's black ship.
Duvette did not spend much time on this. Menazoid now held a secret of considerable weight, and every source of instability had to be removed.
Cawl and his Mechanicus congregation then began transforming the entire canyon.
Heavy machines advanced from the landing area all the way to the ruins entrance. Engineering servitors, heavy lift constructs, and Skitarii guards occupied the canyon at various points. Mechanicus priests enclosed the entire sanctuary with containment arrays.
Rock walls were levelled. The passage was widened.
The Menazoid Catacombs, which had been concealed within the mountain body, were gradually excavated. The ancient walls, silver pipes, and external structures buried in the rock were slowly exposed to the Adeptus Mechanicus's survey instruments.
Cawl did not rely solely on the Eldar to analyse the STC.
Sylandri could provide the ancient Aeldari memory of the Men of Iron War and help Cawl understand certain historical resonances within the Men of Iron's collective awareness. Yvraine maintained silent observation of the purified Men of Iron formations.
The actual technical analysis remained Cawl's work.
He had his Mechanicus priests copy, restore, and hierarchically examine all one and a half million formulas across the hall. Every formula was entered into an isolated data vault, passed through three-fold purification rites and twelve logical verification passes before being permitted to advance to the next layer of analysis.
Cawl intended to reconstruct what this ancient human arsenal world had once produced.
Even if that would take a very long time, he had not abandoned the objective.
Duvette, for his part, began preparing a return to Macragge.
He had Evan instruct the fleet's Astropathic choir to send a message to the Macragge relay station in Ultramar. The message stated that Duvette intended to visit Macragge again before long, and that he would be bringing Archmagos Belisarius Cawl and the Carpé family fleet with him.
The Eldar's involvement was omitted entirely.
This was necessary. Even if Macragge was the core of the Five Hundred Worlds, and even if the Ultramarines held a good impression of him, introducing the Aeldari into the equation in advance would only generate problems.
At the same time, Duvette filed his battle report on Menazoid Epsilon with Warmaster Slaydo.
The report stated that the traitor forces had been broken, and noted that the surface ruins contained the remains of a complete STC fabricator, currently being sealed and excavated under Archmagos Cawl's supervision.
The words Men of Iron did not appear in the report.
This matter was too dangerous. The fewer who knew, the better.
In the final section of the notification, Duvette used the authorisation of Lord Inquisitor Werner and Lord Inquisitor Karol to request another brief temporary absence from the Sabbat Crusade order of battle. If necessary, he was willing to leave the 112th Combat Group in place and take only his directly attached regiment and essential guards.
Several weeks passed. No reply came.
Macragge's silence was within his expectations. The distance was significant. He knew that Astropathic messages passing through the Warp would inevitably encounter delays, gaps, and the need for repeated verification.
But Slaydo's side remained equally quiet.
No formal response.
No query.
Not even the most basic command headquarters acknowledgement had come back.
Duvette initially assumed Warp interference and had Evan send a second Astropathic message. The second message carried a higher-grade Inquisitorial authorisation marker and was accompanied by a naval identification verification.
The same silence.
This told him the situation was not simple.
He had intended to address Macragge first. The sooner Guilliman woke, the sooner humanity would have someone genuinely capable of unifying the Imperium.
But now he concluded he needed to establish what was happening with Warmaster Slaydo before he went to Macragge.
He already had a theory.
Slaydo's condition was, in all probability, being influenced by Chaos.
Not necessarily outright corruption.
Perhaps something had taken hold of his anxieties and was amplifying them continuously. Lifespan, time, the crusade's outcome, future reform, succession, the decaying Imperial administrative machine: any one of these was sufficient to break a veteran Warmaster's mental state. Every one of them together was something worse.
Slaydo wanted to win the crusade.
He also wanted that victory to genuinely change the Imperium.
And that was precisely where Chaos could reach in.
Duvette stood inside the temporary command post on Menazoid, looking at the star chart showing the crusade's main operational zones. His fingers tapped lightly against the table.
It had to be changed before it became irreversible.
Then the arrivals confirmed everything he had feared.
Lord Inquisitor Juno came to Menazoid Epsilon in person.
With her was someone Duvette had not expected at all.
The former crusade Chief of Staff.
Macaroth.
Their vessel entered the system and quickly sent a communications request to Duvette. The transmission did not carry any lengthy preamble. Macaroth's message consisted of a single line.
"Duvette. Help Warmaster Slaydo."
"Only you can save him now."