The Long Night Part One: Embers in the Dusk: A Planetary Governor Quest (43k) Complete Sequel Up

Ausvan Medox

Upon the embattled Daemon World of Avalon, a boy was born. It was no ordinary boy, born of generations of warriors fighting an eternal war in the name of their Emperor. To say it so, for a Seer of the Abomination had come to witness it herself. Yalia, speaker of His Word. She smiled as he entered the world, marked and true, as foretold by her God.

"Behold the Emperor's Child,
one the unfaithful shall fear.

Watch his scouring of Chaos,
Witness their witches broken.

See their lords and heralds,
bound as slaves before him.

The False Saint he shall war,
and Nothing will defeat him."

She spoke, and all in attendance knew the Truth of her word.

Ausvan Medox, he was named, a child destined for a greatness never to fall. Yalia remained, taking on the honor and responsibility of raising the blessed child. The boy learned all that Yalia could teach him, awakening and mastering control of his Emperor-blessed powers, all as she thought him all she could of her God. His eager mind soaked all she thought, delving deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the Emperor, his light, his blessing and his words. And the Emperor answered with favor, his markings reshaping themselves to show his indomitable faith.

Sorcery and warpcraft was not all he was thought - Yalia knew full well Ausvan needed more, to fulfill his fate.

Avalon provided. Contested always by the other Daemons seeking to reclaim the Emperor's rightful territory, there was no shortage of armies warring upon it's surface. No shortage of renowned warriors, their legends forged in the crucible of an eternal war. She had already Divined, scried upon the present to Know whom to entrust his training to - Rorass the Behemoth, so named for his great strength, a gift of the Emperor that turned him into a veritable monster upon the battlefield.

Ausvan's training under Rorass was brutal, and extensive. Where lesser men would have broken, he preservered. Where the flesh was weak, the spirit sustained. Where the spirit faltered, faith stood unyielding.

But the results were telling. Those in power saw with ease his spark, his markings and his strength, and felt compelled to raise him up - And high and higher he rose, marching first as a child soldier, one of many. Allied with an endless tide of Angyls against an equally endless tide of daemons, he crushed those who stood against him and the Emperor with warpfire and demonic strength. By adolescence he had earned a measure of fear, called by his enemies: 'Ausvan the Daemon'.

---

But high as he might've risen there, his fate was not to be tied to Avalon, no. His path laid elsewhere.

---

A Warband of Space Marines loyal to the Emperor came upon the planet, searching for recruits to continue their glorious crusade against the heretics, heathens and xenos that stood against Him. Following in the ancient traditions set by their progenitors, there was a single test for candidates seeking to join:

Single combat against a full Astartes.

The Astartes would be bereft of his armor and weapons, of course, but the outcome was all but certain. It was in the degree of failure that determined their suitability.

Against the Marine would be Ausvan, Warrior-Born, Psyker and Emperor-Marked.

Hardened by a lifetime of conflict and ever-sharpened, the adolescent struck swift, wielding his dark powers with a skill typically attributed to a Veteran Battle Psyker. Sheer power augmented his strength and speed to not merely match an astartes - It raised him beyond, to surpass him. Armed and deadly, the astartes might have still achieved victory, if not for being handicapped by lack of power armor and weaponry, and perhaps most critically, attempting, at least at first, to hold back, striking nonlethal blows.

It was fierce, brutal, and long battle - Ausvan had gained an early advantage, and fought hard to maintain it; The Astartes narrowed it down bit by bit, but it was just barely insufficient. By the time he'd felled his soon-to-be-brother, Ausvan Medox 'The Demon' had long pushed his body and powers past what he believed were his limits. He held on by sheer willpower, and his battered, broken body collapsed immediately after he knew had won.

Acceptance was immediate.

---

In the warband, Ausvan was placed under the tutelage of it's Sorcerer, and here his talent for the dark powers offered by sorcery was in full showing. Scarcely a decade had passed before he had mastered enough of the art to both challenge and crush those sorcerers who found themselves unfortunate enough to find themselves the warband's foes.

And here he made a discovery into the soul, of it's relation to the workings of daemon-binding. It was the soul which was the keystone that held a daemon to the summoner's will - Was it really any surprise to learn that one could subvert that to rebind a daemon? It was a destructive process, and a very useful one at that.

With this new discovery, Ausvan took upon a new name: Ausvan Medox, Demon-Binder.

No longer 'Just another sorcerer', Ausvan was now spoken of in fear, duelling Sorcerers who'd made pacts and contracts with daemons, crushing them and eagerly placing the daemons under his dominion. They chafed from him enforcing his will over them, forcing them to service against their own, in the name of his Emperor. There was a perverse pleasure in it, in turning Lords and Heralds to slaves to work against their former followers.

Rightous pleasure, if there was ever such a thing.

---

In the gathering of the crusade upon the False Saint, Ausvan Medox was among them, one of seven Sorcerer Lords to make war.

When the Archangyl of the Third Circle fell, Ausvan knew he would again take the field. After all, nothing would defeat him, and his birth-prophecy had yet to be falsified.

---

He sized up their leader, what was clearly a woman, features hidden by a sleek, advanced power armor (With a helmet). In the warp, she was his clear inferior in psychic strength - A delaying force more than anything. Skilled, likely, but brute force counted for much in a duel.

The warp rippled as she exerted herself upon it - He drew power to counter it, before feeling a sense of utter wrongness.

It was as if the woman was drawing power from him. It was like being touched by a Pariah, one of those creatures utterly immicable to the Emperor. It was utterly wrong.

But he was not completely denied his power, for her lack of strength to enforce her dominion. He drew in, and struck back against the draining malaise - and felt himself be casually turned aside, with a shot blasting into his torso.

The psychic duel continued, Ausvan distracted, healing his wound as he countered Aria's attacks, simultanouesly watching for more shots. It was a deadly, forced distraction, costing him dearly in his duel with the Witch, one he was pushed back and back and back. He was losing, an utterly alien experience.

"Who are you!?" He demanded, fear now in his voice, as she tore away his last psychic defences. Nothing could defeat him! How could it be!?

His foe paused, and answered:

"The Witch of Nothing."

Nothing.

Ausvan felt his will falter. Pressing upon him at his moment of weakness, she turned his own power on himself, as he found himself utterly helpless. The pain was indescribable, and he was unable to even scream. His faith, so long unyielding, cracked, and then ceased to exist along with his soul, annihlating itself in a conflagaration only a psyker could witness.

@Durin

AN: This ended up way longer than I thought. And took far longer than I thought, too.

Null Zone means 'Nothing Zone', literally.