An Echo of Long Dead Anger
All around lay walls of stone that once resembled the inky black of the void of space. Long ago they had been defiled by arcane symbols that would make lesser beings eyes to bleed as their minds to fragmented at the mere sight, layers of dried blood, scraps of flesh, and strange mixture of liquids in a variety of revolting shades. A layer of roiling flesh had begun to crawl along the walls, the strange beauty of the stone underneath hidden by the hideous mess it's occupants had tried so studiously to spread throughout all the structure. Resting at the heart of the chamber are the remains of some mechanical being and a pedestal formed from flesh and bone, it's sides covered in blinking eyes and hungry mouths that had stilled their endless snapping before the figure in front of them.
A head whose skin is stretched tight by the tubes and corruption so readily lingering upon it, stares down from it's position towering above the pedestal as brilliant golden eyes spark with flickers of green, blue, red, and purple that seem to
writhe in agony as they appear before being snuffed from existence. Clad in armor of black and bronze, strange tendril like masses shifting between joints, covered in the foul symbols of Dark Gods the figure peered down at the object resting upon the pedestal even as it's clawed grasp digs deeper into the mass of flesh. Trails of blood seep from newly opened wounds, mouths opening to scream only to burst into flames that shifted colors with every slight change in focus, and yet the figure remained unmoved as it looked to the shattered haft resting before it.
"Foolish. Even as you betrayed him you still carried the weapon he had forged at your side, unable to let go of that smallest of thoughts even as the Gods offered you
everything. You could have wielded wrath incarnate, decay given form, deathly pleasure dancing to a shape, or even a fragment of the unknowable truth made manifest."
At his words the mass of flesh covering much of the chamber began to shake, tendrils peeling from it to wrap around the figure's armored feet as an ear piercing screech began to echo through the room. Thin strips of armor gave way at the merest touch from the tendrils and the pedestal began to weep tears of blood at the sound, but the man himself remain unperturbed as he stared at the shattered remnants of an age long past.
"Only I was more foolish than you. I should have ripped Worldbreaker from your hands and broke you with it, given the corpse of you at your peak to the Dark Gods and claimed my rightful place as Their Chosen rather than allow you to waste it."
His grip grew stronger, the bone of the pedestal cracking and flesh shredding even as lightning began to crackle across the bladed claws of the gauntlet which inflicted untold agony upon it even as the piercing screech of the chamber's fleshy carpet reached an ever greater height.
"HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN BROKEN BENEATH YOU, THE GALAXY SHOULD HAVE BURNED!"
Rage took a hold of him as the pedestal groaned, fleshy tendrils tearing ever faster at the armored boots that trod upon them, and flames began to join the crackling electricity flowing up the armored figure's arm. Upon the pedestal the remains of the once magnificent Worldbreaker began to shake as a singing cacophony of noise that would leave mortals a gibbering mass of melted flesh poured from it. In an instant the pedestal upon which it rested turned to vaporized ash, multi colored smoke wafting from where it once stood as the haft of Worldbreaker plummeted into an excitedly waiting maw of thousands of teeth.
"I DO NOT SPEAK TO YOU! YOU
DARE SPEAK FOR HE WHO HAS BEEN WIPED FROM EXISTENCE!? DO YOU STILL CLING SO TIGHTLY TO YOUR FAILURE OF A MASTER?"
Screaming rage the figure lashed the flaming and crackling claw against the haft being chewed within the maw of uncountable teeth, bone shattering into dust at the strike as the carpet of flesh recoils in a psyche melting screech of pain only for the remains of Worldbreaker to remain unmarred upon the spotless stone revealed beneath. Just as the lights flickering into the figure's eyes begin to grow more predominantly red, the armored man beginning to lose himself in anger, a synthesized voice broke the mad chattering of the chamber causing all to lapse into silence.
Held aloft by several barrel sized masses of undulating muscle and machinery, a figure clad in robes that gnawed at themselves stalked into the room,
"Warmaster. We have finished our research. Truly fascinating, the vast monoliths covering dozens of worlds are indeed a design crafted by the beings known as Necron and their resonance is one of defiance against the wonders of the Wa-"
In an instant the figure falls silent, the sound of screeching metal and exploding air coming from the clasped claw the Warmaster had raised in response.
"Discard the mindless prattling. Are they what we suspected?"
"Yes, Warmaster. The Pylons hold back the Eye of T-"
In an instant the voice is drowned out by the carpet of flesh beginning it's screech once more, the mass beneath the newly arriving figure surging upwards as tendrils tore chunks free and suddenly emerging maws bit entire sections from the Heretek. Cries of agony and pain, the mechanical screeching of binaric chant, and the reality warping dying gasps of daemons fill the air in a symphony of suffering that sets a smile to the Warmaster's lips. It all ends as abruptly as it started, the roiling flesh returning to writhe gently upon the floor as any sign of it's prey had long disappeared within mouths long shrouded within.
"Come,
Drach'nyen."
Giddy cries echo from the carpet of flesh as it pours itself excitedly to the now outstretched hand of the Warmaster. Flesh piling together and twisting as the shape of a blade slowly takes shape, the metal becoming clearer and clearer as the daemon face upon the guard begins to grin madly at it's owner. In an instant the armored figure is crossing the chamber, but just as he reaches the doorway the Warmaster turns to look back at the corpse of Worldbreaker resting in the center of it all.
"Do not think we are done. I shall break you as surely as that rotting corpse broke him. Now, rest and watch as I do what your Master could not. Watch as I set the galaxy aflame and laugh in the burning ruins, and then you shall know."
With those words Abaddon the Despoiler, Warmaster of Chaos, and Master of the Black Legion left the scrap of Horus' weapon where it lay. Maddening laughter echoed through the defiled halls as a scheme Millennia in the making began to truly unfold.
QM Note:
Voting now open.
