The False Angel
"I just feel, we're drifting apart. You know?"
Lin hmmed thoughtfully as he looked through his notes, glancing up at the couch his patient was reclining on. "It certainly sounds like she's becoming more independent, but I can't really say that's a bad thing."
She sighed.
"I'm not going to say we aren't codependent, but after we lost our family, well it just felt nice to have someone to lean on."
Lin nodded. "I understand, but the nature of growth is th-" the room shook, and then shattered like glass, hurling the saint through a howling abyss of madness. Lin grimaced as an act of will saw the fires of his soul stoked to new heights, burning a bubble of stability into being around him. Vast geometric shapes loomed in the distance, impossible shadows flicked between them, and flashes of a sickly gold warred with a riot of red tooth and claw. Above him stood a shattered cube, a vast
Golden spear impaling it.
Then it was over and Lin found himself falling into realspace. He whirled, bringing up his rod to parry the blow of a vast sword.
Gold met
Gold and a flash of light drove the daemon back.
The archangyl sneered,
"Despair, false saint, for your end is nigh. I am Occidendum, the hidden knife of the third circle."
Lin didn't bother with a response, falling into a combat stance as he spared a heartbeat to scan the room. A bunker of some kind, ritual circles hinted at who infested it. More concerning were the ten golden masses of wings and bestial heads. Cherubim. Why where they holding back?
Occidendum charged again with a punishing overhead swing. Lin brought his rod into a block as he flared his soul, but found his light smothered. A suddenly doomed block became a desperate rolling dodge as Occidendum laughed.
"Do you see! Do you see your feeble light being extinguished by the light of the True Lord of all? Even my lesser slaves are enough to smother so petty a thing. Know your insignificance as you die!"
Lin's rebuttal took the form of a blast of plasma as he drew his sidearm.
Occidendum stumbled as Lin backpedaled for distance, laying down a steady stream of fire. The daemon collapsed into a pile of burning-
LIE.
Lin whirled around and deflected a lethal strike as the daemon appeared behind him, an elbow jab sent him stumbling back.
Occidendum did not give him time to recover.
His aura suppressed, each blow shook Lin to his bones. The daemon was faster, stronger, but Lin had not lived so long in the Crucible to be cowed by such things. Lin recognized the pattern: a perfect execution of a killing shadow kata. The daemon's speed meant nothing against a foe who knew his steps. Lin stepped forward, dodging a killing blow by a hair's breadth as he struck. A flap of
Occidendum's wings turned a crippling blow into a minor one, as Lin drove his weapon into his shoulder, scoring deep molten lines into the daemon's pauldron.
Occidendum smiled cruelly
"You will die here mortal. Father shall feast upon your soul."
Lin scoffed and charged. His first blow drew the sword into a high block, leaving it out of position to block a blast of plasma. The sword moved whiplash-quick into a whirling circle of gold, cutting into Lin's shoulder when he was half a heartbeat to slow. Before his blood had hit the ground
Occidendum's stance flowed into a thrust, only to be swatted aside with a burst of golden light from Lin's rod. An attempt to take advantage of the daemon's open chest was punished with a brutal headbutt that sent Lin tumbling to the ground.
With a victorious cry
Occidendum descended upon the prone saint with a great overhead blow. Lin's plasma pistol clattered to the ground as he braced his rod with both hands and the sword descended with the finality of a cyclonic torpedo. Daemon-forged gold met Primarch-forged auramite in a blinding nova of
light, and Lin held fast. Triumph turned to shock as the daemon found its strength matched by the frail mortal. Lin laughed as his aura shone star bright from his form.
A question died on the daemon's lips, as a wet plop drew its gaze to the other figure in the room. Standing in a puddle of ichor and golden gore was a monster. Muscular arms covered in obsidian scales contrasted with its slight frame, its face was a featureless mask of pure white, the eyes shifting patterns of red and black. Its form was hidden under a flowing robe of midnight and atop its brow sat a crown of guilt. It shone with the light of every time Lin had let one die to save another, every soul he could not save, every failure and sacrifice of his life. It was a pain he had made peace with, and one that drove
Occidendum weeping on his knees.
"No! It was Father's will! I am not to bla-" he choked on denials he knew were false, and the thing delicately brought its claw to its mask, as if to hide a demure chuckle.
Occidendum wept silent horrified tears, gasping desperately for breath, and the creature strode bonelessly across the room. As the archangyl mouthed silent and unthinking prayers to its uncaring master, the god knelt down before the crippled daemon, and gently lifted its head to face its featureless mask. For a second something like hope appeared in
Occidendum's eyes. Then the mask parted into a gaping tooth-filled maw, and he died praying for the breath to scream.
The daemon's corpse fell to the ground with a wet thump as Zahhak rose to her feet, the sections of her mask playing over one another to clean blood and flesh from the porcelain teeth.
"You alright Lin?" Her voice was surprisingly mundane.
"I think he dislocated both my shoulders, but other than that I'm fine."
"Hold still, let me take a look." Her hands flowed like tar, claws becoming long fingers.
Lin hissed as she probed his injuries.
"The halo is new," Lin said.
She made a clicking sound as porcelain teeth played across each other.
"Well, I lost weight, thought I'd try on some new accessories. And your shoulders are fine."
Lin nodded as the neverborn helped him to his feet. "Did you get a look at what pulled us out?"
Zahhak winced, a human gesture rendered alien.
"Not a close one, but if it's not first circle it's not for want of power."
It wasn't
necessarily an incursion, but Lin very much doubted so potent a daemon would simply depart after its scheme failed. Lin's thoughts were interrupted by the screech of tortured metal as the goddess began tearing through the sealed doors.
"You sticking around?"
Her head twisted around to face him as she continued his work, and for a second Lin vaguely regretted how forcefully he'd told her to avoid looking human.
"I've still got half an hour of time."
Lin raised an eyebrow as she joked her way through her jitters.
"Yes, I'm sticking around. Just don't expect me to do anything more heroic than run screaming from the big one."
"Thank you."
She cocked her head.
"I do benefit a good deal from this."
"Nonetheless, thank you."
She actually paused in her work for a second.
" Your welcome." then with a final jerk tore free the last of the blast doors, exposing a gaggle of shocked cultist who immediately fell to their knees before his and Zahhak's auras.
"We're probably still in dis, just stay behind me while I clean out the stragglers."
Lin nodded, and quietly prayed this was just an assassination attempt as Zahhak strode forth, and the screaming started.
@Durin A thing. why yes I do think we have an incursion inbound, why do you ask?
