Khaine vs. The Nightbringer

From the ground beneath them burst Kaelis Ra, the Nightbringer, and the Eldar fell back for they knew their doom was at hand. With a gesture, Kaelis Ra slew all those near it. With a glance, it condemned the souls of great warriors to an eternity of dust. With a great roar, Khaine levelled his spear and charged.

Scythe and spear clashed over a mound of corpses in a struggle that tore the skies asunder. Khaine's speed and skill was breathtaking, but the Nightbringer was a being of shadow and the Spear of Khaine could not find its mark. Kaelis Ra let its foe exhaust his rage with the patience of death.

Without warning, the Nightbringer swung mightily with his scythe, aiming for Khaine's throat. But Khaine had heeded the counsel of the Laughing God well. As the Nightbringer's form became solid to deliver its blow, Khaine lunged, the tip of his spear driving clean through the Yngir's chest.

Kaelis Ra burst apart in an explosion of silvered shards that nearly cleft Khaine in two as the Yngir's essence tore free of physical form. The silvered warriors around him fell to the earth as the impact spread ever outward, returning to the ground from whence they came. Soon, only Khaine remained, howling his victory.

But victory came at a price. Shards of the Yngir's flesh, driven deep into Khaine's body by the cataclysmic demise of his foe, melted in the fires of the War God's wrath. The silver poison flowed into his bloodstream, forever tainting his physical incarnation with the aspect of the Reaper.

Kaelis Ra cannot truly die, for it is death incarnate. Raging at its defeat, its quintessence howled throughout space, entering every one of the Eldar race and cursing them with the terror of the grave. Thus it was that the seed of the Eldar's downfall was sown, and ultimately, the way of reincarnation was closed to them forever.

The Birth of Fear