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The Fall of Cadia

Shaskais
Sep 17th, 2023 (edited)
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  1. -Within the Cadian Gallery of Solemnace, the impossible happened. The Bell of Saint Gerstahl tolled. Even though it was locked in stasis, it somehow bled from its cracks, tolled, and sounds. The reverberations were shaking the entire tomb world to its core. The enraged Trazyn was caught in the reverberations and was dismantled by them, forcing him to relocate his consciousness to another surrogate. Still, he was not out of danger. He was pulled to safety by the Huntmaster, Game Warden of Solmenace, and Trazyn's personal bodyguard. Trazyn expressed his gratitude for the rescue but asked the Huntmaster if it was necessary to drag his master around like that. The Huntmaster apologized and released Trazyn.
  2.  
  3. -The Huntmaster was once the greatest game warden in the dynasties. Now, like most Necrons, he was given in to madness.
  4.  
  5. -The Huntsman also brought Sannet the Arch Cryptek of Solemnace. The Cryptek reported major damage to the galleries. Only the closed collection remains untouched.
  6.  
  7. -Trazyn surprised Sannet by saying that he was leaving the tomb world despite its current state. He said that the bell indicates the coming of a great cataclysm that he would so like to observe.
  8.  
  9. -Trazyn ordered the bell to be thrown into the Webway so it would menace the Aeldari. And since his legions were incapacitated by the damage caused by the bell, he took with him some of the Horus Hersey exhibits, the Terran artifacts, and special acquisitions.
  10.  
  11. -A vessel tore itself from the Warp like a child ripped from its mother's wound. The stuff of reality bled around it as it materialized into real space. Dravura Morkath, the Fortress Child, watched the vessel's crew, beastmen and Dark tech adepts, overcome with pain and panic. They vomited and tore at themselves; some died painfully from the experience. She could see their thoughts and hear them. They were full of pain and despair. They were so adapted to living in the Eye that the silent order of Real Space was agony.
  12.  
  13. -A voice behind her spoke. It told her that these were the children of the Eye. They were not meant for Real Space. It was the voice of Warmaster Abaddon. The heir of Horus, Master of the Black Legion, the being destined to slay the False Emperor. The man she called father. In the past, Abaddon found her as a foundling child, took her in, and made her his cupbearer. He shaped her into what she was now.
  14.  
  15. -Abaddon sat on a black throne that dwarfed even his immense form. What kind of creature required a seat of that size was a mystery like everything else in the Black Fortress.
  16.  
  17. -Morkath's warpsight allowed her to see the invisible daemon-things that danced and darted around Abaddon, folding into strange geometric shapes and reacting to the emotions around them.
  18.  
  19. -Abaddon said that the stars are different this time. He remembers the stars of the Cadia sector. He remembers every star and its place. For 10K years, they remained unchanging from the first time the Black Legion exited the Eye of Terror. Now, there were new stars, and they were moving. It's an enemy fleet.
  20.  
  21. -A Dark Mech adept and Cacadius Siron, formerly of Alpha Legion and now Abaddon's chief intelligence officer, confirmed that. It was a consolidated Imperial fleet made up of different battlefleets. The initial wave must have inflicted more damage to the Imperials than expected. The Imperial fleet was now split and chasing the Vengeful Spirit away from Cadia.
  22.  
  23. -Abaddon voiced the conclusion of these tactical facts. The Gate is Open.
  24.  
  25. -In response to Abaddon's proclamation, mutants, beastmen, and other members of crewmembers howled and chanted "To Cadia". They stamped and bayed for the bloodshed to come.
  26.  
  27. -Under the noise of the cheering crew, Morkath heard Abaddon's growl that it was only a step. The Crimson Path awaits.
  28.  
  29. -An Imperial picket fleet admiral witnessed the Warp emergence of the Black Fleet. It was the largest he had ever seen in his life. Yet the sight of the mind-rending un-colors of the Warp were not the cause of his true fear. It was the innumerable black shapes emerging from this canvas of horror. So many ships, and it was only the start. More and more kept emerging. It was the largest armada of the Archenemy since the Great Heresy. Among the traitor ships, the loyalists confirmed the presence of the Terminus Est, a vessel of dread myth across the breadth of the Imperium. There would be no surviving this. This was easily a Code Shatter Red. A full-crusade fleet was heading toward Cadia; what the admiral witnessed next made things even worse.
  30.  
  31. -Code Shatter Black. The traitors have a Blackstone Fortress with them.
  32.  
  33. -The admiral ordered the messenger ships to Warp translate to warn Cadia while the rest of the fleet enacted a doomed delay action against the traitor armada. In their hasty panic, the messenger ships began Warp translation too close to each other and the picket fleet.
  34.  
  35. -The energy of the Warp washed over the Imperial ships. A bridge communication psyker began vomiting black light before his teeth were shattered out of his mouth by the emergence of a beak. Something was inside him, and it was twisting his body. The Navy breachers blew him apart as the first feathers sprouted on his form. The desperately clumsy Warp translation caused mass possession among the fleet ships, affecting many of the psykers on board.
  36.  
  37. -The admiral ordered the picket fleet to direct their fire at the Blackstone Fortress. Just as he was giving the order, he saw a light gathering around the Blackstone Fortress. It was the birth of a star, only it wasn't a star; it was a beam. A beam made from the pure energy of the Warp. As the light bathed his ship, for a moment, the Admiral saw the daemonic horrors twisting in it. He could taste, hear, and feel the malevolence. The Emperor-class battleship, all two and a half miles of it, was atomized by the beam.
  38.  
  39. -The now leaderless fleet threw themselves definitely at the traitor armada. They were determined to sell their lives and the ships they called home in service of the Emperor to buy time for Cadia. The battle lasted seventy-seven minutes.
  40.  
  41. -Meanwhile, Cadia, the Imperials were celebrating victory, thinking that the initial wave was the entirety of the Black Crusade. Creed was one of the few Imperial commanders that were not convinced. In reality, despite the viciousness and vastness of the attack, it was a distracting move by Abaddon to lower the guard of the Imperials for the true strike.
  42.  
  43. -Fireworks on Cadia were banned under pain of death since rebels and heretics can easily turn them into improvised explosives. However, that did not stop the celebrating Cadians from using them
  44.  
  45. -There were so many traitor corpses on Cadia that they were blocking supply lines. Creed ordered them burned despite the fuel cost. He would not waste a handful of Cadian dirt to bury them.
  46.  
  47.  
  48. -Morkath stood next to the Warmaster. As his cupbearer, she carried bore a chalice fashioned from the skull of Horus Reborn, Fabius' clone of Abaddon's gene-father. She was more than that. She was the Fortress child. The conduit that channeled the energies of the Warp into the Blackstone Fortress and wakened it to serve her master. Without her, the Blackstone Fortress would be nothing but hostile, inert stone. More still she was the thought-seer to Abaddon. She saw into the mind of his chosen. When Lord Ravager Urkanthose tribute of a burning and ravaged Imperial fleet was accepted by Abaddon, she saw pride rise from the gorey pool of his mind.
  49.  
  50. -As Abaddon explained his grand plan to his chosen, Skyrak Slaughterborn, Devram Korda, Zaraphiston, Warpsmith Krom Gat, she saw into their minds and picked up on their emotions and ambitions.
  51.  
  52. -Krom Gat was the Chosen of Chaos Undivided. A former Iron Warrior whose mind was akin to a machine of interlocking gears.
  53.  
  54. -Abaddon tended to avoid meeting his chosen all at the same time unless he has to. To do so was to invite strife between the ambitious warlords and bog down the dissemination of information and orders. So, he had a solo meeting with each of the chosen. Doing so also had the benefit of making it easier for Morkath to read their minds.
  55.  
  56. -Morkath looked up at Abaddon. One of her eyes was replaced with blackstone orb. Abaddon never forbade her from reading his mind. She suspected that some of the thoughts that flowed from his mind were intended for her to read. This created a precious mind-bond between the two.
  57.  
  58. -Abaddon's mind was beautiful. Magnificent. A thing of cosmic order among the madness of the Chaos touched. Thoughts orbited his head like an astrolabe of angelic light. The only thing that marred that beauty was the Mark of the Chaos Acesendant that burned on Abaddon's forehead, placed there by the Chaos Gods themselves.
  59.  
  60. -Urkrathos requested that he would be allowed to lead the vanguard that the will scour Cadia. Abaddon asked him why does he deserve this honor. Urkrathos answered that never has a Chaos fleet annihilated so many Imperial ships in quick order. He was the Master of the Black Fleet, and it was his right. Abaddon pointed out that it wasn't an annihilation. The picket fleet's messenger ships escaped.
  61.  
  62. -Urkrathos said that the ships engaged in an unsafe translation. The Daemons of the Warp were on their trail. With venom in his voice, Abaddon reminded Urkrathos that daemons are tools, not battle brothers. The Black Legion does not place trust in them.
  63.  
  64. -Urkrathos said that the loyalist fleet had prepared the Warp route for the messenger ships and the messenger ships threw themselves into the Warp with reckless speed. Abaddon replied that these were just excuses.
  65.  
  66. -Fury boiled from Urkrathos as the nails pounded in his head. He yelled that Abaddon was asking the impossible. No mortal could do what he was asking. He then stepped forward toward Abaddon.
  67.  
  68. -The darkness around Abaddon deepened, and he spoke two words "Hold, brother". The voice that issued from his command was of absolute and terrifying authority. Urkrathos froze in place, and his shadow quaked from the boom of the Warmaster's voice. Even the mighty Blackstone Fortress let out a thin howl. Urkrathos, champion of Khaorne, was frozen in place,w stewing in his own fear.
  69.  
  70. -Then Abaddon placed his gauntlet on Urkrathos' chest and spoke gently. He told his brother that he asks the impossible because if he doesn't, they wouldn't be able to do the impossible. Urkrathos has served him well, but even so, he will not demand favor from his Warmaster.
  71.  
  72. -Urkrathos apologized and Abaddon accepted his apology. When Abaddon stepped away, the force that held Urkrathos in place released its grip.
  73.  
  74. -Abaddon explained his grand strategy to Urkrathos. The aim was not to conquer Cadia but to destroy it. The Will of Eternity (The Blackstone Fortress) will be their tool for achieving this. Therefore, there will be no mass landings on Cadia.
  75.  
  76. -Their bluff worked. The loyalists were fooled. They thought the war was over, and the traitors were defeated. The loyalists are leaving their Kasr's to pursue the retreating traitor forces. The Imperial Navy left Cadia's orbit to pursue the Vengeful Spirit and the Planetkiller. The loyalists are now exposed and out of position. They are vulnerable to orbital bombardment.
  77.  
  78. -The Will of Eternity will destroy the strength of Cadia, the Kasrs. One by one, they will be obliterated. It will cut off the Imperial armies in the field from their strongholds, communication hubs, supply lines, etc. The Imperial armies would have nowhere to fall back to. There would be to escape from the orbital fire. Only a limited landing of forces will be allowed by Krom Gat and his Warmachines and their supporting forces. They will destroy the Pylons. This is how Cadia will face its doom.
  79.  
  80. -Urkrathos said it was a clever and sound plan but dangerous. The gods will not like it. The gods gifted the Warmaster the Vengeful Spirit and the Planetkiller. Yet he uses them as a distraction while giving the glory of Cadia's destruction to a Xenos vessel.
  81.  
  82. -Abaddon responded that he cares nothing for glory, only for victory. The Powers did not give him the Vengeful Spirit and the Planetkiller; he took them. The Black Legion does not serve Chaos Gods. The Chaos Gods serve them. He did not rebel against an Emperor who acted like a god to bend the knee to entities that claimed to be gods. What Urkrathos was thinking were thoughts of the man he was before he became of the Black Legion. He was thinking like the World Eater he was.
  83.  
  84. -Abaddon explained to Urkrathos that he shouldn't wish for a battle on Cadia because it's merely a step. They break Cadia and begin forging the Crimson Path. They will create a rent that will tear the Imperium asunder beyond the point of recovery. Urkrathos thirsts for the glory of Cadia; he should imagine the glory of a landing on Terra.
  85.  
  86. -Urkrathos said that he supposes that's why *it* was here and looked at Morkath, and she locked eyes with the black pools that were his eyes. A thought-flood overtook her, and she saw through his eyes a memory of the past.
  87.  
  88. -Thirty years. Thirty year, the Hounds of Abaddon fought to tame the Blackstone Fortress called the Will Eternity for the Warmaster. They have been fighting inside its Xenos-cursed confines since Abaddon took it during the Gothic War. Urkrathos wouldn't be here if Abaddon didn't choose him. He wanted to prove himself to his Warmaster.
  89.  
  90. -Abaddon and Urkrathos led the Hounds in slaughtering Fortress cultists until they reached the chamber that they were protecting. Urkrathos, by Abaddon's command, flung the chamber doors open. Inside, they saw defaced Imperial iconology, statues of Primarchs overtaken by blackstone cables, and a sacrificial altar dripping with gore. Warp corruption was rife in that chamber, with Warpflesh growing and weaving into the Blackstone. Urkrathos detected movement in the chamber.
  91.  
  92. -Abaddon commanded whatever was hiding in the chamber to reveal itself and it did. A malnourished child dressed in rags appeared from the shadows. Her age was estimated to be 6 or 7. She had one violet eye and the other was an orb of blackstone.
  93.  
  94. -A Hound laughed and pointed his bolter at the child. He had killed children before and knew he would do so again. The child read his mind and knew his intentions before he could fire his weapon. She pointed at the marine, and suddenly, shards of Blackstone flew at the marine and tore into him.
  95.  
  96. -Another Hound tried to rush into the chamber, bolter raised. The child clapped her hands, causing the chamber doors to close on the marine's arms with such force that they were severed from his body. Urkrathos dashed toward the child but found himself raging impotently as Blackstone wires wrapped around his body and began to strangle the life out of him.
  97.  
  98. -Abaddion cried out for the child to stop. He approached the child unarmed. He had unfastened the Talon of Horus and set it aside with the protesting Drach'nyen. He told the child that they weren't going to harm her.
  99.  
  100. -Urkrathos couldn't believe it. The *bitch* killed one of his brothers and maimed the other, and Abaddon doesn't want to harm her?
  101.  
  102. *note: his word, not mine
  103.  
  104. -Abaddon beckoned the child to come near so he could have a good look at her. The child obeyed. She moved toward Abaddon, moving like a feral animal on four. Abaddon asked her to release Urkrathos. His warrior only meant to protect him. The wires around Urkrathos let go freeing him.
  105.  
  106. -Urkrathos watched as Abaddon removed his gauntlet and reached toward the child with his bare hand. He didn't grab the child. He waited until the skittish child came for him and placed her hand in his. Abaddon gently folded his hand over hers and asked her name. The child did not answer.
  107.  
  108. -Urkrathos meanwhile was cursing at the child in Nucerian using every profanity he could think of. He called her Dravura Morkath and promised that she would die in pain.
  109.  
  110. -Abaddon said that Urkrathos was correct. Dravura Morkath fits her. It meant Fortress Child in his language.
  111.  
  112. -The child opened her mouth, revealing blackstone teeth and the scars of their implantation. She tried to mouth the name Abaddon gave her. This was the moment Morkath received her name and met her father.
  113.  
  114. -In the present, after Urkrathos left and Morkath recovered, she followed Abaddon to his private study. A room filled with tomes and books.
  115.  
  116. -The Blackstone Fortress, even in its current state was fighting against its Chaos infestation, trying to reassert its Warp inert neutrality
  117.  
  118. -Abaddon asked Morkath about the honesty of his chosen. She answered that they were mostly truthful. However, Korda wishes to create a serum to strengthen Abaddon and improve his reaction time. Abaddon said that he won't take it. Morkath replied that Korda intends to slip the serum into Abaddon's drink during the victory feasts after destroying Cadia. The serum would bless him with heightened senses and draw him closer to Slaanesh.
  119.  
  120. -Abaddon said that a blessing cannot be given. It can only be accepted. He then showed Morkath his bare hand and clenched it. His hand was unchanged, uncorrupted.
  121.  
  122. -Abaddon said that the Four have tried to offer their blessings to him. Had he accepted, he would have looked greatly different. Like his Chosen, who had accepted the Chaos Gods' gifts and were shaped their image.
  123.  
  124. -Morkath pointed out that Abaddon accepted the Mark of the Chaos Ascendant. It was the only thing he accepted from the gods, but it was from all the gods, not one.
  125.  
  126. -Abaddon responded by tapping the Mark and saying that even so, the Mark cannot become who he was or else he would be lost to it like Horus. One must wear the crown but never become it. He also must always be ready to take it off.
  127.  
  128. -Morkath heart ached with love for Abaddon. She wanted to confess her feelings and call him what he was for her. Her father. She wanted him to call her daughter. She swore after Cadia's fall that both of them would be true to each other.
  129.  
  130. -Abaddon's men were loyal to him. However, they were being directed, knowingly or unknowingly, by the Chaos Gods. It was an irony that Abaddon felt deeply. The corruption of his men makes them struggle and clash against each other, replaying the rivalries between the gods in the Great Game in the Warp. Wittingly or not, the corrupted men seek to undermine and one-up each other, hoping to win some great victory to earn the favor of their Warmaster and, in doing so, earn the regard of their god when they draw Abaddon closer to their god's path.
  131.  
  132. -Abaddon must seek a balance in his council. No god can gain supremacy in the Black Legion. That's why Urkrathos must be watched. The coming slaughter of Cadia will greatly empower him. This is why Abaddon was going to use the fortress to destroy Cadia. This way, none of the god-touched can claim credit. The victory would be balanced.
  133.  
  134. -Morkath pointed out that Urkrathos was thinking of Angron. Thoughts of his gene-father were ever on his mind of late. It might indicate that he seeks to ascend to daemonhood.
  135.  
  136. -Abaddon replied by saying imagine wanting that fate. To be a pet pulled by a leash by a master. Ten thousand years later, Angron was still a slave-warrior, except now he is owned by a god. If Urkrathos is elevated to daemonhood by his patron god, it will swing the balance of the Black Legion council to Khorne. It's a further reason to avoid grinding siege on Cadia. While Abaddon must figure out how to limit the Urkrathos' bloodshed, he dares not restrain him. To do so would cause the Hounds to rebel. If the Will of Eternity fails, Abaddon would have to let Urkrathos get loose on Cadia, and this action is akin to inviting Khorne himself to his council. It's a bitter contingency, but it's the duty of the Warmaster to navigate these complex puzzles of power and command.
  137.  
  138. -Morkath watched as the thoughts that danced around Abaddon's head in brilliant cosmic order flared and changed into a crown. A crown that weighed heavy on his brow.
  139.  
  140. -Creed called a council to prepare for the coming strike at Cadia and figure out a way to survive the Blackstone Fortress should it fire at Cadia. Wolf lord Sven Bloodhowl proudly proclaimed that he was going to board the Blackstone Fortress and kill Abaddon and use his thick skull to sharpen his axe. Creed asked him if he was joking. Bloodhowl said that he wasn't. With the Imperial fleet chasing away Abaddon's capital ship, the Wolves ship was the only vessel capable in Cadia's orbit to fight its way near enough to the Blackstone Fortress and deploy landing craft.
  141.  
  142. -Creed pointed out there aren't enough Space Wolves for this mission. The earlier fighting reduced the Bloodhowl's force to fifty-eight warriors. Bloodbowl responded that's why he will request additional men for this mission. The Admech in the council volunteered a full maniple of Skittari. They will aid the Wolves in navigating the technical aspects of the Fortress and help sabotage it.
  143.  
  144. -Bloodhowl then looked to Creed and asked how many of his men he was willing to pledge to the mission. This put Creed in a dilemma. He knew this mission was a gamble, and gambles rarely worked. However, the men needed hope, and this mission might aid in that. To the cheer of the officers and staff in the council room, Creed pledged the remainder of the 13th Cadian regiment. When Creed turned to Kell, he whispered to him that he brought the Wolves here to take their troops, but the sons of bitches took his instead.
  145.  
  146. -Later, Creed explained his reasoning for allowing the mission. The war council of Cadia was a failure. Creed doesn't command a unified defense force. He has dozens of independent forces, each with their agendas. With this mission, they might get used to working with each other so it's worth losing the 13th for it.
  147.  
  148. -Urkrathos summoned and bound a She-Daemon of Khorne. Her name was Artesia Gore-mouth. The daemon presented itself as a female. Urkrathos told the daemon that Cadia lies open for the Black Legion. They will strike it soon.
  149.  
  150. - Artesia already knew this. Abaddon's desire will finally be fulfilled. However, the True Gods do not wish Abaddon his victory. Abaddon is the bearer of their combined Mark. He stands at the center of the Great Game. Each god wants him and will not suffer the others to have him. None of the Chaos Gods wish Abaddon to succeed without their help. He refuses to pledge his soul to any of them.
  151.  
  152. -Urkrathos told the daemon that Abaddon intends to use the Blackstone Fortress to destroy Cadia. By doing so, the victory will belong to Abaddon alone. The gods will have no glory in it. However, should it be by Khorne's hand that victory on Cadia was achieved for the Black Legion, then it will place Abaddon in Khorne's debt. This will tip the balance of the Great Game in the Blood God's favor. Urkrathos can do this for Khorne if he is granted the power he craves.
  153.  
  154. -The She-daemon offers to possess Urkrathos. This will grant him the power that's required for the task at hand, and she will allow him to taste all flavors of Imperial blood. Urkrathos responds that she is talking to him as if he were a servant of Slaanesh. Blood is blood. Khornes cares only that it flows. The she-daemon countered that not all blood is equal to Khorne. Holy blood is what he craves the most.
  155.  
  156. -Urkrathos refuses the offer and gives his own. He tells her that to win Cadia, he needs to be more than a mortal. Let Khorne know that if he gives him daemonhood he will deliver Abaddon and his Black Legion to his service
  157.  
  158. -The she-daemon said that the power Urkrathos wants requires a great sacrifice, and Khorne will not be pleased if this Blackstone monstrosity did the work for him. Urkrathos replied that he will make sure that it does not.
  159.  
  160. -Abaddon calls for the final council before the invasion of Cadia. As he gave orders, Zaraphiston burst into the chamber and reports of a battle barge with Fenrsian runes making its way to the Will of Eternity. Urkrathos requested that he be allowed to board the loyalist vessel with his Hounds before they were close enough to board the Fortress. Abaddon refused him. Abaddon said that he was once a Wolf, and he knows how to make them howl.
  161.  
  162. -As the Cadians and loyalist marines prepared for the boarding action aboard the Wolves battle barge, Warpfire suddenly erupted in their midst. A terrifying figure wreathed by purple lightening and heralded by the wailing of the damned and daemonic chorus emerged from the tainted flame. His face haunted the dreams of every Cadian child. Abaddon the Despoiler had come, and death and ruin followed in his wake.
  163.  
  164. -The Warpfire surrounding Abaddon flowed forth and turned a hundred Imperials into ash. Abaddon and the two havocs at his side let loose their guns on the tightly packed Imperials, reducing them to piles of gore and offal.
  165.  
  166. -The Space Wolves and their fellow loyalist marines opened fire at Abaddon. However, the area was so crowded their shots were hitting their own side. Whatever shots flew true at Abaddon somehow turned aside away from him.
  167.  
  168. -Abaddon stepped over the broken Imperial bodies to confront the charge of a Blood Claw. The Blood Claw swung his chainsword at Abaddon. Abaddon caught the sword and snapped it before tearing out the Wolf's sword arm. Such was the brutal force behind that motion that a chunk of the marine's chest flew with the torn arm.
  169.  
  170. -Bloodhowl was overcome with awe at Abaddon's dark majesty and overwhelming power. He saw Abaddon wade into the press of Imperials with his sword. He was swinging his sword with such terrifying speed and force that even those nearby those struck by his sword were split apart by the shockwaves of the sword's passage.
  171.  
  172. -Suddenly, Bloodhowl witnessed perhaps the greatest display of raw courage he had ever seen. A Cadian guardswoman charged toward Despoiler. While men fled before his terrible wrath, she pushed through, running on the gore-drenched floor, all while firing her pump gun. Bloodbowl knew that marines were said to know no fear. This guardswoman, he thought, was the true example of knowing no fear. She closed in on Abaddon and fired directly into his face. Miraculously, the scattershot was not turned aside. It hit Abaddon in the armor and face, creating a red line on his cheek. She pulled the trigger again, but she was out of ammo. Abaddon, with a disdainful swing of Drach'nyen, sent her tumbling bloody to the floor in two pieces.
  173.  
  174. -The death of Cadian woman enraged Bloodhowl more so than the death of battle brother. To see such heroism disrespected. He primed his jump pack to fly directly into Abaddon but before he could do that, he was held back by a Bloodguard, the oldest and wisest of his band. He told Bloodhowl that Abaddon is here because he fears their purpose. The Cadians were sacrificing their lives so that the Marines might complete their mission. They should not let their deaths be in vain by dying at the hands of the Arch-Traitor.
  175.  
  176. -A pack of Skyclaws flew at Abaddon. The two Black Legion havocs fired at them and caused them to rain down to the floor in chunks of metal and meat. Only one made it to Abaddon. Abaddon impaled him mid-air with Drach'nyen and tore him off with the Talon. Then Abaddon met the charge of a pack of Bloodclaws with his shoulder, smashing into the air and then slicing off their legs with one swing of his sword.
  177.  
  178. -Bloodhowl dropped among the Imperials and ordered them to retreat to the transports. They were evacuating the Battle Barge and committing to the fortress boarding action.
  179.  
  180. -One of the assault boats already embarked. However, in their panicking haste, the Imperials didn't close the hatch, causing them all to die in the void.
  181.  
  182. -From the assault boat, Bloodhowl watched Abaddon approach those Cadians who were getting stranded behind. Drach'nyen sang an unholy hymn as it fed on the souls of the Imperials. Daemonic energies boiled around Abaddon, slaying any mortal close enough to his hulking form.
  183.  
  184. -Nine loyalist marines from different chapters came at Abaddon at once. One was cut down by Drach'nyen. The second was torn and blasted to pieces by the Talon.
  185.  
  186. -A Bloodclaw went past Abaddon's sword and was going to deliver a mighty blow that would have made him a legend on Fenris. But it would not to be. Abaddon smashed the spiked handguard of Drach'nyen into the Bloodclaw's head. The marine's head was torn off when Abaddon moved his sword to parry a strike. The Marines fought bravely and did not give in to despair, but they were nothing to Abaddon. Their blades broke on his armor and he slaughtered them as if they were not heroes but livestock.
  187.  
  188. -Bloodhowl knew the truth then. Many called themselves Warmasters in the galaxy, but Abaddon was a true master of War.
  189.  
  190. -The loyalist survivors escaped before Abaddon blew up their battle barge from within. They flew to Blackstone Fortress, where the only certainty was death.
  191.  
  192. -Urkrathos knew that Cadians would be fanatical enough to resort to using desperate measures like turning their void vessels into suicide bombs and ramming them into the Black Legion's ships. They were savages.
  193.  
  194. -Urkrathos received a report that a vessel was moving below his fleet. Its speed was too fast for it to be Imperial. The crew member reported that scans indicate the ship was escort-sized. It was made of Blackstone or was carrying it. Urkrathos realized that it was a Xenos vessel. A vessel belonging to the Dead Legions.
  195.  
  196. -Urkrathos knew that Abaddon feared the possibility of the Imperials somehow harnessing the Pylons and using their capabilities against him. The fully activated null effect of the Pylons would counter the Fortress's Warp beam. That's the reason behind the limited landing of Krom Gat and his machines. The Imperials lacked the knowledge to activate the Pylons. However, the Xenos might.
  197.  
  198. -The she-daemon's words echoed in his mind. Her words about Khorne's displeasure if the Blackstone Fortress did the work for him. Urkrathos did not know if it was the work of his memory or the lengthening shadow in front of him. Ultimately, it didn't matter. Should the Blackstone Fortress fail, that would mean a ground invasion and that bloodshed would fill his cup of power.
  199.  
  200. -The crew member said that the Xenos vessel was targeted. They await Urkrathos' order to fire and destroy the Xenos. Urkrathos said to let it go. As he watched the Necron vessel speed toward Cadia, he bid the dead things inside to do their thing. From behind Urkrathos' shoulders, Urkrathos could hear the laughter of the She-daemon.
  201.  
  202. -Morkath felt a sentience that was not a sentience stir in the untamed regions of the Fortress. In areas that Chaos didn't corrupt, the Fortress was vital and alive. By spreading the taint of Chaos, she was killing the Fortress that she considered to be her mother. She was killing her mother to please her father.
  203.  
  204. -Urkrathos plan was proceeding. The slaughter of Imperial naval elements empowered him. The eye of Khorne turned to him as he led his Hounds on a boarding action against an orbital platform. With each kill, as more blood flowed, Urkrathos felt the power of Khorne surging inside him. His body began to change and morph, sprouting daemonic features. He was on the cusp of daemonhood. Suddenly, an explosion ripped the platform open to the void. The freezing touch of space froze the blood, and with no flowing blood, Khorne turned his gaze away, leaving Urkrathos in a state between mortality and daemonhood, a half-daemon.
  205.  
  206. -Abaddon was ordering the preparation for firing the Warp Beam of Kasr Kraf when a furious Urkrathos burst into the council chamber, roaring that he requires a judgment from Abaddon. A look from Abaddon froze Urkrathos in place and drained his fury.
  207.  
  208. -Moarkath noted that Urkrathos mind changed. His mind was no longer human, not even a transhuman. However, the pain of the Butcher's Nails remained. It was ever present, even with his change.
  209.  
  210. -Korda mockingly congratulated Urkrathos and asked him what they should call him now. Urkrathos the Half-Prince?
  211.  
  212. -Urkrathos roared and lept at Korda. They traded blows with a speed that was too quick for mortal eyes. However, they managed to land a few blows before Abaddon was on them. Abaddon grabbed Urkrathos by his swollen waist and used his other arm to grab Korda by the gorget. He lifted them both in the air. In a voice so deep and imbued with the power of the Warp that it shook the deck and caused a cogitator to explode, Abaddon said ENOUGH!
  213.  
  214. -Abaddon slammed Korda into the floor and then used his now free hand to slap the struggling Urkrathos repeatedly. Forehand followed by the backhand. Each slap sounded like a shotgun blast. As Abaddon beat Urkrathos he told him he is Abaddon of the Black Legion. He is the Warmaster. He is the favored of Khorne, and he demands silence!
  215.  
  216. -Morkath noticed that the thoughts that orbited Abaddon's head transformed into sigils of command. Abaddon wasn't actually speaking to Urkrathos but the entities pulling his strings.
  217.  
  218. -Urkrathos ceased struggling, and Abaddon, in a calm voice, asked if he was easy. Urkrathos said that Korda knew that he was ascending. His ship fired at him. How could Abaddon expect him not to answer this betrayal?
  219.  
  220. -Korda objected to their accusations, but it was clear to Morkath that he was lying. Korda asked Abaddon if he did not grant permission to fire on the platform when fired upon. Abaddon confirmed that, but he reminded Korda that the western side of the platform was designated as the breach zone of the landing parties.
  221.  
  222. -Urkrathos said that this is the proof of Korda's betrayal. He asked that Abaddon allow him to kill him and for his Hounds to slaughter his host.
  223.  
  224. -In response, Abaddon shook Urkrathos and said that Korda and Urkrathos traveled together to the heart of the Eye. They must not throw their oaths and brotherhood over this nonsense.
  225.  
  226. -Korda asked the western side relative to what? To their fleet's position or Cadia's northern pole?
  227.  
  228. -At this remark, Abaddon slowly turned his gaze toward Korda and said that maybe he should let Urkrathos kill him. Abaddon will decide Korda's punishment later. He will think of a suitable agonizing penance for the Slaaneshi warrior.
  229.  
  230. -Abaddon asked Urkrathos to tell him something he wanted, which would be granted. Urkrathos asked for himself and his Hounds to be set loose so they may deliver Cadia to the Warmaster. Abaddon allowed it, and by doing so, he might as well sanctioned the ascension of Urkrathos.
  231.  
  232. -Trazyn watched the tech priest Klarn, the human in charge of Cadia's Null shield, as he worked. He wanted to explain how wrong he was, How so wrong he was. The tech priest's lack of understanding made it difficult for Trazyn to aid him from the shadows undetected. He feared that if the humans discovered the fatherly hand of the Necrontyr at work, they would start hunting for an internal threat. perhaps even bring in the Novamarines.
  233.  
  234. -The humans called the dimensional rift an Eye. When in reality, it was a wound. An ancient stab wound in the skin of reality. Long ago, the Necrontyr fought beings that drank deeply from the Warp. The Master Crypteks had created the Pylons to combat the realm of Madness from which their enemies drew strength. The Pylons of Cadia were stitches the Necrontyr used to close shut this cosmic wound. Now Abaddon the Tomb Killer seeks to cut open these stitches with shears. This cannot be allowed to happen.
  235.  
  236. -The Null field boosted by Trazyn's aid was enough to block and evaporate the Fortress' Warp Beam. Abaddon met this news with fury. Morkath knew Abaddon was truly furious when he was quiet. The more angry he became, the stiller he got. Now, Abaddon was as still as a moon, unmoving and cold. Abaddon said that the loyalists proved more resourceful than he expected but he had planned for this.
  237.  
  238. -Urkrathos' daemonic half was full of glee at this. He demanded to be let loose on Cadia. Abaddon promised him that. He wants to land now! Abaddon responded that Urkrathos was getting ahead of himself and shouldn't forget his pledges. Whatever mortal half of him remains is still a man. He then dismissed Urkrathos to prepare his forces.
  239.  
  240. -Morkath told Abaddon that Urkrathos cannot be allowed to attack Cadia. It would empower him enough to cross the bounds of mortality and become a full daemon prince. This would upset the balance of the Black Legion.
  241.  
  242. -Abaddon replied that he already knew that Urkrathos must not ascend. That's why he ordered Korda to fire on him.
  243.  
  244. -Morkath was stunned by this revelation and said if Korda revealed this secret....
  245.  
  246. -Abaddon said Korda can keep a secret and take a beating if it suits his agenda. She should watch Korda just in case he intends to use this information against him.
  247.  
  248. -Abaddon said that they must assume that Urkrathos will be granted daemonhood. He had warned the fool countless times against the gifts of the gods. Abaddon knows more than what is written about the temptation of becoming a monster to achieve one's ambitions. Abaddon knows where that path leads.
  249.  
  250. -Abaddon continued by saying Urkrathos foolishly equates victory in Kasr Kraf as a victory on all Cadia. Kasr Kraf will be the toughest point of resistance. The ideal meat grinder for Urkrathos. He will give Abaddon victory there or die trying and weaken the Imperial resistance there. Either way, it would be for the benefit of Abaddon since the objective was to neutralize Imperial resistance in order to have free reign in demolishing the Pylons. And if the Null field control was located in Kraf, as Abaddon expects, and Urkrathos disables it then Abaddon will fire the Warp Beam at Kasr Kraf, eliminating it and Urkrathos in one stroke. Erasing two problems with one Blackstone.
  251.  
  252. -Abaddon said this is what is accomplished by focusing on the solution rather than the problem.
  253.  
  254. -It's noted that Abaddon's eyes are dark purple and black.
  255.  
  256. -Urkrathos loomed over the dying form of a sister that stood valiantly but futilely against him. Urkrathos told the prayer-witch that they served Khorne well. When sisters slaughtered the initial landing parties, they served the Blood God. And when they were slaughtered in turn when they assaulted a huge lander and found it housed a Lord of Skulls, their split blood pleased Khorne. Despite their words, they honored the Blood God by shedding the blood of their enemies and their own.
  257.  
  258. -The She daemon told Urkrathos the sisters' blood is the one they need. Holy blood stolen from the Corpse God so that they might re-anoint his temple, the one the loyalists call the Shrine of Saint Morrican.
  259.  
  260. -The dying Sister looked past Urkrathos and moaned the saint. She was looking with such intensity and certainty that Urkrathos himself looked behind his shoulders but found nothing but the carnage of battle. She began to shriek in ecstasy. The saint! the saint! The saint!. The She-daemon said that it was nothing but a dying hallucination. Khorne grows impatient. Urkrathos tore out the head of the Sister.
  261.  
  262. -Abaddon was having an intelligence meeting with Zeraphiston and Cacadius Siron. The plan is going well, but the raiding parties are facing heavy resistance. The forces were distracting and pinning Imperial armies in Kasr Kraf, shielding Krom Gat and his Iron Warriors as they dismantled the Pylons. Feeling concerned about his Raptor raiding parties, Siron suggested that Abaddon send in more forces to reinforce them. Abaddon denied it. He already landed all he was willing to lose.
  263.  
  264. -The only impediment to Krom Gat was a force of Iron Wolves. Krom Gat was using unarmed demolition and construction machines to destroy the forest of Pylons. And each Pylon is the size of a hab-block spire. The Iron Wolves will delay the operations. Abaddon commented that the Bitch-pups of Russ always place themselves where it's most inconvenient.
  265.  
  266. -As for the Dark Angels. The Hounds have trapped and besieged them in their crashed cruiser. However, the Hounds are sustaining heavy losses. Abaddon commented that the Dark Angels never die easy. They never do. When Zaraphiston reported that Urkrathos wasn't leading the siege but was off attacking a Sisters of Battle Shrine, Morkath sensed his disquiet.
  267.  
  268. -Zeraphiston and Abaddon turned to Morkath. They said that there were intruders aboard the Fortress. It was her job to detect them. Morkath objected. She said that the Fortress is not a traditional ship. It's a living creature. All the technology the Black Legion put on the Fortress was merely a saddle to tell it where to go and when to direct its power to its Warp cannon.
  269.  
  270. -Abaddon dismissed the meeting and took Moarkath with him to his chambers. He poured for her a goblet of fresh water and told her to drink it. Morkath thought it could contain a poison, but she drank it anyway. He was her Warmaster, and more than that, he was her father.
  271.  
  272. -Abaddon said that she encouraged him to fire the Fortress, and he did. Now, the irreplaceable Fortress was damaged. She had disappointed him. After all the favor he showed her. All the freedoms and privileges he granted her. She had failed him. Perhaps it was his fault. His faith in her was perhaps misplaced.
  273.  
  274. -Morkath saw Abaddon's thoughts. They were filled with regret and anger. Anger not at her but at himself. At this, Morkath fell to her knees and said that Abaddon did nothing wrong. She had failed him. However, the task is heavy. The fortress resists her. She is doing her best. There is no lack of effort on her part. The Fortress does not think like a mortal or even a demigod. But she can and will control the Fortress for him.
  275.  
  276. -Morkath reached out and clutched Abaddon's tabard, soaking it with her tears. Abaddon did not turn to face her. Abaddon said he wanted to believe her, but she consistently failed to fulfill her promises to the Legion and him. She did not warn them of the intruders aboard the Space Hulk. He does not question her devotion; he questions her ability. Perhaps he overestimated her and elevated her too high. Perhaps her true place is to be merely a cupbearer and thought-reader. She was no demigod, so he shouldn't expect a demigod's loyalty from her.
  277.  
  278. -When Abaddon placed his hand on her head, Morkath snapped out of it and was ashamed for falling apart because of his soft condemnation. Abaddon was right. She was acting like a groveling minion instead of a war captain. Her love for Abaddon made her act pathetically before his eyes.
  279.  
  280. -Morkath mastered herself and rose to face Abaddon. She said that she is no demigod. The Fortress was slaughtering his demigods before she came along. She had channeled more Warp energies into the Fortress than all his cabals of sorcerers combined. She made him the Master of the Fortress. He sought her out after he bound a daemon into the other Fortress, hoping it would bind it to his will, but turned it feral and useless for nothing but to trade to Huron. All of this she had done out of loyalty. How is she going to prove her loyalty again to Abaddon?
  281.  
  282. -For these bold words, Morkath expected Abaddon to murder her. Indeed, thoughts of murder flashed in his mind. She saw herself torn to ribbons by the Talon. She saw herself strangled to death by his mighty hand. She saw her head being smashed repeatedly on the table's edge. Abaddon knew she was seeing his murderous thoughts regarding her.
  283.  
  284. -Then, these violent thoughts were extinguished by the image of old memory. He remembered their first meeting when she was a scrawny child emerging from the shadows.
  285.  
  286. -Abaddon knelt and reached to her with his hand the same way he did when they first met. He told her to find the intruders and exterminate them, and he would put her in his highest regard. In his thoughts, Morkath saw herself standing beside his throne, cleaning his armor while Abaddon fatherly placed his hand on her head.
  287.  
  288. -Morkath took his hand and said that she would do it. She will bleed the stars for him. Abaddon replied by saying, let us start with Cadia.
  289.  
  290. -Creed was musing about Abaddon's intentions. Cadia was a problem for him since it controls Real Space access from the Eye. However, with the traitors having orbital supremacy, the Black Legion can bypass Cadia and strike at Terra. All Abaddon is doing thus far was committing limited forces with the support of the Fortress. Perhaps Abaddon is finally done with Cadia, or maybe there is something he isn't seeing.
  291.  
  292. -Urkrathos fought his way to the inner sanctum of the Shrine where they kept the corpse of the Saint. All that stood in his way was an old, frail cardinal. The cardinal did not back down or flee. He stood between the Urkrathos and the saint's reliquary, spewing denouncements and condemnations at the daemo-touched heretic before him. Urkrathos grabbed the cardinal and dragged him to the alter. The Cardinal pulled a pistol and fired it point blank into Urkrathos, but it did nothing against his armored form. Urkrathos smashed the cardinal on top of the altar and then broke off a thigh bone from the saint's corpse. He used the sharp bone to stab the struggling Cardinal to death.
  293.  
  294. -The violence and blasphemy of the act attracted the eye of Khorne. Urkrathos felt the swell of Warp energy. A blessing was granted, but not the one that Urkrathos sought.
  295.  
  296. -The chest of the saint's corpse bloated and started moving. Urkrathos tore open the saint's ribcage and watched as an infantile Bloodletter was born from the saint's corpse. The small daemon rapidly grew to full size and then stalked for fresh kills. All over the shrine, Bloodletters manifested and dragged sisters down to be butchered.
  297.  
  298. -Urkrathos was enraged. He had slaughtered these Imperial fanatics and defiled this shrine of the False Emperor for Khorne, and all he had given were daemons. The She-Daemon Artesia told him that his offering was not enough. Khorne's eye moved on.
  299.  
  300. -This further enraged Urkrathos, that his offering was not worthy enough for Khorne. Urkrathos tore the rune of Khorne from his armor and cast it down before stomping and spitting on it. He yelled to Khorne that he renounces him. He renounces his fickle and uncaring nature that makes him the worst of all gods. As useless as the Corpse Emperor. Tzeentch bestows change on his servants. Nurgle is generous with his blessings. Slaanesh even does more for his followers. Khorne is nothing!
  301.  
  302. -Urkrathos raised his arms to the sky and challenged Khorne to punish him but received nothing but silence. Artesia mockingly laughed at him and asked if he thought that Khorne cared about his words or what he did with his icons. Urkrathos can do whatever he likes with the rune, even piss on it, and it wouldn't matter to Khorne. At the end, Khorne is a god, and Urkrathos is a half-mortal fool.
  303.  
  304. -Urkrathos asked what kind of a god that doesn't care if he is renounced. The She-Daemon said that Urkrathos' name isn't written in a book somewhere. He is irrelevant to Khorne. The truth of the matter is that when Urkrathos sheds blood, Khorne blesses him. When others shed more blood, Khorne blesses them.
  305.  
  306. -She continues by saying that Urkrathos was a fool to think that his offering with this little siege would attract the attention of Khorne for long. They were in the middle of a planetary invasion. Millions are dying by the hour. Slaughter rules Cadia. Urkrathos was killing too slowly. Urkrathos needed make a dramatic gesture. To spill rivers of blood. This siege is nothing but a small trickle. Khorne cares nothing for tactical objectives or even victory. He wants murder and carnage. Urkrathos won't satisfy Khorne by banging on walls.
  307.  
  308. -Urkrathos asked what he should do when the Imperials won't fight him any other way. For a moment, Artesia said nothing. She merely plopped herself into a large pool of gathering blood and happily splashed around for a bit before telling Urkrathos to be patient and use the Lords of Skulls.
  309.  
  310. -Trazyn couldn't be everywhere on Cadia, so he sent scarabs to capture vid and picts of the unfolding war for Cadia. Trazyn himself hid at western Kraf gate since he believed that the Abaddon would direct his primary breakthrough effort there. Another benefit is that it would place him away from the Novamarines and their extreme borish xenocidal tendencies. Of all the Imperials, the Novamarines were the most likely to detect him.
  311.  
  312. -Trazyn was aggravated. He expected a major breakthrough in the Western Gate; all he got was singing cultists. He contacted Sannet to yell at him and scold him for not talking him out of observing the Western Gate and accepting the Cryptek's projections of the breakthrough happening in the Eastern Gate. Trazyn doesn't like to be honest with himself. It meant he had to take ownership of his decisions and that experience he found neither enjoyable nor profitable.
  313.  
  314. -The singing cultists were crawling on all fours, and some were killing themselves, creating piles of bodies. Trazyn ordered Sannet to translate the song's words. The translation revealed that the cultists were reciting the names of the Warp God-head Nurgle.
  315.  
  316. -Trazyn suddenly detected a structural weakness in the Kasr wall and hastily ordered the Huntsmater to get them out there. Both dived into the Hyperspace pocket. From there, Trazyn spied on what was happening. The gate and the walls were corroding and decaying. Trazyn zoomed on the walls and saw what was corroding it. Microscopic daemons of Nurgle were starting to infest the wall. They danced, mated, defecated, and then died en masses to make fodder for fresh spreading colonies of their descendants. The multiplying daemons ate their dead and even their own flesh and most notably, they were gnawing on the material of the wall as well. Trazyn recognized what the daemons were doing. His eons of existence made him aware of what was happening. The daemons were invoking the power of entropy. They weren't actually eating the walls; they were aging them.
  317.  
  318. -The walls collapsed, allowing the traitors to surge forth and attack the bewildered Cadians. Trazyn was overjoyed that he was right in the middle of the real breakthrough and that he was right and going to rub it in Sannet's face.
  319.  
  320. -A purple Warpflame manifestation appeared before Urkrathos. Abaddon said that he had given Urkrathos command over the invasion of Cadia, yet he was spending his forces against a mere shrine. Kraf was breached and is under assault by the Black Legion. Krom Gat Iron Warriors are close to breaking fighting against the Wolves unsupported. And Urkrathos' own warband the Hounds of Abaddon are besieging the Dark Angels without their lord's leadership. While this was happening, Urkrathos ground his daemonic armies against a useless target.
  321.  
  322. -Urkrathos said that Khorne told him that the key to victory in Kraf lies in destroying the shrine. Abaddon responded by asking if it was really the voice of Khorne or Urkrathos' own. He wasn't sure that Urkrathos should listen to either.
  323.  
  324. -As Urkrathos was assuring Abaddon of his plan and that soon he would be at Kraf, the She-Daemon drew his attention to something. It seems that Urkrathos will be at Kraf sooner than he expected.
  325.  
  326. -The Imperial Church and Sisters had unleashed a wave of Arco-flagellants and penitent engines at Urkrathos armies. The clashes between the Khornate forces and tech-horrors of the Emperor's church created a battlefield of brutal carnage that attracted the attention of Khorne.
  327.  
  328. -As Urkrathos smashed, ripped, and tore through the church's walking atrocities, the She-Daemon cried out to Urkrathos to call Khorne now.
  329.  
  330. -Urkrathos bid Khorne, the ungrateful god, to look at his offering. He roared to the skies, demanding that Kharneth look upon his gifts.
  331.  
  332. -Urkrathos screamed, "KHORNE!" as he grabbed a berserker and a flagellant and lifted them to the skies. He said should Khorne bless him, he would give him Cadia. Bless him, and he would give him Abaddon the Warmaster!
  333.  
  334. -Urkrathos said that he swears this upon the only substance that matters. Then Urkrathos crushed the berserker and flagellant in his hands, baptizing himself with their blood. The offering was accepted, and Urkrathos was half-Prince no longer.
  335.  
  336. -Urkrathos organs ruptured and filled the emptiness of his chest with gore and blood that seemingly flowed from an infinite dimension. As his body transformed, two voices sounded from within Urkrathos. One, a daemonic voice exalting in his ascension and embracing Khorne as his master. The second voice was Urkrathos' human voice, screaming in horror and begging it to stop.
  337.  
  338. -Inside Urkrathos, his new daemon soul ripped itself from his human soul. Urkrathos' human soul was discarded like a placenta. It served its purpose in feeding and aiding the birth of the Daemon soul, and now it can die unmourned and forgotten.
  339.  
  340. -Urkrathos would not miss his body. It was merely a vessel. What made Urkrathos recoil in his mind was the awful truth that his free will was forever extinguished, especially when Artesia leaped at him and merged with his soul. As she did so, she cried out to Khorne that she had brought this one to him. He was her sacrifice to the Crimson Emperor.
  341.  
  342. -Urkrathos howled in exaltation and horror at what he had become. But most of all, he howlled for the endless thirst of blood that was now consuming him.
  343.  
  344. -While Urkrathos fought against the penitent horde, the Sisters led by the twin Canonesses Genevieve and Eleanor sortied out and, after a rough, bloody battle, managed to destroy and disable the Daemon engines. After the battle, Genevieve was on the ground. Her armour was damaged and suffering power loss.
  345.  
  346. -Urkrathos flew down and loomed over Genevieve. He told her he didn't care that the Sisters destroyed the Lords of Skulls. They were a means to an end. The daemons they housed can be resummoned and bound to new forms.
  347.  
  348. -Genevieve pointed her sword at Urkrathos and said that his attack failed. He will never take the shrine.
  349.  
  350.  
  351. -Urkrathos replied that Imperials always think everything revolves around them. They think that traitors want to spite them and destroy their little shrines. He spits on their shrines for they mean nothing to him. They are piles of stone built in worship of a man they don't remember. But Urkrathos remembers. He saw the Emperor with his eyes and witnessed his feet of clay. Urkrathos attacked the shrine for one reason. Blood. And the Sisters gave what he wanted in abundance. He should thank them for it. However, while he himself doesn't for the banished daemons, his master Khorne does, and he is a vengeful god.
  352.  
  353. -Urkrathos made to strike her down with his axe. Genevieve dodged and slashed his knuckles causing Urkrathos to scream 'LITTLE BITCH". He said that before this it was just for his god. Now, it was for him. He will drag her by her hair to her sisters and slaughter and humiliate her body in front of them.
  354.  
  355. -Urkrathos slashed sideways. There was no dodging this. Before the axe swing could hit its target, something slammed into Urkrathos, staggering him. It was Genevieve's twin sister, Eleanor. She was piloting a paragon warsuit. The warsuit was no match for the strength of a daemon prince but Eleanor's skill as duelist made up for it. Eleanor dueled the daemon prince, all while shielding her sister.
  356.  
  357. -Eleanor traded blows with the daemons. Her sister noticed that Eleanor was glowing, growing more radiant with each strike she delivered to the daemon.
  358.  
  359. -Urkrathos wrapped his tail around one of the warsuit arms and jumped to rib Eleanor with his foot talons. This was the opening Eleanor needed. She yanked the daemon down by his tail and then stabbed her sword into his tail, pinning him in place. She then grabbed her sister and escaped.
  360.  
  361. -Urkrathos clawed at the fleeing form of the sisters and seethed. He grabbed at the sword pinning him, but the merest touch seared his hands. The sword was anathema to his kind. He had thought that ascension would have meant the end of pain. The pain the sword was causing him made the bite of the Nails seem like the pinpricks of a needle.
  362.  
  363. -Urkrathos saw Exorcist missiles heading his way. He grabbed a piece of masonry and smashed it over the sword, freeing his tail to wiggle free. He flew off. He will slaughter those two later. First, Kasr Kraf.
  364.  
  365. -Allied forces began to converge on Kasr Kraf because it was revealed to be the enemy's main target. There were also other reasons. The Dark Angels were driven out of their downed ship by orbital fire. The Iron Wolves defeated the Iron Warriors and their machines and were now feeling the heat of orbital bombardment. The sisters retreated from their shrine after the explosions of two daemon engines made it indefensible. Simply put, Kasr Kraf was the only safe to shelter
  366.  
  367. -Urkrathos entered Abaddon's council chamber aboard the Blackstone Fortress. The force of his presence recoiled the other chosen in the chamber except Zeraphiston, who was smiling and had his his back turned to the Daemon Prince.
  368.  
  369. -Urkrathos turned his blazing eyes to Morkath. He sent a telepathic message to the language center of her brain. It felt as if she was stabbed in the brain. He told her that he knew now that she was a thought reader. It explains why Abaddon kept her around. He wonders how many in the council know this.
  370.  
  371. -Morkath realized that Urkrathos no longer has thoughts. He wasn't a flesh-vessel channeling the power of a god. He was a pure Warp energy being, a part of his god.
  372.  
  373. -Urkrathos told Abaddon and the council that though he was now a prince among daemons he was still Urkrathos to his brothers and friends.
  374.  
  375. -Abaddon asked him if it was the behavior of a friend to leave his brothers to fight on Cadia and his own men to struggle against Sons of the Lion to launch an unsanctioned attack on the Emperor's zealots to pave the way for his ascension.
  376.  
  377. -Urkrathos said that it's the behavior of one who knows how to seize victory. His daemonhood was required to win the war on Cadia. It's what Abaddon taught him. To do whatever was necessary to win.
  378.  
  379. -Abaddon said that this was the final siege of Cadia. He will not have Urkrathos trade it for his red god.
  380.  
  381. -Urkrathos objected. He fights for no god. He fights for Abaddon. Abaddon dismissed that statement. Abaddon said that Urkrathos fights to bind Abaddon to his god. He said he wondered if he was now the same Urkrathos who was Abaddon's axe, the same man who discarded the shackles of petty gods to walk a greater path.
  382.  
  383. -Urkrathos said that everything he has done was to make himself a greater warrior for Abaddon's crusades.
  384.  
  385. -Abaddon said that they do not wage crusades. It's the Imperials that do that. They launch petty crusades in the name of their god. It's why the Warp hungers for them. The Imperials are desperate for a master. He wanted Urkrathos and his brothers to be their own masters.
  386.  
  387. --Urkrathos got angry at this abuse. He said that Abaddon was falsely accusing him of disloyalty and claiming he wasn't his man. Abaddon cut him off and said that Urkrathos was never his. He is claiming now that Urkrathos himself wasn't his own.
  388.  
  389. -Abaddon went on to say that Urkrathos broke one of the rules of the Chosen Council. The rule was to not bring any warrior, slave, or daemon to their councils. There was a Warp parasite clinging to Urkrathos and it's not the first time that Urkrathos brought that parasite here.
  390.  
  391. -When Urkrathos denied it, Abaddon responded by saying that Khorne did not give Urkrathos the ability to lie. Urkrathos might be a lord of the Warp now, but he is the Warmaster of Chaos. Though He cares not for the many titles given to him by the Chaos Gods, among these titles is the Commander of Daemons.
  392.  
  393. -Warp energy flowed toward Abaddon. The voice that issued from Abaddon's mouth came from the depths of the Warp. It came out as a terrible chorus of voices that sounded like air escaping from a breached vessel. "TELL ME YOUR NAME".
  394.  
  395. -The force of Abaddon's voice struck Urkrathos like a tide and caused him to fall into a seizure. The She-Daemon that grafted herself into Urkrathos' essence was compelled to answer. She spoke her name Artesia of the Mouths of Gore. Abaddon commanded the She-Daemon to begone from his ship and never return. The She-Daemon was detached from Urkrathos and flung herself back into the Warp.
  396.  
  397. -Abaddon told the now recovering Urkrathos that he was the Warmaster of Chaos. He was more powerful than any daemon thrall. Urkrathos was a prince but a prince is not a king.
  398.  
  399. -Urkrathos thanked Abaddon for the lesson and for ridding him of that parasite.
  400.  
  401. -Abaddon told Urkrathos that his promise to him still stands. He promised that he would allow him to lead the attack on Cadia, and he kept his promises
  402.  
  403. -Urkrathos vowed to slaughter Cadia in his name and departed. But before he left, he sent another telepathic message to Morkath. He told her this is how Abaddon treats his friends. She should imagine how he treats his creations.
  404.  
  405. -Abaddon turned to Morkath. He told her she cannot read the mind of Urkrathos, who would eventually either die or destabilize his chosen council. She cannot read the mind of Zeraphiston. Krom Gat, the Master of the Undivided, was slain by the Space Wolves. Her use for him is shrinking. She better find the intruders soon,
  406.  
  407. -Watching the siege of Kasr Kraf, Trazyn felt like Warden Zaddir. It was agonizing. Warden Zaddir was a character from a Necrontyr drama play. The story goes that he betrayed the Mephrit, and as a punishment, the lords of the Mephrit sewed his mouth shut and brought him to their lavish feast so that he would witness them feast while he starved. This is how Trazyn felt as he witnessed the most diverse collection of Imperial and Chaos forces clash against each other, and he couldn't make any acquisitions.
  408.  
  409. -The Huntmaster sat cross-legged in the hyperspace pocket. He warned against leaving the pocket now. The game will most likely detect them. However, should his master decide he wants to bag a prey, he is willing to oblige. Sannet warned against doing that. Trazyn already tipped the scale in favor of the Imperials once. To do so again would not be worth the consequences. The Huntsmaster agreed. It was better to let nature take its course. Trazyn agreed but added a parameter for himself. He would aid the Imperials again if the situation got direly desperate or....if it amused him.
  410.  
  411.  
  412. -The corpses around Urkrathos started moving and mouthing a single word. They chanted blood, blood, blood. Urkrathos and Hounds took up the chant. The word lost its meaning and became a driving sound. Urkrathos gave no speech. drew no plan. There was no need. He promised them blood, and his daemonic and mortal followers followed his charge.
  413.  
  414. -During the charge, the Hounds died around Urkrathos. In the past the deaths of his battle brothers pained him. Their lives were precious to him. They had followed him since he had turned from the False Emperor. When they fell in battle, the mortal Urkrathos swung his axe in lamentation and grief.
  415.  
  416. -The daemon Urkrathos cared not for the lives of the Hounds. They were the greatest of fouls to see him as their beloved leader instead of being their harvester. They were nothing but tools to fuel his essence. They would spill the blood of his enemies and their own for his glory.
  417.  
  418. -The 33rd Cadian regiment attempted to hold back the traitor horde. They fought well and with unwavering resolve. However, their high morale was due to the leadership of their old commander Deshane. When the Chaos raptors kidnapped the Deshane the 33rd regiment fought on to avenge the abduction of their commander. The raptors, however, were masters of their craft, and their craft was terror. They dangled the Cadian commander above his men's trenches, and Vox broadcasted his terrified sobbing and pleading. Then, they tore him apart, showering his men below with his blood and pieces until nothing remained but a red skeleton. Then, the traitor orbital fire fell on the trenches, killing warriors from both sides. The 33rd Cadian regiment broke and routed. They ran back to the walls with the Khorne berserkers on the chase, chainsawing any Cadian they ran down. The Cadians tried to get to the walls slab-hatches to escape the slaughter, but none opened. There was no escape.
  419.  
  420. -The Black Legion reached the Kriegan Gates and countless traitor space marines pushed the immense gates open and charged in. Creed sprang his trap. Two armoured regiments with air support fired every cannon and explosive ordnance at the massing traitor marines around the gate. Hundreds of heretic marines were vaporized or burned to blackened corpses. Yet hundreds more traitor marines surged forth, surrounded by the ashes of their slain fellows and screaming BLOOD, BLOOD, BLOOOOD!
  421.  
  422. -The fortress' cultist slaves found one of the intruders. A Cadian trooper. The slaves were half-feral so they killed and devoured him before Morkath could get there to retrieve him for psychic-dissection. Though the Cadian was reduced to a bloody skeleton, thankfully, his helmet proved sturdy, saving his brain from the ravenous cultists. She brought it to Siron.
  423.  
  424. -Few among the Black Legion possessed a functioning omophagea organ. For some unknown reason, the touch of the Warp either threw the organ into overdrive or withered it completely. Siron was among the few that possessed a functioning organ.
  425.  
  426. -Siron devoured the Cadian brain and reported the memories of the Cadian trooper. The fortress was directing the Space Wolves. It guided them to the parts not infested with the Warp energies Morkath had channeled into the fortress. This is why Morkath couldn't detect the intruders. The fortress was aiding in its own sabotage.
  427.  
  428. -Morkath deduced that Cadian was purposely cut off from the rest of the loyalist group to act as a distraction. The fortress analyzed the frailest of the Imperials and most expendable and threw him in the path of the heretics to throw them off the trail.
  429.  
  430. -The Fortress was treating the Chaos forces as a parasitical infection. It's trying to find a way to purge them. Morkath knew what that meant. It meant that Fortress, whom she considered to be her mother, had rejected her entirely.
  431.  
  432. -Morkath realized that the Wolves were going to shield the generator area. She summoned Mag-lev conveyer and told Siron to bring Melta weapons since she expected the Fortress to be hostile.
  433.  
  434. -Morkath slammed her hand into the Fortress' substance and channeled the poison of the Warp into the Fortress. She hoped that it hurt the Fortress as much as the Fortress' betrayal hurt her. The spiteful revenge of a spurned daughter.
  435.  
  436.  
  437. -The Cadians have sprung the trap on Urkrathos forces, and he had ravaged it in return. Urkrathos knew in a straight-up fight, he would lose a berserker for every fifty Cadians. A hundred if the fight went his way. These Karskin, however, were something else. Urkrathos noted that these soldiers were fighting with skill and valor akin to Space Marines. They were willing to annihilate themselves and use themselves as bait; if it meant killing the traitor marines. Urkrathos told the She-daemon that it's said that Space Marines know no fear, and yet they do not throw lives with such disregard. The Karskin were killing a berserker for thirty of their own. That's unsustainable losses for the Hounds.
  438.  
  439. -However, the grinding stalemate was as much a problem as a solution. The streets ran with rivers of blood and gore. Enough blood to thin the walls of reality and summon the daemons of Khorne. Urkrathos told the She-Daemon to call her kin. She said that the Bloodletters won't come. They dare not come this close to the Null-array. They fear its vibrations of emptiness.
  440.  
  441. -Urkrathos then demanded that she summon something with no mind. Artesia let out a whistle. The blood pools clotted and turned into a membrane that swelled up. Paws and muzzles burst from the membrane, revealing the Fleshounds of Khorne. The beasts eagerly followed their princely master into a charge,
  442.  
  443. -The Black Templar led a counter charge. They carried with them a Dragon-tailed banner. It was said that the banner laid across the lap of the Emperor for days. The light emanating from the banner seared the daemons' eyes and made them recoil. Urkrathos could bear it no longer and charged the banner's bearer, who drew his weapon and met the daemon prince's charge.
  444.  
  445. -The Black Templar's champion clashed his sword against Urkrathos axe with such force that it shattered the prince's weapon and caused shards to stab into Urkrathos. The enraged daemon prince smashed the champion with the heft of his now broken axe with all his might. He then stomped the champion repeatedly before moving on. The Black Templars fought their way to their fallen champion and found that he still held both the black sword and the banner. Even in his state he protected the banner, placing it on his chest so it wouldn't be stained by the blood-drenched ground.
  446.  
  447. -The armor of faith was not dented. It wasn't damaged at all. It was a miracle. The champion's body, however, sustained gruesome fatal damage from the prince's wrathful assault. Before passing, the champion told Amalrich that when he fought the daemon, he heard a voice. It wasn't Sigismund. She told him that he was right to bring him here and that the greatest act of faith, of love of mankind, is self-sacrifice.
  448.  
  449. -Trazyn was directing the Huntsmaster shots. Picking targets for him to kill to aid the Cadians. When Trazyn picked a target, a rampaging berserker champion that was laying waste to the Cadian lines, he gave the order, but nothing happened. Trazyn vocalized his irritation. The Huntsmaster told him not to rush him. This is an art.
  450.  
  451. -Trazyn normally doesn't abide disrespect, but he was a being who respected skill. Before the biotransference Trazyn traded an entire decurion of warriors and several dangerous relics to secure the services of the Huntsmaster. With this, he had secured an extraordinary servant who had served him well across the eons, bagging big game for his gallery. In the present, madness had marked the Huntsmaster. He sees all of the galaxy as a big game reserve for him to practice his craft. Every enemy he saw was some trophy animal in his warped mind. Trazyn let him take his time.
  452.  
  453. -Normally, it took a single shot to kill a target with the Deathmarks' weapon. The berserker was made from sterner stuff. He froze as if suffering a stroke and dropped his axe, his hands opening and closing. The Cadians took the chance to swarm him and bayonet him to death.
  454.  
  455. -The Huntsmaster pointed out a large game. It was the Chaos Baneblade. Trazyn knew that thing needed to be stopped before it did too much damage to the Cadians. He told the Huntmaster that a game that big is too huge to be taken out with a single shot. The Huntsmaster said it might take three or four. Trazyn got a better idea. He asked the Huntmaster how close can he take them to the Baneblade. The Huntsmaster said a hundred cubits without danger. With danger, close enough to kick. Trazyn primed mindshackle scarabs and told the Huntsmaster close enough to kick.
  456.  
  457. -Urkrathos was beyond rage and wrath. The Templar champion died bloodlessly. Moreover, he destroyed the axe gifted to him by Khorne. A weapon forged from the black hearts of murderers who killed before humanity fully evolved.
  458.  
  459. -Urkrathos engaged the Sisters of Battle; they sang as he slew them. Their blood, so full of righteousness, tasted good. The fact that they made him work for it made it even better tasting.
  460.  
  461. -Genevieve fellow sisters sacrificed themselves to give us the opening to strike the daemon. She slashed Urkrathos on the chest, causing him to recoil. She followed through with a lunge to end this as the daemon staggered.
  462.  
  463. -Urkrathos let out a gleeful laugh. It was then that Genevieve knew she was baited into overcommitting. He wasn't staggered. It was a feint. Urkrathos reached out with incredible speed and seized Genevieve with his hand. He broke her sword arm with his thumb and then began to squeeze. With her last breath, the canoness dedicated her death to the Emperor.
  464.  
  465. -Eleanor jumped onto Urkrathos' chest and stabbed him in the chest, attempting to save her twin sister. Her sword dug deep into Urkrathos' chest, almost reaching his heart. Urkrathos grabbed Eleanor and violently shook her before smashing her into the ground with deadly force.
  466.  
  467. -The mortally wounded Eleanor was beside Genevieve on the bloody ground. She reached with her hand toward her sister's. Just as he touched her sister's hand, Urkrathos raised his fist and pounded her into the ground of the world they failed to protect.
  468.  
  469. -the Fortress was delaying Morkath and her hunting parties. The fortress was resisting them. Messing with the gravity around them. Filling their heads with hallucinations and existential dread. A report reached Morkath. The Blackstone Fortress was under attack. The Imperial Navy mustered the courage to launch an attack at the Fortress. They couldn't possibly destroy the fortress but crippling it would be victory enough. It would mean stranding it at Cadia. It would mean they wouldn't be able to sail it to Terra. This is exactly what's going to happen if the Wolves shut down the Fortress' shields.
  470.  
  471. -Emergence warp emergence was happening near Cadia. It was the biggest the Imperial naval officers had ever seen. Something bigger than the Blackstone fortress was going emerge from it soon. The Imperials were terrified that it was more traitor forces but it turned out to be the Phalanx. The Phalanx has arrived to aid Cadia in its darkest hour.
  472.  
  473. -Eleanor and Genevieve woke up in darkness. They knew they were dead, but the place was empty; it was as if they had never lived at all. They were taught that the souls of martyrs stood beside the Emperor forever more. That can't be wrong, so they must be in a transitory limbo of some sort.
  474.  
  475. -They heard a voice and they feared it was a daemon's. The voice spoke to them. It told them that she was no daemon. But many fear her to be. She was no martyr, for she was beyond death. She was both wonderous and terrible. She cannot tell them not to fear her for no one knows what she is, not even herself. She was duty and faith. Word and deed. If they wish to serve the Emperor, then they must come with her.
  476.  
  477. -The darkness was filled with light, and Eleanor and Genevieve stepped into the light. They were reborn back into reality in flesh and spirit.
  478.  
  479. -Urkrathos slew the Magos and his tech-warriors that defended the Null-Array. Examining the technology of the array, Urkrathos noticed that it had been modified with xenos technology, which was awful to look at with his daemon eyes.
  480.  
  481. -Urkrathos was surrounded by the Pylons, and he felt their effect of the Null array that was wired to them. The vibrations of the Pylons were shaking Urkrathos to the core, threatening to tear his form apart. The Flesh Hounds around him mewled and were banished back to the Warp. Urkrathos was shaking so much that his teeth ground against each other and turned to dust. These things, the Pylons, were anathema to his kind. They were weakening him, robbing him of his full power. Urkrathos realized he had never tapped into the full potential of being a Daemon Prince. From the fields of Cadia to the Blackstone Fortress, his existence as a daemon was weighed down by technology meant to sap the power of the Warp. Urkrathos destroyed the Null-array, freeing himself, and now the full glory of being a daemon prince was his to enjoy,
  482.  
  483. -Urkrathos realized that despite the Blackstone Fortress being shaped as an eight-pointed star, it wasn't an expression of Chaos. It was an antithesis of Chaos
  484.  
  485. -Suddenly the butchered corpses of sisters around Urkrathos began to sing. They sang that she was coming. She was coming. SHE WAS COMING.
  486.  
  487. -Behind Urkrathos, a new sun emerged. Terrible with its brilliance. Artesia screamed, her terror echoing in real space and the Warp as she scrambled to climb over Urkrathos and hide in his shadow.
  488.  
  489. -It was Celestine. Daemons fled before her light, scurrying like rodents around Urkrathos who stood and accepted Celestine's wordless challenge. He asked her does she has nothing to say? No sermon to give? Celestine replied by saying that he wasn't worth her words.
  490.  
  491. -Celestine leaped at Urkrathos and grabbed his head and with a strength unbelievable for her size, she pulled his head forward, stabbed him in the eye, and retreated. As Urkrathos recovered, his eye already healing, he asked did she really think that blinding him was going kill him.
  492.  
  493. -A voice answered that it was meant for her to come by his blind side. Eleanor pushed her sword which was embedded in Urkrathos since their previous encounter, further into him. The sword pushed forward across the eight inches that separated it from Urkrathos' heart. As daemons felt emotions and pain incomprehensibly more than mortals, it was the most intense pain he had ever felt in his existence.
  494.  
  495. -Urkrathos knew that it was the end of this incarnation. He thought it was not meant to be this way. He conquered Cadia. Delivered it to Abaddon and Khorne. Urkrathos looked up at the sky and saw that the Blackstone Fortress was charging for another Warpbeam. With this came a revelation. Abaddon had played him as a fool. He manipulated Urkrathos into sacrificing his loyal Hounds to open up a city he would destroy from orbit with Urkrathos inside it.
  496.  
  497. -Urkrathos welcomed this revelation, for it meant that his slayers would enjoy a brief victory over him. He told Celestine and the resurrected twin canonesses that he would see their souls soon in the Warp. Thus Urkrathos, former Lord Ravager of the Black Legion, now Daemon Prince of Khorne, was banished to the Warp. His scream mingled with other voices of the damned.
  498.  
  499. -Siron's and Morkath's hunting parties caught up with the Space Wolves and were engaging them. Morkath tried to use the Fortress to tear apart the Wolves, but it resisted her. The Blackstone structures vibrated in frequency that banished Chaos energies that Morkath poured into them. The resisting vibration traveled from the Blackstone Fortress structures into Morkath, turning the Blackstone inside her body against her. Siron saved her life by pulling her away from her connection to the Fortress.
  500.  
  501. -The Legion of the Damned, closest Imperial equivalent to daemons, manifested and aided the Space Wolves. Siron fought against the ghostly marines. As he was covered in the ashes of the ghastly marines he banished, he ordered Morkath to summon Abaddon. Morkath hesitated for a moment and then did it. The code word to summon Abaddon was DEVICUS!
  502.  
  503. -Reality tore open and from the rent emerged Abaddon. Abaddon lashed out with Drach'nyen the End of Empires and bisected a Space Wolf and the three daemons he was battling. He slammed the Talon of Horus into the face of another Space Wolf, obliterating the two Cadians that were in the way of his strike.
  504.  
  505. -Morkath saw the Wolf Lord pass an object to one of his men. She noticed that he was laughing as if he was sharing a joke with his brother. The Wolf Lord turned to Abaddon and dashed toward him. She realized that the Wolf Lord was going to act as a diversion. She tried to warn her father, but it was too late,
  506.  
  507. -Bloodhowl engaged his jump pack and flew straight at Abaddon, and it seemed that he would cross swords with Abaddon. The Wolf Lord mid-flight cut power from his jump pack and pulled his swing. He fell ahead of Abaddon and smashed his large chainsword into Abaddon's breastplate. The mighty blow was meant to stagger Abaddon but did move the Warmaster. Abaddon answered the blow by smashing the Talon of Horus across Bloodhowl's face. As Bloodhowl was sent flying by a blow, Abaddon sliced Bloodhowl's jump pack, disabling it. Abaddon then crushed Bloodhowl's chainsword beneath his heel. Satisfied that his foe was disarmed, Abaddon moved to chase the other Space Wolves.
  508.  
  509. -Bloodhowl recovered from the blow and began to laugh. He removed one of his gauntlets and threw it at Abaddon's back. It hit him on a pauldron, causing Abaddon to stop and turn toward Bloodhowl.
  510.  
  511. -Bloodhowl laughed harder and threw his other gauntlet at Abaddon. This time, the seething Abaddon batted the gauntlet away. Bloodhowl threw his arm wide and laughed on.
  512.  
  513. -Morkath begged from afar, kept away from the Warmaster by the press the battle, for Abaddon not to be baited but baited was Abaddon.
  514.  
  515. -The enraged Abaddon leaped at Bloodhowl, and Bloodhowl met him with his fists and laughter. The rain of ineffectual punches to his stone-hard face only added to Abaddon's fury. While Bloodhowl laughed on and on, even as he was getting torn apart by Abaddon's arcane weapons. He laughed at the absurdity of this situation. He laughed because he could not die any other way. He laughed when explosions rocked the Fortress. Laying on the ground, dying from his mortal wounds, he laughed as he witnessed Abaddon teleport away.
  516.  
  517. -Siron also engaged his teleport beacon and got out of there. Morkath was left behind as the Phalanx destroyed the Blackstone Fortress. She locked herself in a Blackstone tomb to survive the devastation.
  518.  
  519. -The Phalanx had destroyed the Blackstone Fortress and rendered its husk inoperable. The traitor fleet fled the Phalanx and the resurgent Imperial navy to the other side of Cadia. For now, the skies of the Kasr were clear of hostiles.
  520.  
  521. -A member of the Inquisition contacted Creed. He told him exposure to daemonic manifestations on any planet means mass troop purges and sector-wide sterilization bombing from orbit. Amazingly, Cadia evaded that fate for so long. But now, at the very least, Cadia requires mass quarantine and executions. If daemons continue to manifest, then Cadia will suffer the fate of extermintus.
  522.  
  523. -Creed was shocked. Virus bombing of Cadia? They just defeated Abaddon and they are rewarded with annihilation? The Inquisition would destroy the finest fortress and the recruiting world of the hardest troops in the Imperium.
  524.  
  525. -The Inquistor asked Creed to look at the bigger picture. The world can be resettled. After all, there are more Cadians off-world than there are on Cadia. The Imperium cannot run the risk of exporting tainted troops to every sector in the Imperium via Cadia's musters.
  526.  
  527. -The Inquisitor forced Creed into an understanding that should an exterminatus order be issued for Cadia, he would not order any evacuations.
  528.  
  529. -Among the new faces in Creed's council was archmagos Cawl. He already explained the situation to the council members. He was asked to explain it again. Cawl asked what part exactly. Perhaps he could repeat the binaric parts. Creed told him that none here speaks binaric!
  530.  
  531. -An Imperial Knight baroness of House Raven said that she does. It's required part of the cultural literacy of Mars. She asked Creed to translate it to High Gothic. When Cawl said that few words translate to High Gothic, the Baroness grew exacerbated and told him it wasn't that hard to understand. She told the council that while investigating Eriad Six Cawl discovered Blackstone structures similar to the ones on Cadia. These structures were destroyed by Abaddon during the Fourth Crusade. He cross-referenced them with other locations of Blackstone noticing that they were similarly targeted by the Black Legion.
  532.  
  533. -The council members understood that part but not its relevance. When Tor Garadon suggested that Abaddon perhaps aims to augment his Blackstone Fortress with the harvested Blackstone, Cawl cut him off, much to the annoyance of the Garadon.
  534.  
  535. -Cawl explained that the Pylons were not Abaddon's weapons; they were their weapon. It's the conventional belief that the Warp is pushing into real space, but actually, it's the opposite. Real Space is pushing into the Warp, drowning it in. The Pylons, with their negative charge, keep the galaxy from completely sinking into the Warp.
  536.  
  537. -The Pylons are acting like stitches that keep a wound closed. As the skin moves, it puts pressure on the stitches, but they hold, and the wound is healing except for the part left open, the Eye of Terror. The Eye of Terror used to be much larger. The Pylons are keeping the Eye of terror relatively small and pinning it in one corner of the galaxy. Cadia forms the keystone of the Pylon network. The linchpin of the network of planets that keeps the Eye of Terror contained. Abaddon destroyed Pylons across the galaxy, putting great stress on the Cadian Pylons and weakening their effectiveness.
  538.  
  539. -It was noted the Legion of the Damned manifested around the densest area of the Pylons. It was as if they already knew their significance and were protecting them.
  540.  
  541. -Cawl said he might figure out how to amplify the Pylons effects. Creed sanctioned him to work on the Pylons.
  542.  
  543. -Cawl was studying the Pylons and their mysteries. He noted that the Pylons were connected somehow. The vibrations of one Pylons were matched across all other Pylons. The Pylons communicated with each other, not just on Cadia but across the gulf of space. Cawl said out loud it must be some kind of quantum entanglement. A voice behind him confirmed that, in a broad sense, it was.
  544.  
  545. -Cawl expected the voice to be that of Veilwalker, but it turned out to be a different Xenos this time. Cawl took a combat stance, moving back and forth like a centipede to make himself harder to hit, and directed his cyborg warriors to target the Xenos.
  546.  
  547. -Cawl called the Xenos abomination and told him not to move unless he wanted his unliving echo of a motive force blasted to oblivion. Trazyn told Cawl that being called an abomination was disappointing. Cawl knew countless languages and dialects. He expected Cawl to use a more novel descriptor.
  548.  
  549. -Cawl and Trazyn then engage in a vocabulary and linguistic debate about the word abomination and its origin. It ends with Trazyn agreeing that it's somewhat accurate since his speaking to Cawl was an ill omen.
  550.  
  551. *Note: The debate was cringy but funny. It was basically two nerds trying to one-up each other. I left out the details because summarising it wouldn't do it justice.
  552.  
  553. -During the debate, Cawl revealed that he was knowledgeable of Necrontyr plays. This impressed Trazyn. He said that he doubted that Magos Klarn was as interested in Necrontyr culture. Cawl replied by saying that Klarn was a "nincompoop".
  554.  
  555. -Trazyn agreed. Klarn's understanding of the Pariah Matrix wasn't half as deep as Cawl's. He was hopeless and Trazyn had to step up.
  556.  
  557. -Cawl laughed and said he knew that Klarn was an upjumped enginseer. It felt ridiculous that Klarn somehow managed to harness the Pylons when Cawl couldn't progress in three days.
  558.  
  559. -Trazyn revealed that the Necrontyr built the Pylons to hold back the Eye of Terror and more besides. He was helping Cawl for two reasons. One is because Trazyn is a collector of the old and the unique. He feels that his relationship with Cawl would be a source of both. Two, because Abaddon is about to conquer this world and the galaxy after that. Trazyn asked Cawl if he knew why they called Abaddon the Despoiler.
  560.  
  561. -Cawl went to define the word Despoil when Trazyn cut him off by answering the question. He is called the Despolier because he despoils. Trazyn has plenty of things that he doesn't want to see despoiled. Things he spent a great amount of time and effort collecting. Trazyn told Cawl he wasn't just going show him how to hold back the Eye, He was going to show him how to seal it.
  562.  
  563. -Later, while Cawl was on the vox with Creed talking about the incoming second ground invasion led by Abaddon himself and how long Cawl has to finish work, Trazyn was messing around with Cawl's stuff. Trazyn tore off a lens from a servo-skull. Cawl covered the vox and asked Trazyn what was he doing. Trazyn said that it was from a Forgeworld lost during the Heresy. It was far too good to be wasted on a servo-skull. Cawl demanded that he put it back. Cawl could have sworn that Trazyn's metal face somehow smiled before he flicked his metal hand as if pulling a magic trick, vanishing the lens into a hole in reality. Then, he took an innocent tone and said he lost it.
  564.  
  565. -Cawl suppressed a rage-induced scream that was boiling in his throat and went back to talking to Creed.
  566.  
  567. -Abaddon found Creed's position and arrived to slay himself. Kell shoved Creed into a Valkyrie, where Kasrkin grabbed him and pulled him in, shielding him with their bodies. Creed was struggling wanting to take Kell with him aboard, but Kell refused. He saves Creed, and Creed saves Cadia. That's how it's going to go down.
  568.  
  569. -As Creed was flown to safety, he voxed a thank you to Kell. Kell noted that Creed's voice was of the same directionless orphan he had met years ago.
  570.  
  571. -Kell stood between the lifting aircraft and Abaddon. He met the charging Abaddon with power sword in hand. Kell was facing the nightmarish being that had haunted him ever since childhood. Abaddon was more terrible than he imagined. He was a moving mountain with a speed impossible for his size. The most terrible thing about Abaddon was his face. It wasn't corrupted. It wasn't daemonic. The arch-fiend that menaced mankind wore a human face,
  572.  
  573. -Kell's power sword shorted out seemingly from Abaddon's presence, and his knees buckled, but it didn't stop him from taking a swing at Abaddon's unprotected face. Abaddon sliced off Kell's sword arm and, in the next instant, sliced off his legs. He reached out with the Talon and grabbed Kell before he fell. The claws of the Talon were tearing into Kell's flesh. Despite the pain, Kell did not drop the 8th Cadian regiment standard that he held in his other arm. He defiantly told Abaddon that Cadia stands.
  574.  
  575. -Abaddon replied that Kell couldn't. He was going to kill Creed. But now he was going kill him so that Creed could watch him die as he ran. And Kell's death will be a dishonor.
  576.  
  577. -Kell asked Abaddon how his death was going be a dishonor if he was going to die with the same weapon that killed the Angel and touched the Emperor.
  578.  
  579. -Abaddon's noble features twisted into a grimace. He told Kell he was no failure like Horus. Kell responded by asking Abaddon If Horus was such a failure, why he does he dress like him?
  580.  
  581. -Abaddon crushed Kell's body and then flung him into the dirt to die in pain.
  582.  
  583. -Morkath survived the devastation of the Blackstone Fortress and was traveling through its husk. She encountered a memory imprint. A memory of her creation. She saw Abaddon yelling at his chief apothecary where is my child? He told the apothecary of the extent of resources he put into this project. The favors he asked. The manpower he lost raiding Black Ships for psyker children. The artifacts he traded to the Drukhari flesh-crafters in exchange for their consultation. And then the project succeeds, only for him to somehow lose the child.
  584.  
  585. -The apothecary told Abaddon that the project succeded beyond their expectations. That child can control the fortress. She used her command over it to escape. With her, they would not need to bind daemons to the Blackstone. There would be no need to trade one malicious intelligence for another
  586.  
  587. -The apothecary said that the child will grow and can be recaptured. The child was scared and was new to her transhuman existence. Even their Space Marine recruits grow mad for a time.
  588.  
  589. -Concern flashed on Abaddon's face. The look of concern that broke Morkath heart in the present. Abaddon called for Urkrathos to gather a hunting party. They were going to the depths of the fortress.
  590.  
  591. -The memory imprint was a revelation for Morkath. She wasn't a foundling child. Abaddon lied to her. He had created her as Horus had created him. To be the human key of the Blackstone Fortress. To assist him in creating the Crimson Path. To destroy Cadia and bring Terra to its knees. Abaddon had called her his child. It meant that he claimed her as his own. Morkath resolved to show Abaddon how much he needed her. She vowed to salvage his dream.
  592.  
  593. -Cawl, for thousands of years, delved into the depths of human science and knowledge. He pushed the limits that none but Arkhan Land did. Yet despite all his supreme intellect, he was only scratching the surface of the Pylons' nature. He discovered that Pylons weren't as much crafted as they were shaped into existence. It was similar to the Aeldari wraithbone, but whereas the Wraithbone was psychically attuned, the Pylons were inert.
  594.  
  595. -Two of the Cawl's minds were busy working and activating the Pylons while third humored Trazyn with conversation. Trazyn was going on and on about how the Imperium can't be appreciated from a human or transhuman perspective. The Imperials tend to see the Imperium as a single monolithic structure, but in truth, it's composed of many factions, little Imperiums, and the loose alliances between them.
  596.  
  597. -Cawl got a report that the Black Legion forces were breaching toward his position. Cawl prepared himself and his Tech-warriors for battle. Trazyn told him not worry. He was going to defend him while he finished his work. Cawl saw that claim as absurd; Trazyn wasn't even wielding a ranged weapon. Trayzn said that he was an Overlord of the Nihilakh. All he needs to do is point at something and it will die. Cawl was about to argue with Trazyn when the Black Legion smashed into their positions and poured through.
  598.  
  599. -Trazyn was annoyed by the interruption of such a stimulating conversation. It's rare for Trazyn to meet someone as unique as Cawl. Someone with a wide perspective with whom he could discuss the nature of the universe for hours on end. Trazyn had been starved for conversation ever since a mountain was dropped on poor Orikan. Cawl's youthful vigor was energizing for Trazyn. Cawl would be a welcome *guest* at the Galleries.
  600.  
  601. -Trazyn's thoughts of acquiring Cawl were put to a halt when a topknotted figure smashed his way through the electro-priests, sending them flying with each blow. It was Abaddon the Despoiler. A walking relic of the Horus Heresy. Long has Trazyn dreamed of acquiring Abaddon as the capstone of his HH display to be displayed in one piece or in pieces.
  602.  
  603. -Abaddon turned his gaze on Trazyn and Cawl. Recognition flashed on Abaddon's face and he let out a furious yell "CAWL". Abaddon knew who Cawl was and what he was doing.
  604.  
  605. -Trazyn threw Tessarct labyrinths in the path of Abaddon and from one of them emerged Lieutenant Commander Cerantes of the Ultramarines. The first thing he did was fire his pistol at one of the charging traitor marines. The heat ray emitted from the pistol burned the marine from inside out and sent him to the ground to writhe in agony. Cerantes rallied his men and yelled repel the Horusian filth. REMEMBER CALTH!
  606.  
  607. -Cerantes did not know from which legion these traitors were. They wore black and gold colors. Were they Word Bearers or World Eaters with new colors for ritual purposes? Ultimately it didn't matter. Cerantes and his men must hold the line. Though, Cerantes did not know where that order came from.
  608.  
  609. -Cerantes thoughts about the strange compulsion were put aside when he saw the figure of Horus smash the Talon into praetorian, lift him up, and then blast him off with a blast from the Talon's storm bolter. No. This wasn't Horus. The armor was wrong. The face was one that Cerantes knew. It was Ezeklye.
  610.  
  611. -Abaddon raised his Talon in a beckoning, challenging gesture toward Cerantes. With his other hand, Abaddon slashed his sword, cutting the fabric of reality, creating a wound from which Daemons crawled out and swarmed the Ultramarines.
  612.  
  613. -Cerantes promised Abaddon that he will drag him before the Emperor for his crimes against the Imperial Truth. Then Abaddon will wish that he killed him.
  614.  
  615. -Abaddon and Cerantes then locked blades replaying the HH in the present.
  616.  
  617. -Cawl reported to Trazyn that the Pylons are all starting to activate activate. The two watched the unfolding battle. Cawl saw, amazingly, that one of the specimens from Trazyn's unleashed collection was a Custodian. The Custodes darted with grace and speed to aid the Ultramarines.
  618.  
  619. -The amazed Cawl asked Trazyn what was in the last tesseract. Trazyn said it was something he would like to not unleash unless it was most necessary. Cawl asked is this thing worse than what's in front of them? All those 10K years old killing machines tearing at each other. Trazyn said it was much worse. If Trazyn lets this specimen out, it will never ever stop.
  620.  
  621. -Abaddon had smashed the Talon into Cerantes' chest, rending his lungs. Blood flowed up Cerantes' throat but the Ultramarine pushed his last defiant words through it. He told Abaddon that he and Horus will never reach Terra. Guilliman will stop them.
  622.  
  623. -Abaddon replied to his loyalist dying brother that there were no more Primachs. No Horus. That time was gone, yet the galaxy still burns.
  624.  
  625. -Abaddon's face twisted into an expression. The dying Cerantes thought it was regret but when it became clearer, it was envy. Abaddon envied his death.
  626.  
  627. -Abaddon said it would be kinder that Cerantes died in ignorance. Then Abaddon slit Cerantes' throat with Drach'nyen.
  628.  
  629. -Abaddon resumed his charge toward the Cadians, toward Creed. He was a living avalanche. He bulldozed through the Ultramarines and the Vostroyans that stood his way. The Custodes came at Abaddon in a golden blur. Abaddon shattered the Custodian's weapon with a backhand from Talon and, in the next instant, beheaded him. A Companion of the Emperor slain effortlessly with one stroke.
  630.  
  631. -The Iron Wolves accompanied by packs of the Wulfen smashed into the Black Legion and the daemons. Neither the Space Wolves nor their mutated kin could halt Abaddon's charge. Abaddon ripped himself out of the press of battle and was in the range of the Cadian lasguns. Creed ordered them to fire at Abaddon. Abaddon was drowned in the collective energy wave of three companies worth of lasguns. He pushed through the combined lasfire of the 8th Cadian regiment as if it was nothing more than hard wind.
  632.  
  633. -Greyfax was released to the material world by Trazyn. She saw that she was surrounded by a battle that featured the Black Legion and their daemonic allies led by the Lords of the Warp, the Greater Daemons. When she noticed Trazyn, she called him abomination! Trazyn turned and said in validation to Cawl that the word indeed wasn't very novel.
  634.  
  635. -Greyfax attempted to fire at Trazyn but her body didn't obey her. Trazyn explained that she was on Cadia. This was her ironic punishment. She was going to aid in achieving Valeria's dream of closing the Eye of Terror. When Greyfax said that she would never fulfill a heretic's aims, Trazyn responded by saying there was also the option of standing by and letting Abaddon destroy Cadia and unleash a universal wound on the galaxy.
  636.  
  637. -Greyfax sighed and told her Scions to fire at Trazyn. When that didn't work she said it was worth a try and then ordered them to cover the Cadians and keep the daemons off them
  638.  
  639. -The Cadians, in addition to the ceaseless lasfire pouring into Abaddon, added in heavy bolter and autocannon fire. The glowing form of abandon was followed closely by his harbingers of despair. Not everything was hitting Abaddon. The daemonic spirits that orbited him protected him from some of the fire.
  640.  
  641. -The fire directed at Abaddon was lessening as more and more Cadians lost their lives or ran out of ammo. Abaddon's armor was stripped from ornamentation, so it appeared char black. Then Abaddon was on the Cadians. Abaddon roared that he has them now. He said that he will have the Cadians' blood and bone. He will have their useless prayers. Their lives and their world.
  642.  
  643. -Celestine dropped like the meteor before Abaddon, followed by Geneieve and Eleanor. Abaddon recognized her. He called the Masqeurde Saint. The dream of the Dead Thing on the Living Throne.
  644.  
  645. -Celestine replied and said that Abaddon was striking her with words and not blows because he feared her. She is the Emperor's Angel.
  646.  
  647. -Abaddon said that he knew an Angel. When he said that blood appeared on the Talon and from it issued the echo of the death cry of a noble being. Then Abaddon said that Celestine was no angel.
  648.  
  649. -Celestine and Abaddon flew at each other. Their swords smashed into each other and shook the battlefield as the opposing anathema forces clashed against each other.
  650.  
  651. -Despite the light of the Emperor empowering Celestine, she was overmatched by Abaddon. Abaddon wielded the Talon of Horus and the Echo of the First Murder. Two legendary weapons against her one. However, with Genevieve and Eleanor at her side, the fight was made even.
  652.  
  653. -Genevieve and Eleanor poured fire on Abaddon and slashed him with their swords. They blocked the killing blows he directed at Celestine, and warded away the daemonic entities that sought to interfere in the fight. Their collective attack on Abaddon caused him to take a step back. The Warmaster was retreating.
  654.  
  655. -Trazyn told Cawl to activate the Pariah Matrix now before it rips the planet apart. Cawl went into a long prayer to the Machine God. Trazyn cut him off and urged him to just push the button!
  656.  
  657. -The Pylons fully activated causing the daemons to howl in horror as the Pylons summoned a new dimension into Real Space. Normal humans were striken with nosebleeds and headaches. A few died from heart attacks and strokes. Psykers from both sides of the war had their souls ripped from their bodies. Their souls mingled as they were cast into the Warp.
  658.  
  659. -dimensional rifts appeared but not to the Warp but to another reality that Pylons were summoning. To call this reality a dimension was false. The Warp was a dimension. A psychic mirror world where emotions and concepts manifested and lived out their mad lives. This new reality was the opposite. It was a place of unlife. A vast soulless emptiness that was both vast and tangible. Yet it did not exist in any common, comprehensible way. That reality defined what could not exist inside it. and what could exist was anything. Anti-galaxy energy flowed from the new reality and was shot at the Eye of terror. The Eye of Terror shrank before the energy of that dimension. It began to close. ,
  660.  
  661. -Daemons were banished back to the Warp alongside the Legion of the Damned. Celestine was weakened as her light dimmed. The only force that was not significantly weakened by the Pylons activation were Black Legion marines. They were deadly warriors long before Chaos marked them. They needed no mystical aid to kill. The Black Legion marines rallied and dove into the reeling Imperials as they staggered from the effects of the Pylons. They slaughtered them and ground them beneath their heel. The traitor marines surrounded Genevieve and Eleanor.
  662.  
  663. -This new Imperium that Greyfax woke up to disgusted her. Mutated loyalist marines. Respected members of the Admech in partnership with vile Xenos. Hellish spirits that were as much of the Warp as the daemons they fought. Worst of all was the false woman saint.
  664.  
  665. -Greyfax struggled against the effects of the Pylons. She felt as if something was crushing her head. She marshaled her psychic might to push back against the near physical energies of the Pylons
  666.  
  667. -What infuriated Greyfax the most was Celestine's mesmerizingly beautiful face. She reasoned that was the reason why the Imperials fell for her. Also, that expression of serenity, as if Celestine's mad deluded visions, showed her the true nature of the universe, scoffed Greyfax.
  668.  
  669. -When Abaddon swatted Celestine down and slashed her with Drach'nyen, Greyfax noticed that Celestine's beatific serenity did not leave her face, even in defeat. Abaddon pinned Celestine on the ground with his Talon and drew back his sword for the killing stroke. Greyfax would not have that. She won't allow Celestine to die.
  670.  
  671. -No thought Greyfax. She won't have Celestine become a martyr and forever be glorified by the Imperium. Greyfax would drag away Celestine to question her, place her on the stand, and expose her for the heretical fraud she was. Celestine was Greyfax's break. Her life belonged to Greyfax, not Abaddon.
  672.  
  673. -Greyfax channeled the pain she was experiencing from the Pylons effects into Abaddon's mind, causing him to get staggered and pull back. She yelled at him that Celestine was hers.
  674.  
  675. -Trazyn disappeared from Cawl's side and resumed his observation of the battle. But he still protected Cawl by ordering the Hunstman to shoot down a chosen that was in Cawl's blindside.
  676.  
  677. -The Huntmaster asked Trazyn when they were going to take down the alpha. He pointed at Abaddon. He said that his weapon would make the damage only internal. Limited to the brain. That would make him a worthy display. Trazyn rejected that. The most important part of the Warmaster was his brain. He would have Abaddon suffer a thousand injuries and not allow a single braincell of his brain to die.
  678.  
  679. -The Cadians exploded smoke grenades and retreated with Celestine. Only Creed remained charging at Abaddon with his pistols. yelling Cadia Stands! A terminator attempted to block Creed's path but the old warrior ducked this attack and fired through his lens, dropping the traitor marine.
  680.  
  681. -Abaddon disappeared in the smoke and mayhem. Trazyn watched him impossibly moving quietly and stealthly toward Creed, who was still yelling Cadia Stands and attempting to rally his troops. Black Legion Terminators backed away from Creed, knowing that Abaddon marked him as his prey.
  682.  
  683. -As Abaddon crept on Creed. Trazyn struggled with a choice. He either spare Abaddon to be collected later or he can spare Creed to be collected now. The war has rebirthed Creed as a legendary figure who withstood an attack more overwhelming and terrible than any in Imperial history. Two worthy acquisitions. Trazyn can only have one.
  684.  
  685. -As Creed spun around and shot at Abaddon, starting their unequal duel, Trazyn made his choice. He ordered the Huntmaster to fire at Abaddon. The shot impacted Abaddon's head yet somehow it didn't stop him. Abaddon tore into Creed's arm with his Talon and then lifted him in its crushing grasp. Trazyn ordered the Huntsman to fire again. The Huntmaster said that he didn't need to. There was another predator stalking.
  686.  
  687. -Light burst from the smoke as Celestine dashed into Abaddon and stabbed him in the small of his back. Trazyn could hear Abaddon's roar of rage and pain even over the vibration of the Pylons.
  688.  
  689. -Abaddon teleported out before the Pylons could strand him on Cadia. A medic told Creed that they won. Creed told them they didn't. Abaddon had told him something. That he set the fate of Cadia in motion before he even landed. He was going to show the Cadians true commitment and what it can accomplish. He was going to drop the Blackstone Fortress on top of them all!
  690.  
  691. -Morkath reached the Fortress' command deck. She was greeted with a psychic memory imprint of Black Legion marines dragging off the Fortress captain. She didn't like the man but she didn't enjoy the thought of the many centuries he would spend in torment in Abaddon's dungeons for his failure.
  692.  
  693. -Morkath contacted Vengeful Spirit and received a projection from Abaddon. She told him that she was alive, and the work continues. Abaddon said what work? The Fortress is broken. Its use was destroyed.
  694.  
  695. -Morkath replied that the Fortress could be repaired. It's not a machine. It's a being, a creature. Already, it's healing. Given enough time with Blackstone grafts and guidance, the Fortress can be made whole again. After Cadia is conquered, the Fortress can be fully repaired, and its guns can be turned on Terra itself.
  696.  
  697. -Abaddon asked Morkath why is she doing this. She answered because that was the reason he created her. It's the service he wished her to perform. To salvage what others had ruined. To maintain Abaddon's greatest weapon. It's a gift of familial love and dedication from his most beloved daughter.
  698.  
  699. -At Morkath's words, the wall of stoicism that was Abaddon's face shifted a little. A flicker of emotions flashed in his eyes. This display meant nothing on most beings but for Morkath it meant that Abaddon felt affection for her.
  700.  
  701. -Morkath asked Abaddon to call her not the Fortress Child. To call her his child. She knows that they don't share blood but he is her creator. He raised her from childhood in his care. She told him to keep her close as Horus kept him close. There was no sense denying their bond.
  702.  
  703. -Abaddon said that she was mistaken. She was created because they put a daemon in the previous fortress. That drove it mad and made it uncontrollable. He had to trade it to Huron to get any real benefit from it.
  704.  
  705. -Morkath said that she knows this. She knows that he didn't care for her as a person at the start and saw her as a tool. But she knows he grew to care for her. She knows his mind better than anyone. She isn't asking him to be someone else for her. She just wants Abaddon to acknowledge her as his child. She wants to be Dravura Abaddin, the Mistress of the Fortress, the daughter that will deliver Terra to Abaddon.
  706.  
  707. -Abaddon told Morkath that he has other plans for the fortress. He said that she did all she could. He acknowledges her service. In her way, she was fulfilling her promise. She was giving him Cadia, and for that Abaddon was grateful.
  708.  
  709. -The Vengeful Spirit began to ram and push the Fortress wreck towards Cadia, prompting Morkath to plead with Abaddon not to throw the Fortress away.
  710.  
  711. -When Abaddon refused, Morkath asked him to be rescued from the Fortress. She can build him a resonant Blackstone war council. She knows the minds of his Chosen. She knows his mind. No one knows Abaddon's mind so intimately and completely as her.
  712.  
  713. -Abaddon said indeed. He allowed Morkath close to him. Too close. She is now a risk he must get rid of. Someone once told him that a useful tool is something worth sacrificing. He asked Morkath if she remembered who said that.
  714.  
  715. -Morkath refused to demean herself by fighting her fate. However, she demanded that Abaddon grant her desire. She demanded that he acknowledge her, to give her his name.
  716.  
  717. Abaddon said no, forcing Morkath to cry out for him, "FATHER!" The word made Abaddon sink back into his throne as if he were struck. The word sparked some deep pain in Abaddon.
  718.  
  719. -Abaddon said that he was sorry that he disappointed her. In his experience, that's what fathers do. Then Abaddon cut the transmission.
  720.  
  721. -Morkath was shocked. Abaddon never apologized for anything ever. Within her, an old hope bloomed.
  722.  
  723. -Morkath sent her soul into the Blackstone Fortress so she would not die in the body that Abaddon created for her. She would die as the Blackstone Fortress, fulfilling her promise to her father.
  724.  
  725.  
  726. -The Inquisition sent an order that none escape the dying Cadia. The Ordo Hereticus ordered the forces of the Imperial Church and the Sisters of Battle on Cadia to block any evacuation effort. The dying world was under quarantine. Under gunpoint they were forcing a wounded Creed to command the Cadians to hold position and accept their deaths in service of the Emperor. Before, he could complete this order, Greyfax snatched the vox from him and told the Inquisition representative that by her supreme authority as a high-ranking inquisitor, she was voiding the quarantine order. The evacuation was to begin now post haste!
  727.  
  728. -Trazyn appeared before Cawl again. Caawl sensed that he was being shifted outside the stream of time. Trazyn was preparing to transport him via pocket dimension to his tomb ship. Trazyn said that he was inviting Cawl to his gallery, and it was a mandatory invitation. Cawl was interesting and possessed great amounts of knowledge that Trazyn could draw upon. Moreover, Cawl's vessel contains relics, including one looked in a big casket that not even Necron sensors can penetrate. Trazyn plans to mindshackle Cawl and make him his partner.
  729.  
  730. -Cawl said that Trazyn wouldn't want to do that. He wasn't ripe yet. He has plenty of things to accomplish that would greatly increase his historical value. He should take him after a century or two.
  731.  
  732. -Trazyn said that he was aware of what Cawl was doing. He studied the human Fah-ree tales. The ones that have the boy telling the witch to eat him when he is fatter. The other one that has the smallest Zoat saying devour my larger brother instead and let me cross. Trazyn knows how these tales end. It will end with him being pushed into an oven or thrown into the river.
  733.  
  734. -Cawl said then Trazyn would lose what Cawl was going to create. He has a take given to him by the Emperor himself. If Trazyn takes him the task will not be completed and Trazyn will lose a waelth of specimens beyond his imagination.
  735.  
  736. -Cawl uploaded data of his creations to Trazyn but censored everything except images and names. He showed him the Primaris. He confirmed to Trazyn that there are many of these creations. So many subtypes and patterns he wouldn't be able to catch them all, even with all eternity. Trazyn responded that eternity is a very long time.
  737.  
  738. -Cawl explained that Cawl's involvement in the war of Cadia was secondary at best. He came only during the Siege of Kraf. What Trazyn wants for his Cadia display is a figure that was there from the start. A central figure of the war. A man who wouldn't be contributing anything more to the galaxy. Trazyn should go after a man who is Cadia itself. If Trazyn leaves Cawl and his ship alone, Cawl will give him a new galaxy of things to play with.
  739.  
  740. -Trazyn agreed to leave Cawl alone for now. He said that he would wait and eat the next zoat. Then, his metal mask twisted into a smile. A smile that made Cawl shiver.
  741.  
  742. -Creed decided to stay behind on Cadia. If he escaped with his men, the Imperium would scapegoat him as the man who lost Cadia. The Inquisition will publically question him and drag him on the coals. It would be better for the Cadians that he remains behind and dies. The Imperium, after all, loves its dead heroes. It's cleaner and easier for everyone involved
  743.  
  744. -The Cadian characters encountered an Inquisitor that refused to obey Greyfax's evacuation orders. He won't allow what he saw as tainted troops to escape Cadia and become vectors of mutation and Chaos outbreaks. He won't allow them to become tools of the Despoiler like what happened with the Volscani. The Cadian leader told the Inquisitor that he should get his head down. There are Chaos snipers nearby. They had already lost two officers to them. If the Inquisitor was shot by these snipers it would be something natural. The Inquisitor was about to ask her what she was talking about when his head exploded from a las-shot. The Inquistor fell among the pile of bodies, becoming unrecognizable. The Cadian leader told her men to report that an Inquistor was downed by an enemy sniper. The Cadian characters resumed their evacuation.
  745.  
  746. -On the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit, Abaddon and his warriors celebrated. Abaddon drank wine from the skull chalice of Horus Reborn. Around him, the Black Legion marines raised their weapons, danced, and howled in victory. They smacked their breastplates and two Khornates clanged their helmets together to the beat of a victory chant. The deck ran with the blood of victory sacrifices.
  747.  
  748. -Abaddon and his men have done it. After 10K years the gate of the False Emperor lies broken. The Energies of the Eye of Terror stretched out and flooded over the sundered Cadia and toward the heart of the Imperium.
  749.  
  750. -As he watched the unfolding galactic destruction that was his handiwork, a psychic echo imprinted itself on his mind. As if thousands of minds were thinking the same thing, and it imprinted on the Warp. The echo whispered "For this is not a foxhole, this is a grave".
  751.  
  752. *Note: This is a verse from a poem the Cadians broadcasted in eulogy for Cadia. I will write up in a later post.
  753.  
  754. -Abaddon did not know what it was, nor did he care. Cadia was broken. The Crimson Path was paved. The Kingdom of the False Emperor was torn into two. The Black Legion was victorious. Abaddon took another drink and let the galaxy burn.
  755.  
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