Rage swept over Khârn at this insult to the Blood Father. Throwing himself forward, he brought Gorechild up to full speed and swung it in a wide arc towards Abaddon’s right flank.

In the blink of an eye, Abaddon turned towards the attack, bringing up his gauntlet and curling the talons into a fist. The lightning-streaked blow was so fast and powerful it pushed Gorechild away and spun Khârn to the left into a wall of black power armour. Khârn brought Gorechild up once again, ready to engage the warriors, but they stepped back at some unseen command, giving him space to turn. A flash of dull metal caught Khârn’s eye and he ducked, but the flat of Abaddon’s blade smashed into the side of his helmet and sent him reeling, crashing into a number of Black Legionnaires. Khârn’s head sang with the impact, but his body knew what to do to regain his balance. He swung his chainaxe behind him as he recovered and was rewarded with the sensation of Gorechild chewing through weapons and armour. When he raised it to block the next blow from Abaddon, it was covered in the blood of his legionnaires.

Abaddon raised his sword and aimed it once again towards Khârn’s head. Khârn brought Gorechild up, but instead of angling to the right, he flicked it around in his wrist, ducking to evade the sweeping blow from Abaddon’s gauntlet and driving the chainaxe into the leg of the Despoiler. Khârn knew that trying to attack Abaddon’s head in its deep cowl was pointless, no matter how exposed it seemed without a helmet, so he would instead cripple him limb by limb. Angling the next blow downwards, Gorechild’s teeth bit into the thick ceramite of Abaddon’s cuisse. The mica-dragon teeth gouged their way into the dense armour, sinking the axe head deep into Abaddon’s left knee. The Despoiler bellowed in fury.

Khârn saw the daemon sword flashing down towards his arm. Letting go of Gorechild’s haft, Khârn rolled away, kicking out at Abaddon’s right leg. Springing to his feet, Khârn had hoped Abaddon would be unbalanced enough for him to charge him to the ground, but the Warmaster was standing fast. Khârn attacked regardless, ducking underneath the sword and throwing all of his weight into Abaddon’s midriff.

Abaddon’s towering form was forced backwards momentarily, but he swiftly regained his footing and struck at Khârn with his sword. This time, it was not with the flat of the blade. Khârn knew Drach’nyen would slice through the ceramite of his helmet, so he threw himself to the side, just avoiding the swing of the weapon as it cut through the tassels on his headpiece. Khârn rolled onto his feet just as Abaddon dislodged Gorechild from his leg with a blow from his daemon sword’s pommel. The axe clattered away across the blood-covered marble and Khârn threw himself after it. As he rose and turned, he realised he had exposed his left arm to Abaddon’s talon. He felt a crushing grip encircle his chain-wrapped forearm and the world began to spin as Abaddon wheeled Khârn around. The features of the Black Legionnaires surrounding him became a blur, and then he felt himself flying through the air. Khârn braced himself for the impact with the ground, but something slammed into his back, driving the air explosively from his body. Below him the ground rushed up, and as he hit it, a veil of scarlet and brown danced across his vision.

Khârn shook his head violently and staggered to his feet. Some yards away, Abaddon was charging towards him, the Terminators creating a corridor for him to pass through. Looking up, Khârn realised he had been thrown all the way to Abaddon’s drop-ship. Khârn’s bloodlust reached its highest pitch. At last, this was a worthy fight. He sprinted forwards, battle stimulants numbing the searing pain coming from his dislocated left arm. Gorechild screamed for blood in his good hand, its teeth spitting dried blood and ceramite as they spun. Khârn could see blood congealing around the wound he had made in Abaddon’s leg. With only a few strides separating them, Khârn jumped into the air and brought Gorechild above his head before hammering it down towards the Warmaster. The teeth glanced off Abaddon’s sword and onto his pauldron, gnawing a ragged groove into the armour. As Khârn was knocked backwards by Abaddon’s bone-cracking punch, he was sure the swirling patterns within the sword’s blade took on the look of agonised faces.

Khârn smashed into the wall of Black Legionnaires, flattening two and sending others tumbling towards the gunship before being pushed back into the open by one of Abaddon’s Terminators. The Warmaster was on him in an instant, and Khârn ducked just as the huge broadsword sliced above his head, splitting one of the vanes of his helmet. Khârn heard the mighty weapon thud into several Black Legion warriors, but Abaddon’s rage had overtaken him. Khârn rammed himself into the Despoiler once again, but the Warmaster slammed the pommel of Drach’nyen into his stomach. Khârn was lifted from the ground with the servo-powered blow, and his fused ribcage fractured fully. He brought his boot down as hard as he could onto Abaddon’s injured knee, and was rewarded with a grunt of pain. Dropping to the ground, Khârn saw Abaddon’s right leg come towards him too late to avoid the blow. The impact sent him skidding along the ruined plaza’s stones and clanging into the Thunderhawk’s cargo pod. Abaddon glowered at him and swung his daemon sword with a cry of rage. Khârn brought Gorechild up to meet the furious blow, and it took all of his strength to prevent the blade from cleaving his skull.

Abaddon shifted his weight as he leaned in, and Khârn saw his chance. He kicked at the wounded leg with all his might. Abaddon stepped back to avoid the blow, allowing Khârn to heave the daemon sword out of the way and roll to his feet. Lunging with Gorechild, he thrust the leading corner of the whirring blade into the skull device emblazoned on Abaddon’s midriff. Abaddon lashed out with his right hand. Khârn moved fast enough to avoid full contact with the lethal talons, power arcing from the tips of the claws into his exposed skin. Even so, pain nearly overwhelmed him, and as he moved away Abaddon thrust forwards with Drach’nyen. The tip sliced its way through Khârn’s vambrace. Instead of agony, the coldness of the void swept through his forearm, the edge of the cut sizzling darkly. Khârn pulled Gorechild free and spun away, but Abaddon pursued him with a turn of his own. His sword sliced into the top of Khârn’s fractured chest armour and he felt hot blood well up through the freezing numbness somewhere below his neck.

Khârn swung Gorechild, aiming to cut into Abaddon’s left arm and take it off below the elbow. Abaddon took hold of Gorechild with his lightning-wreathed claw, stopping the chainblade from hitting the armour and deflecting it into the side of the transport. At the same time Khârn reached for Abaddon’s massive forearm, stopping his sword short. Khârn knew he would not hold out for long against the Warmaster’s might. Using the hull of the Thunderhawk, Khârn pushed himself away. He grappled with Abaddon, forcing him back out into the arena and distancing them both from the ship. Khârn could feel every muscle in his body scream at him, but he needed more room in which to move. As Gorechild’s blade spun closer to Abaddon’s arm, so did the Despoiler’s sword creep towards Khârn’s neck. Khârn’s vision began to darken as more blood pumped out of his body. He had his space to manoeuvre, but at what cost?

Summing up his remaining energy, Khârn pushed Gorechild again. Below him, the ground began to shake, gently at first but then more violently. Both he and Abaddon struggled to keep their balance, and Khârn tried to press home his attack. Still Abaddon resisted, pushing against Khârn with a renewed fury. Brilliant flashes danced over Abaddon’s face, throwing his snarling features into stark relief. Out of the corners of his vision, Khârn saw lightning fork down into the Terminator guard. Bodies exploded in a shower of gore and spinning armour, torn apart by a maelstrom of light and brimstone that was pouring down onto them. Those not affected by the first impact raised their weapons to the unseen foe, only to succumb seconds later to the unnatural strikes. A thunderous booming sound filled the air and Khârn noticed movement above him. As Abaddon’s eyes flashed to the change around them for a split second, a shadow the size of a Fellblade swept across the two champions, smashing them both to the blackened ground.

Khârn looked up to see the sky had turned into a swirling mass of purple and black. Staggering to his feet, a wall of flame roared where the myriad corpses on the square had been. The inferno was tall and encircled both him and Abaddon. The Warmaster was poised low on the stone plaza, scanning the heavens. Khârn knew something huge had hit him, far bigger and more powerful than Abaddon, but he could not see what it was.

Greater fire plummeted from the broiling sky, consuming those buildings not already burning around the jagged ruins of the Imperial temple. Khârn’s eyes were drawn to shadows writhing before him in the white-hot sheet of flame, then figures began to twist and solidify. Warp spawn, drawn to the desecration of this place. One by one they stepped out from the inferno into the arena that was now forming. They were bloodletters, Khorne’s lesser daemons. Another appeared, and then another, until dozens stood in a perfect circle around him and Abaddon where the Black Legionnaires had stood, flicking out their tongues and brandishing their flaming swords. The inferno faded, revealing a sea of fallen warriors and the whole of Salandraxis in flames. Chaos had taken this holy planet and claimed it as its own. But Khârn still needed to take his trophy for the Blood Father. With a roar, he broke into a sprint and headed for Abaddon, who turned and readied himself for the onslaught.

Khârn heard a rush of air from above and looked up just in time to see a gigantic daemon descending on him, its talons stretching out to swat him to the ground, embers spiralling and burning the air beneath the darkness of its wings. Khârn ducked out of the way, but he was not fast enough to avoid the flat of the beast’s massive double-headed axe smashing into him, sending him sprawling. In a split second Khârn was up again, raging in a blood fury, but the greater daemon stood between him and Abaddon, its mouth wide in a scowl of warning. Its sheer size blocked Abaddon from Khârn’s view, and all around him the circle of bloodletters advanced, now numbering countless hundreds, closing in on him from all directions

Khârn steeled himself to attack the bloodthirster, but its voice boomed in the broiling air before he could move.

‘Cease.’

With that one word, the wind ebbed and the ocean of bloodletters halted, the abyssal legion cowering before their king. Witchfire crackled in the roiling sky above.