《The Divine Rite: A Warhammer 40,000 Fanfiction》Part 18
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Part 18
A heavy fist struck Narissa in the jaw, throwing her bodily across the Basilica Exsolutus. She caught the fall on her hands, springing backward with the easy grace of an acrobat. Her eyes burning with fury, she smiled at Mordred through bloody teeth, spitting upon the ground. The others all watched in awe as her pet gracknyl stalked up beside her, glaring with the silent threat of its kind at her attacker. Mordred was unmoved, for he was clad in the fur of a more lethal beast, and the axe in his hand was how he’d obtained it.
I for one thought him a fool.
He looked upon the beast tamed by Narissa and knew he’d conquered worse, and so dismissed her. What he missed was that the woman was by far the more lethal of the two. It was why the gracknyl, named Grendel, was not attacking. Such beasts were silent until they ripped apart your ribcage, but this one was not preparing an attack. It waited to observe its mistress take down this challenger, under no illusion its help would be needed.
I myself watched in a mixture of shock and horror.
“No true champion of Khorne would mix worship with Nurgle.” Mordred snarled, summing up the crux of their dispute in his typically brutish fashion. I was already tired of his posturing, his flexing, his constant need to be the loudest and most dangerous person in the room.
It was an especially futile effort in this room, with one foot in the warp, where beings of infinite lethality dwelled.
Narissa, on the other hand, was much more to my liking. She was lithe and slender, honed as the bronze sword she drew with one hand, as flexible as the metal tipped whip she held with the other. Mordred was a monster of a man, bulging muscles capable of crushing rock, but she was an elegant blade indeed. And while he reveled in the glory of Khorne, Narissa had spoken a single sentence of appreciation for the patience of Nurgle, and so the Nine were already fracturing.
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The voices had not warned me of this. They did not speak of each other as foes, though they evidently were. I knew the four gods of Chaos as siblings, kin, different faces of a single stone. None of the Nine felt the same. Each favored one of the four, maybe two if they were generous, but no more.
It was my role to bring them together, to be the axle these eight spokes turned around. I didn’t realize how difficult such a task would be until that moment.
“Then what has kept you waiting all of these years, imbecile?” Narissa spat, circling her foe, his axe constantly at the ready. “Did you pace your cage up north ceaselessly? A beast worrying at the bars? We knew this day would come, and it is Nurgle who gave us the patience to wait for it.”
“It is Tzeentch that preaches we wait for the right time to strike.” a new voice cut in, the tension in the air thickened to an impossible degree. “When their back is turned and their defenses are down. You must wait for a chance.”
Both turned to Veros, the one among them who believed fully and only in the Changer of Ways. Whatever their own differences might be, one believing in Khorne alone and the other praising Nurgle alongside him, neither favored the treacherous magic of Tzeentch. “If you want to lose your tongue, continue to speak.” Narissa hissed.
“You can have the tongue. I want the rest.” Mordred growled.
I merely sighed.
At least none of the worshippers of Slaanesh felt the need to speak up. They seemed too embroiled in the amusement of this show to do more than watch. For that I was grateful, and even the voices in my mind had grown silent. They did not guide me, or instruct me how to proceed. This was apparently my own path to navigate. And it was then that I realized the truth.
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This was a trial.
I knew abruptly that my future would contain many such moments, those who believed in the same gods warring over differences that seemed minor to me. I had been blessed with greater understanding, with a wider perspective. It was why I had been chosen. Thousands, tens of thousands, would one day obey my words and heed my teachings.
If I could reign in the other eight.
And if I could not keep a paltry cadre of Nine together, I was hardly worthy at all.
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Capo: Rise of a Gang Lord
Book 1 is now complete. Book 2 being posted. Frank is on his way to his D&D game when he gets caught up in a meth head's convenience store robbery. While trying to escape he is shot in the back at close range and everything goes black. When he wakes up he's not in a hospital or the afterlife—he's in a different city entirely, one called San Tadeo. Things are different in San Tadeo. Frank has a status sheet, and he can see people's names and jobs just by looking at them (unless they're walking in Shadow). Even more than in the real world, Cash Rules Everything. With his real life behind him and his only friend a high-school weed dealer, Frank has the freedom to make new choices and set new goals. What does he want? He wants it all. If you've always wanted a Gamelit set in a GTA-style world, here you go. Schedule: Back to releasing new chapters. Not a lot extra banked, but going to try to do 3/week. We'll see how it goes.
8 134The Last Marshal
Weird West Fantasy Noir Once the Republic Marshals brought order to the chaotic lands along the Frontier, facing dangers both human and supernatural with ancient wisdom and a six-gun —but that was a long time ago. Destroyed by conspiracy and betrayal, all that remains of that secretive order is one nameless man on a trek though the West seeking revenge on the woman he blames for the Marshals' fall and his disgrace. When a visitor from our world joins him on his journey, they together must confront the horrors of a strange land, the mysteries of the past and the real meaning of their quest for justice. The world of Tellus is what 19th Century Earth would have looked like if the stories of Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Lovecraft and William Hope Hodgeson were real. History in this world moves slower. The old faiths persist and civilization never conquered the dark corners of the map, at least not without being inextricably changed. Technology and culture takes a little longer to evolve in this land, as people here tend to spend more time pursuing their elaborate revenge plots or trying to avoid being the next sacrifice to the Outer Gods rather than advancing science or statecraft. Imagine Cormac McCarthy by way of Edgar Rice Burroughs, though a little less testosterone-drenched than that description would imply. Three caveats: First, there are deep mysteries here, including how such a world came to be and who controls it. Second, this world is not wholly unconnected from our own. There is a historical point of divergence, but in the distant past. To paraphrase Twain: history in this world is not a repeat of our own, but it does often rhyme. And finally, this is not a setting that lends itself to happy endings.
8 148Lost in a Dream
Published Monday, Wednesday, and Friday! If dreaming is a drug, then I'm a junkie. For most people, sleeping is an obstacle. Something to get out of the way, so they can get back to their life. For others, it's an escape to nothing, a blissful break from the wears of life. It's the opposite for me. I live so that I can dream; I work so that I can go home and close my eyes, awakening in the real world. My real world. After all, what is reality if not the place where dreams don't come true? Can you fight a dragon on your way home from work, or conquer a foreign land to save an oppressed people from their malevolent overlords after vacuuming the living room? Can you visit a land where mountains look like freshly baked phyllo dough, or live in a castle bigger than my apartment complex? Tigers instead of taxes. Monsters instead of men with too much power. Reality is just the word we came up with to accept a mundane life. A birthing place for grander ideas we wish could materialize. I choose to live in a world where they do.
8 163Rheostat
"It's not what we are but what we do that defines us."Aylin Black has come to believe that she deserves all the misfortunes life throws at her. Yet she refuses to back down. At least not without a fight. But as her past comes knocking at her door she's forced to rethink all her beliefs. And she just might have to give up this losing fight much sooner than she expected.
8 105Love And War - A Fortnite Story No.4
*THIS STORY IS A PART OF THE MAIN AU I CREATED. THE OTHER 3 SHOULD BE READ IN ORDER FIRST BEFORE THIS ONE*(side note, I've decided to take my character out of this story since she doesn't serve much of a purpose in this one.)"Are you sure you want to do this?""I'm not turning back now. I'm done being a burden to you and the others, Midas.""You're not a burden. Never was. But if this is what you want, then I will gladly train with you Jones. Are you ready?""...As ready as I'll ever be."---Rogue ex-I.O agent John 'Jonesy' Jones, also known as either Jones or Jonesy has come a long way since he helped save reality. He lost his wife, and yet he somehow won over the heart of the old leader of Ghost, Midas. And he finally felt content with his new life on the island.But when a race of aliens named Kymera come to the island and destroy the Zero Point's place of containment The Spire, and the Imagined Order returns with his old boss Doctor Slone on the island and looking for him, panic began to set in and he went into hiding.However as months go by, he realises how much of a burden he's being, and how he's doing nothing to help his boyfriend and his family survive in the invasion.And now, that's going to change.Whatever his future might have left for him on the island, he knows one thing for sure.HE'S DONE BEING A COWARD.
8 162Vento Aureo || Her Muse ||
No words can describe what she felt when she travels with Bruno Bucciarati and his team. In fact, she is silent - a mute. Even if she doesn't utter a word, she is a tricky young lady. Protecting the young Trish Una is her top mission but she doesn't mind interacting with the team. Let's hope they can understand her well. -- I don't own any of the characters, only my original characters.
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