Part 34

Shiss’killith.

The name rang in my head, my heart. It had been burned into my soul all along. It was the name of my truest companion, my most faithful friend. The name of my blade, and of the only weapon I relied on more than it.

Shiss’killith.

The name rippled through the air, splitting it apart, rending reality into madness. The materium tore apart and revealed the true glory of the warp, and through that oil slick gash stepped a familiar, hoof tipped foot. It was large enough now to crush a man beneath it.

Shiss’killith.

The name was whispered over and over by the shrieking voices in the ether. The portal began to rise as a second foot stepped daintily through, unveiling the glory of a newly born greater demon. No minor warp entity, but the grandest of spiritual creatures short of the Chaos Gods. A slender tail whipped back and forth, splitting at the end into three smaller ones, each tipped with a barb.

Upward.

Reverse jointed legs of porcelain flesh, a purple and gold tabard hanging between them. Pale, smooth, enticing thighs thicker than my waist. A belt of pure gold chains holding up a tabard in front, and one behind. Enticingly curved hips, a slender waist that was deliciously muscled. Two vast scythes of claws, serrated on the edges, that hung to her knees on either side.

Upward.

Purple cloth and golden armor that covered heavy breasts. A pair of arms beneath those straps, tipped by claws large enough to scythe through several men at once. Another pair above the straps, larger, powerful but graceful. An impossibly long and slender sword gripped in the right, a dagger as tall as I held in the other.

Upward.

Elegant neck and delicate facial features. Full lips colored dark, pulled upward in an amused, victorious smirk. Depthless eyes of amethyst. Impossibly long lashes. Midnight black hair pulled back, held in place by bands of gold, trailing down to her waist. Curved horns crowning her, declaring her a queen among the stars.

The awe that held us all in place dissipated as the crack of weapons fire began again. The portal vanished as an explosion blossomed on her torso. No flesh was torn with it this time, no spray of blood. Her body merely shimmered faintly, an aura of oil over it, and her head turned to the surviving enemies. Seven were kneeling, or on all fours as they vomited blood. But one stood, resolutely chanting those foolish words. Words that were not enough, not now, not when faced by this glorious being.

Shiss’killith gestured, and the woman exploded.

The others cried out in denial and stood, their weapons shaking.

I laughed. She echoed it. And then the servants of the False Emperor died.

Her movements were a blur, just the suggestion of color between one pause and the next. Here the flash image of a claw slicing through two warriors, their armor butter. There another impaled and lifted high upon the dagger. There, another with her head neatly removed by the sword. One of the last was catapulted away, her chest concave from the impact of a hoof. And then there was one.

She stood as defiantly as they always did. Their bravery was beyond question, their skill undeniable. Theirs was a faith that could not be shaken, so for a moment even I was confused as I called for Shiss’killith to spare her. What good would speaking to one so lost gain me? A massive dagger was stabbed into the ground, the empty hand which had wielded it reaching for the final survivor. Her arms were pressed to her sides as she was picked bodily up. She glared bloody defiance, righteous fury, endless hatred, all directed at me.

Then I knew why I had stopped her death.

I needed to know. I needed her to tell me what foolish ideals were worth the butchering of a planet. For that is what this was. They had arrived and massacred an army, burned the surviving cities which had bowed before it. All those we had spared died, all those who might have joined us were executed. Whole civilizations were extinguished without remorse, pitiless lances of brilliance stabbing from the heavens and burning them to ash.

And I needed to know why.

The struggling woman was held before me, Shiss’killith dropping to one knee with inhuman grace. I walked toward the prisoner, the blood of her sister dripping from my blade, and I glared right back.

“Why?” I asked simply, as though that question contained every ounce of fury, every bit of sorrow I felt for the dead. It was not enough. The question did not mean to her what it did to me, so I continued. “Why come here? Why kill so many? When we came to their gates we told them to repent, we preached the Truth and asked them to embrace it. Those who did, or those who were silent, they were spared. You spared none. You destroyed cities, leveled islands, and not one was given a choice, or a chance. By what name are you monsters called?”

“And why have you done...this?”

There were no words for the scale of tragedy they had perpetrated. There was no expression for this kind of cold hearted murder. Genocide paled beside this horror. Massacre encompassed only the surface of their cruelty. This was more than horrific, more than monstrous, more than murder, or slaughter, more than heresy, or blasphemy.

And she would tell me why.

“Because you preach the word of Chaos.” the woman spat, blood trickling from her mouth. “Your words are a plague, a poison. Those who hear them are lost. Those who heed them are damned.”

“My words are the Truth, whether you accept it or not. And their belief is a choice.”

“It is a choice between salvation and the death of all. Theirs is not a choice that can be made, that we can allow them to make.” Her eyes blazed with delusional fury. “So long as a Sister of the Order of the Bloody Rose stands, so long as the Imperium stands, death is the only punishment fitting for a heretic. The Emperor does not abide your lies, will not condone your evil, no matter the false mercy you show those you lead astray.”

“Your Emperor would burn a world for doubt? Would slaughter a people for considering another path?” I snarled, hand tightening around my sword. Shiss’killith’s hand tightened as well, the woman coughing up blood, eyes popping with agony. “You would annihilate the innocent for being uncertain!?”

“An...anything is better… than them turning to you.” she gasped. “The Emperor protects. The Imperium endures. His Truth is the only truth. And those who deny it, they shall burn.”

“Then it is you, it is your Imperium, it is your EMPEROR who will burn!” I roared, tearing my sword across and silencing her forever.

Blood sprayed my face, but my mind was already elsewhere. This is the Amorok, the true face of my foe. I had considered it a lie, a mere fairytale to divert the masses to worshipping a false idol. Inconvenient, but not dangerous. It was merely a lie I had to expose to show the people the Truth of Chaos. But no, it was so much more than that. So much worse than that.

She was right. It was a poison, a plague, a cancer. Once in the body it grew and grew, spreading like gangrene, until the whole body died. You had to cut off a limb to spare the heart, a leg to save the mind. But here, the rot was already in the core. It coursed through the veins of the galaxy, lurked in the muscles, directed the thoughts, and even powered the pulse. This was not something you could cleanse from a body and have it still be breathing.

This was something you burned to cinders, then rebuilt from the ashes.