=== Vulkan ===
Vulkan stepped through the roiling portal with Urdrakule held high, the thunderhammer's head still slick with the ichor of Mortis's fallen abominations, only to emerge into a nightmarish realm that filled him with profound disgust.
The very air was thick with the cloying sweetness of corruption and the acrid bite of raw Warp energies that clawed at his senses like a thousand unclean fingers. Abeloth's planet was a festering wound upon reality, its surface overrun with grotesque flora twisted into obscene parodies of life.
Vines pulsed with veins of screaming faces, colossal fungal growths that wept luminous pus, and forests of writhing tendrils that reached toward the blood-red skies as if to drag down the stars themselves.
Yet what truly seized the Primarch's attention was the massive black cathedral-like obelisk rising like a cancerous spire from one of the planet's many jagged cracks, its surface crawling with shifting runes and emitting a low, seductive hum that promised forbidden knowledge and endless excess in equal measure.
As the rest of the Astartes began to pour through the portal behind him, their boots thudding heavily against the corrupted soil, Vulkan raised his voice in command, turning to the squad leaders. "Check your modified teleportariums at once. Ensure every device is fully operational and calibrated for extraction."
Each squad leader confirmed their devices were ready in rapid succession. Vulkan nodded with satisfaction before turning his unyielding gaze back toward the obsidian obelisk that dominated the horizon.
He began to advance, Urdrakule resting upon his shoulder as the Salamanders and their allies formed around him, but the forces of Chaos wasted no time in revealing their true strength.
From the warped forests and the shadows cast by the great obelisk surged not only the crystalline horrors of Tzeentch, screaming horrors of change with too many eyes and limbs that shifted between forms, but also the lithe, seductive abominations of Slaanesh, their porcelain skin and razor-clawed limbs promising exquisite agony wrapped in false ecstasy.
Vulkan cursed under his breath, his noble features twisting in revulsion. "What foul bargain has the Changer of Ways struck with the Prince of Pleasure? That these two should stand united against us speaks of desperation… or something far worse."
It did not deter him for even a heartbeat.
With a thunderous warcry that shook the tainted ground, Vulkan rallied the Space Marines around him, his voice booming across the battlefield. "For the Emperor and the Imperium! Stand firm!"
Then he charged, a lone figure sprinting forward towards the forces of Chaos.
Then the rest followed with roars of their own.
Nira moved with her lightsaber drawn, while Maximus used his jump pack to propel himself into the sky, Extinction raised high above his head.
The full might of the assembled Astartes crashed into the massed daemonic legions like a hammer blow from the Emperor himself.
Vulkan led from the front, swinging Urdrakule in a wide arc that pulverized entire packs of Slaaneshi daemonettes into sprays of glittering ichor and shattered crystal, the hammer's disruptive field unraveling their unnatural forms with righteous finality even as their claws raked across his armor in futile attempts to draw blood.
All around him the slaughter unfolded in unrelenting savagery, bolter rounds tearing through writhing masses of Tzeentchian horrors that screamed in a thousand shifting voices as their ever-changing bodies burst apart in explosions of warpflame and mutating flesh.
Maximus fought like death itself beside him, Extinction rising and falling to crush lesser daemons into paste while his heavy bolt pistol barked in support, each shot blasting apart a leaping fiend or a sorcerous construct that dared approach the Primarch's flank.
Dante moved with lethal grace, his axe cleaving through daemon after daemon in a golden dance that left trails, while Tu'Shan and his Salamanders formed an unbreakable wall of green ceramite, their flamers spewing promethium that burned the corrupted flora and daemonic hosts alike in roaring sheets of holy fire.
Nira darted through the chaos, her blade finding weak points in the daemons' ever-shifting anatomies as she called out warnings and coordinated with the Astartes around her.
The greater daemons soon revealed themselves, towering Keepers of Secrets whose alluring forms promised ecstasy even as their claws rent armor and flesh, clashing against Vulkan in titanic duels that shook the battlefield.
One such abomination lunged at him with blinding speed, its serpentine tail whipping around to ensnare his leg while its multiple arms rained blows that dented his pauldrons and drew shallow lines of superheated blood.
Vulkan roared in defiance, smashing Urdrakule down upon its midsection with such force that the daemon's body crumpled inward with a sickening crunch of breaking bone and unraveling essence, before he seized its head and twisted violently, tearing it free in a fountain of iridescent ichor.
Nearby, a Lord of Change unfurled its massive wings and unleashed bolts of mutating warpfire that warped the very ground into grasping tentacles, only for Maximus to charge through the barrage, his null aura dissipating much of the sorcery as he brought Extinction crashing into the greater daemon's knee, toppling it long enough for Dante to leap atop its back and drive his axe deep into its skull with a savage cry.
The battle raged on without respite, Astartes falling to overwhelming numbers even as they reaped a terrible toll, their modified teleportariums flaring to life in desperate extractions that saved small groups of brothers from certain doom while the rest pressed ever forward toward the obsidian obelisk.
Vulkan pressed forward through the endless tide of daemonic filth with Urdrakule, reducing entire clusters of Tzeentchian horrors and Slaaneshi abominations to sprays of dissipating essence.
His every step was purchased with the blood and sacrifice of his sons and allies as the Astartes around him traded their lives for mere inches of ground in a grinding, merciless slaughter that painted the corrupted soil in layers of blood, broken ceramite, and the broken forms of transhuman warriors who refused to yield even as claws and sorcery ripped them apart.
The battle had become a nightmarish meat grinder where Astartes were torn limb from limb by daemons only to detonate their melta bombs in final acts of defiance, their deaths buying precious moments for their brothers and cousins to push another step closer to the obsidian obelisk that loomed ever larger against the blood-red skies, while bolter fire and flamers created corridors of burning retribution through the writhing masses.
While the bulk of the Astartes continued to hold the outer perimeter in a desperate, bloody stalemate against the endless reinforcements pouring from the warped forests, Vulkan and the core strike team of Dante, Maximus, Nira, Tu'Shan, and a handpicked cadre of veterans, carved a bloody spearhead straight toward the towering black cathedral-obelisk, their advance a symphony of roaring chainswords, thunderous hammer blows, and the constant bark of bolt weapons that left trails of daemonic corpses dissolving into Warp-stuff behind them.
The price was horrific, with brothers teleporting out in flickering bursts of light when their modified devices activated, yet many more fell permanently to overwhelming numbers and treacherous sorcery, their final roars of "For the Emperor!" or "For the Primarch!" echoing as Vulkan finally reached the massive doors of the cathedral-like structure.
With a bellow of unbridled rage, he kicked the towering doors inward with such force that they exploded off their ancient hinges in a shower of splintered obsidian and Warp-tainted debris, revealing the vast hall within where the true heart of the abomination pulsed.
At the far end of the colossal chamber, the obelisk itself grew slowly like a living tumor, its surface crawling with shifting runes and obscene growths while a sheer cliff dropped away into shadowed depths where the primary artifact undoubtedly resided, but Vulkan's attention snapped immediately to the two figures already waiting within.
Shock and deep sadness warred within his noble heart as he recognized Magnus the Red casually seated atop one of the fallen pillars, the Daemon Primarch's cyclopean form radiating immense sorcerous power, while beside him stood Kharath in reverent silence.
Magnus reached down and idly sifted a handful of corrupted dirt through his fingers before speaking, his voice a resonant echo laced with ancient familiarity and mocking amusement.
"You have been causing a lot of problems for the Ruinous Powers, brother."
"I am no longer your brother," Vulkan replied coldly, his grip tightening on Urdrakule as the weight of ten thousand years of betrayal settled heavily upon him.
Magnus did not look up immediately, simply letting the dirt slip from his hand before rising to his full, towering height and finally meeting Vulkan's gaze with his single, glowing eye.
He raised his khopesh-like spear as if to continue, but Vulkan cut him off sharply. "Keep your Warp-tainted tongue behind your teeth, traitor. We both know why we are here. Let us get to it without your poisonous words."
Magnus bowed his head in acceptance before glancing toward Kharath. "Kill the lessers," he commanded simply.
Kharath bowed deeply, his voice a sibilant whisper of devotion. "It will be done, my lord." With that, Magnus turned back to Vulkan, his massive wings unfurling in a display of daemonic majesty before he suddenly vanished in a swirl of Warp energy.
Vulkan spun with preternatural speed, anticipating the trick from their ancient shared history, and smashed Urdrakule directly into Magnus's face the instant the Daemon Primarch reappeared, the thunderhammer's head connecting with a cataclysmic crack that sent shockwaves rippling through the hall and staggered the cyclopean sorcerer. "That trick won't work on me a second time!" Vulkan roared, immediately tackling his fallen brother with the full force of his strength and driving them both through one of the cathedral's massive walls in an explosion of obsidian shards and crumbling architecture.
While Magnus was still momentarily stunned by the hammer blow, Vulkan seized the advantage, lifting the immense Daemon Primarch overhead and spiking him headfirst into the ground with earth-shaking force that cratered the corrupted stone and sent cracks racing outward like spiderwebs.
Magnus finally regained his senses with a furious snarl, his single eye blazing with Warpfire as he unleashed a torrent of sorcerous lightning that scorched Vulkan's armor and forced the Lord of Drakes to release him, the two colossal brothers now fully engaged in a duel of gods that threatened to bring the entire cathedral down around them in a cataclysm of primordial violence.
Vulkan pressed the attack with relentless hammer blows that Magnus barely deflected with his khopesh spear, each collision sending bursts of disruptive energy and Warp lightning exploding outward while the Daemon Primarch retaliated with blasts of mutating fire and telekinetic waves that slammed Vulkan against the ground and tore gashes across his noble form.
Back inside the Cathedral, Kharath's gaze locked directly onto the Ultramarine, a cruel smile twisting his features as he singled him out amid the chaos. "Ah, the last of the original three," the daemon prince taunted, his voice a silky venom that slithered through the hall like poisoned smoke. "How fitting that you stand here alone, little Ultramarine. If you come to me now and kneel before me, I will grant you a quick and painless death, one that will reunite you with your fallen brothers in whatever pitiful afterlife your Corpse Emperor provides."
Maximus felt a cold fury ignite deep within his twin hearts, the fresh insignias of Sebastian and Raxor burning against his chestplate like brands of remembrance as he gripped Extinction tightly.
He stepped forward from his comrades, the group forming a tight wedge behind him.
His voice emerged as a low, thunderous growl that cut through the distant roar of battle.
"You invoke my ire, filthy scum." Without another word, his jump pack ignited in a massive explosion of blue-white flame, propelling him forward like a living missile straight toward the daemon prince in a headlong charge fueled by grief, duty, and unquenchable hatred for the abomination.
Extinction smashed downward, aimed to obliterate Kharath's skull, only for the daemon prince to catch the thunderhammer's head squarely in his open palm with insulting ease, the impact sending shockwaves rippling through the cathedral and cracking the floor beneath them both.
Kharath's grip held firm, his claws digging into the weapon's head as a mocking laugh bubbled from his throat, his eyes gleaming with sadistic delight.
"Oh, how I love it when my prey chooses the hard way," he purred, the words dripping with false affection before he twisted violently and flung Maximus across the hall. The Ultramarine hurtled through the air like a bolt shell, slamming into one of the massive walls with so much force that he cratered the obsidian wall and sent a spiderweb of fractures racing outward, pain exploding through his armored frame as shards of stone rained down around him.
He pushed off the wall with a roar of defiance, Extinction still firmly in hand, just as the rest of the group crashed into the fray around Kharath, turning the interior of the cathedral into a whirlwind of brutal close-quarters carnage.
Dante led the charge with his axe whirling in lethal crimson arcs that sought to cleave the daemon prince's limbs, while Tu'Shan unleashed torrents of promethium from his flamer that scorched the air and Nira darted through the chaos with precise, deadly strikes aimed at joints and exposed Warp-flesh with her Lightsaber.
Maximus rejoined the melee in a thunderous leap, his jump pack flaring once more as he brought Extinction swinging in a wide horizontal blow that Kharath parried with a casual sweep of his clawed hand.
The daemon prince moved with horrifying speed and grace, his form shifting subtly between strikes as he batted aside Dante's axe with one hand and backhanded Tu'Shan hard enough to dent his armor and send the Salamander Chapter Master skidding across the floor in a spray of sparks.
Maximus pressed the attack relentlessly, hammering blow after blow with Extinction that forced Kharath to give ground despite the daemon's superior power, each impact detonating with disruptive energy that unraveled portions of the creature's manifested form and filled the air with the acrid stench of burning Warp essence.
Nira exploited the openings created by the thunderhammer's fury, slashing deep gashes across Kharath's flanks that wept corrosive ichor, while Dante circled for a killing strike that nearly took the daemon's head before a casual backfist from Kharath sent the Blood Angel reeling.
The battle inside the cathedral grew ever more savage, Kharath laughing maniacally as he unleashed bursts of daemonic sorcery that warped the very stone around them into grasping tentacles and mutating spikes, forcing the loyalists to fight not only the prince but the environment itself.
"What shall I be rewarded with when I offer my God your head Maximus?" Kharath screamed before gesturing towards the Obelisk that suddenly began to grow even faster.
===
discord.gg/vDrfkXnDe2
If you enjoyed this chapter, maybe consider leaving me with a couple of your power stones? I promise I'll take good care of them:)