Santiago walked towards the teleportation platform he had built himself.
The pillars, crafted from psychic crystals refined in the Warp by Shadows of Order's premier psychic artisan, replaced the adamantine pillars of standard teleportation platforms.
The densely carved runes included not only common Imperial runes, but also runes passed down through House Borgkamp, runes secretly shared by Hathor Maat, Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons, and many xenos runes:
Fra'al aetherrunes, Aeldar Warp Spider Aspect runes...
And runes drawn from the stars by the seasoned "Astrologer," and secrets accumulated by the Chapter's "Mystery Pryer."
The platform's floor was a fragment of a Saim-Hann Craftworld, gifted by the Black Emperor. Santiago and the Librarians he had trained had carefully cut and polished it.
The platform's operators and maintainers were not Tech-Priests or Techmarines, as in most Legions, but the Chapter's own Librarians.
The moment Santiago stepped onto the platform, he naturally passed through an invisible gate, enveloped in stars.
Since advancing to "Astrologer," his Warp manifestation had quietly transformed into a gate to the starry expanse, no longer the mountains of House Borgkamp.
Walking within was like strolling through the void. He stood upon a 'star.'
Two COG drones stood before him, flanking him, forming an inverted triangle.
He glanced at the viewscreen above, showing the coordinates for the Hrud migration ship. He raised his psychic crystal staff, simultaneously ascending to the eighth level of the Enumeration.
The stars in his eyes spun rapidly.
Surges of Warp energy raised a mist around him.
The runes on his armor lit up. The corresponding Warp circuits on the two COG drones also glowed.
Light blazed in the Daemonologist's eyes. Stars flashed past. A chaotic, elliptical, fungus-wrapped form came into view.
A brilliant light blazed, outshining the bridge's promethium and lumen lights.
Dense runes enveloped the platform, releasing an invisible pulse.
The Librarian operators immediately channeled psychic energy, activating the psychic defense arrays.
Invisible psychic shrieks echoed within the psychic barriers, isolated from the bridge crew's senses.
The Librarians looked at the platform's center. Lord Santiago had vanished in a streak of color.
Streaks of color flashed past the Daemonologist, rapidly fading.
The Daemonologist, "teleported" into the Hrud migration ship, raised his staff.
A point of color ignited on the humid deck. As the Hrud averted their gaze, it spun rapidly.
In a second, it expanded into a colorful vortex.
The veil between reality and the Warp tore. A gate to the Sea of Souls opened.
The high-temperature deck, covered by the Hrud's aggregation entropic effects, instantly froze with layers of frost.
As the Warp phenomenon erupted, a terrifying suction extended from the supernatural realm into reality. Tens of thousands of Hrud shrieked, sucked into the Warp rift.
The shrieks of the dying echoed through the Warp. On the reality deck, frost formed thick ice.
The Daemonologist raised his hand, clenching it. The slowly closing veil accelerated.
As the piercing shrieks echoed, the veil to reality slammed shut.
He took a step and appeared three decks below.
The Hrud flooding the ice-covered deck gathered.
The flow of time surged. The ice melted rapidly. Mist rose.
They covered the deck, but found no enemy.
At the same moment, the Daemonologist raised his hand. As the point of color expanded rapidly, the vortex collapsed into a spatial rift.
BOOM!
With a shudder and a tearing sound like shattering glass, the deck above, the deck below, and the fungal aggregate coating the bulkheads between were torn apart.
The entire deck collapsed from reality, sinking into the vortex.
The migration ship, missing a deck, lurched and collided with itself.
The explosion from the collision of the two halves accelerated in the flow of time.
After using three powerful Daemonologist abilities, extreme-range "Teleportation," "Chaos Vortex," and "Summon Void", oily froth coated Santiago's armor.
Piercing shrieks echoed in his mind. The stars in his eyes took on color.
The starlight twisted and rippled in the layers of color.
His temples throbbed. He knew he could not use more powerful Daemonologist abilities.
He always remembered the Black Emperor's warning: "Of the various psychic disciplines, Daemonology is the most adept at manipulating the Warp, and the most dangerous."
He rapidly descended from the eighth level of the Enumeration. He raised his hand. Starlight swirled. He "teleported" to a deck in the ship's upper half.
As cold enveloped him, he ordered the COG drone to activate the failsafe.
As another set of runes on the COG drone lit up, the shrieks echoing in his mind faded.
'The Squat Grimnyr's COG drone amplifies other psykers and provides a safety net.'
'For a Daemonologist like me, they are essential.'
The cold rapidly faded under the Hrud's aggregation entropic effects. The two COG drones gathered beside Santiago, raising their Etacarn pattern plasma guns.
The teams led by Chief Librarian Thomas and Forge Lord Rosicky Czechk, studying the mind servitor data provided by the Black Emperor, had unraveled part of the Votann's mind servitor construction.
They had partially replaced weapon modules, allowing the COG drone to use not only the original Bedrock-pattern bolters, but also Squat ranged weapons like the Etacarn pattern plasma guns.
Solid rounds like bolts were nearly useless against the Hrud's distorted fields. Energy weapons were the primary weapons in this war.
Two plasma beams lanced out, piercing the blurred waterfall of overlapping entropy fields.
Blazing light tore through the distorted light, piercing the Hrud's tattered clothes, piercing two of them.
The COG drone's gauntlets instantly became pitted, as if exposed to the elements for four millennia.
Before they could fire again, one turned to sand, the other to dust.
The weapons, based on Squat technology, were more durable than Imperial equivalents and could not withstand the temporal flow generated by tens of thousands of Hrud.
Santiago's armor grew dull. The aging from the temporal flow enveloped him.
The weakness was fleeting.
The Perpetual's hair remained black. His skin remained lustrous.
Confirming he had not aged, he silently praised.
'Praise be to my Lord. Thank You for granting me eternal life!'
The surging Hrud raised their plasma flintlocks, firing a volley at him.
The Dunnic incantation "I came, I saw, I recorded" blazed in the "Scribe's" eyes. His body split into three flames.
Using the Flame Ring the Black Emperor had lent him, Santiago had repeatedly "Recorded" the ability to turn into fire.
With a thought, the three flames shot at the wall in a triangular pattern.
The three flames coalesced and dispersed at will, evading most of the plasma beams.
A beam struck one of the flames. The "Scribe's" aura and psychic energy weakened.
As the flames rapidly dimmed, they coalesced before the wall.
The seasoned "Apprentice" placed his hand on the fungus-coated deck bulkhead. A hazy, blue, insubstantial door appeared before him.
He stepped through the water-like blue door.
The "Scribe" moved between layers of decks, among millions of Hrud, using his "Recorded" abilities to attack, his body showing no sign of aging.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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