During Viziole's long night, the "Judge" Yassin fought for fifteen hours. His spiritual energy was depleted; he could not use most of the powers granted by the Black Emperor.
But he could still use some abilities, including Spirit Vision, which all Court members possessed.
He tracked the flickering, dim light, raised his archaeotech pistol, and fired.
The stellar beam, two meters from its target, began to noticeably fluctuate and disperse in the entropy waves.
The deep blue beam rapidly dimmed, first to pure blue, then, at the moment of impact, to a pale blue flash.
With a crackle, a foul-smelling robe was pierced. A scorched spot appeared on the jointed armor.
SHHH, SHHH...
Four Tarantula sentry guns, under the temporal current, rapidly dulled, as if exposed for over six millennia.
The Techmarines heard the ancient machine-spirits' mournful cries. Then, a gap appeared in their defensive line.
The "Monsters" between the sentry guns felt the searing heat, their breathing growing heavy. Their armor and bodies grew sluggish.
The Hrud's bizarre, accelerated motion changed the atmosphere's composition, making the environment heavy.
"Die!" A shout in Dunnic. Yassin, trailing afterimages, slammed into a Hrud.
His fist tore through the rippling waves, crashing into a Hrud's head.
With a crack, its dark head, covered in thick slime, exploded.
The "Judge" took a deep breath of the heavy air. His temples throbbed. The little spiritual energy he had restored was gone.
He swung his right arm. His power fist blurred. The crackling disassociation field tore over a dozen Hrud into disgusting fragments in an instant.
The heavy pressure did not affect Yassin's movements. The longer a "Sheriff" stayed in his "jurisdiction," the stronger he became. This ability did not require spiritual energy, only familiarity with the area.
His face grim, he deactivated his Spirit Vision. The Hrud were surging towards the gap in the line. Once in his "jurisdiction," he could feel their wet, foul stench without it.
His Honor Guard followed, each erupting in their own "jurisdictions."
Blue fists coalesced into a blazing storm, hurling thousands of intruding xenos back.
Plasma flintlock beams struck conversion fields, crackling.
Rippling waves of distorted energy clashed with the "Sheriffs'" "jurisdictions."
The temporal current surged, washing over the black wall.
His internal timer ticked over another hour, but the night still held.
His and his Guard's Saturnine-Pattern Terminator Armor, once gleaming, was now pitted, as if neglected for millennia.
Several had shattered gauntlets, revealing age-spotted flesh.
Their muscles had withered. Their fingers were knotted with age.
Their pulses weakened by the moment. Their bodies inevitably aged under the temporal current.
His own body was unaffected. He fought at the forefront, a rock in the current, holding back the most enemies.
His intuition stirred. Something evil was happening to his right.
His eyes dimmed. He stepped back. Sand trickled from his armor. Shattered plates fell.
The temporal current was beginning to permeate his "jurisdiction."
He glanced at his helmet display. The night had lasted seventeen hours. Still four hours until the star's light.
At the same moment, in the ruined hive city, as the Hrud attacked in fury, the Honor Guard also defended the high ground around the altar against the fiercest xenos assault.
The massive device on the altar was a behemoth, occupying the space of an entire transport ship. Now it covered nearly a third of the hive city.
Countless Hrud, pouring from the hive's underground, surged mindlessly at the iron-grey construct.
Clouds of white bees drifted, drawing plasma beams.
Almost every moment, an Honor Guard member fell.
Some turned to dust, carried on the wind.
Others scattered as fragments of bone, mingled with armor plates.
...
As the hive city grew searing hot, Nareth, having completed the final runes at the altar's center, flew into the air.
He ordered, his voice grave, "Activate the stasis device."
The device Perturabo had built pulsed rapidly. Blazing light flared, enveloping the hive city.
The Honor Guard members froze between pulses. Their flickering forms were like black ghosts.
The flickering slowed, slower and slower, until it matched their slowing heartbeats.
BOOM!
A sound echoed through the hive city. A burst of light shot into the sky.
The humid heat plummeted. A vortex of light spread, covering the entire planet.
Conflicting temporal currents clashed. Honor Guard members unlucky enough to be caught were torn apart.
The next instant, the stasis field completely overwhelmed the entropy fields of the planet's tens of millions of Hrud.
Above and below ground, the distorted effects were dispelled. The entropy waves completely dissipated.
The gauze-like veil around the Hrud was pierced like a bubble, revealing their foul, disgusting forms.
The tide turned. The Shadows of Order, who had been struggling, dropped their rusted, slow-firing plasma guns and incendiary weapons. They quickly took bolters from stasis weapon crates.
A tidal wave of barrages surged. Adamantium-tipped rounds slammed into the Hrud without resistance.
Amidst the thunderous barrage, a slaughter unfolded.
Nareth, in mid-air, looked down.
His consciousness spread. He felt the millions of Hrud being easily crushed. He thought with feeling.
'Perturabo really delivered. This stasis device is powerful.'
He felt countless Hrud rushing towards him. With a flick of his wrist, the 1.4-meter-long banner shaft appeared in his hand.
'But it's not enough. I'll add some "fire."'
"I, in the name of the 'Red Priest,' beseech the Kingdom of Disorder to grant me power. Let all Hrud in Sak'trada Deeps perceive the existence of the Viziole stasis field."
The thirty-three, eleven-meter-tall pillars of dual-numbered black gold blazed with light.
Black mist churned, enveloping the entire stasis device.
The blazing stasis field, empowered by the source, rose into the air, blazing brighter than the grey star.
The light flashed past Viziole's boundary. Its radiance spread throughout Sak'trada Deeps, a region about 260 light-years in diameter.
The black mist receded. The light vanished in an instant.
Across Sak'trada Deeps, in the remaining eleven major worlds and eighty-four minor worlds, the Hrud simultaneously stirred.
They crazily surged towards their hive-sized city-ships, towards the fungus-wrapped migration ships.
.....
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