Santiago, walked to a dangling crystal hood, raised it, and placed it over his head.
"Access data on the fleeing destroyer!"
Electronic data streams flowed into his mind. His obsidian eyes locked onto the target.
Removing the hood, he controlled his own spirituality, tracing symbols and markers in his mind.
His brain had been altered since his time as a "Scribe," now composed of living symbols, patterns, and markers.
As the ethereal symbols and markers arranged themselves, they formed a stable, spiritual gate, projecting before the "Traveler."
Santiago stepped through the "Traveler's Door." Light flashed.
He did not experience the Warp's usual phenomena: icy tendrils, bizarre flames...
Nor did he need to be wary of predators.
'Compared to past teleportations, this is truly a journey!'
Santiago thought, feeling his spirituality more vibrant.
An ethereal gate materialized before him. He stepped through.
His obsidian eyes swept the bridge. Dozens of nobles in silken finery surrounded a throne.
The throne was adorned with jewels of every color. Upon it sat a man holding a scepter.
The man was about forty, of average build, with an unremarkable face, except for his eyes, they were like shining diamonds.
His pupils moved like insects.
At that moment, the left pupil was drawn towards the bridge of his nose, the right pulled to the corner.
The mismatched, skewed pupils were grotesque and unsettling.
"Enemy! Attack!"
His voice was a strange, hissing command. To the Shadows of Order, it didn't seem to come from vocal cords, but from something writhing.
A hundred elite guards of House Pezela raised their weapons. Plasma streams converged on the black-armored giant.
A blazing sun of fire consumed the bridge, swallowing cogitators and the surrounding cables.
The rolling heatwave scorched the guards' clothing.
The nobles cheered, "The heretic is dead!"
Pezela's eyes swiveled.
"No! He's there!"
He rose abruptly, swinging his scepter.
The guards turned, aiming where their god had pointed.
A black figure flickered into view, then vanished.
A dozen white-hot spears shot towards various targets.
They tore through the guards' fine armor, pinning them to the deck.
"This!" Pezela raised his scepter again, directing the attack.
The "Traveler" performed one "journey" after another over short distances. The runes "I came, I saw, I recorded" flickered in his eyes.
He hurled "Blazing Spear," then "Wind Blades."
He "blinked" continuously, advancing on the ornate throne. He activated his psychic vision, studying the man with the scepter.
The Black Emperor was interested in the Unsighted King. He would capture the parasitic xenos for Him.
Santiago focused on the host's eyes, searching for the xenos.
'Hmm?'
A flicker of surprise. He saw no alien presence in the eyes. They were uniformly yellow-green.
'Wrong?'
His entire spiritual body was yellow-green.
In a normal person, different parts of the body have different colors. A healthy hand is red, the head purple.
The host's entire body was yellow-green.
'My Lord's briefing mentioned the Unsighted King gradually takes over the host's mind.'
'So, he is completely parasitized, a single entity.'
Realizing the host was fully enslaved, Santiago had no more qualms.
The "Traveler" "blinked" behind Pezela, his left arm striking down.
As his hand reached Pezela's head, the diamond eyes shattered.
The glittering shards exploded. Two transparent worms burst out.
They flew from the hollow sockets. The body collapsed.
The two worms were nearly invisible, their physical concealment almost escaping the Astartes' sharp senses.
They separated, each flying towards a noble.
Santiago's obsidian eyes blazed gold. He raised his hand, aiming at the approaching nobles, potential hosts.
He intoned in Dunnic: "This place is prohibited to 'Parasitism'!"
Golden light flared, enveloping the dozens of nobles rushing towards the throne.
As the nobles shielded their eyes, Santiago's eyes grew deep. The world sharpened.
He looked down from a higher, supernatural perspective.
In his Warp Insight, the two transparent worms, their bodies marked with strange yellow-green patterns, appeared.
One was longer, stretching to the length of his middle finger; the other was shorter, about the length of his thumb.
'The Unsighted King parasitizes humans, feeding on mental energy and reproducing?'
As he pondered, he saw them circling two nobles.
They kept lunging at the nobles' eyes, only to be rebounded by an invisible wall.
His eyes locked onto the two worms. The larger one reacted immediately, abandoning its attempt and slipping away.
The younger one was slower, only starting to flee two heartbeats later.
Santiago's eyes blazed gold again. He raised both arms, his palms aimed at the worms.
"Imprisonment!"
Viscous, translucent liquid coiled around the worms, solidifying into two amber spheres.
Santiago turned his hand, catching them.
The gold in his eyes faded to a pale amber.
"Open your eyes!" Santiago's voice was deep, hypnotic.
"These are the worms you worshipped as the Unsighted King."
The nobles and guards, under the "Suggestion," stopped.
They stared at the two worms in amber.
"Lies! The Unsighted King is a great god! Not a worm!" a silken-clad noble shouted.
"Open your eyes wide. Look at the fallen body. Where is your god now?" Santiago stepped before him, holding the amber to his eyes.
"Look closely," he said, his voice deep.
"Isn't that a worm?"
The "Suggestion" echoed in the noble's ears. His gaze wavered.
He hung his head. "If what you say is true... our faith is a joke."
"What we've done is madness."
"Good. Surrender. Await judgment." Santiago said.
'They are but worms, yet strange enough.'
'Even psychic sight couldn't see them.'
'Thankfully, I have unlocked the Gift of Sight bestowed by my Lord.'
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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