The air smelled of ozone, burnt blood, and the metallic taste of the Warp. Cadia was bleeding out. The skies, torn apart by the fire of traitors and loyalists, were a mosaic of horrors: crashing ships, legions of demons descending, and the sickly glow of the Eye of Terror devouring reality.
Amidst this hell, in a plaza of Kasr Partos turned into a slaughterhouse, space was torn open with a sound that was not Warp-born, but mechanical, like a nightmare engine pushed beyond its limits. A portal of pure, violent energy gaped wide, spitting out a figure that crashed into the rubble of a Commissar's statue.
The DOOM Slayer rose to his feet, his green Sentinel-Maykr armor emitting a faint golden glow under the firelight from its accents and visor. His sensors, managed by his armor's integrated AI, instantly scanned the surroundings.
[ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS COMPLETE]
[ATMOSPHERE: BREATHABLE. HIGH PSYCHIC/PARTICLE CONTAMINATION]
[ENERGY READINGS: MULTIPLE UNKNOWN SOURCES. HIGH HOSTILITY]
[INTERCEPTED VOX TRANSMISSIONS: IMPERIUM OF MAN... CHAOS... CADIA STANDS...]- The AI translated and filtered the cacophony of screams and static, giving him basic context.
He didn't care. What he saw was familiar: humans in blue armor fighting and dying against hordes of grotesque beings, mutants with eight-pointed star symbols, and... demons.
A group of Chaos Cultists, drunk on blood and power, charged his position, screaming blasphemies to their dark gods. The Slayer didn't flinch. His Super Shotgun appeared in his hands in a flash from his pocket dimension.
BOOM. BOOM.
Two shots. Two cultists turned into crimson mist. His weapon's shield deployed, blocking the blows from a mutant's axe, and with a brutal motion, he slammed it into the ground before blowing its head off with the stock.
[RECOMMENDATION: DEMONIC HOSTILES DETECTED. MAXIMUM PRIORITY]
He turned. A group of Tzeentch Horrors, creatures of pure warp energy, materialized, hurling arcane spells. The projectiles of fire and change impacted his armor. He felt the heat and corrosive energy, and for the first time, the Sentinel metal emitted a sound of stress, slightly charring. He was vulnerable.
With a grunt, he switched weapons. The Energy Ballista appeared. A precise shot pierced the central eye of a Horror, causing it to explode in a screech of frustrated psychic energy. He felt a surge of power as he did it. Small, but tangible. It was growing.