As Curze descended further into the profundity of the Nightfall, the phantasmicregistrations that had pursued him throughout his existential trajectory intensified in densityand distortion.
More disquieting than these spectralapparitions, however, was the progressiveaccumulation of mutilated Night Lords corpses along the corridor's perimeter.
These specimens had been discarded with contemptuous facility within the umbralinterstices. They included numerous captainsand veterans who had occupied elevatedstations within the Legion's hierarchicalconfiguration.
At this chronological juncture, however, they were comprehensively reclassified as refrigerated, rigid cadaveric specimens. They maintained their silent vigil over the purification protocol transpiring within the vessel's profundity.
Curze traversed this accumulation of his former successors.
His sensorium was saturated with an ineffableaffective effluence — grief, desolation.
These specimens were proprietary to the 'him' who had acceded to treachery. They were not Curze's acquisitions.
They were, indisputably, traitors. Their existential termination was juridicallywarranted.
The connective infrastructure of consanguineous affiliation, however, persisted. It was analogous to an invisibleconstrictive reticulation. It occasioned in his inferior extremities a pronouncedaugmentation of gravitational investment.
"...You register desolation...?"
A raucous enunciation emanated from the absolute darkness anterior to his trajectory.
Within this demarcated precinct, even Curze's transhuman perceptual faculties — calibratedto exceptional sensitivity — commenced their progressive attenuation.
"I have executed the identical protocol you presently prosecute."
"To your cognitive infrastructure, these specimens are designated as 'traitors'."
"To my cognitive infrastructure, the transgressions they perpetrated defiled the designation of my successors."
The enunciation persisted in its subauditorysusurration from the umbra. It was saturatedwith an affective effluence approachingparanoiac derangement.
"At this chronological juncture — which is, I acknowledge, considerably belated — I have consummated their juridical adjudication."
These enunciations erupted from the darkness. They were accompanied by a desolate, fragmentary simulation of maxillofacial gratification.
It was simultaneously a supplication for Curze's validation — and an autonomouslamentation.
"Is this catastrophic attritional expenditure of your successors attributable to this juridicaldetermination?"
Curze's enunciation was affectless. Denudedof affective investment.
"I register, within this spectacle, exclusivelyevidence of your enervation."
"SILENCE!"
A fulminant ululation — saturated with primordial wrath — erupted from the umbra.
A fulgurant lightning claw erupted from the darkness. Its trajectory was annotated by the piercing keen of its perforation of the atmosphere.
It abruptly terminated its offensive translationa single centimetre from Curze's ocularorgans.
Curze registered zero retrograde translation. His corporeal configuration manifested no indication whatsoever of hesitation or apprehension.
He was acutely cognisant of his 'other'iteration's essential configuration:
This entity concealed his intrinsic fragilitybeneath an integumentary substrate of terror.
At this proximate encounter, Curze registered, with visceral clarity, the extent of his adversary's corporeal attrition.
Though his adversary's stature exceeded his own, his corporeal configuration was denudedof integumentary adornments.
The Primarch corpus — which should have manifested formidable muscular development— was, at this chronological juncture, grotesquely emaciated.
It was as though his entire vital essence had been comprehensively exhausted by protracted existential distress.
The two Curze specimens encountered one another's regard within this absolutetenebrosity.
Their ocular organs — characteristicallyNostraman in their profound, umbralcalibration — registered zero excess affectiveeffluence.
No wrath. No odium.
Exclusively a frigid effulgence — reflectingthe essential desolation of each other's existential substrate.**
Following a protracted temporal increment —
The Night Haunter withdrew his lightningclaw. His corporeal configuration dissolvedinto the umbra with the noiseless facility of an apparition receding into its customaryontological jurisdiction.
It was as though he had never manifestedhimself.
Curze persisted in his trajectory.
He attained, at last, the Night Haunter'ssecluded chamber aboard the Nightfall.
This precinct was denuded of any vestigialeffulgence. It was saturated with absolute, suffocating darkness.
It was analogous to a gladiatorial arena — exclusively calibrated for the primordialencounter of these two ontologically identicalentities.
Innumerable frenetic ungual inscriptionspropagated across every centimetre of the chamber's ferrous integumentary substrate.**
The future Curze had, indisputably, accededto comprehensive cognitive derangement.
He had employed his own haemorrhagiceffluence as chromatic pigment to inscribeillegible geometric configurations upon the bulkheads.
"You have arrived..."
"I have arrived. To terminate you, traitor."
Curze's enunciation occasioned in the NightHaunter a subauditory simulation of maxillofacial gratification.
At this chronological juncture, he had assumed his power armour — the accoutrements of his former iteration.
His cognitive assessment of Curze — this 'past' iteration of himself, who had not yet 'matured' into his present existentialconfiguration — was that he constituted zerocredible martial menace.
"You are incapable..."
The future Curze's enunciation was saturatedwith derision.
"...of terminating me."
"You should have persisted in your occultation behind our 'fraternal associate' — simulating the disposition of a compliantjuvenile specimen."
He suspended his discursive elaboration. His tonal modulation then transfigured itself into an insidious, venomous register:
"He is not our authentic fraternal associate, is he?"
"I register, with comprehensive clarity, that this 'False Emperor' has substituted our legitimate consanguineous associates with alien substrata."
"His entire existential trajectory is saturatedwith dissimulation. We are, to His cognitiveinfrastructure, exclusively instruments."
His enunciation concluded, the NightHaunter's regard fixed itself upon Curze with corruptive intensity.
"You should accede to my existentialtrajectory..."
"With your present martial calibration, you could effect comprehensive recalibration of our predestined future. You could — even — subvert the Imperium in its entirety!"
Curze's affective configuration registeredzero perturbation at this derangedproposition.
His enunciation was equanimous:
"Nyx is my fraternal associate. It is He — not the Emperor — who has effected my existential transfiguration."
"This formulation constitutes my comprehensive juridical determination."
These enunciations were analogous to incisive laminar implements. They perforatedthe future Curze's defensive perimeter with surgical precision.
His entire corporeal configuration registeredpronounced involuntary perturbation.
This was the somatic correlate of invidia — and contrition.
He envied his 'past' iteration. This specimenhad, with effortless facility, attained the redemption he had pursued throughout his entire existential trajectory — and had forfeited through his own determinations.
This redemption could not be conferred by the Emperor. He had sought it throughout his protracted existential trajectory. At its terminus, he had reclassified it as phantasmic.
At this chronological juncture, this phantasmhad materialised itself — in his 'past' iteration.
Wrath erupted within his sensorium.
He desired to lacerate this specimen before him — this 'past' iteration of himself — into innumerable particulate fragments.
The existential continuity of this 'past'iteration constituted a comprehensiverefutation of his elected existential trajectory.
It refuted his entire accumulation of existential distress and treachery.
It reclassified him as a desolate comicnarrative.
"You have successfully provoked my wrath..."
The Night Haunter's enunciation was distorted by unassuageable fury.
"My exclusive remaining aspiration, at this chronological juncture, is your comprehensiveexistential termination, Curze."
"Even should this determination occasion a temporal paradox — have we not, throughoutour entire existential trajectory, persisted in a perpetual trajectory towards auto-annihilation?!"
He elevated his lightning claws. Their disruption-field generators emitted their characteristic ascendant modulation.
He directed these formidable implements at Curze. His posture was eloquent:
We are, in our essential constitution, identical.
What he registered in Curze's ocular organs, however, was exclusively frigid indifference.
"We are not travellers upon a congruentexistential trajectory."
Curze's enunciation was deliberate, deliberative. His enunciation was analogousto a terminal juridical determination.
"You are... desolate."
"DESOLATE?!"
The future Curze's enunciation registered his cognitive assessment that this formulationconstituted the most preposterous comicenunciation he had encountered throughout his entire existential trajectory.
"I... am DESOLATE?!"
"I — the Sovereign of the Eighth Legion! The Night Haunter! Konrad Curze — DESOLATE?!"
His discursive elaboration was immediatelyinterrupted by a CRACKING ATONAL KEENthat lacerated the ambient darkness.
His lightning claw's disruption-field generatorwas activated to maximum operationalcalibration. His offensive commitmenttraversed the intervening distance with such velocity that it was indiscernible to conventional perceptual faculties.
It encountered Curze's anterior thoracicconfiguration.
Curze's power armour's pectoral platingregistered a combustive, excoriatedimpression from this fulgurant encounter.
Curze registered, with visceral clarity, that his future iteration had committed himself to this engagement with absolute homicidalinvestment.
"You shall encounter your existentialtermination within this precinct — as shallhe!"
The Night Haunter's ululation was saturatedwith primordial fury. His offensive momentumaccelerated to catastrophic velocity.
"Negative."
Curze's enunciation was affectless, absolute.
"Subsequent** to your existential termination— I shall engage Khorne at Nyx's perimeter."**
Curze elevated his own lightning claws. His offensive momentum was commensurate with his adversary's.
The two umbral configurations interlaced with exceptional velocity within the absolutetenebrosity of the secluded chamber.
Each collision of their lightning claws eruptedwith fulgurant azure energetic scintillations.
These transient effulgences illuminated, for microscopic temporal increments, their frigid, immutable maxillofacial configurations.
The disparity in their martial experience, however, was decisive.
The future Curze monopolised the offensiveinitiative.
His sophisticated tactical dissimulationcompelled Curze to commit his defensivedisposition to an erroneous trajectory.
His second lightning claw erupted from the umbra with the velocity of an atmosphericdischarge. Its trajectory was ascendant. Its apex perforated Curze's defensive perimeterfrom an unanticipated angular trajectory.
SHRIEK——!
Curze's lateral armour plating was lacerated. Haemorrhagic effluence immediatelycascaded from the catastrophic lesion.
His respiratory apparatus registered a compromised exhalation. He was compelledto execute a retrograde translation.
This temporal increment of delayed evasivetranslation — occasioned by this catastrophicoffensive commitment — constituted the decisive parameter in this primordial martialconvocation.
The future Curze emitted a subauditory, satisfied enunciation. His offensivemomentum intensified to previouslyunregistered calibration.
He suppressed Curze with irresistibleoffensive investment, affording his adversaryzero temporal increments for respiratoryrecuperation or defensive recalibration.
He was determined to compel Curze's existential expenditure through sustainedoffensive momentum.