The moment the Shadow's Sovereignty translated into the source domain, the bridge's warning lights blazed, red runes flashing across the simulation sanctum.
Captain Diana spun in her chair, facing the command throne, reporting to the Primarch.
"My lord, we are under attack by fifty-one vessels. The Khrave's aetheric weapons are rapidly depleting the Jokaeron Force Field."
"Please dispatch the Jokaeros for maintenance."
"I understand." Nareth nodded.
Light and shadow flickered in the Primarch's eyes. His consciousness unfurled.
In an instant, it extended into the maintenance shafts. With a thought, the thousand Jokaeros he was "linked" to moved into action.
Their long fingers pressed the buttons on the maintenance elevators. With a rumble, the elevators ascended.
The Primarch did not withdraw his consciousness. Ascending to the Third Level of the Thelema mindstate, his awareness passed through the Gloriana's hull, studying the area beyond the Jokaeron Force Field.
Fifty-one needle-like vessels, each slightly shorter than the Shadow's Sovereignty at twenty kilometers long, surrounded them.
Aetheric beams from the Khrave web-ships hammered against the elliptical field, sending up layers of psychic mist.
The Primarch's gaze narrowed. He surveyed the area, following the solidified mental network, the Nest-Web, to its hub, where a shadowy throne hovered.
The being on the throne was skeletal, covered in cracks, like a mummy from ancient Terran records.
Terrible Warp-energy oozed from its cracked skin, power enough to slay ten thousand souls, crackling around its withered carapace.
Its oversized head was adorned with backward-sweeping horns above sunken eye sockets. A triangular crown, inscribed with unknown hieroglyphs, was held aloft by its psychic power.
The withered body rose from the throne, wreathed in a terrifying electromagnetic storm.
"Nareth!"
"You are foolish enough to enter our domain."
"Just as I have devoured every empire before, I will feast on your corpse."
Nareth noted the missing tendrils, recognizing the psychic signature.
The Progenitor from Muspel.
'A loser, yet so confident.'
Nareth continued to extend his consciousness, picking out the shadowy thrones and the Progenitors seated upon them from the Nest-Web.
'One, two…'
'Fifty!'
Nareth's gaze sharpened. Fifty-one Khrave Progenitors.
The number far exceeded his expectations.
'I thought there would be only a few Progenitors. I never imagined so many.'
He recalled the Lion's final battle in the Ghoul Stars, when, as he faced the Muspel Progenitor, two others had appeared, their chests bearing black crystal spirals.
They had each seized one of the Lion's arms, overpowering him completely.
'The Lion was overwhelmed and captured by three Progenitors, only escaping with the Exterminatus-class weaponry the Emperor had given him. I've encountered fifty-one.'
"We will devour you..." Fifty-one Khrave Progenitors declared in unison, sending ripples through the source domain.
"Your sons! All that you have!"
Nareth's lips curled, mocking the fifty-one Progenitors. Light and shadow flickered in his eyes as he released a psychic pulse that pierced the Jokaeron Force Field.
"I await you!"
With that, he shifted part of his consciousness to monitor the Progenitors, while his primary awareness returned to his body.
His gaze swept over the forty-eight "Conspirer" Captains, who had already digested their potions and were awaiting their advancement rituals:
Captain Thibault of the Seventh Chapter's 1st Company... Captain Stevens of the 5th... Captain Porti of the 7th...
His gaze finally settled on Hasik Noyan-khan of the White Scars.
"Fifty-one Progenitors are about to spring the trap. Is your plan still viable?"
Torghun Khan of the Brotherhood of the Moon, standing nearby, drew a sharp breath.
The invisible pressure stole his breath.
Fifty-one xenos leaders.
The Khrave were already so terrible. How could they possibly defeat fifty-one Progenitors, each as powerful as a Primarch?
Hasic's brow furrowed. After a dozen seconds of thought, he spoke.
"With a slight adjustment to the bait-and-draw strategy, I can still capture the Progenitors..."
He looked at the Black Emperor upon the throne, trailing off.
The greatest variable, beyond the plan's expectations, was that the Black Emperor, serving as the bait, would be under far greater pressure.
"One, or a hundred, makes no difference to me," the "Mentor of Disorder" Nareth said calmly.
'I should not have doubted my Lord's power!' Hasic bowed his head, silently repenting.
Nareth looked at the forty-six "Conspirer" Captains of the Shadows of Order. "Your schemes now have the opportunity to be enacted."
He had originally expected to face a few, at most a dozen, Progenitors. He had intended for Hasic, Thibault, and the other stronger "Conspirer" Captains to advance.
The sheer number of Progenitors was far greater than he had anticipated. But it was also an opportunity, more "Conspirer" Captains could now advance.
Rising from his throne, Nareth spoke: "Prepare yourselves. I will go to the lower deck first, to activate the bait."
Torghun gazed at Lord Nareth's departing back, his eyes filled with worry.
'Can Lord Nareth truly defeat fifty-one Progenitors?' He clenched his fists. A hunger for power filled his heart.
His memory flashed back to the Iman Do training center on Terra, a painful memory of Haren Svensalen.
Nareth strode towards the elevator. With a thought, the Jokaeros, their long fingers clinging to the hull outside the lower deck, repairing the Jokaeron Force Field, retreated at speed.
The Progenitor who had once fought Angron, his War Crown partially restored, his remaining tendrils twitching, sent a questioning psychic pulse.
"Has he gone mad?"
"Or is he cowed by us?"
"Is he seeking his own death?"
The Progenitor who had appeared on Muspel spoke, his consciousness cold. "Arrogant pride."
"Nareth defeated a host body, a fraction of my power, on Muspel. He thinks he can kill us all."
"All of us. Yes, that is precisely what he thinks."
"Foolish," a third Progenitor, with black crystal spirals on its chest, spoke. "No one can defeat us."
"Five, at most five," a fourth Progenitor, also with black crystal spirals on its chest, added. "Would be enough to subdue him."
"Yes. But we will give him no chance," the Muspel Progenitor said coldly.
"Teleport!"
The fifty Progenitors, following their most powerful leader, unleashed a psychic shockwave, focusing it all upon Nareth.
Bang!
The Jokaeron Force Field, like an eggshell, shattered at its lower edge. At the same moment, on the lower deck of the Shadow's Sovereignty.
The physical dimensions of the entire deck seemed to collapse into a single point at the center of a vortex.
Countless tendrils converged from all directions.
In the blinding aetheric light, clawed feet touched the deck.
Fifty-one War-Crowned Progenitors, some hovering, some encircling the perimeter.
Then, over a thousand surviving Khrave Champions, leaping from the aetheric veil, surrounded Nareth.
"Nareth. The end has come for you and your Legion."
The Progenitor who had appeared on Muspel, the most powerful of the Khrave Kings, spoke, his mummified form clicking.
"We will devour all that you are."
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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