Nareth followed Magnus into the mountain's heart. The basalt altar and the dark cave had exploded, forming a massive chasm.
He stared at the black hole, hundreds of meters in diameter. The rock above, crystalline and translucent, was of the same elegant material as the Titans.
A pale, milky arch, veined with crimson from the Ahgrul sacrifices, pulsed.
Like the Aeldar Titans, this place too had been corroded by Chaos. Nine thousand black, putrid vines spread from the chasm.
They writhed and slithered with a wet, slimy sound.
Santiago Borgkamp , the daemonologist, walked to a remaining stone platform, staring at a single rune.
"It is not an Aeldari rune."
Hathor Maat approached, studying a coiled golden serpent with silver eyes.
"I sense both withered corruption and vibrant life within it."
Nareth's gaze naturally swept over Hathor. 'Because of the power I granted him, Hathor is more trusted by Magnus.'
He recalled Magnus had only brought Ahriman.
"Something is calling..." Ahriman heard a dream-like whisper, laced with a scent of ecstasy.
Magnus's eye darkened to a deep, obsidian black, his pupil dilated, as if filled with the same black tendrils around them.
"Focus! Ascend to the Tenth Level of your Enumeration. Block those voices."
Ahriman and Hathor ascended to higher states of mind, finding tranquility within.
The Shadows of Order maintained the Third Level of the Thelema mindstate. Santiago looked down: amidst the writhing black tendrils, orange fibers raised a naked body.
"Yatiri!" Magnus called out in sorrow.
A tendril, like a rope, was coiled around Yatiri's neck; another encircled his brow like an obsidian crown.
Propelled by the black tendrils, Yatiri's husk flew towards Magnus. His pitch-black eyes were like two open doors.
"Magnus..." A hissing whisper called his name.
Ahriman, feeling the power seeping from below, spoke with concern: "Father."
"I can control it. This is no mystery to me," Magnus said confidently.
Nareth shook his head, almost imperceptibly. Magnus was still too arrogant.
He had always been in control when dealing with Chaos, and had underestimated the dangers.
As Nareth pondered, Magnus met Yatiri's gaze, engaging in a battle of wills that reached from mind to soul.
Yatiri lunged, his pale, thick bones embracing Magnus like a brother.
Behind his mask, black eyes blazed with psychic fire. The surrounding black tendrils struck like pythons.
Light and shadow flickered in Nareth's eyes. He raised his hand, telekinesis sweeping the area.
Bang, bang, bang...
A thousand black tendrils exploded, their viscous black blood sizzling away.
Magnus felt the corrupting power from the abyss coil around him, its tendrils reaching for his mind.
He scoffed. His mind had been crafted by the galaxy's greatest architect.
He had walked among the stars and the Great Ocean, honing his will and spirit. He would not be undone by such crude means.
With a thought, his body became a furnace of bio-energy.
Yatiri's flesh was consumed to ash in an instant.
Magnus stared into the abyss, raising his hand to the smooth skin where his right eye had been. He felt a familiar aetheric signature.
He had saved his sons from the grasp of a malevolent shadow in the depths of the Great Ocean.
His father knew of these beings. They were called the Primordial Annihilators.
The Emperor had bargained with them in ages past. Magnus had not faced one directly before.
Now, he felt that ancient, evil shadow again. Its corrupting energy lay coiled below.
Magnus opened his mind's eye, sensing the billions of paths extending below, a vast network of ethereal conduits connecting the stars.
His eye shifted to blue as he imprinted a million paths and branches.
'Father will be pleased when he learns I have discovered the Webway.'
'He will forgive my transgression...'
Magnus's eye shifted to gold. No discovery or achievement of the Great Crusade could compare to the secrets below.
Without hesitation, he leaped.
Hathor looked at the Black Emperor, then leaped after him, alongside Ahriman.
Light and shadow flickered in Nareth's eyes. His consciousness unfurled, touching the Shadows of Order.
Ethereal obsidian eyes materialized, hovering over the "Scribe."
Drawing upon secrets extracted from the Khrave Progenitors' minds, combined with his own abilities, Nareth had developed a new technique for his Mind's Eye.
He could not yet, like the Khrave Progenitors, gaze across multiple dimensions from the source domain. But he could, within a given dimension, sense those he had marked.
He sent a mental pulse to the Shadows of Order: "Act! Set your coordinates!"
With that, he beat his wings, descending into the colorful storm of aetheric energy.
The shattered mountains rose again, then collapsed.
Surges of power churned from below, then turned to flying sand.
A vortex of creation and destruction, without beginning or end.
Nareth spread his wings, flying through the shifting vortex.
He looked around. Golden veins, like a network, extended across the galaxy.
A labyrinthine layout, crisscrossing between countless worlds.
He did not extend his consciousness to actively probe the Webway's secrets. He simply, as he passed, instinctively absorbed the network's layout.
He blazed with psychic fire, sensing the direction of his mental markers in this formless dimension.
His gaze sharpened. He sensed a blazing will, and his marked "Scribe."
As his awareness locked onto Santiago, an image flashed in his obsidian eyes.
Hundreds of black tendrils writhed. Aetheric flame surged from all directions.
In the swirling mist, tens of thousands of gaudy daemons buzzed, their claws swinging, hurling multicolored fire-bolts at the Shadows of Order.
Nareth's wings blazed with golden fire as he flew towards them.
Where the golden light passed, black tendrils burned to ash.
In the colorful mist, furtive glances watched, but none dared approach.
In an instant, he was upon them.
The "Mentor of Disorder's" gaze hardened. His will shot forth like a lance.
The majestic will swept across them. Ten thousand daemons shrieked.
They were torn to shreds.
The Great Ocean recoiled.
"Father..." The "Scribe," witnessing their gene-father's power, their eyes gleaming, maintained their Third Level Thelema mindstate, suppressing their emotions.
"I have completed Your task."
"Excellent." Nareth's praise was a flicker in his eyes. His telekinesis formed a gleaming platform beneath the "Scribe's" feet.
With a thought, the platform spun, carrying the "Scribe" upward.
After sending off one "Scribe," he sensed another's location.
He flew on.
After sending off three, a flicker passed through his obsidian eyes.
'I am moving farther from Magnus. That seems no coincidence.'
'Has Tzeentch interfered with the "Scribes'" positions, to keep me from influencing Magnus?'
As he pondered, Nareth continued, flying towards the fourth.
Tzeentch's plan was an open gambit. He could not abandon his sons.
Besides, Magnus was in no danger; he was enjoying his journey of discovery.
As Nareth searched for his sons, the golden network before Magnus faded, coalescing into formless darkness.
Countless black spirals converged, forming a gleaming serpent with obsidian scales.
Its eyes were swirling blue and pink. A pair of magnificent wings rose from its back.
Its wings shifted through a million colors in every instant.
"It is beautiful, is it not?"
The serpent shrank to Magnus's size, coiling around his leg, slithering upward.
"No force is more powerful than I. I can defeat you."
"Your power is borrowed," the serpent said, shrinking to the size of Magnus's arm.
"You are a puppet, given life and vitality." The black serpent climbed his arm.
"Do you not wish to hear what I can offer you?"
"Should I trust you?" Magnus's eye blazed gold.
"You speak only lies."
"No lie compares to the terrible truth about to be revealed." The serpent avoided Magnus's grasping hand.
"You have bargained with me."
"Your fate is in my grasp."
"Do not bluff." Magnus's tone was dismissive.
"To save my sons, I traveled the entire Great Ocean. I dismantled and remade the threads of fate."
"My sons and I are beyond destruction."
"Your paltry temptations mean nothing."
"Arrogant!" The serpent swelled, hissing. "Unparalleled hubris!"
"You will be a sweet morsel!"
"Enough!" Magnus raised his hand. Aetheric flame rolled, engulfing the serpent.
"We will meet again soon," the serpent's shimmering wings scattered.
The flames consumed the darkness.
Ahriman and Hathor, swinging their force staves against the tendrils, appeared beside Magnus.
He reached out, grabbing them. His telekinesis surged, and they shot upward.
Stepping onto the ground, Magnus saw the sixteen Shadows of Order standing in precise formation behind Nareth.
He paused, then said, "The dark power that infested this world has been destroyed."
Magnus raised his arms. The Aeldar runes on the platforms at the chasm's edge blazed.
As his psychic energy flowed, the seal was re-empowered.
Magnus looked at Nareth. "What drew me here is no more. But I have discovered a treasure beyond price."
"Congratulations," Nareth said with a smile.
'I, too, have acquired some of the Webway's secrets, though only a ten-thousandth of what you have seen.'
'But having sensed the Webway's nodes intuitively, it will be easier to master them all in the future.'
Nareth had not taken Magnus's risks because he had other methods, such as continuing to delve into Slau Dha's memories.
....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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