In the ancient War in Heaven, the C'tan, who once stood at the apex of the material universe, led the Necrons, ascended through machinery, into a galaxy-rending war against the Old Ones, who had advanced through psychic ascension and guided the evolution of countless species.
That war not only drove the three races that once stood at the summit of the galaxy toward ruin and decline in their own different ways, but also left horrors that endured into later ages.
And the great Aeldari had been one of the Old Ones' strongest allies in that war.
Because of that, they inherited the Old Ones' war technologies, among which the most important was the mysterious science of Blackstone.
These materials, which could not form naturally, were in a sense energy coils designed to counter the Warp. They could both generate fields that suppressed its influence and, conversely, amplify psychic power drawn from the Immaterium.
To complete the Farseer's mission, the Striking Scorpions had been issued an ancient relic from Ulthwé before setting out: a compact Blackstone amplifier of tremendous power.
It was precisely by relying on this ancient Blackstone device that the Shadowhunter-class escort's shadow lance could unleash a pinpoint strike strong enough to pierce the veil itself.
Although that attack, after being weakened by the barrier between the two realms, would struggle to inflict truly fatal damage on the target, that had never been the goal.
They only intended to disrupt the Warp energies on the other side through that strike, forcing the target to use the breach carved open by the lance to return to realspace here.
In other words, all they needed was to force the target vessel to appear.
And the result unfolded exactly as they had expected. The strike that pierced both realms successfully tore open the veil between the Warp and reality, creating a rift shimmering with strange light.
...
The daemon let out a piercing scream.
At that moment, it felt like a joyful young man who had just one piece left to complete a thousand-piece puzzle, only to watch some brat smash the whole thing to pieces.
That devastating blow to its plans filled it with boundless fury.
It almost wanted to dump a bucket of red paint over itself, grab two bone sabers, and show the intruders what happened when they threw things into someone else's house.
But before it could fully vent its rage, it felt a sharp pain deep in its soul.
The intensity of that pain startled it.
The daemon looked at the sword piercing its chest and realized in horror that the weapon was impossibly sharp.
It was so sharp that it could cut through the twisted laws clinging to its body and strike directly at its corrupted, chaotic soul-core.
A shrill screech burst from the daemon's warped mouth as it forced itself free of the blade, enduring the agony of reopening the wound.
At the same time, the Spear of Destiny, struck on the starboard side by that dark green beam, endured the violent psychic shockwave from the collapsing vortex of fate. With its engines burning at full output, it charged straight toward the rift torn open by the outside attack.
The overwhelming psychic force of its Warp engine forced that narrow breach wider, and the warship, which had suffered untold trials in the highest heaven, now became a true spear, ripping free from the grip of the vortex of fate, piercing the boundary between reality and unreality, and charging toward the far side where hope still remained.
The daemon's ruined body stared fixedly at the sword in Gaia's hand.
It could sense that the aura on the blade was extremely similar to the aura of the beam that had pierced the veil.
"You really think you can escape?"
"This is all the Changer of Ways' arrangement!"
As the ship entered the material universe, the grievously wounded daemon could no longer maintain its physical form. It broke apart into fine motes of light and returned to the Sea of Souls, still seething with malice.
Once the being from the Warp vanished, the corpses manipulated by its sorcery dropped limply back to the ground.
Horne looked at the fallen enemy, and the tension in his body eased at last.
Dark red blood poured from his nose and the corners of his eyes, and a crushing weakness swept through his brain, which felt as though it had been stabbed by a thousand needles.
Gaia stared at the place where the daemon had vanished, still shaken.
The maddening uproar in her ears had faded back into the faint whispers she was used to.
But the pressure of having faced such a blasphemous thing still left her spine cold.
She vaguely remembered that the Warp held secrets tied to Chaos, and that those things were full of immense danger and malice.
Yet only when standing before them in truth could one understand just how terrifying that danger and malice really were.
This time, if not for aid from outside that disrupted the daemon's sorcery, everyone aboard the ship would have died alongside Gaia.
"It really was after me... Damn it, have those things already started paying attention to me?"
Gaia had always carried a faint sense that four monstrous beings would become major threats on the road ahead.
And now it was obvious that those things had already caught her scent and begun stretching their claws toward her.
"Damn it, why is that fog over my memories still there?"
"Before, you could at least claim it was protecting me, that if I didn't think too much, I wouldn't be noticed."
"But now they've already come knocking, and you still won't let up? Isn't that a bit hypocritical?"
Her eyes flickered as countless thoughts and complaints flashed through her mind in an instant.
But there was no time to dwell on them, because too much needed to be dealt with now.
She looked at the many corpses killed by Warp sorcery, then at Nia, who was staring at Horne, who looked ready for another trip to the ICU, with deep worry in her eyes. She let out a long sigh and clenched her fists.
This crisis had cost them dearly.
And over in the Navigator Sanctum, there was still another person who needed saving immediately.
"That said, who exactly helped us?"
With unconscious Horne slung over her back, Gaia looked out into deep space beyond the viewport, full of doubt.
That brilliant beam had obviously come from another force.
Who were they, and what exactly did they want?
And the answers, it seemed, would reveal themselves very soon.
...
The Aeldari aboard the Shadowhunter-class escort watched in silence as that heap of ugly scrap metal with no sense of aesthetic at all tumbled out of the Warp breach.
"Proceed. Recover our sacred relic and eliminate the error disturbing the strands of fate."
The moment they met, the Aeldari escort surged forward with a speed no human vessel could ever hope to match, rushing straight toward the Spear of Destiny as it returned to realspace.
The two ships had already been close together, and with the escort closing the distance one-sidedly, they were now practically face to face.
Just as the fully prepared Striking Scorpions were about to board their transport and assault the human vessel, planning to show these uncivilized monkeys the might of the ancient pinnacle race, an accident occurred.
On the Spear of Destiny, the transformer that had previously been repaired with the daemon's power lost stability the moment it returned to the material universe.
And just as expected, it overloaded and exploded.
Perhaps some long-suppressed force had been held back for too long, because the Spear of Destiny now began spinning sideways uncontrollably under the force of the side-engine detonation.
To the stunned eyes of the Aeldari, the Spear of Destiny spun like a top whipped to full force and came crashing straight toward them.
(End of Chapter)
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