Chapter 11 Part 6

Chapter 11: Daemon's Bane

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Part 6

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Deimos Peninsula

Kronus

It all came down to contingency planning in the end, and the Human Inquisitor risking his own life. Otherwise, the Necron Lord doubted that his Phylactery would have had enough time to knit together his mangled body.

He underestimated this particular abomination. It was a lesson he might survive to learn from yet. The Abomination cut through the guards of the Pariah child with contemptuous ease. Then mangled one of the Inquisitor's closest companion, only for the Human to throw himself in peril just as he did to save the Necron Lord.

All he could do was wait and give orders. The outcome of the whole battle hung on a blade's edge. He needed just a few more moments… and the Inquisitor's other companion, Anteas, bought those precious moments. The repair machines fixed him enough to activate his Resurrection Orb, which not only hastened his repair but brought together the Necron Warriors fallen nearby.

Lighting arced over their corner of the battlefield and fallen Necrons knit back together, then rose to continue the battle. The two guards scampered up, back together again, grabbed their blades, and charged the Abomination. Even as it took two blows to dismember one of its attackers, the Necron Lord could see it was tiring, slowing down. The Pylons and the nearby Pariah worked, their effects simply weren't enough yet.

It was time. His trump card was finally ready.

Back at his stronghold, thousands of Scarabs worked tirelessly to modify the next Monolith to come online. They were busy incorporating state-of-the-art Pylons within the Monolith's systems, protected by thick slabs of necrodermis, active and passive defenses.

It was finally fully operational and ready for deployment.

The capacitors at the stronghold dumped all the energy they had in one monstrous torrent. A mountain-sized bolt of lighting twisted time and space until two distant points became one. All that energy manifested right in front of an enemy armored column, which was just beginning to spread out into an assault formation. Everything nearby ceased to exist. Those looking at the event with unprotected eyes went blind. The resulting shock-wave and deafening thunderclap brought a brief pause into the fighting.

The Necron Lord staggered to his feet, and he would have smiled if he could. As soon as the new Pylon was in position, and operational, he removed the safeties of the mobile Pylons. Energy flowed freely into their hungry systems, supercharging them. The effect was immediate and profound. A full third of the remaining abominations found themselves caught by the strongest part of the field.

Every single one of them, including the large one, recoiled. Some of them burst into the white flame where they stood, probably the weaker ones.

It was high time to put their immortality to the test.

The Abomination had enough strength left to stab the Necron it fought in the chest, then nearly punch the Warrior's head off. Fortunately, doing so took its toll.

Meanwhile, the red armored human managed to dispatch the weakened abomination on top of him and got up just in time to intercept a mortal blow aimed at the severely wounded Inquisitor. A few stumbling abominations intercepted the still struggling to walk Necron Lord. He dispatched them with his Gauntlet of Fire. As soon as he struck them down, they burst into white flames, screaming in agony.

That was a good sign, surely?

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Adrenaline and sheer desperation kept me somewhat coherent. Anteas' briefly suspended my death sentence, then two more Necrons jumped at the Daemon. I was properly hallucinating, or it might have been wishful thinking. Nevertheless, it looked like the Daemon was weakening and slowing down. It still managed to cut down the Necrons and was about to finish me, when Anteas came to the rescue, again. They clashed again, and this time, my Librarian friend could hold his own.

I would cheer if I could. Instead, I gasped in pain. I could feel myself weakening by the heartbeat, and it finally dawned on me that I must do something about my missing arm. My left hand went for the med-pack I was sure I carried when a tiny lithe form dashing towards us caught my attention, and the world froze.

Selene appeared all right, even if her sealed armor was a bit banged up and dirty. She carried my power mace and a few times nearly stumbled over its weight. The kid persisted with bloody-minded determination and bee-lined towards the Daemon.

Anteas was still fighting it, and both of them appeared worse to wear now. I cursed and didn't care that I was rapidly bleeding out. I looked around for a weapon and saw one of the Necrons nearby. It was cut nearly in two, yet it struggled to reach its sword. I stumbled forward and grabbed the weapon's hilt, which neatly fit in my arm.

"Selene, stay back!" I slurred out and stumbled towards the battle.

"Veil, back off!" Anteas shouted, and the brief distraction cost him. The Daemon slipped his blade through his guard and stabbed him under the right shoulder. That effort proved too much, and the never born fell to his knees. It bled profusely, bolters blew off chunks of its corrupted flesh, which soon burst into silver flames. Yet, it refused to die.

The Daemon surged up with a furious roar and pushed the blade in, nearly severing Anteas' arm. A streak of fire struck it into the side and made him stumble away from the Librarian. Some of its wounds caught fire, which began to slowly spread.

It still refused to die. Anteas fell to one knee, his right arm hanging limp. He grabbed the shaft of his hammer near the head and lunged at the Daemon. The monster twisted with an unexpected burst of speed, and instead of smashing its skull in, Anteas landed a glancing blow that took off half its face and stumbled past it.

The Daemon wasted no time, and with the last strength, it had left charged at me. Bolters staggered it, the second lance of fire struck him in the back and ignited it properly this time, yet it kept coming.

Selene was there then. She swung the power mace wildly and caught the Daemon in the kneecap. It imploded, finally bringing it down in front of me, as I staggered towards it, swinging blindly. My blade found purchase, and the world ended in soothing silver fire.