Chapter 17 Part 4
Chapter 17: Kronus: Endgame
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Part 4
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Victory Bay
Kronus
There was such a thing as too much of a good thing, especially when the Warp was concerned. The Emperor's power was an ocean, and I was the cup trying to contain it. I could feel my soul crack at the strain, even as I instinctively expelled as much of the Golden Radiance flowing into me. Pulses of light exploded out of my body. They carried over the city, doing their best to protect everyone they touched and cleanse them from the warp-infused shit the Daemons did its best to spread with their mere presence.
There was most certainly such a thing as too much of a bad thing too. I could see and sense it, as the Psychic equivalent of rotting, disease-spilling, and maggot-infested shit slammed into the Emperor's power. While my shield held, the offal splattering over it kept going and taking root in countless people. It was only their burning faith and the Emperor's light illuminating the place that still kept them alive.
I had no idea how I knew that, yet I was certain of it. If I lost this clash, or if I had to simply pull back to regroup, thousands, tens of thousands would die in agony. Their deaths would empower the Daemon.
As things stood, all I could do was hold my ground and endure, while Gods clashed nearby. For those of us with the eyes to see, incomprehensible amounts of power surged through the Warp. Those energies slammed at each other sending echoes through the Immaterium. It was like someone released vast oceans kept at bay, and they crashed into each other with all the power and momentum bound in their surging mass.
Frankly, I was surprised that any of us were still there. The aftershocks of that battle should have laid Kronus to waste and torn our souls asunder. It had to be the Emperor's light and power keeping us safe from the worst of it.
Streams of bolter fire bit into corpulent, sore flesh. Lasers boiled parts of it, spreading noxious gases. Flamers arced streams of blessed Promethium over our heads to create a wall of cleansing fire.
Behind me, Scipio, Karom, and a few other higher-ranked Martians finally got out of their stupor and screeched in sheer electronic fury. It was impressive really. Their Binary scream cut right through the sound of the firefight.
I couldn't spare the concentration to look over my shoulders, not that it would have helped – my wings were spread wide and burned with power. However, I didn't have to. The Cogboys produced all kinds of exotic weaponry and opened fire. I could barely get a glimpse of those who survived the Daemons' arrival further away. Some were on the ground. Others had fallen on their knees. However, most of them had weapons held by their Mechadendrites and used them to shoot at the Daemon.
It didn't matter. There was too much power for me to handle, and I couldn't cut myself off it if I tried. The sensation of your soul coming closer and closer to the bursting point was not something I could properly put into words or wanted to experience ever again.
Yet, there was nothing to do but endure molten metal flow through me and burn me from within. Soon, there would be nothing left but a husk.
The Necrons saved the day, again. The tingling sensation of Pylons activating washed over me. I could have sworn I felt it an eternity ago, and they did not affect us. However, now the power slamming into me was something I could handle, if barely.
I was surprised to find myself on my feet, holding a flaming sword. This was the same sword I used the first time the Emperor granted me his blessing to burn through that damn Ork. The last thing I could recall was that I was on my knees struggling not to die because too much of the Emperor's power flowed through me.
Everything hurt. My soul was tender, roasted, and cracked, then fused back together, somehow. Moving was agony, yet surprisingly enough, I could put it at the back of my head, which was growing clearer with every passing heartbeat.
I spared a moment to glance around and assess the situation.
No nurgling could reach our position. However, beyond a small area around me, soldiers barely stood on their feet, while blood-caked their faces. Scores of troopers couldn't do that much and collapsed, creating a small wall of corpses between the Daemon and the rest of the city. There was even the odd citizen I could see drag their bleeding bodies forward. They reached the fallen troopers and picked up a weapon, only to collapse after shooting a few times downrange.
At this rate, there would be more Necron troopers standing than ours, and the Daemon still refused to die! It kept reforming globs of diseased flesh, using Nurgle's own power to do it at a prodigious rate. Even with the Emperor himself above us pushing back the Chaos god, the Unclean One in front of us was supercharged. The bedamned thing appeared as a dark star made of everything rotting, corrupted, and unspeakable you could think of, and then some, left to stew and ferment for eternity. Warp-borne diseases and parasites writhed under rotting skin, rotting pulses slammed against the Emperor's light, cursing this park for generations to come.
That thing had to go, or we were all doomed.
I gathered as much of the Emperor's energy as I could contain. This was the Emperor's pure cleansing light. It was an Anathema to everything sworn to Chaos. It was Humanity's Prayer of Salvation, bolstered by the fervent belief of everyone in Victory Bay.
My wings acted on their own, following a barely conceived thought. They flapped with surprising power, and I rose above the ground. A heartbeat later, I soared upon fiery wings, and my light burned through the miasma of corruptions surrounding the Unclean One. Where it touched it, the light seared away its flesh, cleansing wounds, burning away poisons and decay, and incinerating sickness.
Suddenly, the damn thing was in front of me, and I did as my sword instructor kept hammering in my head during basic training – stuck it with the pointy end. Then I unleashed all the energy-burning through me, using the blade to channel it into the Daemon.
What might have been a misshapen leg fused to the cannon exploded into cleansing fire. The Daemon recoiled and roared in pain, shaking everything around us. The fire persisted, spreading and searing away everything it touched.
A wing-beat later I soared near the top of the cannon and fell upon the monstrosity infesting it, stabbing and cutting at it with wild abadon. I kept pulling as much of the Emperor's power as the Pylons allowed me, then immediately channeled it into smiting blows.
Thunder surrounded me, and the Emperor's power cut down to nearly a trickle. My wings fluttered and beat furiously to keep me floating just above the Daemon, who recoiled as if touching a live power-line. For the first time since it appeared, the Daemon was trying to get away from the cannon fused to its rotting flesh.
"In the Emperor's name, I smite thee!" Charles' faint voice echoed from below. It was barely audible over the sheer sound of the fighting and screams. "With his fury, I burn thee!"
The source of thunder was my Ogryns, happily blasting at the Daemon with their shotguns. And the reason suddenly the Emperor's light felt so distant was Selene, who held to Sergeant Bron's neck for dear life, while he kept shooting at the abomination.
What the hell was she doing here?! Those idiots had one Emperor damned job!
My spluttering fury was short-lived. A final divine clash rends the Warp asunder. The mere echoes from it nearly overwhelmed both the Pylons and Selene's aura. The Emperor's power washed over the whole planet and flowed into me. It burned hot with echoes of fury. It shone brightly with the promise of victory.
And just like that, the torrent of corrupted energy feeding the Daemon vanished, replaced by a shower of light that burned it.
The Emperor won his battle. Now it was time for us to… GOLD. My world exploded with radiance. More power than I could comprehend flowed through me. My soul cracked under the strain. An infinite mind or the next best thing focused on me for a moment, or perhaps it was an eternity.
The world ended in golden fire.