19-20

Some psychic powers came more naturally than others, not because of my lacking potential but my inexperience. It was easy to turn my palm into a flamethrower but making several objects float with telekinesis without crushing them into dust or accidentally smashing them into walls? Now that was a bit more challenging.

Telekinesis worked by coating an object in soul energy and controlling it through a tether connected to me, it needed constant concentration to keep this up and even more if I wanted it to move as I wanted. It turned out that my new body's mind was just as adaptable as the rest of its eldritch parts and it didn't take me long to have several smaller objects orbiting around me like little planets around a star.

I added small fireballs into the mix, it worked mostly the same just with the end of the tether constantly burning up. I wasn't sure how much of a vulnerability this tether connecting me to them was in a fight, others might be able to just cut it with their own psychic attacks, making me lose soul energy without it achieving anything useful.

From what I remembered the other types of powers psykers had were: Illusions, Invisibility, Precognition, and Biokinesis aside from the more complicated ones like Memory Manipulation or Warp Travel. For obvious reasons, Biokinesis was the most interesting to me, if I could use soul energy to create organic matter then my body's energy reserves could be easily replenished, giving me a basically infinite lifespan as long as I could siphon energy from the Warp.

Not that I remembered anyone being capable of doing that, at most they healed wounds and cured diseases but Biokinesis in itself was an advanced power. On the other hand, shooting Eldritch Blasts, came as naturally as it could, soul energy flashed out of my fingers in a beam of white light and smashed through a wall.

It was near instant and as basic and easy to control as any psychic power could be, it was, in essence shooting out soul energy from my fingers and making it obliterate whatever it touched first. Its ease didn't make it any less deadly though, quite the opposite, and it was much more cost-effective than doing the same with my pyrokinesis or telekinesis.

I tested Biokinesis obviously, which resulted in me having to stitch my body back together from more than a hundred separate parts. That will need much more control than I have right now.

In the next test, I wanted to strengthen my muscles purely with biokinesis, which resulted in me only having my bones in said arm a moment later. My prior muscles now coating me in a significant amount of gore. Ok, sure, let's leave that for later, I can practice control with the other abilities before this one.

Illusions and Invisibility came almost as easily as the Eldritch Blast did, these relied not so much on control as on my imagination and visualization. Being an eldritch monstrosity with dozens of thought-streams going all over the place neither proved to be lacking.

For Invisibility, I coated myself in a film of energy and made light bend around me through that, while Illusions required me to give it substance in the form of soul energy while visualizing exactly what I wanted it to show.

As I wasn't in the mood to end up tossing myself into the warp by accident I decided to keep practicing these powers for now. I didn't know how to practice Precognition either so that was out too for now.

I was walking around while blasting walls, paintings, and sculptures into bits until I stumbled upon my original destination, the office of the dear governor of this dead planet. I walked in and took in the sight of the place, it was much more personal than the rest of the place, making me assume he tended to spend most of his time here when he wasn't politicking.

I plopped down into his extravagant leather chair, surely made of some near-extinct animal and treated by masters of their craft based on how comfortable it was. Wish I had dimensional storage just to keep this chair.

Next came the exercise which would test my perseverance, I'd have to read through most of the stuff here. I decided to start with the somewhat well-hidden vault concealed behind a bookshelf of all things. Cliche as hell, but it was still cool.

I wasn't in the mood to search for secret switches or find the one book I'd need to move to make it open up so I opted for tearing the whole shelf out of its place which revealed the gleaming steel of the two-meter-tall vault behind it.

The Vault door left its place without me needing to exercise myself too much, I used my physical strength instead of tearing it off with telekinesis to not waste too much of my energy. There was a near-infinite storage of Warp energy but replenishing my own soul energy was the most disturbing experience I have ever had the displeasure of experiencing and I say that having felt human corpses dissolve inside my body.

I spent the next couple of hours with my head buried in books and scrolls, trying to figure out whatever the fuck is going on around these parts. I surprisingly found what I wanted, the governor had a regional map with all of the 'major threats' around here.

I predicted most of these but I wasn't certain until now, the Tau empire is close but if I'm right it should be on the other side of the great rift, unlike Mandragora which was the Crown Worlds of the Sautekh Dynasty, and the Strom Lord Imotekh. Joy.

What I didn't know but somehow feared was also made evident, the splinter-fleets of Hivefleet Kraken were wandering all around these parts and eating planets wherever they went.

With that as the base the governor's peculiar actions as described in several documents made much more sense. He supported a group of rebels that preached about freedom and safety under the protection of the 'star children'.

"Mhm," I nodded to myself, "not suspicious at all."

Well, whoever scoured the world for whatever reason probably wiped out these weirdoes too along with the rest of the population. Though I would have liked getting my hands on a genestealer.

"Fuck..." Doesn't that mean that a splinter-fleet is closing in on the planet?

I was yanked out of my musings, I saw light in the dark sea I knew to be the Warp. I felt nearly blind to it compared to when I connected to it but it was better than nothing, I could sense beings getting close to me even like this.

Normally it looked like the starry sky, with far-off souls shining like little stars of their own without me being able to tell how far or exactly where they are. Now it was different, an entire constellation was shining brighter and brighter in the murky water as it closed in on my location at breakneck speed.

The souls seemed brighter for some reason, I focused on them and noticed that they were entirely inside the Warp.

"What?" my eyes widened in shock until I noticed a film of energy coating each soul when they got even closer, "A Geller Field, maybe?"

So that was a ship currently traveling through the warp and straight towards me, they probably noticed me when I connected to the Warp. Was I a Warp Beacon just by existing or what?

I lashed out with my pyrokinesis and burned everything in the vault to ash, the old paper easily burned to ash and I was left wondering what to do. These were probably Imperials, I didn't sense too much chaos taint on them, and neither did they have a certain bdsm loving chaos god's tentacles wrapped around their balls.

Tau didn't have souls this strong and they couldn't even travel through warp while Necrons didn't even have souls. I wasn't sure how Orks would feel but I was certain I could tell the difference between sentient mushrooms and humans.

"What to do, what to do," I kept the constellation of souls in my sight, from far away I only noticed a few of them but now I could tell there were hundreds of them, most of them being only small flickers in the darkness with a single one being a brightly shining star. The Navigator.

My three options were Hiding, Fighting, or Acting. Fighting was a no-go, I couldn't pilot a damned spaceship so I'd still be stuck on this rock, just with a bit more energy in my reserves. Hiding was similarly dumb but I could probably sneak onto the ship and wait for them to leave.

"That'd be super boring though," I didn't get all this power to hide away on a ship like a rat, depending on others to maybe carry me into safety. I was a shapeshifting eldritch monster so I should act like it.

"Acting it is," I smiled and ran my sense over my body, I made sure it looked just like a normal human should and had my powers ready in case I'd have to turn it entirely into a human.

I walked back into the office and sat down in the comfy chair, waiting for my soon-to-be visitors.

"What should my story be though?" I played with a lock of my hair in thought, "I guess I'll have to improvise based on who they are."

I grinned in anticipation as I sat in the half-ruined office like it was my own.

I hope they have sensors, it'd be awkward if they didn't find me and leave.

Selene Voss

The ship churned and the Geller Field flickered. Whatever that damned shockwave traveling through the whole damned Warp was it sure did a number on it, it should have kept going for years, and yet here they were, a few days into their journey, and already it was near-failing.

She made eye contact with, Morrin, one of her personal guards, and he nodded in return.

She knew having the Navigator on the deck went against any protocols but the communication systems were beyond fucked and while the tech-priests were all working tirelessly on it they'd be dead by the time it got fixed.

It was a miracle the ship even functioned, her Wanderer was a good ship but it wasn't made to withstand whatever the fuck this was.

Morrin had his las-rifle pointed at the back of the Navigator's head, she didn't need a demon crawling out of his body right now with all the other bullshit on her plate already. It'd be a great loss but she'd rather exit the Warp blind than get ripped apart by a demon.

"...he- here..." the psyker wheezed and collapsed. She glanced at him, unconscious.

"Disengage Warp-Drive," she ordered as calmly as she could manage, "ready the sensors, I want to know where the fuck we ended upA few minutes later, which I spent trying to come up with a believable cover story I 'saw' the constellation leave the Warp and re-enter realspace.

Turns out distances are rather fickle and unpredictable in the Warp as I realized that the souls seemingly so close were barely at the edge of the star system. I sat in my comfy chair, taking solace from the embarrassment in its leathery hold.

Right, they couldn't predict where exactly they'd end up so they had to leave the Warp there.

Whatever, not like I had any idea what I'd tell them yet. At the speed they were traveling it'd take more than a week to reach me, now that I think about it I shouldn't rely on their sensors picking up on me either. For a moment there I forgot they didn't have any sensors much better than what we had back on Earth, not sure how the hell they managed to hit stuff in space battles.

Psykers must come in handy, no matter how much everyone may hate them in the imperium. Then again, your neighbor suddenly spawning a demon horde wasn't the best look for them.

With all that being said having a free week wasn't so bad, the governor kept note of most of the genestealer cults' locations around the hive city. This way I had time to go and check if either of those locations had any remaining for me to absorb.

With a last, mournful look at the comfy chair I left. Let's hope I could get back in time.

I spent seven, boring, soul-numbing, and annoying days going from one location to the next only to find nothing, not even blood to somewhat satisfy my curiosity until I got my hand on a whole genestealer. No sign of fighting either, which could have cued me in on what I'd find at the last location.

The place was deep inside the heart of the city, I haven't seen light since a few days ago and neither did I breathe air that could be called fresh by any meaning of the word. The tunnels were cold and the smell of rust combined disgustingly with mold.

I stalked through these pathways, long forgotten by most previous inhabitants of the city mostly in my humanoid form. My skin was covered by a film of soft chitinous substance that let me use the Lictor's camouflage ability, which hid me from the numerous genestealers ambling about the hideout. The narrow tunnels and cracks suited the more economic form more, rather than the several meters tall murder machine that was the Lictor.

I expected to find maybe a small holdout or a few survivors or even just the leftovers from a fight but they seemed to have hidden themselves from everyone else duking it out above the surface.

This will be fun.

These monsters didn't deserve an ounce of my sympathy, not many people did in this galaxy if I'm being honest but I've already decided to keep myself from killing too many civilians. I know where their souls would end up after I killed them, getting your soul eaten by demons or whatever else found it in the Warp was a fate very few deserved in my opinion.

I wouldn't hesitate though, should anyone prove to be a threat or an obstacle.

Mercy was good and all, but only when my own survival was already assured, no that wasn't quite right. I'd have to thrive to even think about others' well-being. I was so different from everyone else in the galaxy, I wasn't a human and even if I was I think I'd still think like that, dying and getting reincarnated might have influenced me just as much as turning into an eldritch space monster.

The joke's on whoever reincarnated me though, I always loved eldritch space monsters.

Some of the sci-fi stories had humans with basic hard sci-fi tech faced up against incomprehensible eldritch beings from outer space, and while I wouldn't want to be the unfortunate human I was more than happy to be the overpowered monster.

Freedom stemmed from power, especially in this fucked up universe. I was nowhere near strong enough to be free, the countless factions would just stomp me under their boots like the overgrown bug I was, I'd have to change that.

The ship will be the first step and until I can go toe to toe with the strongest beings I'll have to play the game, the game everyone plays in this galaxy. The great game for the fate of the galaxy, between hapless mortals, psychic demigods, and thirsting gods.

Back to the reason why I wasn't already in the process of turning these bald fuckers into biomass, one was that I finally had targets to practice the more telepathic side of psyker powers, and the other was that I caught a glimpse of the patriarch. Of course, there was a patriarch here, why wouldn't there be?

I instinctively knew it could put up a fight even against my Lictor form, unlike Lictors the patriarch was closest to a brood lord. Enhanced physical strength and psychic powers working in tandem to best any foe that would like to kill it.

Its main function was operating the cult and spreading through the world while a Lictor's was infiltration and assassination. If I could get the jump on it'd tilt the odds heavily in my favor, and that's while I'm ignoring that unlike usual Lictors I can combat its psychic powers while its mental attacks would hopefully fail to hit me as I'm not connected to the Warp.

I wasn't relying on that too much though, I had a brain and a tether connecting my body to my soul, it shouldn't be too hard to send a psychic attack through that if the patriarch was skilled enough. If I wanted to kill it I'd have to strike fast and hard, once the cult was decapacitated they'd be easy pickings.

I glanced into the Warp, seeing thing tethers of energy going from one genestealer to another, expanding over the whole cult, like a malicious spiderweb. It was hard to see anything through it, the dark water grew sort of muddy around the web, robbing my sight somewhat.

I knew I could push through, it'd be easy to bring the whole web crashing down if I connected to the Warp. This was just a brood mind, not the actual hive mind which could cast a shadow over sub-sectors.

I didn't do that though, it would have been a waste. Much easier to just murder them and absorb them, let the web come crashing down once I demolished the pillars holding it up, without the cult to power it it'd fade. I suspected killing just the patriarch would weaken it considerably, it should be the strongest psychic being in the cult if not on the planet.

I stalked, knowing that it wasn't needed but my Lictor body's instincts made it hard to go against them and I didn't bother forcing it. It almost moved on its own with me just having to point where I wanted to get, Tyranid bioforms were machines made of flesh, bones, and chitin.

The many cultists, ranging from bald humans to the monstrous first and second-generation genestealers remained non-the wiser as I stalked amongst them. These damp tunnels and crevices carved out of the old ferrocrete foundation of the city made for the perfect setting for a horror movie.

I just hoped I would be the monster of this story and not the Tyranids. Not that I was easy to kill, they would be the meal this time.

The patriarch stayed in an oval hall at the end of the twisting tunnels, now that I had a mental map of most of these tunnels it kind of looked like an anthill. The 'queen' remained at the center, commanding its countless minions.

Along the way, I continued to test my rudimentary telepathy, I couldn't connect my soul to theirs through the Warp like I suspected other psykers could so I had to do it through their body. Tendrils of soul energy connected to the heads of cultists and I felt their minds, it was a disturbing mix of animalistic savagery and harmonic coexistence.

Each mind sang its own tune and the hundreds of cultists made up an orchestra without a single one being out of tune. I didn't push the energy through the tunnel and into their souls, even if I went through an intermediary the effect should be similar to when I connected to the Warp directly.

I was once again made aware of how different my mind is from what it once was, despite feeling a dozen minds at once and comprehending their many incoherent thoughts I somehow understood it all without losing focus. My mind was like a CPU, made up of several cores and each running numerous individual threads with more or less priority.

My mind was constantly conscious of each individual thread of every core but I could also push them to the back of my mind, leaving it for them to report to me anything they deem interesting. This style of thinking, this thought splitting came to me without effort, it wasn't even an instinct telling me to do it, it was like I'd always been capable of it and just now became conscious of it.

I didn't know if it was from my original soul, the new body, or the soul energy but it was extremely useful. I suspected the body though, with it seemingly influencing my soul it was far more than what it appeared initially, for all I knew its hidden functions just needed more energy to start up.

I designated Fear Induction, Memory Manipulation and similar psychic powers I remembered as subsets of telepathy. Yeah, both could be achieved with biokinesis too but telepathy was the go-to for those. It was fascinating, how bending the mind made the matter making up the brain conform to the changes.

I had to focus now though, I had a monster to hunt.

I grinned, my oval mouth covered in jagged teeth under the tentacles covering my face in this form swishing at the motion. I hoped I looked terrifying, unfortunately being invisible at the moment made getting feedback challenging.

Oh well, there will be a next time.