Chapter 69: Daemon
Command Room of the derelict ship, Escapee.
In the past.
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It was a strange place.
The entire room was carpeted with layers of dense, decaying spore bodies.
Once thriving, these resilient plants were now dead, their pale-yellow spores floating up into the air with every step Fernando took, swirling gently.
Vines had overtaken the control console, thick, coarse tendrils covering the buttons and levers. Not far off, the remains of a human corpse sat half-upright, entangled in vines as well.
Even through his helmet, Fernando could smell a thick stench of decay.
Yet, all these things were already lifeless, shriveled and dried rather than decomposing.
In other words, the source of the stench lay elsewhere.
"Stay alert. Activate low-level shields."
Fernando spoke in a low voice through his helmet's comm channel. Immediately, Jose behind him activated a psychic shield, surrounding them in a dim white glow.
This derelict ship had been discovered by a nearby Explorator ship from the Mechanicus. Upon detecting an abnormal level of psychic energy on board, the crafty Tech-Priest had quickly requested reinforcement from the nearest legion's psykers.
And as it happened, the Dusk Raiderss were close by.
So, here they were.
The spoils from the exploration would be shared with the legion, and the Mechanicus Tech-Priest had taken his squad of Skitarii to the engine room, even insisting that Fernando send a few of his psykers along.
According to the Mechanicus Tech-Priest, when he first encountered this vessel, it had been moving at a speed "incomprehensible by the laws of the physical world."
He had then babbled on in a quick, low tone, explaining the engine room's significance and the great effort he had put into halting the ship. But as an Librarian, Fernando wasn't particularly interested in all that.
The legion gave them orders, and they executed them. Simple as that.
Fernando was far more curious as to why this ship exhibited such intense psychic energy.
The Warp's energies typically couldn't affect the physical universe directly. It required certain conditions to weaken the boundary between the Warp and the material realm.
That condition was something in the physical world actively working to weaken this barrier.
In general, the use of psychic powers would trigger this process, forcibly drawing Warp energy across the boundary, gradually weakening the divide.
Psykers could cause such phenomena, or it could arise from large-scale rituals, where the emotional resonance of human souls produced intense fluctuations, also weakening the boundary.
Additionally, certain xenos technologies, or naturally occurring phenomena at the points where the Warp and material universe were closely connected, could cause this effect.
As for this ship, Fernando suspected it might have employed xenos technology, but the clearly unusual state of the command room suggested that his assessment might be off.
Either a psyker had been aboard, or some kind of ritual sacrifice had taken place here.
Sensing something, Fernando readied his bolter and moved toward the area with the densest psychic energy.
It was a corner of the command room, heavily shrouded in spore corpses.
Behind him, Jose silently increased the strength of the psychic shield.
Taking a deep breath, Fernando used his psychic energy to clear away the spores.
A hidden door emerged before them, marked with a symbol—
An abstract pair of hands appeared to be holding up a star, with a vine coiling around the base of the hands.
That symbol almost certainly indicated a ritual sacrifice.
Sensing that the level of psychic energy beyond the door was manageable, Fernando drew his longsword.
An arc of psychic flame danced along the blade, and without hesitation, Fernando used the sword to cut through the hidden door.
An overpowering stench instantly surged forward—
Inside the small, dimly lit room, a yellowish-green sludge filled the space up to an Astartes' knee, with unknown patches of pale-yellow grease floating within. At the bottom, a layer of foul green sludge had already settled.
In the center of the room, atop an altar fashioned from human flesh and fat, stood a writhing mass of flesh.
With each squirm, the stench grew more intense, filling the entire space anew.
The moment he stepped into the room, Fernando immediately activated his highest-grade psychic shield and raised his bolter, aiming it at the "creature."
Firing directly wasn't an option. As a Librarian, he knew that attacking recklessly, without understanding the altar's function, could disrupt the balance and unleash the accumulated psychic energy within.
The psychic fluctuations in the room were already three or four levels higher than what he had sensed before!
At the same time, the highest-priority support and retreat commands were transmitted through the comms channel to the psyker detachment in the engine room.
Jose, standing behind Fernando, gazed in shock at the heap of flesh.
Was this a human? A Psyker that had been sacrificed?
But as the two of them appeared, the pulsating mass of flesh started writhing faster, and something that looked like an eye emerged, shifting to face them.
"Hello," it muttered.
An intense chill shot down Fernando's spine; he'd never seen anything this bizarre before.
He wanted to retreat with Jose immediately, but his body was paralyzed, seemingly beyond his control, ensnared by the stench. All he could do was stand, staring at the grotesque entity before him.
"Glad to meet you both. Lovely weather today."
The heap of flesh split open along a vertical seam, and its words grew clearer with each oscillation.
"Oh, sorry. I forgot that you can't yet see the Great Garden, nor could you appreciate the nice weather."
"My apologies; I didn't mean to tease you."
As it spoke, the yellow-green sludge, accompanied by decayed chunks of flesh, oozed from its "mouth."
"I am the Corruptor. The Great and Merciful Father sent me here to spread His compassion and cleanse those who disturb His dreams."
"So, I'm delighted to meet you. Meeting you confirms that my plan was correct."
It muttered again, in a hushed tone.
Some chunks of flesh began to fall off it, dropping into the soupy mixture below the altar, splashing sticky droplets.
"Oh, forgive me, I've been here a while, and this altar is about to give out."
"No, no, I don't blame those who built the altar for me. They were good people, though the Father couldn't take them all."
Bits of flesh peeled off in steady pops, revealing a core that was decayed to an ashen gray.
Its voice shifted, becoming sharp and shrill—
"In any case, that's how it is. I'm pleased to bring the Father's love to you both, though at the moment, I can only bless one of you."
"Don't worry, the Father loves all of you; there's a place for each of you in His Garden."
The flesh mound collapsed swiftly, liquefying as it poured down, stirring the pool of putrid water.
"But not him."
The altar crumbled into a deathly silence.
"Ah!!!"
Jose's scream shattered the stillness as Fernando slowly turned his head, only to see foul water oozing from the seams of his comrade's power armor.
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