Space War: Blood of Sanguinius

ter

restia, Arx A

sculpted to resemble flayed muscle and as Mephiston rose from the floor of the chamber his robes billowed around him like blood po

lambered to their feet and grabbed their discarded swords. They formed into orderly ranks and pounded the hilts against their chests. "Chief Librari

d. His mouth opened and closed but no sound reached the chamber. The hooded priests crowded around the projector, tap

host-priest, his jowly face trembling with

rying. Hanging limply in the Chief Librarian's

if he had just entered the hall through a doorway. +Something just beyond my rea

to what?" s

atic-chopped voice broke down into a series of barks and feedback loops. "Can. You. Hear. Meee? Wh

ck to the fading sphere. A look of mild surprise crossed his face. +I have been followed+ he

ephiston through the air. He smashed through the ranks of Librarians and tumbled in

became crimson flesh as a gaping wound opened in the air, hanging just above the floor. It swelled like a disease-blo

away, but Mariah and the other Librarians steadied themse

Mephiston, so Rhacelus gave his fellow Librarians a silent order. They leapt to obey. Fanning out to surround t

whispered and oath causing her sword

agnitude of what was happening. Danger in the very heart of the Arx Angelicum was unheard of. She stared at the grotesque thing that was quickly filling the Ostensorio. It was a window onto madness and, as she raised her sword

It was a thick stink of putrefaction and faeces, and she felt a

hands and bracing himself as clouds of flies swarmed around him. His maj

hed pot-bellied torsos. Grubs blistered up from open sores, forming into drooling, slack-jawed fa

pen in the centre of oozing, bulbous foreheads. Then he raised his chin, imposing and m

column of blue light ripped from the weapon and slammed into the emerging h

ent into the creatures. A sphere of light began to form as their warpfire clash

en Pict images of countless xeno-types, including some far stranger looking than this, but it was not the anatomy that arrested her; it was the utter wrongness. They did not confo

re feeding the wound, causing It to gape ever wider. The front ranks of daemons ere disintegrated under the ferocity of the Librarians' attack but as the hole widened it vomited ever

lasts, the swarming of the flies and the tearing of the air, the hololithic confessor was still crying out,

into one dreadful,

ng back towards the fight, scouring t

d Mariah found herself mired in a

Rhacelus. Mariah's power was far greater than normal, magnified by the blood magic that was coruscat

er the impact of the message, s

stolary Rhacelus on

cleared to reveal a steaming mound of twitching daemons piled

straining outwards, bulging towards the edges. Something was forcing itself against the other side, something massive. As it swelled it spewed even greater swarms of flies. The

n swept through the tornado, his spectral wings outstretched

arm of flies. There were now millions of the insects, and Mariah could not see the shape clearly. In her mind

the into sparkling blue embers. He continued on into the ho

and pulsating like a huge mollusc. It was so large it crashed against the ribs of the distant, vaulted ceiling, and it was encased in a mantle of frilled, rippling muscles that resembles rows of gills. Parts of th

as she saw Mephist

chalant voice in her

lk and it reared up in pain, smashing through the ceiling of the Ostensorio. The stone gave way, sending arches and

ed by the swaying bulk of the daemon as it lurched and undulated, colliding with pillars and buttresses. Mariah and the other Li

, when another figure emerged from the dust clouds with a swagger. One of the stooping, gangly things had broken throu

, tearing the daemon apart in an explosi

e priest. The man was sprawled on the flagstones, clutching

word dripping with the priest's blood. Mariah hunched over her sword and un

rum priests sprinted through the chaos, dodging falling slabs and leaping over cracks in the floor as they struggled to locate the exit. The hololithic projection of the senior priest was still visible through the bloody haze and falli

through the haze, locating the doo

towards the exit. The door's lintel had cracked and t

rging towards them, countless dozens of loop

s, Mariah raised her sword, cutting them down with a

two priests by their robes and

f the Fourth Company were racing towards the building, weapons raised, bus as they climbed the steps the walls and buttresses

were wading through a low tide rather than demolishing a building the size of the cathedral. Huge

hed through the building above them. A low, tectonic groan filled the air, but it was not coming from the doorway. Mephiston was still crushed against the daemons circular mouth, his blade burning read as it sank deeper into the thing's insubstantial flesh. The sound was comi

finally collapsed, thundering down to the

eavens, blocking out the sun, like a doom-laden fi

t a final glimpse of Mephiston. His ink-black wings were spread and he was soaring clear of the explosion,