After a soul-searingly long walk, we'd finally found the end of the maze-like building. The space expanded inte dome-like hall, which was illuminated by makeshift light-posts in a clear Meicus design. It trasted the softly curving architecture of the ruins, on which they were made to shed light. I took in the colpsing walls, intricately carved pilrs that looked like they grew out of the ground like trees, with crevices in their barks depig a battles long fotten. It made Greek marble pilrs look like the work of children trying to please their parents. At the ter of it all stood a half-circle made of the same material as all the other buildings, and in front of it loomed the rge form of Magos-Dominus Zedev, hunched as he was, making sure none of his pointy spider legs scratched any of the shapes depicted on the marble-like foundation uhe half-circle. My panions didn't gawk at our surroundings, but I could practically taste their fusion and surprise. I levitated a finger-sized rock that was once part of a building here, finding it responding to my order almost joyfully as it soared through the air and nded in my outstretched palm. I was dying to examihe little ro detail, but I gnced around at all the people here. If it was what I thought it was, then I'd really like to go all out on it, using both the third eye and my white tendrils if need be. Aren't all of them already stuck with me though? Still, human stupidity is infihem turning on me, despite the a of signing their obituary, wouldn't be too far-fetched, especially with humans of this gaxy. Oh, well. I started examining the rock with a touch of soul energy first, and unsurprisingly it flowed through it with barely any obstru. The little rock was like aension of my body...were it not for the whole of it being made up of pure energy? The little thing was static (it was a rock, duh), so it wasn't as enthusiastic about corrupting my soul energy as free energy, but it was still corroding it ever so slowly. I threw the rock away, watg it sail through the air and g against the ferrocrete a few hundred meters away. Selene looked at me weirdly, along with some of her men who had balls made of pure steel, as the a — if I were a real Inquisitor — would have beeremely likely to earn them a burst of psma through the head. My est would have involved yanking a tendril of my soul through the little corridor eg my body to it and cheg if I could purify the bit of Wraithbone, but I didn't know how my ... weird soul would affect everyone around me. Whatever, there were plenty of rocks here to py with ter. Let's see if that half-circle is what I fear it is. "Hey Magos," I called out, snapping the meical araid out of his staring test with the equivalent of hieroglyphs. "Greetings, Lady Ea...Captain." He even noticed Selene, how observant of him. I almost snorted. He was using my least; I asked him to do that st time instead of calling me Inquisitor all the time. It felt a bit unfortable, to be ho. "I'd have asked what got you so absorbed, but I guess I see it now," I g the paintings, carvings, and the overall tale impressed upon the immaterial stohat all of this a building was made of. "Query: Do you know what this is?" He showed no sign of emotioher suspi nor i or curiosity, but I felt like if he allowed himself to feel the tter, it would have been the cause of his question. "A Webway Gate," I said, running my gaze over the thing, "It seems intact, though I have no idea how to tell if it's funal." "Your observation matches mine. I've been trying to find acceptable ao that question since I found this ruin." "How did you find it anyway?" "Answer: Old records, recorded legends...and the previous governor's journals." "What is a Webway Gate?" I turned my gaze onto Selene, who was snapping her questioning gaze betweewo of us. I noticed the Magos' red eye stared at me in what I felt like an urging to hahe question. "Eldar teology," I shrugged, "it is what they use to get in and out of the Webway, which they use as an alternative to travel." "So you think we could use this to escape the Tyranids?" she asked Zedev. "Affirmative. If we get it to work." "Alright, we will rely on you to do that." I slumped down on a fallen pilr, resting my in my hands as I watched the Magos get bato his staring test with a bunch of wall carvings. I didn't like our ces, if I was being ho. Not that I doubted the intelligence of the Magos; the dude erputer on legs. But the Eldar were protective of any w Webway entranbsp;I think there was a group of Harlequins that just went around and messed up ahat mao get a gate, and then there were the Farseers. I didn't know whether those hair-brained Eldar could see me or fate twisting around my presence, but even if they just got a glimpse of my existence, I was sure they were going to throw as many wrenches in my pns as they could. Not that I had many pns aside from growing, evolving, and surviving. That thought stumped me. My lips curved down in a frown as I realized I didn't have any normal goals that went beyond the ones given to me by my body's instincts. Yeah, I was ied in ted stuff, as well as cheg out the Tau, but those were is, not goals. Even with the tech, I only wao upgrade myself further. "What got the great Inquisitor all frowny?" said frown didn't lessen as I raised an eyebrow at Selene, who ged dowo me, her bulky power armor not making the best impression on the old Wraithbone as it cracked under her. "I realized that I don't have a single goal aside from surviving," I said. It wasn't some big secret I had to hide, and I wasly the type to care how others perceived me. "Isn't serving the Emperor usually the only goal you Inquisitors have?" "The ones shat out by a Saybe; those sad sods are broken down and built back up as tle drones a little more thaors." I didn't hold back my words for once; Selene had nothing she could give me anymore, no leverage over me. She was just a human with a few hundred weaklings servihat couldn't prove to be much of a threat to me. "It's a humao have a goal in life, isn't it?" I asked without giving her a ce to answer me, "Without a goal, humans waste aointlessly. Does life have a meaning without goals?" "I think I uand you," Selene said as she leaned bato the wall behind us, "all my life I always fought and learned just so I could be the oo win, to be the only one remaining and bee the one iing the Warrant." "At least you had a goal," I shrugged, "you even reached it." "It's not much different afterward," she turned her head to stare into my eyes, "I've bee around by the currents of fate like a helpless ragdoll for the st decade of my life. I did what a gue Trader should, but with no goals in mind, I just did what would keep my head on my shoulders and my ship running... the ship I lost even with all that effort." "Life be a pain," I hummed in response, earning a snort from the woman, "I think I'd need a long-term goal and a bunch of short-term ones, you know, to keep me occupied. But the long-term one should be something grand." "Like revolutionizing the Imperium?" Selene asked, and I could hear the smirk ione, but her joke was giving me ideas. Wouldn't that be a good goal to strive towards? I'd never reach it, especially if fate or anything that kept this gaxy as a mess for thousands of years exists, but I think I could put myself behind something like that. But let's not keep it just to the Imperium; instead to make something from this rotting carcass, I should make something new. If I didn't have a futuristic sci-fi Empire in the gaxy, the only option I had left was to make it myself. Empress Ea has a nice ring to it... But maybe I should e up with an inal title? Imperator, no, that's just transting it to Latin. Hmmm.... "It was a joke," Selene said with a hint of worry in her eyes as she watched me snap my mouth shut before drool could escape it. "Thank you," I smiled at the woman, whily widened as her aura gaihe slightest tint of embarrassment. "You are wele?" she asked uainly with a cute tilt of her head, which made me decide that I was keeping her. Even if I let her ente die horribly, I'd make sure she stayed alive. "Now, I should go check up on the good Magos," I said with a smile and a light wave at the ex-captain still looking at me like aiimal. No more moping, I should help that tin kick this Gate int order. Just as I was heading toward the Gate, I noticed the Shadows flying into a frenzy of movement as Orion started shouting orders in a clear voice over the Vox. I raised an eyebrow but still extended a dozen tendrils of soul energy from my body. They rushed into the tunnels and ihan ten seds reached the site of the disturbance. A flood of knee-high little monstrosities was rushing at our outer line of Shadows. Pink ones giggled as they threw balls of fire at Shadows, which caused them to burst into fmes, increasing the number of eldritch cackles and giggles eg through the tunnels. Among the waves of pink monstrosities came blue ohese were silent but much more numerous than the pink ones. Instead of throwing fire around, these used their four spindly arms ending in savage cws to ambush any Shadow distracted by their pink variants. I watched as five jumped onto a shadow and ripped him apart, somehow managing to keep him alive even as he lost all four of his limbs, and his entrails were dragged out of his body. The moment, a Pink Horror caught my eye, this one just caught a sgun round with its body. It released a final screech filled with glee as it dissolved into a blob of densed energy out of which crawled two blue Horrors, their eyes filled with malid searg for ao rip apart. Fug hell, it seems the shitty demons 't leave me alone even in realspabsp;P3t1