P3t1

  Life had a way of making seemingly easy tasks much harder than they should be.

  In this universe, that was especially true. Fate, destiny or whatever, liked to fuck you over.

  Even if I didn't know this before, it would have bee perfectly clear when the Swarmlord sprung bato a and swung his one remaining scythe arm at me as I was strutting over to make a meal out of it.

  I clicked my tongue, but a pyful grin slowly spread ay lips.

  An easy meal ealing to the more human part of me. Of course, it did. Who didn't like free food? At the same time, as I dodged to the side and sshed upwards to meet a cw strike midway, I felt a sudden thrill rise in my chest.

  The fvour of viade the meal even more enjoyable.

  Jumping bad twisting around, it dislodged the still r poweraxe with a slight groan. The o behind a brutalized wound of gaping flesh but the beast was uurbed by it.

  Just to make sure of my previous idea, I shot that flesh-morphing spell into the wound as I flickered to its other side and shed out at its armoured thigh.

  The bay ingled in arm and I quickly jumped back, just in time so a Bonesword encased in an alien bluish aura raked the ground where I stood. My Spell fizzled out, having done fuck all as the Swarmlord's DNA was far too stable for my basic tumrowth biomancy to affect it, just like all other Tyranids.

  I could feel the power and energy surge through its armoured carapace just like it did in its sword, it owerful, tyrannical. But so was I.

  My sword vibrated as I unched forward like a bullet, cutting the very air apart as I went. Bluish veins spread over my sword and an aura not uhe Swarmlord's spread over it.

  The beast roared, and the air trembled. Waves of furious psychiergy crashed into my mental shields and made them quake.

  I grimaced as I felt my outermost mental shield give way, and then the , but by then I was in front of the beast. My sword shot out, its tip crag the shimmering carapace of the monster just enough so when I sent a surge of densed bio-energy through its power-field wasn't strong enough to stop it.

  My body twisted to the side, spine t as it did, and I gritted my teeth from the burning pain spreading from my back as it sent me flying with a cwed kick.

  This thing is fast.

  I am a genius of observations; I know.

  Even my supernatural reflexes bined with my near preitive danger-sense bined weren't enough to save me from getting nicked in the back. Well, better than the 'getting torn apart' that would have awaited me had I not added those enhas to my body.

  As my baapped bato pce, the grin on my face widened even further. My armour withstood the attack. What my senses did, was making me go along with the force of its kick, ae the majority of the damage.

  My gaze snapped back to the Swarmlord just as the densed bio-energy detonated right us carapace. The beast trembled for a moment as its whole body shook, it stumbled back.

  I shot off again, flickering to its side, and nced my sword into the open wound Dante left on it. Then Psyfme surged off of my palms and spread over the wouing at its vitality and fanning the ic fmes further with it.

  My Psyker powers were disgustingly versatile. If I couldn't make tumours with biomancy, why not fuel the sapped Vitality into Psychic fmes?

  Blood clotted and burned along its wound as the beast shed out, swinging wildly as the fmes tried to spread over its intact armour but failed miserably. Still, the wound burned and soon its insides would, too.

  Still, I was a bit stifled as I g Dante's poweraxe. What did it have that my bio-sword cked? Mine only he beast's armour while the axed sshed it open like it was made of paper.

  'The Axe Mortalis' famed artifact of the Blood Angels, fed right after the Heresy ten millennia ago and said to carry the death curse of Sanguinius, it is capable of cutting through ceramite and psteel like a khrough silk.

  Thank you, Dante, for your tribution, I thought as I slipped out of his mind once I had the answers I wanted.

  His mind was strong and stable as a fortress, but I found it surprisingly easy to slip inside and just look for some knowledge. Telepathy, very handy when you aren't around weird people.

  Turns out a Magos who hide his thoughts from me was not normal if I could ihe mind of a legend like Dante so effortlessly … but maybe he just had his defences lowered as he seems to be a bit out of it at the moment.

  A tick echoed in my mind, signifying that the first sed since I started the fight had passed. Enhanced ition and superhuman speed made my sense of time a bit wobbly, which wasn't helped by my soul tinually providing the wrong answer, as it had airely unique sense of the passing of time.

  What is it then? Is my sword shit? Or does it not having the 'esoteric' aspect matter that much?

  It robably a bination of both, my sword was an amateurishly miniaturized Bonesword taken from a Hive Tyrant. I was essentially using a on it already optimized its armainst over aeons of evolution if I was guessing right.

  I let go of the sword and ed my fingers around Atiesh. Was it childish to want to fight a giant monster with a sword and space magic? Yes! Did I regret it? No!

  Still, it was time to take this a bit more seriously.

  TK grabbed hold of the falling sword and I had it zipping through the air.

  I flickered left and the sword flew right, angling so the beast had to look out for it, impaling itself into its injury.

  The Swarmlord was fast, but I could be much faster. Soul energy and bio-energy surged through my body. Even my Aeldari eyes and searted going slightly wobbly at my new speed, but once I let a trickle of the two energies into those too, they caught up.

  I could feel my bones radiate with power and in my arms I could see their glow through my skin, just like Atiesh as it too glowed a brilliant white but a momes fot lost, light getting refracted off of its aura even before it touched the staff itself. Maybe I look like that too?

  I wondered for a moment, but that could wait for ter. Power roiled and surged at my call. My soul thread thied into a wide tuhe energy answering my summons in abundance.

  A breathe growl-like hmm of satisfa slipped through my lips as I felt the energy I could now and, what I had at the tips of my fingers. As I was with my Soulbone skeleton and Atiesh I could shoot off those Eldritch Bsts I used on the Lord of ge like they were party tricks, given I have enough energy of course but I wouldn't be left like a newborn calf afterwards at least. Though … it had bes of its own.

  Banishing the pink fog out of my mind I started prodding at the Swarmlord, flickering around it as it was left turning in pce as I peppered it with arg Bsts, Lightnings, Fmes, Force Waves, Kiic Attacks but the ohing that had the most effe it was Telepathic attacks.

  Aelepathiail pierced into its mind and made the beast flinch for just a fra of a sed, which I rewarded it for with the floating sword smming into its wound again and a fully powered Eldritch Bst into its head just to be mean.

  Eldritch Bst seemed to be the best at slipping through its disgustingly powerful armour. I guessed it was so trated that it could pierce through the power field.

  As it recollected itself, viscous fluid started dripping from its wounds, even the smaller nicks I'd left and helpfully lit oic Fire. The fire hissed and fizzled out.

  I grimaced as the fluid dripped onto the ground and the ground evaporated where the fluid touched it. Nice.

  "You are dead already," I stopped and watched it, letting my ition slow to only superhuman levels, "you uand me, don't you?"

  I stared into its beady, unblinking eyes as they stared at me, wanting nothing more than to rip me apart piece by piece.

  Of course, it didn't answer, but it had intelligence behind those malicious eyes, a tremendous intelligehat quered and eradicated gaxies.

  The only warning I got for its attack was the tendons on its legs tightening and the bay ingling.

  "So be it," I murmured as I appeared behind it with a shed blink, "You are no fun."

  It swirled around, dispg air as jagged cws aimed to rend me apart but I only stepped bad aimed Atiesh at its torso.

  The energy that fshed only for a moment had no colour. Light itself was drained into this attack, making it utterly bck.

  The beast shrieked and I could feel my eardrums threatening to rupture before I reinforced them with another wave of bio-energy and two mental shields shattered in an instant. The mind behind the Swarmlord surged up again, u'd ever done so as its armour cracked under my attack.

  "Die please," a sed spell surged forward from my staff, white energy coiled around the beam of utter darkness and split into a dozen tendrils, entangling the gia as it tried to move away, dodge or do something.

  The horrific screech reached a cresdo as the tendrils tightened around it, holding the beast in pce just for that single nanosed I o bore through the st yer of its defences.

  "There," I smiled as the screech of fury turned into a pained howl and blood blossomed out of its wound. Dark blood. Lifeless and dry, as if it was shed a tury ago.

  I y power as I sehe beast's mind slip away, bato the hive-mind where it came from. Smarter, more experiehan it was but ultimately unsuccessful in aplishing its goal.

  By the ime it saw me, it'd know what I was, how I fought. Every time I killed it, it'd e back stronger, with a ter to what I showed it before if it could.

  The dry wastend wind blew into my face while I stood there for a sed.

  In front of me stood a t alien monster, its side raked open, armour scratched and pierced in multiple pces, with a gaping hole in its chest revealing a withered maw of flesh devoid of any life force.

  I killed the Swarmlord.

  I — the simple nerdy girl from Earth — killed an alien anism bred for war which could sughter entire ps if not systems by itself with no opposition. Hells, the number of people even in this gaxy who could stop this thing could be ted iwo digits.

  No, that was not who I was anymore, was I?

  The beast fell forward and its several-tonne heavy body impacted the ground with a thunderous thud, kig up a cloud of dust and sand.

  Ea, a name I came up to make fun of the people here for not knowing old mythology, the Mother of Monsters. I was a monster now, undoubtedly and uionably. If my previous self met this one, she'd run away g for her mother if not getting a heart attack ht.

  I walked up to the fallen form and sat down on one of its arms.

  I searched for Dante for a moment and found him — asleep — several hundred meters away with the Sanguinor and another flickering soul poking and prodding at him.

  Good for you, family reunion with daddy Sanguinor.

  I threw a half-hearted thumbs-up their way.

  "So I make a difference?" I thought aloud as I sent my hair extending out to start abs the Swarmlord. The sooner I started the better unless a nosy Space Marine came around and found me mid-dihat would be unfortable … for the Marine, as he'd quickly be turned into dessert.

  I trashed around 30% of its body, that st Overcharged ic Bst withered a third of its torso a barely anything usable behind.

  "But … I really?" What did I ge? If anything at all? Dante might still go into a a after the heart-to-heart with Sangy … I ge anything?

  Was there a narrative that'd fight against me? Would fate throw hurdles in my way or shift events so that anything I did became insequential and any effort to make a ge was nipped in the bud?

  I was strong — strongish — that would be a fact rather than an opinion after assimiting my current bench, but would that be enough? The lore that I knew of only went as far as the start of the 42nd Millenium which was already close at hand.

  I knew Guilliman would e here soon — anywhere from a day to a few years — I khe Lion would return, the Pgue Wars would happen in Ultramar, the Arks Of Omen were a thing too and then there was the Pariah Nexus.

  That was it.

  My knowledge, which would give me a substantial edge in the near future, would e to an end in at most two hundred years.

  I needed a foundation, something more than having big and mean fists by then to back me up. My childish pn to make a sci-fi empire became all the more appealing.

  "I o milk all opportunities I first," I frowned. "I need samples, it'd take me thousands of years to collect every useful thing around the gaxy."

  "I also need allies…" I grimaced at the word, this was a wide gaxy with trillions of people in it but if I had to guess 99.99% of them would tried to kill me on sight if they knew what I was. Be it arrogance, fear, xenophobia, threat removal or something simir. Every fa was a fvour of evil degee and I was so damn lucky to stumble upon a diamond in the rough like Selene.

  Xenophobia was the norm with humans, those who even talked to Xenos would be sidered Radical if they were high-ranking officials aics if they were not.

  Eldar were just … idiotic, obnoxiously arrogant, stubborn, annoying, dumb.

  Orks were Orks.

  The chaos guys were out on the principle of being stinky fuckers.

  Tyranids....yeah.

  That left the Nes and the Tau out of the major fas.

  No matter how much I could just spread my drones and just make life, it wasn't viable. I'd o eat star systems to e even close to produg the popution of even a smaller fa.

  I needed somewhere to start.

  The Tau were the obvious choice; they were already close to my ideal fa and they were very weak to Psychiipution and other esoteric tricks.

  Nes … A shiver ran down my spine as I remembered how getting ripped apart — atom-by-atom — felt. I might have developed a slight phobia.

  Those siderations should only matter iure.

  A part of me still felt weirded out that I nniuries ahead and a rational part of me hat I barely survived a few months so pnning years ahead was a waste of resources when I could die tomorrow if I wasn't careful or even if I was.

  Death.

  Could I even truly die?

  Nothing ever so much as scratched my soul and it wasn't dissipating like every other soul did after death. Their souls were much different from mihey had their souls at the tre of their mindscapes like a bck-box, halfway between realspad the , leaving only an imprint irue Immaterium but I had my entire soul in it.

  I wasn't human anymore. I wasn't even a mortal.

  Perpetual, Immortal, a Spirit maybe? The st one souhe best, to be ho, and the least obnoxious.

  I wasn't Immortal auals died all the damime. I khat if someoroyed my soul, I would die. But could aually aplish that? Separated from the as it was? Would it st even? What if it could regee like my body now? I knew so very little about what I actually was that it was maddening.

  My soul was stronger, but this was beyond strong. It was different. But why? How?

  And then came my biggest ; Was Fate real here? Was Destiny something I could ge or was it something written already by authors baY Earth? Was that all even real? Was my previous life just a delusion and a sign of my mind fracturing from the madness of this universe?

  Do I matter at all?

  '[Ping] — Get off of the sample.'

  I was snapped out of my brooding by a mental ping ing from one of my Mind-Cores. I began anizing them into hierarchies, and this one was in charge of the 'Eldritch se' that handled everythied to my unusual white tendrils, from creating and modifyies to abs and assimiting, just like it was doing at the moment.

  I jumped off of the arm and after a sed; it caved inwards and disappeared into a snake-like tendril which crawled over to me and slipped through my skin, dissolving into bio-energy as it passed on all the carrier information.

  ' [Ping] — Estimated time for full Tempte restru: 67days (at current putation capabilities)'

  I igheir whining for more brainpower. All of them were doing it and I was already at the maximum I could physically shove into my body.

  I might o resort to Psychiha at this rate, maybe even making parallel minds with Telepathy … but I don't want to make another me. Far too many novels had their protagonist do something stupid like that.

  My Mind-Cores were biological puters and not repliy mind. They had all my knowledge and information, but they were static, predictable, and trolble.

  In trast, Telepathy — and anything to do with the Immaterium really — was uable and untrolble, it rgely followed what I wa to do but who knew whether it'd decide to fuck with me when it came to it. My mind was the most important part of my being, the tre of it. And my biggest weakness.

  My chest expanded as I took a deep, calming breath.

  "I am making a ge," I reaffirmed to myself.

  "I ge it. I am going to matter."

  P3t1