Instead of bending over backward for my urges, I pulled Selene in for a hearty squeeze. I calmed down a bit as I felt her warm body within my hold.

  “A-air- “she wheezed with a pat on my back with her one free hand.

  I let her go, of course, and as I stepped back, Seleumbled as she suddenly had to hold up her weight. A giggle left my mouth as I looked at her. I was worried at some point that I was looking at Selene and the others more like one look at a pet or something, but by now I couldn’t care about that.

  I liked her pany, her character, her care and just her overall. Despite the siderable power differeween us, I wasn’t just keeping her around for amusement; she has proven to be more helpful than I initially thought.

  If I was being pragmatic, then I’d have left her behind already or even absorbed her and taken her Warrant of Trade.

  A shiver went down my spi the thought. This wasn’t a new idea either. I wiped most of my Mind-Cores of emotion so they could make better calcutions and this idea was among their reendations. A side of me even uood why it was so. Selene was weak pared to me, and if the only reason I roteg her was to gain the influence of a Rogue Trader, then I might as well bee one when needed.

  Never.

  That I so certainly khat I couldn’t ever gh with it gave me a sense of satisfa, a satisfa stemming from not being aionless eldritch monster despite my circumstances pushiowards it.

  Just how much of that do I have to thank Selene for?

  Of course, the eldar emotions helped. They helped me ground myself and tto every bit of emotion I still felt, but out of everything, I felt Selene might have been my biggest source of positive emotions. She deserves to be rewarded for that...

  Thankfully, she hardly opposed my flirting so far; otherwise, I didn't know what I would have done. I'd like to think I would have still mao remain myself, still mao feel, but... it is not a line of thought I like to think about. I have her; she doesn’t hate me, and I am still a thinking, feeling eldritch being.

  A win in my book.

  “You learo Blink,” Selene excimed once her braiarted. She was smiling like it was she who succeeded. She is precious.

  “I did,” I grihen booped her on the nose. I stepped back before she could sp my hand away with a giggle.

  Her fused frown was cute as well, I o myself with a sage nod.

  “What’s up with you?” she asked.

  “I just found out that I don’t know shit.” Isn’t that great? Turns out I could be even more broken than I already am.

  “Okay?” Seleilted her head. “and that is good, because...?”

  “Because it means there is still much to learn,” I beamed at her.

  She just looked at me weirdly, but that toaster licker was giving me respectful gnces, damn it.

  “What did you learn?” Valenith asked without opening his eyes, trying to cospy as some sagely master or something.

  “That it doesn’t have to make sense,” I said, a bit more subdued than before.

  “That is usually one of the first things an aspirant learns,” he noted, “it is a wonder how you even mao do what you did, one who tries to uand the inprehensible usually ends up insane.”

  “I’m just built differently,” I shrugged. As far as I knew, something much more crazy had to happen for me to lose my mind. Normal people weren’t susceptible to ge their souls by feeling sad y. Pros and s.

  “I sometimes think are my best student and then I feel like you didn’t even listen to me,” he sighed helplessly.

  “It is what it is,” now then, what to do in the hree days?

  I o see how much I could alter my spells first with my expanded horizons; it was better to start with the familiar than to jump right into the deep waters and try to e up with airely esoteric spell, but I should be able to make some of my prior ideas work with this. Smite probably worked only because I wa to, but if it didn’t have to make sense, could I just fuck up demons? No, if it made sense, I could be sure that it’d work, which is eveer than willing it...

  Those wait. Firstly... let’s see what happens if I do this...

  I walked bato my previous position and sat down. I didn’t reect to the tendrils just that a my Mind-Cores handle navigating it for now through a telepathiion. I folded myself up into a lotus position more for the vibe it gave me than for actual use and put my two hands, face up, to my knees and focused.

  Usually, when I wao use Soul Energy I just wished for it and it came flowing through my Soul thread like an er puppy, the iing part was that it actually didn’t go through my soul, it just went around it and jumped onto the thread. Now I wasn’t asking for energy. With my soul, I grabbed a k, I molded it, and pressed it. I forced it to hold everything that my purified little Sea of Souls was iself, represent it and bee a vector for it. A vector it’d used to influence realspace directly.

  Then, and then I let it gh the thread. It didn’t take long from my body’s perspective, time was less a stant and more a suggestion in the Immaterium, even its liy was questionable so it wasn’t a surprise that my sense of time was weird when I sciously trolled both my soul and body at the same time.

  Soul Energy flowed into my soul. It created a slight Vortex at the ter of my Soul Puddle and the densed energy flowed out of it and through the soul thread entered realspace. I trolled the much too stable energy suddenly flooding my body. It was still malleable but my body was much less adept at it than my soul was. It was a humbling trast to experiehat even my best Form couldn't match the abilities of my soul. I was still limited by my current Form. Hopefully, this will close the gap a little.

  The energy tried to solidify inside of me as soon as it came into realspace, but I forcefully kept it in an energy state and guided it into my palms in two steady streams. Ohe energy pooled in my palm, I pushed it just outside of my skin a start doing what it wanted, crystals of pure soul energy smaller than naers started f, each eg to a previous crystalliructure.

  I didn’t look, I couldn’t. I was much too focused on not messing up the structure. I had to make it perfectly, not a single molecule out of pce or this vector. This fobsp;wouldn’t be the best it could be. Time passed, and it felt both like ay and an instant by the time the two fledgling crystals in my palms ected, both in the shape of a long der just wide enough to fit in my hand.

  When I opened my eyes, I saw nothing. However, the meaning of 'nothing' ged when instead of not seeing anything in my hands, I was blinded by a white light so intehat it caused the Navigator Eye in my chest to narrow and shield itself. A moment after, the light disappeared and with that final surge of energy, I pleted my aff.

  Hopefully, I know fuck all about making Psychic Foci, but while doing it I was sure this would help me el Soul energy better.

  Jumping to my feet, I let go of the newly made staff a float in front of me as I twirled it around to look at it because now I could actually see it. It didn’t look like muy physical eyes, a simple pure white staff as long as I was tall with the only artistic part of it being the upper end of it which looked like a buny tendrils curling around each other with a slight gap between them which held seemingly nothing at all but all of my non-physical senses begged to differ, that was the most important part of the staff.

  “W-what is that thing?” Selene asked as she looked at my new casting implement with wide-open eyes.

  “Beautiful,” Valenith murmured as he stared longingly at it. He on his feet too and his illusion was crag and flickering as clear evidence of his slipping focus.

  My third eye snapped open, and I was almost forced to close it again. The staff didn’t radiate power; it was much too stable for that and radiating the energy it was made off of would put a shelf life on it. No, what the staff was doing was influeng reality around it. It had an aura, so to speak, which weakened realspad reinforced my will above all else.

  “This,” I looked at it fondly, this could be the first of many but seality had power in the Immaterium and as this would be a vector to enforce it upoy, I wao make it important. For it to be important, it should have a meaning, a reason. Or... I could something dumb... something ironic, which would only be funny to me... I did name myself like that. Why ’t it be both? I wondered and a name from one of my favorite games jumped to the forefront of my mind. It felt right, “Is Atiesh, my Staff from now on till the end of time and beyond.”

  Atiesh... The great staff of the Guardian. The Guardian whose sole reason for existence was the eradication of demons. This will do.

  Now... Let’s make some upgrades to this form... I wonder what having bones made of this material will feel like...

  Octavian Gaius999.M41 uermiime || Above Holy Terra; Imperium Sanctus ||

  Octavian was both appalled, honored, and somewhat nervous about what had transpired since his indu into the select few who Dreamed.

  The words of the Lockwarden were ominous and prompted a, but he and his brothers thought otherwise. The Lockwarden wao attack, to detain ahe being that escaped, but the Dreams kept ing and were increasing in frequency ever sihat fateful day. These Dreams prompted caution and in Octavian’s humble opinion, diplomacy.

  Octavian was not alone in his opinioher. He felt their Lord wahem to either protect or cooperate with the being that they were to meet. He didn’t know if this being was the escaped thing, ossessing it, or was in possession of said thing, but if the Emperor willed it dead, there were much less voluted ways of telling his servants that.

  Unfortunately, the opposition was also many, many only wished to elimihe threat that could make their Lord unicate the utmost urgency.

  As evident by these opposing fas, Octavian wasn’t alone. He threw a gnce behind him. Three of the Ten thousand were leaving Terra. This was a moal day a Octavia a tinge of unease.

  Octavian himself wore the standard Custodes auramite armor with crimson red robes and pauldrons, the figure on his left only differed from himself ier, wearing royal purple where Octavian wore crimson. An Aquilian Shield. A Guilded Guardian. Theirs is a Shield Host who works closely with those who Dream as they are usually the ones actually carrying out the Lord’s will, proteg seemingly unimportant people who all turn out to be pivotal for the Imperium’s future. Martyrs, issars, Inquisitors, usually when they are still far from their intended posts and fates.

  Octavian g the other, but quickly averted his eyes as the pure bck winged helmet s him. Bck auramite armor with golden ats and a crimson robe to cover it all, the Shadowkeeper was a being of perfe and with what little Octavian knew of them it was doubtful whether even if he and the other Custodes worked together they could prevent the Warden if he wao kill their target.

  As for where they were...

  Octavian didn’t g the man sitting in the and chair of the voidship. He found himself thinking it disrespectful to do without reason ae Custodes not adhering to any Imperial hierarchy, he himself was happy to be here.

  He gnced out of the window and beheld the p below, Holy Terra and the giganti of the ship he stood on.

  A Gloriana Css Battleship. These ships were always a rarity, titans of void warfare from an age where humanity could build better and bigger. They were the fgships of the legendary sons of the Emperor during the Great Crusade and each became a symbol of their Legion.

  Any who learned even a bit of history would be intimately familiar with their names, The Invincible Reason of the Lion, The Iron Blood of Ferrus Manus, The Red Tear of Sanguinius... and The Vengeful Spirit, the fgship of the Archtraitor Horus himself.

  Out of all these legendary ships, very few were still in servid only oill had the fortune of once again being the chosen vessel of a Primarch.

  This one. The Macragge’s Honor, the fgship of Lent Robute Guilliman, the Lord of Ultramar and the Primarch of the Ultramarines legion.

  Octavian didn’t quite tighten his fist on his spear, but he had the urge to. The Primarch was going into war, on a Crusade to recim what was lost, a crusade the size of which hadn’t been seen sihe Emperor st walked the stars ten thousand years ago.

  The ship’s engines roared somewhere far below, but Octavian could make the reso.

  The Indomitus Crusade has already started.

  P3t1

  Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian

  For those who might have a life, here is a wiki page about the reference.

  Also, here is an illustration of mostly how I imagi:

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