Weird as it was, I'd left my heart and blood mostly intact with only some enhas so they could transfer much more oxygen and work even under high Gs. I didn't hem. I could live off of only bio-energy well enough and my base Psyker Form didn't even have blood or a heart anymore.

  What I realized when I looked into what bio-energy does to my cells to achieve this was that it is directly trolling and maintaining my mitodrial transmembraric gradients in all her cells. Although it is enormously difficult to do with any nanotech we ceive of, this is enough to bypass the need for oxygen for energy metabolism. It would also mean I don't need her blood to circute anywhere as rapidly as it does in animals. Since oxygen is poisonous, this would be beneficial in normal enviros too.

  It still needed blood if it only did that but bio-energy could transpnt any form of other energy o support the funing of a biological anism, this also left open the questioher I could apply this in direbat somehow but I put little effort into this. A lightning bolt made of bio-electricity was viable, but I could do just that with psychic powers, exactly that as biomancy had that same spell as one of its staples. Even Val k.

  Where was I going with this again?.... Right, blood, and why did I have a heart? The same reason I had emotions, feeling my excitement or nervousness have physical effey body felt niormal even. Normalcy was a hard thing to e by in this gaxy and every bit recious, so even if it was both redundant and unnecessary I had a heart and blood flow. It was also a must if I wao stay capable of blushing. Very important!!

  An illusion flickered around me, cealing me from the slowly anizing Tyranids as I flew above the battlefield. The sky — much like the ground — teemed with aliens - massive fighter-jet-sized creatures apanied by small sky-sshers. They flew among many floating spore sacks, poised to release their corrosive or bustible tents upon an unsuspeg prey.

  Artillery beasts scratched in an ungodly voice as they shot boiling acidic missiles through the air. They painted a rge arto the pink sky before ing back down and bursting oer walls of the Fortress.

  Atiesh twitched to the side, smashing a rge Gargoyle to the side with an overp force wave which sent it careering through several exploding sacks that coated the falli in scorg fmes.

  "Good stick," I ran my finger along it. The thing was weird, having some sort of animalistitience, but unlike mae spirits, it didn't have any soul I could sense.

  "What say you, warriors of Baal?" My ears caught a weathered voice carrying a calm ferocity, "That

  we let slip the Red Thirst one final time, and fly upon wings of wrath with our lord unto battle? I

  end you all, oh ye mighty, to the prote of the Great Angel. For the Emperor, for Sanguinius!

  There is no more beauty to be had from life, so let us then seek a beautiful death!"

  "A beautiful death! For the Emperor! For Sanguinius!" The chorus of the transhuman warrior's shout shook the basilica they were in and I let myself smile.

  My gaze flickered to another pce for a moment. Deep within the Swarm, I sensed more than saw something. It was vast and intelligent, a predator that quered gaxies and had power enough t death upon many more. Deep, a hunger radiated from it, making it known to all who dared to look at it as the architect of their end.

  Once again, like with the Lord of ge, I stared into the Abyss. My Third eye snapped open, and I pierced through the veil of ash clouds and cealment around the nexus point of the Swarm, something shifted and I felt something flicker ay prese for a moment and then I felt it.

  Untained hunger and fury. It wasn't directed at me, irely, but enough of it was so I uood it knew, it knew who I was. It knew I was the one who made a meal out of it before. Be it a siiny Ripper or a Norhey were all Tyranids, all parts of the Hive Mind, sure a Norn Queen equaled to billions if not trillions of Rippers if one pared their effects on the hive mind but it didn't ge the fact that in that eldrittelligence, all these monsters below me were one.

  Single cells of the same anism.

  The maion of the Hive-Mind shrieked and caused the — which calmed from the shadow slowly spreading over it — to roil and crash back. The -based Psychic attack did absolutely nothing to me and the sonic attack slipped off of a quick barrier I tossed up with Atiesh's help. Good stick, who is a good stick? You are!

  I smirked as I sehe beiurn to its previous resting position. Yoing to be my dioday, rown bug.

  My heart pouill, not out of nervousness but from excitement. I wasn't nervous, the ohing I dreaded was Selene somehow dying but with that armor and me keeping a telekiiion with both her and the armor that should be challenging for ao aplish. So no, I wasn't overly nervous.

  I am finally stepping onto the main stage!

  So many novels and fanfi I read and hardly any of them were of a character that actually made a difference. Who was better than this shithole gaxy, who had the power to be what I aimed to be.

  Dante, Gabriel Seth, Astorath, Mephiston and Guilliman. All of them are people I have a eet.

  A.

  "Ouch," I spped myself in the face before wiping the drool off the edge of my mouth, "Let's try not murdering some of the biggest heroes of the Imperium, that'd make for a horrid first impression."

  What did first impressions matter when I could probably throw fists with a Primarch? Well, a Primarch didn't amount to all that much if you ted the whole bat capability of the Imperium. What they had thought was Legions of Space Marines ready to die for them and billions praising their names and worshipping them as demigods. Especially Guilliman whose name was legitimately a synonym fent' as in Lent and Luilliman were intergeable titles in Gothic.

  Luilliman Guilliman. I giggled at the thought.

  What I was getting at was that even with Seleing as a tree to hide behind, she was an arguably thin tree with her ship stolen. Sure, she'd still be respected but how much shit hitting the fan could she swipe uhe rug like this? Could she actually pull her weight when an inquisitor came around and started poking their crooked noses into my business? I wasn't sure; I wasn't versed in imperial bureaucracy but I knew Selene wasn't in a good position from their standpoint. They couldn't know that the most awesome eldritch monster was willing to go to war for her.

  Now, if the Imperial Regent himself vouched for me and dumped some important title on my head, wouldn't that be fug ve?

  I knew just what he waoo, information.

  With a pained creak, the gates of the fortresses opened and out came bounding, frothing mohe size of tanks that still somewhat resembled humans.

  "KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL," only one could still talk coherently, if you could call that coherent, but what they could do fug well was rip apart Tyranids, apparently.

  One of them bounded up to a ifex close to the fortress, crushing Gaunts and Warriors under his bulky feet like flies and as the ifex uself at the brute, the mindless berserker grabbed at it. With the still weak trol the Hive-Mind had on its toys, the ifex didn't dodge in time as bulky fingers ed around its legs and torso.

  The hulking abhuman raised the alien above his head as it squirmed helplessly and tore it in half, bathing himself in acidic blood, whily made his skin blister for a few seds before it healed back up.

  Dozens of ses simir to this pyed out as the small group of berserkers crashed into the endless swarms and paved the way for their saner brethren with blood. These were the 'damned' or so the Blood Angels called them, once hopeful aspirants reduced to mindless beasts as they failed to turn into the noble Space Marines. Usually, the aspirant just died. The odds of success in the process were rather abysmal, but there were a few who lost themselves to the bck rage before even fully being a Space Marine which mutated them into the hulking monsters rampaging down there.

  This is a bit too tame to be the end of time, but I see where they are ing from. From their perspective, the line of Sanguinius might die along with them right here and right now.

  Autoons roared to life all around the walls of the fortress and started bsting into the endless wave of Tyranids, the people manning them were hardly trained for it but with the enemy spreading from horizon to horizon, hitting them wasn't much of a challenge, reloading without getting a bone-spike to the head was much more of a worry though as one man experienced just now.

  A soft sigh left my lips as I felt Selene arrive right under me with a path of liquified Tyranids in her wake. I was worried about her, but I wasn't her mother. ing off os overbearing or annoying wasn’t something I wao do. I gave her more than enough tools to match up to some of the most dangerous beings in the gaxy and if someone whom she couldn't defeat came for her life, I could always just appear o her.

  A smile spread ay face as Atiesh snapped into my palm. The fabric of reality trembled as I briefly entered aed.

  "Oh," Seleuro where I stood, looking vaguely in my dire before I expahe illusion to cover her. Now that she could see me, her eyes focused on me, "So?"

  "Look," I turned and poi the figures dashing out of the Fortress with a squad of golden beings flying carried by winged jetpacks, "The lead one is ander Dante."

  "The oh the... mask?" Selene narrowed her eyes as she saw the man nd on the head of a Tyranid warrior and smash it into gory paste beh his boots before jumping bato the air, sughtering war beast after war beast.

  "Yes," I nodded as my eyes tracked him, "That is Sanguinius' death mask. They say it perfectly replicates the Primarch's features."

  "Shouldn't we help him?" she frowned as she watched the st raging abhuman being pulled uhe tide of aliens. "… them?"

  "You are free to do so," I ined my head, "Hmmm, I'm just w how much to show them … ah don't absorb stuff in front of them, please."

  "Sure?" she nodded with a raised eyebrow.

  "I'm not here to annouo the world that I am a Xenos Selene," I g her for a moment, "no matter how strong I am, a cye torpedo wouldn't be something I want dropped on my head."

  "You just revive, right?"

  "But it would be an awful waste of energy," I shrugged, "and besides, I might e back, but you 't."

  "Ehm," she blushed a bit at the firm look I gave her, "It'd take a Primarch to kill me with this thing on."

  "Or a Ne Destroyer," I corrected her, "or one of the other thousands of extremely dangerous beings lurking in the void."

  "It's so weird that you are this paranoid," she grumbled. "Even with the little of it you gave me, I feel like a demigod."

  "I am not paranoid," I shrugged, I really wasn't, "I just know how many things are out there that are beyond the current me, but along with them, I see just as many opportuo overtake them."

  "Like this," she turned back to the battlefield as Atiesh dutifully sent flying a that came close to our little bubble of calm.

  "Yes," my lips cracked into a grin, "like this, so if you'll excuse me, I have to go eat some people and kill some aliens."

  "What about me," she said as I turo leave, "what should I do?"

  "Whatever you wish for Selene," I smiled back at her, "I think the Swarmlord might be still too much for you, but the rest should be perfect prey for you to hone yourself on."

  "Okay," she licked her lips as she sed the battlefield before nodding, "I'll go help them."

  "Be careful," I warned as I once again grabbed my obedient staff, "they are deep into the Red Thirst. It wouldn't surprise me if they thought you are the enemy and tried to rip you apart."

  "W-what?" she g me, "Oh, okay."

  "Good luck, Selene," I said as I traced a circle on the elusive veil.

  "Good luck, Ea," she whispered back.

  As the head of my staff ected to the starting point of the circle, the shape came to life like a scorched painting of reality itself, and inside I saw a different pce. After a step, the portal hissed shut behind me.

  Dr. Strange has nothing on me now.

  I materialized o a fallen Space Marine, one of the winged ohat the ravenous beasts had torn apart. I sent out a psychic shockwave charged with Psyfme, turning anything not in my immediate viity like the corpse into white ash which then softly drifted through the air, cealing me.

  One loy hair shifted and turned into a tendril, plunging into a gash in the once mighty warrior's armour and fed on his flesh. The tendril expanded, sing, mapping, abs, analyzing, assimiting, and then it retreated only the ceramite shell was left of the once mighty warrior from the Sanguinary Guard. It morphed bato a lock of pale white hair.

  40% already, or maybe only 40%? He was in a rather messy state.

  Fortunately, there wasn't a ck of Astartes corpses around here so as the st sons of Sanguinius fought for their survival I walked around and collected more than enough of them to push my gee of the 'Astartes - (Sanguinius variant)' well beyond 100%. Not that I could already turn into one of them, I'd o create a single whole tempte out of the dozens of fractured ones but with every part of their body being sed it'd be faster than what I had to do with the Eldar where I o fill out the gaps based only on their DNA.

  Once I was doh that, I headed over to where I felt the good ander from. His soul was quite clear in this sea of bestial souls and average Astartes.

  I could tell that he was falling already. He was giving in more and more to the Red Thirst. It was a trade really, sanity for power, and when a Blood Angel gave up their st vestiges of sanity, would they gain the greatest strength, falling into what they called the Bck Rage. ander Dante ushing himself closer and closer to that edge with every passing minute and every fresh scar or injury that adorned his body and armor.

  'ander' I let my telepathy slide into his mind, carrying peaceful emotions. Hopefully, he wouldn't think that it sychic attack.

  'What? Who is this?' I saw him stumble slightly. A Tyranid Warrior prime needed no more prompting to skewer him.

  'An ally, hopefully,' I sent as Atiesh shed out at the offending Tyranid with an Eldritch Bst. The beam of white energy only flickered ience for a nanosed, but it obliterated the target into a white mist.

  'I don't need your help, demon,' he bit back as I felt someory to intimidate me and when I g the source, I found an ephemeral angel gring at me, sword raised to strike.

  'Demons are already helping you on Baal Prime,' I snickered, 'but I am you a ce to live, though I know that is the st thing you'd want.'

  'Begone already,' he growled, shing out at the aliens verging on him before jumping bato the air, 'or show yourself.'

  "Gdly," the air vibrated with my voice as my illusion fell away. Right in that instant did most of the Tyranids shift their path and throw themselves at me. I felt the Swarmlord shift again, but remained motionless aside from that. My force field was going at full force, projectiles curved around me and the few beasts that rikes at my armor couldn't as much as scratch it.

  Let's be dramatic. Psychic fme formed a bde in my hand, which I held with both hands before plunging it into the ground.

  For a sed there was silence as the beasts closest to me froze, their instincts honed over eons warning them of the danger, but it was too te, so very te. A shockwave coated in white fmes expanded slowly at first, expanding far up into the sky before it started swirling, I stood iorm's eye as my tornado of fme fueled by the souls of the dead colpsed into a glowing ring around me before it finally exploded.

  The fire washed over the battlefield and Tyranids, be it the smallest maggot ag as a bullet or a mighty ifex, burned. I could have evaporated them instantly, but hearing thousands of aliens scream in pain and suffering leasing to a deeply sadistic part of me and I was sure the Astartes would agree with me. They didn't scream, fmes washed over them like the Tyranids but left them with only harmless spees stig to their armor, which they'd find out ter enhaheir i healing factor.

  "I'll say it again Luis Dante, Greatest son of Sanguinius," He stood alone in a field of ash and burnt carapace, staring at a being he couldn't possibly uand, "I want an alliance."