MephistonThe Chief Librarian froze mid-walk, gathering some curious gnces from the other octs of the street but he went back to his previous stride without as much as a ge in his severe expression.

  For a single moment there, he felt his senses expand into something new, somethiirely fn to him but it closed not a moment ter. All he got was a single lick of the sensation that this new se of what he assumed was the , felt like.

  He’d felt both corruption and purity before, both chaos and order. He was well versed iricacies of the and many of its deepest secrets were known to him, still, no one could truly know everything.

  Mephiston was young. He khere were other Librarians who were his seniors, and he didn’t doubt that those who put themselves into the service of the God of Magiew ahan himself.

  Even so. When something was right in front of him or so close to him as this phenome, very few things ever mao so effortlessly slip out of his grasp.

  Curiously, this phenomenon had the same ‘taste’ to it as what he felt wafting off of that mysterious woman.

  This must be her doing. He cluded with a thoughtful look.

  What exactly was it that he felt though? What had she done? He felt her power more clearly for a moment there than he did wheht in front of him and it wasn’t just something as mundane as removing a cloaking teique from her soul.

  What he felt was more than any single mortal Sorceress could ever be. It was just more.

  He went back to going about his day as he would have been anyway, brooding over the strange phenomena and what it could mean in the back of his mind throughout his other duties.

  For now, he was to stay ba the Fort while the Chapter Master tio take sorties out and prepare for the possibility of another monster simir to that ‘Swarmlord’ showing up.

  Mephiston was rather fident in his capability of taking down the monster but he acquiesced to the Chapter Masters idea of preparing a ritual for su eventuality. He uood that puttiher himself or the ander in as a precarious situation as fag down that monster again could mean the end of their resistance here.

  Mephiston couldn’t let that happen. He knew how Tyranids operated, Kill, Eat, Evolve. He also khat under his feet was a chapel more sacred than any to the bloodline of the Great Angel as it was the final resting pce of the Primarch.

  He faced the possibility of the Primarch’s remains falling into the maws of the Xeno menaumerous times during his meditations and he didn’t like any of the possible futures that id out before humanity.

  There were already bio-forms who could go toe-to-toe with the likes of ander Dante who he ted amongst the fi warriors of humanity. If those beasts got their cws on the geic material of a Primard used that to better themselves could any warrior stand in their way and expeything other than a gruesome death? No. He didn’t think so.

  The primary Ritual he prepared was for when he fell in battle. That ritual would cause the utter annihition of the entire fortress along with the sacred chapel below.

  It was a disastrously un-filial ritual and the thought of defiling his geher’s remains so saddened him but it was the obviously superior alternative to letting it strehe enemies of humanity. He could only wish for fiveness after his death, if he was allowed even that, being the Avatar of the Dark Angel.

  Not an hour after the first phenomena Mephistohat same tingle run down his spine, and he immediately made for his personal chamber, pushing both Brothers and regur humans out of his way as he rushed through the Fortress.

  Ba his chambers, he sat down a his mind slip away from his mortal shell. By the ime he opened up his eyes, he was in ahereal replica of his own body floating along the currents of the .

  He made for the source of the phenomenon; he felt it more clearly now. The e or whatever this was, felt more stable.

  When he first id his eyes upon the source of the phenomenon, he couldn’t quite tell what he was looking at. He stopped a good while away from where he could clearly observe monstrous beings of varying sizes rushing at the source but not a single one of them made it all the way to it.

  Arg whips of pure energy whiapped out, obliteratiher parts of the monsters or unmaking them entirely whe touched them. None of them seemed to care, these were mostly mindless beings and some demons from the lowest echelons of their orders.

  He gnced around and he could feel cealed auras all around himself, though none were as adept at hiding their presence as he was so he reasohey should be unaware of his presence. Hopefully, the woman who made this phenomenon was also the same.

  One approag aura stood out from the rest and Mephiston watched it as it moved closer to the source much like the monsters. Few of them paid the bright soul much attention, transfixed as they were with the phenomena but the few that did were dealt with in short order by the soul itself.

  Psyker. Feels like an Eldar. About upper Delta.

  Not that the denominatio much for an Eldar. Theirs was a miserable existence of having the power to bey and being uo do so lest they pay for that power with their souls. Farseers teo be Beta level Psykers, which were the stro a regur human could theoretically reach.

  Very few Beta level human Psykers ever had a sound mind, the whispers of the and the maations of the demons breaking them before they could ever learn to trol their powers.

  He watched on curiously as the soul slowed; it seemed to deliberate just at the edge of where the arcs of energy first struck out. Monsters stepping past each sted no lohan a blink, though rger ones advanced further in that time ahey too ended up bei bato the depths of the .

  None could fault him for the astonishment he felt whee on sehe soul moved forward. He almost reflexively sent out a pulse of power to send it back but he held himself back. The soul wasn’t his to save. If it wao face oblivion instead of ay of torture at the hands of demons, he wasn’t oo fault it.

  The soul moved ae demons and monsters alike fking away into nothingness all around it, not a single arc of energy as much as grazed it. He narrowed his eyes. A demon came close, somehow more i on taking a bite out of the soul than rushing to its death like others of its kind but as it bounded forward as much as three arcs of energy smashed into it and obliterated it.

  The soul moved on, unharmed and dare he say, protected by the phenomena.

  He stared at the ter of it all, at the source of this phenomenon and the ter point of this orb of death. A rift was there, not uhe ones made by Drives to open a portal into the .

  It hurt his eyes to look at it. His senses were somehow proving unprehending of the true nature of what he was beholding and a part of him khat his mind was turning the inprehensible into something his mortal mind could process. So a rift.

  He couldn’t truly know what he saw as a rift could be underh that veil his mind used to protect itself but he dared to guess. A gateway.

  He could feel an impression from it, simir to how smaller realms ihe felt, but this was like a bundle of realms smashed together in a rger one.

  Despite his expertise and power, he held no hope for peering into the depths of this mysterious realm which felt entirely untainted by not only Chaos but the itself.

  He squinted as the soul touched the rift and disappeared into it with no sign of it ever havihere. Was this rift made just for that single soul to pass through?

  He cluded that it had not when the rift remained even after what he felt were 20 Terran minutes, passed.

  Then came another soul. This one had a faintly familiar aura to it which he matched with the Eldar Warlock he noticed going around the fortress under an illusiuise.

  Much like the previous soul, this one was also unharmed by the ard while it garnered more attention from the demons, it also exercised much more power and expertise in banishing each. It also disappeared into the rift.

  He waited for the rift to close but it stayed open which had him cast his senses far and wide for any Psyker level soul also approag the rift. He found a single one just out of naked sight, battling with a horde of demons on its own.

  Like a wraith, he approached it. The horde was varied and included sur monsters but most of it prised demons. He saw everything from nurglings, to bloodletters, to even a single Herald of ge all colpsing on the single human soul.

  Huma his aura lick at the soul and he reised the taste. Selene Voss, was it?

  The woman was obviously a Psyker, though a new one. Her soul paled pared to the previous two and its powers left much to be desired but it held out with a vicious ferocity, banishing demons in pairs at a time but he could tell her limit roag.

  He deliberated on helping the woman; she was obviously at least moderately important to that woman, so if he wao put her in his debt, this would be a perfect opportunity.

  Would she take him being here at all, obscured and stalking, as offence? Would it be worth it to show himself? Would the loss of this Selene even affect the woman enough to prove detrimental for the war campaign?

  His face hardened as he saw the force fields around the soul starting to flicker. The ces were set and he would rather have charges of stalking against himself thaing someone important to the woman die.

  He got ready to shake off his cover and make quick work of this flimsy horde of demons but a tingling chill ran down his ethereal spine, making him stop for a moment.

  In that single moment, enormous tendrils of pure white energy flooded out of the phenomena just out of sight and tore through the . They each came from different dires, tearing through monsters, demons and other uing observers alike.

  Building-sized tendrils split into thousands of tiny ones, eaing into spears that glowed with energy. Wherever they pierced demons, their incorporeal bodies vanished and their pained screeches reverberated through the .

  He watched on as the tendrils ed around the tiny human soul protectively. They pulled the soul back towards the rift as the other tendrils tinued shing out with vindictive malice.

  His eyes were fixated on something else though, not the human soul, not the whimpering Farseer that got caught up iendril’s rampage aainly not the obliterated demons.

  Mephiston watched energy flowing into those White tendrils and some faint red veins appeared on them for but a moment. The tendrils sucked up energy from the in rger quantities than he used in aire decade.

  Then they retreated, pulling bato the rift and disappearing into it much like the souls. Then the rift hissed and dimmed. It’s white light phasing out of existend leaving nothing but ruins ah in its wake.

  Mephiston in that moment only had a sihought.

  Not making an enemy of her was a good idea.

  Worry marred my face, a deep frown pulling my expression taunt as I watched Selene’s meditating body slump forward.

  I was there to catch her of course as she shook in my arms, letting out a long trembling breath.

  I would have never gohrough with putting Selehrough this if the other two weren’t fierwards. Well, fine was a retive term in their case but there seemed to be no problem I could see.

  Fae dropped to her hands and knees and smashed her head into the flht after she woke up and thanked me with tears streaming down her face. Right now, she was a bit more collected but I could practically feel her veion stream into me.

  Val was different. He woke up sure, he instantly checked whether he could pull on his powers and ever sihen he was staring into nothingness with an idiotic grin on his face, sometimes letting out a cackle as he activated a spell using Soul Energy.

  Of course there were problems at first, the lingering taint in his body and the Soul energy got into a fight as soon as they met and his body suffered the sequences. Not that such a thing as much as dampened his mood, he bore through it without fling and by now he ure as he could be.

  Now onto Selene, she was obviously exhausted from her previous fight which I was almost a moment to te to. My reluce to show what I was capable of to all the naughty onlookers could have e much but thankfully she came out alright. Right?

  “Selene?” I nudged her, and she looked up at me, eyes wide in somethiween horror and astonishment. She wasn’t looking at me — my body that is — but at me.

  “Is this really you?” She gulped, hand trag up at the side of my face as her eyes finally focused on my own. “Is this what you had always been?”

  “plicated questiht off the bat.” I giggled at her and pulled her into a quick hug. I wao reinforce that I was still the same. “Now you see me in my ey, that is my ao your first question but the sed one is a touch more plicated to answer.”

  “How so?” She asked, blinking at me and shaking her head in an attempt to keep her foe. Should I put a barrier around this little forest realm that intercepts psychises? Let’s do that. “Eh?”

  “Noooooo.” Fae mented in the background, though I ignored her. Val only gave me a single gnce before nodding in uanding before he went back to what I could only call ‘pying with magic’.

  “This should help you stay in the present.” I said. “I don’t io hide my nature from you, but it overwhelming you isn’t something I waher, you don’t o bother with it.”

  “Okay, yeah, alright.” she gave off a sigh and cracked her neck as she stepped back from me. “I will o get used to it. No more voices. No more worry.”

  “You might not o fear possession anymore but without that to put a limit on you, you reach a point where your body gives out uhe power flowing through it. You should keep that in mind, and you two too.” I gave a g the Eldar.

  “Yes.” Fae nodded, slumping down to meditate while Val gave me a nod that told me he already khat.

  “Alright,” I turned my undivided attention to Selene. “I will help you get used to using this new source of power and your abilities and then we should get bato the fray. I promised a day of sughter to Daer all.”

  “Okay.” A grin was slowly spreading on Selene’s face, missing the usual dark uone of it and instead giving off a regur cheerful feeling. “Let’s get to it then.”

  P3t1