“HMMMMMMMMM.” I hummed strongly, letting the sound reverberate through my chest like a growl. In my hands was a Tau-made pulse rifle, the standard infantry on of their military force.

  I was looking at it with three pairs of eyes to survey it, plus I opened up an additional Navigator eye on my forehead just for the sake of making sure I didn’t miss anything. There was nothing psychi the on's nature, and I also blessedly saw not a single sign of a pesky mae spirit inhabiting it. Thank … actually, fuck the gods of this gaxy. I’m not going to be thanking them for shit.

  Shaking off that thought I gnced over at my newly made droh my main body’s eyes. It was, well, an rown utan. I wasn’t sure yet which part of the Jave their kind their weird tech-savvy instincts, so I just made a perfect carbon copy and lis brain up with my mind through a telepathid.

  I was noting and rec every fre of neurons, examining every fsh of thought and every leap in logic. I was looking for patterns, logid some actual factual knowledge behind those instinctive thought streams that made little sense all by themselves.

  At the moment, the main cause of my annoyance was that I couldn’t for the life of me tell why the damhing wao ge out the stock for something made of a rubbery polymer.

  There was no logic to that thought, my tech-monkey e just felt like doing so would be satisfying. Which, by prior experience, meant it would improve upon the on in some way. It was like the monkey had tech-Tourettes. The urge to fiddle with the on just came to it without any rime or reason, and it a to no end if it ighat urge.

  Even now, my drone ractically vibrating with ay as I kept it from jumping at the poor pulse rifle. Where it thought it’d get the rubbery polymer it o upgrade the on, I had no idea, aher did I know how it would actually make the ock.

  My other drone, outfitted with a pair of eyes that could see the whole eleagic spectrum and process it all was watg on and doting everything the monkey drone was doing from an outside perspective.

  I released the mental trol I had over the Jokaero drone and watched it poun the rifle like it was its long-lost lover. Its long limbs snapped out, dexterous fingers w oock already as the small stash of meical tools it had pulsively made for itself before anything else were snatched up and put dower the other.

  Ihan ten seds, it had detached the stod chucked it over its shoulder before bounding off to who knew where with the remaining on cradled in its arms. My other research drone followed after it in a hurry just like I’d instructed it. It’d send me a mental ping if the moarted taking apart stuff it shouldn’t. For now, I was happy to leave it to its devices a run wild. Hopefully, I’d have a much-improved pulse rifle on my hands and with some luck, the blueprint for how to make it en masse too.

  Taking iher three experiments going on at the same time with my aura, I let the updates from the dozen research drones watg over the first experiment surge into my mind.

  A grin spread on my face as I Blinked over ahe success. It was an unmistakable feeling for any Psyker who’d experie before, an utterly revoltiion that nobody would want to experiewi their lives, but I was still gleeful to feel its suppressive force pressing down on me.

  The Bnk experiment finally produced a success after … 4532 deaths.

  I looked at the final test subject, squinting as I tried to figure out just what made him so different from the more than a few thousand failures.

  Cheg the update packet I’d just snagged, I saw that he had been a part of what I’d called the ‘quantity has a quality of its own’ batch. Meaning, I just imphe Bnk genes into two thousand people and waited to see what would happen.

  I had other batches, in some I took the impntation slowly and did it in stages, in others I looked for test subjects with specific qualities and in others, I did mostly random things and wi.

  Holy, I was expeg success from either the small batch of specifically selected youest subjects — don’t judge me, being a Chaos cultist firmly disqualifies anyone from being viewed as a kid. I’d butcher a newborn baby if it started ting ‘BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!’ at me. — or the gently impnted batot the randomly picked bunch.

  Male. Around twenty. Had minor levels of Chaos taint. Hmmm. Why did he eve picked up, that level of taint should be well uhe threshold I’d set? I checked my memories and found the dude had beehusiastically beating a poor teenage girl — a young maid apparently serving his ‘illustrious’ noble family — and he didn’t look like he’d be stopping there.

  Yep, that’d do it.

  All of my tiny embers of guilt I’d felt as I watched his dead gaze and the drool dripping down his evaporated into thin air.

  He seemed catatonic, though I didn’t kly how brain-dead he might have been inside his head. His Bnk aura might have been signifitly weaker than the Bnk Guilliman had men take his source sample from, but it was enough to make mug about in his mind … challenging.

  Still, I was mildly hopeful. This guy’s aura was like a wet towel on my face when pared to the waterb the man who the Bnk Genes I’d taken from and even he was like a harmless kitten when pared to the dreadful aura the Shadowkeeper’s bck skull had.

  I had mao use my powers in the presence of the st one; I was reasonably fident in absolutely crushing this wet b of a Bnk before me and turning his mind i.

  Still, I had to temper my expectations. As far as I knew, only the Emperor himself could actually affeks with his psyker voodoo. Was I really just being super egotistical in thinking myself capable of something only he’d ever managed, or was it just a healthy amount of fiden my own abilities, built upon reason and prior experiences?

  Bad Ea. Leave the perfectly good Bnk alive for something more useful than bolstering yo. I chided myself, imagining Selene whispering the words into my ear for added effect, and stepped back with a hint of reluce. To say the o prove myself to be a Psyker parable to the big golden boogeyman of the gaxy was easy to ignore would be the uatement of the year, but I managed.

  Huffing in lingering annoyance, I spped a tle mixture anic drugs into the guy. Bnks might nullify even my psychic powers when used on them directly, but my bio-energy and whatever weird eldritch fuckery made my body work seemed to work just as well on him as it did on anyone else. I couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t just faking the catatonic state he seemed to be in, but I sure as hell put him into a drug-iorpor with all the stuff I’d loaded him up with.

  “Away with him,” I waved over one of the research drones, only speaking out loud to not feel too insane by speaking to my other bodies. “Stick him up on bio-energy life support and put him into a a.”

  The droook him away without any fuss and my gaze followed him until he left the spacious room. Having a pocket Bnk ready whenever I would be pretty nice for both experimenting further with ing up with termeasures and training up my mental defences against his kind. I had been able to power through that bck skull’s aura; I knew I could do it again, but I was sure it’d bee easier if I practised. It’d have been a moal waste to break the guy’s skull in half just to pat myself on the shoulder afterwards for being awesome.

  I was just about to head over to check up on my Hrud & Khrave experiments which the memory packet indicated was a moderate success when I felt Val’s presence blip up to the ship. I almost smiled before I felt the repulsive presence of the Daemon Prinit its foulness into my aura.

  I Blinked over to him, a frown on my face as I looked at his self-satisfied expression then down at what might have once been a somewhat humanoid figure.

  “You did quite a number on this thing,” I mused, then looked up at him. “Why is it still alive?”

  “I was of the mind that it would be more beneficial to have you remove this creature from the Great Game ond for all, Mistress.” Val bowed.

  “Would it?” I hummed, croug down at the creature letting out wet grunts and sounds no living thing should make. My aura washed over the Daemon Prind felt its fading power, its form starting to break and give way. If I so much as looked at it too harshly, I was sure it’d get banished back to the . “Hmmmmm. I was curious how well anti-daemon Wards would work on anything more powerful than a few lesser daemons anyway.”

  Saying so, I poked the mahing before me and i with some soul energy. Its form lurched, almost instinctively trying to tto the source of the energy like a starving hyena. I held it down with just a hint of TK as I thought about how to go ahead with this.

  I had nabbed a few lesser daemons I’d found hidden around i pces on the p, and I khe Wards worked o least. Engraving the wards into their flesh worked best, with c the walls in wards and infusing them with soul energy being the seost effective use of them. Both weakehe daemons siderably, though the first bahe weakling lesser daemons ht imes out of ten ahem in a state simir to the wretch at my feet i one instance.

  When I felt the Daemon Prince’s preseabilise and its form instinctively using its newfound energy to heal itself, I didn’t bother with anything short of drawing out the Ward design that’d worked best before on its stomach area. The creature screeched, howling in a sound I felt more with my soul than my mundane ears, but the Ward was done and I removed my blood-stained cws.

  “Seems to be w,” I mused, watg the creature writhe on the ground, its barely recovered body now devoid of strength as the Ward fred on its stomad made a nasty hissing sound. Its preseurned inward, colpsing upon itself as the Ward’s suppressive force didn’t allow it to run rampant and pour its repulsive aura into the surrounding space. “Good to know. Hmmm. Still, you know you might have just nded me in deep shit with this stunt, right?”

  “I- “ Val’s overly pleased demeanor shifted, his toumbling over his words as he stared at me. “I thought- removing a Daemon Prince from the world should surely be worth whatever plications arise as a result … shouldn’t it?”

  “Well, if that thirsty god of theirs was angry at me for spiriting away your and Fae’s soul from her, she’ll be apoplectic at me destroying one of its oys.” I stared down at the groaning and moaning Daemon in distaste. I wasn’t sure how much it saw or could process of what was going on around it, but I retty sure all of it was being transmitted right back to the Dark Prince like some y streaming service. “Banishing it would be ohing, not much of a loss, but obliteration?”

  I shook my head and sched up my face. What irritated me most was that the choice had been made for me. Up until now, I’d only destroyed Khornite Daemons and the maybe-fake-geling. I wasn’t too happy about so quickly adding Sao the list of people passionate about seeing be destroyed.

  “Well, I ’t do shit now, I?” I said, sending a gre at Val. “With this thing writhing at my feet, I either just let it go nor banish it. That’d be a sign of weakheir kind pounces on. You have forced my hand, Val, and I’m not too pleased about it.”

  When Val looked suitably chastised, I returned my gaze to the Daemon Prind clicked my tongue. A fliy wrist lifted it mid-air, suspended as I’d e to like having my defeated enemies for some final gloating. … maybe I should stop doing that. Someone will iably use it against me to strike when I let my guard down, midway through my evil monologue. Hmmm.

  “Well, sucks to be you I guess.” I muttered and then lunged forward without any more preamble. My hand rippled, a chitinous gau with cw-like fingers c it as I sent my appendage right into the writhing creature’s chest.

  I let my power run rampant, releasing a devastating torrent of Smite-infused pht into the tre of its chest. It was already weak, so in moments it started attempting to break away and flee back to the .

  The Ward stopped it, f it to uselessly throw its st embers of painst it as I snuffed out more and more of its existeh eaent. When it was suitably weakened, I stopped my attack, but didn’t retract my hand.

  The creature seemed to heave a premature sigh of relief before I sucked it right through my soul-tunnel — the thread eg my Avatar to my Soul — which dumped the weakened Daemon Prince right o my soul. I doubted it would have tried resisting even if it had the power to, daemons only ever seemed far too happy to jump into my purifying Realm, but this one didn’t even have that choice. In as little as a real-time sed, my Soul’s purifying power ss remainiend transformed it into soul energy which joined my o of the stuff.

  That done, I returned my gaze to Val who looked like a puppy who’d been kicked aroulessly by their owner and didn’t even uand why they were mad at him. I wao sigh, but suppressed him. We clearly had much different priorities betweewo of us, and I’d have to set them straight if I was to ever trust him with doing tasks for me again.

  “I want an after-a report about how yht had gone down with the creature,” I ordered him, snapping him back to attention as a ask had been pced before him. “I also want you to tell me everything you’ve learned about this p, its citizens, culture and how challenging turning them into my own citizens will be.”

  I could check with my aura aing loose my mind-cores on reading the surface thoughts of a few thousand citizens, but I wanted his opinion first. It’d be a good way to feel out what he actually felt was valuable information or worth mentioning.

  P3t1